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TITLE: FOR THE BENEFIT OF RESEARCHERS: WHERE TO FIND MADAME NHU? THE MYSTERY REMAINS, EVEN MORE...,
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This review is from: Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu (Hardcover)
There has been another book based on the memoir of Madame Nhu, published by a French publisher, an esoteric group with a division specializing Asia and a reputation for publishing works that cannot be published elsewhere. The French publication is edited by the surviving children of Madame Nhu. Hence, the authenticity of Ms. Demery's book must be reevaluated. I am quoting the announcement of the French publication below:
"Annonce de la parution des mémoires de Mme Nhu sous la forme d'un recueil édité par ses enfants Ngô-Ðình Quynh et Ngô-Ðình Lê Quyên (1959-2012). Ci-après présentation de l'éditeur.
À travers l'histoire de la « République du Viêt-Nam » au temps des Ngô-Ðình, ses bâtisseurs, et les événements meurtriers qui ont tenté de la détruire, c'est toute la vitalité de l'âme Viêt qui est en devenir comme l'exprime Madame Ngô-Ðình Nhu dans les mémoires inspirés qu'elle a dédiés à son pays. Ses enfants, Ngô-Ðình Quynh et Ngô-Ðình Lê Quyên, grâce à leurs archives familiales, nous permettent de comprendre la voie qu'ont voulu tracer les frères Ngô-Ðình pour que leur pays vive selon ses propres valeurs. Le cinquantième anniversaire de leur assassinat survenu le 2 novembre 1963 offre à l'Occident l'opportunité d'une large méditation sur les erreurs du passé."
SOURCE: Harmattan_LaRepubliqueDuVietNamEtLesNgoDinh
There are many cultural errors in Ms. Emery's book, perhaps recognized only by native Vietnamese. I won't bother with details on this limited channel. Apparently, Ms. Demery's book was written for the American public, but should there be such a difference in standard in the search for truth and understanding? To start, Ms. Demery repeated the Western epithet, "Dragon Lady," as part of the title, the very first step of her revisiting this historical figure and the dark chapter in the history of both Vietnam and America -- she started with the negative and its prejudice. Not that Ms. Demery wasn't aware of what she was doing and the approach she used -- she explained the epithet in the final chapter of her book.
But something else is more important for readers and researchers on this topic: Which memoir of Madame Nhu is the authentic one? Based on the recent development and Ms. Demery's work, there have been three sources: 1) the memoir provided Ms. Demery by Madam Nhu after so much courting between her and the 80-something aging and frail woman who had suffered as much loss as she had gathered glamour; 2) the memoir in the possession of her surviving children published in France, and 3) a memoir claimed by first-generation Vietnamese who interviewed her in Paris. Perhaps 1, 2, and 3 are the same! However, according to Ms. Demery, there was another memoir written in the 50s and/or early 60s, or more precisely a diary allegedly kept by Madame Nhu and found by the 'revolutionists" who looted the independent palace in November, 1963. Somehow, this secret diary emerged after 5 decades and found its way to Ms. Demery, in which the private side of the Nhus' marital relationship was revealed in very vague, yet scandalous terms. Ms. Demery couldn't resist the temptation of making this known to her reading public, posthumous to Madame Nhu, just as Ms. Demery couldn't resist the marketability of "deja vu" -- the return to the popular, yet infamous American slang pinned upon the Vietnamese "outspoken diminutive beauty" hated by many of both her fellow Vietnamese and the American press (and politicians). I wonder what Madame Nhu might have felt had she known that her alleged lost diary would make its way into Ms. Demery's book? She is too dead now to be accorded a chance for response and explanation. We should wonder at what point Ms. Demery first knew of this diary, and whether she informed her subject, whom she judged during the development of the relationship. Her good intention was to correct misunderstandings and to present the more humane side of the controversial international figure that has been forgotten by younger generations. Ms. Demery promised Madame Nhu not to change her memoir, yet it was in effect changed due to Ms. Demery's discovery of this "lost diary." Love her or hate her, one must acknowledge that Madame Nhu was committed to her husband, her family, her cause and her faith. Ms. Demery's revelation of what was in this lost diary undermined Madame Nhu's lifetime commitment in a way that fell short of what is expected of serious and objective historical analyses.
This book adds little to our understanding of history; nor does it resolve unanswered queries by historians, let alone the unresolved feelings and pains of Vietnamese on the losing side of that war. But, Ms. Demery is a good writer and the book has a novelistic quality to whet the appetite of readers looking for entertainment. And, Ms. Demery did make some objective observations about the worth of her subject in the context of racist and sexist America in the 60s. For that, I give the book a two stars. I wish I could do better for Ms. Demery in light of her talents as a storyteller, footnoter, writer, and fellow woman. I can't. My two stars rating is in fairness to my Vietnamese culture and the contemporary world that should look back and review the pages of history. This task should be done, today, with responsibility, cultural awareness, and political remorse -- what we did not have back then, in November of 1963 and the years that followed, in the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, both in Vietnam and in America.
POSTCRIPT: " My description of the French publisher might have been too subjective and personal. In fairness to L'Harmattan, the more objective and acceptable description of the French publisher should be as follows: "L'Harmattan, Paris, is a known publishing company with a division specializing Asia and Indochina history."
Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, ne'e Tra^`n Le^. Xua^n (1924-2011), the day of her public relations trip to the United States and the last time she saw her husband:
Victim or provocateur?
Feminist ahead of her time or failed diplomat?
Tragic beauty in politics or dictatorial woman with a black heart?
Or simply the widow who had lost almost all?
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