Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu (Tran Le Xuan)

Born in 1924
Hanoi, Vietnam

South Vietnamese political figure

Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu is one of the most controversial figures of the early Vietnam War. As the sister-in-law of Ngo Dinh Diem (see entry), who served as the president of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963, Madame Nhu acted as the unofficial first lady and held a great deal of influence in the government. She was beautiful and charming but also proved to be devious and power-hungry. She often embarrassed the president with her outrageous behavior and insensitive remarks. Many historians claim that she contributed to the downfall of Diem's government.

A privileged childhood

Madame Nhu was born in 1924 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Her name at birth was Tran Le Xuan, which means "beautiful spring" in Vietnamese. She was the second of three children born into a wealthy and prominent family. Her father, Tran Van Chuong, was a Paris-educated attorney, and her mother, Madame Chuong, was descended from Vietnamese royalty. At the time of Madame Nhu's birth, Vietnam was a colony of France. Both sides of her family had earned great fortunes serving in the French colonial government. Madame Nhu grew up in a luxurious home with twenty servants to take care of her every need.

During her teen years, Madame Nhu attended a prestigious French-speaking high school in Vietnam. Although she was highly intelligent, she was a poor student and dropped out before completing her education. In 1943 she married Ngo Dinh Nhu, a man nearly twice her age who was the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Diem. At that time, Diem was just beginning to attract attention as a political figure. He positioned himself as a true nationalist who opposed both the French and the Vietnamese Communists known as the Viet Minh. The French colonial government resented Diem's political activities and struck back at him by dismissing his brother Nhu from his job in the National Library.

For the next few years, Madame Nhu and her husband lived quietly in Da Lat, and she gave birth to four children. In the meantime, the Viet Minh and the French entered into a war for control of Vietnam. As this war continued into the 1950s, Diem traveled to the United States and Europe trying to gain political support. He hoped to form his own government as an alternative to the French and the Communists. In 1953 Ngo Dinh Nhu organized demonstrations in Saigon in support of his brother. The following year, the French and Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accords ending the Indochina War.

The peace agreement divided Vietnam into two sections. The northern section, which was led by a Communist government under Ho Chi Minh (see entry), was officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam but was usually called North Vietnam. The southern section, which was led by a U.S.-supported government under Emperor Bao Dai, was known as the Republic of South Vietnam. Knowing that Diem had American connections and was popular among the Vietnamese living abroad, the emperor asked Diem to become prime minister of South Vietnam. In July 1954 Diem returned to the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon and began establishing his government. The U.S. government felt obligated to support him because it felt that Diem was the best hope for keeping South Vietnam out of Communist control.

Acts as first lady of South Vietnam

Once Diem took office, Madame Nhu and her husband moved into the presidential palace in Saigon. Diem and his brother Nhu immediately began taking steps to increase their hold on power. In 1955 Diem called for an election to let the South Vietnamese people decide whether he or Bao Dai should control the government. Nhu then fixed the election results so that his brother received 98.2 percent of the vote. That October, Diem proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. He hired family members to fill many of the important positions in his government. For example, his brother Nhu was the interior minister and head of the secret police force. Madame Nhu's father was named ambassador to the United States, her mother became a representative to the United Nations, and two of her uncles became cabinet ministers.

Madame Nhu claimed an influential position in the government as well. Since Diem never married, she acted as the unofficial first lady and hostess for the president. Beautiful and charming, Madame Nhu enjoyed entertaining important people by throwing fancy parties. But she also held strong opinions on political issues and never hesitated to express them to her husband and Diem. In fact, a Time magazine cover story described her influence by stating that she "rules the men who rule the nation."

Madame Nhu increased her personal power by creating an anti-Communist organization called the Vietnamese Women's Solidarity Movement. Many of the members were the wives of government officials. They used their influence to lobby the government on a variety of issues concerning women and families. For example, they convinced the government to pass the Family Code and the Law for the Protection of Morality. These measures outlawed divorce, contraceptives, dancing, fortune-telling, gambling, and other activities. In fact, one law said that a married person could not be seen in public with a person of the opposite sex without being charged with the crime of adultery. Madame Nhu viewed these laws as protecting the morality of Vietnamese women, but many people thought that the laws unfairly restricted their personal freedom.

Contributes to the fall of Diem's government

Over the next few years, the situation in Vietnam deteriorated significantly. Ho Chi Minh and other Communist leaders in North Vietnam were determined to reunite the two parts of the country under a Communist government. In 1960 former Viet Minh supporters in South Vietnam united with other opponents of Diem to form the National Liberation Front (NLF), which later became known as the Viet Cong. The goals of this organization included overthrowing Diem and establishing a coalition government in South Vietnam with Communist representation. Before long, Viet Cong guerrilla fighters had begun taking control of large areas of the South Vietnamese countryside.

As Diem struggled to maintain his hold on power, his government became more and more unpopular among the South Vietnamese people. Madame Nhu contributed to the problem by interfering with the president's decisions and attacking his political opponents. She often embarrassed Diem and created new enemies for his administration. At one point, U.S. Ambassador J. Lawton Collins told Diem that his sister-inlaw was a troublemaker and asked him to send her away. But Diem refused to take this advice due to family loyalty.

In 1963 a series of incidents convinced the United States to end its support for Diem's government. Diem, who was Catholic, often discriminated against his country's Buddhist majority. In May thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the ancient city of Hue in a major protest against Diem's government. Diem's troops responded with violence, attacking the protestors and killing several people.

In June a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in public as a form of protest against Diem's repression of the Buddhist religion. Shocking pictures of the monk's suicide quickly appeared in the United States and all around the world. The photographs stunned many Americans and convinced them to focus greater attention on their country's involvement in South Vietnam. The pictures also triggered a wave of intense international criticism against Diem's government and its treatment of Vietnamese Buddhists.

But Madame Nhu reacted to the criticism with defiance. She accused the U.S. government of using the Buddhists to aid in the overthrow of Diem's government. She also created controversy by saying that she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbeque show." Her insensitive remarks horrified U.S. officials, who had been pushing Diem to be more tolerant of the Buddhists. In fact, one high-ranking American told President John F. Kennedy (see entry) that "Madame Nhu is out of control." At this time, Kennedy decided that Diem and his family were so unpopular among their own people that the United States could no longer support them.

On November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese generals led by Duong Van "Big" Minh launched a coup to overthrow Diem's government. While there is no evidence that the U.S. government participated in the coup, it is clear that American leaders did not try to prevent it. Madame Nhu was out of the country on a speaking tour at the time. But Diem and his brother Nhu were captured and killed by their political rivals. Upon hearing about the death of her husband and brother-in-law, Madame Nhu told the New York Times, "If the news is true, if really my family has been treacherously killed with either official or unofficial blessing of the American Government, I can predict to you all that the story of Vietnam is only at its beginning." After her family fell from power in South Vietnam, Madame Nhu went into exile in Rome, Italy.

Sources

Boetcher, Thomas D. Vietnam: The Valor and the Sorrow. Boston: Little, Brown, 1985.

Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.

Prochnau, William. Once Upon a Distant War. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Young, Marilyn V. The Vietnam Wars 1945–1990. 1991.

Ngo Dinh Nhu (1910–1963)

Ngo Dinh Nhu—the younger brother of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (see entry) and husband of the notorious Madame Nhu—was born on October 7, 1910, near the city of Hue in central Vietnam. Educated in Paris, he worked at the National Library in Hanoi until the French colonial government dismissed him due to his brother's political activities.

During the Indochina War between the French and the Communistled Viet Minh, Nhu emerged as a capable, behind-the-scenes political organizer. In 1953 he led demonstrations in Saigon calling for a new government headed by his brother Diem. He also created a political movement, called the National Union for Independence and Peace, which opposed both the French and the Communists.

In 1954 the French and Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accords ending the Indochina War. The peace agreement divided Vietnam into two sections—Communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and U.S.-supported South Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai. Nhu formed a coalition of South Vietnamese nationalist groups called the Front for National Salvation. These groups pressured Bao Dai to appoint Diem prime minister.

Once Diem became prime minister, Nhu came up with a plan to help his brother remove Bao Dai from power. They held national elections to decide whether Diem or Bao Dai should control the government. Then Nhu used his secret police force to fix the elections so that Diem won by a huge margin. Diem declared himself president of the Republic of Vietnam in October 1955. Then, with the support of Nhu's secret police, he used harsh measures to destroy his political opponents.

During Diem's nine-year rule in South Vietnam, Nhu was the president's closest advisor. He held a great deal of power as the head of the secret police and the founder of the Can Lao Party. This secret political organization consisted of 16,000 members, many of whom were high officials in the South Vietnamese government or army. In fact, membership in the party was often required for people to move up the ranks in the government. Nhu used the Can Lao party to spy on his political opponents and intimidate people into going along with his ideas. Can Lao members also became involved in criminal activities and used the proceeds to enrich themselves.

By the early 1960s Diem's government had become very unpopular among the South Vietnamese people. Part of the reason was that Nhu and other family members used corruption and brutality to maintain their hold on power. The problems with the Diem government came to international attention in 1963, when the South Vietnamese armed forces used violence to break up a Buddhist protest. In response, a Buddhist monk committed suicide by burning himself to death in public. Nhu reacted to this tragic situation with defiance. In fact, he outraged many people by declaring that "if the Buddhists want to have another barbecue, I will be happy to supply the gasoline."

Diem's handling of the Buddhist uprisings led U.S. officials to withdraw their support for his government. On November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese military generals launched a coup to overthrow Diem. Both the president and his brother Nhu were assassinated by their political rivals during the coup.