Trần Văn Chương (; 2 June 1898 – 24 July 1986) was

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

's ambassador to the United States from 1954 to 1963 and the father of the country's '' de facto'' first lady,

Madame Nhu Trần Lệ Xuân (; 22 August 1924 – 24 April 2011), more popularly known in English as Madame Nhu, was the ''de facto'' First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu, who was the brother and chief adviso ...

(1924–2011). He was also the foreign minister of the

Empire of Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Japanese language, Contemporary Japanese: ; Japanese language, Modern Japanese: ) was a short-lived Japanese puppet state, puppet state of Empire of Japan, Imperial Japan between March 11 and Abdicat ...

, a Japanese

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...

that existed in 1945.

Family life

He married Thân Thị Nam Trân (died 24 July 1986), who was a member of the extended Vietnamese royal family. Her father was Thân Trọng Huề, who became Vietnam's minister for national education, and her mother was a daughter of Emperor Đồng Khánh. They had a son and two daughters, including Lệ Xuân, who became the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's first President,

Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( , or ; ; 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 ...

. Chương's family alliances enabled him to rise from being a member of a small law practice in the Cochin-Chinese (

ese) town of Bạc Liêu in the 1920s to become Vietnam's first Foreign Secretary under his wife's cousin Emperor

Bảo Đại Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , , 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc (Phước) Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was ''de jure'' em ...

, while Japan occupied Vietnam during World War II. His wife Madame Chuong was accused by the French secret police (French Sûreté) of sleeping with Japanese diplomats so her husband was hired by them. He eventually became South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States, but resigned in protest and denounced his government's anti-Buddhist policies after the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids. He proclaimed there was “not one chance in a hundred for victory” over the Communists with his daughter and her husband and brother-in-law in power.

1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état

On 1 November 1963, Chuong's son-in-law Ngô Đình Nhu and Nhu's brother, President

were assassinated in a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

led by General

Dương Văn Minh Dương Văn Minh (; 16 February 19166 August 2001), popularly known as Big Minh, was a South Vietnamese politician and a senior general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and a politician during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm. ...

. Chuong's daughter, Ngô Đình Nhu's wife, Madame Nhu (1924–2011), was in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hills ...

, at the time of the coup.

Death

Chương and his wife remained in the United States in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

On 24 July 1986, their strangled bodies were found at their home. Their son, Trần Văn Khiêm, was accused but found incompetent to stand trial. The remains of Chương and his wife were interred at

Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth (Washington, D.C.), Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across ...

in Washington, D.C.Deaths of Trần Văn Chương and his wife
/ref>

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070930031018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870390-2,00.html "The Queen Bee" ''Time Magazine'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Van Chuong 1898 births 1986 deaths Vietnamese people of the Vietnam War Vietnamese people murdered abroad Ambassadors of South Vietnam to the United States Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Vietnamese expatriates in the United States Deaths by strangulation in the United States People murdered in Washington, D.C. Place of birth missing Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery