How to Pronounce Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ
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May 26, 1908 Long Xuyên, An Giang, Vietnam Died on 12 Jun 1976 (aged 68)
Vietnamese politician, first Prime Minister of South Vietnam
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About Nguyn Ngc Th
- Nguy?n Ng?c Tho (26 May 1908 – 12 June 1976) was a Vietnamese politician who was the first Prime Minister of South Vietnam, serving from November 1963 to late January 1964.
- Tho was appointed to head a civilian cabinet by the military junta of General Duong Van Minh, which came to power after overthrowing and assassinating Ngô Ðình Di?m, the nation's first president.
- Tho'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.
- Tho lost his job and retired from politics when Minh's junta was deposed in a January 1964 coup by General Nguy?n Khánh. The son of a wealthy Mekong Delta landowner, Tho 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, Tho 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 H?o religious sect in the mid-1950s.
- Tho led the political efforts to weaken the Hòa H?o leadership.
- While Minh led the military effort, Tho tried to buy off Hòa H?o leaders.
- One commander, Ba C?t, was personally hostile to Tho, whose father had confiscated the land of Ba C?t's family decades earlier.
- The stand-off could not be ended peacefully in this case, and Ba C?t was captured and executed. This success earned Tho the vice presidential slot in December 1956 to widen the popular appeal of Di?m's nepotistic and sectarian regime.
- It was reasoned that Tho's southern heritage would broaden the regime's political appeal—Di?m's family was from central Vietnam and most administrators were not from South Vietnam.
- Tho was not allowed to take part in policy decisions and had little meaningful power, as Di?m's brothers, Nhu and C?n, commanded their own private armies and secret police, and ruled arbitrarily.
- Tho 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 Di?m during the Buddhist crisis that ended the rule of the Ngô family.
- Despite nominally being a Buddhist, Tho defended the regime's pro-Roman Catholic policies and its violent actions against the Buddhist majority. Tho turned against Di?m 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 Tho 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 Di?m's falsification of military statistics and the misguided policies that resulted were exposed.
- Minh and Tho 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.
