led by General Nguyễn Khánh (pictured) dissolved the High National
Council (HNC) and arrested some of its members. Khánh needed to satisfy
the wishes of some younger generals to stay in power, after they had
saved him from an earlier coup attempt. They wanted to sideline older
officers who had previously been in high leadership positions, hiding
their motives with a plan to force all general officers with more than
25 years of service to retire. The HNC, an unelected advisory body
created to give a veneer of civilian rule, recommended against this, and
was then dissolved. This dismayed the United States, South Vietnam's
main sponsor. The US ambassador, Maxwell D. Taylor, harshly berated the
generals and threatened aid cuts. Khánh embarked on a media offensive,
criticizing US policy and what he saw as infringement of Vietnamese
sovereignty. He and the other generals began preparations to expel
Taylor before changing their minds. Khánh's tactics rallied support for
his fragile leadership, at least temporarily. The Americans did not
carry through on Taylor's threats to cut off aid, even though the HNC
was never restored.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_1964_South_Vietnamese_coup>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1154:
Henry II was crowned King of England in London's Westminster
Abbey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II_of_England>
1843:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (pictured), a novella
about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being
visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>
1956:
Irish-born British physician John Bodkin Adams was arrested in
connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 of his patients,
although he was only convicted on minor charges.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams>
1981:
Sixteen lives were lost when a Penlee lifeboat went to the aid
of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas off the south-west
coast of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penlee_lifeboat_disaster>
1986:
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released dissident Andrei
Sakharov after six years of internal exile in Gorky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov>
1998:
The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill
Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
doomsayer:
One who makes dire predictions about the future; one fond of predicting
disaster.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doomsayer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let
them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that
nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did
not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as
these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they
should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less
attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for
him.
--A Christmas Carol
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>
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