Trần VÃÂn Chðáng (; 2 June 1898 â 24 July 1986) was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States from 1954 to 1963 and the father of the country's de facto first lady, Madame Nhu (1924âÂÂ2011). He was also the foreign minister of the Empire of Vietnam, a Japanese puppet state that existed in 1945.
He married Thân Thá» Nam Trân (died 24 July 1986), who was a member of the extended Vietnamese royal family. Her father was Thân Trá»Âng Huá»Â, who became Vietnam's minister for national education, and her mother was a daughter of Emperor ÃÂá»Âng Khánh. They had a son and two daughters, including Lá» Xuân, who became the wife of Ngô ÃÂình Nhu, the brother of South Vietnam's first President, Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm.
Chðáng's family alliances enabled him to rise from being a member of a small law practice in the Cochin-Chinese (South Vietnamese) town of Bạc Liêu in the 1920s to become Vietnam's first Foreign Secretary under his wife's cousin Emperor Bảo ÃÂại, while Japan occupied Vietnam during World War II. His wife Madame Chðáng was accused by the French secret police (French Sûreté) of sleeping with Japanese diplomats so her husband was hired by them. He eventually became South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States, but resigned in protest and denounced his government's anti-Buddhist policies after the Xá Lợi Pagoda raids. He proclaimed there was âÂÂnot one chance in a hundred for victoryâ over the Communists with his daughter and her husband and brother-in-law in power.
On 1 November 1963, Chðáng's son-in-law Ngô ÃÂình Nhu and Nhu's brother, President Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm were assassinated in a coup d'état led by General Dðáng VÃÂn Minh. Chðáng's daughter, Ngô ÃÂình Nhu's wife, Madame Nhu (1924âÂÂ2011), was in Beverly Hills, California, at the time of the coup.
Chðáng and his wife remained in the United States in Washington, D.C. On 24 July 1986, their strangled bodies were found at their home. Their son, Trần VÃÂn Khiêm, was accused but found incompetent to stand trial. The remains of Chðáng and his wife were interred at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.