Finding the Dragon Lady Read online

  2. For the conversation between Vietnamese diplomat Buu Hoi and Harlan Cleveland about diplomatic efforts to quiet Madame Nhu, see Jones, Death of a Generation, 385.

  3. For Madame Nhu’s exchange of letters with Lyndon Johnson, dated September 7 to 30, along with accompanying memoranda documenting draft replies to Madame Nhu by the State Department and the White House (including those extensively revised by the president and the president’s request that Johnson sign the reply if it met with approval), see LBJ Library: LBJA: Famous Names, Box 7, Folder N. Kennedy’s writing Madame Nhu a letter from the steam bath is recounted in Jones, Death of a Generation, 290.

  4. See “Memorandum of Conversation,” New York, October 2, 1963, Document 168, FRUS, 1961–1963, 4:347–349.

  5. For Madame Nhu’s belief that the Americans were well intentioned but arrogant, see “Interview with Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, 1982,” February 11, 1982, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

  6. Ben Horman’s interview with the young man outside of the Hotel Barclay on October 9, 1963, is CBS footage of Madame Nhu’s visit. “Madame Nhu Picketed Outside of Her Hotel,” October 9, 1963, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

  7. See Central Intelligence Agency, “Vietnamese Summary Supplement, October 7–31, 1963,” describing Madame Nhu’s arrival in the United States, media appearances, and travels through the country.

  8. For student comments, such as being sorry Madame Nhu wasn’t feeling better, see “Madame Nhu at Fordham University: Bonze, Fordham/Student Comments Re: Madame Nhu [part 1 of 2],” October 11, 1963, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

  9. “Visa to Mrs. Nhu Is Under Inquiry; Diplomatic Nature of Permit Questioned by Rep. Hays; Visa Issued Last Year; Mrs. Nhu Rests at Hotel Here; Telephones Kept Busy,” New York Times, October 9, 1963, 10. The program director, Anita Berke Diamant, would go on to become a major literary agent, starting her own firm and representing best-selling author of gothic horror V. C. Andrews, whose plots were full of family secrets and incest.

  10. On Oram Group, see “Oram Group, Inc. Records, 1938–1992,” Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/special/collections/philanthropy/mss057.

  11. Blair, Lodge in Vietnam, 64.

  12. The NYC public events commissioner is quoted in “Vietnamese Summary Supplement, October 7–31, 1963,” Central Intelligence Agency.

  Chapter 14: Closed Doors

  1. The details of Madame Chiang’s visit to the United States in the spring of 1943 are described in Laura Tyson Li, Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China’s Eternal First Lady (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 197–198.

  2. On Tran Van Chuong choking up during his retirement speech, see “Saddened Diplomat,” New York Times, August 23, 1963.

  3. For the quote that Madame Nhu “has not the power she is supposed to have,” see Henry Raymont, “Diem’s US Envoy Quits in Protest,” New York Times, August 23, 1963. For the quote about Nhu as the front man and Madame Nhu as his shadow, see Joseph Wershba, media review of Tran Van Chuong’s appearance on CBS, New York Post, October 18, 1963.

  4. The “I will have his head cut off” quote is from Nhu’s interview with the Italian weekly Espresso; see “Telegram from the Embassy in Vietnam to the Department of State from Lodge Saigon, October 7, 1963, 7 p.m.,” Document 186, FRUS, 1961–1963, 4:385–386.

  5. For the description of the Chuongs’ house and furnishings, see Nan Robertson, “Ex-Saigon Envoy,” New York Times, September 22, 1963.

  6. For the Kennedy aide’s conversation with Madame Chuong about running Madame Nhu over with a car, see “Memorandum of Conversation Between the Director of the Vietnam Working Group and Madame Tran Van Chuong,” September 16, 1963, FRUS, 1961–1963, 4:237–238.

  Chapter 15: Coup d’État

  1. For Madame Nhu in Dallas on US Day, see Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 214. For Madame Nhu figuring in conspiracy theories, see Bradley S. O’Leary and L. E. Seymour, Triangle of Death: The Shocking Truth about the Role of South Vietnam and the French Mafia in the Assassination of JFK (Washington, DC: WND Books, 2003), and radio show host Michael Cohen on Madame Nhu’s instigating the assassination of JFK in his “JFK Assassination Special X,” Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, November 21, 2012, http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2012/11/21.

  2. For skeet shooting on the Dougherty ranch and details on Bruce Baxter as Le Thuy’s boyfriend, see Life, November 8, 1963, and the Victoria Advocate (Beeville, Texas), October 28, 1963. For the quote from California governor Pat Brown, see Time, November 1, 1963.

  3. The momentous decision to get rid of Diem and Nhu, with all the implications this would have for the war, was reached in the space of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. The president received a draft of a cable implying US support for a coup while he was with his wife and two children in Hyannis Port, still mourning the death of their infant son Patrick only two weeks before. Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Roger A. Hilsman and Deputy Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman wrote the cable. Secretary of State Robert McNamara was unreachable, and President Kennedy asked, “Can’t we wait until Monday, when everyone is back?” But when told that his aides really wanted to get the cable out of the way, JFK finished by telling them, “Go see what you can do to get it cleared.” Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Undersecretary of State George Ball (who was on the golf course at the time), and Special Assistant for Counter Insurgency Activities on the Joint Chiefs of Staff Victor “Brute” Krulak, all gave their okay once they heard the president was on board, as did Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, who summed up the inertia that led him to sign by saying, “I felt I should not hold it up, so I went along with it just like you countersign a voucher” (Jones, Death of a Generation, 315–316). See John F. Kennedy Library, Kennedy Papers, National Security File: Meetings and Memoranda Series, Box 316, Folder “Meetings on Vietnam 8/24/63–8/31/63.”

  4. For Nhu eavesdropping in the American embassy in Saigon, see Karnow, Vietnam, 311–312.

  5. Lodge’s imperious manner is detailed in Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 158.

  6. For details about the end of John Richardson’s CIA career in Vietnam, see his New York Times obituary, June 14, 1998; Blair, Lodge in Vietnam; and Richardson, My Father, 193.

  7. Harold P. Ford, “CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers, Episode 2, 1963–1965,” Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA Books and Monographs, 2007.

  8. Ford, “CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers.”

  9. For details on Nhu’s talks with the north, see the memo of the conversation between Eisenhower and John McCone, dated September 19, 1963, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Special Name Series, Box 12. Also see Margaret K. Gnoinska, “Poland and Vietnam, 1963: New Evidence on the Secret Communist Diplomacy and the Maneli Affair” (Working Paper 45, Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, DC, 2005).

  10. For details on the meeting with Lodge and Felt, see Joseph Buttinger, A Dragon Embattled (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing, 1967), 2:1005; and “Revolution in the Afternoon,” Time, November 8, 1963.

  11. For Nhu’s “It’s alright” quote, see Karnow, Vietnam, 44.

  12. For the false coup plans, see Neil Sheehan, A Bright and Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 367–369; and Karnow, Vietnam, 316–320.

  13. For a description of Dinh’s betrayal, see Buttinger, A Dragon Embattled, 2:1003–1004.

  14. For Diem and Nhu last being seen by Ma Tuyen, see Fox Butterfield, “Man Who Sheltered Diem Recounts ‘63 Episode,” New York Times, November 4, 1971, 5.

  15. Higgins, Our Vietnam Nightmare, 225.

  16. “The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, May–November, 1963,” in The Pentagon Papers: The Defe
nse Department History of United States Decision Making on Vietnam, ed. Mike Gravel (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), 2:201–276.

  17. Khanh played a role in the military intrigue that led to the 1963 coup, but he was not selected to be on the twelve-man Military Revolutionary Council headed by Big Minh. In January 1964, Khanh led the overthrow of Big Minh “without a shot being fired” and became the next leader of South Vietnam—but his rule lasted only one year. In February 1965, he was overthrown by four junior officers.

  18. Fred Flott, The Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, July 22, 1984).

  19. On Colby’s assessment of Diem’s coup being the “worst mistake” America made, see “Transcript, William E. Colby Oral History Interview II, 3/1/82,” by Ted Gittinger, Internet Copy, LBJ Presidential Library, 32–33.

  20. On Kennedy’s reaction to the deaths of Diem and Nhu, see Jones, Death of a Generation, 425–436.

  21. Kennedy’s “That goddamn bitch” reaction is paraphrased by his personal friend Red Fay; see John F. Kennedy Library, Paul B. Fay Jr., Oral History Interview—JFK #3, November 11, 1970.

  22. John F. Kennedy, Telephone Recordings: Dictation Belt 52.1. Dictated Memoir Entry, November 4, 1963, Papers of John F. Kennedy, Presidential Papers, President’s Office Files, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Chapter 16: In Exile

  1. “Letter from Professor Wesley R. Fishel of MSU to the President of the Rep. of Vietnam (Diem),” FRUS, 1958–1960, 1:426–433. See also Chuong’s character in Hammer, A Death in November, 303.

  2. “Interview with Everett Bumgardener [2], 1982,” August 24, 1982, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

  3. Buttinger, A Dragon Embattled, 2:956–957.

  Index

  Adams, Sherman, 131

  American embassy in Saigon, 140, 199, 201, 208

  Armée Nationale Vietnamenne, 83

  Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), 165

  ARVN. See Army of the Republic of Vietnam

  Asians

  as feminized peoples, 149

  stereotype of, 2, 148–149

  Association for the Restoration of Great Vietnam. See Dai Viet Phu Hung Hoi

  Aymé, Georges, 35

  Bao Dai, 61, 65–66, 74, 95, 113

  and French, collaboration with, 76

  and Ngo Dinh Diem, 81, 88, 90

  and Nguyen Van Hinh, 83, 87

  Baxter, Bruce B., III, 197–198

  Bay Vien, 89

  Bay (Viet Minh leader), 56–57

  The Best and the Brightest (Halberstam), 136

  Betrothals, 37. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Big Minh. See Duong Van Minh

  Bigart, Homer, 132, 145

  Bin Laden, Osama, 221

  Binh Xuyen police, 83, 86–87, 89–90, 92

  Births, male vs. female, 18–19. See also Confucianism/Confucian tradition; Vietnamese tradition

  Blackened teeth, 20–21. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Bodard, Lucien, 62, 77–78

  Bride price, 39. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Brown, Pat, 197–198

  Browne, Malcolm, 2, 139–140, 141, 160–161, 168

  Buddhists, 157–160, 162, 216–217

  and monk, self-immolation of, 139–140, 160–161

  and “monks’ barbecue” remark, 1, 140, 145, 162–163

  and pagodas, raids on, 164–166, 166–167

  Bumgardner, Everett, 216

  Burrows, Larry, 5, 66–67

  Buttinger, Joseph, 216

  Can Lao. See Personalist Labor Party

  Capra, Robert, 144

  Catholics/Catholicism, 36, 80, 96, 154–156, 157–158

  Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, 33

  Chase, Allen, 215

  Chau (cook in South Vietnam’s Washington, D.C. embassy), 189–190

  Chiang, Madame (aka Soong May-Ling), 2, 147, 148, 185–186

  Chiang Kai-shek, 2, 147, 185, 186

  Children, behavior of, 13. See also Vietnamese tradition

  China, 73–74, 94

  CIA, 79, 81–82, 136–137, 199, 200, 201, 210

  Cleveland, Harlan, 172

  Clothing style, 20. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Colby, William, 210

  Collins, J. Lawton, 85, 176

  Communism, 47, 49, 75, 76–77, 80, 132, 162, 218

  Communists, 95, 120–121, 129–130, 156, 159

  and Buddhists, 162, 216–217

  and Viet Minh, 94

  and women’s rights, 101–103

  Concubinage, 102

  Conein, Lucien, 203

  Confucianism/Confucian tradition, 11, 18–19, 24, 157. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Contraception ban, 127

  Coup attempt of 1960, 111–114. See also Saigon coup of 1963

  Creation story, 54. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Cronkite, Walter, 199

  Dai Viet Phu Hung Hoi (Association for the Restoration of Great Vietnam), 75

  Dalat, 61–62, 63–68

  Dancing ban, 127–128

  Daughter-in-law as prized possession, 19. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Diem regime

  and Catholic bias, 96, 122

  and Communists, 159

  criticism of, 136–139

  and flag-flying and bombing incident, 158–160

  and nepotism, 96, 112, 122, 126

  overthrow of (See Coup attempt of 1960; Saigon coup of 1963)

  and repression of freedoms, 97, 122, 126–127

  and Tran Van Chuong, criticism of, 166

  and Tran Van Chuong and Chuong, Madame, and undermining of, 214–215

  US conspiracy against, 198, 216–217

  See also Ngo Dinh Diem; Ngo Dinh Nhu

  Dien Bien Phu, battle of, 63

  Divorce ban, 102–103, 104, 108–109, 126

  Domestic femininity, 26–27. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Dong Khanh (emperor of Vietnam), 20

  Donovan, Wild Bill, 77, 80

  Dougherty, Dudley, 197

  Dragon Lady, 1, 2, 117, 148, 176, 185, 221

  Dulles, Allen, 100–101

  Dulles, John Foster, 90

  Duong Van Minh (aka Big Minh), 200–201, 208

  Durbrow, Elbridge, 126

  Education reform, 33

  Eisenhower, Dwight D., 80–81, 147

  Fall, Bernard, 142

  Family Code, 102–103, 109, 126

  Famine of 1944 and 1945, 46–47

  Faye, Paul “Red,” 2, 210

  Felt, Harry, 202

  The Feminine Mystique (Friedan), 150

  Feminist movement, 150

  Filial piety, 10. See also Confucianism/Confucian tradition

  First Indochina War (aka War of Resistance; Guerre d’Indochine), 62–63, 65–66, 73–74, 79, 83. See also Indochina

  Fishel, Wesley, 214–215

  Flag-flying and bombing incident, 158–160, 163–164

  Flott, Fred, 198, 205–206, 208–209

  France, 47–48, 63, 73–74, 79

  Freedoms, repression of, 97, 122, 126–127

  French colonialism, 30–33, 34

  French embassy, 87–88, 91–92

  French Sûreté (secret police), 34–35

  French/French colonials, 22, 37–39, 76, 80, 81, 82–83

  Ngo Dinh Diem’s battle against, 89–90

  and recolonization, post-World War II, 47–48, 63

  and Vietnamese, prejudice against, 32

  Friedan, Betty, 150

  Gambetta, Leon, 31

  Gandhi, Indira, 150

  Geneva Accords, 61, 73–74, 79–80, 94, 95

  Gia Long (emperor), 45

  Great Britain, 73–74

  Great Depression, 30

  Greene, Graham, 81

  Gregory, Ann and Gene, 141–143

  Hair style, 20. See also Vietnamese tradition

  Hal
berstam, David, 114, 129, 135–139, 140–141, 142, 165

  and Buddhist monk, self-immolation of, 163

  and Saigon coup of 1963, 205, 206

  Hanoi, 29–30, 31

  Harkins, Paul, 121

  Harwood, Paul, 82, 100–101

  Hays, Wayne L., 173–174

  Hermitte, Achille Antoine, 92

  Herndon, Ray, 205

  Higgins, Marguerite, 131, 143–146, 172, 190, 206–207

  Hilsman, Roger, 12, 207

  Ho Chi Minh, 47, 60, 74, 75–76, 95, 121, 149

  Ho Chi Minh Trail, 121

  Ho (refugee), 86

  Hoang, 48, 49, 53, 56

  Hong Kong, 87–88, 91–92

  Horman, Ben, 178

  Indochina, 31–32, 37–39. See also First Indochina War

  Iron horse, 123

  Japan, 46, 75, 76, 149

  Japanese, 34, 38–39, 47

  and Tran Van Chuong and Madame Chuong, collaboration with, 61, 103

  John Birch Society, 197

  Johnson, Lady Bird, 117, 118–119, 120

  Johnson, Lyndon, 124–125, 218

  and entourage in South Vietnam, 117, 118–120

  and Ngo Dinh Diem, 124, 131–132

  and Nhu, Madame, letter from, 174–175

  and Saigon coup of 1963, 209–210

  Karnow, Stanley, 132, 140–141, 200–201, 203

  Kennedy, Caroline, 210–211

  Kennedy, Ethel, 148

  Kennedy, Jacqueline, 5, 148, 150–151, 217–218

  Kennedy, John, 119, 120, 140, 147, 178, 220–221

  and assassination conspiracy theories, 197

  assassination of, 211, 217

  and Lansdale, Edward, 81

  and Luce, Clare Booth, 148

  and Ngo brothers, assassination of, 210–211

  and Ngo Dinh Diem, 77

  and Nhu, Madame, 1–2, 10, 100, 150, 174–175, 190, 191, 210, 216

  and Saigon coup of 1963, 1–2, 199, 200, 207, 210–211, 217

  and South Vietnam, aid to, 121

  and South Vietnam, US involvement in, criticism of, 136–137

  Kennedy, John, Jr., 210–211

  Kennedy administration, 172–173, 190–191, 197

  Ngo Dinh Kha, Mrs., 48, 53, 56

  Khai Dinh (emperor), 65

  La Vang, symbolism of American bishop visiting, 154–156, 156–158