Finding the Dragon Lady (37 page)

18
. As told to David Halberstam in David Halberstam,
The Making of a Quagmire,
edited with an introduction by Daniel J. Singal, rev. ed. (New York: Random House, 2008), 55.

Chapter 10: Tiger Skins

1
. Martha T. Moore, “Interview with Jean Smith,”
USA Today
, September 26, 2010.

2
. LBJ quote in Richard Reeves,
President Kennedy: Profile of Power
(New York: Simon and Shuster, 1994), 118.

3
. For the Johnsons' Saigon itinerary, see Howard Jones,
Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 61–65.

4
. For Le Duan and the Viet Cong overthrow of Diem and colonial masters, see Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
113–114.

5
. Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
389, 393, 399; “Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam,”
FRUS, 1961–1963,
2:159–160.

6
. For verbal orders and falsified body counts, see Neil Sheehan,
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
(New York: Vintage, 1989), 123–125.

7
. Info on Viet Cong terror tactics from United States Mission in Vietnam, “A Study: Viet Cong Use of Terror,” May 1966, USAID,
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADX570.pdf
.

8
. Malcolm W. Browne,
The New Face of War
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1968), 27–28.

9
. Details of March 1961 bombing in
Times of Vietnam,
April 1, 1961.

10
. LBJ Saigon itinerary details and Karnow quote in Jones,
Death of a Generation,
61.

11
. See memo of conversation between Elbridge Durbrow and Madame Nhu, Foreign Service Dispatch No. 28, July 8, 1960.

12
. On skepticism, see Elbridge Durbrow, Foreign Service Dispatch, July 15, 1960. On the diplomat remarking that it doesn't make any difference if gossip is true, see Rene George Inagaki, W. Fishel Papers, Michigan State University, Archives and Historical Collections, Box 1223, Folder 40.

13
. Halberstam,
Quagmire
, 101.

14
. See Airgram A217 from Saigon, November 1, 1962, citing figures published in
Thoi Boi
Vietnamese news on October 24, 1962. Scigliano,
South Vietnam,
173

15
. Shaplen,
Lost Revolution,
157.

16
. Higgins,
Our Vietnam Nightmare
, 195.

17
. For LBJ's “shit” comment, see Stanley Karnow,
Vietnam: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 230. On Bigart's song, see William Prochnau,
Once upon a Distant War: Young War Correspondents in the Early Vietnam Battles
(New York: Random House, 1995), 48–49.

Chapter 11: Young Turks and Old Hacks

1
. Clyde Haberman, “David Halberstam, 73, Reporter and Author, Dies”
New York Times
, April 24, 2007.

2
. Halberstam,
Quagmire,
27.

3
. Lawrence Freedman,
Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 388.

4
. For a good summary of the tensions between the press and US intentions, see Jones,
Death of a Generation
, 208–210.

5
. On the political agenda of the press in Saigon, see Prochnau,
Once upon a Distant War,
354: “It could bring down Diem, and they would help it bring down Diem. They did not delude themselves about their goals.”

6
. Madame Nhu is quoted in Wilfred Burchett,
The Furtive War: The United States in Vietnam and Laos
(New York: International Publications Company, 1963), 17; the CIA carefully watched this book's publication because of Burchett's professed communism and support of the Viet Cong.

7
. Halberstam,
Quagmire,
28.

8
. Halberstam,
Quagmire,
27.

9
. President Kennedy asked Henry Cabot Lodge to go to Saigon as the American ambassador in response to the Buddhist crisis. On Lodge's conception of his duty and his first instincts that the “Nhus had to go” because they were deliberately provoking the Kennedy administration, see Anne Blair,
Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 22, 37, 40; and Jones,
Death of a Generation
, 280, 304.

10
. Joyce Hoffman,
On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008), 32.

11
. “The Gregorys of Saigon,”
Newsweek,
September 23, 1963, and “Mlle Readers in Saigon,”
Mademoiselle
, March 1957.

12
. Prochnau,
Once upon a Distant War,
257.

13
. Dorothy Fall,
Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar
(Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2006), 91–92, 117.

14
. Carl Mydans, “Girl War Correspondent,”
Life
, October 2, 1950, 51.

15
. Higgins's luck finally ran out. On assignment in 1965, she contracted a fatal case of leishmaniasis, a tropical disease, and died at age forty-five. See also “1950: The Korean War,” Columbia Journalism School,
http://centennial.journalism.columbia.edu/1950-the-korean-war
.

16
. Higgins was quoted by Charlie Mohr,
Time
magazine correspondent in Saigon, in Prochnau,
Once upon a Distant War,
350.

17
. For the description of Madame Nhu down to her pink nails, see Higgins,
Our Vietnam Nightmare,
62.

18
. For the “Oriental Valkyrie” comment, see Higgins,
Our Vietnam Nightmare,
63.

19
. Correspondence with Madame Tran Van Chuong is from the Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu folders in Marguerite Higgins Papers, Box 10, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library.

20
. Clare Booth Luce, “The Lady
Is
for Burning: The Seven Deadly Sins of Madame Nhu,”
National Review,
November 5, 1963.

21
. Box 223, Family and Personal Papers, Clare Booth Luce Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

22
. On feminized descriptions of Asian leaders like Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and Diem, see Sheridan Prasso,
The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2006), 53, 56.

23
. Michael Beschloss, ed., with a forward by Caroline Kennedy,
Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy, Interviews with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 1964
(New York: Hyperion, 2011).

Chapter 12: Burning Monks

1
. On there being no mistaking the identity of Ngo Dinh Thuc, see Hammer,
A Death in November,
103.

2
. On Thuc getting concessions from the state, see “Secret Memorandum of a Conversation between Former Ambassador to Saigon Elbridge Durbrow and Vu Van Mau,” Paris, POLTO 361, October 1, 1963, 3.

3
. Hammer,
A Death in November,
113–114.

4
. Browne,
New Face,
175–180.

5
. On Diem and accommodating US demands, see “Edward Lansdale Secret Memorandum to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara,” January 19, 1961,
National Archives, General Lansdale, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs; see also “Telegram Number g-383 from the Saigon Embassy to Department of State,” March 18, 1961. For Diem's misconception of what the United States wanted from him, see “Memorandum from the Chief Adviser, Michigan State University Group in Vietnam (Fox), to James B. Hendry of Michigan State University,” February 17, 1962,
FRUS, 1961–1963,
2:152–155. For Diem's quote on the United States only wanting to send troops to Vietnam, see Hammer,
A Death in November,
151.

6
. Langguth,
Our Vietnam,
493.

7
. On policy being a disaster, see Halberstam,
Quagmire,
127.

8
. Halberstam,
Quagmire,
130.
,

9
. Madame Nhu,
Caillou Blanc,
58.

10
. For descriptions of the attack on Xa Loi pagoda, see Prochnau,
Once upon a Distant War,
372–373; Halberstam,
Quagmire,
146; and Denis Warner, “Agony in Saigon: The Lady and the Cadaver,”
The Reporter,
October 10, 1963, 39.

11
. Halberstam,
Quagmire,
146.

12
. “Secret Memorandum of a Conversation between Former Ambassador to Saigon Elbridge Durbrow and Vu Van Mau,” Paris, POLTO 361, October 1, 1963.

13
. On his meeting with Madame Chuong, see “Interview with Henry Cabot Lodge, 1979 [part 2 of 5],” 1979, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

14
. For details on the Chuong resignations, see “Saddened Diplomat; Tran Van Chuong Wife Devout Buddhist Lived in Saigon,”
New York Times,
August 22, 1963, 2; and Nan Robertson, “Ex-Saigon Envoy Starts Sad Exile: Mrs. Nhu's Parents Take a House in Washington; Daughter a Stranger,”
New York Times,
September, 22, 1963, 3. On Diem recalling Ambassador Chuong before he quit, see “Secret Memorandum of a Conversation between Former Ambassador to Saigon Elbridge Durbrow and Vu Van Mau,” Paris, POLTO 361, October 1, 1963, 3.

Chapter 13: Too Beautiful to Ignore

1
. For Madame Nhu's quote that she was “caught by the skin of the neck,” see “Interview with Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, 1982,” February 11, 1982, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

2
. For the conversation between Vietnamese diplomat Buu Hoi and Harlan Cleveland about diplomatic efforts to quiet Madame Nhu, see Jones,
Death of a Generation
, 385.

3
. For Madame Nhu's exchange of letters with Lyndon Johnson, dated September 7 to 30, along with accompanying memoranda documenting draft replies to Madame Nhu by the State Department and the White House
(including those extensively revised by the president and the president's request that Johnson sign the reply if it met with approval), see LBJ Library: LBJA: Famous Names, Box 7, Folder N. Kennedy's writing Madame Nhu a letter from the steam bath is recounted in Jones,
Death of a Generation,
290.

4
. See “Memorandum of Conversation,” New York, October 2, 1963, Document 168,
FRUS, 1961–1963,
4:347–349.

5
. For Madame Nhu's belief that the Americans were well intentioned but arrogant, see “Interview with Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, 1982,” February 11, 1982, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

6
. Ben Horman's interview with the young man outside of the Hotel Barclay on October 9, 1963, is CBS footage of Madame Nhu's visit. “Madame Nhu Picketed Outside of Her Hotel,” October 9, 1963, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

7
. See Central Intelligence Agency, “Vietnamese Summary Supplement, October 7–31, 1963,” describing Madame Nhu's arrival in the United States, media appearances, and travels through the country.

8
. For student comments, such as being sorry Madame Nhu wasn't feeling better, see “Madame Nhu at Fordham University: Bonze, Fordham/Student Comments Re: Madame Nhu [part 1 of 2],” October 11, 1963, WGBH Media Library & Archives.

9
. “Visa to Mrs. Nhu Is Under Inquiry; Diplomatic Nature of Permit Questioned by Rep. Hays; Visa Issued Last Year; Mrs. Nhu Rests at Hotel Here; Telephones Kept Busy,”
New York Times,
October 9, 1963, 10. The program director, Anita Berke Diamant, would go on to become a major literary agent, starting her own firm and representing best-selling author of gothic horror V. C. Andrews, whose plots were full of family secrets and incest.

10
. On Oram Group, see “Oram Group, Inc. Records, 1938–1992,” Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis,
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/special/collections/philanthropy/mss057
.

11
. Blair,
Lodge in Vietnam,
64.

12
. The NYC public events commissioner is quoted in “Vietnamese Summary Supplement, October 7–31, 1963,” Central Intelligence Agency.

Chapter 14: Closed Doors

1
. The details of Madame Chiang's visit to the United States in the spring of 1943 are described in Laura Tyson Li,
Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady
(New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 197–198.

2
. On Tran Van Chuong choking up during his retirement speech, see “Saddened Diplomat,”
New York Times
, August 23, 1963.

3
. For the quote that Madame Nhu “has not the power she is supposed to have,” see Henry Raymont, “Diem's US Envoy Quits in Protest,”
New York Times
, August 23, 1963. For the quote about Nhu as the front man and Madame Nhu as his shadow, see Joseph Wershba, media review of Tran Van Chuong's appearance on CBS,
New York Post,
October 18, 1963.