Nguyễn Bá Cẩn

Penultimate Prime Minister of South Vietnam in 1975

Nguyễn Bá Cẩn (9 September 1930 – 20 May 2009) was a South Vietnamese politician who served as the penultimate Prime Minister of South Vietnam from 4 April 1975 until 28 April 1975, serving under Presidents Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (4 April to 21 April) and Trần Văn Hương (21 April to 28 April). Before becoming prime minister, he was a member of the lower house (House of Representatives) of the National Assembly representing Định Tường province and served as the second Speaker of the lower house.

He was born on 9 September 1930 in Cần Thơ, Cochinchina, French Indochina into a family of wealthy farmers. In December 1950, he married Elizabeth Nguyễn Thị Tu, a Roman Catholic with whom he had one son and two daughters with. In 1951, he enlisted in the army to study in the First Course of the Thủ Đức Military Academy. After graduating in 1953, he continued his education by registering for and passing the entrance exam to the Dalat Ecole d'Administration in 1954. From 1954 to 1957, he attended the Dalat Ecole d'Administration in which he graduated as valedictorian with a baccalaureate in administration. He started his political career with the position of Chief of Cái Bè District, Định Tường (1958); Deputy Governor Định Tường (1959); Deputy Governor Phước Tuy (1962); then Deputy Governor of Long An Province (1964). In 1967 during the Second Republic, he was elected to the Lower House of the National Assembly, representing Định Tường province. Soon afterward, he was appointed as the Second Vice Chairman of the House of Representatives. At the end of 1967, he cooperated with Congressman Đặng Văn Sung of the Alliance of Farmers and Engineers in the Senate to establish the Bicameral Social Democratic Union. In 1969, this bloc joined forces with Mr. Trần Quốc Bửu, Chairman of the Vietnam General Confederation of Workers, to establish the Vietnam Workers' Party, with Mr. Trần Quốc Bửu as Chairman, and he became General Secretary. He was reelected for a second term in the 1971 South Vietnamese parliamentary election. During his second term (1971–1975), he was elected as the second Speaker of the House of Representatives.

After submitting his resignation, he arranged for his wife and youngest daughterto board the last Air France flight to Paris on 26 April. Two days later, he was brought over the Philippines by the US Embassy on a C 130 plane of the US army. On this flight, included two veteran politicians Hoàng Đức Nhã and Phan Quang Đán. From the Philippines, US authorities took him to California. After he arrived in Sacramento, his wife and youngest daughter were also approved by the US government to immigrate to the United States from Paris to reunite. After settling in northern California, he initially opened a small gas station in the city of Mountain View. However, after only three months, the business had to stop because of capital loss. Then, he enrolled to study computing at the age of 46. In 1979, he graduated as a programmer and joined Standard Oil, then Chevron Texaco Corp., working in the computer department until retiring in 1998. In retirement, he devoted time to social activities and human rights. In September 2003, he published his memoirs My Country. In May 2009, he submitted the dossier "Vietnam's continental shelf" to the United Nations, affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over the East Sea and the Hoàng Sa and Trường Sa archipelagoes. He died at 4:30 am on 20 May 2009 at Regional Medical Center in San Jose, California.