Ngô Đình Nhu

Ngô Đình Nhu
Ngô Đình Nhu (right) meeting Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President of the United States, May 12, 1961
Personal details
Born	(1910-10-07)7 October 1910 Phú Cẩm, Annam, French Indochina
Died	2 November 1963(1963-11-02) (aged 53) Saigon, South Vietnam
Spouse(s)	Trần Lệ Xuân (Madame Nhu)
Relations	Ngô Đình Khả (father) Ngô Đình Khôi (brother) Ngô Đình Thục (brother) Ngô Đình Diệm (brother) Ngô Đình Cẩn (brother) Ngô Đình Luyện (brother) Trần Văn Chương (father-in-law) Ngô Thế Linh (cousin) Nguyễn Đình Thuận (nephew)
Children	Ngô Đình Trác Ngô Đình Quynh Ngô Đình Le Thuy (died 1967) Ngô Đình Lệ Quyên (died 2012)
Religion	Christianity

Ngô Đình Nhu ( listen; 7 October 1910 – 2 November 1963) was a Vietnamese archivist and politician. He was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm. Although he held no formal executive position, he wielded immense unofficial power, exercising personal command of both the ARVN Special Forces (a paramilitary unit which served as the Ngô family's de facto private army) and the Cần Lao political apparatus (also known as the Personalist Labor Party) which served as the regime's de facto secret police.

In his early age, Nhu was a quiet and bookish individual who showed little inclination towards the political path taken by his elder brothers. While training as an archivist in France, Nhu adopted the Roman Catholic ideology of personalism, although critics claimed that he misused that philosophy. Upon returning to Vietnam, he helped his brother in his quest for political power, and Nhu proved an astute and ruthless tactician and strategist, helping Diệm to gain more leverage and outwit rivals. During this time, he formed and handpicked the members of the secret Cần Lao Party, which swore its personal allegiance to the Ngô family, provided their power base and eventually became their secret police force. Nhu remained as its head until his own assassination.

In 1955, Nhu's supporters helped intimidate the public and rig the 1955 State of Vietnam referendum that ensconced his elder brother, Diệm, in power. Nhu used the Cần Lao, which he organised into cells, to infiltrate every part of society to root out opposition to the Ngô family. In 1959, he organized a failed assassination attempt via mail bomb on Prince Sihanouk, the monarch of neighbouring Cambodia, with whom relations had become strained. Nhu publicly extolled his own intellectual abilities. He was known for making such public statements as promising to demolish the Xá Lợi Pagoda and vowing to kill his estranged father-in-law, Trần Văn Chương, who was the regime's ambassador to the United States, after the elder man condemned the Ngô family's behavior and disowned his daughter, Nhu's wife, Madame Nhu.