Finding the Dragon Lady (43 page)

    
murder of,
9
,
10
,
11–14
,
215
,
220

    
as Pearl of Asia,
18

    
as princess,
9
,
18
,
20

    
reputation of,
56

    
retirement of,
10

    
and Saigon, safe passage to,
61

    
and social life,
34

    
and son, Tran Van Khiem,
12
,
13
,
22–23

    
as South Vietnamese observer at United Nations,
96

    
and Tuesday salons,
38

    
as two-year-old-bride,
20

    
Western influence on,
20–21

    
will of,
13
,
14–15

Tran Van Khiem

    
as adult, and living with parents,
13

    
birth of,
22–23

    
education of,
96

    
imprisonment and torture of,
12–13
,
14

    
and Ngo Dinh Diem,
12

    
and parents, disappointment to,
96

    
and parents, murder of,
10
,
11–14
,
220

    
and parents, will of,
13
,
14–15

    
as psychiatric patient,
13–14

    
and sister (Madame Nhu), and appointment as palace spokesman,
96

Tran Van Thong,
21–22

Truck bombing, March 22, 1961,
123–124

Truman, Harry,
187

Trung sisters,
123
,
125–126

U Nu, Mrs.,
100

UN Day,
197

United Nations,
96

United States

    
and aid to South Vietnam,
90
,
121
,
128
,
131

    
and Asians as feminized peoples,
149

    
and Binh Xuyen,
89

    
and Buddhist monk, self-immolation of,
161

    
and communism,
132

    
and Diem regime, conspiracy against,
198
,
216–217

    
and fake body counts,
121–122

    
and Geneva Accords,
73–74
,
79

    
and ideal woman, stereotype of,
148–150

    
and Johnson, Lyndon, and entourage in South Vietnam,
117
,
118–120

    
and Ngo Dinh Diem,
76–77
,
88
,
131–132

    
and Nhu, Madame, and banishment to Belgrade, and travels abroad,
166–167

    
and Nhu, Madame, criticism of,
2
,
140–141
,
162
,
181–182
,
190–191
,
214
,
216

    
racism in,
149

    
and Saigon coup of 1963, criticism of, and Nhu, Madame,
214
,
216

    
and Saigon coup of 1963, support of,
175
,
198–210
,
214

    
and South Vietnam, involvement in, criticism of,
136–137

    
in South Vietnam, criticism of,
141

    
Tran van Chuong as ambassador to,
96

    
and Viet Minh, and missions against,
75

US Day Rally,
197

US Information Service,
141

US State Department,
80–81
,
88

Vann, John Paul,
140–141

Viet Cong.
See
National Liberation Front

Viet Minh,
47
,
80

    
and communism/Communists,
80
,
94

    
and First Indochina War,
63

    
and Ngo Dinh Diem,
76

    
and Ngo Dinh Nhu, and shelter in Catholic Church,
60

    
and Nhu, Madame, and bridge/battleground crossing with infant daughter,
53–54

    
and Nhu, Madame, and detonation of piano,
51

    
and Nhu, Madame, capture of,
48–57

    
and Nhu, Madame, release of,
57

    
and US missions against Japanese,
75

Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (VNQDD),
32

“Vietnam,”
31

Vietnam: A History (Karnow),
140
,
217

Vietnam War,
218

Vietnamese

    
French prejudice against,
32

    
religion of,
157–158

Vietnamese stories,
23–24

Vietnamese tradition

    
and behavior of children,
13

    
and betrothals,
37

    
and blackened teeth,
20–21

    
and bride price,
39

    
and creation story,
54

    
and daughter-in-law as prized possession,
19

    
and domestic femininity,
26–27

    
and hair and clothing style,
20

    
and male vs. female births,
18–19

    
and marriage,
20

    
and middle-daughter, role of,
27

    
and mother myth,
54

    
and newborn and mother,
20

    
and polygamy,
19

    
and women, role of,
24
,
26–27
,
34

    
See also
Confucianism/Confucian tradition

VNQDD.
See
Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang

Warner, Denis,
11

The White Pebble (Le Caillou Blanc; Madame Nhu),
194

Women

    
Asian, stereotype of,
2
,
148–149

    
and feminist movement,
150

    
and ideal woman, stereotype of,
148–150

    
powerful, criticism of,
150–151

    
role of,
24
,
26–27
,
34
(
See also
Confucianism/Confucian tradition
;
Vietnamese tradition
)

Women's Corps,
125
,
139
,
203

Women's rights,
101–103
,
109

Women's Solidarity Movement,
125
,
126

Wong, Anna May,
148–149

World War I,
22

World War II,
37–39
,
149

Xa Hoi-Society,
77

Xixi (Chinese empress),
2
,
148

Yen Bay uprising,
32–33

Yokoyama Masayuki,
35
,
39

Young, Stephen,
172

JESSICA TAMPAS PHOTOGRAPHY

Monique Brinson Demery
took her first trip to Vietnam in 1997 as part of a study-abroad program with Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She received a United States Department of Education grant to attend the Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute in Hanoi, and in 2003, she received a master's degree in East Asia regional studies from Harvard University. Demery's initial interviews with Madame Nhu in 2005 were the first the former South Vietnamese First Lady had given to any Westerner in nearly twenty years. Demery lives in Chicago.

PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.

I.F. S
TONE
, proprietor of
I. F. Stone's Weekly
, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published
The Trial of Socrates,
which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.

B
ENJAMIN
C. B
RADLEE
was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of
The Washington Post.
It was Ben who gave the
Post
the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.

R
OBERT
L. B
ERNSTEIN
, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation's premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.

•
     
•
     
•

For fifty years, the banner of PublicAffairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by
The Washington Post
as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.