Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnamese Ngô Ðình Diệm, Chinese 吳廷琰 January 3, 1901 - November 1, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam (1955-63).
Dinh Diem was born in Huế, the original capital of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam. The Ngo family is a Catholic noble family in Vietnam. He was a civil servant in the government of Emperor Bao Dai before World War II but resigned after accusing the Emperor of being a "tool" of the French. He was a strong nationalist and anti-Communist; his elder brother (Dinh Thuc) was archbishop of Hue.
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 Ho Chi Minh and went into exile in the USA. He returned to be appointed Prime Minister of South Vietnam by Emperor Bao Dai in 1954 following the French withdrawal. He rejected the Geneva Accord (which called for unification and elections in 1956); on October 26, 1955, after a nationwide referendum the people voted to remove the former emperor, Bao Dai as head of state and elect Diem the first President of the Republic of Vietnam.
When the referendum was held, Diem's troops guarded the polls and those who attempted to vote for the Emperor were assaulted. Diem's detractors say that the fraud was obvious. In Saigon, for example, Diem claimed more votes than there were registered voters in the entire area. Emperor Bao Dai was forced to abdicate rather than divide the country further and issued one last appeal for the country to unite under a democratic government. Diem's American advisors were frustrated by this, as no one believed the long-absent former monarch could have posed much of a popular threat from his chateaux in France.
His rule was firm, puritanical and nepotistic. His most trusted official was his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, leader of the primary pro-Diem political party. His wife, Madame Nhu, led the way in Diem's programs to reform Saigon society according to his own Catholic values. Brothels and opium dens were closed, divorce and abortion made illegal and adultery laws were strengthened. Diem also fought a successful 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 Bao Dai. Ngo Dinh Diem was also passionately anti-communist and the formation of the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, was a direct result of his rule.
However, Diem had big problems as well. The Americans had supported his rise to power, but were frustrated by his independence, complaining that Diem was a puppet who wanted to "pull his own strings". The enforcement of his moral values were often unpopular and the Buddhist community resented the favor he showed to his fellow Catholics. His ineffecive land reforms probably contributed to increasing popular support for Ho Chi Minh, but he retained nominal American support. The Americans had originally hoped that Diem could be the charismatic equivalent of Ho Chi Minh, but their opinions began to change in the 1960s. They were annoyed that Diem had not implemented democratization or land reforms, and they felt that nepotism and corruption in his government was hurting the Southern cause.
When the regime turned on a protest by Buddhist monks in June 1963, he lost American aid too; some monks had immolated themselves in protest. Diem and Nhu claimed that the Communists had infiltrated the Buddhist groups and Madame Nhu referred to the incident as a 'barbequeing'. Henry Cabot Lodge, the American ambassador in Saigon, refused to meet with Diem and encouraged military officers to overthrow him. The U.S. supported a military coup d'etat of ARVN generals that overthrew the government and executed Ngo, his younger brother (Dinh Nhu) and some others in November. The American leadership expressed shock and disappointment that Diem had been killed, but the opening of the records have shown that they made no attempts to dissuade the plotters from such an action. When news reached Madame Nhu, who was travelling in the U.S. she said, "Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies" and predicted that the trouble in Vietnam was only beginning.
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declared Diem the "Churchill of Asia." In truth, Johnson held Diem and his regime in contempt.
Further Reading
Frances Fitzgerald. 1972. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-31-615919-0, ISBN 0-67-972394-3, ISBN 0-31-628423-8.
Robert Mann. 2001. A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam. New York: Perseus. ISBN 0-46-504370-4, ISBN 0-46-504369-0.
See also: Vietnam War
External links
- JFK and the Diem Coup - Provided by the National Security Archive.