Ngô Đình Cẩn

Ngô Đình Cẩn

Ngô Đình Cẩn ( 1911 – 9 May 1964) was a younger brother and confidant of South Vietnam’s first president, Ngô   ĉỉ Diệm. He was the most oppressive of the Ngô brothers and ruled central Vietnam as a virtual dictator. He banned the Buddhist flag in 1963 during Vesak, the celebration of the birthday of Gautama Buddha. The regime responded with increased brutality, sparking the toppling of the Diem regime in a November 1963 coup.

About Ngô Đình Cẩn in brief

Summary Ngô Đình CẩnNgô Đình Cẩn ( 1911 – 9 May 1964) was a younger brother and confidant of South Vietnam’s first president, Ngô   ĉỉ Diệm. He was the most oppressive of the Ngô brothers and ruled central Vietnam as a virtual dictator. His influence began to wane after his elder brother was appointed the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế. He banned the Buddhist flag in 1963 during Vesak, the celebration of the birthday of Gautama Buddha. The regime responded with increased brutality, sparking the toppling of the Diem regime in a November 1963 coup. Cᚩn had been offered asylum by the US Department of State, but ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. had CIA officer Lucien Conein arrest the fallen Ngô in Saigon. The military junta, which tried and executed him in 1964, was led by Ngô ĉô Diem, the son of the former president, who had been a close ally of Công Thiền. Côn was the only Ngô brother not to have studied at a European-run university. He had never traveled outside Vietnam and was never a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). He was a follower of the anti-French nationalist Phan Bội Châu, who spent his last years in Huᚿ. In his youth, he had studied the writings and opinions of the renowned anti- French revolutionary Phan   Bâu. Câu had been captured and sentenced to death, before having his sentence reduced to a house arrest.

He traveled to Chân’s house on the Perfume River to listen to his political lectures and listened to his lectures on the radio. He died in 1964 after being executed by the junta. He is buried in a cemetery in the city of Ho Chi Minh City, in the province of Quang Ngai, near the border with South Korea, where he had lived for most of his life. His son Ngô Thiân Nhu became the family’s chief political strategist, while the youngest was a diplomat when the family held power in South Vietnam. Càn’s first and third brothers rose to become provincial governors under French rule. The second brother, Pierre Martin Ngô  Đônh Thục, was appointed as the Roman Catholics Archbishop ofhuỿ. The fourth brother Ngô Nhu was the family’s chief political Strategist. He avoided being executed or assassinated during Vietnam’s political upheavals. Cán was regarded as an effective leader against the Viet Cong communist insurgency. His Popular Force militia was regarded by US officials as a successful counter to the communists. He succeeded in eliminating alternative nationalist opposition in central Vietnam, and became the warlord of the region when his brother became president of the southern half of the partitioned nation.