When Vietnamese Buddhist monks started setting themselves on fire in the early 1960s to protest brutality and corruption in her brother-in-law’s regime, Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu’s reaction was not sympathetic. She called them “barbecues” and vowed to bring mustard to the next one.
Madame Nhu was born Tran Le Xuan, or “Beautiful Spring,” to the daughter of a Vietnamese princess and her lawyer husband, said The New York Times. Raised as a Buddhist, she converted to Catholicism upon marrying Ngo Dinh Nhu, who came to control the secret police in the authoritarian regime of his bachelor brother, Ngo Dinh Diem. During Diem’s presidency, from 1955 to 1963, she became “the glamorous official hostess in South Vietnam’s presidential palace.”
The “diminutive and wasp-waisted” beauty exerted a powerful influence on the government, said The Washington Post, through her “sex appeal, fist-pounding persistence, and sporadic charm offensives.” When she heard that a general was bragging that he would hold a coup and take Madame Nhu as his concubine, she told him that if he ever did, “you will never have me because I will claw your throat out first.” Comments like that earned her the nickname “the Dragon Lady.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Branded an icon of women’s rights,” said the London Telegraph, Madame Nhu formed an elite women’s paramilitary corps and banned polygamy and beauty contests, but also abortion and contraception. She was in Beverly Hills in 1963 when she learned that her husband and brother-in-law had been killed in a U.S.-supported coup. She lived the rest of her life in France and Italy, never returning to Vietnam.
-
Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ televisionThe Week Recommends Julia Roberts narrates this ‘charming’ and ‘unexpectedly profound’ adaptation of Rónán Hession’s novel
-
Inside The Peninsula, London’s first billion-pound hotelThe Week Recommends As the capital’s super-luxury hotel scene continues to expand, the respected brand is still setting the standard
-
AI is making houses more expensiveUnder the radar Homebuying is also made trickier by AI-generated internet listings
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th-century clothing
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dadIn the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach BoysFeature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
Sly Stone: The funk-rock visionary who became an addict and recluseFeature Stone, an eccentric whose songs of uplift were tempered by darker themes of struggle and disillusionment, had a fall as steep as his rise
-
Mario Vargas Llosa: The novelist who lectured Latin AmericaFeature The Peruvian novelist wove tales of political corruption and moral compromise
-
Dame Maggie Smith: an intensely private national treasureIn the Spotlight Her mother told her she didn't have the looks to be an actor, but Smith went on to win awards and capture hearts
