Do Cao Tri Lieutenant General Đỗ Cao Trí ( 20 November 1929 – 23 February 1971 ) was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam ( ARVN ) known for his fighting prowess and flamboyant style . Trí started out in the French Army before transferring to the Vietnamese National Army and the ARVN . Under President Ngô Đình Diệm , Trí was the commander of I Corps where he was noted for harsh crackdowns on Buddhist civil rights demonstrations against the Diệm government . Trí later participated in the November 1963 coup which resulted in the assassination of Diệm on 2 November 1963 . Years later , Trí was exiled by Nguyễn Cao Kỳ , the most powerful member of the junta , but when Nguyễn Văn Thiệu came to power , he was called back to command III Corps . He led III Corps during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign , earning the laudatory sobriquet as " the Patton of the Parrot ' s Beak " . In 1971 , Trí was ordered north to take command of I Corps in Operation Lam Son 719 , an incursion into Laos , which had gone astray . He was killed , aged 41 , in a helicopter accident before being able to take control . Early years . Trí was born in Bình Tuoc , Biên Hòa , Đồng Nai Province , French Indochina , just northeast of Saigon . His father was a wealthy landowner and his grandfather served as a Nguyễn Dynasty mandarin during the French colonial era . He earned his baccalaureate ( Part II ) from Petrus Ký High School , Saigon . After entering the French colonial forces in 1947 , he graduated from Do Huu Vi Officer Class and the following year was sent to Auvour , France to attend infantry school . In 1953 , while an officer in the Vietnamese National Army , he graduated from General Staff and Command Class in Hanoi . His first command was as a young airborne officer , and until his death he survived three attempts on his life , leading him to his belief that he had an " immunity from death on the battlefield " . As a young lieutenant colonel , he was made the commander of the Airborne Brigade in 1954 and was based in Saigon . Towards the end of the May 1955 Battle for Saigon , in which Prime Minister Diệm asserted his rule over the State of Vietnam by defeating the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate , some of Diệm ' s supporters tried to move against some generals whom they accused of questionable loyalty . When he heard that three top generals , including Nguyễn Văn Vy , were being detained in the palace by one of the factions backing Prime Minister Diệm , Trí telephoned and threatened them : " Free the generals in one half - hour or I will destroy the palace and everything inside it . " In 1958 , he attended the United States Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . That same year he graduated from Air - Ground Operations School at Fort Kisler , Washington . Buddhist crisis . During the Buddhist crisis of 1963 , Trí garnered considerable notoriety for his crackdown on Buddhist protests against the Diệm regime in the central region of Vietnam . In Huế , demonstrations were banned and Trí ' s forces were ordered to arrest those who engaged in civil disobedience . At 13 : 00 on 3 June , some 1 , 500 protestors attempted to march towards the Từ Đàm pagoda in Huế for a rally , having gathered at Bến Ngự bridge near the Perfume River . A confrontation ensued when the protestors attempted to cross the bridge . Six waves of ARVN tear gas and attack dogs failed to disperse the crowd . At 18 : 30 , military personnel at the scene dispersed the crowd by emptying vials of brownish - red liquid on the heads of praying protestors , resulting in 67 Buddhists being hospitalised for chemical injuries . The symptoms consisted of severe blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments . By midnight , tensions were high as curfews and martial law were enacted . Rumours circulated that three people had been killed . " Newsweek " reported the police had lobbed blister gas into the crowd . The incident raised concerns among the Americans that poison gas was used , and the U . S . threatened to publicly condemn and distance itself from Saigon . An investigation , however , cleared the troops of using blister or poison gas . The main raids in Saigon were accompanied by attacks across the country . Under Trí , the violence was worse in Huế than in the capital . The approach of Trí ' s forces was met by the beating of Buddhist drums and cymbals to alert the populace . The townsfolk left their homes in the middle of the night in an attempt to defend the city ' s pagodas . At the Từ Đàm pagoda , which was the base of leading Buddhist activist leader , Thích Trí Quang , Monks tried to cremate as per their custom the coffin of their colleague who had self - immolated . ARVN soldiers , firing M1 rifles , overran the pagoda and confiscated the coffin . They demolished a statue of Gautama Buddha and looted and vandalized the pagoda before detonating explosives and leveling much of the pagoda . A number of Buddhists were shot or clubbed to death . The most determined resistance occurred outside the Diệu Đế pagoda in Huế . As troops attempted to erect a barricade across the bridge leading to the pagoda , the crowd fought the heavily armed military personnel with rocks , sticks and their bare fists , throwing back the tear gas grenades that were aimed at them . After a five - hour battle , the military finally took the bridge at dawn by driving armored cars through the angry crowd . The defense of the bridge and Diệu Đế left an estimated 30 dead and 200 wounded . Ten truckloads of bridge defenders were taken to jail and an estimated 500 people were arrested in the city . Seventeen of the 47 professors at Huế University , who had resigned earlier in the week in protest after the firing of the school ' s rector , Father Cao Văn Luân , a Catholic priest and opponent of Diệm ' s brother Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục , were also arrested . Despite his vigorous application of Diệm ' s military policies against Buddhists in central Vietnam , where in the words of Ellen Hammer , Trí " ruled . . . with an iron hand " , he was still involved in plotting against the regime even before the attacks on the pagodas . Coup against Diệm . When Trí was informed that coup was imminent , he left Huế on 29 October 1963 for Đà Nẵng , so he would be away from Ngô Đình Cần , Diệm ' s younger brother , who ruled central Vietnam from for the Ngô family . The coup took place on 1 November with Trí helping by causing diversions . He scheduled a meeting with the province chief and other pro - Diệm officials during the time that the coup was to take place . As a result the Diệm loyalists were stuck in a meeting room and were unable to mobilise the Republican Youth and other Ngô family paramilitary and activist groups . After the coup , angry crowds surrounded the Ngô family home where Cần and his elderly mother lived . It was agreed they would be given safe passage out of the country by the junta . Trí told Cần he would be safe and would be taken out to Saigon , where it would be safer . Trí could only promise safe passage on an American plane to the capital , where embassy officials would meet Cần who wanted asylum in Japan . The Americans handed Cần over to the junta , and he was executed in 1964 . Following the arrest and assassination of Diệm in early November 1963 , there was pressure on the new regime to remove Diệm supporters from power . Prime Minister Thơ ' s approach to removing Diệm supporters from positions of influence drew criticism . Some felt that he was not vigorous enough in removing pro - Diệm elements from authority , but pro - Diệm elements opposed the turnover , some claiming it was excessive and vengeful . One contentious non - removal was Trí , who had gained notoriety for his anti - Buddhist crackdowns in the central region around Huế . He was transferred to the II Corps in the central highlands directly south of the I Corps region . Conflict with Kỳ . Trí lived lavishly and flamboyantly , leading to suspicions of corruption . In 1965 , he tried to kill himself during a government investigation . One of the main forces behind the inquiry was then - Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ , then head of the air force and the leading figure in the ruling military junta . The pair became bitter rivals , and Kỳ sent Trí into exile . In 1967 , General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu became president and Kỳ became his deputy . Thiệu sent Trí to South Korea as Vietnam ' s ambassador . The power struggle between Thiệu and Kỳ played to Trí ' s advantage . At the time of the communists ' Tet Offensive , Thieu was out of the capital , celebrating the lunar new year in the Mekong Delta . Kỳ , who was still in Saigon , stepped into the spotlight , organizing military forces against the Việt Cộng , who were temporarily repelled . Kỳ ' s strained relations with Thiệu led the Americans to pressure Thiệu to give Kỳ more responsibility , but Thiệu refused . Thiệu ' s regime became more pro - active , declaring martial law , widening conscription , and organising token anti - corruption campaigns were carried out . Thiệu used the threat of the Việt Cộng to increase his political power , arresting , exiling or relieving senior officers who supported Kỳ . Return to command . Thiệu recalled Trí from South Korea and made him Commander of III Corps , which surrounded the capital Saigon and was crucial in blocking or orchestrating coups . Trí replaced Lieutenant Lê Nguyên Khang , a prominent Kỳ supporter . Thiệu gave orders directly to his supporters in senior positions , bypassing Trí ' s own superior , Cao Văn Viên . According to Creighton Abrams , the head of U . S . forces in Vietnam at the time , " Tri has dinner with the President once or twice a week . He gets operational approval , that sort of thing , and Viên ' s not in on that " . Although Trí and Kỳ often crossed paths at official functions thereafter , they never shook hands . Trí was accused of involvement in a money - smuggling ring at the same time of his successful campaign in Cambodia in 1970 . At the time , he lived in a spacious villa equipped with a swimming pool in Biên Hoa . He was known for his flamboyant style , wearing a camouflage jungle suit , a black three - starred cap to indicate his rank , carrying a snub - nosed Smith & Wesson . 38 handgun , and was always seen with a swagger stick , quipping " " I use it to spank the Viet Cong " " . As a lieutenant general , he performed brilliantly as commander of the III Corps during the 1970 Cambodian Campaign , earning a laudatory sobriquet from the United States news media as " " the Patton of the Parrot ' s Beak " " . Trí was ordered north to take command of beleaguered I Corps forces after Operation Lam Son 719 , a 1971 incursion into Laos , had gone astray due to the incompetent leadership of Lieutenant General Hoàng Xuân Lãm . Trí died , aged 41 , in a helicopter accident in Cambodia , and was interred at Biên Hoa Military Cemetery .