Phạm Phú Quốc
Phạm Phú Quốc (1935–1965) was a French-trained South Vietnamese flying ace and lieutenant in the Republic of Vietnam Air Force,[1] best known for being one of two mutinous pilots involved in the 1962 South Vietnamese Presidential Palace bombing on February 27, 1962, which aimed to assassinate President Ngô Đình Diệm and his immediate family, who were his political advisers.[2]
His plan failed, and he was imprisoned until 1963, after Diem's assassination. The coup plotters released him and reinstated his rank.
In 1965, he was shot down during a bombing raid over North Vietnam. The popular songwriter Phạm Duy wrote a song to eulogize him, named "Huyền Sử Ca Một Người Mang Tên Quốc" ("Epic of a Man Named Quốc").
References
- ^ "Durable Diem", Time, March 9, 1962
- ^ Nguyen Công Luan Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier 2012 "One of the two pilots, Lieutenant Phạm Phú Quốc, was shot down and arrested. The other, Lieutenant Nguyễn Văn Cử, flew his plane to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for political asylum. Nguyễn Văn Cử's father, Nguyễn Văn Lực, was a Việt Quốc"
Categories:
- South Vietnamese military personnel of the Vietnam War
- Vietnam Air Force personnel
- 1935 births
- 1965 deaths
- South Vietnamese Vietnam War flying aces
- Vietnam War casualties
- Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Vietnam
- South Vietnamese military personnel killed in action
- Aviators killed by being shot down