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Bao Dai Invites Ngo Dinh Diem To Become Prime Minister

June 7, 1954

1954-06-07_35aDiem
1954-06-07_35aDiem
Ngo Dinh Diem (center rear) visits a South Vietnamese Navy river patrol craft, circa 1954–1955. (Naval History and Heritage Command)

Vietnamese Chief of State Bao Dai invites Ngo Dinh Diem to become prime minister of the government in Saigon. Diem, a Catholic, is known as a nationalist and an anti-Communist. He has lived outside Vietnam since 1950, and in July 1954 Diem steps into the role of Prime Minister.1

1Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941–1960, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1985), 224–25.