BEYOND DESPAIR

BEYOND DESPAIR

By Van Nguyen

  

Severe[ house after North Vietnamese topers seized the Independence Palace Saigon; flags of the Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam were seen flying here and there in the streets of Saigon. The Saigon Radio incessantly aired chants and praises singing the Great Spring Victory, the heroic exploits of the revolutionary armed forces defeating the enemy and liberating the people from the yoke of the “American imperialism and the puppet government.” North Vietnamese troopers in green uniforms inundated military headquarters and public departments, agencies and offices. Within days, the Military Admiration Commission seized control, reestablished the order in the city. A week later, Ha Phu Thuan, a high official of the Privy Revolutionary Government from the R Central Headquarters, was seen on assignment to conduct affairs at the old Ministry for the Interior on Tu Do Street. North Vietnamese troopers, and not the black-clothes fighters of the Privy Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, were on guard around the Ministry buildings. Rumors spread, saying that fighters in the Front for the Liberation were almost all eliminated from the battleground after their retreat from Saigon following the Tet Offensive in 1969.    

Within days, volunteers with red armed bands appeared at cross-roads, avenues, and streets, directed circulation of vehicles, and kept order. A new system of administration was established   at the city precincts, wards, and streets. Military Administration Committees occupied precinct headquarters and ward offices. Troopers assisted by undercover during the Vietnam War seized control and directed public affairs. Volunteers, mostly the “revolutionary of April [1975]”—the opportunists--, secured services at streets cells. Volunteers helped local authorities with directing and controlling daily public services. The head of “to an ninh” (security street-cell) was particularly entrusted with reporting on the daily activities of all households in the street. Every decision was decided upon by “the authorities at upper levels,’ however.   

The military personnel and public servants in the old regime were classified into different categories. Those that were classified into the categories of “the blood debtors to the people and the “Revolution’ were either  subject to punishment without trial or sent to prisons or reeducation camps for long-term detention. The high rank- and-file personnel of the “puppet administration” were to report at various headquarters or stations to be scheduled for reeducation. Lowest level employees working for the puppet administration, even an office cleaner, could have involuntarily contributed to the service for the “American imperialism and the puppet administration.” All of them were also to be reeducated to repent on their mistakes and errors. They were likely to be redeemed under the policy of tolerance and leniency of the “Revolution.” Non-commissions and soldiers and low-level public servants in the old regime were to report at ward offices for the on-the-spot reeducation. They then had a sense of the generosity and clemency of the “Revolution.” They had the obligation to attend sessions of thought reforms, confessed crimes, if any, and mistakes and errors. Upon completion, they would be likely given absolution and the right to the citizenship. They would then be legally entitled to contributing to the socialist contribution.

Reality proves the reverse. Servicemen in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam are all “pirates.” Never have they been treated as citizens. Right on April 30, 1975, South Vietnam wounded soldiers across of the country, even they were on death beds, were turned out of hospitals. There is no policy for these disabled soldiers. Neither is there a policy of tolerance, clemency, and lenience in this regard. These “pirates’ are seen as outlaws, and they are treated as the “enemies to the people.” Hundreds thousand veteran disabled soldiers and servicemen and their family members have been preyed to poverty and misery. Quite a few of them drag out a miserable existence at the mercy of generous benefactors and passers-by on the sidewalks of townships and cities.

      

As soon as troopers came in and seized control at public departments, agencies, and offices, the new regime summoned on public radios all the rank-and-file personnel of the old regime to report at offices to continue routine service.  Only several days later, high officials and officers in the army or the security service from the rank of second-lieutenant and higher were to register for reeducation at designated public headquarters or stations for reeducation. Employees at lower levels were told to register for on-the-spot reeducation at local offices or simply sent home for further decision. Guardians or door-keepers were kept for temporary service. Within days, almost all central and local departments, offices, institutions of the old administration were subject to dissolution. Hundreds of thousand employees of the old regime in Saigon were in an instant out-of-work and didn’t know what would happen to them in the days to come.     

  Cadres and officials of all branches, trades, and services—professional, non-professional personnel and undesirable elements-- from the North flowed to fill in the vacant positions at various central and local departments, agencies, and offices of the old administration. Tumultuous waves of cadres, officials, guerrillas, and unidentified elements from the “liberated zones” in the South-- Ca Mau, Chau Doc, Rach Gia, An Giang, Tay Ninh, Ben Tre, Kien Phong, Cu Chi, Binh Long, and so on- were brought in the “newly-liberated” provinces, townships, and cities to fill in vacant positions at public precinct and ward headquarters and offices. They assumed the executive role, regulating public services. Officials and police officers from the North, in particular, were in charge of the direction and supervision. Newly-selected servicemen and the guerrillas from the “liberated zones “ were then seen in yellow uniforms to direct circulation of vehicles and kept order in replacement of the “revolutionaries of the April 30” and red arm-band volunteers. Elsewhere, in the Center and the Central Highlands, similar campaigns for pacification were carried on to reestablish public security and order.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Teachers and professionals in the domain of education were given special treatment. The then Minister of Education Nguyen Van Hieu declared: “Teachers are not pirates.” Nevertheless, educational public and private educational institutions, establishments. and schools were subject to restructure. Private educational institutions, establishments, and schools were confiscated, and their right to the ownership of property was transferred to the people. They were therefore, subject to dissolution. Thousands of members in the teaching staffs were sent home. They were allowed, nevertheless, to attend reeducation classes to reform thought and to understand the policies of the “Revolution.” Like their colleagues in the public educational services in the old regime, they might be selected to serve the new regime.

The processes for reeducation were phased in unforeseen periods of time. Programs were scheduled for teachers to attend on-the-spot reeducation classes. The term of classes varied depending on the availability of instructors at each locality and the decisions of the local authorities in charge. Teachers at lower levels attended short terms reeducation. Professors and experts at higher institutions and university, especially professors and experts in the humanities and social sciences at private institutions, attend longer terms of reeducation. At the old Ministry for the Interior, during the first days of the “liberation,” experts, officials, and professors at the “Vien Tu Nghiep Quoc Gia” (National Institute of Training), for instance, were to report at the old National Assembly for reeducation at camps. The low-level personnel were assembled at the offices for a three-day thought reform class. Thought reform sessions focused on the denunciations of crimes of “My-Nguy” (American Imperialism and the puppet government). Attenders were called to repent on their own crimes, if any, or mistakes and errors they had made against the “Revolution.” Thereupon, they were given pardon but dismissed from service. Hope for continuation of employment under the new regime dissipated, but they felt self-assured for having not committed a “crime.”  

    Thought reform for the intelligentsia of Saigon was scheduled to take place at higher educational institutions of the old regime, at the Saigon Faculty of Medicine in Cho Lon (Saigon Chinatown) and the National Institute for Public Administration in Saigon, for instance. These preparations proceeded amid the tumultuous campaigns for defeating the reactionary bourgeoisie and mercantile compradors, and thus attracting a large attendance. Some came out of curiosity. Others were fearful of being attributed to as reactionaries. Still, hopefuls were optimistic enough that they might be selected for employment, having completed reeducation.

      The audience were reeducated in the eulogies for the glory of the “Revolution,” the great leadership  of the Party, and the heroic achievements of the Vietnamese people in the fight for the liberation of the people from the yoke of “American imperialism and the puppet administration” in South Vietnam. Instructors and cadres elaborated barbarous and atrocious war crimes by the enemies, the phony prosperity, and the debauchery of the life under the old regime. Severest fights during the Vietnam War, Dong Xoai (Phuoc Timh), Cu Chi (Gia Dinh), An Loc (Binh Long), Khe Sanh (Central Highlands), were exemplified as the victorious achievements of the over the enemies .       

      

     In 1977, an official thought reform program was especially designed for the intelligentsia in Saigon. Again, intellectuals from various areas of culture and education were called on to attend. Particular groups were, again, assembled at various locations, mostly at higher educational institutions in Saigon. Teaching staffs and the personnel in the humanities and social sciences at private higher institutions and universities, for instate, reassembled at the Faculty of Medicine, Minh Duc University, Saigon. Classes operated from Monday to Friday. The attenders were educated in Marxism-Leninism, with concentration on the workings of the doctrine in all domains of the political and economic life. Democratic centralism is million times greater than the American democracy. Invincible socialism gloriously wins over capitalism. Social justice is for everyone under the leadership of the Communist Party, the representative of the workers and the working class. The “Revolution” gives pardon to all who repent on their errors and mistakes. Everyone should contribute to the cause of “the Revolution.”

   Sessions of study were conducted under the direction of cadres from the North. There is no limit of time for complete reeducation. It takes a lifetime. Successful thought reform depends on the individual’s will and wishes. The thought reform program terminated after an eighteen-month study. Hopefuls for selected employment were told to continue activities in assembly at the “Hoi Tri Thuc Yeu Nuoc” (Association for Patriotic They were encouraged to join in socialist economic production—to learn practices for labor production, digging canals at the pilot agricultural farms at the swampy areas of Thai My, Cu Chi, and Binh Hoa and on the barren Nguyen Van Coi fields. After months of waiting, several hopefuls were selected for employment on recommendations, mostly from competent cadres and officials in the new administration. Others voluntarily dismissed themselves from assembly at the association headquarters in reluctance. Selected recruits for employment were a few. They were paid from 50 to 60 dong a month. With 1 dong, they could buy a piece of bread of about 200 grams. They seemed to be self-satisfied with their lot. They and their family members would not be sent the new economic zone for socialist production, at the least.