Trần Lệ Xuân
| Trần Lệ Xuân | |
|---|---|
Madame Nhu
|
|
| First Lady of South Vietnam | |
|
In role 26 October 1955 – 2 November 1963 |
|
| President | Ngô Đình Diệm |
| Succeeded by | Madame Khánh |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
22 August 1924 Hanoi, French Indochina |
| Died | 24 April 2011 (aged 86) Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Can Lao |
| Spouse(s) | Ngô Đình Nhu (m. 1943–63); his death |
| Relations |
Trần Văn Chương (father) Thân Thị Nam Trân (mother) Ngô Đình Diệm (brother-in-law) Trần Văn Khiêm (brother) |
| Children | Ngô Đình Trác Ngô Đình Quynh Ngô Đình Lệ Thủy (died 1967) Ngô Đình Lệ Quyên (died 2012) |
Trần Lệ Xuân (22 August 1924 – 24 April 2011), more popularly known 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-advisor to President Ngô Đình Diệm. As Diệm was a lifelong bachelor and because she and her family lived in Independence Palace together with him, she was considered to be the first lady.
Known for her harsh and incendiary comments that denounced anti-government protests by some Buddhist sects and the strong American influence and presence in the country, she had to live in exile in France after her husband and her brother-in-law, Diệm, were assassinated in 1963.
Trần Lệ Xuân was born into a wealthy family in Hanoi, French Indochina, then part of the French colonial empire. Her given name means "Spring's Beauty" (Not "Spring's Tears". This is a Sino-Vietnamese word that means "beautiful". Lệ - Diễm Lệ, so Lệ Xuân means "Beautiful Spring". Traditionally and superstitiously, Vietnamese parents never used "bad and unlucky" words to name their children. In this case, Lệ Xuân had another sister with the name of Lệ Chi; and she herself had two daughters she named Lệ Thủy and Lệ Quyên. So Lệ means beautiful.) Her paternal grandfather was close to the French colonial administration, while her father, Trần Văn Chương, studied law in France, and practiced in Bac Lieu in the Mekong Delta before marrying into the ruling imperial dynasty. Her father also served as the first foreign secretary for Indochina under Japanese occupation. Her mother, Thân Thị Nam Trân, was a granddaughter of Emperor Đồng Khánh and a cousin of Emperor Bảo Đại. The Chươngs were under observation by the French police who doubted their loyalty to France with M. Choung dismissed as a "little runt" controlled by his wife while Madame Chuong described as "beautiful and very intriguing...the one who directs her husband" and she was known for "her dogged ambition as for her coucheries utilitaires-sleeping around with people of influence from any and all nationalities".
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