THE NATIONAL RESTORATION MOVEMENT

THE  NATIONAL RESTORATION MOVEMENT

By Van Nguyen

    Upon completing the takeover of the Capital City of Saigon, the communist administration upstaged campaigns f0r pacification destroying the remnants and vestiges of American imperialists and their henchmen, dismantling and outlawed all institutions of the suprstructue and bases of the infrastructure of the South.  Leaders of various cultural, religious, political, and social institutions, personalities and intellectuals of various professional groups, the personnel of the old administration, and other concerned individuals from all walks of life met in secret and pledged to serve national integrity, sovereignty, and independence, struggling against the brutal oppression and repression of the communist regime. Among them were veteran members of the National Party for Restoration of Vietnam (Viet Nam Phuc Quoc Dong Minh Hoi) that had operated under the spiritual leadership of Prince Cuong De and the patriot Phan Boi Chau during French domination.  Symbolized as pillars of the alliance were Nguyen Phuoc Cuong Hung, Phan Vo Ky, Ho Tan Khoa, Ta Quang Hoi alias Ta Nguyen Minh, Hoc Nang Nguyen Van Phat,  Doan Viet Nhan, Pham Quoc Bao, Tran Van Ha, Nguyen Van Thai alias Thai Nam, Gian Chi Nguyen Huu Van, Nguyen Van Dinh al, Nguyen Van Diem alias Ly Thai Nhu, Vu Toan Tu, Tran Thanh Dinh, Tran Huy Phong, Tran Trieu Viet alias Tran Viet Son,  Le Quoc Tuy, Dinh Van Trinh alias Nguyen Ly Cao Nhan, and others.

  Certain fractions in the alliance committed themselves to a struggle in all forms, militarily and politically, for a free, non-aligned, and independent Vietnam. They formed the “Mat Tran Thong Nhat Toan Luc Quoc Gia” (The Unite Front of National Forces). The principles and methods for operation varied with each affiliated organ’s potential human and material resources, initiatives, means, situations and circumstances. Cooperation and coordination were the broad criteria for action among and between various elements of the same organ and members of different lines of organization. The Fronts militants engaged the communists, mostly in and around the western Bassac River provinces. The military components of the Front suffered disbandment in 1980, subsequent to frequent attacks by the communist security forces in Rach Gia under the direction of Nguyen Tan Dung. Other underground anti-communist groups or individuals operating elsewhere also sustained great losses due to lack of material resources. Many of them operated on their own initiatives, and some of them were still active until the later times.

The Washing Area League for Human Rights (1978) published two important documents, the Disinherited Vietnamese's Manifesto signed by eight public figures and the Testament of Patriotic Prisoners in Vietnam drafted by Dinh Huy Binh and endorsed by 49 prominent political prisoners, among whom were 82-year-old revolutionary scholar Phan Vo Ky, imprisoned by the French; 80-yearold nationalist revolutionary Ta Nguyen Minh, 16 times imprisoned by the French, Diem, Thieu, and Communist governments; Father Tran Huu Thanh, President of the Anti-Corruption Movement under Thieu; 80-year old nationalist revolutionary Nguyen Van Thang, 4 times imprisoned by the French, Diem, and Communist governments;. The lawyer Tran Van Tuyen; and the lawyer Vu Dang Dung, President of the Lawyers Association; Professor Mai Van Le, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Hue University. The Testament denounces:

 “We, workers, peasants, proletarians, clergymen, artists, writers, and patriotic intellectuals, presently detained in various prisons in Vietnam, wish, first of all, to express our warmest thanks to progressive movements all over the world, all struggling movements of workers and intellectuals; and all those who, over the past decade, have supported     movements fighting for human rights in Vietnam, and for the freedom and democracy of exploited and oppressed Vietnamese.

 In the name of our belief in a just cause, we want to alert you, our justice and freedom-loving friends, as well as international opinion, to a policy of imprisonment never before applied in the history of mankind and the cruelty of which no one can measure, a planned cruelty imposed on prisoners in all prisons throughout Vietnam. In fact, apart from 400,000 soldiers, officers, and civil servants of the former Government now serving the sentences in the concentration camps, the present Communist Government has detained close to 400,000 people from other walks of life: laborers, peasants, workers, patriotic intellectuals whose past is in no way, have connected with the former puppet Government in Saigon, and, who, on the contrary, have achieved a certain notoriety among the people for their past struggle for peace.

  In fact, shaken in the face of massive opposition from all social levels, the Security forces of the current Government has indiscriminately imprisoned old people, women and invalids. It has also detained without the least hesitation the mad, children, and even the newly-born. Among thousands of cases, we can cite the arrest of the journalist Doan Ke Tuong, his wife, and-day-old baby, the journalist Dang Giao, secretary-general of the daily journal Song his wife and 7-day-old baby, Mr. Phan Vo Ky, 82 years old, secretary-general of the High Council of Religions in Vietnam, the Venerable Thich Quang Do, secretary-general of the Unified Buddhist Church in  Vietnam (An Quang Pagoda), Reverend Nguyen Van Bo, director of the Fatima Diocese, Saigon, and so on.

  On the other hand, despite the already impressive number of persons left by the Thieu Government. The existence of which at one time was severely condemned by international opinion, the Communist Government can no longer find enough room to incarcerate their numerous prisoners. Apart from the accelerated construction of new prisons, the Secret Police has hastily had to transform schools, hotels, office buildings and even orphanages into prisons. And such has been the case with Hotel Dai Nam, Dai Loi Building in central Saigon, and Long Thanh Orphanage.

   .... In this moment of agony, we, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese prisoners, appeal to you to intervene in Viet Nam through all means to terminate immediately this situation--and this medieval cruelty of the present Government.

     The holocaust of the Jews in 1945 dying in the crematoria was an enormous wound for humanity. But in Vietnam hundreds of thousands of people are tortured, oppressed and living in perpetual anguish, dragging out their lives in suffering and madness. If it is true that humanity today retreats in fear before the growth of communism, and above all the so-called 'invincibility' of Vietnamese Communists who have defeated the all-powerful American imperialism, then, we, prisoners in Vietnam, request the International Red Cross, world humanitarian organizations, and men of good will, to send each of us urgently a dose of cyanide so that we may end our suffering and our humiliation. We want to die at once. Help us to do this. Help us to die at once. We shall be eternally grateful to you (Washington League for Human Rights, 1978: 10).  

  Sources inside Vietnam reported that right after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, numerous members of organizations operated anticommunist activities clandestinely inside the country. Many were listed as reactionaries. They were arrested and convicted on charges of "activities aimed at overthrowing the government."

Tran Tu Thanh, secretary-general of the League for the Protection of Civil Rights, published four lists of political prisoners who were detained in prisons and reeducation camps. Twenty-six (26) prisoners were detained in Ba Ria-Vung Tau; eighty-three (83) in the camps Z30A (K1) and Z30B (K2), Xuan Loc District, 52 (62.65%) of whom served life imprisonment sentence and 20-25 years' imprisonment sentence; one hundred and one (101), 37 of whom (46.98%) served life imprisonment sentence and 20-25 years' imprisonment sentence in camps Z30D (K1) Ham Tan District, Thuan Hai Province; and two hundred forty-three (243), 167 of whom (68.72%) served life imprisonment sentence and 20-25 years' imprisonment in camps A20, A30, and HT1780, Xuan Phuoc District, Phu Yen Province.

The veteran political prisoner Nguyen Khac Chinh compiled a list of 105 political dissidents who were detained at Ham Tan Camp. Among them were: Dinh Cong Anh, Caodaist Le Cong Can, Professor at Can Tho University; the Reverend Tran Cong Chuc, Catholic priest; Venerable Dong Van Kha, Buddhist monk; Reverend Tran Khac Kinh, Catholic priest; Reverend Nguyen Van Thin; Catholic priest Reverend Do Tri Thuyen, Catholic priest; Ho Van Ba, Nguyen Trung Truc RVN Army;  Phan Xuan Ba, Anti-Communist Patriots' Front; Phan Van Cau, National Self-Determination Front; Phan Dinh Hieu, Vietnam National Party; Huynh Van Chon, Vietnam Patriots' Front; Nguyen Van Chung, Vietnam National Revolutionary Party; Nguyen Van Danh, Youth Organization for National Restoration; Huynh Van Dung, Front for Freedom and National Salvation; Huynh Van Dong, Front for National Security; Nguyen Van Duc, Black Dragon Organization; Nguyen Huu Duc, Bao Long National Restoration; Nguyen Van Duc, Human Rights Front; Nguyen Van Hoanh, Front for National Restoration; Bui Hoa, Civilian and Military Front for National Restoration; Le Van Mon, National Restoration Army;  Ha Van Hang, Front for National Restoration; and Bui Xuan Phuong, National Revolutionary Movement.