Ngô Đình Diệm

Ngô Đình Diệm (3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) from 1955 until his capture and assassination during the CIA-backed 1963 South Vietnamese coup. Diệm has been a controversial historical figure. Some historians have considered him a tool of the United States, while others portrayed him as an avatar of Vietnamese tradition. At the time of his assassination, he was widely considered to be a corrupt dictator.

Quotes

 * Since the end of the last war, when Asia broke her chains, the conscience of the world has at last awakened to a profound and inevitable development: the birth of Asian independence. This realisation has brought about a condemnation in the most concrete terms of the old system of exploitation which governed, in the past, the relationship between East and West. In its place firm efforts are being made to establish a new formula of international cooperation… It is the battle for independence, the growing awareness of the colonial peoples that the origin of their poverty has been the systematic withholding of technical development, coupled with the growing nationalist and social sentiment, that have combined to bring about a profound transformation in the Asian state of mind and given to its masses an irresistible dynamism.
 * "Address to the US Congress" (1957)


 * The Asian people – long humiliated in their national aspirations, their human dignity injured – are no longer, as in the past, resigned and passive. They are impatient. They are eager to reduce their immense technical backwardness. They clamour for a rapid and immediate economic development, the only sound base for democratic political independence… It is in this debate – unfortunately influenced in many countries by the false but seductive promises of fascism and communism – that the efforts being made to safeguard liberal democracy through aid given by the industrial countries of the West, play a vital role. For the honour of humanity, the United States has made the most important contribution to this end…
 * "Address to the US Congress" (1957)


 * We affirm that the sole legitimate object of the state is to protect the fundamental rights of human beings to existence [and] to the free development of their intellectual, moral, and spiritual life.
 * "Address to the US Congress" (1957)


 * We affirm that democracy is neither material happiness nor the supremacy of numbers. Democracy is essentially a permanent effort to find the right political means in order to assure to all citizens the right of free development and of maximum initiative, responsibility and spiritual life…
 * "Address to the US Congress" (1957)


 * The Republic of Vietnam, the youngest republic in Asia, soon will be two years old. Our Republic was born among great suffering. She is courageously facing up to economic competition with the Communists, despite heavy and difficult conditions, which become daily more complex. Vietnam nevertheless has good reason for confidence and hope. Her people are intelligent, have imagination and courage. They also draw strength from the moral and material aid they receive from the free world, particularly that given by the American people.
 * "Address to the US Congress" (1957)


 * It is a fundamental truth that laws do not cover all the aspects of life, and a Constitution does not create a democracy. Democratic institutions will prosper only when the spirit and will of the people supply the adequate precedent conditions. For democracy is a moral system which will develop gradually as the concept of Common Good will become, day after day, broader and more profound in the mind of the citizen as well as of the governing.
 * "Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution." (1956)


 * Now for more than a century, abnormal political conditions have corrupted the sense of civic responsibility in many a mind. It behoves us now to restore the spirit of public service, the spirit of honor and national dignity, moral and intellectual honesty, the spirit of sacrifice, the sense of discipline, and personal responsibility, courtesy in human relations which is simply the expression of respect for others as for oneself.
 * "Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution." (1956)


 * In fact, if the sense of civic duty derives its supreme justification from the ethical principles of the respect for the human person and for the common good, however, it thrives with vigor only in a political, administrative and economic climate which is alive and congenial. In addition to the institutions which allow him to take part in the direction of public affairs and draw the attention of his leaders to his legitimate grievances, the citizen must be able to rely on just laws, on an equitable apportionment of social duties, on a courteous and effective administration as well as on the impartiality of the courts.
 * "Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution." (1956)


 * Even in a healthy environment, the sense of civic responsibility must further be nourished by a careful education of which the molding of character, the sense of personal responsibility and discipline, honesty and the devotion to work and to public service must be the constant object, in the school as in the family, in political and social organizations, as at all echelons of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
 * "Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution." (1956)


 * My dear compatriots, democracy exists only where a concrete democratic experience exists. And democratic life is in short but the putting into practice, by all citizens and all the custodians of public power of the most perfect loyalty and of a mutual confidence which is thus total and justified.
 * "Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution." (1956)


 * Thousands of our people would have sacrificed their lives for nothing if, in independence, we do not attain the unity of ourselves in order to defend/together, under the same banner, under the same command, against what the revolt of our brothers of the North have announced for months as the worst of misfortunes: oppression.
 * "President Ngo Dinh Diem's Speech on the Occasion of the Reception of the National Front of Resistance" (13 February 1955)


 * The fight which we, non-communists, have to lead to-day, is above all a fight against disorder, indiscipline, selfishness, for the honour of a Vietnam that values its freedom, for the security and the well-being of millions of our fellow-countrymen who have suffered from the war, for that fraternity in the flesh between men of the same race and which is called Fatherland.
 * "President Ngo Dinh Diem's Speech on the Occasion of the Reception of the National Front of Resistance" (13 February 1955)

Quotes about Ngô Đình Diệm

 * We in America pray that those now still living in the enslaved part of your country may one day be united in peace under the free Republic of Viet-Nam. The achievements of the Vietnamese people will long remain a source of inspiration to free peoples everywhere. As Viet-Nam enters this new period of national reconstruction and rehabilitation, my fellow countrymen and I are proud to be sharing some of the tasks which engage you. May the Vietnamese people inspired by your dedicated leadership and the high principles of their democratic institutions, enjoy long years of prosperity in justice and in peace.
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower; Letter to President Diem on the First Anniversary of the Republic of Viet-Nam., The American Presidency Project; 22 October 1956


 * I was shocked by the death of Diem and Nhu. I'd met Diem with Justice Douglas many years ago. He was an extraordinary character. While he became increasingly difficult in the last months, nevertheless over a ten-year period he'd held his country together, maintained its independence under very adverse conditions. The way he was killed made it particularly abhorrent. The question now is whether the generals can stay together and build a stable government, or whether Saigon will begin... will turn on... public opinion in Saigon, the intellectuals, students, etcetera, will turn on this government as repressive and undemocratic in the not too distant future.
 * John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, "JFK's Memoir Dictation On The Assassination Of Diem" (1963)


 * This misfortune of the Americans in South Vietnam was to allow the world to believe that they were supporting a reactionary, autocratic regime run by one man called Ngo Dinh Diem and supported by his family and all this was in aid of America's strategic interest to contain Communism. Whatever American intentions were, they allowed Afro-Asia to believe this, with catastrophic results, both for Ngo Dinh Diem and for the Americans who came to help him.
 * Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, "Text of the Speech by Singapore's Prime Minister Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Over The ABC In The 'guest Of Honour Programme' Broadcast By ABC" (1965)