Nguyen Van Tam; Former Vietnam Prime Minister

Nguyen Van Tam, 97, prime minister to former Vietnamese emperor Bao Dai. Nguyen was president of the Vietnamese Council from 1952-53 after holding several ministerial posts beginning in 1946. He was nicknamed the Tiger of Cai Lay for eliminating communist Vietnamese resistance groups in the Cai Lay region of the Mekong Delta. Named chief of criminal investigations in Saigon in 1950, he put an end to a series of assassination attempts by the communist resistance. Nguyen obtained French nationality in 1927 and was awarded several decorations by the French government, including commander of the Legion of Honor. On Friday in Paris, where he had lived in exile since 1965.