The Most Famous

EXTREMISTS from Vietnam

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This page contains a list of the greatest Vietnamese Extremists. The pantheon dataset contains 283 Extremists, 2 of which were born in Vietnam. This makes Vietnam the birth place of the 23rd most number of Extremists behind Norway, and Colombia.

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Vietnamese Extremists of all time. This list of famous Vietnamese Extremists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Charles Sobhraj

1. Charles Sobhraj (b. 1944)

With an HPI of 59.89, Charles Sobhraj is the most famous Vietnamese Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

Charles Sobhraj (born Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj, 6 April 1944) is a serial killer, fraudster, and thief who preyed on Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s. He was known as the Bikini Killer because of the attire of several of his victims, as well as the Splitting Killer and the Serpent for "his snake-like ability to avoid detection by authorities". It is thought that Sobhraj murdered at least 20 tourists in South and Southeast Asia, including 14 in Thailand. He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release he returned to France. Sobhraj went to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and given a life sentence. On 21 December 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age, after he had served 19 years of his prison term. On 23 December, he was released and deported to France. Described as "handsome, charming and utterly without scruple", he used his looks and cunning to advance his criminal career and obtain celebrity status; he is known to have enjoyed his infamy. Sobhraj has been the subject of four biographies, three documentaries, a Bollywood film titled Main Aur Charles, and the 2021 eight-part BBC/Netflix drama series The Serpent.

Photo of Nguyễn Văn Trỗi

2. Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (1940 - 1964)

With an HPI of 48.51, Nguyễn Văn Trỗi is the 2nd most famous Vietnamese Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (1 February 1940 – 15 October 1964) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and member of the NLF (National Liberation Front). He gained notoriety after being captured by ARVN forces while trying to assassinate United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1964.

People

Pantheon has 2 people classified as Vietnamese extremists born between 1940 and 1944. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Vietnamese extremists include Charles Sobhraj. The most famous deceased Vietnamese extremists include Nguyễn Văn Trỗi.

Living Vietnamese Extremists

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Deceased Vietnamese Extremists

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