Ramchundur Goburdhun was an Indo-Mauritian diplomat best known for his role in the "Maneli Affair" of 1963, an attempt to end the Vietnam War.
17 Facts About Ramchundur Goburdhun
1.
2.
Ramchundur Goburdhun's grandfather had arrived in the Mauritius as an indentured laborer from India and rose up to become a schoolmaster.
3.
Ramchundur Goburdhun was educated in Port Louis at the Royal College Port Louis and the Institut francais du Royaume-Uni.
4.
Ramchundur Goburdhun's father was a stern, authoritarian man who often beat his son with a rod for his rebellious streak.
5.
An outstanding student, in spite of being frequently caned by his teachers, Ramchundur Goburdhun excelled as an athlete.
6.
Ramchundur Goburdhun had a lifelong love affair with Paris, which was always his favorite city.
7.
Ramchundur Goburdhun was educated in France and remained a lifelong Francophile.
8.
In 1943, Ramchundur Goburdhun was made a Civil member of the Order of the British Empire for his work as a civil servant in the Mauritius.
9.
Ramchundur Goburdhun served as the charge d'affairs at the Indian embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1952.
10.
In December 1958, Goburdhun arrived at the Dar al-Makhzen in Rabat, Morocco to present his credentials as India's ambassador to King Mohammed V During his time in Morocco, Goburdhun came close to adopting the daughter of an Italian diplomat after her parents were drowned at sea.
11.
Ramchundur Goburdhun became chairman of the International Control Commission in October 1962 assigned to supervise the Geneva accords of 1954.
12.
Ramchundur Goburdhun was well suited for this role as a honest broker, establishing cordial relations with the leaders of both North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
13.
However, the conclusion Ramchundur Goburdhun reached was that the war was pushing North Vietnam closer to China, and that ending the war would allow the traditional Sino-Vietnamese antagonism to reassert itself as Ramchundur Goburdhun knew from his contacts within Hanoi that North Vietnamese leaders were willing to accept Chinese help only because the United States was supporting South Vietnam.
14.
Ramchundur Goburdhun lived in a house in Saigon built by a wealthy Chinese merchant, and notably refused to allow his children to leave the grounds of the house, saying that Saigon was too dangerous.
15.
In Saigon, Ramchundur Goburdhun renewed his friendship with Nhu, and uniquely was able to maintain a friendship with Nhu's abrasive wife, Madame Nhu.
16.
Accordingly to one of Nhu's bodyguards, he saw at a dinner hosted by Ramchundur Goburdhun, Nhu talking to an unknown man with an "intellectual" demeanor and whose chest pocket had on it a yellow star on a red background, the symbol of North Vietnam.
17.
However, regardless if Ramchundur Goburdhun did set up a meeting between Nhu and a North Vietnamese official, on 25 August 1963 he arranged for Nhu to meet Maneli at a reception at the Gia Long Palace.