THE REEDUCATION

　

The Concept of Reeducation

 

The concept of reeducation was originally borrowed from the Maoist ideology of thought reform. The practices of it were adopted in preparation for the agrarian reforms in the North at the time the nomadic Viet Minh government was still moving about in the jungle. It was systematically implemented after the Nhan Van Revolt (1957-1958) in Hanoi when the Communist State was unable to maintain orthodox prisons. Thought reform continued to be an instrument for repression against all elements the State regarded as counterrevolutionaries throughout the 1960’s.

Thought reform for prisoners was first administered in the North after the CIA-sponsored South Vietnamese commando teams were captured in North Vietnam beginning in 1961. The Government Democratic Republic of Vietnam introduced into its systems of prisons and concentration camps the giao duc cai tao (reeducation reform). The measure was considered as a means of dealing with suspected counterrevolutionary elements within the territory under its control. The security services did not need sufficient evidence to bring the individual to trial or to keep an individual under detention for as many years as necessary. Until many years following the Communist takeover of South Vietnam commandos parachuted into and captured in the North were still seen serving thought reform. The process became fully instrumental in performing reeducation reform after the Communist take over of South Vietnam in April 1975.

A Policy

From a measure, reeducation was incorporated in a policy of national security. By the Resolution 49-NQTVQH of June 20, 1961 and the Circular No.121CP of September 1961, the administration carried out the programs of reeducation of officers, officials, and members of political organizations and parties and other social, economic, and cultural institutions under the French regime. The Resolution 49/NQ/QH, which was signed by Truong Chinh. was judicially a law order. The administration is allowed to arrest and detain a suspect without law process. A term of reeducation is three years. At the end of each term, the reeducated could receive three additional years depending on his devotion under reeducation. Still, the Circular No. 121 CP of September 1961 of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam allowed the authorities to forgather obstinate counterrevolutionary elements. Elements in this category were defined as follows:

"1. All old dangerous spies, guides or agents of the old puppet army or administration; former rangers with many heinous crimes, who received clemency from the Government and much education but still obstinately refuse to reform and who still commit acts threatening to public security. 2. All hard-core members of the former opposing organizations and parties, who previously committed many heinous crimes, received clemency from the Government and much education but still obstinately refuse to reform and who still perform acts threatening to public security, and 3. Obstinate elements in the former exploiting class and all other counterrevolutionaries with deep feelings of vengeance towards our system who always act in opposition. 4. All dangerous counterrevolutionaries who have completed a prison sentence but refuse to reform. (Aurora Foundation, 1988: 39)

In 1967, the National Assembly passed a new legislation defining counterrevolutionary crimes, The law specified crime for "any opposition to the government policy. Those who committed such an act was arrested without trial, incarcerated, and reeducated. From a political measure, reeducation became a law then a policy to deal with political dissidents and reactionaries, and all possible sources of opposition Practically these two legal documents vested the authorities with the authority to handle prisoners under a more elaborate and sophisticated system of control.

The forgathering specifically put into effect the arrest or re-arrest and detention of a limitless number of hostile elements without legal procedures. It effortlessly put them under control in times of political instability. At the same time, it created favorable conditions for the authorities to gather a large number of potential dissidents for thought correction or reform. As a rule, reeducation reform is always coupled with limitless detention, it creates an atmosphere of terror in the population. For easy access to carrying out a certain security policy, reeducation is instrumental to the service of the Party.

 

Reeducation in the South

The Violations of International Agreements

On January 27, 1973, representatives of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam signed the Agreements on Ending the War and Restoring the Peace in Vietnam. Article 96 of the Agreements specified that "the South Vietnamese people shall decide themselves the political future of South Vietnam through genuinely free and democratic elections under international supervision." More significantly, Article 11 of the Agreements honors the civil and political rights of the Vietnamese people, with all citizens being equal and free to enjoy authentic democratic freedom. Nevertheless, immediately after they concluded of the Agreements, the Communists, launched all-out offensive military campaigns throughout the South. Tens of army divisions from the North invaded and ravaged the country and took it over by force in April 1975.

Before the takeover of Saigon the Provisional Revolutionary Government promised, in its 10-point declaration, to carry out the national concord and reconciliation policy. On the victory celebration in Saigon, Party Secretary-general Le Duan gave assurances that the Party would turn the prisons into schools. However, the Military Administration Committee of Saigon-Gia Dinh Area, in June 1975, issued orders according to which all senior officers from the rank of captain and above, all officials from the grade of assistant director or above from the former administration, to turn themselves in at Gia Long High School and Taberd High School for "reeducation reform." Senior officials, high-ranking officers, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, politicians, and priests and monks of all Churches were to register with the Communist military authorities at various both public and private departments, agencies, and services for "reeducation." Reeducation began in the awe of the South Vietnamese people.

The Characteristics

The policy for education with all its sophisticated measures and methods of reeducation previously executed in the North against the dangerous agents of the puppet government, henchmen of imperialism,, opposing organizations, and counterrevolutionaries were, again, systematically put into practice. Nguyen Ngoc Giao wrote in the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (The People’s Army) that "reeducation is a meticulous and long-range process; management. It must be tight, continuous, comprehensive, and specific. We must manage each person. We manage their thoughts and actions, words and deeds, philosophy of life and ways of livelihood, social relationship and travel... We must closely combined management and education with interrogation (Aurora Foundation, 1966:40)

This policy was intensively and variously put into effect after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. The objectives and methods of application were modeled on the old laws and practices, but the measures of handling the reeducated were much more severe and brutal. The modes of maltreatment of hundreds of thousands of people in reeducation camps, which were in fact all prisons. They were executed with tricks and restrictions that were unpopular and inhumane. Prisoners were crammed into their minds with political lessons, which is an act of revenge that only causes suffering, illness, and even death, to the reeducated and grief and distress to their family members and relatives (Bui Tin, 1993: 231).

Even authorities in the Party realized that reeducation reform proved to be a failure, culturally and politically. The National Assembly, in 1984, passed a penal code that eliminated reeducation camps as a form of punishment. Under the new law, persons guilty of serious violations should be subjected to house surveillance, in which condition the convict would have to remain to stay within a given locality and to live, work, and "reform himself" under the control of the local authorities.

Authorities in the Party showed embarrassment as to whether or not giving up education camps as a tool for managing political security. On the other hand, the People’s Control Organ, which is supposed to ensure the law, was incapable of preventing or stopping abuses. Camp reeducation remained mandatory. It was not until February 1985 that the Party showed some leniency. More prisoners that were not professionals were released from the camps. An internal struggle was under way between those party-members who concerned with establishing a rule of law and those who hesitated, pondering over whether or not to abolish reeducation camps as an instrument in securing political stability. In 1987, as the economy of the country deteriorated and the Party was in difficulty to deal with all sources of opposition, the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City adopted its own regulations that specifically called for "concentrated education for past or present counterrevolutionary elements who refuse to be reeducated."

Processes of Reeducation

People in the South, even people from the North who had experienced hardship under communism, were duped. They were all credulous, subjective, and easily persuaded, although critical to some degree. They believed the new political system .would soon putt everything in order. They did not believe and did not want to believe that it would deal their compatriots with such an evil intention, to eliminate their compatriots who are, in reality, their relatives or friends. Realists and pessimists in this situation were only a few. People thought that only thugs that served the puppet government would be executed and that such an accident would only occur in some remote districts in the rural or mountainous areas.

What had happened, in reality? There had been no real blood bath. The new political regime had acted in such a clever manner that it successfully assured everyone of its indulgence and leniency towards the military and the civil personnel of the collapsed puppet administration. Worries about a blood bath dissipated; enthusiasm of joining an organization to rebel against the new regime evaporated; and expectations for evasion to a foreign country melted away. To everyone’s dismay, at this time of self-assured radiance, reeducation began. It took place about a month after the takeover of Saigon. The incident befell calmly, in a quite ordinary manner and without a surprise.

The Registration and Promises

People accepted reeducation. Throughout the country, the authorities issued lists of officers detached for temporary service at schools and officers working at local and central military headquarters. All were invited for reeducation in a polite manner. The cadres in charge at the committees of military administration made people believe that reeducation was something of little importance. Once we have lived in a new regime, we have to change our ideology. So, we need to study the new ideology and politics. As far as the duration for reeducation was concerned, the authorities gave everyone a hint that it would only take a short period of time. Being pressed for a definitive answer, they vaguely speculated that it would only take several weeks to a month. Under these circumstances, one thought to oneself: Why not then to report oneself to the committee? A flash of hope gleamed out in everyone’s head: At the end of the reeducation course, a certificate would be accorded, and everyone would be able to live, and there would be no devil to pay.

Believing in what the regime had promised, the high-ranking military officers and members of the political parties of the old regime presented themselves in person with a light heart before the authorities in their districts. A subdued behavior as such also constituted a positive attitude of cooperation. That was the reason for which few people sought to escape from the tricky plan of reeducation. And, that was the first success the regime had achieved. The greater success of the new regime was the hidden scheme that was only noticeable when those first and second lieutenants who had been discharged from military duties before 1975 had to report themselves with the authorities for concentration reeducation. These servicemen believed that they were not required to do so. These former junior officers felt assured they felt assured that everything was being done all right. The regime would do well by them.

The prospective reeducated then left for reeducation, each supplied himself with a light sac. Had the authorities not said that reeducation would only last 10 days for a junior officer and 30 days for a senior officer and a general? In addition, the authorities had showed a scheme in their vague turn of phrase in an earlier notice by calling noncommissioned officers and privates for an on-the-spot reeducation for three days. The courses usually concluded at a fixed date. Senior officers and generals were convoked for reeducation a month later. Everyone believed that the new regime would keep its promises. To assure of assiduity, the Communist State rectified its order by affirming that the reeducated needed to bring food for 10 days. One could only explain to oneself that the text was ambivalent and the intentions was doubtful. The ambiguity of the text serves as a mask over the real intentions (Buu Lich, 1984: 1-2).

The Prisoner Population -- The Statistics

Until this day, there has been no official statistics issued by the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the number of reeducated prisoners. Reeducation remained the predominant device of social control until the present day. It was used to incarcerate members of certain social classes in order to coerce them to accept and conform to the socialist norms. This type of control is one feature of a broader effort to control the social deviant and destroy at the roots all possible forces of opposition, counterrevolution and the resistance.

The daily Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberated) reported, in June 1975, that approximately 400,000 officers, officials, and members of various political parties turned themselves in to undergo reeducation. In this category, about a half (200,000) were ex-Communists who changed sides during the Open Arms campaign, and the remaining included former members of the Secret Police, the Special Forces, the South Vietnamese Marines, Parachutists, and Flying Tigers officers that were involved in operation Phoenix. Various sources reported that after the liberation of Saigon, waves of massive arrests and incarcerations for reeducation. Measures were carried out to deal with dangerous elements. In many areas, people who were associated with the defeated Saigon government were executed. As many as 300,000 military officers, civilian officials, and political party members were kept in twenty-one reeducation camps for periods varying from a few months to many years. Hundreds of writers, artists, journalists, and publishers were arrested and sent to the camps in 1975-76 because of their political viewpoints evidenced by past works and affiliations.

The camp personnel attempted to change the political viewpoints of the camp inmates through confessions and collective discussion of their crimes. Nevertheless, after 1978, with security threats perceived as increasingly alarming because of economic crisis and overt hostility of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam appeared to have viewed the camps and prisons a convenient way to keep the individuals from making contacts with other potential opposition elements that operated clandestinely in the country. The French journal L'humanite, in its issue of publication on January 10, 1977, reported that about 60,000 prisoners were incarcerated in various camps and prisons. Vo Van Sung, Hanoi's former ambassador to Paris, put forward the figure of 50,000 prisoners. The official journal of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nhan Dan, only reported the releases of prisoners. Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, in his interview with journalist Jean-Claude Labbe (Paris Match, No 1530, September 22, 1978), simply declared that "during these three years [1975-1977] we have sent back more than a million (1,000,000) people, who collaborated in one way or another with the enemy, to the civil life and their families."

The Washington Area League for Human Rights reported that during the months that followed April 1975, the Communist administration in the South arrested and detained 400,000 patriots who had no connection with the former South Vietnamese administration, including intellectuals, clergymen, artists, writers, and even newborn babies and invalids. Arrests were also made upon 200,000 officers, officials, political party members, and 200,000 ex-Communists who converted and joined the South Vietnamese force during the Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) campaign from (Ngo Dinh) Diem's to (Nguyen Van) Thieu' s time.

Thousands of innocent Vietnamese, many whose only crimes were those of conscience. They were arrested and detained. Many of them were tortured to death in prisons and reeducation camps. Instead of bringing hope and reconciliation to war-torn Vietnam, the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam created a painful nightmare that overshadowed significant progress achieved in many areas of the Vietnamese society. It stated in February 1979 that some 50,000 people were incarcerated. Journalists, independent observers, and refugees, however. estimated the current number of political prisoners between 150,000 and 200,000. Whatever the exact number, the facts form a grim mosaic.

The Testament of Patriotic Prisoners in Vietnam, issued on April 18, 1979, maintained that "apart from 400,000 soldiers, officers, and civil servants of the former Government now serving life sentences in concentration camps, the present Communist Government has detained close to 400,000 people from other walks of life: laborers, peasants, workers, patriotic intellectuals, those whose past was in no way connected with the former puppet Government in Saigon, and those who, on the contrary, have achieved a certain notoriety among the people for their past struggle for peace (Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 14). Verified reports appeared in the press around the globe, from the journal Le Monde in Paris and The Observer in London to the Washington Post and Newsweek in New York. People heard the horror stories from the people of Vietnam-- from the workers and the peasants, Catholic nuns and Buddhist priests, from the boat people, the artists and professionals, and those who fought alongside the National Liberation Front.

In 1981, Amnesty International established the information given by Hanoi that there were only 40,000 people being reeducated throughout the country. Members of the humanitarian organization were invited to visit the typical camp at Ha Son Binh. There, several hundred inmates pretended to enjoy their reeducation as if they were in a kindergarten. Hoang Tung, the then spokesman of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, portrayed them as people on vacation. The members of Amnesty International might not have noticed. The plain truth is that before their visit, more than 4,000 prisoners at Ha Son Binh Camp had been transferred to other camps and that policemen mingled with the group of inmates to welcome the delegate.

The report by Ginetta Sagan and Stephen Denney, which is based on the results of investigations and interviews, revealed that very few of the reeducated, if any, were freed after the period of 10 days or a month. Among the million who went to reeducation camps (more than 150 camps throughout Vietnam), approximately 500,000 people were released within three months, 200,000 detained for two to four years, and 240,000 persons detained in camps for at least 5 years. Until now (April 1983), at least 60,000 people are still under detention. In mid-1985 the Communist rule conceded that it still held about 100,000 inmates in the reeducation camps, but the actual number was to be believed to be at least 40,000. In 1982, there were about 120,000 Vietnamese in these camps.

At the end of 1990, the Ministry for the Interior Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam announced the arrest of 30,000 reactionaries. In November 1991, it declared that there were no more political prisoners in Vietnam after it released more than 100 prisoners detained at Camp 230D at Ham Tan. In June 1991, Amnesty International expressed concerns over the fate of prisoners of war in Vietnam as follows:

"1. The detention without charge or trial of people associated with the former Government of the Republic of Vietnam. Many ere released under government amnesties in 1987 and 1988 but over 100 have remained untried detention. 2. The detention without charge of alleged opponents of the present government in reeducation camps for alleged antigovernment activities. They include members of the clergy, writers, and intellectuals, people of Chinese ethnic origin, and professionals. Some who remain in detention are prisoners of conscience and it is believed that others, about whom little is known, may also be prisoners of conscience detained for the peaceful expression of their political, religious, or other beliefs, and 3. Some prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience were held for years in untried detention before being brought to court and convicted of participating in activities with intent to "overthrow the people's government. Others were arrested and brought to trial in more recent years. In these cases, it is believed that court procedures did not conform to international standards for fair trial. 4. The use of the death penalty in Vietnam The Vietnamese media reported that in the first nine months of 1990, 56 persons were sentenced to death. Amnesty International has no specific information about these cases."

The humanitarian agency also reported that the figures issued by the Communist authorities in the two amnesties in 1988 suggested the release of 11,500 prisoners of whom nearly 5,800 had been held in administrative detention without charge or trial in reeducation camps. Among those who were released from reeducation, over 1,000 people were held since 1975. In its report issued in June 1991, The December 1992 report to the Australia Congress pointed out that approximately 65,000 people had been executed in rural areas throughout the country and that 500,000 people, who were considered as sympathizers with the old political regime, were arrested and detained for four (4) to fourteen (14) years. This also means that to eradicate the political influence of the old regime, the Communists activated campaigns of propaganda to sustain the spur to arrests and detention of political dissidents, writers and artists, and religious leaders.

On January 25, 1993, Nguyen Thi Hong, the press attache at the Vietnam Mission to the United Nations, said to the San Jose Mercury News that Vietnam had released all former South Vietnamese military prisoners from reeducation camps. Although they thought that almost all the ex-military officers had been freed, many overseas Vietnamese groups believed that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam still held thousands of the reeducated in an intricate network of prisons and reeducation camps throughout the country. Human rights groups such as Asia Watch and Amnesty International were reluctant to estimate the number of camp populations, saying that they had been refused access to the camps. Canada's representative to the Third Committee of the 49th UNGA, on November 29, 1994, called on the Communist government to release political dissidents and expressed grave concerns over the treatment of religious leaders in Vietnam.

Vietnam became a true inferno on earth. The jails were overflowing with thousands upon thousands of prisoners. People disappeared and never returned. People were shipped to reeducation centers, died a starvation diet of stain rice, forced to squat bound wrist to ankle, suffocated in connex-- iron containers . People were used as human mine detectors, cleaning live mine fields with their hands and feet. For many, life is hell and death is prayed for .Many victims were men, woman, and children who had supported and fought for the causes of reunification and self-determination; those who, as pacifists, members of religious groups, or on moral and philosophic grounds had opposed the authoritarian policies of Thieu and Ky, artists and intellectuals whose commitment to creative expression was anathema to the totalitarian policies of the government (Joan Baez. Open Letter of May 1, 1978).

THE COMMUNIST DISSOLUTION OF THE CULTURE OF SOUTH VIETNAM

The Confiscation of Book

　

While achieving the takeover of power in South Vietnam in April 1975, the revolutionary government suspended almost all private publications and compiled a list of banned books, including the entirety of works of fifty-six southern authors. The citizens were prohibited to listen to imperialist radio broadcasts. They were also urged to report with the local authorities those who listened to them or spread news heard from them. An army cultural unit was set up and worked at each neighborhood to wipe out the vestiges of the neocolonialist culture left behind by the old regime, including books, printed materials, tapes, records, and publications. Groups of red guards went from house to house in search for decadent and reactionary literature.

Tons and tons of books, reviews, magazines and all types of printed materials published under the old regime were confiscated. Loads of such decadent culture materials were piled up and burnt at crossroads. In May 1975, the libraries at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Letters of Saigon University were ransacked, and all the books were burned. Control was strict and focused on the circulation and possession of printed matter. Possessors of books and all types of printed matters were encouraged to register with the local authorities for unforeseen inspection. Failures to do so would commit crimes. Officials in the old regime‘s Bureau of Censorship of Newspapers and Books, Ministry of Culture and Information, oftentimes, would have blinded their eyes on certain sources of news and criticisms on newspapers and magazines with charges of benefiting the communists left certain leftist authors alone. As private publications did not exist in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, publications of any sort in the North, must be Party- oriented and State-owned, and thus instrumental at the hands of the Party and State. The ultimate goal was to propagate the Party’s ideology and dogmas, and eulogize Uncle Ho and the Party leadership. Books of all types, from textbooks to novels, reviews, magazines, and newspapers of every sort were there to serve the regime to make the citizens believe in Uncle Ho, the Party, and the State.

The Communist State, as always, monopolizes the acculturation of the propagation of ideology and the diffusion of information, and distribution of printed matters. The size of an edition and the effort that went into publication did not depend upon the needs and demands of the society but upon the judgment of the authorities who determined if the content of information and sources of the material are instrumentally good for the regime. Thus, after April 30, 1975, for political purposes, all private printing houses, newspapers, bookstores, theatrical and opera troupes, tea rooms, film companies, cinemas, and publishers were ordered to suspend their activities. and they remain closed thereafter.

The dissolution of the culture of the South was systematic and complete. Party Secretary-general Le Duan, at the 1976 Party Congress stated that "the important task of ideological and cultural work is to combat bourgeois ideology and other non-proletarian ideologies, to sweep away the influence of the neocolonialist ideology and culture in the South, to spread thoroughgoing propaganda and education about Marxism-Leninism ideology and the lines and policies of the Party in order to give absolute predominance to Marxism-Leninism the political and spiritual life of the entire people." The review Nghien Cuu Lich Su (Historical Studies), a research organ of the Vietnamese Communist Party, in its issue of publication in November-December, 1977, pointed out that "the governmental reviewed reports confirmed the seizure of 2,711 m3 of books (10 million volumes) from Khai Tri bookstore in Saigon alone, of which 66 percent were on the official list of banned books." This confiscation process was repeated over and over until there was no trace of any books was left."

Fully six years after the conquest of Saigon, in early 1981, the Communists again mounted a new operation of confiscation against the books that had been published in the South before April 1975 and any new ones that were published by individuals after that since they were only regarded as unorthodox. Three months after the fall of Saigon, the cadres of the campaign for confiscation of materials of decadent culture tallied their accomplishments and had them published in the October 1981 issue of Tap Chi Cong San (The Communist Review): another organ of research of the Vietnamese Communist Party, millions of copies nationwide, and in Saigon alone, 60 tons of printed materials.

The Communist Party and State of Vietnam had practically incorporated all private educational, social, and cultural organizations, agencies, institutions, and establishments previously existent in the South into the State agencies of culture and information in various forms. The Party and State monopolize the publication of books, diffusion of news, and distribution of reading materials of any sort. Journalists and writers who oppose communism have always been made victims of a policy of systematic elimination, through interrogation and incarceration. If Vietnamese books had no way of getting out and being safeguarded abroad, some day people would hardly know how the true literature of Vietnam before the August Revolution of 1945, and notably that of the South prior to the takeover of the South by violence by the Communists would be like.

What the Communist authorities did and have done is to establish a realist literature to serve the Communist regime. The cadres of the Culture and Propaganda departments at all levels have to raise quite a brouhaha about it. The motive behind it all is to create an impression that this is the true literature. The North, after the Nhan Van (Humanity) event, and the South, after the fall of the Nguyen Van Thieu regime, have to follow the same direction. Anything that had been written and circulated in south of the 17th parallel, during the twenty years of war (1955-1975) was no cultural at all. It is nothing but the product of a decadent culture! (Vo Phien, 1993: 5). "

Reevaluation on the Culture of the South

As soon as the Communists came to power in the South April 1975, they began to clamp down the community of journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals. Successive operations were renewed in late 1975 and early 1976 as part of the campaign against the decadent and reactionary culture. The campaign of repression began with a censure of all intellectuals. They were called up to sign themselves in and to report all details of their life, works, and activities. This was ostensibly just a counting of heads, but, in fact, it was later used as a complete file system for the police. It was given in the name Reevaluation by the Communist authorities that was justified in a declaration made by Tran Bach Dang, the Head of the Propaganda Branch of the North Vietnamese Government in the South (Summer, 1975). The culture of the South, in this cadre; s views, "is a slave culture, promoted by the American imperialists to destroy the Revolution. If the literature of the South is not reactionary, it is at least decadent. Therefore, the (Communist) Party and the Government of the North must reevaluate the whole culture of the South."

　

Categorization of Literary and Scholarly Works

In the summer of 1975, all writers, poets, artists and journalists in the South were to register with the Association of Writers and Artists of Ho Chi Minh City. Their works were revaluated. The reevaluation involved the division of all literary and scholarly works into six categories, and all published works had to be subject to this classification:

Category A: Works that opposed communism in any way. Examples of writers in this category were: Andre Gide, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, and Pearl Buck. Among the Vietnamese writers were Doan Quoc Sy, Vu Khac Khoan, and Nghiem Xuan Hong.

Category B: Works considered by the northern cultural authorities as decadent, for example, those of Henri Miller, Elia Kazan, D.H. Lawrence, Erskine Caldwell, and Herman Hesse, and existentialists such as Camus, Sartre, and De Beauvoir. Among the Vietnamese authors in this category were Tuy Hong, Nguyen Thi Thuy Vu, Trung Duong, and Nguyen Dinh Toan. Even the female novelist Nguyen Thi Hoang, who described in the most modern and poetic terms, a love affair between a sixteen-year-old student and her teacher, was classed as decadent because the ‘moralistic’ northerners do not permit such emotions.

Category C: Romantic works, approximately like works of nineteenth century authors such as Alexandre Dumas, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, and George Sand. Pre-nineteenth century authors were not considered necessary for evaluation. Also in this category were Carson McCullers, Eric Segal, Somerset Maugham, Quynh Dao, and Han Suyin. The writers in this category were considered bourgeois unaware of the miseries of society around them. South Vietnamese writers in this category were Linh Bao, Tu Ke Tuong, Trong Nguyen, Hoang Ngoc Tuan, etc... Poets of love and romance were also classed here, such as Tue Nga, Nhu Hien, Nguyen Sa, and Hoang Anh Tuan.

    

Category D: Philosophical and Religious Works: According to the principles of reevaluation, behind every religious system, and in every philosophical school, the literature of a capitalist state aims gradually to destroy the will of mankind to struggle and to debilitate man's spirit. Therefore, all translations of Tagore, Omar Khayyam, and poems praising Shakyamuni (Buddha), Kwan-Yin, Christ and the Virgin Mary were classified as category D. Works of poets Pham Thien Thu, Pham Cong Thien, Bui Giang, and the Zen poet Vo Chan Cuu and Huy Tuong were also in this group.

Category E: Works considered by the cultural authorities of the North to be healthy, constructive, and progressive, for example, were those of Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, and all works praising the working class struggle. Vietnamese authors included in here were Nguyen Van Xuan, Phan Du, Nguyen Thi Thuy Vu, Vu Mai Anh, and so on. Poems by Mac Khai, Truc Phuong, and Kien Giang Ha Huy Ha were also admitted.

Category F: This is the highest category and includes all works based on Marxist thought, which were considered to have contributed to the revolutionary struggle, for example, works of Maxim Gorky, Vu Hanh, and Nguyen Van Xuan who attacked the decadent culture of the South, celebrating their Anti-French Resistance movement. Finally, what was known as the Autumn Collection was classified here, as well as works of Phan Du, Van Xuan, Bien Ho, and Ho Truong An (Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 22-23)."

　

The Persecution

　

Independent writers and personalities were arrested. They were Nguyen Manh Con, Doan Quoc Sy, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Pham Viet Tuyen, Pham Van Tam (Thai Lang Nghiem), Le Van Tien, Vu Hoang Chuong, Nguyen Sy Te, Pham Dinh Tan, Pham Trong Nhan, Nguyen Viet Khanh, Ho Van Dong, Hoang Hai Thuy, Vo Long Trieu, Thich Quang Do, Thich Huyen Quang, Tran Van Tuyen, Nguyen Hoat, Nguyen Ngoc Tan (Pham Thai), and Vu Quoc Thong. They were personalities whose free thinking and modern ideas presented a prime obstacle and a serious threat to the austere ideology coming from the North.

 

　

Mass Arrests

Mass arrests of the intelligentsia in the South began. It was severe, expansive, and systematic. Waves of journalists, writers, artists, dignitaries and intellectuals of the old regime were called to reeducation. They were necessarily reeducated, that is, brainwashed, detained, and imprisoned. Very few of them escaped from being arrested because of a sophisticated network of journalists, writers, and artists who served as underground agents for the Communists during the Vietnam war. They were such intellectuals as Vu Hanh, Hoang Trong Mien, Thai Bach, Thanh Nghi, Luu Trung Duong alias Luu Nghi, Nguyen Ngoc Luong (Tin Van Literary Group), Lu Phuong, Ngoc Linh, The Nguyen, Van Trang, and Cung Tich Bien.

Independent writers and personalities were arrested. They were Nguyen Manh Con, Doan Quoc Sy, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Pham Viet Tuyen, Pham Van Tam (Thai Lang Nghiem), Le Van Tien, Vu Hoang Chuong, Nguyen Sy Te, Pham Dinh Tan, Pham Trong Nhan, Nguyen Viet Khanh, Ho Van Dong, Hoang Hai Thuy, Vo Long Trieu, Thich Quang Do, Thich Huyen Quang, Tran Van Tuyen, Nguyen Hoat, Nguyen Ngoc Tan (Pham Thai), and Vu Quoc Thong. They were personalities whose free thinking and modern ideas presented a prime obstacle and a serious threat to the austere ideology coming from the North.

Three distinct waves of repression that could be delineated in the years that followed the Communist takeover of April 30, 1975. The first wave took place in May and June 1975. The initial group consisted primarily of writers and journalists who had worked for the pre-1975 government in the South or who had joined or had been conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. The second wave began in late 1975 and early 1976 as part of an intensive campaign against decadent and reactionary culture. The third wave of repression began on May 2, 1984 when more than 20 writers and artists were arrested, also for ungrounded reasons. A significant number have been arrested at other times under different circumstances (Aurora Foundation, 1989: 73-77).

In the first wave of arrest, at least, ten prominent journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals, reportedly died in prison. They were the lawyer Tran Van Tuyen, the writer Nguyen Manh Con, the novelist Duong Hung Cuong, the scholar Ta Nguyen Minh, the writer and journalist Nguyen Hoat, the scholar Ho Huu Tuong, the poet Vu Hoang Chuong, the film actor Kha Nang, the scholar Le Khai Trach, and the music composer Nguyen Van Dong. The number of writers and artists died at camp remained unknown due to massive arrests and poor access to sources. In the third wave of arrest, Nguyen Hoat and Duong Hung Cuong did not survive maltreatment. Nguyen Hoat died in Chi Hoa prison. and Duong Hung Cuong died in Phan Dang Luu prison. Eighty former prisoners of conscience interviewed by the Aurora Foundation independently claimed that the Communist's goal was to prevent contacts between Vietnamese writers and the foreign intellectual community (Aurora Foundation, 1988: 77). Approximately one hundred journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were reportedly detained at unknown whereabouts.

Journalists, writers, and artists who had worked for or who had joined or been conscripted into the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam were coercively arrested and detained. Among them were: Thanh Tam Tuyen, Van Quang, Nguyen Dinh Toan, Nhat Tien, Duy Lam, Vu Duc Anh, Do Tien Duc, Thao Truong, Dang Tran Huan, Nguyen Huu Nhat, Lam Hao Dung, Cao My Nhan, Duong Hung Cuong, Ha Thuc Sinh, Dang Chi Binh, Pham Quoc Bao, Phan Nhat Nam, Ta Ty, Dang Giao, Khuat Duy Trac, and Nguyen Duc Quang,

Hundreds of other writers, poets, artists, publishers, painters, musicians and composers, actors and singers, journalists, scholars and lawyers who were arrested in successive mass arrests. Among them were: Ha Thuong Nha, Vu Dang Dung, Phan Lac Phuc, Ly Dai Nguyen, Sao Bien Tran Tu Binh, Uyen Thao, Nguyen Huy Giao, Nguyen Huu Doan, Cung Tram Tuong, To Thuy Yen, Tran Danh San, Duong Nghiem Mau, Nguyen Manh Con, Son Dien Nguyen Viet Khanh, Tran Da Tu, Ho Huu Tuong, Bui Giang, Le Xuyen, Tran Le Nguyen, Son Khanh, Hoang Hai Thuy, Nguyen Thuy Long, Nguyen Thanh Cam, To Kieu Ngan, Thanh Van, Thai Thuy, Nguyen Kim Phuong, Duy Lam, The Uyen, Phuong Trieu, Hoang Loc, Thanh Ton, Tran Hoai Thu, Ho Minh Dung, Duong Kien, Nguyen Trung Dung, Tran Dai, Ngo The Vinh, Hong Duong, Hoang Dinh Huy Quan, Luan Hoan, Bui Kim Dinh, Chinh Yen, Chu Tram Nguyen, Cao Thoai Chau, Lam Hao Dung, Duong Dien Nghi, Phan Viet Thuy, Dinh Hoang Sa, Mac Phong Luan, Le Vinh Tho, Thuy Nguyen, Pham Le, Phan, Hoang Quy, Hoang Khai Nhan, Nguyen Vu, Phan Du, Do Tan, Luu Van, Nguyen Trieu Nam, Trieu Hoa Dai, Ninh Chu, The Phong, Huy Luc, Tong Minh Hong, Nguyen Van Thang, Nguyen Bach Duong, Tran Lu Vu, , Y Yen, Tu The Mong, , Phan Ba Thuy Duong, Mai Tien Thanh, Muong Man, Tu Ke Tuong, Le Ba Lang, Lam Chuong, Ha Nguyen Thach, Huu Phuong, Nguoi Thang Long, Pham Viet Tuyen, Luu Kham, Thich Thong Buu,, Nhu Phong, Ngoc Diep, Phan The Hung, Nguyen Huu Hieu, Huy Phuong, Tran Chau Ho, Tran Van Thai, Pham Dinh Tan, Hi Van, Pham Trong Nhan, Mai Chung, Pham Ngoc Khue, Ho Thanh Duc, Nguyen Lam, Thuc Vu, Xuan Diem, Do Kim Bang, Truc Phuong, Le Minh Bang, Nguyen Van Dong, Dan Trinh, Vu Xuan Thong, Hi Van, Kha Nang, Nguyen Sang, Van Dzai, Vu Duc Duy, Hung Cuong, Minh Dang Khanh, Nguyen Van Truong, Pham Quang Khai, Ho Nam, Thanh Thuong Hoang, To Ngoc, Nhuoc Bang, Tran Xuan Thanh, Tran Buu Khanh, Tran Dai, Le Khiem, Nguyen Khac Nhan, Vo Long Trieu, Ho Van Dong, Nguyrn Kien Giang, Minh Vo, Doan Ke Tuong, Huyen Anh, Lam Tuong Du, Anh Thuan, Nguyen Tien, Le Phu Nhuan, Thai Duong, Nguyen Trung Thanh, and Cat Huu (Charter 78)..

Still, a significant number of journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were arrested and sent to various reeducation camps. Among them were Vu Duc Hai, Vo Van Hai, To Huy Co, Doan Van Khang, Mac Thu Luu Vo Quoc Than, Duc Sinh, Nguyen Thach Kien, Dang Giao Tran Duy Cat, Sao Bien Tran Tu Binh, Vo Long Te, Bui Ngoc Dung, Le Ba Lang, Le Khiem, Nguyen Bao Danh, Nguyen Huu Nhat, Nguyen Tien, Nguyen Tu, Jham Dai, Phung Ngoc An, Phan Ngo, Tran Buu Khanh, Tran Dai, Tran Dai Long, Tran Ngoc Tu, Tran Quy Phong, Trinh Viet Thanh, Vu Mong Long alias Duyen Anh, Truong Vi Tri, Vu Duc Nghiem, Vuong Van Nga, Bui Kim Dinh, Cat HuuDinh Ngoc Nguyen, Ha Tuong Cat, Ho Van Dong, Nguyen Thuy Long, Tran Nhon Co, Nguyen Trung Thanh, Mai Duc Khoi, Nguyen Khanh Gio, Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Nguyen Thi Phuoc Ly, Nguyen Lang, Nguyen Van Than alias Ho Ong, and Pham The Hung.

Religious dignitaries and political figures were targeted with arrest and imprisonment. High dignitaries were not an exception. Among them were Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Kim Dien, Catholic Archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan, the Buddhist Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, the Chairman of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith Thich Quang Do, the Honorable Phan Vo Ky of the B’Hai, His Excellency Tran Quang Vinh of Cao Dai, The Honorable Phan Ba Cam and the Honorable Luong Trong Tuong of Hoa Hao, the Honorable Vu Hong Khanh and Nguyen Van Thai alias Thai Nam of Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang, the Honorable Ta Quang Hoi alias Ta Nguyen Minh of the Viet Nam Quoc Gia Xa Hoi, and the Honorable Pham Van Tam alias Thai Lang Nghiem and the Honorable Tran Thanh Dinh of the Duy Dan.

Amnesty International was particularly concerned about political prisoners who were detained or arrested between 1975 and 1985 The organization requested the Council of Ministers of Vietnam their immediate and unconditional release. Several of them were released. Others were still incarcerated simply because of their faith or expression of opinion Among them were the writers, poets, and journalists Tran Nhon Co, To Huy Co, Thai Nhu Sieu, Doan Quoc Sy, Nguyen Chi Thien; Duong Thu Huong and Nhu Phong Le Van Tien; the Roman Catholic priests and followers Tran Ba Loc, Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen Khac Nghieu, Joseph Le Thanh Que, Nguyen Thai Sanh, and Vu Duc Tuan; the Buddhist monks Thiah Quang Do, Thich Nguyen Giac, Thich Duc Nhuan, Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Tri Sieu, Thich Tue Sy, Thich Thien Tan, and Thich Phuc Vien; and personalities of various professional circles, Diep Hong Chieu, Nguyen Chuyen, Nguyen Lang, Nguyen Thanh Long, Ly Nghiep Phu, Tran Vong Quoc, and Ung So; businesspersons such as Truong Tuy Ba, Truong Di Nhien, Truong Kim Cang, and Thach Phiem; Nguyen Ngoc Lan Doan Thanh Liem, Nguyen Dan Que, Doan Viet Hoat, Nguyen Dinh Luong, and Nguyen Quoc Xung, Trinh Hoc Binh, Le Xuan Diem, Nguyen Van Hao, Pham Duc Nhuan, Quach Vinh Nien, Nguyen Kim Tay and Le Cong Thinh.

 

　

Denunciations of Crimes

Personalities representing various literary, social, and political circles continually voiced denunciations of crimes committed by the Communist administration. and pledge to firmly struggle for freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Typical of them is the manifesto by seventeen personalities in front of Saigon Cathedral on April 18, 1977.

"We, with what remains of our failing strength and our mutilated spirits, resolve to struggle nonviolently for the respect of freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Our strength is diminished by hunger and privation. Our spirits are mutilated, with heads bowed and backs bent, we must obey blindly unconditionally, and irrevocably the orders of one Party and a tyrannical government.

We have chosen nonviolence, as it is the only way of avoiding the bloodshed and sacrifice of a people martyred relentlessly over the past decades.

Peasants of the world!

Look at your brothers in Vietnam. The Vietnamese peasant labors in the sweltering heat of the tropics, at the mercy of nature only to find his harvest confiscated in the name of building a so-called socialism. The water-buffalo, after pulling the plough all day is allowed a few moment’s rest. The Vietnamese peasant, after toiling all day in the rice-fields is forced to spend his rare moments of leisure undergoing indoctrination lessons.

Workers of the world!

Imagine the working conditions of the Vietnamese laborer. Forced to work all month long without hope of a different week, all week without hope of a different day, all day without a different hour, he is to receive in the end nothing but a pittance of a wage and, on top of this, be obliged to declare that he is working on his own free will. He has to offer his sweat, blood, and tears to the Party leaders, and for propaganda’s sake, must publicly proclaim that his acts are guided the providence of the government, of the omniscient, all-clairvoyant Party. In Vietnam, even this basic right has been denied.

Clergymen, scientists, artists, and progressive intellectuals of the world!

May all those praying in churches have their prayers!

May all those engrossed in their research come out of their laboratories!

May all those who create break up their pens and threw away the brushes!

All! All! Look at the tragedy of Vietnam! A country where churches and pagodas are turned into indoctrination centers, where all principles even the very laws of nature are distorted to fit the regime’s propaganda and where writers and journalists are forced to put their pens to the service of the Party and Government, to cover up the cruel errors they have committed.

All Vietnamese, whether they be peasants workers, or intellectuals have no other alternatives to

-Resign themselves to the inevitable, and blindly obey the orders of this new race of peculators --Communist cadres-- in order to receive a miserable wage, the meager crumbs of a meal and perish in despair.

-Die of hunger and exhaustion in one of the many concentration camps that have been set up all over the country.

The entire harvest of the peasants and all goods produced by the workers are taken over by the State and redistributed according to the State’s own criteria.

We have seen:

-Workers and peasants forced to work unpaid during the leisure hours for fear that their family’s rice ration be cut and that they will die of hunger.

-Old people and women feigning smiles and enthusiasm in meetings and gatherings, for lack of enthusiasm can be punished by the refusal of rice rations and basic necessities for the whole day.

-Prisoners who, even after release, must keep silent, dare not tell about the horrors they have seen in the prisons. They are haunted by the constant fear that if they are caught speaking out, their wives and children will be deprived of their rice rations and die of hunger.

-One may find the courage to sacrifice one’s own life, but who can bear to see his loved ones sacrificed because his own acts?

This is the reason behind many pathetic and unthinkable cases, and in the case the father who, in order to ensure a proper rice ration for his son, urges his son to denounce him. Otherwise, both of them will die. This only one of many, imaginable to those who have not lived in Vietnam (e.g. a woman denouncing her husband, a man denouncing his own brother). The present regime uses food as a pressure to govern the people, compelling them to obey, breaking all resistance. Any individual thought, however constructive it may be, although it may never be put into action, is branded reactionary and can entail arbitrary imprisonment for he who dares express it. Those who run the Laws Courts, the Police and the deputies in the National Assembly are all, in fact, political cadres who follow the directives of the one Party.

Whereas the propaganda machine grinds out principles of tolerance, humanity, freedom, and democracy. the reality is completely different. More than twenty percent of the former regime’s regime officials detained in concentration camps have been murdered or tortured to death. Moreover, the Government has confiscated all private property, even that of the workers who have been chased out of towns and now have to work on country sites and in the camps.

Intellectuals in the world! Wake up!

Proletarians in the world! Wake up!

To save the human being, this conscience which is inherent in man, you must all struggle to put an end to the barbaric cruelty and the violation of human and civil rights by the Government in Vietnam today.

There is not a moment to lose and on the basis of clauses 13 and 63 of the United Nations Charter, you, progressive nations, governments, international organizations, and, particularly, UNO must intervene to end by all means this savage violation by which reduces man to the state of an animal, resigning himself totally, blindly obeying orders.

Every hour that passes marks the death of thousands of people in concentration camps and prisons. Every day that passes is one more day of torture and suffering for millions of Vietnamese. They live in waiting for the outcry and action of humanists all over the world (The Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1078:5-7).

　

THE COMMUNIST DISSOLUTION OF THE ECONOMY OF SOUTH VIETNAM (1975-1978)

　

　

Ideological Premises

After the operations of nationalization of private industry and business enterprise in the North (1959), the Communist rule launched a political struggle against what they called defeating the bourgeois ideology and petty freedom. Those concepts that are crucial in the Western democracies such as free enterprise, Western parliamentary systems, freedom of the press and of movement, and the like were all taboos to the regime. The aim of this political struggle aimed to orient not only party-members and the working class but also the people s towards assimilating the sooner the better the socialist ideology.

Right after the completion of the Maoist-style agrarian reforms in the North, Party Secretary-general Truong Chinh, in his speech at the Third Congress of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (1960) stressed that "the aim of the present revolution is that the entire people, particularly the working people, should thoroughly absorb the socialist ideology, that they should abandon their previous outlook on life and on the world and replace it with Marxist viewpoint. Thus, Marxism-Leninism will assume a leading role in guiding the moral life of our country and will become the framework within which the thoughts of the whole nation are formed. It will serve as the foundation upon which the ethics of our people will be built."

　

The Transfer of Property Ownership

After the takeover of South Vietnam, the new political regime found itself in face of a society that was abysmally dissimilar in every aspect to the one under the first Democratic Republic of Southeast Asia. It is out of these differences that, in the years that immediately followed 1975, theorists and historians of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party devoted themselves to inquiries into the social and political problems in the newly-liberated regions. Ideological approaches then led the Party s theorists to believe that there was an urgent need to realize a systematic transformation of the society of the South.

In agreement with the rule of development, the processes of this transformation were modeled on those of the plans that had been carried out in the North in the period following the takeover of Hanoi in 1954. It consisted, first and foremost, of evaluating, extenuating, and delineating all means of production of the economy and all the social, cultural, and religious institutions in the South before April 30, 1975.

To achieve their purposes, the Communists called for the appropriation of properties of the bourgeoisie, the landlords, and the religions then transferred their legal ownership to the working class and peasantry. They called this the transfer of private ownership to the people’s ownership, in conformity with rules of what they called the Revolution of the People's Democracy. They established priorities and criteria to liquidate the properties and establishments in the industry and business enterprises and those in the economic, political, and social private sectors.

The religions, religious organizations, establishments, and agencies were no exception. Industrialists, businessmen, religious dignitaries, priests and monks were alike. They belonged to the category of capitalist bourgeoisie. By dint of such coercive socialization and nationalization, all private means of production, private social and cultural institutions, establishments, and agencies came under the control of the Communist administration. The Party and State believed by means of their programs of socialization, they would drastically eradicate both the supra- and infra- structure of the South, hence the disappearance of the deep-seated bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, and the puppets, henchmen of imperialism, and counterrevolutionary elements.

Do Muoi, the veteran chief organizer for the campaigns of dislocating the supra- and infra- structures of the bourgeois capitalism in the North after the takeover of the North in 1954, again, was nominated by the Vietnamese Workers’ Party Politburo as the Chief of the Trade and Industry Reforms Bureau in the South. Upon his nomination to the post, Do Muoi immediately formed a Steering Committee and eleven task force groups to accomplish his mission. Members of the task force were recruited from the cadres in the army and the security police. Six of the eleven task force groups were placed under the command of Tran Van Danh, the Vice-commander of Military Zone 7 --Saigon and the surrounding areas. The other five groups were assigned to work under the direction of Cao Dang Chiem, the chief of the Security Service of Saigon. Upon the completion of the operation of dislodging the capitalists of 1977-`978, the amount 0f wealth amassed was valued at 6 billion dollars (Bui Tin, Hoa Xuyen Tuyet, 1993:79).

　

The Administration of the Economy

The Communist administration, in practice, launched successive search-and-destroy operations to destroy the capitalist economy, first in Saigon, then throughout the provinces in the South (1977-1978), Corruption was first manifest in the South. The greatest amount of booties, which was valued at 6 billion dollars as stated, was divided among the nomenclature. Practically, by the takeover of power in the South by force and in violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1973, Hanoi applied, first and for most, the so-called socialist economic transformation, coercing the people of the South into accepting against will a economic transformation.

Under that socialist economic transformation, the capitalists in the industry and business in wealthy residential quarters were targeted with frequent visits of the local cadres and heartily encouraged to offer their industry factories and trade enterprises to the State. Having offered their properties, many of them were welcome with promises of favors. They were even granted positions in the newly-established state enterprises. Many of them were given permission to make visit tour to the socialist North to witness the grandiose achievements of the Party and State. Nevertheless, the reverse proved to be true. Quite a few capitalists tried to escape the country before their trip. Others left the country in secret after their visit. Ngo Quang Thu, the owner of Saigon Tractors’ Factory on Tran Hung Dao Boulevard evaded Saigon after his tour overwhelmed with fear in the socialist North. The multimillionaire Hoang Kim Quy was sent to camp for reeducation and later died of hard labor. His wealth was dispersed. Ung Thi, the best known wealthiest capitalist of Saigon besought favors beside the Saigon Military Management Council to let him leave the country, having voluntarily offered to the State all his estate and hidden wealth.

The processes of voluntary offering of property to the State by the capitalists in the South were, in general, similar to the ones applied under the direction of Do Muoi during the appropriation of private industry and business enterprises in the North (1959-60). The proprietor had the right and favor to offer to the State his property, both real estate and hidden wealth. The authorities declared that this was only done on a voluntary basis. No one was forced to do that. Property offer was done in the presence of local teams of cadres and guards! There were procedures to be applied. The proprietor had to apply for an application following the instructions given to him by the team of inspection of the local ward.

Having completed the application, the proprietor had to wait for the State's approval. He also had to apply for a job in a State joint-venture company created by the local authority and wait to see whether or not if the State would hire him. There was no official formula. For convenience’s sake, the cadres would also show him how to write the application. This application must be written in a frank and earnest manner, affirming with such statement as his reeducation of the State was for him and his family a great honor and happiness and also an opportunity to strive to make himself a worker, a hidden desire he had long been brooding, and his offering of possessions to the State --establishment and business enterprise-- which fact was entirely voluntary. He had to ask the authorities concerned to accept his offer and promise to willingly carry out all the State and Party's policies.

The difference between the operations of defeating the capitalists in the South and the ones carried out in the North during the years 1959-60 was that the wealth of the capitalists in the South was extremely bountiful, and it was ready at hand to take and easy to gather. Rows and rows of renting houses of the landowning capitalists, assembles of trucks, long lines of steering boats of the traders in the transportation industry, large factories with hundreds of power looms, agricultural equipment and machines, radios and televisions assembling machines, manufacturing works for soap, cigarettes, light bulbs, water filters, canned condensed milk, fish sauce, and so on, were offered to the Party and State (Bui Tin, Hoa Xuyen Tuyet, 1993: 83-84).

　

A Policy for National Reunification

　

The Vietnamese in the South, imbued with the compassion for freedom and democracy, could hardly accommodate themselves to Communist ways of life. Socialist transformation was something bizarre to them. A veteran Communist would think the Communist seizure of power in the South was a means to an end for unification of the country. The Vietnamese Workers’ Party Secretary-general Truong Chinh, who earnestly insulted the French colonialists for having divided Vietnam and disabled her economy, called for an outright national reunification with plans of socialization to revolutionize the newly-liberated South. Being the architect of the task, the Party leaders quickly carried out their plans without popular mandate, and in violation of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1973 by which the Democratic Republic of Vietnam pledged to abide.

In practice, the ill-conceived plans of unification would only result in a disarray of economic and political difficulties. To finalize their purpose, the Communists updated and executed the in haste the law-orders and decrees promulgated in the North .in 1955. These plans of were nevertheless all lumbering versions of the ones previously applied in the North. They were not only unrealistic but also haphazardly done. Worse still, they were corrupted by subsequent delinquent plans and poor methods of management of groups of cupid and inexperienced executioners. Setbacks and pitfalls accumulated, and difficulties mushroomed, thus creating chaotic political incidents and economic crises. It was a real damage to the political and economic stability of the South and a prolonged slackness on national reunification.

The agrarian reforms policy in the South, on the other hand, aggravated stagnancy to the development of economy in the South. The most serious mistake was that the concept of economic development of Hanoi. The Party leaders, prejudiced in their judgments, pretended that the economy of the South should not outgrow and surpass that of the North. Many State cadres even maintained that Hanoi should be given top primary priority in the building of socialism. So, all medical equipment at Cho Ray Hospital in Saigon, for example, should be disassembled and brought to Hanoi... to construct socialism! In this manner of sheer voluntarism, only one year after the liberation of the South, the Party altered late President Ho Chi Minh ' s last will and testament and crossed out such terms as Democracy and Prosperity and substituted them with the nominative "Socialist Republic".

It was not until September 1990 when Vu Mao, the special secretary to the late President Ho, disclosed the news in the daily Nhan Dan (The People) that the public be aware of the truth. The unexpected disclosure aroused deep astonishment and controversy among party-members and cadres and the people. Questions were raised as to whether Ho' s successors had altered his testament and to what extent the Vietnamese Workers’ Party and the National Assembly had altered it. No one voiced his or her opinions on the matter. No matter what the question would be, the voluntary alteration of the testament of Ho Chi Minh was an act of deceit and defiance to the people.

The Party proclaimed grandiose programs. It announced the bypassing of the period of capitalism. It elaborated plans for a quick, strong, and steady move toward socialism. It gave top priority to heavy industry, including the manufacturing of fighting jets, and reversed the agricultural production by increasing the yield from 12 to 21 million tons of grain in five years. The plan for heavy industry soon fell into oblivion. The standard for grain production could be achieved 10 years later, and only after the abolition of the system of agricultural communes.

　

The Division Of War Booties

In 1978, at the end of the operations for appropriation of private industry and business, commonly known as the campaigns of Dislodging of the Capitalist Compradors, directed by Do Muoi , reports to the Central Party Committee said that the local authorities had confiscated 400 kgs of metal or of gold color. As these words imply, metal of golf color referred to real gold or metal plated with gold, which file and rank cadres substituted for real gold. The people of the South knew their wealth in their pockets inside out, particularly, the Chinese merchants who accumulated their wealth during the Vietnam war (1960-1975). The Vietnamese were only concerned about politics. The Chinese, in contrast, were only interested in business, making profits, speculating stocks, and hoarding merchandise to bring in lucrative interests. Many of them became rich merchants, cunningly and without risk.

To everyone’s surprise, only two or three unlucky wealthiest Chinese merchants got entrapped by the local inspection teams during the campaigns of dislodging the capitalist compradors throughout Saigon , and the State could confiscate some hundred kilograms of gold. The immense hidden wealth of the Chinese merchants, in practice, was right there, in their warehouses and homes, inside the walls and under the floor. It was well beyond reality when throughout the South, from the Binh Dinh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien provinces in the North to the My Tho, Long Xuyen and An Xuyen cities in the South, the State cadres could only find some four hundred kilograms of gold. It was a real fable!

Scenes of cupid Chinese merchants who committed suicide during the State expropriation occurred almost everyday and everywhere. Evidences of theft of public wealth were numerous and varied according to circumstances. An open division of war booties between and among the corrupted cadres in power and with authority occurred in broad daylight. It took place at the golf course near the Tan Son Nhat Airport, in the People’s Army Headquarters, and within the walls of the barracks in the Go Vap District and the Ministry of Public Works office buildings on Le Loi Street in Saigon. Distant or near relatives of party members rank and file cadres also had their shares. Well, in a way, the division was only a fair play! If you just wait, you would never have a share! It would be wiser to divide. I divide, you divide, and he divides. We all share, and everyone is happy! (Van Duc, VNHRW, 17 (1993)).

　

The Population Relocation

　

Parallel to repressive measures of which the new regime had made use to stifle any possible sources of political opposition, it carried out the policy of population relocation. Although the policy was heralded on economic grounds in the newspaper, it turned out to be an instrument of social and political control. It was a means of defusing tension in congested cities, which were burdened with unemployed and socially dislocated people even after most of the rural war refugees had been repatriated to their native villages before April 1975. These conglomerations of refugees had swelled the urban population 45 per cent of the southern population total in 1975 (up from 33 per cent in 1973).

The Communist authorities, sought to address the problem of urban congestion by relocating many of the metropolitan jobless population in the new economic zones. They hastily set up in virgin lands, mostly malaria-infested jungles as part of a broader effort to boost agricultural output. In the populous precinct of Binh Thanh District, Saigon, troopers of the municipal military council and opportunists were sent to individual households of the puppet rank and file officials to warn against or even order with threat their family members to leave the city. Obedience to their instructions would be rewarded. Favors would be granted, and their relatives currently detained in concentration camps would be freed and return home sooner. As a result, between 1975 and 1976, more than 600,000 people were moved against will from Saigon, to distant economic zones.

Houses and properties of the households of the puppet military and civil administration at Thanh Da Quarters, in Saigon for example, were expropriated and, most of them, fell into the hands of the vanquishers from the North. Waves after waves of Saigon residents were driven out of the city. At the Binh Tay Market in Cho Lon --Saigon Chinatown-- the biggest center of merchandise distribution of the South, almost all merchandise booth disappeared. Private properties were confiscated, and the owners and their families were to go and live in the economic zones. Almost everywhere in the city, men, women, children, and even old men and women in their seventies were seen in line at police headquarters to be asked to which economic zones they wanted to go (Van Duc, VNHRW,16 1993).

This massive relocation of the population, blandly called the state redistribution of the labor force program, began after the country’s reunification in 1976. It became thereafter an integral part of the security effort of population control. At least, 5 million people were uprooted from their home places in this process, known as an effort to break the outmoded machine. While the program was in part economic in its motivation, the main purpose of the relocation was to break up the existing traditional social structure. By assigning the individuals to new economic zones, for instance, care was taken to scatter the ones from a single urban area or village to separate distant locations. The organization of life of these people in the new settlements was then placed in the hands of and supervised by the Communist Party members, most of whom were without basic education. Without a government plan of development, the new settlers quickly became the victims of ignorance and misery.

The economic zones were, in reality, barren land of virgin forests without irrigation. Because of the barely tolerable living conditions in the new settlements, a considerable number of settlers escaped or bribed their way back to the city. Without a shelter, they survived miserably from hand to mouth at the mercy of travelers on the Saigon River banks, in public parks, and along street sidewalks. Nevertheless the new economic zones continued to be established. The program came to be widely perceived as a model of economic development.. In fact, the authorities were said to have used it as a threat against those who refused to obey party instructions or to participate in the activities of the mass opposition. (Cima, 1989: 111)."

THE PARTY INTERNAL PURIFICATION AND PURGES

　

The Party Purification

　

By the end of 1950, along with massive military aids from China, socialism of the Maoist style was introduced into North Vietnam. Socialism cannot be achieved without socialist man. Thought reform is the key to this transformation of the country and the people. In conformity with the new policy, party members and cadres were conscripted to chinh huan (correctional training). The Viet Minh, in reality, had adopted this form of indoctrination approved by Mao after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. As a rule, indoctrination was used whenever the Party planned a change of policy, party members and cadres at all levels have to attend. By means of correctional thinking, the Party trains party members and cadres to carry out its new policy.

Correctional training, was, again, in use in Vietnam before the campaign of land reduction (1952). Party members and cadres were selected to attend special political courses, most often organized in the Viet Bac guerrilla Zone. They were trained in the Marxist orthodoxy to reform thought. Through processes of self-purification, they redeem themselves from all faults of the previous life. As they are redeemed under the leadership of the Party, they become true participants in the transformation of the country and the people. Indoctrination of this type kept pace with the Party’s changes of policies. During the Resistance War (1946-1954), indoctrination focused on the cultural battle against French imperialism, Western ideology and democracy, and so on. Indoctrination before Land Reform (1953-54) served the Party’s purpose, to indoctrinate party members and cadres to keenly observe correct attitude towards the Party, well absorb the history of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the correct behavior of a party member or cadre, and theses of Land Reform. During the Land Reform, indoctrination aimed to struggle to eradicate feudalism, the Confucian system of values, and the bourgeoisie with all its modes of life that held contempt against poor peasants.

During either stage of indoctrination, the Party proceeded with caution the purgatory process with which it officially eliminated free-floating and noncommunist elements. By this type of purification, the Party easily got rid of patriotic intellectuals and elements who were passionate participants in the Resistance War but who were unsympathetic with communism. Purification resumed after Land Reform. That was the propitious moment for it to carry out the communization of the country. Parallel to the eradication of tri, Phu, Dia, Hao (intellectuals, rich merchants, landlords, notables), the Party carried out secret plans of purification to eliminate all potential sources of opposition.

In effect, Tri, Phu, Dia Hao were targeted with elimination. Even people in these categories who were most enthusiastic with the Revolution were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court and suffered the death sentence. Cadres and party members who were related to these blood debtors to the people were subjects for investigation for uncommitted behavior and disloyalty to the Party. Suspects in these categories were legally or illegally excluded from the Party.

Party purification during and after Land Reform split the Party. It resulted in the conflict between peasants that became cadres a and hard-core party members whose relatives were falsely or wrongly accused of crimes of treason or enemies to the class of workers. It ever increased after Vo Nguyen Giap, in the name of Party, promised to rectify the errors Even though, 12,000 cadres and party members that were accused with false crimes were still sent to various prisons, and served sentences. Many of them died in grief. Those who were released ever lived in disgrace. Their names were never cleared from crimes and injustices. Were these party members and cadres true blood debtors to the people or simply the victims of purge at the hand of the Party itself?

After Land Reform, to carry out the class struggle and implement the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party exercised tight control on everyone. Citizens who expressed views and lines of thought that were different from or contrary to the orthodox communism were targeted with repression. The authorities stripped the citizen of all his fundamental human and civil rights. They punished outright any citizen who refused to commit himself to the Party’s official ideology or showed disrespect to its absolute authority. He was regarded as a traitor or reactionary, and, as a result, he was subjected to punishment and prison penalty. The objects of repression were the elements the four dangerous categories, namely, the intellectuals the rich merchants, the landlords and the notables. Included in the list of reactionaries were high file and rank cadres in the People’s Army and administration who survived the Land Reform.

　

　

An Internal Conflict

There was change in the strategy of the Soviet leadership after the Moscow Congress of November 1960. The ultimate goal of world communization is kept intact. It is achieved with proletarian revolution throughout the world. Communism is first built in the Soviet Union then in other socialist countries. The support for Communist movements in the world and the struggle for independence in developing countries is crucial. However, the Soviet Union and other socialist countries will strive to build the world into a happier and more peaceful commune with solid mass production through achievements in science and technology. Together, they will defeat capitalism in production through mobilizing the class of workers in capitalist countries to achieve proletarian revolution. The class struggle is achieved through economic competition and a world in peace.

The Chinese strategy concerns pinpoint war and peace as well. The key dialectic is that contradiction always exists in this world. If war is generated, the revolution will easily win victory. As long as imperialism exists, the world is always at war. The hope for peace is only a vain dream. Hence, proletarian dictatorship contradicts with imperialism, the proletariat with the imperialists, the imperialists with the peoples in the colonies, and the countries in the imperialist system with the countries in the socialist system. Imperialism must then be destroyed, and it can only be destroyed with war. A war against the Americans is therefore unavoidable. And, China holds no fears for it. With these convictions, China denounces the Soviet Union’s strategy as an expression of fear --fear of the United States and of an atomic war.

Conflict as regard the choice between the two strategies split the leadership of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party. It was apparent after the IV Congress of Party Central Committee (the IX Party Congress, 1963), and purges ensued as years went by.

　

　

　

The Purges

　

The purges resulted from the differences in viewpoint within the Party leadership and the pro-Soviet wing and the adherents and the pro-Chinese’s one. While Ho Chi Minh stayed neutral, his key comrades disintegrated themselves into three camps, the free-floating elements, the pro-Soviet party under the umbrella of Vo Nguyen Giap and the pro-Chinese clique with Le Dus Tho at the head. Included in the pro-Soviet group were Le Liem, Nguyen Vinh, Bui Cong Trung, and Ung Van Khiem. Recognized among the second group were Nguyen Khanh Toan, Tran Duc Huy, and Ha Huy Giap. The vast majority of party members adopted China’s position. The key dialectic is that the Americans are imperialist aggressors. Out of fear, the Soviet Union lost confidence in the cause of communism It became a revisionist, and thus a traitor to the revolution. Those party members who took side with the Soviet Union were regarded as revisionists and anti-Party elements.

Resolution 9 (1963) came into force. The Commission on the Examinations on Revisionism and Anti-party Action under the direct supervision of the Politburo was established. The organ was headed by Le Duc Tho, who was vested full authority to examine and judge all anti-Party elements, the henchmen of imperialism and all possible counterrevolutionary sources. It exercised power and applied suppressive measures on party members in the pro-Soviet wing. Within a short time, four distinguished party members were excluded from the Party: They were Ung Van Khiem, Foreign Affairs Minister; Nguyen Van Vinn, Vice-minister of the National Defense Ministry; Bui Cong Trung, Vice-chairman of the State Commission of Sciences; and Le Liem, Vice-minister of the Culture Ministry. Those who were suspected as revisionists were arrested: They were Colonel Le Trong Nghia, Department Chief, Department 5, National Defense Ministry; General Dang Kim Giang; Vu Dinh Huynh, and his son, the writer Vu Thu Hien; Pham Ky Van, vice editor-in-chief of the Party-owned review for ideology; Pham Viet, vice editor-in-chief of the journal Hanoi and his wifeNguyen hi Ngoc Lan, Rnglish instructor; Nguyen Kien Giand, social scientist; Pham The Van, M.D.; Colonel Hoang The Dung, Acting editor-in-chief of the Part-owned Journal Nhan Dan; Luu Dong, jounalist; Tran Dinh, journalist; Major Tran Thu, journalist; Major Dang Dinh Can, Mai Luan, journalist; Nguyen Gia Loc, social scientist; Phung Van My, social scientist; and Vu Huy Cuong, performance arts director, and many others.

　

　

The Case of Revisionists

Decades later, on August 28, 1993, Hoang Minh Chinh, who was Secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, registered with the highest government and Party institutions- the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme Organ of Procurators, and the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam-- his petition against the so-called "Opposition to the Party Case." However, the answer was "no comment," and his petition gradually fell into oblivion. Again, hazardous incidents happened after the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam. A number of high-ranking officers including generals and lieutenant generals were assassinated. Doubts were raised as to whether the Party was the culprit.

The fact is that within a short time and under almost similar circumstances, two generals, Hoang Van Thai and Le Trong Tan, suffered accidental deaths --assumedly for being poisoned. According to a general’s and his wife’s accounts (1987), General Hoang Van Thai said to his wife while he was dying: "They kill me!" Several months after the Sixth Congress, two other lieutenant generals, Dinh Duc Thien and Tran Binh died of doubtful deaths. Rumors were that General Dinh Duc Thien died in an automobile accident. Party cadres and his relatives believed that the general was accidentally shot while he was hunting wild animals in the Cuc Phuong Forest (Ninh Binh Province). Still, public opinion ran the doubt that he was killed by an influential relative. Dinh Duc Thien, whose real name is Phan Dinh Dinh, is a junior brother of the influential Politburo member Le Duc Tho, whose real name is Phan Dinh Khai. General Tran Binh was shot in Third District of Ho Chi Ninh City. Several days later, his son was shot in the same area (Nguyen Ho, 1993; 41).

　

　

　

A Poet in Revolt: Nguyen Chi Thien

　

In the purges of revisionists that followed the Nhan Van Affair, the Party manipulated "the stick and carrots approach" to divide the intellectuals. Quite a few of them had gradually reconciled with their lot. The Party successfully disintegrated the whole mass of intellectuals of Hanoi. However, it failed to quiet down Nguyen Chi Thien. Nguyen was born in 1939. He lived in Haiphong then went to school in Hanoi. A student at the French Lycee Albert Sarraut in Hanoi, he was back to Haiphong after the Viet Minh.s takeover of Hanoi in 1954. Nguyen Chi Thien, having been fascinated by ideas and thoughts in the articles in Nhan Van, prepared to publish the magazine Vi Dan (For the People). He was arrested. The reason was simple. The Haiphong security police could not stand having a daring youth who declared that there was no freedom in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The authorities would have him to stand trial in a justice court. Nevertheless they could not produce evidence of a crime.

Nguyen Chi Thien was incarcerated for the first time in 1961. He was released three years later. Resilient, the poet went on expressing his free will, which cost him 12 years in prison, from 1963 to 1977. The poet experienced all kinds of ill-treatment in one prison after another in North Vietnam. Being an enemy to the regime, he spent over half of his life in prison. His latest arrest was in April 1979 when he penetrated the British Embassy Hanoi and gave his selected collection of poems Hoa Dia Nguc (The Flowers from Hell) to a British diplomat.

Nguyen Chi Thien’s poems exposed real situations and images of acute physical and mental pains from hopelessness, anguish, and wrath of man under dictatorial totalitarian rule. Hunger pervades. Life is so miserable (I Have Passed by, 1959). Independence, Liberty, and Happiness were mere slogan and vain dreams as people still go hungry (Independence, Liberty, Happiness, 1960), and mind and heart suffer anxiety in darkness (I have lived, 1961). The criminal is so real: the red yellow star flag (The Criminal, 1962). Unrestrained, the poet blames himself. He is so stupid: To listen to the Communists (I Want to Live, 1962). He wishes he could live as a free man (Until when, 1963). The country has suffered so many calamities under the rule of robbers of freedom (My Country, 1971). The Communist Party of Vietnam is instrumental in the hands of the Russians and the Chinese. The Vietnamese Communists are only a gangster mob. They are the weapons of arrests. (The Party, 1973). Young generations will ever suffer. Stand up to overthrow the regime, even with violence (Don’t Be Afraid, 1975).

The poet was back to prison. He never received a trial. He was released due to international pressure on November 15, 1991.

THE REPRESSION ON THE INTELLECTUALS IN NORTH VIETNAM (1956-1960)

　

The Background

The speech revealing Stalin’s crimes and errors by Krutchev at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1956 was the curtain-raiser to a ring of the calamitous consequences that shook not only the Kremlin but also the Communist Bloc. For the first time, tragic incidents such as the vast deportation of members of the ethnic minorities, the mass killing of tens of thousand opposing party members and thousands of officers of the Red Army, and the lugubrious leadership of Stalin in face of the invasion of Germany, and the errors in the conduct of the war were revealed to the world. Similar serious crimes and mistakes were also exposed: The verities are the cult of the person results in despotism, and revolution is not necessarily achieved by violence and through the class struggle. Kruttchev vehemently promised to promote collective leadership and to carry out policies of democracy

While the de-Stalinization had not produced great impact on the democratization in the Soviet Union, it gave impetus to the rise of subsequent subversive incidents in the Communist Bloc of Eastern Europe. In Poland, where national fervor was imminent, anti-Soviet movement instantly rose. It spread to a rebellion of Polish workers in Poznan on June 28, 1956. The leaders of the Kremlin strove hard to stop it, stifling public opinion and crushing the masses. Popular uprising in Hungary broke out. During the first days, the leaders at the Kremlin believed they would easily extinguish the revolt as they had in Ponan. They nevertheless made a mistake in their calculations. It was not until the Hungarian people demanded for independence and democracy that they realized the truth was the reverse. The Soviet troops were sent in to crush the masses. The Budapest disastrous massacre resulted in losses of human lives that stunned the world.

In China, Mao’s Hundred Flowers movement drummed up free expression of thought. On May 25, 1956, a large assembly of prominent intellectuals, social scientists, writers and artists, and progressive personalities were called to attend a meeting to be explained on the purposes of the event. "All Flowers Blossom, and all Doctrines Compete." As the political situation in China was relatively stable after the dispute over Hu Feng’s viewpoint on freedom of expression in the early years of the 1950’s, the leadership simply suggested a new approach. However, it did not assert any means or method for improvement. Vigilance was stressed on avoidance of off-limit debates and discussions as regards free expression of thought.

The Situation of the Intellectuals in North Vietnam

All the circuitous events that happened following the land reforms generated resentment among the intellectuals in Hanoi. They were professors, scholars, writers, poets, and artists who had joined and played an active role in the war of resistance against the French. They endured hardship during the war and hoped they would be treated with decency when peace was restored. Reality proved to be the reverse. Their social status declined, and their living standards deteriorated. Their lives were truly deplorable after the new regime had been well established. Many writers could not afford a cup of coffee to work late at night. The poet Huu Loan’s desire was to own an oil lamp to work in the dark room where he shared with his wife and children. The poet Nguyen Binh lived miserably; he rarely had a full meal.

The vast majority of intellectuals, in truth, were almost ignored after the land reform. The Party placed entire confidence in the working class. To their distress, not only were they disregarded, by the Party but also endured humiliation in face of those haughty cadres who made light of their contribution to the Revolution. They were "bitterly disillusioned when they realized that the Party had no confidence in them, regardless of the many sacrifices they had made for the Party. The majority of them were not ambitious. They willingly gave to the party members and politicians the positions in the government. They simply wish to contribute their services to the people and to safeguard their honor and freedom of thought which they believed to be essential to the dignity of the intellectual." (Nguyen Manh Tuong, Kiem Thao. 1958).

The Demand for Free Expression

After the victory of Dien Bien Phu, the Party carried out its preconceived policies to establish socialism. first and foremost, through education and reform of thought. This major effort was nevertheless stopped short because of a host of unforeseen world events that were disadvantageous to the regime. Communism and its ideological practices were questioned, notably after the dethronement of Stalin by Kruthchev in his speech delivered on February 20, 1956. at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The event not only upset all policies of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party but also raised doubts about the rectification of its cause. The distrust of t of the intellectuals vis-a-vis the performance of the Party’s policies ever increased. Their dissent from the errors it had made since the days of the Resistance War intensified. The situation was aggravated by the State cadres’ abuses of power and practices of nepotism, mostly among the group of intellectuals acting as "cadres in the Arts who lived in luxury and who wore red neckties, leather shoes, and spent their times delivering speeches and attending banquets." (Nhan Van No. 2, October 1956)

There had been, in reality, a division between the group of independent intellectuals and the group of intellectuals who served as cadres in the Arts and who slaved for the Party. The former group joined the Viet Minh to fight for national independence but were reluctant to serve the Party and regime because of the Viet Minh’s cause of bad faith and mischievous conduct of public affairs. The latter group were the members of or adherents to the Communist-led Viet Minh, The division between the two groups were apparent as the war wore on.

During the first years of the war, the vast majority of independent intellectuals concentrated in the Thanh Hoa Province, Inter-zone IV. They were relatively free from the control of the Party. They enjoyed, in particular, the patronage of the independent Chairman of the War Zone IV, General Nguyen Son. This personality was a war hero who had joined Mao in the Red Army in the Long March. His brilliant exploits had made the Vietnamese Communists bow their heads. Not long, after that, at the suggestion of Ho Chi Minh. the general was recalled to China by Mao. The independent intellectuals lost protection; they felt reluctant to stay with the Viet Minh .

Reluctance to serve the resistance leadership of independent intellectuals ever grew. The situation worsened as a result of the Party leadership’s shift of political lines, from the people’s democracy to socialism of the Maoist style. Political discrimination was brought into play, and methods of internal purification were executed. Most independent intellectuals in the resistance zones distanced themselves from the Party out of disbelief and fear. Quite a few of them left the free zones and returned to the city to seek permanent shelter, to live under the protection of the newly-established national government led by ex-Emperor Bao Dai. They were scholars, professors, doctors, lawyers, poets, writers and artists. Among them were Nguyen Khac Kham, Hoang Van Chi, Nguyen Van Mui, Vu Ngo Xan, Pham Huu Chuong, Tran Van Kha, Nguyen Van Huyen, Tran Trung Dung, Tran Chanh Thanh, Le Quang Luat, Le Khai Trach, Nguyen Huu Dung, Tran Thanh Dinh, Chu Van Binh, Cao Xuan Vy, Vu Hoang Chuong, Doan Phu Tu, Dinh Hung, Bui Xuan Uyen, Nguyen Sy Te, Nguyen Hoat, Doan Quoc Sy, Nguyen Thach Kien, Nguyen Kien Trung, Pham Duy, and so on. The independent intellectuals who stayed bore silent discontent towards Ho Chi Minh and the Resistance Government as an act of silent protest against their brazen dependence on Communist China.

Discontent pervaded the guerrilla zones with the arrival from China of growing numbers of politics commissioners and military advisors beside the central government organs and military commands. The independent intellectuals defied the political Party leadership. They allowed themselves not to parrot the Party’s slogans. not to serve it as an instrument for political propaganda. They chose not to praise without shame the Party’s unreal glory and untrue achievements. Later, coming back to the city from the war zone after the Communist takeover of Hanoi in August 1954. Emboldened by self-respect in face of the regime’s show of power and unjust practices, they stood up in revolt.

The abyss that separated the independent intellectuals and the political regime widened. Not only did the regime regard them as bunglers, it treated them with despise. Still, it trampled their merits underfoot. The independent intellectuals endured even more the insulting arrogance of the party cadres. In addition, their differences in the viewpoints of Maoism, aggravated the division between them. They did not resign themselves to adopt the outlook on life and the universe of Communist ideology Consistent with their viewpoints, they were blamed by the party cadres as those people that were behind the times. Worse still, they were regarded as reactionary elements, the henchmen of imperialism and the slaves to bourgeois ideology. They were, therefore, the enemy of the regime.

The Rise of Opposition

Faults of haughty and arrogant party cadres were noticeable in the private press of Hanoi. Although there was no open attack on the regime, covert criticism nevertheless caused damage to the prestige of the Party leadership. The resentment gradually went sour. It eventually led to a wave of open opposition to the regime. The movement broke out coincidentally with the fight of the peasantry against the cadres and the People’s Army in the countryside subsequent to the Party’s rectification of errors after the Land Reform. In a show of will, the intellectuals in Hanoi all as one stood up, activating a political campaign against the Communist administration. They disseminated articles, poems, and stories on newspapers and magazines. They delivered speeches at open meetings to criticize the Party’s oppression of the people and the cadres’ scornful attitude towards the intellectuals.

Almost all the participants were veteran fighters in the Resistance War. They had shared the ups and downs with the regime in the nine years of the war. They were scholars, critics, writers and poets: Nguyen Binh, Van Cao, Tran Duy, Hoang Cam, Huu Loan, Si Ngoc, Chu Ngoc, and Nhu Mai; the scholars Phan Khoi, Dao Duy Anh, Truong Tuu, Tran Duc Thao, and Nguyen Manh Tuong. Among the young party-members and students were Tran Dan Le Dat, Phung Quan, Ta Huu Thien, Minh Hoang, Phung Cung, Tran Le Van, Hoang Tich Linh, and Bui Quang Doai.

As early as March 1956, the Minh Duc Publishers circulated the Giai Pham 1956 (Collected Works of 1956) in which corrupted practices of the regime were exhibited. Tran Dan, in his poem, Nhat Dinh Thang (We Will Win), expressed melancholy and sorrows while the whole country was still celebrating the victory of Dien Bien Phu. He was subject to self-criticism and accused at crime revelations sessions. Unable to sustain humiliation, he committed suicide but was saved. The young poet Phung Quan, in his article Cai Choi Quet Rac Ruoi (The Broom that Seeps away Trash), characterized the actual society as a messy house with filthy things. So, in the capacity of a poet, he wished to be a broom to sweep all of such things away. Le Dat composed a poem entitled Ong Binh Voi (Mr. Lime Pot) in which he linked the narrow-mindedness of the party cadres to a hardened inert lime-pot. Their moral conduct was likened to the capacity of a lime-pot: The older it gets, the pettier it will become. This cock-and-bull parable with hints also meant with allusion to Ho Chi Minh himself. The longer the president lives, the nastier he will become. He no longer loves the country as he did when he still was Nguyen the Patriot.

On May 26, Mao launched the Hundred Flowers campaign in China, eulogizing the freedom of thought and expression. A month later, the Polish workers rose up in a revolt in Poznan. The proletarian dictatorship in Vietnam was at risk. The Vietnamese Workers’ Party explained with embarrassment the developments in Eastern Europe and China. Seizing the opportunity, the independent literary circle in Hanoi pounded direct attacks on the regime. As in a fire, the demand for free expression was ignited and quickly spread to a movement. The review Nhan Van actively engaged in it, took the lead, and enjoyed warm support from people of all walks of life, especially the youth and college students.

The Nhan Van Giai Pham Mua Thu (Nhan Van, Collected Works for the Fall) carried in its issue of August 29, 1956 a poem with a call to those veteran fighters " ... who defeated the invaders/ And did not bow/Under colonial domination. /Why do you bear with these villains/Who shame our Fatherland. /Stand up!" A week later, the magazine appeared with Nguyen Huu Dang, a long-standing Communist and an ardent activist in the August Revolution, as the editor-in-chief. The opposition reached apogee.

Young poets and writers who were all party members submitted to the review the most critical articles and writings. In the Maikovki-style of poetry, Huu Loan, in his poem Lai Nhung Thang Ninh Hot (Again, the same Flatters) in Nhan Van II, September 30, tenaciously declared war against unjust and corrupted social practices of the officialdom. Phung Cung in his story Con Ngua Gia cua Chua Trinh (The Old Horse of Trinh Lord), likened the State intellectual’s incapacity to that of an old horse. This horse was trained and used as a draught animal in the royal service. It was left far behind in a horse-race as it was overfed and lacked vigilance. Nhu Mai, in his story Thi Si May (The Robot Poet), ridiculed with humorous hints at the State poets. There would be robots to be created. These machines would replace State poets to produce 8,000 versus a second. (Nhan Van 5). Tran Duy, in his story Nguoi Khong Lo (The Giants), likened with satire the Vietnamese Communist leaders’ thoughtlessness to the stupidity of a group of giants who helped humans to fight the devils. Unfortunately, without hearts, they killed more men than devils. In his essay Thanh That Dau Tranh cho Tu Do Dan Chu (To Strive to Struggle for Freedom and Democracy), he revealed the serious consequences caused by the Party’s dark intrigues in stifling dead the Nhan Van.

Of equally great contribution to the movement were the essays and writings by the intellectuals of the older generation. The scholar Dao Duy Anh contended that there was need to implement democracy. The senior literary critic Phan Khoi, a Confucian who survived the Land Reform, made his last attempt to defend Confucianism in face of the merciless attack of Marxism. He fought back and accused the leadership in the Arts of corruption and oppression. In his short story Ong Nam Chuot (Mr. Mouse the Fifth," the scholar accused with hints at Ho Chi Minh of being the small-minded person and the leadership of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party of committing corrupt practices and exercising authority with nepotism and despotism, Another prominent figure, the scholar Truong Tuu, particularly criticized the Party’s policy in a series of essays in the Van Hoc (Literature Magazine). His arguments were based on Marx’s and Lenin’s writings. Years of compulsory study of Marxism were put into question. The philosopher Tran Duc Thao examined the rights to freedom that were currently practiced in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. His analysis was based on the social contents and forms of freedom. All contents for freedom were well-defined but the realizations were quite the reverse. Officialdom, bureaucracy, and the cult of the person were common practices. Of particular significance, Professor Nguyen Manh Tuong, a lawyer of reputation, delivered a speech at the Ninth Congress of the Fatherland Front in Hanoi on October 30, 1956 criticized with vehemence the regime for the lack of a rule of law.

On September 19, a group of students, fascinated by the hilarious atmosphere of the day, engaged in the opposition. They published the magazine Dat Moi (Fresh Soil). In it, Bui Quang Doai narrated a love story in which he portrayed a party cadre who traded on his position to court a petty-bourgeois Hanoi student. Ta Huu Thieu, in his poem Toi Tim Em (I Seek You Forever), looked at girls of all walks of life but was not able to marry any of them. Political indoctrination had caused him the incapacity for personal feelings and fear for love of a petty bourgeoisie type.

The attack attracted other reviews to join in the fight. The Tram Hoa (Hundred Flowers) of the poet Nguyen Binh voiced no less bitterness and discontent. The Thoi Moi (The Modern Times), the only private authorized journal that survived the period after the Communist takeover of Hanoi, launched a campaign of attacks on the Party leadership’s and the State bureaucracy’s corrupt practices. State-run and Party-owned journals and magazines such as the Cuu Quoc (National Salvation) of the Fatherland Front, the official journal Nhan Dan (The People) and the Hoc Tap (The Studies), the organ for ideological study of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party had articles or writings revealing the mischievous defaults of the administration. They nevertheless attributed the mistakes and errors to the cadres at the lower levels.

The Developments

The opposition developed in three stages. In the first stage, the intellectuals attacked the "sycophants" and "cadres in the Arts," and revealed cases of exposed corruption and nepotism. In the second stage, they turned their attacks on certain petty leaders. In the third stage, they criticized the Party’s policy in its entirety. In the first stage, the Party did not retaliate. On the contrary, one or two official publications joined in the opposition to denounce the mistakes they attributed to minor officials and low-ranking cadres. In the second stage, it counterattacked by publishing a series of articles written by one or two pro-party intellectuals. In the third stage, it resorted to secret terrorism to defend itself.

The Repression

The State poet To Huu, the Head of the Central Committee Political Propaganda and Education of the Party, was vested with authority to put an end to the opposition. Within a short time and with some hesitation, the Party recouped with repressive measures. At first, it ordered that paper must not be sold to the opposition. The security police were sent to every bookstore and printing shop to ensure cooperation. Workers at printing houses were ordered to go on strike. The measure came to no result, however. Popular support of the intellectuals was solid, and the authority failed to shake it off.

Discontent from other social sectors added weight to the opposition. The wrath of the people boosted to such an extent that it became unrestrained. Unhappy Southerners grouped in Hanoi following the Geneva Agreements of July 1954 attacked the Cau Go police station. Students from the South living in the Nhan Muc village near Hanoi set up barricades along the route from Ha Dong to Hanoi. The Capital was shrouded in dark clouds. The opposition gained support not only from the literary circle but also from the masses. Chaos spread, and the regime was at risk.

The Party could not step back. It decided to strike back and to strike hard. The counterattack, first, concentrated on paralyzing the activities of the opposition. State-run stores were ordered not to sell paper to Nhan Van. The measure took no effect, nonetheless. The magazine could find it in the black market. Other measures also proved to be ineffective. The post-office was ordered to stop the delivery of Nhan Van to its readers. Distributors were forbidden to work with Nhan Van. The review stood firm. High school and college students did the job in its place. The Party turned to intimidate the readership. Operations to search for copies of Nhan Van were actuated. Groups of cadres were sent to work in the streets of Hanoi, and house-search was conducted to look for any holder of the magazine. Nhan Van still came into print.

The opposition fought back. Nhan Van Number VI, in particular, carried the appeal for a demonstration against the political regime. The Party instantly recouped with violent charges. The magazine’s editors were branded as the henchmen of the colonialists and imperialists. It mercilessly gave a dead blow at their head. By an administrative order, the People’s Council of Hanoi closed down the Nhan Van Publishers. All the copies of Nhan Van IV and copies of the issues previously published, from Nhan Van Number 1, were confiscated. Finally, on December 15, Ho Chi Minh signed into law the order to ban all the rights to freedoms of speech and of the press. The press from then on had the obligations to serve the proletarian dictatorship. Those who violated the law were punished, to serve the criminal penalties, from the 5 years’ imprisonment to the life imprisonment.

The Aftermath

The conflict between the Party and the intellectuals lasted for three years and resulted in the defeat of the latter. It only ended when the State poet To Huu read the "Final Report on the Opposition of Subversive Elements in Nhan Van" at the Third Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists in Hanoi on June 4, 1958. To crack down on the growing opposition of the intellectuals, the Party launched hefty repressive operations to terrorize it. The aim was to root up the bourgeois ideology in the minds of the intellectuals and coerce them to break with their old ways of life, to abandon the corrupt practices of free market economy, and to renounce modes of life of petty bourgeoisie, Western philosophy and representative democracy.

Three hundred and four writers and artists were subjected to attending "rectification of thoughts" courses. They were forced to avow the errors in their thinking. Phan Khoi, Truong Tuu, and Nguyen Huu Dang of the Nhan Van Giai Pham and the female novelist Thuy An, who had not written for Nhan Van, did not resign themselves to the order. Punishment was executed. The essayist Nguyen Huu Dang, the novelist Thuy An, and the publisher Tran Thieu Bao were isolated and detained. Later, they were brought to stand trial on charges of treason. Truong Tuu was dismissed from his position as professor at the Faculty of Letters. The Confucian scholar Phan Khoi was placed under house surveillance. He was forbidden to maintain relationship with other writers. Strict disciplinary measures were applied on the culprits and accomplices. In the end, the Party launched "reeducation and labor operations," subjecting the intellectuals, writers, and artists to discipline and conditioning them to work in line with the Association for Writers and Artists of the Party.

On January 21, 1960, the Hanoi People’s Court convicted and sentenced Nguyen Huu Dang and Thuy An to 15 years in prison and Tran Thieu Bao to 10 years in prison. The court could not produce any evidence except for the relationship of the defendants with Maurice Durand, an employee at the Ecole d’Extreme Orient in Hanoi. Durand was portrayed as an intelligence agent for the French colonialists and American imperialists. The trial was conducted behind closed doors. The defendants were brought to the tribunal to hear their verdicts then taken back to the prison (Bui Tin, 1993:197).

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that five intellectuals, including one woman, were tried in January 1960 on charges of having collaborated with the magazine Nhan Van. They were sentenced to prison terms of up to fifteen years. Phan Khoi died before going on trial, and his son Phan Thao, a Communist of renown, died from unexplained causes seven months later. Thousands of other intellectuals and high school and college students were conscripted into "reeducation and labor courses" similar to those instituted in Communist China (Bernard Fall, 1996: 128)

Being a student involving in the opposition, his name would be registered in a black list. A cadre, he would be transferred to another workplace or sent to reeducation and thought reform. Many students took revenge until decades afterwards. Discontented poets, writers, and artists were subjected to serve the regime in line with the Party’s orthodox ideology. The entire people of all classes, and the working people, in particular, should thoroughly absorb the socialist ideology. They should abandon their previous outlook on life. They should replace it with the Marxist viewpoint.

Quite a few of intellectuals were sent to distant areas where infant mortality was high and malaria was common disease. They endured forced labor from dawn till dark. Many of them never returned home or had not been heard of again.