Vũ Văn Mẫu (25 July 1914 – 20 August 1998) was a South Vietnamese diplomat and politician, who was the last Prime Minister of South Vietnam, serving under President Dương Văn Minh's leadership. Early life and career Vũ Văn Mẫu was born in 1914 in Hanoi, Tonkin, French Indochina. He earned a doctorate in law from the University of Paris and practiced law in Hanoi. After Vietnam’s partition in 1954, he moved to Saigon with his family and joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Saigon, where he became the Dean of the Faculty. He was recognized as an expert in civil and historical law. After several years as a professor he then became a local Saigon judge, rising through the ranks to become Judge of the Saigon Superior Court. During his legal career and even during retirement and exile, he authored a number of books, including one entitled Vietnamese Civil Law. Political career After carrying out the referendum of South Vietnam in 1955, deposing the Head of State Bảo Đại and the State of Vietnam. Then Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm established a new government, Republic of Vietnam which Diệm proclaimed himself as president and invited Mẫu to hold the position of Foreign Minister of the Republic of Vietnam. He held this position for eight years, from 1955 to 1963. During the Buddhist crisis of 1963, he resigned on August 22, 1963, shaving his head like a monk in protest. He strongly opposed the fierce repressive measures of the Ngô Đình Diệm's government against Buddhism. When he attempted to leave the Republic of Vietnam to join a pilgrimage to India, he was arrested and placed under house arrest. Mẫu was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands in the mid- to late 1960s. In the early 1970s, he was elected Senator of the Republic where he became a prominent national politician. Prime Minister of South Vietnam (1975) In 1975, he became Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam under President Dương Văn Minh. During his tenure, he was always active in the movement for peace and reconciliation for the nation. Therefore, when General Dương Văn Minh became president, he was nominated for the post of Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam for the purpose of participating in negotiations to end the war. However, he was only in office for only two days