Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

This is a Vietnamese name; the family name is Nguyễn, but is often simplified as Nguyen in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person properly should be referred to by the given name Thiệu.

President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu pronunciation (help·info), (April 5, 1923 – September 29, 2001) was a former General and President of South Vietnam.

[edit] Biography

Born in a coastal village, central Vietnam (Ninh Thuận Province), Thiệu was a son of a small landowner. As a patriotic teenager, he joined the Viet Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh to liberate Vietnam from French colonialism. He abandoned them after they moved into the Soviet sphere of influence and embraced Communism.

In 1949, he was educated at the National Military Academy in the former Imperial Capital Huế. He was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant from the first officer candidates' course of the Vietnam National Army, which had been created by Emperor Bảo Đại.

Thiệu was an Army lieutenant-colonel when the Republic of Vietnam was founded and it recovered full sovereignty after the withdrawal of French forces in 1955, following the 1954 Geneva Agreement.

[edit] Political career

President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu visiting a South Vietnamese Children Orphanage, for children whose parents were killed by North Vietnamese Communists

President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu sits in on drums for an impromptu musical session during dedication ceremonies for a rehabilitation center built by South Korean army troops.

He served as South Vietnam's ceremonial head of state in Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ's government from 1965–67.

In September 3, 1967, he ran successfully for the new executive presidency of South Vietnam earning 38% of the vote and held that position until a few days before the surrender of Saigon, South Vietnam's capital, became imminent in 1975.

Thiệu's regime was accused of being far more corrupt than the regime of his predecessor. Unlike Kỳ, Thiệu created a political party and greatly centralized political power in the executive branch at the expense of the elected congress. Close allies were placed in key ministerial and military posts in order to prevent threats to the president's leadership from emerging.

President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. President Richard Nixon meet with reporters after announcing the beginning of American troop withdrawals from Vietnam

In 1971, Thiệu ran for re-election, but his reputation for corruption made his political opponents believe the race would be fixed, and declined to run. As the only candidate, Thiệu was thus easily re-elected, receiving a suspiciously high 94% of the vote on an 87% turn-out.

In January 1975, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam at the city of Đà Nẵng. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu notified President Ford that he was of the opinion that North Vietnam had violated the 1973 Paris Peace Accords and asked for $500 million of aid, but the U.S. Congress would not release the funds. Angered, Thiệu stated "The United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days?", "The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men."^[1]

The North called this the "Hồ Chí Minh Campaign". All resistance crumbled. Conditions in South Vietnam deteroriated. The ARVN tried to defend Xuân-lộc, their last chance before Saigon. Even according to the Communists, these men fought very well, but it was not enough.

Just prior to the Communist victory, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned and left for Taiwan, quickly handing power to his Vice President, Trần Văn Hương, who took over on April 21, 1975, nine days before South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to the North Vietnamese on April 30, 1975.

[edit] Life in Exile

Thiệu fled to Taiwan, later he settled in Surrey, Great Britain. Finally he took up residence in Newton, Massachusetts, in the United States, where he died in 2001.

[edit] Quotes

• "Don't listen to what the Communists say, but look at what they do."
• "But the United States did not keep its word. Is an American's word reliable these days?"
• "The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men."
• "Losing a President Thiệu, the military still has a three-star General Thiệu. The people still have a soldier, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. I pledge to fight side by side with my brothers, the soldiers."
• "You ran away and left us to do the job that you could not do."

[edit] External links

• Vietnam's President Thiệu resigns
• President Thiệu and Commandos of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Reunion Photos
• Thiệu Biography From Spartacus Educational