General The , First Indochina War, c.1950s (photo)

The was born in Tay Ninh Province and raised in the Cao Dai religion. He was trained in military officer school by the Japanese Kempeitai when Japan began using Cao Dai paramilitary troops. By 1945 he was an officer in the Cao Dai militia. In June 1951, The broke from the Cao Dai hierarchy and took about two thousand troops with him to form his own militia, the Lien Minh, devoted to combating both the French and the Viet Minh. The's forces were implicated in a series of terrorist bombings in Saigon from 1951 to 1953-which were blamed on communists at the time.