Trần Lệ Xuân -- ドラゴン・レディー（２）

　クーデターからほぼ二十年後に彼女が応じたインタビューでも、彼女はズィエム政権の正当性（legitimate power）を主張し、アメリカのベトナム介入とクーデターについては、

"[Y]ou (Americans) have beheaded [Vietnam], you see."

つまり、一国の斬首であり、

"After these three (Bay of Pigs invasion, Berlin Wall, Cuban missile crisis), we can say, blunders, the U.S. Government believed that it had to recoup some prestige with my country." "[Without these 'blunders'] I believe that... it would never do… that coup. But after three mistakes like the ones I have just cited, it had to do something in Vietnam to — how do you say? — to own Vietnam. And for them, all the factors of success were there. They consider[ed] that they could not leave it to us, but what they have done was exactly to rob the poor."

とケネディー政権の外交における三つの大失策後の名誉回復が理由だとし、仏教徒による反政府行動に関しては、

"I am sure that the true Buddhists, we never denounced them. Because according to the Buddhist belief: no action, no reaction. So, a true Buddhist never react[s]. They would never go out and publicly denounce anyone.⁶"

すべてを受け入れるのが本当の仏教徒であるとの考えのようだが、前述の「バーベキュー」発言などで大きな顰蹙を買うことになる。

彼女自身が仏教からカトリック教に改宗した人のはずだが、仏教徒については、

"It is embarrassing to see people so uncultured claiming to be leaders.⁷"

とまで述べている。

  ズィエム大統領とアメリカの彼に対する対応は、

"I can say that he was a just man — just, like in the Bible. That means that he could err, but he always wanted to make amends immediately and that's why I consider that it was a crime [by] the West to have condemned him to have [him] killed... without giving him the opportunity to even answer, to speak...."

つまり、圧倒的に仏教徒が多い国においてカトリック教徒としての正義を守った人であり、反論する機会も与えられなかったと。まさにカトリック教徒として清廉潔白な人物であったようだが、政治に関わるべき人ではなく、まして大統領になるべき人ではなく、結局は同じカトリック教徒である実弟夫妻に実権を握られ、自らの意思では何も決断ができなかったのだろう。

　ズィエムと会うと、閉口させられる一方的な歴史講話が何時間も続くという話が必ず登場するが、ファム・スアン・アン（Phạm Xuân Ẩn）による連日の講話はどの記者にとっても学習の機会だったのが不思議に思えたりするのである。いずれかの恩恵を受けた日本人記者は存在したのだろうか。いなかったと、ほぼ断言する。

　ノルティング（Frederik Nolting）の後任として駐サイゴン米大使となり、一九六三年のクーデター支持をケネディーに進言したロッジ（Henry Cabot Lodge）とその他のアメリカ人に対する評価は、

"'Leave [it to] us; we shall arrange it.' And it is just for [Diem] to keep quiet and to be murdered, to be stabbed in the back...."

"I believed that Colonel Lansdale — now he's a general — was a good friend [like] many [others], and but like Ambassador Nolting also. But those who were, who were our good friends were dismissed.⁸"

　自らの傲慢さを棚に上げてではあるが、高圧的だとの印象だったに違いないロッジに批判的で、ランズデールとノルティングに対する親しみがうかがえる。ノルティングには、やはりズィエム大統領、と言うよりもノ・ディン・ニューに対して戦争遂行にアメリカが必要だと考える政策、また国民からの支持を得るために必要だと考える政策を推進させるほどの手腕が乏しかったようだ。

　"Fritz Nolting... would soon seem to many to be more Diem's envoy to the United States than vice versa.⁹"

　"Lacking the kind of personal history with Diem that Lansdale possessed, Nolting would find himself hard-put to influence the stubborn president even though he tried to adopt the conciliatory approach that Lansdale advocated. Only Lansdale... had any chance, however remote, of persuading Diem to peacefully reform and thus to avert his own overthrow two and a half years later.¹⁰"

  "[Nolting] had committed himself totally to Diem; his whole policy was based on his personal relationship with the President and on his ability to influence him.¹¹" 

 

⁶ WGBH Interview. Vietnam: A Television History, February 1, 1982, (https://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4D5600E72791435897E4368A6AAE8F38;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjL2n7biu-8)

⁷ Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era, 1965

⁸ WGBH Interview. Vietnam: A Television History, February 1, 1982, (https://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4D5600E72791435897E4368A6AAE8F38;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjL2n7biu-8)

⁹ Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest, 1969

¹⁰ Boot, Max. Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, 2018

¹¹ Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era, 1965