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Nguyễn Văn Tâm

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Nguyễn Văn Tâm
Tâm in 1953
4th Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam
In office
6 June 1952 – 17 December 1953
Deputy
Head of StateBảo Đại
Preceded byTrần Văn Hữu
Succeeded byPrince Bửu Lộc
Personal details
Born(1895-10-16)16 October 1895
Tây Ninh, Cochinchina, French Indochina
Died23 November 1990(1990-11-23) (aged 95)
Paris, France
Political partyNationalist Party
SpouseNguyễn Thị Cẩm Vân
ChildrenNguyễn Văn Hinh (son)
RelativesJonathan Van-Tam (grandson)

Nguyễn Văn Tâm (16 October 1895[1][2] – 23 November 1990[3]) served as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, a political entity created by the French in an attempt to regain control of the country. He held that office from June 1952 to December 1953.

Early life

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Born on 16 October 1895[4] in Tây Ninh Province during the French colonial period, Nguyễn Văn Tâm was originally a school teacher who was picked by the French in the early 1940s to be the District Chief of Cai Lậy, in Cochinchina. Here in the Mekong Delta, he had already earned the nickname Tiger of Cai Lậy as a notorious torturer of peasants during the revolts of the 1930s.[5]

He is the paternal grandfather of Jonathan Van-Tam, former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.

Career

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After the August Revolution, following the Japanese surrender in 1945, Tâm was imprisoned by the new Viet Minh authorities for crimes against the people but was soon freed by the returning French military.

He was among the government ministers presented on June 1, 1946, at the proclamation of the "Republic of Cochinchina"—a first, abortive, attempt of the French to create a post-colonial client state. "Premier" Nguyen van Tinh was so humiliated by the French that after six months he hanged himself.[5] When in 1949, in agreement with the Bảo Đại the French created the State of Vietnam, Tâm was sent north as governor of Tonkin to do battle with the communist-insurgent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In June 1952 he became Prime Minister while his son, Nguyễn Văn Hinh, was appointed Chief of Staff of the French auxiliary Vietnamese National Army. He resigned his premiership on 12 January 1954 by prince Bửu Lộc.[6][7]

From 1955 he lived in exile in the United States.[8]

References

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  1. ^ pdf (Vietnamese)
  2. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-09-25. Retrieved 2017-04-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Nguyen Van Tam, Vietnamese Statesman, 97", New York Times, 28 November 1990, retrieved 11 April 2010
  4. ^ "UQAM | Guerre d'Indochine | NGUYỄN VǍN TÂM (1895–1990)".
  5. ^ a b Van, Ngo (2010). In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary. AK Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-84935-013-6.
  6. ^ "Baodaisolution". Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved 2006-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ Justin Corfield Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City 2013 p204 "A general in the State of Vietnam, he was born on 20 September 1915 in Vung Tau, in southern Vietnam, his father being Nguyen Van Tam. He went to Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in Saigon, and then moved to France, where he attended Lycée ."
  8. ^ Ap (1990-11-28). "Nguyen Van Tam, Vietnamese Statesman, 97". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam
1952–1953
Succeeded by