In Hindsight: Madame Nhu and the American War in Vietnam

Tran Le Xuan, South Vietnam’s “first lady,” was passionate in her support of the southern republic – and a fierce critic of American involvement in Indochina.

The Tran Le Xuan villa, the former residence of Tran Le Xuan and her husband Ngo Dinh Nhu in Dalat, Vietnam.

In Vietnam today, the war against the United States is known as the American War. It began in September 1950, when U.S. President Harry Truman sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to Indochina to help the French re-colonize Vietnam. The objective was to contain Maoist communism and underwrite the French effort to crush the Viet Minh forces of Ho Chi Minh. It ended ingloriously in defeat on March 28, 1973, with the withdrawal of the last of 3.1 million U.S. combat troops sent by Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

A key moment in that complex conflict, which spanned the end of French colonialism and the escalation of American imperialism, was the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, president of the Republic of South Vietnam. He and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were butchered in the back of an armored vehicle on November 2, 1963. The killings were a turning point in the conflict. They were the work of a clique of ambitious South Vietnamese generals encouraged and aided by the Kennedy administration in Washington and Saigon.

At the center of those momentous events – events that led directly to the hot war of 1965-1973 – was a diminutive woman of high culture, keen intellect, and a combative love for her country.

Published in English last year, “The White Pebble” is the personal memoir of Tran Le Xuan, first lady of the Republic of South Vietnam. Known as Madame Nhu, Tran Le Xuan was brilliant, strong-willed, and dangerous. At the height of her notoriety, the New York Times named her the most powerful woman in Asia. She was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, President Diem’s brother and chief counselor. She agreed to serve as the unmarried president’s First Lady in 1955. By the early 1960s, she was so famous that many Americans thought she was the president of South Vietnam.

Tran Le Xuan, aka Madame Nhu, in her thirties. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The title of her memoir references Revelation 2:17 in the Bible. The white stone represents a promise to faithful believers in the love of Jesus. It symbolizes a verdict of “not guilty” or innocence and justification for actions taken. In the lexicon of the Catholic faith, it also signifies the exoneration of sin. After the murder of Diem and her husband, Madame Nhu spent 48 years in exile in Italy before she died in 2011 at age 87. From the outset of her exclusion, she was reviled in the Western media as an evil sorceress and a “violent and impossible” woman. Frustrated by her assertiveness and political confidence, President Kennedy referred to her as a “goddam bitch” and a “feather-headed dame.” “The White Pebble” is her personal and political response to that bitter condemnation.

Featured on the 1963 covers of Time and Life magazines and tagged in the American media as the “Dragon Lady,” Madame Nhu made frequent public statements that spawned great resentment in South Vietnam and revulsion around the world. When a Buddhist monk publicly incinerated himself in protest in June 1963, her response was seen to be unspeakably barbaric. “Let them burn,” she said. “If the Buddhists wish to have another barbecue, I will be glad to supply the gasoline and a match.”

A descendant of ancient Vietnamese royalty, a convert to Catholicism, and a mother of four, Tran Le Xuan was charismatic and determined. She was regarded as a feminist by many for her radical “Family Code,” which she legislated in 1959 as an elected member of the National Assembly. The Code outlawed polygamy, concubinage, prostitution, opium dens, cock fighting, and beauty contests. Divorce, abortion, contraception and public displays of affection were also banned in what became known as her “Morality Laws.” But she was also an unabashed champion of her sex, demanding an end to the status of Vietnamese women as “eternal minors, unpaid servants and dolls without souls.” She annoyed Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, by pointing to the relative subservience of 1950s American women in law and society.

Her political story is about her strident anti-communism and vigorous commitment to the armed struggle against Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong. She was a patriot and dedicated to the ancient warrior class of Vietnamese women. She organized and supported the Women’s Solidarity Movement – including a........

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