Author Topic: Autobiography of Archbishop Thuc (Read 156023 times)

Persto · « **Reply #660 on:** **Yesterday** at 01:35:10 PM »

https://archive.org/details/ourvietnamnightm0000higg/page/157/mode/1up
Excerpt from Our Vietnam Nightmare by Marguerite Higgins
Diem's Character:

Left to right: Nhu, Abp. Thuc, and President Diem

No Public Funeral for αssαssιnαtҽd President Diem and Brother Nhu
17 years after the recounted encounter between Ho Chi Minh and Deim (in the post above), Diem and his brother Nhu were αssαssιnαtҽd, after a valiant fight for a free and independent Vietnam.

After the assassination, the bodies of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were transferred to the General Staff Headquarters for autopsy and the creation of death certificates. His niece Elisabeth recounts (in the video posted above) how her sister Bernadette and cousin were called after their uncles deaths to claim the bodies. Bernadette called her mother (Diem's sister Hiep who was in Hue) to ask her how they could tell whether the bodies were her uncles or not. The bodies were badly beaten and swollen and deformed from being in the sun. Hiep told her daughter to check their pockets. She said Diem always carried a rosary in his pocket. Nhu she said, always carried in his pocket the prayer of the Holy Cross to prepare for a holy death. This was something they had done all their lives. Bernadette and her cousin found these items, and so they were sure that the bodies were of their uncles Diem and Nhu.

Tran Trung Dung was Ngo Dinh Diem's niece and served as Assistant Minister of Defense in the South Vietnamese government. Her husband Lt. General Tran Trung Dung was Minister of Defense for Saigon. She was the one who obtained permission from the military to receive the bodies of Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, after they were αssαssιnαtҽd. Their remains were then transferred to Saint Paul Hospital, where Mrs.Tran Trung Dung organized the embalming, purchased coffins, and obtained permission for their burial. After the embalming was completed, the 2 coffins were placed in a separate room in the morgue of St Paul Hospital.

The funeral was scheduled for the next day, November 3, 1963, at 12 noon at the French Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery. However, due to threats by Buddhist's to steal the coffins and desecrate the remains, they were temporarily buried at the General Staff Headquarters instead. The photo of the funeral appears to have been taken at night, and only 2 people were permitted to be present besides the priest and guards. The priest performed the ceremony in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Tran Trung Dung and the Supervisory Committee at the grave. After that, the two coffins were lowered and the grave was later completed at the General Staff (Saigon).

MiracleOfTheSun · « **Reply #661 on:** **Yesterday** at 01:41:18 PM »

I'd never really been aware of the deeply Catholic side to the Vietnamese culture. Excellent posts.

Persto · « **Reply #662 on:** **Today** at 07:02:04 AM »

Fr. Joan Bautista Le Van Thi, Redemptorist priest

In this excellent video (subtitles in English) it tells the story of how in the 1980's, the Communist Government of Vietnam decided to destroy the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery in Saigon, where President Diem and his brother Nhu had been buried, in order to build a park. Initially Diem and Nhu had been buried at the General Staff Headquarters, but later in 1963, the remains were moved to the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery. It seems like a blatant way to erase history, since this was an old French cemetery filled with the history of thousands of graves, including Diem and Nhu, and victims of the communists.

This is a very unknown drama, here recounted, of how the bodies of Diem and his brother were relocated to a cemetery in Hue before the cemetery in Saigon was destroyed. The man responsible for accomplishing this feat was Fr. Joan Bautista Le Van Thi, a Redemptorist priest, who had often said Mass for President Diem, and gave his brother Can the sacrament of extreme unction before he was shot by firing squad in 1964. Fr. Thi was also the godfather of Diem's older brother Khoi, who was murdered with his son by the communists in the 1940's.

Fr. Thi found out that the cemetery was going to be leveled, and that thousands of graves were to be destroyed if the remains were not relocated. He wrote to Diem's sister Hiep, who had moved to Australia. He needed a member of the Ngo Dinh family to request the exhumation of the graves and their reinternment. It had to be someone living in Vietnam. He contacted members of the family, but most were reluctant to help. Finally, he found the daughter of Diem's sister Lucia, who was a nun of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Hue. Her name was Sr. Truong Thi Ly, and she was the superior of the convent in Hue. She submitted a request to the communist government of Vietnam, and amazingly it was approved. Mr. Tran Dinh Son, nephew-in-law of Diem, agreed to make the arrangements.

This was a complicated mission. Besides getting the necessary permits and permission, Mr. Son had to sign a contract with the city's sanitation dept., hire transportation, hire construction workers, purchase land for the new graves, and have the plots prepared and the graves dug.

Fr. Thi and Mr. Son travelled to Hue to choose the location, and dig the graves. Fr. Thi had secretly planted 2 frangipani trees at Diem and Nhu's graves in Saigon. Those pristine white flowers were a reminder of the purity and dignity of the deceased. He wanted trees and a landmark to mark the new graves.

On the day of the exhumation: May 28, 1983, only 6 people were allowed by the government to be present, with a strict time deadline: 6AM to Noon:

1) Fr. Thi
2) Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngan - a close cousin of Diem
3) Mr. Tran Dinh Son - nephew-in-law of Diem
4) Sr. Truong Thi Ly - neice of Diem (of his sister Lucia)
5) Mr. Pham Van Hanh -great nephew of Diem
6) Mrs. Truong Thi Ta - niece of Diem (of his sister Lucia)

The exhumation of the graves was pulled off in 5 and a half hours, with only a half hour to spare. The first part of the operation was successful. Then began the long trip of 579 miles, a 12 hour drive to Hue transporting the coffins with the remains.

Mrs. Pham Thi Than, The mother of Diem and Nhu had witnessed the death of her 4 sons before her death: Khoi, Diem, Nhu, and Can. She was buried in Hue, and the remains of her sons Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu were reinterred on either side of their mother's grave, with only the names of Saints John the Baptist Huynh and James De inscribed on the tombstones. Caution was taken in the labelling of the graves, and the tombstones do not state the family name of Ngo Dinh - but only their baptismal names. This is because under communist rule they were afraid of desecration of the graves. They are buried at Lai Thieu Cemetery (People's Cemetery No. 6B) in Binh Duong.

Can died in Chi Hoa prison, shot by a firing squad in 1964 for being part of the Ngo Dinh family. He was buried in the North Vietnam Mutual Aid Cemetery. On November 30, 1983, Fr. Thi and Mr. Son reburied Can's remains in the Lai Thieu Cemetery in Hue with his other family members.