Nguyen Van Thieu

Nguyen Van Thieu in 2000. This is exactly 25 years after the fall of the Republic of Vietnam.

The second and de facto last president of the Republic of Vietnam[5] .

He could speak English and French so fluently that he was able to talk freely with Richard Nixon without an interpreter, and even though he was a former military dictator, he showed the appearance of an orderly elite and gained the trust of the United States and the West.

In Korea, it was called Nguyen Van Thieu during the Park Chung-hee regime.

He was born as the son of a landowner in a place called Phan Rang Thap Tram in southern Vietnam .

He was briefly active in the Viet Minh in 1945, but ceased his activities in 1946. Afterwards, he went to Saigon , entered the Vietnam Military Academy, and enlisted in the Vietnamese Army. This led to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and his final rank was lieutenant general. He was originally a Buddhist, but converted to Catholicism around this time during the Ngo Dinh Diem regime . Additionally, he joined the Workers’ Personality Revolutionary Party founded by Ngo Dinh Diem. Rumors that he converted to please Ngo Dinh Diem, who favored Catholics, always followed him around.[6] His wife, Madame Thieu, was also Catholic.[7]

1963 On November 2 , after enduring the coup frenzy following the 1963 South Vietnamese coup and the execution of Ngo Dinh Diem, the 1965 On June 19 , he too ascended to the position of head of state in a coup.

Afterwards , he served as President of the Republic of Vietnam for most of the Second Vietnam War . 1967 for the transfer to civilian administration Presidential election held on September 3 and 1967 He won the general election held on October 21 and was elected in 1971. He also succeeded in re-election on October 2, putting an end to repeated coups. In the 1967 election, the vote rate was 34%, but in the 1971 election, he was elected as the only candidate with 100% of the vote.[8]

Also, the short period of calm immediately following the failure of the Tet Offensive was handled well. In 1970, following the advice of the U.S. civil society, he began his own land reform modeled on Central and South America with financial support from the U.S. government. It is evaluated that it achieved moderate results compared to Ngo Dinh Diem 's ​​land reform , which was considered a failure and only benefited North Vietnamese people .[9][10] Foreign media also highly evaluated this project. However, now that the war was over and South Vietnam was destroyed, the conclusion was drawn that it was too late .

Dictator Nguyen Van Thieu's crackdown on opposition parties and the media was based on a strict punitive policy, punishing anyone arrested on charges of drug trafficking, street robbery, armed robbery, rape, or prostitution with death. In the fall of 1972, he issued a decree allowing the arrest without trial of anyone suspected of crimes such as participation in a communist organization, murder, surrender, rebellion, or rape. When the Paris Agreement was signed in early 1973, Thieu publicly claimed that he was holding 32,000 political prisoners, but the CIA estimated that the actual number of political prisoners was as high as 40,000.[11] Of course, Nguyen Van Thieu advocated Asian values ​​externally .

However, he was no better than the chronic corruption and incompetence of the South Vietnamese government, and there are even suspicions that he amassed enormous wealth by manipulating the drug trade during his tenure.[12] The conflict with Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky was also intense. Nguyen Cao Ky was working to become President until a few days before the fall of Saigon.

In the end, after the Richard Nixon administration took office in the United States , despite the withdrawal of US troops and the reduction of military aid according to the Paris Peace Agreement, it did not take any self-rescue measures, providing a clue to defeat. In fact , Richard Nixon was providing a sure security guarantee for South Vietnam, and as proof of that, during the North Vietnamese Army's Easter Offensive, he abolished the bombing restricted area and boldly launched Operation Linebacker, devastating North Vietnam. However, after Nixon resigned as Watergate , the successor, Gerald Ford, had no time to worry about the South Vietnam issue as he was dealing with domestic issues first, and the U.S. Congress consistently rejected President Ford's unorthodox proposals to support South Vietnam.

However, what cannot be blamed only on Nguyen Van Thieu is that at that time, South Vietnam was in a situation similar to when the so-called collection of warlords , Chiang Kai-shek 's Kuomintang Army dominated the Chinese continent. Since each warlord was like a governor (governor) and a regional commander, Nguyen Van Thieu was not able to speak properly, and there was no way to force it.[13] Just because the US military is giving him strength, the rest of the warlords reluctantly surrendered. In fact, the Buddhist warlords in the central Da Nang area resisted the Western-style Christian-based policy even after the establishment of the Nguyen Van Thieu regime, so the government forces and the troops under the warlords were in Da Nang. There have also been cases of head-on collisions in the city. At the time, the U.S. Army was unable to intervene and was in a state of panic.

At the time, artillery could fire only four rounds a day, each soldier could use only 85 rounds a month, and air transport operations were reduced by up to 70% due to fuel and spare parts shortages. Moreover, because of Thieu's insistence not to surrender any territory, the army was dispersed and defended useless terrain along the border.[14] Strategic reserve forces were exhausted in suppressing political opponents.

In addition, the military discipline was completely messed up. Due to document manipulation, there were cases where South Vietnamese Army units had names on the documents, like the later Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Army, but the soldiers in question did not actually exist. In addition, there were cases of South Vietnamese soldiers deserting and then re-enlisting by falsifying their identities , and South Vietnamese army generals even traded weapons with the Viet Cong , just like the previous National Revolutionary Army .

In addition, economically, South Vietnam was heading towards catastrophe due to the large-scale influx of refugees into the cities, oil shock , and declining rice harvests.


President Thieu's resignation speech

[Full text of speech]

Người Mỹ đánh giặc ở đây, không đánh được đi về đặt ra một cái chương trình việt nam hóa, chúng ta chấp nhận dù không muốn việt nam hóa Việt nam hóa rồi, hứa cộng sản hành động thì sẽ phản ứng mà không phản ứng Thì chỉ còn 1 thứ tối thiếu là đưa đội đến đánh bại mà không đưa được Thì thử hỏi cái đó là cái gì Thất hứa, thiếu công bằng, thiếu chính nghĩa, vô nhân đạo đối với 1 đồng minh đang chịu đau khổ trốn tránh trách nhiệm của một đại cường quốc Sở dĩ tôi từ chức hôm nay là bởi vì hôm nay ở bên Hoa Kỳ quốc hội đưa vẫn đề viện trợ ra mổ xẻ Tôi nghĩ rằng cái hành động tôi từ chức hôm nay biết đâu ngày mai từ cái chỗ 322 lên đến 722 hay nó lên 1 tỷ mốt (USD) Rồi thì tới tấp cầu hàng không chở xe tang, đạn pháo qua đầy viện trợ.... Tôi hy vọng như vậy Để coi cái quốc hội Hoa Kỳ có đọc .... Tôi cũng hy vọng rằng cái lúc mà tình thế quân sự căng thẳng tại quân khu 3 quân khu 4 Ông Thiệu đi rồi, còn ông tổng thống Hương thì biết đâu còn 3-4 ngày, còn 1 tuần thì chuyện nó có thể lật được Nếu như tôi để ngày mai, ngày mốt mà tôi mới từ chức mà cộng sản thực sự nó tấn công thì e nó quá trể Lúc đó nó quá dở, trễ quá rồi làm không được Quốc hội Hoa Kỳ viện trợ 3 trăm rưỡi...để trễ quá 3 trăm rưỡi cũng không lên 722 được Không sớm hơn mà không trễ hơn, bởi vì tôi nghĩ rằng Cái thời gian đến ngày hôm nay còn thay đổi cục diện được quân sự của cả chiến trường

The United States fought here, but withdrew when they could not win. And they came up with a program called Vietnamization (việt nam hóa), and we accepted it even though we didn't want to. After Vietnamization, they promised to respond if the Communists acted, but they did not. In that case, the only thing left to do was to send troops to defeat the enemy, and even that was not done. So what on earth is this? This is a broken promise, an injustice, a lack of justice, and an inhumane act against our suffering allies. It is also an avoidance of responsibility as a major country. The reason I am resigning today is because today the United States Congress is revisiting the aid issue. I believe that my actions in resigning today may serve as an opportunity to increase aid tomorrow from $322 million to $722 million, or even to more than $1 billion. Then, I hope that airlift supply will continue to be provided and that vehicles and artillery will be provided in large quantities... I hope so. I hope the US Congress realizes that… I hope again. “At a time when the military situation is urgent in the 3rd and 4th military districts, Thieu is gone, now only Huong ( Tran Van Huong ) remains. “Maybe we can turn the situation around in 3-4 days, or even a week.” I am afraid that if I postpone my resignation until tomorrow or the day after, it will be too late if the Communists actually launch an all-out offensive. By then it is already too late to do anything. Even if the U.S. Congress approves $350 million in aid... That $350 million won't even grow to $720 million until it's too late. It's not too early, it's not too late, it's now. Because I believe that there is still time until today to change the military situation on the entire front.

In the spring of 1975 , the Republic of Vietnam was on the verge of collapse due to a major communist offensive.[15] After criticizing the 'traitor America', he escaped to Taiwan on a plane carrying treasures. At this time, a South Vietnamese Air Force transport plane loaded with gold bars and artwork followed the plane on which Nguyen Van Thieu was riding. Naturally, this transport plane and its crew also never returned to their home country. It is known that the gold bars he took were not in the treasury of the South Vietnamese government, but were personally accumulated through illegal accumulation, such as drug sales. At this time, an attempt was made to move 16 tons of gold stored in the Central Bank of South Vietnam, but it was said to have failed, and this gold was taken into the hands of the unified Vietnamese communist regime.

Afterwards, South Vietnamese soldiers retreating due to the North Vietnamese army's offensive bulldozed Thieu's father's grave .

After living in England for a while , he moved to the United States in 1990 . In a 1992 interview, he predicted the end of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and asked the U.S. government not to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam.[16] He also stated that he would return to his hometown once the Communist Party resigns and democracy is restored. But of course he could not achieve his goal, and after suffering a stroke at his Foxborough home and being placed in a breathing apparatus, he died at Beth Israil Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on September 29, 2001. He was cremated and buried in a cemetery in Boston.

On the positive side, at the time of the Tet Offensive, he quickly issued martial law and a general mobilization order with bold determination to prevent further catastrophes, and he destroyed landlords by re-promoting failed land reform during the Ngo Dinh Diem period. Thanks to this, South Vietnam's rice productivity has improved and the quality of life of South Vietnamese people has also improved.

However, he was also the typical corrupt and authoritarian dictator of South Vietnam . He tolerated the corruption of his aides for his political base and committed all sorts of corruption himself. The most representative example is the accumulation of wealth through opium trafficking, which was not very different from what Ngo Dinh Nho did before.[17]

As this situation continued, the United States did not want to pour water into the bottomless dock because it was tired of unlimited wars of attrition without justification. Eventually, Richard Nixon pursued a policy of Vietnamization, withdrawing troops from South Vietnam and cutting aid. abandoned

Also, rather than accepting American-style democracy, he oppressed tens of thousands of opponents by labeling them political prisoners, and hundreds of thousands of them were imprisoned in concentration camps. The white terror and massacres committed by Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of South Vietnam, also occurred during the Thieu regime. Cruel tortures, including electric and water torture, were also committed under the Thieu government, and even in 1972, when U.S. troops were withdrawing, members of the American Quaker Church in the area reported the torture to the United States. The number of South Vietnamese national police was 16,000 in 1963, but increased to 88,000 in 1969 and 122,000 in 1972 during the Thieu government. Surveillance and intelligence networks using police expanded throughout South Vietnam under the Thieu government.

Even the Phoenix Program , the infamous massacre operation, was also led by the CIA and the Thieu government. There was no clear evidence that the tens of thousands of Viet Cong suspects killed in these operations were Viet Cong or sympathizers. Because of this operation, the Thieu government further aggravated public sentiment in South Vietnam.

Thieu, who failed to solve South Vietnam's fundamental problems, made the worst strategic mistake in the North Vietnamese Army's offensive in 1975 and was literally defeated. Looking more broadly, he is also the person most responsible for the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975. Nguyen Van Thieu became concerned that the coups that had continued several times and caused enormous chaos after the collapse of the Ngo Dinh Diem government in 1963 after the withdrawal of the U.S. military, which had strongly supported the regime, might be repeated. So, as a response, they deliberately changed the command system of the South Vietnamese Army.

The South Vietnamese Army had previously had a command system that guaranteed autonomy to lower echelons due to a lack of communication equipment and transportation, and under this system, it was doing better than expected. However, due to political intentions, the government changed to an unreasonably rigid, centralized system, resulting in chaos and serious inefficiency. In addition, in the name of purging political soldiers, front-line commanders were removed overnight and strong checks were carried out. Because of these unreasonable measures that only concerned the well-being of the regime, the South Vietnamese army was rapidly weakened and was helplessly defeated by the North Vietnamese army's final offensive. It is widely known that Ngo Dinh Diem 's ​​dictatorship and mismanagement contributed most to the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, but the mistakes of Thieu, who was just a political soldier with a thirst for power, were also significant. source

While the South Vietnamese people risked their lives and escaped their marks, they should be criticized for being able to escape with gold and silver treasures and families. And this work is reproduced in another failure country 46 years later .[18]

In March 1975, just before he was kicked out, he was ranked as the second worst leader in the world by American experts. In the same survey, Chile 's Augusto Pinochet , who was infamous for his unimaginably harsh human rights abuses at the time, ranked third, and considering that first place was Idi Amin , we can see the extent of this person's misfortune.[19][20] References

Nguyen Van Thieu in 1975 Even after resigning and escaping on April 21, political strife continued in Saigon over who would take power. Tran Van Huong held the position of president for a short time but resigned shortly thereafter , and Duong Van Minh , who had overthrown Diem and executed him , took office as president on April 29 and attempted negotiations with the communist army. However, North Vietnam, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was unwilling to accept anything other than unconditional surrender, and the Duong Van Minh government eventually announced a declaration of surrender on April 30, the next day. There is an anecdote that when Duong Van Minh told the North Vietnamese representative, "I was waiting to hand over power," he retorted, "We just collapsed your regime. You can't give up something that doesn't exist."[22]

Visit to Korea (May 27, 1969, Seoul City Hall)

I visited Korea in 1969 .

In commemoration of his visit to Korea, the Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp .


In his office are U.S. President Richard Nixon , South Korean President Park Chung-hee , and Juan Peron. Portraits of Argentinian presidents were placed.

I interviewed him in a documentary called '10,000 Days of War in Vietnam', which was produced based on a book by Canadian war correspondent Michael Maclear.

Although he is a devout Catholic, he also faithfully kept the traditional Confucian customs, including ancestral rites.

The interview with Orianna Fallazzi was also famous. Because her English was not very good, she answered in French for more than half of the interview. Although she was a bit long-winded and pretentious about her position, she handled the sharp questions from Fallazzi well by capturing clear points. It is true that Fallazzi had a clear sense of pride in his attitude, and at the time of the interview, he could not be seen as a simple American puppet as he was known, but in the end, no matter how hard he tried to respect him, he criticized him harshly, saying that in the end, he did not keep any of what he boasted and deserved to be ruined.

Nguyen Van Thieu , a character in The Legend of the Galactic Heroes, is named after this character.

Even today, his house still remains in his hometown, Phan Rang Thap Tram, Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam.