Before dawn on December 19 , there were troop movements in the capital as the junta deposed the civilians . The operation was commanded by Thi — who had travelled into Saigon from I Corps in the far north — and Kỳ . The national police , which was under the control of the army , moved through the streets , arresting five HNC members , other politicians and student leaders they deemed to be an obstacle to their aims . Minh and the other aging generals were arrested and flown to Pleiku , a Central Highlands town in a Montagnard area , while other officers were simply imprisoned in Saigon . The junta 's forces also arrested around 100 members of the National Salvation Council ( NSC ) of Le Khac Quyen ; the NSC was a new party active in central Vietnam in the I Corps region and opposed to the expansion of the war . It was aligned with Thi and the Buddhist activist monk Thích Trí Quang , but as Thi was active in the purge , it was believed he had fallen out with Quyen .