Chung Tan Cang

Admiral Chung Tấn Cang (July 22, 1926, Gia Định – January 24, 2007, Bakersfield, California) was a commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy between 1963 and 1965.

Cang took command in November 1963 after Captain Hồ Tấn Quyền, a Ngo Dinh Diem loyalist, was executed during the November 1963 coup that led to Diệm's ouster and execution. Cang was one of the "Young Turks" during the era of military juntas in South Vietnam from 1963 to 1967.

Junta era After General Nguyen Khanh seized power in January 1964, he promoted several young colonels to the rank of "aspirant brigadier general", including Cang, hoping to solidify his power base. vowing to fight communists and remove their sympathizers from the public service, and insisting that there was no coup attempt.

In December 1964, the Young Turks among the military junta were prominent in arresting the members of the High National Council—a civilian advisory body—and disbanding it. This led to an angry response from US Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor, as the US government wanted a civilian presence in the decision-making and political stability. Junta leader General Nguyen Khanh sent the Young Turks, Nguyen Cao Ky, Nguyen Chanh Thi, Nguyen Van Thieu and Cang after Maxwell called a meeting, leading to an infamous confrontation that was later leaked to the media. Taylor asked the four to sit down and then said "Do all of you understand English?" The ambassador then angrily denounced the officers. According to Stanley Karnow, Taylor "launched into a tirade, scolding them as if he were still superintendent of West Point and they a group of cadets caught cheating". He said "I told you all clearly at General Westmoreland's dinner we Americans were tired of coups. Apparently I wasted my words." Cang and his colleagues were taken aback by Taylor's searing words and felt they had been humiliated, but they responded to Taylor in a circumlocutory way. They remained calm and did not resort to direct confrontation, trying to justify their actions in the interests of stability and government efficiency. Cang said "It seems ... we are being treated as though we were guilty. What we did was only for the good of the country." Later, despite Taylor's pleas to keep the dissolution of the HNC secret in the hope it would be reversed,

However, relations between Khanh and Taylor continued to deteriorate. In the first week of February 1965, Taylor told Kỳ—who then passed on the message to colleagues in the junta—that the US was "in no way propping up General Khánh or backing him in any fashion". Taylor then sent a cable to Washington claiming his words had "fallen on fertile ground". Taylor's encouragement of a coup was not a secret, and had the unwanted side-effect of accelerating coup action from figures not favored by Washington. The likes of Kỳ, Thiệu, Có and Cang were not yet ready to stage a coup, and their preparations were well behind those of the undetected communist agent, Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao, an unstinting plotter.

When the coup was started by Thao and Phat on February 19, rebel forces surrounded the naval headquarters at the Saigon Naval Shipyard, Thao and Phat's coup attempt collapse but in the midst of the instability, the remaining junta forced Khanh to go into exile.

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