You never know what might be discovered when you are
researching an older house in Washington, DC, and we had quite a surprise when
we researched one recently in Chevy Chase DC at 5609 32nd Street for
the current owners (left). I think they were
surprised as well!
Construction began
in September of 1931, and the house was built for an estimated cost of just
$8,000. It was designed by prolific
architect George T. Santmyers. It was
sold to a government accountant named Frank Read. The Read’s may have been a typical DC
homeowner of the era, but it was who they sold the house to, and when, that was
the real interesting story – along with their tragic demise.
They sold the house on June 6, 1963 to Tran Van Chuong, who
had resigned as the South Vietnam Ambassador to the United States shortly
before the purchase (right). Trần Văn Chương (c.
1898 — 24 July 1986) was the father of the country's de facto first
lady, Madame Nhu (1924-2011). They would own the house for three years.
He had married Thân Thị Nam Trân, who was a member of the
extended Vietnamese royal family (left). Her father was Thân Trọng Huề, who became
Vietnam's minister for national education, and her mother was a daughter of
Emperor Đồng Khánh. They had a son Trần Văn Khiêm and three daughters, including Lệ Xuân, who
became the wife of Ngô Ðình Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's first
President, Ngô Ðình Diệm.
Chương's family alliances enabled him to rise from being a
member of a small law practice in the Cochin-Chinese (South Vietnamese) town of
Bạc Liêu in the 1920s to become Vietnam's first Foreign Secretary under his
wife's cousin Emperor Bảo Đại, while Japan occupied Vietnam during World War
II.
As stated in the LA Times: “Chuong and his wife were near the
center of a movement to create a new Vietnam, free of French rule. Their lives
and the lives of their children were always part of the roiling pot that was
the politics of Vietnam, forever filled with intrigue."
In 1945, when many believed that the way to independence was
through Japanese support, Chuong was vice premier in a short-lived Japanese
puppet government. Later that year, when the communist Viet Minh took control
of the government, Chuong was arrested. His wife, whom the Viet Minh were
willing to leave behind, insisted on going with her husband.
The couple escaped, taking refuge in the south, and in 1947
they made their way to Paris. When Diem became prime minister in 1954 and then the
nation's president, Chuong was named Vietnam's ambassador to the United States.
His wife became Vietnam's permanent observer at the United Nations. He eventually became South Vietnam's ambassador to the
United States, but resigned in protest in 1963, denouncing his government's
anti-Buddhist policies.
On November 1, 1963, Chuong's son-in-law Ngô Ðình Nhu
and Nhu's brother, President Ngô Ðình Diệm were assassinated in a coup d'état
led by General Dương Văn Minh. Chuong's daughter, Ngô Ðình Nhu's wife, the
rather famous Madame Nhu (1924-2011), was in Beverly Hills, California at the
time of the coup.
Chương and his wife remained in the United States in
Washington, D.C. On July 24, 1986, they
were found strangled to death at their home on Western Avenue NW. Their son Trần Văn Khiêm (left), was accused but found unfit
for trial. The remains of Chương and his
wife were interred at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Copyright Paul K. Williams: Pictures courtesy The Washington Post
