Trần Văn Khiêm is the younger brother of Madame Ngô Đình Nhu, the former First Lady of South Vietnam, and a Vietnamese politician and public servant. He was a press officer for South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm.[1]
In 1963, during the Buddhist crisis, with relations between the United States and South Vietnam deteriorating, Khiêm drew up a hit list of American officials.[2] In the September 1963 legislative elections, Khiêm stood for the National Assembly for a seat in Vĩnh Long,[3] which he subsequently won. At the same time, he was estranged from his sister and her husband, who suspected him of handing over sensitive information about the government.[4] His parents disowned their daughter, a Catholic convert, for her role in oppressing Vietnamese Buddhists.
In 1986, Khiêm was charged with killing his parents, Trần Văn Chuơng and Madame Chuơng, in their Washington, D.C. home. Chuơng had been South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States and observer at the United Nations during the reign of his son-in-law, Ngô Đình Diệm. Khiêm was ruled unfit for trial on grounds of mental incompetence.[5]