Ngo Dinh Diem

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This is a Vietnamese name; the person's family name is Ngô, but should be properly referred to as Diệm.

Ngo Dinh Diem First President of the Republic of Vietnam
Image:Ngo Dinh Diem - Thumbnail - ARC 542189.gif <small/>
In office 26 October 1955 – 2 November 1963
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Duong Van Minh

Born	3 January 1901 Hue
Died	2 November 1963 Saigon
Spouse	Madame Nhu

Ngô Đình Diệm Jean Baptiste (help·info) «ngoh dihn zih-ehm» (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) was the first President of the Republic of Vietnam (1955–1963).

1 Rise to power
2 Rule
3 U.S. ties
4 Coup and assassination
5 Repercussions of Diệm's assassination
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links

[edit] Rise to power

Ngô Đình Diệm was born in Huế, the original capital of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam. The Ngô family is Catholic. He was one of the highest ranking officials of the Nguyễn Dynasty under Emperor Bảo Đại before World War II but resigned after accusing the Emperor of being a "tool" of the French. He was nationalistic, devout Catholic, anti-Communist, and professed the religious philosophy of personalism. ^{[citation needed]} His elder brother, Ngô Đình Thuc, was the archbishop of Huế.

In 1945, he was imprisoned and exiled to China following conflicts with anti-French Communist forces that were gaining power in Vietnam. After his release, he refused to join in the brief post-war government of Hồ Chí Minh and went into exile in the United States. He returned to be appointed Prime Minister of South Vietnam by former Emperor and then-current Chief of State Bảo Đại in 1954.

Diệm's appointment came after the French had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu and were ready to withdraw from Indochina. Many Americans and Europeans held out little hope for the future of South Vietnam under Diem's leadership, with one U.S. official describing his government in Time magazine as being held together by "Scotch tape, bits of string and putty." <ref>'The Beleaguered Man' Time April 4, 1955</ref> At the same time, the U.S. government attempted to raise public awareness within the United States of the 'plight' of South Vietnam and its 'beleaguered' leader.

When a referendum was held on October 23, 1955, on whether to turn South Vietnam into a republic, Diệm's troops guarded the polls and those who attempted to vote for the Emperor were assaulted. Observers say that the fraud was obvious. In Saigon, for example, Diệm claimed more votes than there were registered voters in the entire area. (Ex-Emperor) Chief of State Bảo Đại was forced to abdicate rather than divide the country further and issued one last appeal for the country to unite under a democratic government. Diệm's position was backed by the United States, while the long-absent former monarch could not have posed much of a popular threat from his château in France.

On October 26, 1955, Diem became President of the Republic of Vietnam, and Bảo Đại was deposed and continued to live as an exile in France until his death.

[edit] Rule

Diệm's rule was authoritarian and nepotistic. His most trusted official was his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, leader of the primary pro-Diệm political party. Ngô Đình Cẩn, his other brother, was put in charge of the former Imperial City of Huế. Another brother, Ngô Đình Luyện, was appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom and also put in charge of the Cham people minorities in the Central Plains of Vietnam.

Madame Nhu, the wife of his brother Nhu, was South Vietnam's First Lady and she led the way in Diệm's programs to reform Saigon society in accordance with their Catholic values. Brothels and opium dens were closed, divorce and abortion made illegal, and adultery laws were strengthened. Diệm also won a street war with the forces of the gangster Le Van Vien, the notorious ruler of the Cholon brothels and gambling houses who had enjoyed special favors under the French and Bảo Đại. Diệm was also passionately anti-Communist. Tortures and killings of communist suspects were committed on a daily basis.^{[citation needed]}

The cornerstone of Diems counterinsurgency effort was the Strategic Hamlet Program, which called for the consolidation of 14,000 villages of South Vietnam into 11,000 secure hamlets, each with its own houses, schools, wells, and watchtowers. The hamlets were intended to isolate the NLF from the villages, their source of recruiting soldiers, supplies and information.

A member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, Diệm's pursuit of pro-Catholic policies antagonized many of Vietnam's Buddhists. State police were often accused of assaulting Buddhists (the religious majority in the country). Buddhist activists staged mass protests and even self-immolations culminating in several coup attempts, the final one resulting in Diệm's own death.

[edit] U.S. ties

Image:Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington - ARC 542189.gif

Diệm forged a relationship with the United States for support, while retaining policies that were independent from the United States.

[edit] Coup and assassination

When the regime turned on a protest by Buddhist monks in May 1963, the U.S. stopped giving aid. A number of monks publicly immolated themselves in protest of Diệm's policies, and the U.S. grew increasingly annoyed with the unpopular leader's public image in both Viet Nam and the United States. Diệm and Madame Nhu claimed that the Communists had infiltrated the Buddhist groups. Their crackdown was in accordance with the agreed-upon anti-Communist policy. Madame Nhu infamously referred to the incident as a "barbecuing."

On orders from U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, the American ambassador to South Vietnam, refused to meet with Diệm. Upon hearing that a coup d'etat was being designed by ARVN Generals led by General Dương Văn Minh, the United States gave secret assurances to the generals that the U.S. would not interfere. Dương Văn Minh and his fellow plotters overthrew the government and executed President Diệm and his younger brother, Ngô Đình Nhu, on November 2, 1963. The United States publicly expressed shock and disappointment that Diệm had been killed. Coincidentally, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just twenty days later. Some Vietnamese believed it was Diem's ghost that went for revenge since President Kennedy approved the coup.^{[citation needed]}

When Madame Nhu, visiting the United States at the time, learned of the coup d'état, she immediately identified the United States as the perpetrator. She later said, "Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies." Madame Nhu went on to predict a dark future for Vietnam and that, by being involved in the coup, the troubles of the United States in Vietnam were only beginning.

[edit] Repercussions of Diệm's assassination

After the assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, the U.S. was able to continue to influence the government of South Vietnam, facilitating the election of officials who supported their policies. Among the many who know of the political situations surrounding his death (1963), Ngô Đình Diệm's assassination was considered as the decisive political moment that, according to some, led gradually to the Vietnam War loss 12 years later (1975), but, according to others, prevented South Vietnam from being lost 12 years earlier because Diệm had already decided to get rid of American influence and yield to Ho Chi Minh's invasive ambitions. As a result of the solidified American presence post-assassination, internal turmoil existed among South Vietnamese, as soldiers found themselves forced to decide between Communist interests and American interests. The assassination also bolstered the North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as supporters of colonization.

[edit] See also

Vietnam War

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

Mark Moyar. 2006. Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965. Cambridge University Press; 1st edition. ISBN: 0521869110
Hilaire du Berrier. 1965. Background to Betrayal.
David Halberstam. 1969. The Best and the Brightest. ISBN 0-449-90870-4.
Frances Fitzgerald. 1972. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-15919-0, ISBN 0-679-72394-3, ISBN 0-316-28423-8.
Richard Reeves. 1994. President Kennedy: Profile of Power. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-89289-4.
Le Xuan Nhuan. 1996. Về Vùng Chiến-Tuyến. Westminster: Van Nghe. ISBN 1-886566-15-1.
Robert Mann. 2001. A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam. New York: Perseus. ISBN 0-465-04370-4, ISBN 0-465-04369-0.
Le Xuan Nhuan. 2002. Cảnh-Sát-Hóa: Quốc-Sách Yểu-Tử của Việt-Nam Cộng-Hòa. Alameda: Xay-Dung. ISBN 0-9665293-8-3.
Seth Jacobs. 2006. "Cold War Mandarin : Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950-1963", Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, 206 p. ISBN 0-7425-448-6

[edit] External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Ngo Dinh Diem

The Religious Beginnings of an Unholy War - Avro Manhattan
JFK and the Diệm Coup - Provided by the National Security Archive.
Diệm Biography From Spartacus Educational
Photos of Diệm's family

Preceded by: none	President of the Republic of Vietnam 1955–1963	Succeeded by: Dương Văn Minh

Preceded by: Prince Bửu Lộc	Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam 1954-1955	Succeeded by: Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ as Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam

Persondata
NAME	Ngo Dinh Diem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ngô Đình Diệm Jean Baptiste (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION	First President of the Republic of Vietnam
DATE OF BIRTH	3 January 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hue, Vietnam
DATE OF DEATH	2 November 1963
PLACE OF DEATH	Saigon, Vietnam