Ngo Dinh Diem

Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963), president of South Vietnam (1955-1963), born in Quang Binh. Trained at the French school of administration in Huê, he joined the civil service and served as chief minister under Emperor Bao Dai in the 1930s, but resigned when the French colonial authorities rejected reforms. After World War II he opposed the Communist-led Vietminh; he went abroad and lived for a time in the United States and Europe. When Vietnam was divided in 1954, Diem returned as prime minister of Bao Dai's government in South Vietnam. The following year he deposed Bao Dai and declared South Vietnam a republic, with himself as president; supported by the United States, he refused to hold the elections agreed on in Geneva (1954) to unite the country. His rule became increasingly dictatorial as guerrilla resistance from the Communist-sponsored Vietcong grew in the following years. Overthrown by a military coup in 1963, he was assassinated.