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Demery Monique Brinson - Finding the Dragon Lady : the mystery of Vietnams Madame Nhu

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Finding the Dragon Lady : the mystery of Vietnams Madame Nhu: summary, description and annotation

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When Monique Demery set out to find the infamous Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the former First Lady of South Vietnam had been in exile for over forty years, and had lived in near seclusion for the last thirty of them. Entire books have been written about the consequences of that November coup: sorting out Americas role and what effect it had on the coming war, but for the most part, historians were flummoxed by the Dragon Lady. Her hourglass figure filled and splash of color enlightened what were otherwise murky beginnings to a dismal war. And she gave Americans something to rally around, even if it was only to cheer against her. But little was heard from the woman herself. The last New York Times reporter who tried to get access to Madame Nhu in 1987 was turned away at the door and told she charged for interviews--one thousand dollars a pop. But somehow, through a mixture of patience, cunning, and a bit of luck, Demery managed to strike up a years-long relationship with the Dragon Lady and ultimately was entrusted with her diary and autobiography. This book is the story of that improbable connection and a deeper look at the woman who was feared and despised by so much of the world-- Read more...
Abstract: When Monique Demery set out to find the infamous Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the former First Lady of South Vietnam had been in exile for over forty years, and had lived in near seclusion for the last thirty of them. Entire books have been written about the consequences of that November coup: sorting out Americas role and what effect it had on the coming war, but for the most part, historians were flummoxed by the Dragon Lady. Her hourglass figure filled and splash of color enlightened what were otherwise murky beginnings to a dismal war. And she gave Americans something to rally around, even if it was only to cheer against her. But little was heard from the woman herself. The last New York Times reporter who tried to get access to Madame Nhu in 1987 was turned away at the door and told she charged for interviews--one thousand dollars a pop. But somehow, through a mixture of patience, cunning, and a bit of luck, Demery managed to strike up a years-long relationship with the Dragon Lady and ultimately was entrusted with her diary and autobiography. This book is the story of that improbable connection and a deeper look at the woman who was feared and despised by so much of the world

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Finding the Dragon Lady

Copyright 2013 by Monique Brinson Demery.

Published in the United States by PublicAffairs,

a Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 8104145, ext. 5000, or e-mail .

Book design by Cynthia Young

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Demery, Monique Brinson, 1976

Finding the Dragon Lady : the mystery of Vietnams Madame Nhu /

Monique Brinson Demery.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61039-282-2 (e-book)

1. Tran, Le Xuan, 19242011. 2. Politicians spousesVietnam (Republic)Biography. 3. Vietnam (Republic)Politics and government. I. Title.

DS556.93.T676D46 2013

959.77043092dc23

2013021155

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Finding the

Dragon Lady

Finding the Dragon Lady the mystery of Vietnams Madame Nhu - image 1

THE MYSTERY OF
VIETNAMS

MADAME NHU

MONIQUE BRINSON DEMERY

PUBLICAFFAIRS New York Contents TO READERS ENCOUNTERING them for the - photo 2

PUBLICAFFAIRS

New York

Contents

TO READERS ENCOUNTERING them for the first time Vietnamese names can seem - photo 3

TO READERS ENCOUNTERING them for the first time, Vietnamese names can seem confounding. The family name comes first, followed by the middle nameor namesand then the first, or given, name. Additionally, an overwhelming number of people share relatively few last names. Tran and Ngo are more common in Vietnam than Johnson or Smith in the United States. The middle name is no help in distinguishing among brothers and sisters, as parents often give their offspring the same middle names. That was the case in the Ngo family; the six male siblings all had the middle name Dinh, and in the case of the Chuongss daughters, Madame Nhu and her sister had the same two middle names, Thi and Le. Thi is a common middle name for girls, but in the case of Madame Nhu and her sister, they dropped the Thi in practice and used Le as a prefix to their given names.

The accepted way to refer to a Vietnamese person is by their given name, even in the most official settingshence, the president of the Republic of South Vietnam was called President Diem and not President Ngo. One notable exception to this rule is Ho Chi Minh. In his case, he has been decreed so esteemed and so well known that his last name is sufficient.

I struggled over what to call various Vietnamese people in this book, but when I made a decision, I tried to be consistentexcept in the case of Madame Nhu. In the chapters that depict her early years, I use the name her parents gave her: Tran Le Xuan. While women typically keep their family name after they marry, in the case of both Madame Nhu and her mother, Madame Chuong, I have chosen to refer to them the way that they are commonly spoken of in the United States, where this book was written and published.

Per the guidelines set out by the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., I decided to abandon the use of diacritics in spelling Vietnamese names and places but to retain accents for French words. In Vietnamese, diacritics convey the languages seven tones, and words that may look the same on paper without marks may have very different meanings once assigned tones through diacritics. I apologize for any inadvertent offense stemming from my efforts to simplify these spellings for my readers.

Tran Van Chuong: Madame Nhus father; also the South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States under President Ngo Dinh Diem

Nam Tran Tran Van Chuong (also Madame Chuong, Tran Thi Nam Tran): Madame Nhus mother

Tran Thi Le Chi: Madame Nhus sister

Tran Thi Le Xuan: Madame Nhus childhood name

Tran Van Khiem: Madame Nhus brother

Ngo Dinh Kha: Father of Ngo Dinh Nhu and Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Khoi: Eldest Ngo brother, killed by the Communists in 1945

Ngo Dinh Thuc: Nhus older brother, archbishop of Hue

Ngo Dinh Diem: Nhus older brother; president of the Republic of South Vietnam, 19551963

Ngo Dinh Nhu: Madame Nhus husband and chief political advisor to Diem

Ngo Dinh Can: controller of Hue and surrounding areas during the presidency of his brother Diem

Ngo Dinh Luyen: youngest Ngo brother; served as ambassador to the United Kingdom

Ngo Dinh Le Thuy: Madame Nhus oldest daughter

Ngo Dinh Trac: Madame Nhus older son

Ngo Dinh Quynh: Madame Nhus younger son

Ngo Dinh Le Quyen: Madame Nhus youngest daughter

That hands like hers can touch the strings

That move who knows what men and things

That on her will their fates have hung,

The woman with the serpents tongue.

Picture 4

Last stanza of William Watsons poem The Woman with the Serpents Tongue. The poem was recited in its entirety in front of the US Congress by Ohio senator Stephen Young on October 3, 1963, in protest of Madame Nhus upcoming visit to the United States. See New Poems by William Watson (Cambridge, UK: The University Press, 1909), 3233.

B Y THE TIME I STARTED LOOKING for Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, she had been living in exile for over forty years. In 1963, at the height of her fame, the New York Times named the thirty-nine-year-old First Lady of South Vietnam the most powerful woman in Asia and likened her to Lucrezia Borgia. But it was Madame Nhus reputation as the Dragon Lady that brought her real distinction. When Buddhist monks were setting themselves on fire in the streets of Saigon, Madame Nhus response was unspeakably cruel: Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands, she had said with a smile. If the Buddhists wish to have another barbecue, I will be glad to supply the gasoline and a match. The dangerous, dark-eyed beauty quickly became a symbol of everything wrong with American involvement in the Vietnam War.

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