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??? forces were implicated in a series of terrorist bombings in Saigon from 1951 to 1953?hich were blamed on communists at the time.

In 1954, United States military advisor Edward Lansdale, charged with propping up the regime of Ngo D穫nh Diem, negotiated with The to use his militia to back up Diem and the ARVN. On February 13, 1955, The's troops were officially integrated into the South Vietnamese army, where he assumed the rank of general. He led the Lien Minh on a triumphal march into Saigon. On May 3, 1955, while driving in an open vehicle, The was shot in the back of the head by a sniper. He features prominently in Graham Greene's 1955 novel 'The Quiet American'.