Nguyen Van Thieu

Nguyen Van Thieu (1923-2001), president of South Vietnam (1967-1975). He was born in Ninh Thuan and educated in a Roman Catholic secondary school in Hue. He briefly joined Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh after World War II but left it because of its Communist leanings. Later he attended the National Military Academy in Hue and fought for the French against the Viet Minh. After 1954 Thieu rose through the ranks of the South Vietnamese army to become a general in 1962. One of the leaders in the 1963 coup that toppled President Ngo Dinh Diem, he emerged two years later as head of state. In 1967 Thieu won the presidency under a new constitution, and was reelected in 1971 after a campaign of intimidation. An unbending anti-Communist, he presided over a dictatorial regime that opposed any United States settlement with North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front. Shortly before the final Communist victory in 1975, Thieu resigned and went into exile, first in Taiwan, then in England, and finally in the United States.