Nguyễn Tôn Hoàn was Vietnamese Catholic physician who was a leader of the Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam) from the 1940s to the 1960s, and was active in South Vietnamese politics during that time, serving briefly as Deputy Prime Minister in 1964.
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Nguyễn Tôn Hoàn was born in Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in May 1917. He studied medicine at the University of Hanoi, where he became involved in student politics. In 1939, he helped found the Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam).[1]
When the Việt Minh gained a foothold over northern Vietnam in 1946, he fled to China,[1] then under the rule of Chiang Kaishek's nationalist Kuomintang, hiding under the deck of a junk.[1] Hoàn returned to Saigon — where the Vietminh did not exercise the tight control they possessed in the north—in 1947 to continue his political activism.[1]
In mid-1947, Hoàn joined forces with Ngô Đình Diệm, later to become the first President of South Vietnam. A fellow Catholic, Diệm was a former provincial governor in the 1930s and the younger brother of Ngô Ðình Khôi, another provincial leader slain by the communists. For the rest of the year, the pair tried to organise anti-communists into a new nationalist body known as the Vietnam National Alliance (VNA). Both wanted to build a Third Force for Vietnam, that avoided communism on one hand and colonialism on the other. Hoàn's Dai Viet and Diệm's power base generated some momentum, and it initially appeared to be a political player of note.[2]
According to Hoàn and Diệm, the objective of the purpose of the VNA was to mobilise support for a new political movement under Bảo Đại, who had been forced to abdicate by the Việt Minh during the August Revolution and went into overseas exile. Bảo Đại then tried to recruit politicians such as Hoàn to provide him with a conduit to power. The French also wanted to work with Bảo Đại so that he would lend more legitimacy to their colonial presence in Vietnam.[2]
In 1949, the French appointed Bảo Đại as head of state of the State of Vietnam, an associated state in the French Union, which meant limited autonomy under the French umbrella.[1][3] Hoàn's Đại Việt initially cooperated with Bảo Đại, hoping that Vietnam would move towards increased autonomy and eventual independence.[1][3] Hoàn was Minister of Youth and Sports in two early cabinets of Bảo Đại, and he introduced ping pong to Vietnam.[1] In contrast, Diệm angrily denounced the State of Vietnam as a French sham and refused to help Bảo Đại, ending the Vietnam National Alliance.[3] However, Hoàn concluded the State of Vietnam would not lead to lasting change, so he and the Đại Việt withdrew.[1]
In late 1953, Ngô Đình Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser to Diệm, organised a Unity Congress, a forum of various anti-communist nationalists such as Hoàn's Dai Viet, the Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng and Diệm's followers. Nhu's real objective was to gain publicity for Diệm. Hoàn agreed to participate, and the conference turned into chaos, but Nhu achieved his objective of gaining publicity for his brother and staging angry denunciations of Bảo Đại.[4]
In 1954, Diệm was appointed prime minister by Bảo Đại. In the first year, Diệm's government was unstable as various groups including the Hòa Hảo and Cao Dai religious sects and the Binh Xuyên organised crime syndicated vied for power. After his attempt to take power failed, he fled to France.[5]
Diệm banned the Đại Việt and forced its leaders into exile or hiding.[1] In a speech on 7 July 1963, the ninth anniversary of his appointment as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, Diệm made a speech assailing "fascist ideologues disguised as democrats [who] were surreptitiously seeking to revive and rekindle disunity at home while arousing public opinions against us abroad",[6] widely interpreted as a reference to Hoan's Dai Viet.[7][8]
In November 1963, General Dương Văn Minh led a coup against Diệm, resulting in the assassination of the president. However, three months later, General Nguyen Khanh deposed Minh in a bloodless coup.[1]
Khanh and some of his co-conspirators were regarded as being pro-Đại Việt and summoned Hoàn back to become prime minister, although he only heard of the offer on a radio.[1] Hoàn had remained active while in Paris, publishing a magazine and keeping up to speed with political developments in Vietnam.[9] He tried to manipulate politics through subordinates. [5]
Khanh wanted to use Hoàn to harness Đại Việt support for his regime, but it backfired.[5] Hoàn was unable to form a government as prime minister when he returned.[9] The Đại Việt had broken into too many warring factions that he was unable to enlist enough support, and other political hopefuls resented the return of old guard politicians from exile to take power, and they refused to cooperate.[5]
Khanh thereupon decided to act as both Prime Minister and Chairman of the reorganised Military Revolutionary Council. Hoàn was appointed as the first Deputy Prime Minister in charge of rural pacification. He was given control of five ministries including the Interior, National Defense and Rural Affairs and two special commissions, which were primarily engaged in consolidating the strategic hamlets of Ngô Đình Nhu into the renamed New Rural Life Hamlets.[5][9]
Hoàn lobbied for an Ethnic Minorities Ministry, anti-corruption drives, land reform, and free elections with a transition to civilian rule. This put him increasingly in conflict with the junta and the Americans, who were more interested in turning Khanh into a strong leader to fight the communists.[1] Gradually, the generals squeezed Hoàn out of control of rural pacification, while the Đại Việt leader still sought an opportunity to become prime minister.[10] Hoàn lost his weekly Sunday radio slot. The Americans felt that Khanh needed to make regular speeches to establish political support among the populace, and the general agreed, and he took over Hoàn's slot.[11]
Feeling marginalised, Hoàn began to undermine the Khanh regime. He publicly accused Khanh and the Americans of ignoring him, and began to join forces with their critics. In mid-June 1964, Catholic demonstrations broke out, in response to protests by Buddhists. Hoàn covertly supported some of the more vigorous Catholic agitators, who accused Khanh and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of "fomenting religious discrimination" against Catholics, charging they were helping the Buddhist majority.[12]
Hoàn later tried to mobilise support among Dai Viet members and supporters among the officer corps, in an attempt to overthrow Khanh, However, the conspiracy never got off the ground, as the plotters feared that the Americans would support their regime if they managed to take power, thereby making it impossible for them to rule.[13]
In September, Khanh forced Hoàn to resign. The Đại Việt leader went to Japan and then returned to France.[1][14] In 1965, Hoàn had a dispute with French President Charles de Gaulle over the country's Vietnam policy and immigrated to the U.S.[1] He taught Vietnamese at American military complexes and then opened a Vietnamese restaurant. He also continued his political activism against the Vietnamese communist government.[1]
Hoàn died on 19 September 2001, in Mountain View, California, aged 84.[1] He had been married to Phan Thi Binh. The couple had two sons and three daughters, all now living in the U.S.[1]