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— Ngo Dinh Can, 50, technically holds no government post at all, but in fact runs the city of Hue and surrounding central Viet Nam. Although, unlike his brothers, Can has never been abroad, did not go to a university, and runs his fiefdom like an old warlord, the war in the central highlands is going far bet ter than anywhere else in South Viet Nam. An inveterate ao-dai chaser, Can has incurred Mme. Nhu's wrath: "He is stubborn and touchy, and unbearably obsolete concerning women." But, she concedes, "we all feel safer to have him in Hué."
∙ Ngo Dinh Luyen, 48, has been abroad since 1954, serves as South Viet Nam's Ambassador to Great Britain and several other European countries, Mme. Nhu is openly contemptuous of Luyen's ability and sneeringly calls him "a dilettante."
∙ Ngo Dinh Nhu, 52, functions as political counselor and theoretician for President Diem. From his soundproofed palace office, surrounded by books and stuffed animal heads, he tirelessly preaches the merits of "personalism," an abstruse amalgam of Confucianism, autocracy and Catholic morality that Diem calls his "formula" for government. Nhu controls the secret police and advises Diem on army promotions, government appointments and business contracts. On the side he runs the Revolutionary Labor Party, whose 70,000 members throughout the nation spend most of their time informing the police about their neighbors.
Falling Out. Mme. Nhu's criticism —she has even suggested that President Diem is not as forceful as he might be — is a frequent irritant. Yet despite occasional bickering, Mme. Nhu fiercely defends Diem and the others. "I have never met anyone as human, warmhearted and chivalrous as the Ngo Dinh brothers," she says extravagantly. "The world is not made for them. They would not hurt a mosquito."
The basic bond between her and the brothers is intense, and very Asian. In the past, South Viet Nam's women deliberately gave their husbands money to dissipate on opium and prostitutes in order to control them better. During the Indo-China war, thousands of men worked openly for the French, but cases of women collaborators were rare. Today women control much of South Viet Nam's wealth, and in her home a wife is called noi tuong, or "general of the interior." Matriarchal strength is compounded by the traditional Vietnamese view of the family as monolithic and united against all outsiders, but in Mme. Nhu's case, her family by marriage takes precedence over her own blood. She has fallen out with her father, mother and sister. It is in Diem's clan that Mme. Nhu finds the place and the power she craves.
Beautiful Spring. She was born "about 38" years ago into one of the wealthiest, most aristocratic landowning families in Viet Nam. Her maiden name was Tran Le Xuan, which means Beautiful Spring, and at her family's home in Hanoi she was waited on by 20 servants. Tutored at home, she never finished high school, took ballet lessons, once danced a solo at Hanoi's National Theater. She learned to speak French fluently, today mostly converses in that language, writes all her speeches in French before having them translated into Vietnamese.