The White Pebble: Madame Nhu’s Memoirs

No other Vietnamese family in modern time had such an
intense involvement in high politics and public affairs as the Ngô-Đìnhs.
Through the tenure of President Ngô-Đình Diệm of the Republic of Vietnam (1955-1963),
this family helped shape Vietnamese history in numerous ways. President Diệm’s
rule in South Vietnam was perceived by many to be authoritarian and nepotistic,
but it is important for historians in general and for anyone interested in
Vietnamese history in particular to learn more about his family members who
played such important roles in his government. How did they see themselves,
their country, and their compatriots? How did each member of the family think
of others? How did they view the family’s role in history?

Sixty years after the death Ngô-Đình Nhu,
English-language readers can now learn about Madame Ngô-Đình Nhu’s life from
her own words and recollections.

Of all the Ngô-Đìnhs, Madame Ngô-Đình Nhu (Trần Lệ
Xuân) was perhaps the most controversial figure. In this posthumous memoir
translated from French, Madame Nhu narrates important events in her life, from
her childhood to her marriage to Mr. Nhu, from her time in Huế during the
Franco-Vietnamese war to the happy years of the Diệm government, and from her
forced exile to the last days of her life. A complex individual and a
strong-willed woman who refused to accept the terrible hands fate dealt her, Madame
Nhu bared her pains, lamented the plight of Vietnam, and railed against the
foreign powers that meddled in Vietnamese affairs.

In an essay accompanying their mother’s narrative in The
White Pebble, the late Ngô-Đình Lệ Quyên and Ngô-Đình Quỳnh (along with
Jacqueline Willemetz) join their mother to defend the integrity of the Diệm
government and the Ngô-Đình family against their critics. By telling the
family’s history alongside that of the Vietnamese nation, Ngô-Đình Nhu’s
children wanted to demonstrate the sincerity and depth of patriotism in the
family.

This book not only
provides a unique account of Madame Nhu and the Ngô-Đình family by its members
but also illuminates politics in Republican Vietnam and its troubled
relationship with the United States