The Vietnam war had a certain Catholic undertow to it. The Buddhist monks that we saw on television lighting themselves on fire were protesting policies of the Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem. The recently deceased Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, being the wife of Diem’s brother, was the unofficial first lady of Vietnam. (Diem was unmarried.) She was also known, especially in her later years, to be a pious Catholic.
Don’t let the anti-American sentiments in the article linked below upset you. Given that her husband and brother-in-law were murdered by the U.S. government — or at least with the active involvement of our government — she had good reason to hold our politicians in low esteem.
ROME (AP) — Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the outspoken beauty who served as South Vietnam’s unofficial first lady early on in the Vietnam War and earned the nickname “Dragon Lady” for her harsh criticism of protesting Buddhist monks and communist sympathizers, has died at age 86, a Rome funeral home said Wednesday.
