Tôn Thất Thuyết
Born on September 22, 1924 in Huế, the imperial capital of the Nguyễn dynasty, Tôn Thất Thiện was descended from a family with a long history of service to the state. His ancestry can be traced to Nguyen Bạc, a close adviser to Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng (r. 968-979), a founder of independent Viet Nam in the 10th century; and to Nguyễn Hoàng, founder of the Nguyễn dynasty, which ruled over most of Vietnam for almost four centuries (1600-1945). His grandfather was a military officer (born in 1835, in the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng) who served Emperor Tự Đức (1847–1883), fought against the French in Cochinchina (1860), the battle of Thuan An (1883), and the failed coup staged by Tôn Thất Thuyết against the French (1885), and ended his career as a general in the reign of Emperor Thành Thái (1889–1907). His father Tôn Thất Quảng (1883–1972) served for thirty years in the Imperial government, rising to the rank of Minister, in charge of Rites. He retired in 1942, only three years before the end of the Vietnamese monarchy, and was thus the last but one Minister of Rites Ministry of Rites in Vietnam's long history. Thien was influenced by the Confucian philosophy followed by his father and the Buddhist beliefs of his mother.