Buu Hoi
Encyclopedia
Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Hội (1915–January 28, 1972) of the Nguyễn Dynasty was a diplomat for South Vietnam
and a cancer researcher who published more than 1000 papers.
, who had ruled Vietnam from 1820 until 1841. Minh Mạng had been a staunch Confucianist who was known for his ultraconservative philosophy which was manifested in a shunning of the western world
, technological and scientific innovation. He also was known for his strident hostility to the intrusion of Catholic missionaries into Vietnam as well as Buddhism, which were considered as undermining the mandate of heaven
of the Emperor. Minh Mạng's father was Emperor Gia Long
, who had united Vietnam under its current state. Gia Long had reunited the nation under the newly formed Nguyễn Dynasty with the help of French volunteers recruited by the Jesuit Catholic missionary Pigneau de Behaine
after over two centuries of north-south division and multiple wars between the Nguyễn Lords in the south and the Trịnh Lords in the north.
Bửu Hội was also a Confucianist, instilled with a sense of duty to family and service to the nation. In contrast to his ancestors, Bửu Hội was also a secular-minded Buddhist, and his mother later became a Buddhist nun under the dharma name
Thich Dieu Hue. His father Ung Uy headed the Privy Council of the Imperial Family. Ung Uy was the Minister of Rites at Bảo Đại's court until May 9, 1945.
, a prestigious French-established school for the upper-class in Hanoi
, the colonial capital of Vietnam. He then studied for a degree in pharmacy
at the University of Hanoi while simultaneously auditing courses from the Faculty of Medicine. He had developed an interest in science from his youth, noting that this was "because of the desire of his mother and partly because of his own belief in the human value of science". He was just twenty years old when he was awarded his degree.
He subsequently left Vietnam in 1935 to study in Paris and was never to return as a resident. There Bửu Hội had befriended Ngo Dinh Nhu
, the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Diem
while in France. Nhu was a staunch advocate of a Catholic doctrine known as personalism
and later became known for his efforts in running the clandestine Can Lao Party
(Personalist Revolutionary Party). The Can Lao was a Catholic part which supplied the autocratic Diem's power base and acted as a security apparatus to crush dissent in South Vietnam. This formed a bond between the two men which saw Bửu Hội later serve in the diplomatic corps and as a scientific advisor for Diem.
. There Bửu Hội met Louis de Broglie, a French aristocrat and Nobel Prize winner of physics known for his work in the wave particle duality of quantum physics. He met other contemporary greats of French science including Frédéric
and Irène Joliot-Curie
. He recollected "What impressed me then the most was that all that concentration of science was paralleled by an equal concentration of kindness and universal open-mindedness".
At Sorbonne University, he followed the regular curriculum towards his doctorate. He completed a "License es Science" degree while serving as an Intern of Pharmacy at the Paris Hospitals. After a short stint under Perrin in the Institute of Chemical Physics, he began his doctoral research in organic chemistry
. He worked in the laboratory of Pauline Ramart-Lucas, investigating the spectrophotometry
of organic compounds.
and served until the Fall of Paris
to Nazi Germany
in May 1940. He then found himself in Toulouse
in the southern zone under the fascist Vichy France
government. With the help of the physicist Paul Langevin
whom he had met at Perrin's party, he was able to re-enter the Nazi-occupied northern France and return to Paris. He joined the research staff of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1941, and upon the Liberation of France in 1944 was appointed Maitre de Conferences at the École Polytechnique
by the Provisional Government of Charles de Gaulle
.
At around the same period in 1944, Bửu Hội met Antoine Lacassagne, the Director of Biological Research at the Radium Institute. At the time Lacassagne was establishing an interdisciplinary team for exploring the possibilities and uses of a hypothesis by Otto Schmidt
, which became known as the electronic theory of hydrocarbon carcinogenesis. One of the effects of the Nazi occupation was that the foreign scientific literature brought into France was almost entirely German. As a result, this exposed Lacassagne to what to be the scientific foundation of his highly fruitful collaboration with Bửu Hội. At the time, the electronic theory of molecular structure was in its formative years and was not considered as a vehicle by biologists for explaining phenomena, however Lacassagne saw promise in the prospect of Schmidt's hypothesis in attempting to explain carcinogenesis by a combination of elements of electron quantum theory, geometry and chemical structure. This required an interdisciplinary approach, and Bửu Hội's training in organic chemistry provided him with a wide range of tools to apply in the investigation of the roots of cancer.
The rapport between Lacassagne and the Vietnamese prince, less than half his age, developed rapidly. They began publishing joint research immediately, despite Bửu Hội not officially joining the Radium Institute until 1947. This occurred when he became head of the newly established Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Maitre de Recherches at the CNRS. After 13, Bửu Hội and his team relocated from the Radium Institute to larger facilities at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances in 1960. The new quarters was part of the National Centrer of Scientific Research laboratory group at Gif-sur-Yvette
, about 24 km from Paris. He reached the pinnacle of the CNRS supported research hierarchy in 1962 with a promotion to Director of Research ("Exceptional" class). Around 1967, he established further research groups under his guidance; one at Orléans
at the Marcel Delepine Center and a second at the Lannelogue Institute at Vanves
.
. Within a few years, he had established himself as an international authority in the chemotherapy
of the disease. He delineated the tole of the cyclopentene
ring and its double bond and of the chain length in determining the toxicity and leprostatic activity of these compounds. Although from the time of his 1944 meeting with Lacassagne onwards he was preoccupied with the study of chemical carcinogenesis, he continued to devote substantial effort to the chemotherapy of leprosy and the associated chemotherapy of tuberculosis
.
personnel of the Radium Institute on various aspects of the electronic theory of carcinogenesis. Bửu Hội was the first to propose the involvement of noncovalent forces. Together with Lacassagne and Rudali, in the 1940s he became the first to describe the phenomena of synergisma and antagonism between carcinogens. He demonstrated this by using hydrocarbon
s on the skin of mice and later extended this to hepatic and other carcinogens. Starting in 1947, he collaborated with Zajdela and Lacassagne in exploring the relationships between the structure and carcinogenic activity of polynuclear compounds. The study spanned a groundbreaking scale and depth. These involved the fundamental ring systems and derivatives of 1,2-benzanthracene, the dibenzopyrenes, steranthrenes, anthanthrene, 1,2,3,4-dibenzanthracene, a variety of benzo and dibenzofluoranthenes. This was extended to large-molecular-size and "hypercondensed" hydrocarbons, ring opening and partial hydrogenation. During his study of dibenzopyrenes, he discovered a molecular arrangement involving the framework of aromatic hydrocarbons. His studies of the carcinogenic azulenophenalenes led him to question the role of aromaticity
. Aside from his studies with aza-replaced hydrocarbons, benz- and dibenzacridines and –carbazoles, he also synthesised and tested a number of new structural types of heteroaromatics with reference to the nature, nuimber and position of the heteroatoms. These included the naphtho and benzo derivatives of pyridocarbazole and beta-carboline, heteroaromatics with sulfur, arsenic or selenium replacements. These were either alone or in association with nitrogen, as well as sulfur and nitrogen containing pseudoazulenes. A series of hydrocarbon-like polynuclear lactones were explored with the intent of establishing a connection between polynuclear aromatics and aflatoxins. Such studies of heteroatomic polynuclears led him to propose a "newer picture" of a carcinogenic hydrocarbon, helping the generalise the classical K-region hypothesis.
He contributed to studies on the carcinogenicity of 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide derivatives, the production of plant tumors by a nitrosamine
. He also studied metabolism and protein binding of polynuclears and the effect of the binding o DNA
replication and transcription, testing the effect of various carcinogens on the hatching of shrimp eggs. From the mid 1960s onwards, Bửu Hội increasingly turned his focus to the structural facets of polynuclears which determine their ability to induce microsomal enzyme synthesis, in particular involving zoxazolamine and dicoumarol hydroxylation. Aside from his study of fundamental organic chemistry, chemical carcinogenesis and chemotherapy of leprosy and tuberculosis, Bửu Hội's team also conducted research into a wide range of issues of biological and therapeutic interest. These included the synthesis and testing anti-inflammatory non-steroid compounds, substituted sex hormones, anti-coagulant substances and their potentiation, antidiabetic agents, treatment of hypertension by methyl-DOPA, antioxidants and the chemophylaxy of aging and the toxicity of dioxine among others.
He was a science advisor to Diem, and was appointed in 1960 as the Director of the Atomic Energy Establishment of Vietnam. In this capacity, he was a key figure in the establishiment of an Atomic Energy Research Center. This was primarily geared towards the medical and agricultural uses of atomic energy and a reactor was opened in Da Lat. Several countries of the third world awarded him honorary distinctions.
, he was willing to fight for Vietnamese independence. He had worked with Ho Chi Minh
's Vietminh formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which sought to establish independence from its formation in September 1945. His international reputation, generated by his scientific achievements, lent prestige to Ho's government. Bửu Hội broke off links in 1950, when the Communists imposed a dictatorship on the resistance movement, resulting in many non communist nationalists breaking away.
In late 1947, Empress Nam Phuong
arrived in France to lobby Bửu Hội to help ratlly nationalists behind Bảo Đại. Bửu Hội said he would be willing only on the condition that the Emperor would unite with the resistance in order to help the Ciet Minh from being exclusively communist. Bảo Đại refused to do so.
In 1949, on behalf of the royal family who had taken part in the Fontainebleau Conference, he released a statement
At the same time, his father left the French controlled areas to live under Ho Chi Minh's control.
He railed against partition, predicting that it would likely lead to the indefinitate maintenance of the "[French] expeditionary corps in the non-Communist zone." As it turned out, American troops were deployed to what was to become the Republic of Vietnam.
In the early 1950s, Bửu Hội travelled to the United States. After the disruption of the Second World War, the president of the American Chemical Society
had asked a colleague to resume contact with French chemistry circles by selecting three men regarded to be the outstanding chemists in France. Bửu Hội was one of the three selected by the ACS. At the time he was director of research in organic chemistry at the Radium Institute in Paris. Bửu Hội accepted the invitation of the ACS to deliver a series of lectures in the United States. There, in the autumn of 1951, he also travelled to the Maryknoll Seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey to offer his support to Ngo Dinh Diem in his quest to form an independent Vietnamese government.
In August 1954, Bửu Hội returned to South Vietnam for a visit. Diem had been named Prime Minister of what was then the French backed State of Vietnam
. Vietnam was supposed to be reunified after national elections in 1956 following a temporary partition and transitional phase. Diem was in trouble as the generals of the Vietnamese National Army
disobeyed him and the national police were controlled by the Binh Xuyen
, an armed criminal syndicate. Parts of the Mekong Delta
were controlled by the private armies of the Cao Dai
and Hoa Hao
religious sects. Diem's government had little authority even in the centre of Saigon.
The youth of Saigon flocked to listen to Bửu Hội speak and newspapers reported that he was feted as a national hero. People saw him as a respected national figure, a professor who exuded wisdom and was above politics at a time when South Vietnam was in chaos. Bửu Hội went to meet Pham Cong Tac
the pope of the Cao Dai and his entourage in their stronghold of Tay Ninh
west of Saigon near the border with Cambodia
. He went to a secret meeting with the Cao Dai's general Trinh Minh The
at his base on Nui Ba Den (Black Lady Mountain)
. Bửu Hội went on to meet the Hoa Hao in the Delta city of Cần Thơ and later met with Binh Xuyen leaders in Cholon. His prestige allowed many disparate and warring groups to receive him with respect. He further met with labor groups, army officers and representatives of the educated class. Later when the Saigon press was censored and partly shut down, he outlined his vision for Vietnam in the Paris magazine L'Express
.
His popularity was higher than any present or recent politician among a public disenchanted with the disunity and lack of government. The phenomenon of a political disinclined scholar above politics saw him compared to Paderewski of Ploand after the First World War and Weizmann, the first President of Israel. He outlined a program which sought to have South Vietnam strengthened against communism and integrated into South East Asia.
Bửu Hội advocated a new "government of national solidarity" in Saigon that incorporated the religious sects. This contrasted to Diem, who wanted to have unchallenged power with the sects in a subservient position. He felt that this would foster reconciliation between non-Communist nationalists in the south. Bửu Hội opposed a military buildup in the south, reasoning that the best defense against insurrection came from fostering popular participation in the administrative and economic institutions of the state. He favoured neutralism in South Vietnam's foreign affairs while remaining on positive terms with France and the United States. He argued that the colonial era and Vietnam's natural place in Asia was to join other nations such as India in a policy of non-alignment. He hoped that both North and South Vietnam could be admitted to the United Nations
.
Diem rejected these moderate policies, believing that a militantly anti-Communist stance was the solution for South Vietnam. This coincided with a fact finding mission by Democratic Party
U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield
, a strong Diem supporter. Regarded as the leading Vietnam authority in the Senate, he advocated a suspension of US aid if Diem was removed. Bửu Hội had received support for his ideas from the sects, army and labor groups. L'Express, the newspaper in Paris which printed his ideas, was considered to be friendly with French Prime Minister
Pierre Mendès France. As a result, the US State Department interpreted it as a French manoevre to replace Diem with Bửu Hội. Strongly disapproving of Bửu Hội's foreign policies, the Sate Department warned Mendes-France that US policy would change if Bửu Hội or someone like-minded became Prime Minister.
In 1958, Bửu Hội resumed work for Diem on the international front. He was charged with attending to the Indian, Canadian and Polish diplomats from the International Control Commission
that were charged with monitoring the Geneva Accords
which partitioned Vietnam in 1954. He was also assigned the job of securing diplomatic links and greater recognition of the Republic of Vietnam on the international arena. He was named as South Vietnam's ambassador to various countries and several bodies of the United Nations. In addition, he was named as the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Center that was constructed near the central highlands resort town of Da Lat. It was to be South Vietnam's first nuclear reactor
.
In early 1953, Bửu Hội travelled as a private citizen to the office of the Vietminh in Rangoon, the capital of Burma. Despite leaving the Vietminh three years earlier, his nationalist credentials allowed him to secure an audience. At the time he was the elected president of an association of some 25,000 Vietnamese workers and soldiers stranded in France after the Second World War. He had also been a delegated to the conference at Fontainebleau
, the collapse of which had helped to spark the First Indochina War
in 1946. Bửu Hội was accompanied by Jacques Raphael-Leygues, a Radical Socialist politician. Before departing Paris, Bửu Hội had been authorised by French President Vincent Auriol
to propose the opening of direct negotiations with France. He left a letter in Rangoon to be delivered to Vietminh leaders, prophetically predicting that this would be the last opportunity for them to deal with France directly without third part interference. He predicted that the United States would eventually intervene with force unprecedented in Vietnam if the situation was not resolved. Neither the French nor the Vietminh made further efforts to pursue negotiations. Years later, Rench officials blamed domestic political feuds and the lack of support from some sections of their government. The Vietminh blamed logistical difficulties on their tardy and minimal reply. The result was that after the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
in early 1954, Vietnam was partitioned at the Geneva Conference
.
The Buddhist crisis
erupted in the summer of 1963 after the shooting by authorities of nine Buddhists
who were protesting a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag
on Vesak
, the birthday of Gautama Buddha
. As civil disobedience and demands for religious equality by the Buddhist majority against Diem's Catholic government grew, Diem's forces repeatedly attacked Buddhists. In June, Bửu Hội wrote to Nhu to urge Diem to further dialogue with the Buddhists and create a Ministry of Religious Affairs. As Diem remained intransigent on demands for religious equality and bringing those responsible for the Huế shootings to justice, his forces used chemicals on Buddhist protestors in Huế. The turning point was the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 11 at a bust Saigon intersection, which was a public relations disaster for Diem. As the impasse continued, Bửu Hội's mother, who had been a Buddhist nun for many years, travelled from Huế to Saigon. The Buddhist leaders had announced that the mother of South Vietnam's most distinguished scientist and diplomat and member of the royal family, intended to burn herself to death to highlight oppression against Buddhists. The tension grew, and eventually in July, she made an appearance at a press conference at Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda
, to repeat the threat. Outside, Nhu's men had organised a "spontaneous" demonstration where government supporters had been bussed in. Concerned for his mother and the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, Bửu Hội returned home in attempt to mediate between the Buddhists and Diem and Nhu. Rumours began to circulate stating that the Americans wanted to have Bửu Hội inserted in a newly created post of Prime Minister, in order that the Ngo family's rule would be diluted. He spent many hours talking with the Buddhist leader Thich Tri Quang
at Xa Loi to ensure that his mother would not actually self-immolate. The negotiations were fruitless and were futile. Shortly after midnight, the Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
loyal to Nhu raided pagodas across the country
, vandalising, looting and in some cases detonating them, arresting around 1400 monks and nuns. A few hundred laypeople had disappeared, presumed killed (or summarily executed afterwards) while trying to repel the invaders from the temples. Bửu Hội went to Gia Long Palace at the end of August to take leave and return to his laboratory. At the time, the United Nations had been strongly condemning the actions of Diem's regime. When Nhu told him (in French: "You have left me in the s***"), Bửu Hội agreed to defend Saigon at the UN in New York on the condition that a fact-finding mission would be allowed to enter the country and freely see the truth for themselves.
Bửu Hội arrived in New York in mid September. The American public had a highly unfavourable view of South Vietnam, due to the self-immolations and pagoda attacks. U Thant
, the Buddhist Burmese who was the Secretary General of the United Nations sharply criticised Vietnam, saying that there was no country so chaotic and deteriorating. The campaign against the Diem regime was overtly led by Ceylon, but Saigon felt that Cambodia had been stirring up animosity among the Asian countries, having already broken off diplomatic relations after the raids. The UN session started on September 17 and Bửu Hội met with US Ambassador to the United Nations Charles Yost two days later. Bửu Hội contended that the Buddhist movement had transformed into a political movement to overthrow Diem and claiming that media reports transmitted to America were inaccurate. Yost asserted that irrespective of what was happening, the situation was intolerable and that Diem had to address it. Bửu Hội thought that implementing the five point plan
that Diem had signed in June but not implemented was the key. Bửu Hội admitted that discrimination in Vietnam was real. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
, the US Ambassador in Saigon, described Bửu Hội's proposed solution as "oversimplified".
Bửu Hội outlined a plan to the Americans's UN representatives to avoid a full-scale debate on South Vietnam in the General Assembly. He revealed that South Vietnam would reject a formal inquiry mission as interference in domestic affairs, but would try to seize the initiative to invite a fact finding mission. He reasoned that such a delegation would spark a rapprochement in Vietnam and would delay debate and condemnation by the Assembly until the mission had tabled its report. Privately he asked the Americans to tell Thich Tri Quang that he would do nothing to hurt the Buddhist cause.
Bửu Hội also visited the US Department of State in Washington where he was given a mixed reception. Harlan Cleveland, the assistance secretary for international organization affairs thought that his "sophisticated" plan and his stature as an intellectual and diplomat would boost his cause. Undersecretary Averell Harriman and Assistant Secretary Roger Hilsman
, well known Diem critics, were less enthusiastic. Bửu Hội's attempt to break the deadlock in relations since the pagoda raids failed to convince Harriman, who removed his hearing aid when Bửu Hội suggested that the pro-Diem former US ambassador Frederick Nolting
still had a positive role to play. When Hilsman criticised the treatment of the Buddhists, Bửu Hội asserted that the movement had become political and that the Buddhists had forced Diem into a fight for survival. He said that Buddhist elders deplored the alleged politicisation of the movement. Bửu Hội also parried US calls for Diem to remove Nhu, regarded as the corrosive influence in South Vietnam form power. He asserted that Nhu was a great talent but also noted that a Prime Minister should be appointed.
At the UN, the Ceylon delegate had begun to push for a resolution expressing serious concern about "the continuing violation of human rights in Vietnam." Since South Vietnam was not a member and had no right of reply, Bửu Hội and his team lobbied African and Asian countries behind the scene. Bửu Hội was also the South Vietnamese ambassador to six African nations. The result was that a polemical address by Ceylon on October 7 did not gather further response and a Soviet Union threat to use the International Control Commission to investigate the South's domestic affairs never materialised. The General Assembly voted unanimously to cut short the debate and accept the invitation to send a fact finding mission. Bửu Hội had managed to avert censure of his country and an unwanted debate on the role of the US there. Lodge expressed disappointment at why the US delegation helped to avoid a debate that would have condemned Diem. Despite Bửu Hội's assurances that the mission would be free to move around the country and was not a stalling device, Lodge was adamant that Diem would never allow them to see anything unfavourable.
On October 28, Bửu Hội opened the Atomic Energy Center in Da Lat in his role as the director general of the Office of Atomic Energy. Diem said of his work "In the non-aligned world, we have more friends now, thanks to the diplomatic bases laid by Professor Bửu Hội in Africa."
On October 31, he performed his last public duty in South Vietnam. Bửu Hội visited Nhu along with two Buddhist monks and ask him to intervene with Diem to set free "all Buddhist dignitaries, laymen and students till under detention." Nhu "promised to obtain from the president a favourable answer to this request." Diem and Nhu were executed two days later after being overthrown in a coup
. Bửu Hội left Vietnam after the coup to resume his scientific research. He only returned on the occasion of the funeral of his mother, who had died from natural causes.
, the French Academy of Medicine and the French Ministry of Education. His work in cancer research specifically yielded awards from the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
and the French League Against Cancer. Despite working for almost his entire academic career in France, he also received awards from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
and received funding from the US National Cancer Institute
.
He was a member of the Panel of Experts for Leprosy of the World Health Organization
and an honorary member of several medical societies. He was decorated with a number of French Government
awards: Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
, commander of the Order of Public Health, commander of the Order of Research and Invention and a Knight of the Academic Palms.
. It was only a few weeks after the passing of his research colleague Antoine Lacassagne, ending a prolific partnership described by Cancer Research as a "heroic and important chapter of the study of carcinogenesis". It went on to say that "his death robbed French science of one of its most illustrious figures". He had totalled almost 1100 scientific publications. His body was laid in state for five days in a sanctuary at Rue Gassendi in Paris, where it French and Vietnamese alike paid their respects.
A 1972 obituary by the journal Cancer Research
rated Bửu Hội as "probably the most prestigious intellectual that Vietnam has produced since the French conquest of the country about 100 years ago [Vietnam was entirely conquered by France in 1883]– a somewhat legendary personage to many of his countrymen."
He warned the French against erecting and supporting "artificial governments."
Bửu Hội's stature also allowed him to develop contacts with French President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle favoured neutralising Vietnam in the early 1960s and with the support of Bửu Hội advised his ambassador in Saigon Roger Lalouette to float the concept with Diem and Nhu. The theory that Nhu had been secretly with Hanoi in the period leading up the coup is often discussed by historians.
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
and a cancer researcher who published more than 1000 papers.
Family
Born in 1915, Bửu Hội was a native of the former imperial capital of Huế. He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Minh MạngMinh Mang
Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...
, who had ruled Vietnam from 1820 until 1841. Minh Mạng had been a staunch Confucianist who was known for his ultraconservative philosophy which was manifested in a shunning of the western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, technological and scientific innovation. He also was known for his strident hostility to the intrusion of Catholic missionaries into Vietnam as well as Buddhism, which were considered as undermining the mandate of heaven
Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven is a traditional Chinese philosophical concept concerning the legitimacy of rulers. It is similar to the European concept of the divine right of kings, in that both sought to legitimaze rule from divine approval; however, unlike the divine right of kings, the Mandate of...
of the Emperor. Minh Mạng's father was Emperor Gia Long
Gia Long
Emperor Gia Long , born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , was an emperor of Vietnam...
, who had united Vietnam under its current state. Gia Long had reunited the nation under the newly formed Nguyễn Dynasty with the help of French volunteers recruited by the Jesuit Catholic missionary Pigneau de Behaine
Pigneau de Behaine
Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau , commonly known as Pigneau de Béhaine, also Pierre Pigneaux and Bá Đa Lộc , was a French Catholic priest best known for his role in assisting Nguyễn Ánh to establish the Nguyễn Dynasty in Vietnam after the Tây Sơn...
after over two centuries of north-south division and multiple wars between the Nguyễn Lords in the south and the Trịnh Lords in the north.
Bửu Hội was also a Confucianist, instilled with a sense of duty to family and service to the nation. In contrast to his ancestors, Bửu Hội was also a secular-minded Buddhist, and his mother later became a Buddhist nun under the dharma name
Dharma name
A Dharma name is a new name acquired during a Buddhist initiation ritual in Mahayana Buddhism and monk ordination in Theravada Buddhism. The name is traditionally given by a Buddhist monastic, but is also given to newly ordained monks, nuns and laity....
Thich Dieu Hue. His father Ung Uy headed the Privy Council of the Imperial Family. Ung Uy was the Minister of Rites at Bảo Đại's court until May 9, 1945.
Education
Bửu Hội completed his secondary schooling at the Lycée Albert SarrautLycée Albert Sarraut
The Lycée Albert Sarraut was a French lyceum in Hanoi, Vietnam, during the French colonial period. It was one of 69 high schools founded by the French in their colonies worldwide, named for French Albert Sarraut. The school offered high standard academic programs for students between the ages of 11...
, a prestigious French-established school for the upper-class in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, the colonial capital of Vietnam. He then studied for a degree in pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
at the University of Hanoi while simultaneously auditing courses from the Faculty of Medicine. He had developed an interest in science from his youth, noting that this was "because of the desire of his mother and partly because of his own belief in the human value of science". He was just twenty years old when he was awarded his degree.
He subsequently left Vietnam in 1935 to study in Paris and was never to return as a resident. There Bửu Hội had befriended Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngo Dinh Nhu
Ngô Ðình Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Nhu was widely regarded as the architect of the Ngô family's nepotistic and autocratic rule over South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963...
, the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
while in France. Nhu was a staunch advocate of a Catholic doctrine known as personalism
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
and later became known for his efforts in running the clandestine Can Lao Party
Can Lao Party
The Cần lao Nhân vị Cách Mạng Ðảng, or Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party, was a secret party formed to support the Ngô Đình Diệm regime in South Vietnam, and largely operated by his brother, Ngô Đình Nhu...
(Personalist Revolutionary Party). The Can Lao was a Catholic part which supplied the autocratic Diem's power base and acted as a security apparatus to crush dissent in South Vietnam. This formed a bond between the two men which saw Bửu Hội later serve in the diplomatic corps and as a scientific advisor for Diem.
Scientific work
Only a few days after his arrival in Paris, an event occurred which he credited with further motivating him to pursue a scientific career. A family acquaintance Marie-Louise Gasc, a journalist, took him to a tea party hosted by Jean Perrin, Nobel laureate in physicsNobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
. There Bửu Hội met Louis de Broglie, a French aristocrat and Nobel Prize winner of physics known for his work in the wave particle duality of quantum physics. He met other contemporary greats of French science including Frédéric
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
and Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie was a French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. This made the Curies...
. He recollected "What impressed me then the most was that all that concentration of science was paralleled by an equal concentration of kindness and universal open-mindedness".
At Sorbonne University, he followed the regular curriculum towards his doctorate. He completed a "License es Science" degree while serving as an Intern of Pharmacy at the Paris Hospitals. After a short stint under Perrin in the Institute of Chemical Physics, he began his doctoral research in organic chemistry
Organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives...
. He worked in the laboratory of Pauline Ramart-Lucas, investigating the spectrophotometry
Spectrophotometry
In chemistry, spectrophotometry is the quantitative measurement of the reflection or transmission properties of a material as a function of wavelength...
of organic compounds.
During World War II
Bửu Hội's career was briefly interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. He volunteered in the French ArmyFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
and served until the Fall of Paris
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in May 1940. He then found himself in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in the southern zone under the fascist Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
government. With the help of the physicist Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin
Paul Langevin was a prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an antifascist organization created in the wake of the 6 February 1934 far right riots...
whom he had met at Perrin's party, he was able to re-enter the Nazi-occupied northern France and return to Paris. He joined the research staff of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1941, and upon the Liberation of France in 1944 was appointed Maitre de Conferences at the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
by the Provisional Government of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
.
At around the same period in 1944, Bửu Hội met Antoine Lacassagne, the Director of Biological Research at the Radium Institute. At the time Lacassagne was establishing an interdisciplinary team for exploring the possibilities and uses of a hypothesis by Otto Schmidt
Otto Schmidt
Otto Yulyevich Schmidt was a Soviet scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, statesman, academician, Hero of the USSR , and member of the Communist Party.-Biography:He was born in Mogilev, Russian Empire...
, which became known as the electronic theory of hydrocarbon carcinogenesis. One of the effects of the Nazi occupation was that the foreign scientific literature brought into France was almost entirely German. As a result, this exposed Lacassagne to what to be the scientific foundation of his highly fruitful collaboration with Bửu Hội. At the time, the electronic theory of molecular structure was in its formative years and was not considered as a vehicle by biologists for explaining phenomena, however Lacassagne saw promise in the prospect of Schmidt's hypothesis in attempting to explain carcinogenesis by a combination of elements of electron quantum theory, geometry and chemical structure. This required an interdisciplinary approach, and Bửu Hội's training in organic chemistry provided him with a wide range of tools to apply in the investigation of the roots of cancer.
The rapport between Lacassagne and the Vietnamese prince, less than half his age, developed rapidly. They began publishing joint research immediately, despite Bửu Hội not officially joining the Radium Institute until 1947. This occurred when he became head of the newly established Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Maitre de Recherches at the CNRS. After 13, Bửu Hội and his team relocated from the Radium Institute to larger facilities at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances in 1960. The new quarters was part of the National Centrer of Scientific Research laboratory group at Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette
Gif-sur-Yvette is a commune in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Geography:The town is crossed by and named after the Yvette river.The total area is and is green spaces and woods.-Place names:...
, about 24 km from Paris. He reached the pinnacle of the CNRS supported research hierarchy in 1962 with a promotion to Director of Research ("Exceptional" class). Around 1967, he established further research groups under his guidance; one at Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...
at the Marcel Delepine Center and a second at the Lannelogue Institute at Vanves
Vanves
Vanves is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe and the tenth in France -History:...
.
Scientific discoveries
The scientific discoveries of Bửu Hội spanned a wide range. He was trained as an organic chemist and achieved international recognition in his own right in the field, but he was able to span other fields. This was attributed to his intuitive intelligence and a vast memory which was credited with his ability to grasp the essence of a biological problem sometimes only vaguely related to organic chemistry. He came to be regarded as the most original and productive scientists in exploring the structure activity relationships of polynuclear carcinogens. His research spread beyond chemical carcinogenesis. He also published widely in organic chemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, epidemiology and biochemistry. He started his research career with investigations on chaulmoogric and hypocarpic acids in his Polytechnique laboratory. At the time, these were the only products used for treating leprosyLeprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
. Within a few years, he had established himself as an international authority in the chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
of the disease. He delineated the tole of the cyclopentene
Cyclopentene
Cyclopentene is a chemical compound with the formula 58. It is a colorless liquid with a petrol-like odor. It is one of the cycloalkenes.Cyclopentene is produced industrially in large amounts...
ring and its double bond and of the chain length in determining the toxicity and leprostatic activity of these compounds. Although from the time of his 1944 meeting with Lacassagne onwards he was preoccupied with the study of chemical carcinogenesis, he continued to devote substantial effort to the chemotherapy of leprosy and the associated chemotherapy of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
Chemical carcinogenesis
The overwhelming amount of Bửu Hội's contributions are in the field of chemical carcinogenesis and the synthesis of related organic chemical compounds. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he had extensive collaborations with the quantum chemistryQuantum chemistry
Quantum chemistry is a branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems...
personnel of the Radium Institute on various aspects of the electronic theory of carcinogenesis. Bửu Hội was the first to propose the involvement of noncovalent forces. Together with Lacassagne and Rudali, in the 1940s he became the first to describe the phenomena of synergisma and antagonism between carcinogens. He demonstrated this by using hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....
s on the skin of mice and later extended this to hepatic and other carcinogens. Starting in 1947, he collaborated with Zajdela and Lacassagne in exploring the relationships between the structure and carcinogenic activity of polynuclear compounds. The study spanned a groundbreaking scale and depth. These involved the fundamental ring systems and derivatives of 1,2-benzanthracene, the dibenzopyrenes, steranthrenes, anthanthrene, 1,2,3,4-dibenzanthracene, a variety of benzo and dibenzofluoranthenes. This was extended to large-molecular-size and "hypercondensed" hydrocarbons, ring opening and partial hydrogenation. During his study of dibenzopyrenes, he discovered a molecular arrangement involving the framework of aromatic hydrocarbons. His studies of the carcinogenic azulenophenalenes led him to question the role of aromaticity
Aromaticity
In organic chemistry, Aromaticity is a chemical property in which a conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibit a stabilization stronger than would be expected by the stabilization of conjugation alone. The earliest use of the term was in an article by August...
. Aside from his studies with aza-replaced hydrocarbons, benz- and dibenzacridines and –carbazoles, he also synthesised and tested a number of new structural types of heteroaromatics with reference to the nature, nuimber and position of the heteroatoms. These included the naphtho and benzo derivatives of pyridocarbazole and beta-carboline, heteroaromatics with sulfur, arsenic or selenium replacements. These were either alone or in association with nitrogen, as well as sulfur and nitrogen containing pseudoazulenes. A series of hydrocarbon-like polynuclear lactones were explored with the intent of establishing a connection between polynuclear aromatics and aflatoxins. Such studies of heteroatomic polynuclears led him to propose a "newer picture" of a carcinogenic hydrocarbon, helping the generalise the classical K-region hypothesis.
He contributed to studies on the carcinogenicity of 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide derivatives, the production of plant tumors by a nitrosamine
Nitrosamine
Nitrosamines are chemical compounds of the chemical structure R1N-N=O, some of which are carcinogenic.-Usages:Nitrosamines are used in manufacture of some cosmetics, pesticides, and in most rubber products. -Occurrences:...
. He also studied metabolism and protein binding of polynuclears and the effect of the binding o DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
replication and transcription, testing the effect of various carcinogens on the hatching of shrimp eggs. From the mid 1960s onwards, Bửu Hội increasingly turned his focus to the structural facets of polynuclears which determine their ability to induce microsomal enzyme synthesis, in particular involving zoxazolamine and dicoumarol hydroxylation. Aside from his study of fundamental organic chemistry, chemical carcinogenesis and chemotherapy of leprosy and tuberculosis, Bửu Hội's team also conducted research into a wide range of issues of biological and therapeutic interest. These included the synthesis and testing anti-inflammatory non-steroid compounds, substituted sex hormones, anti-coagulant substances and their potentiation, antidiabetic agents, treatment of hypertension by methyl-DOPA, antioxidants and the chemophylaxy of aging and the toxicity of dioxine among others.
Professional appointments
In 1947, Ho Chi Minh named him as the Rector of the University of Hanoi.He was a science advisor to Diem, and was appointed in 1960 as the Director of the Atomic Energy Establishment of Vietnam. In this capacity, he was a key figure in the establishiment of an Atomic Energy Research Center. This was primarily geared towards the medical and agricultural uses of atomic energy and a reactor was opened in Da Lat. Several countries of the third world awarded him honorary distinctions.
Political pursuits
While in Paris, Bửu Hội had not limited his activities to scientific research. Unlike his cousin Emperor Bảo ĐạiBảo Đài
Bảo Đài is a commune and village in Lục Nam District, Bac Giang Province, in northeastern Vietnam.-References:...
, he was willing to fight for Vietnamese independence. He had worked with Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
's Vietminh formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which sought to establish independence from its formation in September 1945. His international reputation, generated by his scientific achievements, lent prestige to Ho's government. Bửu Hội broke off links in 1950, when the Communists imposed a dictatorship on the resistance movement, resulting in many non communist nationalists breaking away.
In late 1947, Empress Nam Phuong
Nam Phuong
Empress Nam Phương , born Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan, later Imperial Princess Nam Phương, was the first and primary wife of Bảo Đại, the last king of Annam and last emperor of Vietnam, from 1934 until her death...
arrived in France to lobby Bửu Hội to help ratlly nationalists behind Bảo Đại. Bửu Hội said he would be willing only on the condition that the Emperor would unite with the resistance in order to help the Ciet Minh from being exclusively communist. Bảo Đại refused to do so.
In 1949, on behalf of the royal family who had taken part in the Fontainebleau Conference, he released a statement
"The former Imperial Family of Viet Nam regards with profound sadness the spilling of blood which is taking place in Viet Nam because of the refusal of the French authorities to negotiate with the national government of President Ho Chi Minh ... it should denter into relations with the government of President Ho Chi Minh in order to seek with it a peaceful solution of the conflict based on justice and fraternity."
At the same time, his father left the French controlled areas to live under Ho Chi Minh's control.
He railed against partition, predicting that it would likely lead to the indefinitate maintenance of the "[French] expeditionary corps in the non-Communist zone." As it turned out, American troops were deployed to what was to become the Republic of Vietnam.
In the early 1950s, Bửu Hội travelled to the United States. After the disruption of the Second World War, the president of the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
had asked a colleague to resume contact with French chemistry circles by selecting three men regarded to be the outstanding chemists in France. Bửu Hội was one of the three selected by the ACS. At the time he was director of research in organic chemistry at the Radium Institute in Paris. Bửu Hội accepted the invitation of the ACS to deliver a series of lectures in the United States. There, in the autumn of 1951, he also travelled to the Maryknoll Seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey to offer his support to Ngo Dinh Diem in his quest to form an independent Vietnamese government.
In August 1954, Bửu Hội returned to South Vietnam for a visit. Diem had been named Prime Minister of what was then the French backed State of Vietnam
State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam was a state that claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, and replaced the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam . The provisional government was a brief transitional administration between colonial Cochinchina and an independent state...
. Vietnam was supposed to be reunified after national elections in 1956 following a temporary partition and transitional phase. Diem was in trouble as the generals of the Vietnamese National Army
Vietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
disobeyed him and the national police were controlled by the Binh Xuyen
Binh Xuyen
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh...
, an armed criminal syndicate. Parts of the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
were controlled by the private armies of the Cao Dai
Cao Dai
Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. Đạo Cao Đài is the religion's shortened name, the full name is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ...
and Hoa Hao
Hoa Hao
Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương...
religious sects. Diem's government had little authority even in the centre of Saigon.
The youth of Saigon flocked to listen to Bửu Hội speak and newspapers reported that he was feted as a national hero. People saw him as a respected national figure, a professor who exuded wisdom and was above politics at a time when South Vietnam was in chaos. Bửu Hội went to meet Pham Cong Tac
Pham Cong Tac
Hộ Pháp Phạm Công Tắc , Population who self, alias Tay Son Dao, one of the most important leaders in the establishment, construction, development and consolidation of the system of the Cao Dai religion.-The first disciple:...
the pope of the Cao Dai and his entourage in their stronghold of Tay Ninh
Tay Ninh
Tây Ninh is a town in southwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Tay Ninh province, which encompasses the town and much of the surrounding farmland....
west of Saigon near the border with Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. He went to a secret meeting with the Cao Dai's general Trinh Minh The
Trinh Minh The
Trình Minh Thế was a Vietnamese nationalist and military leader during the end of the First Indochina War and the beginning of the Vietnam War.-Biography:...
at his base on Nui Ba Den (Black Lady Mountain)
Black Virgin Mountain
Black Virgin Mountain is a mountain in the Tay Ninh Province of Vietnam. To the Vietnamese the mountain is the center of a myth about Ba Den, a Vietnamese woman. During the Vietnam War the area around the mountain was very active as the Ho Chi Minh Trail ended a few kilometers west across the...
. Bửu Hội went on to meet the Hoa Hao in the Delta city of Cần Thơ and later met with Binh Xuyen leaders in Cholon. His prestige allowed many disparate and warring groups to receive him with respect. He further met with labor groups, army officers and representatives of the educated class. Later when the Saigon press was censored and partly shut down, he outlined his vision for Vietnam in the Paris magazine L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
.
His popularity was higher than any present or recent politician among a public disenchanted with the disunity and lack of government. The phenomenon of a political disinclined scholar above politics saw him compared to Paderewski of Ploand after the First World War and Weizmann, the first President of Israel. He outlined a program which sought to have South Vietnam strengthened against communism and integrated into South East Asia.
Bửu Hội advocated a new "government of national solidarity" in Saigon that incorporated the religious sects. This contrasted to Diem, who wanted to have unchallenged power with the sects in a subservient position. He felt that this would foster reconciliation between non-Communist nationalists in the south. Bửu Hội opposed a military buildup in the south, reasoning that the best defense against insurrection came from fostering popular participation in the administrative and economic institutions of the state. He favoured neutralism in South Vietnam's foreign affairs while remaining on positive terms with France and the United States. He argued that the colonial era and Vietnam's natural place in Asia was to join other nations such as India in a policy of non-alignment. He hoped that both North and South Vietnam could be admitted to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
Diem rejected these moderate policies, believing that a militantly anti-Communist stance was the solution for South Vietnam. This coincided with a fact finding mission by Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield
Mike Mansfield
Michael Joseph Mansfield was an American Democratic politician and the longest-serving Majority Leader of the United States Senate, serving from 1961 to 1977. He also served as United States Ambassador to Japan for over ten years...
, a strong Diem supporter. Regarded as the leading Vietnam authority in the Senate, he advocated a suspension of US aid if Diem was removed. Bửu Hội had received support for his ideas from the sects, army and labor groups. L'Express, the newspaper in Paris which printed his ideas, was considered to be friendly with French Prime Minister
Prime Minister of France
The Prime Minister of France in the Fifth Republic is the head of government and of the Council of Ministers of France. The head of state is the President of the French Republic...
Pierre Mendès France. As a result, the US State Department interpreted it as a French manoevre to replace Diem with Bửu Hội. Strongly disapproving of Bửu Hội's foreign policies, the Sate Department warned Mendes-France that US policy would change if Bửu Hội or someone like-minded became Prime Minister.
In 1958, Bửu Hội resumed work for Diem on the international front. He was charged with attending to the Indian, Canadian and Polish diplomats from the International Control Commission
International Control Commission
The International Control Commission , formally called the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Vietnam , was an international force established in 1954 that oversaw the implementation of the Geneva Accords that ended the First Indochina War with the Partition of Vietnam. It...
that were charged with monitoring the Geneva Accords
Geneva accords
The Geneva Accords, known formally as the agreements on the settlement of the situation relating to Afghanistan, were signed on 14 April 1988 between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the United States and the Soviet Union serving as guarantors....
which partitioned Vietnam in 1954. He was also assigned the job of securing diplomatic links and greater recognition of the Republic of Vietnam on the international arena. He was named as South Vietnam's ambassador to various countries and several bodies of the United Nations. In addition, he was named as the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Center that was constructed near the central highlands resort town of Da Lat. It was to be South Vietnam's first nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
.
In early 1953, Bửu Hội travelled as a private citizen to the office of the Vietminh in Rangoon, the capital of Burma. Despite leaving the Vietminh three years earlier, his nationalist credentials allowed him to secure an audience. At the time he was the elected president of an association of some 25,000 Vietnamese workers and soldiers stranded in France after the Second World War. He had also been a delegated to the conference at Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, the collapse of which had helped to spark the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
in 1946. Bửu Hội was accompanied by Jacques Raphael-Leygues, a Radical Socialist politician. Before departing Paris, Bửu Hội had been authorised by French President Vincent Auriol
Vincent Auriol
Vincent Jules Auriol was a French politician who served as the first President of the Fourth Republic from 1947 to 1954. He also served as interim President of the Provisional Government from November to December 1946, making him one of only three people who were heads of state of the French...
to propose the opening of direct negotiations with France. He left a letter in Rangoon to be delivered to Vietminh leaders, prophetically predicting that this would be the last opportunity for them to deal with France directly without third part interference. He predicted that the United States would eventually intervene with force unprecedented in Vietnam if the situation was not resolved. Neither the French nor the Vietminh made further efforts to pursue negotiations. Years later, Rench officials blamed domestic political feuds and the lack of support from some sections of their government. The Vietminh blamed logistical difficulties on their tardy and minimal reply. The result was that after the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that...
in early 1954, Vietnam was partitioned at the Geneva Conference
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
.
The Buddhist crisis
Buddhist crisis
The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam from May 1963 to November 1963 characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist monks....
erupted in the summer of 1963 after the shooting by authorities of nine Buddhists
Hue Vesak shootings
The Huế Phật Đản shootings refer to the deaths of nine unarmed Buddhist civilians on May 8, 1963, in the city of Huế in South Vietnam, at the hands of the army and security forces of the government of Ngô Đình Diệm...
who were protesting a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag
Buddhist flag
The Buddhist flag is a flag designed in the late 19th century to symbolise and universally represent Buddhism. It is used by Buddhists throughout the world.-History:...
on Vesak
Vesak
Vesākha is a holiday observed traditionally by Buddhists in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the South East Asian countries of Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, and Indonesia...
, the birthday of Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. As civil disobedience and demands for religious equality by the Buddhist majority against Diem's Catholic government grew, Diem's forces repeatedly attacked Buddhists. In June, Bửu Hội wrote to Nhu to urge Diem to further dialogue with the Buddhists and create a Ministry of Religious Affairs. As Diem remained intransigent on demands for religious equality and bringing those responsible for the Huế shootings to justice, his forces used chemicals on Buddhist protestors in Huế. The turning point was the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức on June 11 at a bust Saigon intersection, which was a public relations disaster for Diem. As the impasse continued, Bửu Hội's mother, who had been a Buddhist nun for many years, travelled from Huế to Saigon. The Buddhist leaders had announced that the mother of South Vietnam's most distinguished scientist and diplomat and member of the royal family, intended to burn herself to death to highlight oppression against Buddhists. The tension grew, and eventually in July, she made an appearance at a press conference at Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda
Xa Loi Pagoda
The Xá Lợi Pagoda is the largest pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was built in 1956 and was the headquarters of Buddhism in South Vietnam. The pagoda is located at 89 Bà Huyện Thanh Quan Street in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City and lies on a plot of 2500 square metres...
, to repeat the threat. Outside, Nhu's men had organised a "spontaneous" demonstration where government supporters had been bussed in. Concerned for his mother and the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, Bửu Hội returned home in attempt to mediate between the Buddhists and Diem and Nhu. Rumours began to circulate stating that the Americans wanted to have Bửu Hội inserted in a newly created post of Prime Minister, in order that the Ngo family's rule would be diluted. He spent many hours talking with the Buddhist leader Thich Tri Quang
Thich Tri Quang
Thích Trí Quang is a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk best known for his role in leading South Vietnam’s Buddhist population during the Buddhist crisis in 1963....
at Xa Loi to ensure that his mother would not actually self-immolate. The negotiations were fruitless and were futile. Shortly after midnight, the Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
loyal to Nhu raided pagodas across the country
Xa Loi Pagoda raids
The Xa Loi Pagoda raids were a series of synchronized attacks on various Buddhist pagodas in the major cities of South Vietnam shortly after midnight on August 21, 1963...
, vandalising, looting and in some cases detonating them, arresting around 1400 monks and nuns. A few hundred laypeople had disappeared, presumed killed (or summarily executed afterwards) while trying to repel the invaders from the temples. Bửu Hội went to Gia Long Palace at the end of August to take leave and return to his laboratory. At the time, the United Nations had been strongly condemning the actions of Diem's regime. When Nhu told him (in French: "You have left me in the s***"), Bửu Hội agreed to defend Saigon at the UN in New York on the condition that a fact-finding mission would be allowed to enter the country and freely see the truth for themselves.
Bửu Hội arrived in New York in mid September. The American public had a highly unfavourable view of South Vietnam, due to the self-immolations and pagoda attacks. U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
, the Buddhist Burmese who was the Secretary General of the United Nations sharply criticised Vietnam, saying that there was no country so chaotic and deteriorating. The campaign against the Diem regime was overtly led by Ceylon, but Saigon felt that Cambodia had been stirring up animosity among the Asian countries, having already broken off diplomatic relations after the raids. The UN session started on September 17 and Bửu Hội met with US Ambassador to the United Nations Charles Yost two days later. Bửu Hội contended that the Buddhist movement had transformed into a political movement to overthrow Diem and claiming that media reports transmitted to America were inaccurate. Yost asserted that irrespective of what was happening, the situation was intolerable and that Diem had to address it. Bửu Hội thought that implementing the five point plan
Joint Communique
The Joint Communiqué was an agreement signed on 16 June 1963 between the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem and the Buddhist leadership of the country in an attempt to end the Buddhist crisis.- Background :...
that Diem had signed in June but not implemented was the key. Bửu Hội admitted that discrimination in Vietnam was real. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
, the US Ambassador in Saigon, described Bửu Hội's proposed solution as "oversimplified".
Bửu Hội outlined a plan to the Americans's UN representatives to avoid a full-scale debate on South Vietnam in the General Assembly. He revealed that South Vietnam would reject a formal inquiry mission as interference in domestic affairs, but would try to seize the initiative to invite a fact finding mission. He reasoned that such a delegation would spark a rapprochement in Vietnam and would delay debate and condemnation by the Assembly until the mission had tabled its report. Privately he asked the Americans to tell Thich Tri Quang that he would do nothing to hurt the Buddhist cause.
Bửu Hội also visited the US Department of State in Washington where he was given a mixed reception. Harlan Cleveland, the assistance secretary for international organization affairs thought that his "sophisticated" plan and his stature as an intellectual and diplomat would boost his cause. Undersecretary Averell Harriman and Assistant Secretary Roger Hilsman
Roger Hilsman
Roger Hilsman is an author and political scientist. He served as an American soldier in Merrill's Marauders and then the Office of Strategic Services in China-Burma-India Theater of World War II during World War II and as an aide and adviser to President John F. Kennedy...
, well known Diem critics, were less enthusiastic. Bửu Hội's attempt to break the deadlock in relations since the pagoda raids failed to convince Harriman, who removed his hearing aid when Bửu Hội suggested that the pro-Diem former US ambassador Frederick Nolting
Frederick Nolting
Frederick Ernst Nolting , was a World War II naval officer and United States diplomat.-Early life and education:...
still had a positive role to play. When Hilsman criticised the treatment of the Buddhists, Bửu Hội asserted that the movement had become political and that the Buddhists had forced Diem into a fight for survival. He said that Buddhist elders deplored the alleged politicisation of the movement. Bửu Hội also parried US calls for Diem to remove Nhu, regarded as the corrosive influence in South Vietnam form power. He asserted that Nhu was a great talent but also noted that a Prime Minister should be appointed.
At the UN, the Ceylon delegate had begun to push for a resolution expressing serious concern about "the continuing violation of human rights in Vietnam." Since South Vietnam was not a member and had no right of reply, Bửu Hội and his team lobbied African and Asian countries behind the scene. Bửu Hội was also the South Vietnamese ambassador to six African nations. The result was that a polemical address by Ceylon on October 7 did not gather further response and a Soviet Union threat to use the International Control Commission to investigate the South's domestic affairs never materialised. The General Assembly voted unanimously to cut short the debate and accept the invitation to send a fact finding mission. Bửu Hội had managed to avert censure of his country and an unwanted debate on the role of the US there. Lodge expressed disappointment at why the US delegation helped to avoid a debate that would have condemned Diem. Despite Bửu Hội's assurances that the mission would be free to move around the country and was not a stalling device, Lodge was adamant that Diem would never allow them to see anything unfavourable.
On October 28, Bửu Hội opened the Atomic Energy Center in Da Lat in his role as the director general of the Office of Atomic Energy. Diem said of his work "In the non-aligned world, we have more friends now, thanks to the diplomatic bases laid by Professor Bửu Hội in Africa."
On October 31, he performed his last public duty in South Vietnam. Bửu Hội visited Nhu along with two Buddhist monks and ask him to intervene with Diem to set free "all Buddhist dignitaries, laymen and students till under detention." Nhu "promised to obtain from the president a favourable answer to this request." Diem and Nhu were executed two days later after being overthrown in a coup
1963 South Vietnamese coup
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong.The...
. Bửu Hội left Vietnam after the coup to resume his scientific research. He only returned on the occasion of the funeral of his mother, who had died from natural causes.
Awards
Bửu Hội was a multiple laureate of the French Academy of SciencesFrench Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
, the French Academy of Medicine and the French Ministry of Education. His work in cancer research specifically yielded awards from the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale is a French biomedical and public health research institution.- Medical research organisation :...
and the French League Against Cancer. Despite working for almost his entire academic career in France, he also received awards from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands...
and received funding from the US National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
.
He was a member of the Panel of Experts for Leprosy of the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
and an honorary member of several medical societies. He was decorated with a number of French Government
Government of France
The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
awards: Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, commander of the Order of Public Health, commander of the Order of Research and Invention and a Knight of the Academic Palms.
Death
He died of a heart attack on January 8, 1972, his native country still divided and ravaged by civil warVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. It was only a few weeks after the passing of his research colleague Antoine Lacassagne, ending a prolific partnership described by Cancer Research as a "heroic and important chapter of the study of carcinogenesis". It went on to say that "his death robbed French science of one of its most illustrious figures". He had totalled almost 1100 scientific publications. His body was laid in state for five days in a sanctuary at Rue Gassendi in Paris, where it French and Vietnamese alike paid their respects.
A 1972 obituary by the journal Cancer Research
Cancer research
Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure....
rated Bửu Hội as "probably the most prestigious intellectual that Vietnam has produced since the French conquest of the country about 100 years ago [Vietnam was entirely conquered by France in 1883]– a somewhat legendary personage to many of his countrymen."
He warned the French against erecting and supporting "artificial governments."
Bửu Hội's stature also allowed him to develop contacts with French President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle favoured neutralising Vietnam in the early 1960s and with the support of Bửu Hội advised his ambassador in Saigon Roger Lalouette to float the concept with Diem and Nhu. The theory that Nhu had been secretly with Hanoi in the period leading up the coup is often discussed by historians.