General Duong Van Minh, 86 : briefly led South Vietnam

Gen. Minh, who used a wheelchair, had fallen at his home a day earlier, his daughter Mai Duong said.

Gen. Minh was installed as the South Vietnamese president in April 1975 as the country crumbled under the onslaught from North Vietnam's communist forces. In a matter of days, his political reign ended as communist troops overran Saigon and captured the country's leaders. He was arrested and put in detention but allowed to emigrate to France in 1983. He lived near Paris.

Gen. Minh's military career began in the 1940s when he was one of only 50 Vietnamese officers to be commissioned in the French colonial army.

After French colonial rule ended in 1954, Gen. Minh ascended through the ranks of the new South Vietnamese military. He helped lead a U.S.-backed coup in 1963 that overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was killed along with his brother, police chief Ngo Dinh Nhu, while trying to escape.

Gen. Minh, the second-highest-ranking general at the time, took power under a military junta. Two months later, Gen. Nguyen Khanh deposed the junta and took control of the country. Gen. Minh went into exile.

He resurfaced in 1971 and challenged President Nguyen Van Thieu, who was supported by the United States. Gen. Minh eventually withdrew from the race after alleging that the election was rigged. Thieu ran unopposed.

Gen. Minh kept a low political profile until 1975, when Hanoi's forces launched what would be the final offensive of their long struggle to take over the south. In the final days, as Thieu fled the country, Gen. Minh was named interim president April 28, 1975, with a promise to seek a reconciliation with the northerners.

The attempt at settlement failed, and Saigon fell to the invaders April 30. Shortly after 10 a.m., Gen. Minh went on radio and television to announce that South Vietnam was surrendering unconditionally.

He is survived by his daughter and two sons, who live in Paris, and grandchildren.