Depends on which search results, one may find between 660,000 to 1 million IDP’s emigrated from North to South VN per 1954 Geneva accords’ Operation Passage to Freedom, which allowed for a 300-days grace period. IDP’s could resettle in the region of their own choosing ( stoke by rumors about a certain slaughtering of Northern Catholics under Communism once the dust were settled).
It did not stop there. The mass migration was further exploited: grift and cronyism under the banner of Heaven. By the time my parents picked up their lives and moved South, Madame Nhu was taking French lessons from her soon-to-be wedded tutor. Once married into power, she was so emboldened to the point of tossing soup in the face of her brother-in-law – President Diem. South VN first President had been confirmed via a referendum around the agreed-upon but ignored general election.
He once stood up to Ho Chi Minh after serving a time in a Chinese prison. A stern and stubborn mandarin, he remained single and devoted to the affairs of God and men (even washing dishes in a New Jersey seminary – a strikingly similar tale to Ho Chi Minh’s European sea drift). During his stay in the US, he garnished and gained the support of US Catholics among whom Senator Kennedy (himself got booed by America’s entrenched WAPS).
Mr. Diem and his brothers (Nhu – second in command) on the one side, Mr. Kennedy and his brothers on the other. Madame Nhu on this side, Jackie on the other side. Visual symmetry. LIFE magazine loved it. Something to grace its cover. Headline-worthy, not unlike Mr. Johnson’s line “I’d rather not send our young three thousand miles away to fight a war that Asian boys ought to do it for themselves” when he was “torn between two lovers” (The Great Society and the war abroad). Civil rights and human rights. At home in Kent State or abroad in Khe Sanh.
Hell No We won’t go.
Meanwhile, Madame Nhu filled in the power gap upstairs to the Presidential Palace, where her husband was busy with sanction to root out opposition (which later backfired). Her ascent was swift: from a private student to President’s sis-in-law to self-proclaimed “First Lady”. She had her hands in all the pots: commanded an all-female cadre and shaped legislature reform.
What can go wrong, when your husband handled the security forces!
Well, as Karma had its way, she was sent on a speaking tour abroad and away from the blood shed at home, God-Father’s style (the signal was two fingers, not three, for the Diem brothers. Later that April, a third was tried and executed, leaving the Vatican-endorsed brother/priest a sole survivor in exile).
War was ugly. Just like the World Wars that had preceded it. Or today’s Ukrainian war six-months in.
People grabbed what they could: possession or power (later, President Thieu’s wife boarded a plane to Taiwan filled with furniture and whatever else). Northern IDP’s meanwhile we’re discriminated against, except for the votes on the President referendum. Democracy, in its infancy, had a lot of bugs and baggage. Evidence? His state-level entourage were often seen in all-white suits, IBM-like clones, with sound bytes – today’s Tweet – “if they wanted to ‘barbecue’ themselves, I will be glad to provide plenty matchsticks” – Madame Nhu’s infamous quote. UPI, AP and AFP ate it up. After all, tabloid sells. Just like pictures of a burning monk, so iconic and emblematic of the times.
So our Dragon Lady lived on in France, lots of baguette and no barbecue- nor boat ride. Jackie Onassis she was not. And her Queendom ceased to exist in early 1975. Her legacy: No divorce and No dancing (to prevent G.I’s “dirty-dancing”). Footnotes: In 1982, Amerasian immigration law allowed 23000 to come to America. It is to show, one way or another, hormone always finds its way, especially in war, when soldiers had frequent brushes with death.
Meanwhile, IDP’s kids – myself included – found ourselves with shade-closed “family ballroom dance” (sneaking – just like drinking in the times of Prohibition). One afternoon, I even saw the burning of that monk whose strong smell of lit- kerosene on human flesh I would never forget.
Female or male, power grab is innate and absolute. Both genders are equally motivated when it comes to ill-gotten gain e.g. Tammy Baker and Imelda Marcos. Yet, officially speaking, the Ministry of Information’s spins are of the opposite: God-anointed leader? Even with help from those hundreds of thousands IDP’s votes, the regime was just as ill-fated as the region it was propped up to rule.
Thang Nguyen 555 