You ran away and left us to do the job that you could not do.

S. Neighbors had little contact with him or knowledge of him aside from seeing him walking his dog. Although not yet a Catholic (he would convert later in life after getting married) Thiệu attended Pellerin a French-run Catholic school in Huế the imperial seat of the Nguyễn Dynasty.

Thiệu initially joined the communist-dominated Việt Minh of Hồ Chí Minh but quit after a year and joined the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) of the French-backed State of Vietnam. Diệm was captured and executed and Thiệu made a general. Thiệu gave contradictory orders to Trưởng to stand and fight or withdraw and consolidate leading to mass panic and collapse in the north of the country.