Duong Van Minh was a Vietnamese general and politician who served as the final president of South Vietnam. He first came to prominence for leading the 1963 coup that overthrew and assassinated President Ngo Dinh Diem. After a period of exile, he returned to Saigon and was appointed president in the final days of the Vietnam War. On April 30, 1975, he delivered the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces, officially ending the war.