Ngô Đình Cẩn

Diệm, like his father, resigned in protest in 1933, while Khôi was assassinated in 1945 by Hồ Chí Minh's cadres.

The second brother, Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, was appointed as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế.

A fourth brother Ngô Đình Nhu became the family's chief political strategist, while the youngest, Ngô Đình Luyện was a diplomat when the family held power in South Vietnam.

Of the Ngô brothers, only Thục and Luyện avoided being executed or assassinated during Vietnam's political upheavals.

Details about Cẩn's early life are scarce.

In his youth, he had studied the writings and opinions of the renowned anti-French Vietnamese nationalist Phan Bội Châu, who spent his last years in Huế.

Regarded as the leading revolutionary of his time, Châu had been captured and sentenced to death, before having his sentence reduced to house arrest.

Cẩn regularly traveled to Châu's sampan on the Perfume River with gifts of food and listened to Châu's political lectures.

Regarded as the least educated of his family, Cẩn had never traveled outside Vietnam and was the only Ngô brother not to have studied at a European-run institution.

Vietnam was in chaos after the Japanese invaded the country during World War II and displaced the French colonial administration.

At the end of the war, the Japanese left the country, and France, severely weakened by political turmoil within the Vichy regime, was unable to exert control.

Hồ Chí Minh's Viet Minh declared independence as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and battled other Vietnamese nationalist groups as well as French forces for control of the nation.

During this time, Cẩn organised a clandestine support base for Diệm in central Vietnam.

At the time, Diệm was one of many nationalists who were attempting to stake a claim to national leadership, having spent a decade in self-imposed exile from public affairs.

Cẩn helped weaken other anti-communist nationalist groups, such as the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Vietnamese Nationalist Party) and the Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam), which competed with Diệm for support.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked to organise support for Diệm as various Vietnamese groups and international powers sought to stamp their authority over Vietnam.

Cẩn, who succeeded in eliminating alternative nationalist opposition in central Vietnam, became the warlord of the region when his brother became president of the southern half of the partitioned nation in 1955.

He became notorious for his involvement in smuggling and corruption, as well as his autocratic rule.

Cẩn was regarded as an effective leader against the Viet Cong communist insurgency, which was much weaker in central Vietnam than in other parts of South Vietnam.

His Popular Force militia was regarded by US officials in central Vietnam as a successful counter to the communists.

Cẩn's influence began to wane after his elder brother Ngô Đình Thục was appointed the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Huế.

On 23 October 1955, Diệm toppled Bảo Đại in a fraud-ridden referendum orchestrated by Nhu.

Diệm declared himself President of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam three days later.

Cẩn's men helped to cower the populace into voting for his brother.

Those who disobeyed were often chased down and beaten, with pepper sauce and water often forced down their nostrils.

The violations were particularly flagrant in Cẩn's area, which was the home of the Nguyễn dynasty and a source of sympathy towards Bảo Đại.

Cẩn ordered the police to arrest 1,200 people for political reasons in the week leading up to the vote.

In Hội An, some people were killed in election day violence.

Thục overshadowed Cẩn and aggressively promoted Catholicism, which led to the banning of the Buddhist flag in 1963 during Vesak, the celebration of the birthday of Gautama Buddha.

Cẩn's forces opened fire on a crowd who were protesting the ban, killing nine and precipitating the Buddhist crisis.

Ongoing demonstrations intensified throughout the summer as the regime responded with increased brutality, sparking the toppling of the Diem regime in a November 1963 coup.

Cẩn had been offered asylum by the US Department of State, but ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.. had CIA officer Lucien Conein arrest the fallen Ngô in Saigon.

Ngô Đình Cẩn (1911 – 9 May 1964) was a younger brother and confidant of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, and an important member of the Diệm government.

Cẩn was turned over to the military junta, which tried and executed him in 1964.

Cẩn was the fifth of six sons born to Ngô Đình Khả, who was a mandarin in the imperial court of Emperor Thành Thái, who was ruling under French control.

Khả retired from the court in protest at French interference, taking up farming.

Cẩn's first and third brothers – Ngô Đình Khôi and Diệm – rose to become provincial governors under French rule.

Diệm put Cẩn in charge of central Vietnam, stretching from Phan Thiết in the south to the border at the 17th parallel, with Cẩn ruling the region as a virtual dictator.

Based in the former imperial capital of Huế, Cẩn operated private armies and secret police that controlled the central region and earned himself a reputation as the most oppressive of the Ngô brothers.

In his youth, Cẩn was a follower of the nationalist Phan Bội Châu.