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Ngo Dinh Diem ( Vietnamese Ngô Ðình Diệm, Chinese 吳廷琰 January 3, 1901 - November 2, 1963) was the first President of South Vietnam ( 1955- 63).Dinh Diem was born in Hu, 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 nationalistNationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. Nationalists base nations on various notions of political legitimacy. These can derive from the Romantic theory of " cultural identity", and anti-Communist; his elder brother ( Dinh Thuc) was archbishop of Hue.
In 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II: he was imprisoned and exiled to ChinaThis article is on the geographic and cultural entity. For other meanings, see China (disambiguation). China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: , Hanyu Pinyin: Zhongguo, Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a country in continental East Asia with some oute following conflicts with anti- FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. Communist forces that were gaining power in Vietnam. After his release, he refused to join in the brief post-war government of Ho Chi MinhNationalist and Vietnamese Communist, who fought for a united Vietnamese state. Ho Chi Minh ( Vietnamese "H Chi Minh", Chinese ) (originally named Nguyn Sinh Cung and known as "Bac H" Uncle Ho in Vietnam) ( May 19, 1890 September 3, 1969) was a Vietnamese 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, in a disputed nationwide referendum, the people voted to remove the 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 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 Bao Dai. Ngo Dinh Diem was also passionately anti-Communist and many attribute rising sympathy for the NVA-backed National Liberation Front (otherwise known as the Viet Cong) to his rule.
