People of the Revolution and the USSR

Vietnam state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1901–1963 ✕ Assassinated

Politician who became State of Vietnam premier in 1954, ousted Bảo Đại and was South Vietnam’s first president until killed in 1963

After ousting Bảo Đại and becoming South Vietnam’s president in 1955, Ngô Đình Diệm placed family members in key posts and imprisoned or killed opponents. As Buddhist protests spread in 1963, the United States withdrew its support, and a military coup assassinated him.

Born into a Catholic mandarin family in Huế and a former colonial official, he was an anti-communist nationalist. Bảo Đại appointed him prime minister of the State of Vietnam in June 1954, during the Geneva conference. With American support he ousted Bảo Đại in a 1955 referendum and became the first president of South Vietnam (the Republic of Vietnam), and the reunification elections promised at Geneva for 1956 were never held. His family-centred authoritarian rule and repression of Buddhists provoked opposition, and he was captured and killed in the CIA-backed coup of 1963.

Vietnam state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1913–1997 → Died in exile

Last emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, who abdicated in 1945 and returned as head of the French-backed State of Vietnam

Bảo Đại abdicated in August 1945, returned as head of the State of Vietnam in 1949, and was ousted in a 1955 referendum organized by Ngô Đình Diệm’s government.

The thirteenth and last emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, he came to the throne in 1926 as nominal ruler of the French protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. When Japan overthrew the French in March 1945 he became emperor of the Japanese-sponsored Empire of Vietnam; after the August Revolution of 1945 he abdicated in Huế on the 30th and became “supreme advisor” to Ho Chi Minh’s government. Soon in exile, he returned under the Élysée Accords of 1949 as Chief of State of the French-backed State of Vietnam, criticised as too close to France and too often abroad. Ousted by Ngô Đình Diệm in a 1955 referendum, he died in Paris in 1997.

Vietnam state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1916–2001 ○ Natural causes

South Vietnamese general who led the 1963 coup and ordered the 1975 surrender

On 30 April 1975, as Saigon fell, he ordered the surrender that ended South Vietnam's war.

Dương Văn Minh was a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and served under Ngô Đình Diệm. He led the 1963 coup that overthrew Diệm and headed the junta, but Nguyễn Khánh displaced him in 1964. Minh became president in April 1975 and ordered the surrender to North Vietnamese forces on 30 April, as Saigon fell. He later emigrated to France and died in California.

Vietnam state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1923–2001 → Died in exile

General who was president of South Vietnam from 1967 to 1975, opposed the Paris Peace Accords and resigned days before the fall of Saigon

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu headed South Vietnam’s military regime from 1965 and became president in 1967, serving until 1975. He resigned on 21 April 1975, denounced the United States for betraying South Vietnam, and left the country.

Born in Phan Rang, he joined the Viet Minh in 1945 but left after a year for the army of the State of Vietnam. He joined the November 1963 coup against Diệm, was made a general and in 1965 became the junta’s nominal head of state. He won the presidency in a rigged election in 1967 and was re-elected unopposed in 1971 after rivals were barred or withdrew. He opposed the 1973 Paris Peace Accords but signed them. On 21 April 1975 he resigned, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam, and left for Taiwan; he later lived near Boston and died in 2001.