Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, (April 5, 1923 – September 29, 2001) was a former General and President of South Vietnam.

Biography

The son of a small landowner, as a patriotic teenager he joined the Viet Minh, led by Hồ Chí Minh to liberate Vietnam from French colonialism. He abandoned them after they moved into the Soviet sphere of influence and embraced Communism.

In 1949, he was educated at the National Military Academy in the former Imperial Capital Hué. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant from the first officer candidates` course of the Vietnam National Army which had been created by Emperor Bảo Đại.

Thiệu was an Army lieutenant-colonel when the Republic of Vietnam was founded and it recovered full sovereignty after the withdrawal of French forces in 1955, following the 1954 Geneva Agreement.