Word: bao
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Then came disaster at Dienbienphu. Suddenly the defeated French needed peace?and desperately reached for an "independent" who could rally the demoralized Vietnamese and perhaps salvage something out of the shambles. Diem already had moved down to Paris from Bruges, took a hotel room and began dickering with Bao Dai, the young puppet Emperor who was lolling on the Riviera. Finally Premier Joseph Laniel's government authorized Bao Dai to meet Diem's basic demand: independence for Viet...
...even depend on a loyal army, since his French-trained military chief. General Nguyen Van Hinh, was personally hostile and forever plotting to take over the reins of government himself. A private gang, the notorious Binh Xuyen, actually operated the national police, having bought the "concession" from Puppet Emperor Bao Dai for $1,000,000. On top of all this, two powerful quasi-religious sects, the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao, controlled large parts of the countryside, opposing Diem's regime and enforcing their will with well-armed private armies of their...
Gangbuster. In this crisis, Diem got little help from the French, who were alarmed at his independence, secretly backed the Binh Xuyen, and yearned for the day when they could restore to power the pliable Bao Dai. But the U.S. backed Diem to the hilt. U.S. Special Emissary General J. Lawton Collins supplied ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet to help evacuate the hungry refugees, made it clear to troublesome General Hinh that the U.S. would grant no aid to any army that opposed the Premier. Diem whittled at Hinh's power by wooing important subordinate commanders, and when...
Soundproofed Brother. One task remained. Diem was determined to remove Emperor Bao Dai, who still technically held his position as Chief of State. In October 1955, Diem organized a referendum to that end. The results: 5,722,000 votes for Diem, 63,000 for Bao Dai. The Republic of South Viet Nam was proclaimed, and Premier Ngo Dinh Diem became its first President...
...became French West Africa's leading champion of cooperation with France. Paris poured money into the Ivory Coast, and Houphouet himself, already a member of the French National Assembly, became the indispensable black man in every French Cabinet. His Marxist enemies back home pictured him as an "African Bao Dai," willing to sacrifice his people for the pleasures and prestige he enjoyed in Paris...