Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ

Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was a Vietnamese politician. He was the first Prime Minister of South Vietnam, serving from November 1963 to late January 1964. His rule was marked by a period of confusion and weak government as the Military Revolutionary Council and the civilian cabinet vied for power.

About Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ in brief

Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was a Vietnamese politician. He was the first Prime Minister of South Vietnam, serving from November 1963 to late January 1964. His rule was marked by a period of confusion and weak government, as the Military Revolutionary Council and the civilian cabinet vied for power. The son of a wealthy landowner, he rose through the ranks as a low-profile provincial chief under French colonial rule. During World War II, he was briefly imprisoned by Imperial Japan when they invaded and deposed the French during WWII. He became the Interior Minister in the French-backed State of Vietnam, an associated state of the French Union. After the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in 1955 following the partition in 1954, Th� was sent to Japan as ambassador and secured war reparations. Recalled to Vietnam within a year, he helped to dismantle the private armies of the Hòa Hảo religious sect in the mid-1950s. This success earned him the vice presidential slot in December 1956 to widen the popular appeal of Diệm’s nepotistic and sectarian regime. He oversaw South Vietnam’s failed land reform policy, and was accused of lacking vigour in implementing the program as he was himself a large landowner. Despite nominally being a Buddhist, he defended the regime’s pro-Roman Catholic policies and its violent actions against the Buddhist majority. He supported the regime during the Buddhist crisis that ended the rule of the Ngô family.

He retired from politics when Minh’s junta was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguyᝅn Khánh. He is survived by his wife and two children, who are now living in the U.S. and Singapore. He died of a heart attack in 1998, at the age of 80. He had a son and a daughter with his second wife, who died in a car accident in 2002. He has a son with a daughter who is now living with her in the United States and a step-son with his third wife. He also has a grandson with whom he had a daughter, who is also living in New York City and has two step-children with his wife, both of whom are living in South Korea. He never had any children of his own, and he never had children with his step-daughter, who was born in South Vietnam. His son and daughter-in-law had two children with the same name, but they were separated by the time of his death. He later died of lung cancer, and his daughter died of heart failure in 2002, at age 83. He lived in a retirement home in Saigon, where he was buried in a plot to make him look like a hero to the South Vietnamese people. His wife died of cancer in 2003. He wrote a book about his experiences, which was published by the University of California, San Diego, about his time as Prime Minister and his life as a politician.

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