Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Hội (1915–January 28 1972) of the Nguyen Dynasty was diplomat for South Vietnam and a world famous cancer researcher who published more than 1000 papers.
Family
Born in 1915, Buu Hoi was a native of the former imperial capital of Hue.[1] He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Minh Mang, who had ruled Vietnam from 1820 until 1841. Minh Mang had been a staunch Confucianist who was known for his ultraconservative philosophy which was manifested in a shunning of the western world, technological and scientific innovation. He also was known for his strident hostility to the intrusion of Catholic missionaries into Vietnam as well as Buddhism, which were considered as undermining the mandate of heaven of the Emperor.[2] Minh Mang's father was Emperor Gia Long,[3] who had united Vietnam under its current state. Gia Long had reunited the nation under the newly formed Nguyen Dynasty with the help of French volunteers recruited by the Jesuit Catholic missionary Pigneau de Behaine after over two centuries of north-south division and multiple wars between the Nguyen Lords in the south and the Trinh Lords in the north.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Buu Hoi was also a Confucianist, instilled with a sense of duty to family and service to the nation. In contrast to his ancestors, Buu Hoi was also a secular-minded Buddhist, and his mother later became a Buddhist nun under the dharma name Thich Dieu Hue.[10] His father Ung Uy headed the Privy Council of the Imperial Family. Ung Uy was the Minister of Rites at Bao Dai’s court until May 9, 1945.[11]
[edit] Education
Buu Hoi completed his secondary schooling at the Lycee Albert Sarraut, a prestigious French-established school for the upper-class in Hanoi, the colonial capital of Vietnam. He then studied for a degree in pharmacy at the University of Hanoi while simultaneously auditing courses from the Faculty of Medicine. He had developed an interest in science from his youth, noting that this was "because of the desire of his mother and partly because of his own belief in the human value of science".[1] He was just twenty years old when he was awarded his degree.[1]
He subsequently left Vietnam in 1935 to study in Paris and was never to return as a resident. There Buu Hoi had befriended Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Diem while in France. Nhu was a staunch advocate of a Catholic doctrine known as personalism and later became known for his efforts in running the clandestine Can Lao Party (Personalist Revolutionary Party). The Can Lao was a Catholic part which supplied the autocratic Diem's power base and acted as a security apparatus to crush dissent in South Vietnam. This formed a bond between the two men which saw Buu Hoi later serve in the diplomatic corps and as a scientific advisor for Diem.[12][citation needed]
[edit] Scientific work
Only a few days after his arrival in Paris, an event occurred which he credited with further motivating him to pursue a scientific career. A family acquaintance Marie-Louise Gasc, a journalist, took him to a tea party hosted by Jean Perrin, Nobel laureate in physics. There Buu Hoi met Louis de Broglie, a French aristocrat and Nobel prize winner of physics known for his work in the wave particle duality of quantum physics. He met other contemporary greats of French science including Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie. He recollected "What impressed me then the most was that all that concentration of science was paralleled by an equal concentration of kindness and universal open-mindedness".[1]
At Sorbonne University, he followed the regular curriculum toward his doctorate. He completed a "License es Science" degree while serving as an Intern of Pharmacy at the Paris Hospitals. After a short stint under Perrin in the Institute of Chemical Physics, he began his doctoral research in organic chemistry. He worked in the laboratory of Pauline Ramart-Lucas, investigating the spectrophotometry of organic compounds.[1]
Buu Hoi's career was briefly interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. He volunteered in the French Army and served until the Fall of Paris to Nazi Germany in May 1940.[1] He then found himself in Toulouse in the southern zone under the fascist puppet Vichy France government. With the help of the physicist Paul Langevin whom he had met at Perrin's party, he was able to re-enter the Nazi-occupied northern France and return to Paris. He joined the research staff of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1941, and upon the Liberation of France in 1944 was appointed Maitre de Conferences at the Ecole Polytechnique by the Provisional Government of Charles de Gaulle.[1]
At around the same period in 1944, Buu Hoi met Antoine Lacassagne, the Director of Biological Research at the Radium Institute. At the time Lacassagne was establishing an interdisciplinary team for exploring the possibilities and uses of a hypothesis by Otto Schmidt, which became known as the electronic theory of hydrocarbon carcinogenesis. One of the effects of the Nazi occupation was that the foreign scientific literature brought into France was almost entirely German. As a result, this exposed Lacassagne to what to be the scientific foundation of his highly fruitful collaboration with Buu Hoi.[1] At the time, the electronic theory of molecular structure was in its formative years and was not considered as a vehicle by biologists for explaining phenomena, however Lacassagne saw promise in the prospect of Schmidt's hypothesis in attempting to explain carcinogenesis by a combination of elements of electron quantum theory, geometry and chemical structure. This required an interdisciplinary approach, and Buu Hoi's training in organic chemistry provided him with a wide range of tools to apply in the investigation of the roots of cancer.[13]
The rapport between Lacassagne and the Vietnamese prince, less than half his age, was fast. They began publishing joint research immediately, despite Buu Hoi not officially joining the Radium Institute until 1947. This occurred when he became head of the newly established Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Maitre de Recherches at the CNRS. After 13, Buu Hoi and his team relocated from the Radium Institute to larger facilities at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances in 1960. The new quarters was part of the National Centrer of Scientific Research laboratory group at Gif-sur-Yvette, about 24 km from Paris. He reached the pinnacle of the CNRS supported research hierarchy in 1962 with a promotion to Director of Research ("Exceptional" class). Around 1967, he established further research groups under his guidance; one at Orleans at the Marcel Delepine Center and a second at the Lannelogue Institute at Vanves.[13]
The scientific discoveries of Buu Hoi spanned a wide range. He was trained as an organic chemist and achieved international recognition in his own right in the field, but he was able to span to into other fields. This was attributed to his intuitive intelligence and a vast memory which was credited with his ability to grasp the essence of a biological problem sometimes only vaguely related to organic chemistry. He came to be regarded as the most original and productive scientists in exploring the structure activity relationships of polynuclear carcinogens. His research spread beyond chemical carcinogenesis. He also published widely in organic chemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, epidemiology and biochemistry. He started his research career with investigations on chaulmoogric and hypocarpic acids in his Polytechnique laboratory. At the time, these were the only products used for treating leprosy. Within a few years, he had established himself as an international authority in the chemotherapy of the disease. He delineated the tole of the cyclopentene ring and its double bond and of the chain length in determining the toxicity and leprostatic activity of these compounds. Although from the time of his 1944 meeting with Lacassagne onwards he was preoccupied with the study of chemical carcinogenesis, he continued to devote substantial effort to the chemotherapy of leprosy and the associated chemotherapy of tuberculosis.
The overwhelming amount of Buu Hoi's contributions are in the field of chemical carcinogenesis and the synthesis of related organic chemical compounds. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he had extensive collaborations with the quantum chemistry personnel of the Radium Institute on various aspects of the electronic theory of carcinogenesis. Buu Hoi was the first to propose the involvement of noncovalent forces. Together with Lacassagne and Rudali, in the 1940s he became the first to describe the phenomena of synergisma dn antagonism between carcinogens. He demonstrated this by using hydrocarbons on the skin of mice and later extended this to hepatic and other carcinogens. Starting in 1947, he collaborated with Zajdela and Lacassagne in exploring the relationships between the structure and carcinogenic activity of polynuclear compounds. The study spanned a groundbreaking scale and depth. These involved the fundamental ring systems and derivatives of 1,2-benzanthracene, the dibenzopyrenes, steranthrenes, anthanthrene, 1,2,3,4-dibenzanthracene, a variety of benzo and dibenzofluoranthenes. This was extended to large-molecular-size and "hypercondensed" hydrocarbons, ring opening and partial hydrogenation. During his study of dibenzopyrenes, he discovered a molecular arrangement involving the framework of aromatic hydrocarbons. His studies of the carcinogenic azulenophenalenes led him to question the role of aromaticity. Aside from his studies with aza-replaced hydrocarbons, benz- and dibenzacridines and –carbazoles, he also synthesised and tested a number of new structural types of heteroaromatics with reference to the nature, nuimber and position of the heteroatoms. These included the naphtho and benzo derivatives of pyridocarbazole and beta-carboline, heteroaromatics with sulfur, arsenic or selenium replacements. These were either alone or in association with nitrogen, as well as sulfur and nitrogen containing pseudoazulenes. A series of hydrocarbon-like polynuclear lactones were explored with the intent of establishing a connection between polynuclear aromatics and aflatoxins. Such studies of heteroatomic polynuclears led him to propose a "newer picture" of a carcinogenic hydrocarbon, helping the generalise the classical K-region hypothesis.
He sontributed to studies on the carcinogenicity of 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide derivatives, the production of plant tumors by a nitrosamine. He also studied metabolism and protein binding of polynuclears and the effect of the binding o DNA replication and transcription, testing the effect of various carcinogens on the hatching of shrimp eggs. From the mid 1960s onwards, Buu Hoi increasingly turned his focus to the structural facets of polynuclears which determine their ability to induce microsomal enzyme synthesis, in particular involving zoxazolamine and dicoumarol hydroxylation. Aside from his study of fundamental organic chemistry, chemical carcinogenesis and chemotherapy of leprosy and tuberculosis, Buu Hoi's team also conducted research into a wide range of issues of biological and therapeutic interest. Tehse included the sysnthesis and testing anti-inflammatory non-steroid compounds, substituted sex hormones, anti-coagulant substances and their potentiation, antidiabetic agents, treatment of hypertension by methyl-DOPA, antioxidants and the chemophylaxy of aging and the toxicity of dioxine among others.
In 1947, Ho Chi Minh named him as the Rector of the University of Hanoi.
He was a science advisor to Diem, and was appointed in 1960 as the Director of the Atomic Energy Establishment of Vietnam. In this capacity, he was a key figure in the establishiment of an Atomic Energy Research Center. This was primarily geared towards the medical and agricultural uses of atomic energy and a reactor was opened in Da Lat. Several countries of the third world awarded him honorary distinctions.
"The passing of Buu Hoi leavese void difficult to fill. He pioneered in several scientific fields and left and imprint on a number of others. His soaring intellect survives in the unparalleled span of his contributions."
He was regarded as an idealist with somewhat romanticist notions.
While in Paris, Buu Hoi had not limited his activities to scientific research. Unlike his cousin Emperor Bao Dai, he was willing to fight for Vietnamese independence. He had worked with Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh formed Democratic Republic Vietnam which sought to establish independence from its formation in September 1945. His international reputation, generated by his scientific achievements, lent prestige to Ho's government. Buu Hoi broke off links in 1950, when the Communists imposed a dictatorship on the resistance movement, resulting in many non communist nationalists breaking away.[14]
In late 1947, Empress Nam Phuong arrived in France to lobby Buu Hoi to help ratlly nationalists behind Bao Dai. Buu Hoi said he would be willing only on the condition that the Emperor would unite with the resistance in order to help the Ciet Minh from being exclusively communist. Bao Dai refused to do so.[15]
In 1949, on behalf of the royal family who had taken part in the Fontainebleau Conference, he released a statement
"The former Imperial Family of Viet Nam regards with profound sadness the spilling of blood which is taking place in Viet Nam because of the refusal of the French authorities to negotiate with the national government of President Ho Chi Minh . . . . it should denter into relations with the government of President Ho Chi Minh in order to seek with it a peaceful solution of the conflict based on justice and fraternity."
At the same time, his father left the French controlled areas to live under Ho Chi Minh's control.Hammer (1954), p. 228.
He railed against partition, predicting that it would likely lead to the indefinitate maintenance of the "[French] expeditionary corps in the non-Communist zone." As it turned out, American troops were deployed to what was to become the Republic of Vietnam.[16]
In the early 1950s, Buu Hoi travelled to the United States. After the disruption of the Second World War, the president of the American Chemical Society had asked a colleague to resume contact with French chemistry circles by selecting three men regarded to be the outstanding chemists in France. Buu Hoi was one of the three selected by the ACS. At the time he was director of research in organic chemistry at the Radium Institute in Paris. Buu Hoi accepted the invitation of the ACS to deliver a series of lectures in the United States. There, in the autumn of 1951, he also travelled to the Maryknoll Seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey to offer his support to Ngo Dinh Diem in his quest to form an independent Vietnamese government.[17]
He was a professor famous for his work in biochemistry and his research on cancer and leprosy.
In August 1954, Buu Hoi returned to South Vietnam for a visit. Diem had been named Prime Minister of what was then the French backed State of Vietnam. Vietnam was supposed to be reunified after national elections in 1956 following a temporary partition and transitional phase. Diem was in trouble as the generals of the Vietnamese National Army disobeyed him and the national police were controlled by the Binh Xuyen, an armed criminal syndicate. Parts of the Mekong Delta were controlled by the private armies of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects. Diem's government had little authority even in the centre of Saigon.[18]
The youth of Saigon flocked to listen to Buu Hoi speak and newspapers reported that he was feted as a national hero. People saw him as a respected national figure, a professor who exuded wisdom and was above politics at a time when South Vietnam was in chaos. Buu Hoi went to meet Pham Cong Tac the pope of the Cao Dai and his entourage in their stronghold of Tay Ninh west of Saigon near the border with Cambodia. He went to a secret meeting with the Cao Dai's general Trinh Minh The at his base on Nui Ba Den (Black Lady Mountain). Buu Hoi went on to meet the Hoa Hao in the Delta city of Can Tho and later met with Binh Xuyen leaders in Cholon. His prestige allowed many disparate and warring groups to receive him with respect. He further met with labor groups, army officers and representatives of the educated class. Later when the Saigon press was censored and partly shut down, he outlined his vision for Vietnam in the Paris magazine L'Express.[19]
His popularity was higher than any present or recent politician among a public disenchanted with the disunity and lack of government. The phenomenon of a political disinclined scholar above politics saw him compared to Paderewski of Ploand after the First World War and Weizmann, the first President of Israel. He outlined a program which sought to have South Vietnam strengthened against communism and integrated into South East Asia.[20]
Buu Hoi advocated a new "government of national solidarity" in Saigon that incorporated the religious sects. This contrasted to Diem, who wanted to have unchallenged power with the sects in a subservient position. He felt that this that this would foster reconciliation between non-Communist nationalists in the south. Buu Hoi opposed a military buildup in the south, reasoning that the best defense against insurrection came from fostering popular participation in the administrative and economic institutions of the state. He favoured neutralism in South Vietnam's foreign affairs while remaining on positive terms with France and the United States. He argued that the colonial era and Vietnam's natural place in Asia was to join other nations such as India in a policy of non-alignment. He hoped that both North and South Vietnam could be admitted to the United Nations.
Diem rejected these moderate policies, believing that a militantly anti-Communist stance was the solution for South Vietnam. This coincided with a fact finding mission by Dmeocratic Party Senator Mike Mansfield, a strong Diem supporter. Regarded as the leading Vietnam authority in the Senate, he advocated a suspension of US aid if Diem was removed. Buu Hoi had received support for his ideas from the sects, army and labor groups. L'Express, the newspaper in Paris which printed his ideas, was considered to be friendly with French Prime Minister Pierre Mendes-France. As a result, the US State Department interpreted it as a French manoevre to replace Diem with Buu Hoi. Strongly disapproving of Buu Hoi's foreign policies, the Sate Department warned Mendes-France that US policy would change if Buu Hoi or someone like-minded became Prime Minister.[21]
In 1958, Buu Hoi resumed work for Diem on the international front. He was charged with attending to the Indian, Canadian and Polish diplomats from the International Control Commission that were charged with monitoring the Geneva Accords which partitioned Vietnam in 1954. He was also assigned the job of securing diplomatic links and greater recognition of the Republic of Vietnam on the international arena. He was named as South Vietnam's ambassador to various countries and several bodies of the United Nations. In addition, he was named as the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Center that was constructed near the central highlands resort town of Da Lat. It was to be South Vietnam's first nuclear reactor.[22]
In early 1953, Buu Hoi travelled as a private citizen to the office of the Vietminh in Rangoon, the capital of Burma. Depsite leaving the Vietminh three years earlier, his nationalist credentials allowed him to secure an audience. At the time he was the elected president of an association of some 25,000 Vietnamese workers and soldiers stranded in France after the Second World War. He had also been a delegated to the conference at Fontainebleau, the collapse of which had helped to spark the First Indochina War in 1946. Buu Hoi was accompanied by Jacques Raphael-Leygues, a Radical Socialist politician. Before departing Paris, Buu Hoi had been authorised by French President Vincent Auriol to propose the opening of direct negotiations with France. He left a letter in Rangoon to be delivered to Vietminh leaders, prophetically predicting that this would be the last opportunity for them to deal with France directly without third part interference. He predicted that the United States would eventually intervene with force unprecedented in Vietnam if the situation was not resolved. Neither the French nor the Vietminh made further efforts to pursue negotiations. Years later, Rench officials blamed domestic political feuds and the lack of support from some sections of their government. The Vietminh blamed logistical difficulties on their tardy and minimal reply. The result was that after the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in early 1954, Vietnam was partitioned at the Geneva Conference.[23]
The Buddhist crisis erupted in the summer of 1963 after the shooting by authorities of nine Buddhists who were protesting a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. As civil disobedience and demands for religious equality by the Buddhist majority against Diem's Catholic government grew, Diem's forces repeatedly attacked Buddhists. In June, Buu Hoi wrote to Nhu to urge Diem to further dialogue with the Buddhists and create a Ministry of Religious Affairs.[24] As Diem remained intransigent on demands for religious equality and bringing those responsible for the Hue shootings to justice, his forces used chemicals on Buddhist protestors in Hue. The turning point was the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on June 11 at a bust Saigon intersection, which was a public relations disaster for Diem. As the impasse continued, Buu Hoi's mother, who had been a Buddhist nun for many years, travelled from Hue to Saigon. The Buddhist leaders had announced that the mother of South Vietnam's most distinguished scientist and diplomat and member of the royal family, intended to burn herself to death to highlight oppression against Buddhists. The tension grew, and eventually in July, she made an appearance at a press conference at Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda, to repeat the threat. Outside, Nhu's men had organised a "spontaneous" demonstration where government supporters had been bussed in.[25] Concerned for his mother and the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, Buu Hoi returned home in attempt to mediate between the Buddhists and Diem and Nhu. Rumours began to circulate stating that the Americans wanted to have Buu Hoi inserted in a newly created post of Prime Minister, in order that the Ngo family's rule would be diluted.[26] He spent many hours talking with the Buddhist leader Thich Tri Quang at Xa Loi to ensure that his mother would not actually self-immolate. The negotiations were fruitless and were futile. Shortly after midnight, the Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam loyal to Nhu raided pagodas across the country, vandalising, looting and in some cases detonating them, arresting around 1400 monks and nuns. A few hundred laypeople had disappeared, presumed killed (or summarily executed afterwards) while trying to repel the invaders from the temples. Buu Hoi went to Gia Long Palace at the end of August to take leave and return to his laboratory. At the time, the United Nations had been strongly condemning the actions of Diem's regime. When Nhu told him "Tu me laisse dans la merde" (in French:"You have left me in the s***"), Buu Hoi agreed to defend Saigon at the UN in New York on the condition that a fact-finding mission would be allowed to enter the country and freely see the truth for themselves.[27]
Buu Hoi arrived in New York in mid September. The American public had a highly unfavourable view of South Vietnam, due to the self-immolations and pagoda attacks. U Thant, the Buddhist Burmese who was the Secretary General of the United Nations sharply criticised Vietnam, saying that there was no country so chaotic and deteriorating. The campaign against the Diem regime was overtly lead by Ceylon, but Saigon felt that Cambodia had been stirring up animosity among the Asian countries, having already broken off diplomatic relations after the raids. The UN session started on September 17 and Buu Hoi met with US Ambassador to the United Nations Charles Yost two days later. Buu Hoi contended that the Buddhist movement had transformed into a political movement to overthrow Diem and claiming that media reports transmitted to America were inaccurate. Yost asserted that irrespective of what was happening, the situation was intolerable and that Diem had to address it. Buu Hoi thought that implementing the five point plan that Diem had signed in June but not implemented was the key. Buu Hoi admitted that discrimination in Vietnam was real. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador in Saigon, described Buu Hoi's proposed solution as "oversimplified".
Buu Hoi outlined a plan to the Americans's UN representatives to avoid a full-scale debate on South Vietnam in the General Assembly. He revealed that South Vietnam would reject a formal inquiry mission as interference in domestic affairs, but would try to seize the initiative to invite a fact finding mission. He reasoned that such a delegation would spark a rapprochement in Vietnam and would delay debate and condemnation by the Assembly until the mission had tabled its report. Privately he asked the Americans to tell Thich Tri Quang that he would do nothing to hurt the Buddhist cause.[28]
Buu Hoi also visited the US Department of State in Washington where he was given a mixed reception. Harlan Cleveland, the assistance secretary for international organization affairs thought that his "sophisticated" plan and his stature as an intellectual and diplomat would boost his cause. Undersecretary Averell Harriman and Assistant Secretary Roger Hilsman, well known Diem critics, were less enthusiastic. Buu Hoi's attempt to break the deadlock in relations since the pagoda raids failed to convince Harriman, who removed his hearing aid when Buu Hoi suggested that the pro-Diem former US ambassador Frederick Nolting still had a positive role to play. When Hilsman criticised the treatment of the Buddhists, Buu Hoi asserted that the movement had become political and that the Buddhists had forced Diem into a fight for survival. He said that Buddhist elders deplored the alleged politicisation of the movement. Buu Hoi also parried US calls for Diem to remove Nhu, regarded as the corrosive influence in South Vietnam form power. He asserted that Nhu was a great talent but also noted that a Prime Minister should be appointed. [29]
At the UN, the Ceylon delegate had begun to push for a resolution expressing serious concern about "the continuing violation of human rights in Vietnam." Since South Vietnam was not a member and had no right of reply, Buu Hoi and his team lobbied African and Asian countries behind the scene. Buu Hoi was also the South Vietnamese ambassador to six African nations. The result was that a polemical address by Ceylon on October 7 did not gather further response and a Soviet Union threat to use the International Control Commission to investigate the South's domestic affairs never materialised. The General Assembly voted unanimously to cut short the debate and accept the invitation to send a fact finding mission. Buu Hoi had managed to avert censure of his country and an unwanted debate on the role of the US there. Lodge expressed disappointment at why the US delegation helped to avoid a debate that would have condemned Diem. Despite Buu Hoi's assurances that the mission would be free to move around the country and was not a stalling device, Lodge was adamant that Diem would never allow them to see anything unfavourable.[30]
On October 28, Buu Hoi opened the Atomic Energy Center in Da Lat in his role as the director general of the Office of Atomic Energy.[31] Diem said of his work "In the non-aligned world, we have more friends now, thanks to the diplomatic bases laid by Professor Buu Hoi in Africa."[32]
On October 31, he performed his last public duty in South Vietnam. Buu Hoi visited Nhu along with two Buddhist monks and ask him to intervene with Diem to set free "all Buddhist dignitaries, laymen and students till under detention." Nhu "promised to obtain from the president a favourable answer to this request." Diem and Nhu were executed two days later after being overthrown in a coup.[33] Buu Hoi left Vietnam after the coup to resume his scientific research. He only returned on the occasion of the funeral of his mother, who had died from natural causes.[34]
Buu Hoi was decorated with many honors and awards during his scientific career. He was a multiple laureate of the French Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Medicine and the French Ministry of Education. His work in cancer research specifically yielded awards from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and the French League Against Cancer. Despite working for almost his entire academic career in France, he also received awards from the Academy of Sciences of The Netherlands]] and received funding from the US National Cancer Institute.
He was a member of the Panel of Experts for Leprosy of the World Health Organization and an honorary member of several medical societies. He was decorated with a number of French Government awards: commander of the Legion of Honor, commander of the Order of Public Health, commander of the Order of Research and Invention and a Knight of the Academic Palms.
He died of a heart attack on January 8, 1972, his native country still divided and ravaged by civil war. It was only a few weeks after the passing of his research colleague Antoine Lacassagne, ending a prolific partnership described by Cancer Research as a "heroic and important chapter of the study of carcinogenesis". It went on to say that "his death robbed French science of one of its most illustrious figures". He had totalled almost 1100 scientific publications. His body was laid in state for five days in a sanctuary at Rue Gassendi in Paris, where it French and Vietnamese alike paid their respects.
A 1972 obituary by the journal Cancer Research rated Buu Hoi as "probably the most prestiguous intellectual that Vietnam has produced since the French conquest of the country about 100 years ago [Vietnam was entirely conquered by France in 1883]– a somewhat legendary personage to many of his countrymen."
He warned the French against erecting and supporting "artificial governments."[35]
Buu Hoi's stature also allowed him to develop contacts with French President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle favoured neutralising Vietnam in the early 1960s and with the support of Buu Hoi advised his ambassador in Saigon Roger Lalouette to float the concept with Diem and Nhu. The theory that Nhu had been secretly with Hanoi in the period leading up the coup is often discussed by historians.[36]
Family
Born in 1915, Buu Hoi was a native of the former imperial capital of Hue.[1] He was a great-great-grandson of Emperor Minh Mang, who had ruled Vietnam from 1820 until 1841. Minh Mang had been a staunch Confucianist who was known for his ultraconservative philosophy which was manifested in a shunning of the western world, technological and scientific innovation. He also was known for his strident hostility to the intrusion of Catholic missionaries into Vietnam as well as Buddhism, which were considered as undermining the mandate of heaven of the Emperor.[2] Minh Mang's father was Emperor Gia Long,[3] who had united Vietnam under its current state. Gia Long had reunited the nation under the newly formed Nguyen Dynasty with the help of French volunteers recruited by the Jesuit Catholic missionary Pigneau de Behaine after over two centuries of north-south division and multiple wars between the Nguyen Lords in the south and the Trinh Lords in the north.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Buu Hoi was also a Confucianist, instilled with a sense of duty to family and service to the nation. In contrast to his ancestors, Buu Hoi was also a secular-minded Buddhist, and his mother later became a Buddhist nun under the dharma name Thich Dieu Hue.[10] His father Ung Uy headed the Privy Council of the Imperial Family. Ung Uy was the Minister of Rites at Bao Dai’s court until May 9, 1945.[11]
[edit] Education
Buu Hoi completed his secondary schooling at the Lycee Albert Sarraut, a prestigious French-established school for the upper-class in Hanoi, the colonial capital of Vietnam. He then studied for a degree in pharmacy at the University of Hanoi while simultaneously auditing courses from the Faculty of Medicine. He had developed an interest in science from his youth, noting that this was "because of the desire of his mother and partly because of his own belief in the human value of science".[1] He was just twenty years old when he was awarded his degree.[1]
He subsequently left Vietnam in 1935 to study in Paris and was never to return as a resident. There Buu Hoi had befriended Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Diem while in France. Nhu was a staunch advocate of a Catholic doctrine known as personalism and later became known for his efforts in running the clandestine Can Lao Party (Personalist Revolutionary Party). The Can Lao was a Catholic part which supplied the autocratic Diem's power base and acted as a security apparatus to crush dissent in South Vietnam. This formed a bond between the two men which saw Buu Hoi later serve in the diplomatic corps and as a scientific advisor for Diem.[12][citation needed]
[edit] Scientific work
Only a few days after his arrival in Paris, an event occurred which he credited with further motivating him to pursue a scientific career. A family acquaintance Marie-Louise Gasc, a journalist, took him to a tea party hosted by Jean Perrin, Nobel laureate in physics. There Buu Hoi met Louis de Broglie, a French aristocrat and Nobel prize winner of physics known for his work in the wave particle duality of quantum physics. He met other contemporary greats of French science including Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie. He recollected "What impressed me then the most was that all that concentration of science was paralleled by an equal concentration of kindness and universal open-mindedness".[1]
At Sorbonne University, he followed the regular curriculum toward his doctorate. He completed a "License es Science" degree while serving as an Intern of Pharmacy at the Paris Hospitals. After a short stint under Perrin in the Institute of Chemical Physics, he began his doctoral research in organic chemistry. He worked in the laboratory of Pauline Ramart-Lucas, investigating the spectrophotometry of organic compounds.[1]
Buu Hoi's career was briefly interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. He volunteered in the French Army and served until the Fall of Paris to Nazi Germany in May 1940.[1] He then found himself in Toulouse in the southern zone under the fascist puppet Vichy France government. With the help of the physicist Paul Langevin whom he had met at Perrin's party, he was able to re-enter the Nazi-occupied northern France and return to Paris. He joined the research staff of the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1941, and upon the Liberation of France in 1944 was appointed Maitre de Conferences at the Ecole Polytechnique by the Provisional Government of Charles de Gaulle.[1]
At around the same period in 1944, Buu Hoi met Antoine Lacassagne, the Director of Biological Research at the Radium Institute. At the time Lacassagne was establishing an interdisciplinary team for exploring the possibilities and uses of a hypothesis by Otto Schmidt, which became known as the electronic theory of hydrocarbon carcinogenesis. One of the effects of the Nazi occupation was that the foreign scientific literature brought into France was almost entirely German. As a result, this exposed Lacassagne to what to be the scientific foundation of his highly fruitful collaboration with Buu Hoi.[1] At the time, the electronic theory of molecular structure was in its formative years and was not considered as a vehicle by biologists for explaining phenomena, however Lacassagne saw promise in the prospect of Schmidt's hypothesis in attempting to explain carcinogenesis by a combination of elements of electron quantum theory, geometry and chemical structure. This required an interdisciplinary approach, and Buu Hoi's training in organic chemistry provided him with a wide range of tools to apply in the investigation of the roots of cancer.[13]
The rapport between Lacassagne and the Vietnamese prince, less than half his age, was fast. They began publishing joint research immediately, despite Buu Hoi not officially joining the Radium Institute until 1947. This occurred when he became head of the newly established Department of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry and Maitre de Recherches at the CNRS. After 13, Buu Hoi and his team relocated from the Radium Institute to larger facilities at the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances in 1960. The new quarters was part of the National Centrer of Scientific Research laboratory group at Gif-sur-Yvette, about 24 km from Paris. He reached the pinnacle of the CNRS supported research hierarchy in 1962 with a promotion to Director of Research ("Exceptional" class). Around 1967, he established further research groups under his guidance; one at Orleans at the Marcel Delepine Center and a second at the Lannelogue Institute at Vanves.[13]
The scientific discoveries of Buu Hoi spanned a wide range. He was trained as an organic chemist and achieved international recognition in his own right in the field, but he was able to span to into other fields. This was attributed to his intuitive intelligence and a vast memory which was credited with his ability to grasp the essence of a biological problem sometimes only vaguely related to organic chemistry. He came to be regarded as the most original and productive scientists in exploring the structure activity relationships of polynuclear carcinogens. His research spread beyond chemical carcinogenesis. He also published widely in organic chemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, epidemiology and biochemistry. He started his research career with investigations on chaulmoogric and hypocarpic acids in his Polytechnique laboratory. At the time, these were the only products used for treating leprosy. Within a few years, he had established himself as an international authority in the chemotherapy of the disease. He delineated the tole of the cyclopentene ring and its double bond and of the chain length in determining the toxicity and leprostatic activity of these compounds. Although from the time of his 1944 meeting with Lacassagne onwards he was preoccupied with the study of chemical carcinogenesis, he continued to devote substantial effort to the chemotherapy of leprosy and the associated chemotherapy of tuberculosis.
The overwhelming amount of Buu Hoi's contributions are in the field of chemical carcinogenesis and the synthesis of related organic chemical compounds. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he had extensive collaborations with the quantum chemistry personnel of the Radium Institute on various aspects of the electronic theory of carcinogenesis. Buu Hoi was the first to propose the involvement of noncovalent forces. Together with Lacassagne and Rudali, in the 1940s he became the first to describe the phenomena of synergisma dn antagonism between carcinogens. He demonstrated this by using hydrocarbons on the skin of mice and later extended this to hepatic and other carcinogens. Starting in 1947, he collaborated with Zajdela and Lacassagne in exploring the relationships between the structure and carcinogenic activity of polynuclear compounds. The study spanned a groundbreaking scale and depth. These involved the fundamental ring systems and derivatives of 1,2-benzanthracene, the dibenzopyrenes, steranthrenes, anthanthrene, 1,2,3,4-dibenzanthracene, a variety of benzo and dibenzofluoranthenes. This was extended to large-molecular-size and "hypercondensed" hydrocarbons, ring opening and partial hydrogenation. During his study of dibenzopyrenes, he discovered a molecular arrangement involving the framework of aromatic hydrocarbons. His studies of the carcinogenic azulenophenalenes led him to question the role of aromaticity. Aside from his studies with aza-replaced hydrocarbons, benz- and dibenzacridines and –carbazoles, he also synthesised and tested a number of new structural types of heteroaromatics with reference to the nature, nuimber and position of the heteroatoms. These included the naphtho and benzo derivatives of pyridocarbazole and beta-carboline, heteroaromatics with sulfur, arsenic or selenium replacements. These were either alone or in association with nitrogen, as well as sulfur and nitrogen containing pseudoazulenes. A series of hydrocarbon-like polynuclear lactones were explored with the intent of establishing a connection between polynuclear aromatics and aflatoxins. Such studies of heteroatomic polynuclears led him to propose a "newer picture" of a carcinogenic hydrocarbon, helping the generalise the classical K-region hypothesis.
He sontributed to studies on the carcinogenicity of 4-nitroquinoline-N-oxide derivatives, the production of plant tumors by a nitrosamine. He also studied metabolism and protein binding of polynuclears and the effect of the binding o DNA replication and transcription, testing the effect of various carcinogens on the hatching of shrimp eggs. From the mid 1960s onwards, Buu Hoi increasingly turned his focus to the structural facets of polynuclears which determine their ability to induce microsomal enzyme synthesis, in particular involving zoxazolamine and dicoumarol hydroxylation. Aside from his study of fundamental organic chemistry, chemical carcinogenesis and chemotherapy of leprosy and tuberculosis, Buu Hoi's team also conducted research into a wide range of issues of biological and therapeutic interest. Tehse included the sysnthesis and testing anti-inflammatory non-steroid compounds, substituted sex hormones, anti-coagulant substances and their potentiation, antidiabetic agents, treatment of hypertension by methyl-DOPA, antioxidants and the chemophylaxy of aging and the toxicity of dioxine among others.
In 1947, Ho Chi Minh named him as the Rector of the University of Hanoi.
He was a science advisor to Diem, and was appointed in 1960 as the Director of the Atomic Energy Establishment of Vietnam. In this capacity, he was a key figure in the establishiment of an Atomic Energy Research Center. This was primarily geared towards the medical and agricultural uses of atomic energy and a reactor was opened in Da Lat. Several countries of the third world awarded him honorary distinctions.
"The passing of Buu Hoi leavese void difficult to fill. He pioneered in several scientific fields and left and imprint on a number of others. His soaring intellect survives in the unparalleled span of his contributions."
He was regarded as an idealist with somewhat romanticist notions.
While in Paris, Buu Hoi had not limited his activities to scientific research. Unlike his cousin Emperor Bao Dai, he was willing to fight for Vietnamese independence. He had worked with Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh formed Democratic Republic Vietnam which sought to establish independence from its formation in September 1945. His international reputation, generated by his scientific achievements, lent prestige to Ho's government. Buu Hoi broke off links in 1950, when the Communists imposed a dictatorship on the resistance movement, resulting in many non communist nationalists breaking away.[14]
In late 1947, Empress Nam Phuong arrived in France to lobby Buu Hoi to help ratlly nationalists behind Bao Dai. Buu Hoi said he would be willing only on the condition that the Emperor would unite with the resistance in order to help the Ciet Minh from being exclusively communist. Bao Dai refused to do so.[15]
In 1949, on behalf of the royal family who had taken part in the Fontainebleau Conference, he released a statement
"The former Imperial Family of Viet Nam regards with profound sadness the spilling of blood which is taking place in Viet Nam because of the refusal of the French authorities to negotiate with the national government of President Ho Chi Minh . . . . it should denter into relations with the government of President Ho Chi Minh in order to seek with it a peaceful solution of the conflict based on justice and fraternity."
At the same time, his father left the French controlled areas to live under Ho Chi Minh's control.Hammer (1954), p. 228.
He railed against partition, predicting that it would likely lead to the indefinitate maintenance of the "[French] expeditionary corps in the non-Communist zone." As it turned out, American troops were deployed to what was to become the Republic of Vietnam.[16]
In the early 1950s, Buu Hoi travelled to the United States. After the disruption of the Second World War, the president of the American Chemical Society had asked a colleague to resume contact with French chemistry circles by selecting three men regarded to be the outstanding chemists in France. Buu Hoi was one of the three selected by the ACS. At the time he was director of research in organic chemistry at the Radium Institute in Paris. Buu Hoi accepted the invitation of the ACS to deliver a series of lectures in the United States. There, in the autumn of 1951, he also travelled to the Maryknoll Seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey to offer his support to Ngo Dinh Diem in his quest to form an independent Vietnamese government.[17]
He was a professor famous for his work in biochemistry and his research on cancer and leprosy.
In August 1954, Buu Hoi returned to South Vietnam for a visit. Diem had been named Prime Minister of what was then the French backed State of Vietnam. Vietnam was supposed to be reunified after national elections in 1956 following a temporary partition and transitional phase. Diem was in trouble as the generals of the Vietnamese National Army disobeyed him and the national police were controlled by the Binh Xuyen, an armed criminal syndicate. Parts of the Mekong Delta were controlled by the private armies of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects. Diem's government had little authority even in the centre of Saigon.[18]
The youth of Saigon flocked to listen to Buu Hoi speak and newspapers reported that he was feted as a national hero. People saw him as a respected national figure, a professor who exuded wisdom and was above politics at a time when South Vietnam was in chaos. Buu Hoi went to meet Pham Cong Tac the pope of the Cao Dai and his entourage in their stronghold of Tay Ninh west of Saigon near the border with Cambodia. He went to a secret meeting with the Cao Dai's general Trinh Minh The at his base on Nui Ba Den (Black Lady Mountain). Buu Hoi went on to meet the Hoa Hao in the Delta city of Can Tho and later met with Binh Xuyen leaders in Cholon. His prestige allowed many disparate and warring groups to receive him with respect. He further met with labor groups, army officers and representatives of the educated class. Later when the Saigon press was censored and partly shut down, he outlined his vision for Vietnam in the Paris magazine L'Express.[19]
His popularity was higher than any present or recent politician among a public disenchanted with the disunity and lack of government. The phenomenon of a political disinclined scholar above politics saw him compared to Paderewski of Ploand after the First World War and Weizmann, the first President of Israel. He outlined a program which sought to have South Vietnam strengthened against communism and integrated into South East Asia.[20]
Buu Hoi advocated a new "government of national solidarity" in Saigon that incorporated the religious sects. This contrasted to Diem, who wanted to have unchallenged power with the sects in a subservient position. He felt that this that this would foster reconciliation between non-Communist nationalists in the south. Buu Hoi opposed a military buildup in the south, reasoning that the best defense against insurrection came from fostering popular participation in the administrative and economic institutions of the state. He favoured neutralism in South Vietnam's foreign affairs while remaining on positive terms with France and the United States. He argued that the colonial era and Vietnam's natural place in Asia was to join other nations such as India in a policy of non-alignment. He hoped that both North and South Vietnam could be admitted to the United Nations.
Diem rejected these moderate policies, believing that a militantly anti-Communist stance was the solution for South Vietnam. This coincided with a fact finding mission by Dmeocratic Party Senator Mike Mansfield, a strong Diem supporter. Regarded as the leading Vietnam authority in the Senate, he advocated a suspension of US aid if Diem was removed. Buu Hoi had received support for his ideas from the sects, army and labor groups. L'Express, the newspaper in Paris which printed his ideas, was considered to be friendly with French Prime Minister Pierre Mendes-France. As a result, the US State Department interpreted it as a French manoevre to replace Diem with Buu Hoi. Strongly disapproving of Buu Hoi's foreign policies, the Sate Department warned Mendes-France that US policy would change if Buu Hoi or someone like-minded became Prime Minister.[21]
In 1958, Buu Hoi resumed work for Diem on the international front. He was charged with attending to the Indian, Canadian and Polish diplomats from the International Control Commission that were charged with monitoring the Geneva Accords which partitioned Vietnam in 1954. He was also assigned the job of securing diplomatic links and greater recognition of the Republic of Vietnam on the international arena. He was named as South Vietnam's ambassador to various countries and several bodies of the United Nations. In addition, he was named as the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Center that was constructed near the central highlands resort town of Da Lat. It was to be South Vietnam's first nuclear reactor.[22]
In early 1953, Buu Hoi travelled as a private citizen to the office of the Vietminh in Rangoon, the capital of Burma. Depsite leaving the Vietminh three years earlier, his nationalist credentials allowed him to secure an audience. At the time he was the elected president of an association of some 25,000 Vietnamese workers and soldiers stranded in France after the Second World War. He had also been a delegated to the conference at Fontainebleau, the collapse of which had helped to spark the First Indochina War in 1946. Buu Hoi was accompanied by Jacques Raphael-Leygues, a Radical Socialist politician. Before departing Paris, Buu Hoi had been authorised by French President Vincent Auriol to propose the opening of direct negotiations with France. He left a letter in Rangoon to be delivered to Vietminh leaders, prophetically predicting that this would be the last opportunity for them to deal with France directly without third part interference. He predicted that the United States would eventually intervene with force unprecedented in Vietnam if the situation was not resolved. Neither the French nor the Vietminh made further efforts to pursue negotiations. Years later, Rench officials blamed domestic political feuds and the lack of support from some sections of their government. The Vietminh blamed logistical difficulties on their tardy and minimal reply. The result was that after the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in early 1954, Vietnam was partitioned at the Geneva Conference.[23]
The Buddhist crisis erupted in the summer of 1963 after the shooting by authorities of nine Buddhists who were protesting a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. As civil disobedience and demands for religious equality by the Buddhist majority against Diem's Catholic government grew, Diem's forces repeatedly attacked Buddhists. In June, Buu Hoi wrote to Nhu to urge Diem to further dialogue with the Buddhists and create a Ministry of Religious Affairs.[24] As Diem remained intransigent on demands for religious equality and bringing those responsible for the Hue shootings to justice, his forces used chemicals on Buddhist protestors in Hue. The turning point was the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on June 11 at a bust Saigon intersection, which was a public relations disaster for Diem. As the impasse continued, Buu Hoi's mother, who had been a Buddhist nun for many years, travelled from Hue to Saigon. The Buddhist leaders had announced that the mother of South Vietnam's most distinguished scientist and diplomat and member of the royal family, intended to burn herself to death to highlight oppression against Buddhists. The tension grew, and eventually in July, she made an appearance at a press conference at Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda, to repeat the threat. Outside, Nhu's men had organised a "spontaneous" demonstration where government supporters had been bussed in.[25] Concerned for his mother and the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, Buu Hoi returned home in attempt to mediate between the Buddhists and Diem and Nhu. Rumours began to circulate stating that the Americans wanted to have Buu Hoi inserted in a newly created post of Prime Minister, in order that the Ngo family's rule would be diluted.[26] He spent many hours talking with the Buddhist leader Thich Tri Quang at Xa Loi to ensure that his mother would not actually self-immolate. The negotiations were fruitless and were futile. Shortly after midnight, the Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam loyal to Nhu raided pagodas across the country, vandalising, looting and in some cases detonating them, arresting around 1400 monks and nuns. A few hundred laypeople had disappeared, presumed killed (or summarily executed afterwards) while trying to repel the invaders from the temples. Buu Hoi went to Gia Long Palace at the end of August to take leave and return to his laboratory. At the time, the United Nations had been strongly condemning the actions of Diem's regime. When Nhu told him "Tu me laisse dans la merde" (in French:"You have left me in the s***"), Buu Hoi agreed to defend Saigon at the UN in New York on the condition that a fact-finding mission would be allowed to enter the country and freely see the truth for themselves.[27]
Buu Hoi arrived in New York in mid September. The American public had a highly unfavourable view of South Vietnam, due to the self-immolations and pagoda attacks. U Thant, the Buddhist Burmese who was the Secretary General of the United Nations sharply criticised Vietnam, saying that there was no country so chaotic and deteriorating. The campaign against the Diem regime was overtly lead by Ceylon, but Saigon felt that Cambodia had been stirring up animosity among the Asian countries, having already broken off diplomatic relations after the raids. The UN session started on September 17 and Buu Hoi met with US Ambassador to the United Nations Charles Yost two days later. Buu Hoi contended that the Buddhist movement had transformed into a political movement to overthrow Diem and claiming that media reports transmitted to America were inaccurate. Yost asserted that irrespective of what was happening, the situation was intolerable and that Diem had to address it. Buu Hoi thought that implementing the five point plan that Diem had signed in June but not implemented was the key. Buu Hoi admitted that discrimination in Vietnam was real. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the US Ambassador in Saigon, described Buu Hoi's proposed solution as "oversimplified".
Buu Hoi outlined a plan to the Americans's UN representatives to avoid a full-scale debate on South Vietnam in the General Assembly. He revealed that South Vietnam would reject a formal inquiry mission as interference in domestic affairs, but would try to seize the initiative to invite a fact finding mission. He reasoned that such a delegation would spark a rapprochement in Vietnam and would delay debate and condemnation by the Assembly until the mission had tabled its report. Privately he asked the Americans to tell Thich Tri Quang that he would do nothing to hurt the Buddhist cause.[28]
Buu Hoi also visited the US Department of State in Washington where he was given a mixed reception. Harlan Cleveland, the assistance secretary for international organization affairs thought that his "sophisticated" plan and his stature as an intellectual and diplomat would boost his cause. Undersecretary Averell Harriman and Assistant Secretary Roger Hilsman, well known Diem critics, were less enthusiastic. Buu Hoi's attempt to break the deadlock in relations since the pagoda raids failed to convince Harriman, who removed his hearing aid when Buu Hoi suggested that the pro-Diem former US ambassador Frederick Nolting still had a positive role to play. When Hilsman criticised the treatment of the Buddhists, Buu Hoi asserted that the movement had become political and that the Buddhists had forced Diem into a fight for survival. He said that Buddhist elders deplored the alleged politicisation of the movement. Buu Hoi also parried US calls for Diem to remove Nhu, regarded as the corrosive influence in South Vietnam form power. He asserted that Nhu was a great talent but also noted that a Prime Minister should be appointed. [29]
At the UN, the Ceylon delegate had begun to push for a resolution expressing serious concern about "the continuing violation of human rights in Vietnam." Since South Vietnam was not a member and had no right of reply, Buu Hoi and his team lobbied African and Asian countries behind the scene. Buu Hoi was also the South Vietnamese ambassador to six African nations. The result was that a polemical address by Ceylon on October 7 did not gather further response and a Soviet Union threat to use the International Control Commission to investigate the South's domestic affairs never materialised. The General Assembly voted unanimously to cut short the debate and accept the invitation to send a fact finding mission. Buu Hoi had managed to avert censure of his country and an unwanted debate on the role of the US there. Lodge expressed disappointment at why the US delegation helped to avoid a debate that would have condemned Diem. Despite Buu Hoi's assurances that the mission would be free to move around the country and was not a stalling device, Lodge was adamant that Diem would never allow them to see anything unfavourable.[30]
On October 28, Buu Hoi opened the Atomic Energy Center in Da Lat in his role as the director general of the Office of Atomic Energy.[31] Diem said of his work "In the non-aligned world, we have more friends now, thanks to the diplomatic bases laid by Professor Buu Hoi in Africa."[32]
On October 31, he performed his last public duty in South Vietnam. Buu Hoi visited Nhu along with two Buddhist monks and ask him to intervene with Diem to set free "all Buddhist dignitaries, laymen and students till under detention." Nhu "promised to obtain from the president a favourable answer to this request." Diem and Nhu were executed two days later after being overthrown in a coup.[33] Buu Hoi left Vietnam after the coup to resume his scientific research. He only returned on the occasion of the funeral of his mother, who had died from natural causes.[34]
Buu Hoi was decorated with many honors and awards during his scientific career. He was a multiple laureate of the French Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Medicine and the French Ministry of Education. His work in cancer research specifically yielded awards from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and the French League Against Cancer. Despite working for almost his entire academic career in France, he also received awards from the Academy of Sciences of The Netherlands]] and received funding from the US National Cancer Institute.
He was a member of the Panel of Experts for Leprosy of the World Health Organization and an honorary member of several medical societies. He was decorated with a number of French Government awards: commander of the Legion of Honor, commander of the Order of Public Health, commander of the Order of Research and Invention and a Knight of the Academic Palms.
He died of a heart attack on January 8, 1972, his native country still divided and ravaged by civil war. It was only a few weeks after the passing of his research colleague Antoine Lacassagne, ending a prolific partnership described by Cancer Research as a "heroic and important chapter of the study of carcinogenesis". It went on to say that "his death robbed French science of one of its most illustrious figures". He had totalled almost 1100 scientific publications. His body was laid in state for five days in a sanctuary at Rue Gassendi in Paris, where it French and Vietnamese alike paid their respects.
A 1972 obituary by the journal Cancer Research rated Buu Hoi as "probably the most prestiguous intellectual that Vietnam has produced since the French conquest of the country about 100 years ago [Vietnam was entirely conquered by France in 1883]– a somewhat legendary personage to many of his countrymen."
He warned the French against erecting and supporting "artificial governments."[35]
Buu Hoi's stature also allowed him to develop contacts with French President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle favoured neutralising Vietnam in the early 1960s and with the support of Buu Hoi advised his ambassador in Saigon Roger Lalouette to float the concept with Diem and Nhu. The theory that Nhu had been secretly with Hanoi in the period leading up the coup is often discussed by historians.[36]
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