Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ
Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ (26 May 190812 June 1976) was a Vietnamese politician who was the first Prime Minister of South Vietnam, serving from November 1963 to late January 1964. Thơ was appointed to head a civilian cabinet by the military junta of General Dương Văn Minh, which came to power after overthrowing and assassinating Ngô Đình Diệm, the nation's first president. Thơ's rule was marked by a period of confusion and weak government, as the Military Revolutionary Council (MRC) and the civilian cabinet vied for power. Thơ lost his job and retired from politics when Minh's junta was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguyễn Khánh.

The son of a wealthy Mekong Delta landowner, Thơ rose through the ranks as a low-profile provincial chief under French colonial rule, and he was briefly imprisoned by Imperial Japan when they invaded and deposed the French during World War II. During this time he met Minh for the first time as they shared a cell. Following World War II, he became the Interior Minister in the French-backed State of Vietnam, an associated state in the French Union. After the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam in 1955 following the partition in 1954, Thơ was sent to Japan as ambassador and secured war reparations. Recalled to Vietnam within a year, he helped to dismantle the private armies of the Hòa Hảo religious sect in the mid-1950s. Tho led the political efforts to weaken the Hòa Hảo leadership. While Minh led the military effort, Thơ tried to buy off Hòa Hảo leaders. One commander, Ba Cụt, was personally hostile to Thơ, whose father had confiscated the land of Ba Cụt's family decades earlier. The stand-off could not be ended peacefully in this case, and Ba Cụt was captured and executed.

This success earned Thơ the vice presidential slot in December 1956 to widen the popular appeal of Diệm's nepotistic and sectarian regime. It was reasoned that Thơ's southern heritage would broaden the regime's political appeal—Diệm's family was from central Vietnam and most administrators were not from South Vietnam. Thơ was not allowed to take part in policy decisions and had little meaningful power, as Diệm's brothers, Nhu and Cẩn, commanded their own private armies and secret police, and ruled arbitrarily. Thơ oversaw South Vietnam's failed land reform policy, and was accused of lacking vigour in implementing the program as he was himself a large landowner. He was noted for his faithful support of Diệm during the Buddhist crisis that ended the rule of the Ngô family. Despite nominally being a Buddhist, Thơ defended the regime's pro-Roman Catholic policies and its violent actions against the Buddhist majority.

Thơ turned against Diệm and played a passive role in the coup. Upon the formation of the new government, he struggled to keep the nation under control as the MRC and civilian cabinet often gave contradictory orders. Media freedom and political debate were increased, but this backfired as Saigon became engulfed in infighting, and Thơ had a series of newspapers shut down after they used the new-found freedom to attack him. During that time, South Vietnam's military situation deteriorated as the consequences of Diệm's falsification of military statistics and the misguided policies that resulted were exposed. Minh and Thơ had a plan to try to end the war by winning over non-communist members of the insurgency, believing that they constituted the majority of the opposition and could be coaxed away, weakening the communists. As part of this policy, which the U.S. opposed, the government chose to take a low-key military approach in an attempt to portray themselves to the Vietnamese public as peacemakers. However, they were deposed in Khánh's U.S.-backed coup before they could pursue their strategy.
Q216151
Vietnamese
Concept
None
Prime Minister of South Vietnam
UNK
Q25424534
military junta
UNK
Q334419
Dương Văn Minh
PER
Q1078181
overthrowing
Concept
Q1003866
assassinating
Concept
Q192502
Ngô Đình Diệm
PER
Q4571631
January 1964 coup
Concept
Q504362
Nguyễn Khánh
PER
Q1052867
Mekong Delta
LOC
Q185682
French colonial rule
LOC
Q188712
Imperial Japan
LOC
Q1193879
State of Vietnam
LOC
Q848478
French Union
LOC
Q180573
Republic of Vietnam
LOC
Q482407
partition
MEDIA
Q1369404
Hòa Hảo
LOC
Q460252
Ba Cụt
Concept
Q650194
Nhu
PER
Q7022417
Cẩn
PER
Q635624
Buddhist crisis
Concept
Q174423
the insurgency
ORG
Q926510
Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ
PER
1908-05-26T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
26 May 1908
DATE
1976-06-12T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
12 June 1976
DATE
1963-11-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
November 1963
DATE
1964-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 1964
DATE
1964-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 1964
DATE
1955-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1955
DATE
1954-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1954
DATE
1956-12-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
December 1956
DATE
-1950^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1950
NUMBER
ethnic group
date of birth
date of death
point in time
sibling