Madame Nhu

“I lit the General’s cigarette and he stared into space, forgetting to smoke the Lucky Strike as it slowly consumed itself in his fingers. In the middle of April, when the ash stung him awake from his reverie and he uttered a word he should not have, Madame silenced the tittering children and said, If you wait much longer, we won’t be able to get out. You should ask Claude for a plane now.

The General pretended not to hear Madame. She had a mind like an abacus, the spine of a drill instructor, and the body of a virgin even after five children. All of this was wrapped up in one of those exteriors that inspired our Beaux Arts– trained painters to use the most pastel of watercolors and the fuzziest of brushstrokes. She was, in short, the ideal Vietnamese woman.

For this good fortune, the General was eternally grateful and terrified. Kneading the tip of his scorched finger, he looked at me and said, I think it’s time to ask Claude for a plane.

Only when he resumed studying his damaged finger did I glance at Madame, who merely raised an eyebrow. Good idea, sir, I said…”

~ Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

“General Nguyen Khanh possessed the Journal of Madame Nhu, also known as the Diary of Madame Nhu from the time of the coup in 1963. The Diary was found in the Presidential Palace, and presented to General Nguyen Khanh. The Journal was a personal diary of Madame Nhu, handwritten in French and was kept secret, its existence known to only a few. The first entry of the journal, dated January 28, 1959 - begins with the following …. “Comme fin de tous les soucis, de toutes les [? ], comme dernier refuge avant la mort - je me suis toujours plus a penser a une vie ……” (As end of all the worries, all the [? ] As the last refuge before death - I still got more to think about a life…)

The journal disappeared from the residence of General Nguyen Khanh in Sacramento, California during the visit of a US Army Captain in 2011-2012. However, a full copy of the journal is still in the possession of the General's family, as they have been working with the captain on the rightful return of the journal to the family's estate since 2011 .” ~ Wikipedia

Photos
~ Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963, with her husband Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem, c. 1958. Full credit: Pictures from History / Granger, NYC -- All rights reserved.

~ Nguyễn Khánh (1927 –2013) was a South Vietnamese military officer and Army of the Republic of Vietnam general who served in various capacities as head of state and prime minister of South Vietnam while at the head of a military junta.