Nhu was a staunch advocate of personalism and later became known for his efforts in running the clandestine Cần Lao party, which supplied Diệm's power base and acted as a security apparatus to crush dissent in South Vietnam.
At the time Lacassagne was establishing an interdisciplinary team for exploring the possibilities and uses of a hypothesis by Otto Schmidt, which became known as the electronic theory of hydrocarbon carcinogenesis.
He delineated the role of the cyclopentene ring and its double bond and of the chain length in determining the toxicity and leprostatic activity of these compounds.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he had extensive collaborations with the quantum chemistry personnel of the Radium Institute on various aspects of the electronic theory of carcinogenesis.
Such studies of heteroatomic polynuclears led him to propose a "newer picture" of a carcinogenic hydrocarbon, helping the generalise the classical K-region hypothesis.
From the mid-1960s onwards, Bửu Hội increasingly turned his focus to the structural facets of polynuclears which determine their ability to induce microsomal enzyme synthesis, in particular involving zoxazolamine and dicoumarol hydroxylation.
Aside from his study of fundamental organic chemistry, chemical carcinogenesis and chemotherapy of leprosy and tuberculosis, Bửu Hội's team also conducted research into a wide range of issues of biological and therapeutic interest.
These included the synthesis and testing anti-inflammatory non-steroid compounds, substituted sex hormones, anti-coagulant substances and their potentiation, antidiabetic agents, treatment of hypertension by methyl-DOPA, antioxidants and the chemophylaxy of aging and the toxicity of dioxine among others.
He had worked with Hồ Chí Minh's Vietminh to form the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which sought to establish independence from its formation in September 1945.
After the disruption of the Second World War, the president of the American Chemical Society had asked a colleague to resume contact with French chemistry circles by selecting three men regarded to be the outstanding chemists in France.
Hội accepted the invitation of the ACS to deliver a series of lectures in the United States, where, in 1951, he traveled to the Maryknoll Seminaries in Lakewood, New Jersey to offer his support to Diệm in his quest to form an independent Vietnamese government.
He left a letter in Rangoon to be delivered to Vietminh leaders, prophetically predicting that this would be the last opportunity for them to deal with France directly without third part interference.
[14] Hội went to meet Phạm Công Tắc, the pope of the Cao Đài, and his entourage in their stronghold of Tây Ninh west of Saigon near the border with Cambodia.
Hội went on to meet with the Hòa Hảo in the Delta city of Cần Thơ and also met with Bình Xuyên leaders in Cholon.
Bửu Hội opposed a military buildup in the south, reasoning that the best defense against insurrection came from fostering popular participation in the administrative and economic institutions of the state.
L'Express, the newspaper in Paris which printed his ideas, was considered to be friendly with French Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France.
In addition, he was named as the director of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Center that was constructed near the central highlands resort town of Đà Lạt.
In June, Bửu Hội wrote to Nhu to urge Diệm to further dialogue with the Buddhists and create a Ministry of Religious Affairs.
The tension grew, and eventually in July, she made an appearance at a press conference at Saigon's Xá Lợi Pagoda, to repeat the threat.
Rumours began to circulate stating that the Americans wanted Hội inserted in a newly created post of prime minister, in order that the Ngô family's power would be diluted.
[17] He spent many hours talking with the Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang at Xá Lợi to ensure that his mother would not actually self-immolate.
Shortly after midnight, the Special Forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam loyal to Nhu raided pagodas across the country, vandalising, looting and in some cases detonating them, arresting around 1400 monks and nuns.
When Nhu told him "Tu me laisse dans la merde" (in French: "You have left me in the shit"), Hội agreed to defend Saigon at the UN in New York on the condition that a fact-finding mission would be allowed to enter the country and freely see the truth for themselves.
U Thant, the Buddhist Burmese who was the Secretary General of the United Nations sharply criticised the Vietnamese government, saying that there was no country so chaotic and deteriorating.
The campaign against the Diệm regime was overtly led by Ceylon, but Saigon felt that Cambodia had been stirring up animosity among the Asian countries, having already broken off diplomatic relations after the raids.
Harlan Cleveland, the assistance secretary for international organization affairs thought that his "sophisticated" plan and his stature as an intellectual and diplomat would boost his cause.
Since South Vietnam was not a member and had no right of reply, Bửu Hội and his team lobbied African and Asian countries behind the scene.
His body was laid in state for five days in a sanctuary at Rue Gassendi in Paris, where French and Vietnamese alike paid their respects.
Hội's stature also allowed him to develop contacts with French President Charles de Gaulle, who favored neutralizing Vietnam in the early 1960s.
With the support of Bửu Hội, de Gaulle advised his ambassador in Saigon, Roger Lalouette, to float the concept with Diệm and Nhu.