The Ho Dac

Mrs. Sy Dang maternal side has mandarins dated back to the days of Emperor Minh Mang. Some of the more notable political figures were:

• • Hồ Đắc Trung - Prime Minister of Justice. One of the Royal Quartet Pillars (Vietnamese: Tứ Trụ Đại Thần). He defied the presiding magistrate to deliver a royal decree to spare Emperor Thành Thái for rebellion against the French protectorate. When the Emperor was transferred to the Protectorate and was pronounced a death sentence, the dynasty was reluctant to intervened. After much pursuasion, a group of madarins proposed to abdicate the Emperor in exchange for the Protectorate's exiling the Emperor. Though Emperor Thành Thái's rebellion was a failure, it started an opened revolution among the Vietnamese people. Officials no longer complied to Protectorate's demands that contradicted national interests. While the royal decree spared the Emperor's life, it was unable to save the lives of those who helped the Emperor's cause.

• • Hồ Đắc Khải - Prime minister of Finance and Education. He represented the cabinet that signed treaty with colonial French government to make Vietnam education system a part of French protectorate. This act replaced the traditional Vietnamese education system, based on Chinese Confucian system, to a similar Latin based education under French educational system. All examinations and writings were conformed to French standards.

• • Hồ Đắc Khương - A member of the General Assembly in the First Republic. He was a moderate Buddhist voice during the Buddhist crisis in 1963-1964. During events which precipitated the Fall of the First Republic, he was a trusted liaison between President Ngo Dinh Diem and the Buddhist hierarchy. He resigned shortly after the Military Junta took control of the government. He did not make a bid to run for other government offices after the Second Republic of President Nguyen Van Thieu replaced the military government.

REFERENCES:

1. The Indochinese experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

2. Les compagnons de route de Hô Chi Minh: histoire d'un engagement

3. Récits de voyages asiatiques: genres, mentalités, conception de l'espace

4. Red hills: migrants and the state in the highlands of Vietnam

5. Mandarins and martyrs: the church and the Nguyen dynasty in early nineteenth

6. The Tapestries: A Novel‎ (fiction)