THE PROBLEMS

THE PROBLEMS

By Van Nguyen

The Exodus to the Promised Land

Before 1975, the Vietnamese emigrants overseas were a little number. There were about 160,000-170,000 Vietnamese in Southeast Asia (50,000 in Thailand, 40,000 in Kampuchea, and 30,000 in Laos). Outside Asia, there were about 30,000 in France, some 4,000 in New Caledonie, and 3,000 in the United States. During the two decades that preceded 1975, the Vietnamese emigrants mostly came from South Vietnam. They formed a little number in other countries in Western Europe and most of their time there was devoted to carrying on their graduate studies. They often chose the Francophone countries such as Canada, Belgium, and Swiss. Certain others went on doing their studies at the universities in Australia, West Germany, and Japan. The fall of South Vietnam in April 1975 accompanied an unprecedented exodus in the history of Vietnam. The U.S. military force performed the first evacuation. It essentially comprised the military and civil personnel who, mostly, belonged to the ruling class of the old regime and easy quarters--cadres, high-ranking officers and civil servants, bankers, financiers, industrialists, intellectuals, medical doctors, pharmacists, dentists, engineers, businessmen, and so on.). According to the statistics by the United Nations that agreed with those tallied by Hanoi, the number of these first refugees rose to 143,000.

  Beginning in July 1975, the confiscation of private properties and the repression against the capitalist compradors and capitalist businessmen, the land collectivization during the years 1978-79, and the Sino-Vietnamese war  (February-March 1979) coupled with the expulsion to China 276,000 Chinese in the North, the movement of clandestine emigration began. Another form of illegal immigration by the sea termed as semi-official departures developed.  From the up north province of Quang Tri in the Center to the southernmost Ca Mau peninsula in the South, the authorities, mostly the personnel of the Pubic Security, patronized these semi-official departures in exchange for gold. Most passengers were Vietnamese of Chinese ethnic. Organizers collected gold from the passengers, 10 to 15 taels each. Saigon, Ca Mau, and Rach Fia offered the safest embarkations, In Saigon; Chairman of the City People’s Council Phan Dinh Dong alias Mai Chi Tho was the patron. Embarkations even took place at Saigon Wharf, near the one-time My Canh Floating Restaurant.  The shipwreck at Cat Laiin September 1979 astounded not only city dwellers but also the authorities themselves.   Cat Lai is located in Thu Duc District, several kilometers east of Saigon where the 30-meter merchant ship Thanh Xuong anchored. Witness said tickets were sold out to around 300 passengers, but more than 400 passengers were taken in aboard. Passengers who paid the lower fares were assigned to seats in the hold. Unable to suffer suffocating heat, many passengers preferred to stand on the deck, the ship weighed anchor at high tide. A few kilometers from Cat Lai, it swayed out of hot hustle of the passengers, slid sideways, then turned upside down. There was no reuse whatsoever. The best morning, bodies of the drowned were seen floating up as far as Thu Thiem boat ferry across from the My Canh Foating Restaurant.   

 At the time of the launching of the operations for systematic socialization in the years 1983-1985, the “boat people” who, mostly, comprised lower-ranking civil servants, artisans, small traders, peasants, fishermen, workers, and craft-men, left the country. During the first ten years, from 1975 to 1985, the High Commission for Refugees registered 650,000 arrivals of boat people at the coasts of the countries of first asylum. Tens of thousands of other Vietnamese leaving their country during this period never came to destination. They were victims of storms, of sun, of Thai or Malaysian pirates, Vietnamese or Malaysian coastguards and the indifference of merchant ships sailing on the waters of the South China Sea. Experts of the High Commission for Refugees estimated that 20 or 30 per cent of boat people had perished on the sea. Thus, in ten years, approximately a million Vietnamese escaped their country in search for refuge overseas (Lam Thanh Liem and Jean Mais, 1995: 3-4).

According to Que Me Magazine (1981), from 1979 to 1981, 396 719 boat people had arrived at refugees camps. Estimates by the Red Cross, nevertheless, pointed out, until 1983, around 5,000 boats of the refugees had perished at sea, and around 300,000 boat people had lost their lives. The report by the High Commission for Refugees in 1984 indicated that 1,800 refugees were killed by pirates. In 19882, one fourth of 1, 2 million refugees had been beaten or tortured and around 81% of the women in the refugee’s boats were repeatedly raped. Fifteen years after the communist takeover of Saigon, the escape across the sea ever continued. On January 15, 1990, 11 naked bodies identified as female Vietnam were drifted ashore on Nakkhon SiThammarat in South Thailand. Thai authorities confirmed they were victims of piracy. They were  thrown into the sea after they had been raped then killed.

The Frontiers Wars

Amid insurmountable difficulties, the administration faced the invasions of the Red Khmer into the South West provinces in the South and Chinese troops the along the borders Northwest provinces of the country. On April 30, 1977, the Chinese-supported Khmer Rouge transgressed and made attacks along the southwestern borders provinces of Tay Ninh, Ha Tien, and Kien Giang. Seven battalions launched in-roads attacks into the regions of Bay Nui, TINH Bien, and An Giang. Three infantry regiments of the People’s Army supported by airplanes and flanked by armored vehicles and tanks from Kienn Giang routed the invaders out of the territory.  In January 1978, the Khmer Rouge, again, deployed troops along the borders provinces. From January 11-19, three   Khmer Rouge regiments launched attacks into the districts of Tinh Bbien and Phu Cuong, north of Vinh Te Canals. On January 18, two other regiments made inroad attacks and seized Giang Thanh, Ha Tien District, Kien Giang Province. Heavy artillery from Kampuchea shelled in Chau Doc Township and Tay Ninh Township and the surrounding areas. Vietnamese villages along the borders were destroyed, and Vietnamese and Kampuchea residents as well were massacred.  Bloody battles ensued. On January 7, 1979, the People’s Army launched an all-out offensive into Kampuchea, seizing the vast territory from Neal Luong to Phnpm Penh. The Khmer Rouge genocide war enfolded. It is estimated that 1.671 out of the total population 7.890, 000 of Kampuchea were massacred during the period from 1975 to 1979. Victims of Chinese nationality were 215,000 out of the total 400,000, and those of Vietnamese nationality were 4000-10.000 out of the total 200,000 people who failed to escape the country before the Red Khmer occupation (The Pol Pot Regime, Yale University 1966, p.458). On January11, Khmer Rouge’ top leader Ieng Sary successfully escaped to Thailand borders. He was brought to Bangkok by the Thai Armed Forces and was then transported to Beijing.

The invasion of the Vietnam People’s Army into Kampuchea was brought for discussion before the United Nations at the request of the China’s protégé Norodom Sihanouk. The U.N. General Assembly passed resolution to demand Vietnam to withdraw its troops from the country. It was an act of impudence to China. And, Beijing decided to teach Hanoi a lesion.  On February 17, 1979, opened attacks all along the northwestern borders provinces in the North, invading and occupying the whole territory from Phong Tho, Lai Chau to Mong Cay. Heavy artillery shelled in Lang Son, the capital province in upmost North. About 200,000 Red Army troops were deployed on the first day of the invasion. Taken by total surprise, the Vietnamese troops stationed near the Nam Quan Gate area were flattened out in an instant. The population fled in chaos. In Cao Bang people ran in flow into distant caves at the pursuit of the Chinese troops. In February, as many as 60 Chinese army divisions were deployed along the frontiers.

       

The invasion proceeded on different battle fronts, On February 17, six army divisions moved into Lang Son; and three other divisions moved into Lao Kay. Reinforcements with heavy artillery and tanks were sent in.  The stone-ore plant at Lao Cay was broken down’ two train stations at Goc Da and the Lang Coc Bridge were blown out. Innocent Vietnamese were massacred. Women were raped and children were no exception. In Cao Bang, the Chinese destroyed every office building and every office  building and residential  every house before withdrawal. The invaders met with furious retaliation from the Vietnamese force which was much weaker in arms and inferior in strength. In Cao Bang, on the advance from Cao Bang to Fai Ho Sin Pass, the Chinese suffered tragic battle losses. Memories of the “Bloody Patth at the Pass” certainly imprint on their mindss. “Approximately 25 Chinese troopers were killed and 37, 000 others were wounded. The lesson which Deng Xiaoping tended to teach the “brother hood country cost China 5.5 billion of yuan out of the 1978 fical year.