Do Cao Tri (20 November 1929-23 February 1971) was a South Vietnamese ARVN General during the Vietnam War.
Biography[]
Do Cao Tri was born in Bien Hoa, French Indochina in 1929, the son of a wealthy landowner and the grandson of a Dai Nam mandarin. He joined the French Army in 1947 and later became a Vietnamese National Army officer, serving as an airborne officer and surviving three attempts on his life during the First Indochina War. In 1954, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and given command of the Airborne Brigade, and he gained considerable notoriety for his loyalty to Ngo Dinh Diem, crushing Buddhist protests during the 1963 Buddhist Crisis as commander of the ARVN I Corps. However, he participated in the 1963 South Vietnamese coup, overthrowing Diem. Tri was himself ousted from power by Nguyen Cao Ky, who sent him into exile. When Nguyen Van Thieu came to power, he recalled Tri to command III Corps, and he led it during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign and was compared to George S. Patton. In 1971, he was sent to take control of Operation Lam Son 719 in Laos, but he was killed in a helicopter crash in Tay Ninh, South Vietnam before he could reach Laos, with some suspecting that he was murdered by rival generals.