Vietnam's Big Minh dies aged 86

General Duong Van Minh, who as the last president of South Vietnam surrendered his country to Communist forces in 1975, has died in the United States at the age of 86.

The general - universally known as Big Minh - was installed as president in April 1975, as South Vietnamese resistance crumbled after the American withdrawal.

Duong Van 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.

When French colonial rule ended in 1954, he served in the army of South Vietnam, leading a coup which overthrew the then Southern leader, Ngo Dinh Diem.

After Vietnamese reunification, General Minh was allowed to emigrate to France, and later went to live with his daughter in California.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service