Vũ Văn Thái
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vũ Văn Thái | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Thái in Taipei, 1960 | |
| South Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States | |
| In office 16 December 1965 – December 1966 | |
| President | Nguyễn Văn Thiệu |
| Preceded by | Trần Thiện Khiêm |
| Succeeded by | Bùi Diễm |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 January 1919 |
| Died | 19 April 1994 (aged 75) |
| Spouse | Simone Garoute |
| Children | 3 |
| Signature |  |
Vũ Văn Thái[1][2] (26 January 1919 – 19 April 1994) was a Vietnamese engineer and economist, and former Ambassador of the Republic of Vietnam to the United States.[3]
Early life
Vũ Văn Thái was born on 26 January 1919 in Hanoi, the capital of Tonkin protectorate, French Indochina.[4][5][6]
After receiving secondary education in Vietnam, Vũ Văn Thái went to France to study.[5] From 1939 to 1944, he studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and received a diploma in science. From 1944 to 1946, he entered the National Scientific Research Center on a scholarship.[7] From 1946 to 1949, Vũ Văn Thái served as laboratory director at the National Scientific Research Center.[7] He graduated from Sorbonne University in 1954 with a Master of Science diploma.[8]
Although Vũ Văn Thái's father, a famous Vietnamese textile manufacturer, was murdered by the Việt Minh in 1947,[9] As a Viet Minh sympathizer, Vũ Văn Thái supported the Viet Minh's resistance to the French colonialists in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[10][11] During this period, he served as Hồ Chí Minh's adviser in the negotiations for Vietnam's independence.[11][12] When efforts to negotiate failed, fighting broke out between the Việt Minh and the French, and Vũ Văn Thái left the Việt Minh after confirming their communist nature.[11]
Political career
.jpg)
After the Geneva Conference in 1954, Vũ Văn Thái joined the government of the State of Vietnam.[5][11]He successively served as the director of the Tonggan Dam Reconstruction Planning Bureau,[7] and director of the Budget and Foreign Aid Bureau.[note 1][13] In 1961, a conflict broke out between Vũ Văn Thái and Ngô Đình Diệm, and he resigned from the government.[5] He then moved to the United Nations Secretariat, where he served first as a consultant in the Finance and Financial Sector and then as a consultant to the Government of Togo.[13]
After Diệm was overthrown by a coup, Vũ Văn Thái returned to Vietnam and was appointed ambassador to the United States, but he declined the appointment after Nguyễn Khánh launched a military coup and returned to the United Nations Secretariat and was appointed as the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [13]
In 1965, Vũ Văn Thái served as the third Ambassador of the Republic of Vietnam to the United States, and submitted his credentials to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson on 16 December 1965.[14] In December 1966, Vũ Văn Thái was replaced as ambassador to the United States.[15]
On 19 April 1994, Vũ Văn Thái passed away in Saint-Tropez, France.[4]