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Original Essays | September 9, 2013
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Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhuby Monique Brinson Demery
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In November 1963, the president of South Vietnam and his brother were brutally executed in a coup that was sanctioned and supported by the American government. President Kennedy later explained to his close friend Paul “Red” Fay that the reason the United States made the fateful decision to get rid of the Ngos was in no small part because of South Vietnams first lady, Madame Nhu. “That goddamn bitch,” Fay remembers President Kennedy saying, “Shes responsible ... that bitch stuck her nose in and boiled up the whole situation down there.” The coup marked the collapse of the Diem government and became the US entry point for a decade-long conflict in Vietnam. Kennedys death and the atrocities of the ensuing war eclipsed the memory of Madame Nhu—with her daunting mixture of fierceness and beauty. But at the time, to David Halberstam, she was “the beautiful but diabolic sex dictatress,” and Malcolm Browne called her “the most dangerous enemy a man can have.” By 1987, the once-glamorous celebrity had retreated into exile and seclusion, and remained there until young American Monique Demery tracked her down in Paris thirty years later. Finding the Dragon Lady is Demerys story of her improbable relationship with Madame Nhu, and—having ultimately been entrusted with Madame Nhus unpublished memoirs and her diary from the years leading up to the coup—the first full history of the Dragon Lady herself, a woman who was feared and fantasized over in her time, and who singlehandedly frustrated the government of one of the worlds superpowers. Review:"Madame Nhu (born Tran Le Xuan) was a notorious personage in South Vietnam during the late 1950s and early '60s. The surrogate First Lady of the repressive government (headed by her husband's bachelor brother, Ngo Dinh Diem) was vocal about her love of power and infamous for her fierce authoritarianism (she once mocked a Buddhist monk who had set himself on fire in protest of Diem's regime by saying she would 'clap her hands for another monk's barbecue'). Her incendiary rhetoric earned her the nickname 'the Dragon Lady.' Yet after her husband and brother-in-law were assassinated during the U.S.-backed military coup of 1963, she went into hiding for nearly 30 years. In this illuminating biography, East Asia scholar Demery interweaves the story of her efforts to connect with her reclusive subject with the dramatic tale of Nhu's volatile life. The Dragon Lady ultimately granted Demery unprecedented access, going so far as to entrust the journalist with her unpublished memoirs. Without condoning Nhu's actions, Demery admits that she eventually came to respect her as 'a staggeringly beautiful, proud, willful... woman' who refused to be constrained by the men in her life. The book adds little to the history of the Vietnam War, but it does shed light on one of the country's most controversial figures. Photos, map, and time line. Agent: Lindsay Edgecombe, Levine Greenberg Literary Associates. (Sept. 24)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Synopsis:A quest for one of historys most controversial figures—the woman, known everywhere in her day as the Dragon Lady, who was a lightning rod for Americas toxic involvement in Vietnam She was “the beautiful but diabolic sex dictatress” according to the journalist David Halberstam; "everything Jack found unattractive” in the words of Jacqueline Kennedy; “the most dangerous enemy a man can have” in Malcolm Brownes view; and everywhere in the media in the 1960s she was the “Dragon Lady.” Monique Demerys search for the woman behind all the epithets, claims, and counterclaims—a woman who had been living in exile and seclusion for thirty years—began on the streets of Paris and deepened when she began a relationship with, and was entrusted with the unpublished memoirs of, Tran Le Xuan, otherwise known as Madame Nhu, the First Lady of the doomed republic of South Vietnam. Madame Nhus diminutive beauty cannot obscure her pivotal role in one of American historys darkest moments: she was much of the reason that the United States made the fateful decision to get rid of the ruling Ngo family. Demery investigates the reality behind the myth, giving us a deeper look at the woman who was feared and despised by so much of the world, one of the most memorable figures of the entire Vietnam War. Synopsis:A young woman's quest to find the infamous former first lady of South Vietnam becomes a fascinating exploration of image and reality, truth and fiction, and the confusions and self-delusions of the Vietnam War itself About the AuthorMonique Brinson Demery took her first trip to Vietnam in 1997 as part of a study abroad program with Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She was the recipient of a US Department of Education grant to attend the Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute in Hanoi, and in 2003, she received a Masters degree in East Asia Regional Studies from Harvard University. Demerys initial interviews with Madame Nhu in 2005 were the first that she had given to any Westerner in nearly twenty years. Demery lives in Chicago, Illinois. Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Chapter 1: Paris, 2005 Chapter 2: Murder Chapter 3: Family and Glory Chapter 4: Young Lady in Hanoi Chapter 5: First Phone Call Chapter 6: The Capture Chapter 7: Dalat Chapter 8: Miracle Men Chapter 9: First Lady Chapter 10: Tiger Skins Chapter 11: Press Chapter 12: Buddhists Chapter 13: New York, 1963 Chapter 14: Washington, 1963 Chapter 15: November Coup Chapter 16: The End Acknowledgments Timeline Notes Index What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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