Madame Nhu | S. Vietnamese figure, 86

Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, 86, who served as South Vietnam's unofficial first lady early on in the Vietnam War and earned the nickname "Dragon Lady" for her criticism of protesting Buddhist monks and communist sympathizers, died Sunday at a Rome hospital.

Madame Nhu, whose given name was Tran Le Xuan, lived in the former presidential palace in South Vietnam's capital, Saigon, with her husband, Ngo Dinh Nhu, the powerful head of the secret police, and his bachelor brother, President Ngo Dinh Diem, who served from 1955 to 1963. She took on the role of first lady as U.S.-backed South Vietnam fought northern communist forces before Washington broadened its military effort.

She was well-known for her fiery rhetoric and was particularly outspoken against Buddhist monks who were setting themselves on fire to protest Diem's crackdown - once saying she would "clap hands at seeing another monk barbecue show, for one cannot be responsible for the madness of others."

Her Buddhist father, Tran Van Chuong, who was serving as the South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States, resigned in protest as did her mother, Nam-Tran Chuong, who was South Vietnam's permanent observer to the United Nations. Madame Nhu later called her father "a coward."

She was in the United States on a speaking tour on Nov. 1, 1963, when her husband was killed along with Diem in a U.S.-backed coup.

She went into exile in Italy and remained in Europe until her death, living a reclusive life in which she left her home only to attend Mass, according to family friend Thu Phu Truong of Seattle. - AP