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My dear compatriots, democracy exists only where a concrete democratic experience exists. And democratic life is in short but the putting into practice, by all citizens and all the custodians of public power of the most perfect loyalty and of a mutual confidence which is thus total and justified.

— Ngô Đình Diệm Message on the occasion of the Promulgation of the Constitution (1956)

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More quotes by Ngô Đình Diệm

We affirm that the sole legitimate object of the state is to protect the fundamental rights of human beings to existence [and] to the free development of their intellectual, moral, and spiritual life.

Address to the US Congress (1957)

Thousands of our people would have sacrificed their lives for nothing if, in independence, we do not attain the unity of ourselves in order to defend/together, under the same banner, under the same command, against what the revolt of our brothers of the North have announced for months as the worst of misfortunes: oppression.

The fight which we, non-communists, have to lead to-day, is above all a fight against disorder, indiscipline, selfishness, for the honour of a Vietnam that values its freedom, for the security and the well-being of millions of our fellow-countrymen who have suffered from the war, for that fraternity in the flesh between men of the same race and which is called Fatherland.

We affirm that democracy is neither material happiness nor the supremacy of numbers. Democracy is essentially a permanent effort to find the right political means in order to assure to all citizens the right of free development and of maximum initiative, responsibility and spiritual life…

Address to the US Congress (1957)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ngô Đình Diệm (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.