--- title: Madame Nhu: The Polarizing Face of Vietnam description: A complicated, profoundly polarizing character, Madame Nhu was an ideal representative of an era and a conflict that defy generalization. canonical: https://time.com/3880653/madame-nhu-polarizing-face-of-vietnam/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-29T16:11:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:38.746Z og:title: Madame Nhu: The Polarizing Face of Vietnam og:description: A complicated, profoundly polarizing character, Madame Nhu was an ideal representative of an era and a conflict that defy generalization. og:url: https://time.com/3880653/madame-nhu-polarizing-face-of-vietnam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318c406713718b1d/69884c4c8e060147884601b9/140729-madame-nhu-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Madame Nhu and Pistol, 1962 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Madame Nhu: The Polarizing Face of Vietnam twitter:description: A complicated, profoundly polarizing character, Madame Nhu was an ideal representative of an era and a conflict that defy generalization. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318c406713718b1d/69884c4c8e060147884601b9/140729-madame-nhu-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Remembering Madame Nhu: The Polarizing Face of South Vietnam by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 29, 2014 4:11 PM UTC  South Vietnam's Madame Nhu fires a pistol during a 1962 visit to an officer training session of the women's paramilitary force that she organized the year before. South Vietnam's Madame Nhu fires a pistol during a 1962 visit to an officer training session of the women's paramilitary force that she organized the year before.Larry Burrows—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 29, 2014 4:11 PM UTC Tran Le Xuan, better known as “Madame Nhu,” was a woman who defied simple categorization. The wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of unmarried South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, she was the _de facto_ first lady of the country. Sultry, outspoken and often callous, she riveted the international press even as she shocked them, and her compatriots, with blunt opinions and pronouncements. For example, she notoriously referred to the [public self-immolations of Buddhist monks](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/08/28/malcolm-browne-the-story-behind-the-burning-monk/#1)—who burned themselves alive protesting the Diem regime’s corruption and repression of Buddhists—as “barbecues” and crowed, “Let them burn and we shall clap our hands.” [\[See all of LIFE.com’s coverage of the Vietnam War\]](http://life.time.com/vietnam-war/) Also known by the moniker “Dragon Lady” (in the West) and “Tiger Lady” (in Vietnam), Madame Nhu was a true enigma, as comfortable hosting parties at the presidential palace as she was firing pistols while visiting women in the paramilitary outfit that she herself organized (photo above). “I don’t like these awful toys,” she reportedly said at the time, “but if it is necessary to use them for our country, I am ready to.” As it turned out, she never got the chance. She was in California on a public relations tour, drumming up political and financial support for her brother-in-law’s dictatorship—and droppng rhetorical bombshells at pretty much every stop along the way—when her husband and Diem were assassinated. Madame Nhu died just three years ago, in 2011, in Rome—36 years after the end of the war in Vietnam. (Read her [obit in the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/world/asia/27nhu.html).) This complicated, profoundly polarizing character was, in a way, an ideal representative of an era and a conflict that, five decades later, still spark soul-searching among those who lived through those turbulent times. _Hailing from Colombia, undergraduate_ **_Felipe De La Hoz_** _studies journalism at NYU, where he reports and edits for the_ [_Washington Square News_](http://www.nyunews.com/author/felipe-de-la-hoz/)_. See his photography_ [_here_](http://felipedelahozphotography.smugmug.com/) _and follow him_ [_@FelipeDLH_](https://twitter.com/FelipeDLH)_._  South Vietnam's Madame Nhu fires a pistol during a 1962 visit to an officer training session of the women's paramilitary force that she organized the year before. 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