Do you think Madame Nhu was as powerful as she claims? If she’d been present during the coup, do you think the outcome would have been different?

Madame Nhu takes credit for helping Diem avoid crises, and feels that had she been in Vietnam during the coop she could have stopped it from occurring. Do you think she was as powerful as she claims? If she’d been present, do you think the outcome would have been different?

I think she may influenced Diem and her husband, but I don't think she was as powerful as she claimed. Had she been present during the coup I think she would have also been arrested and killed.

I think Diem & Nhu were a lot smarter than she believed them to be. This became evident to me after she left on her trip. They did try to prevent the coup, but I think they should have planned a lot earlier. Madame Nhu would always stated she was the brains, because she needed to be in power. She loved power,even in her elderly years, playing power games with the author.

And here I will reveal my ignorance of history: Has anyone, anywhere staged a coup as Diem and Nhu conceived, and succeeded in pulling it off?

The coup could not have been stopped. Regardless of what she thought of her skills, even Madame Nhu could not have stopped it. The people of South Vietnam had had enough of Ngo family leadership. The American leadership had had enough of the Ngo family and put resources toward the coup. Ms. Demery gave us very important information regarding the state of leadership in both North and South Vietnam in the years leading up to the coup. Regrettably, South Vietnam seems to have been destined to fall even before late 1963. Robert McNamara says the same thing in his book "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam."

No, I think Madame Nhu was more power hunger than being a truly powerful leader. The author talked about how out of touch she was with the people of Vietnam, foreign leaders and I don't believe grasped how the Ngo family dictatorship had eroded the support of the US and foreign leadership. Their tactics, cruel behaviors and greed cost them their domestic favor as well. Had the Dragon Lady been in Vietnam during the coup, she would have been dead along with her brothers.

She was very powerful for a woman of her time. In many ways she was more realistic than her husband and brother-law-law. However, she did not see the whole picture in the global sense. Also as much as she was able to attain for the women of Vietnam she could not relate to a common person. Madame Nhu thought that her beauty and charm would bring her through any crisis. I believe things had deteriorated so badly by the time of the coup that she would have been killed had she been in Vietnam.

I believe she thought she could have prevented the coup, but in fact the outcome was inevitable. The United States wanted the Ngo regime replaced and that was what was going to happen. If she had been there, probably the whole family would have been wiped out.

Although she had a lot of power for that decade and particularly in an area of the world where most women were subservient to husbands, she was not quite as powerful as she liked to think.

I think had she been there during the coup she would have been killed. I don't think she was quite as influential as she thought, but she did wield a tremendous amount of influence. I do think the coup was inevitable.

I agree that she didn't have the power she thinks she had and that if not killed, she would have been locked away.

I agree with penny that if she'd been there during the coup, she would have ended up as dead as Diem and Nhu. Remember JFK's reported remark to Red Fay that one reason the US decided to get rid of the Ngos was because of Madame Nhu, who "stuck her nose in and boiled up the whole situation."

I'm confident she was powerful. Perhaps surprised she didn't overthrow her brother in law. She was natural leader, cunning and intelligent. She probably would have sensed a coup and led all to safety or she would have been eliminated in a harsh manner as well. Difficult to answer since the US was out to end their regime. I do think she would have fought to the extremes. Nothing about this woman was quiet and cooperative.

No, I don't think Madame Nhu was nearly as powerful as she thought. She confused getting attention with having power, as many people do today. I don't think she could have changed the outcome of the coup, nor could Diem or Nhu. They were all dealing with outside forces more powerful than they were.

I do not think she could have changed things but she might have advised her husband and brother in law about the foolishness of trying to stage their own coup. I would like to know more about the role of her parents in this.

I agree with previous posts that if she had stayed, she would have met the same fate as her husband and brother in law.

I agree with Marianne's post that she confused getting attention with having power, as so many people do today. This book was fascinating to me because I lived thought that time in history and know so little about it. The book was a page turner and I couldn't put it down. So true that often an historical story can be more bizarre and incredible than the fictional stories that we read.