Di Cu va Cai Cach Ruong Dat
The American Graduate: An
Interdisciplinary Journal on War and Society
Vietnamese Refugees Moving to South Vietnam, early 1950s
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The University of Southern Mississippi
The American Graduate: An Interdisciplinary
Journal on War and Society
Vol. I Fall 2007
Feature Article
Going South: North Vietnamese Motivations for Fleeing to South Vietnam
in 1954……………………………………………… Jason Stewart, page 3
Book Reviews
Virginia At War, 1862. Edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson,
Jr…………………………….……Reviewed by Ryan S. Walters, page 29
Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn. By Leonard
A. Cole……………………..Reviewed by Wesley Tyler French, page 32
Pershing: General of the Armies by Donald Smythe…………….Reviewed
by Jason M. Sokiera, page 35
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Going South:
North Vietnamese Motivations for Fleeing to South Vietnam in 1954
“Forgetting, and I might even say historical errors, are essential factors in the creation of
a nation.”
Ernest Renan
What is a Nation?, 18921
From August 1954 to June 1955 some 900,000 North Vietnamese refugees fled to
South Vietnam because they feared persecution by Ho Chi Minh’s Communist régime.
Among those that fled were: Catholics who feared religious oppression, land owners that
faced kangaroo courts and execution by agricultural reform tribunes, and political
dissidents who were subject to extermination at the hands of communist cadres.
Beginning in May of 1954, delegates from Vietnam, France, the United States,
Russia, China, and various other countries met in Geneva, Switzerland to conduct peace
negotiations in order to bring an end to the nine-year-long French-Indochina War. After
participating in peace negotiations for two and one-half months, the delegates made the
decision to divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel; allowing the Communist Vietminh forces
of Ho Chi Minh to take control of the North, while giving the South to U.S-backed non-
Communist nationalists under Emperor Bao Dai and Premier Ngo Dinh Diem. According
to the stipulations of the partition, Vietnam was to be divided for a period of two years
until elections could be held to reunify the country under a single government.2 Another
significant stipulation of the partition agreement stated that all persons who wished to
1 Robert Templer, Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam (New York: Penguin Books, 1998), p.
26.
2 Because of this clause in the partition agreement delegates from the United States and Bao Dai’s southern
régime chose not to sign the Geneva Peace Accords because they felt that Ho Chi Minh would win the
election and unify the country under a Communist régime.
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leave one sector of the divided country for the other could do so within a three-hundred
day time period.3 Delegates included this clause in the partition agreement primarily to
allow the military forces from the opposing sides to withdraw from the other’s territory
under a cease-fire and without opposition; but the clause also allowed civilians who
wished to leave one sector for the other to do so within the stated time period. 4
Following the conclusion of the Geneva Peace Conference, some 900,000 North
Vietnamese civilians took advantage of the three-hundred-day window and fled to South
Vietnam, and an additional 80,000-100,000 South Vietnamese civilians evacuated to the
North. 5 The United States and France aided in the exodus of the northern refugees by
providing them with the transportation they needed to reach the South. American and
French airplanes, as well as the American Navy’s Seventh Fleet, acted as a ferry service
carrying the evacuees to refugee camps in South Vietnam. Most of the refugees who
chose to flee to the south lost almost everything they owned as a consequence. The
dangers that they faced if they remained, and the fears of living under an oppressive
Communist régime, forced many refugees to abandon nearly all of their possessions, no
matter how great or small. In fact, of the 900,000 who fled, over 700,000 were peasants
3 Ellen J. Hammer, The Struggle for Indochina 1940-1955 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1966),
p. 345.
4 Philip Gutzman, Vietnam: A Visual Encyclopedia (London: PRC Publishing Ltd., 2002), p. 160-161;
Robert F. Randle, Geneva 1954: The Settlement of the Indochinese War (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1969), p. 462-463.
5According to Anthony James Joes, author of The War for South Vietnam, “If a proportionate exodus took
place in the United States, the number of refugees would approach eight million.” Anthony James Joes: The
War For South Vietnam: 1954-1975 (New York: Praeger, 1989), p. 32-33.
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who lost all of their land. Others included fishermen, businessmen, artisans, government
employees, professionals, and students. 6
(Thousands of Vietnamese fled from the North to the South on ships from the
U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.)7
Despite the fact that nearly a million North Vietnamese civilians chose to go to
the South during the three-hundred-day period designated for movement, several hundred
thousands more were unable to move from North to South because Communist forces
6 Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled (New York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1967), p.
900.
7 Douglas Pike, “
The Douglas Pike Photography Collection,” (
Lubbock: The Vietnam Archive at Texas
Tech, 1954).
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violated the agreements and made it difficult for many more civilians to leave. Neutral
peacekeepers who monitored the evacuations claimed that “the obstructions (to prevent
people from fleeing to the South) were “no mere social manifestations, but an organized
plan.” According to the observers, the planned obstructions consisted of “soldiers,
political cadres and local militia (being) frequently placed in the houses of would be
evacuees with the express instructions to prevent them from leaving their homes in order
to contact the (Geneva peacekeeping) teams. People were also frequently molested or
grouped in areas from which the teams were excluded; local clergy were intimidated and
subject to imprisonment.” They also argued that “…the frequency and the common
features of this form of obstruction in all provinces investigated leave little doubt that
these obstructions and hindrances had been deliberately planned.”8 Despite the
occurrence of organized obstruction, however, the observers could do little to stop it from
happening. Therefore, it is unknown how many more would have fled had they been
given the opportunity to do so.
8 Randle, Geneva, p. 464.
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(Signs held by Vietnamese refugees thanking the U.S. and France for their aid.)9
Of the 900,000 Vietnamese civilians who actually did make it out of North
Vietnam despite the obstacles, a large portion of them joined the South Vietnamese
government or South Vietnamese military forces, and in many cases held high positions
within these organizations. In fact, North Vietnamese men held up to 18 percent of all
senior officer positions in the South Vietnamese Army. 10 The North Vietnamese natives
who chose to flee to the South and support the South Vietnamese government through
military or government service did so for a variety of reasons. Most left the North and
aided the South in the subsequent Second Indochina War, also known as the Vietnam
War, because of acts of Communist persecution against them or perceived fears of
Communist persecution. Catholic parishioners made up the largest portion of all refugees
that fled from the North to the South. They constituted about 600,000 of the total 900,000
refugees who evacuated to the South. These evacuees abandoned their homes in the
North because they feared that the Communists would persecute them and ban them from
practicing their religion once the Communists fully consolidated their power.11 Nearly the
entire student body of the University of Hanoi also fled because they feared future
persecution. Two other groups of refugees, political dissidents and victims of Ho Chi
Minh’s infamous land reform campaign fled to the South because they had already borne
9 Douglas Pike, “The Douglas Pike Photography Collection,” (Lubbock: The Vietnam Archive at Texas
Tech, 1954).
10 George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 (Boston:
McGraw Hill, 1979), p. 57; James F. Dunning and Albert A. Nofi, Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), p. 211.
11 As it turned out, the Catholics were correct in their assumptions that the Communists would persecute
them once they gained control. Following the Communist victory in 1975, Catholic churches were closed
and several bishops and priests were arrested and placed in reeducation camps for several years. In fact the
Communists held Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, Cardinal of Vietnam, in a reeducation camp until
1988. Templer, Shadows and Wind, p. 273.
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the brunt of Communist oppression. For example, historians estimate that Communist
forces executed some 50,000 Vietnamese during the land reform program. Many of the
survivors of the land reform campaign, and the family members of the victims, chose to
leave the North because they feared for their lives and because they hated the Communist
régime for what it had already done to them. Surviving political dissidents and the family
members of those executed during Ho Chi Minh’s movement to consolidate his power
also fled to the South because they feared for their safety and lives. 12
As mentioned previously, Catholic refugees made up the majority of those who
chose to move to the South after the Geneva Accords. Most of these refugees came from
Catholic enclaves in the Red River Delta such as Phat Diem and Bui Chu. Many of them
were Catholics because their grandparents and great-grandparents had converted to
Catholicism after French missionaries arrived in Vietnam in the late 1800’s. For several
decades, Vietnamese Catholics in the North had lived in peace and prosperity under the
French colonial régime, but once the Communists gained control of the country they
feared that the régime would actively persecute them because of their ties to the French
and their religious affiliation. They knew of the Communists’ distaste for religion of all
forms and of the Marxian belief that religion was simply “the opiate of the masses.”13
Interestingly enough, many Catholics supported the Vietminh and Ho Chi Minh’s
quest for Independence in the early days of the war against France. In fact, the
Vietnamese Catholic bishops of Vietnam wrote an open letter asking for all Catholics of
the world to “come to the aid of their invaded country and its children, animated by pure
12 Stephen T. Hosmer, Viet Cong Repression and Its Implications for the Future (Washington D.C.: The
Rand Corporation, 1970), p. 95-97; Joes, War for South Vietnam, p. 33.
13 Joes, War for South Vietnam, p. 32-33.
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patriotism, and decimated on the battlefield.”14 According to historian Joseph Buttinger,
Catholics supported the Vietminh early on because “the chief concern of all these people
was national independence; they all knew that independence was threatened by the
French, that it had to be defended, and that the government which had proclaimed it was
best qualified to organize its defense.”15 The ambiguity of the political nature of the
Vietminh also led to Catholic support of the guerillas in the early stages of the war. At
that time period, most Vietnamese did not see the Vietminh as a Communist
organization. People understood that the Vietminh contained some Communist elements,
but they largely viewed the Vietminh as a patriotic nationalist organization. Thus, when
Catholics asked for aid and prayer for the independence movement, they did so because
they viewed the movement in patriotic and nationalistic terms. However, as the war
progressed and it became obvious that the Vietminh would win, the Vietminh
government began to show its true Communist nature. Therefore, many Catholics turned
away from the régime when the Communists began harassing their villages in the later
stages of the war. 16
Once the Catholic bishops and priests of North Vietnam came to the realization
that the Vietminh did not have their best interests at heart, they began speaking out
against the Vietminh and even organized their own militias to protect territories from
Vietminh incursions. In fact, on several occasions during the French-Indochina War,
Catholic militiamen successfully defended their villages from Vietminh assaults. They
also occasionally aided the French when battles took place within Catholic territories by
14 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 347
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
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providing them with useful intelligence information and supplies. However, the Catholic
priests’ most significant act of defiance against the Communist government was their role
in leading the hundreds of thousands of Catholics South after the Geneva Peace Accords
of 1954. 17
Catholic priests played an integral role in convincing the hundreds of thousands of
evacuees to leave the North. In many cases, priests successfully convinced their entire
congregations to follow them to the South. They did so by telling their parishioners that
the Communists would close the churches and would prevent them from receiving the
holy sacraments. Essentially, many priests told their congregants that they risked losing
the right to be Catholic if they remained in the North. According to Communist
accusations, priests also spread rumors that “the Virgin Mary had gone South,” and “God
had gone South” and if they did not go with them, they would “lose their souls.” 18 The
Communists also charged that the priests spread rumors that the parishioners would also
lose their lives if they remained in the North because the “Americans planned to destroy
the North after the resettlement period with their nuclear bombs.”19
It is not actually known whether or not the priests played a role in spreading such
rumors, but it is known that the American CIA did institute a propaganda campaign
designed to scare many North Vietnamese into evacuating to the South. For example,
Edward Lansdale, the chief CIA operative in Vietnam at the time, carefully forged anti-
Catholic leaflets distributed to the masses, hoping that Catholics would believe that they
17 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 706 and 753-754.
18 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 900-901; Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Van and
America in Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1988), p. 137.
19 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 900.
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were decrees created by the Communist government. Lansdale also hired “noted
Vietnamese astrologers to write grim predictions about the future of North Vietnam and
its undertakings.”20 It is also likely that Lansdale’s men were the first to circulate the
rumor that the United States would destroy North Vietnam with nuclear weapons to scare
northerners into fleeing to the South. Regardless of who started the rumors and how
effective they were, however, the priests and bishops of North Vietnam were successful
in convincing thousands of Catholic parishioners to follow them south.
Aside from fleeing because of fears of persecution, many Catholic also made the
decision to go to the South because the Prime Minister and soon to be president of South
Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem was an ardent Catholic. Diem had once considered becoming a
priest, but decided against it because he felt he could best serve his country by becoming
a public servant. Despite the decision not to become a priest, Diem allowed his spiritual
zeal to shape his government policy. Throughout his career, Diem also maintained close
ties to the Catholic Church. In fact, Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Thuc, served as
Archbishop to Vietnam during the war years. During the 300 day window that North
Vietnamese evacuees had to leave the North, Diem became heavily involved in
encouraging them to come to the South. In fact, on one occasion, he met with the bishops
of North Vietnam to discuss the move to the South and to assure them that they would be
welcomed under his government. He encouraged Catholic evacuees to remove useful
equipment and supplies from public and private property so that they could be shipped to
the South. As a result, many evacuees stripped broadcasting stations, post offices,
libraries, laboratories, hospitals, and factories of tools, equipment, and supplies that the
20 Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, p. 137.
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South Vietnamese government could benefit from. Most evacuees felt that the removal of
these goods was justified because they themselves left behind jobs, houses, furniture and
land.21
(South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem meets with a priest and nuns at a
Catholic hospital in Qui Nhon.) 22
Once Catholic refugees arrived in South Vietnam, they became the most ardent
supporters of the Diem régime. Diem appointed many Northern Catholic refugees to
important positions within the South Vietnamese government and within the ARVN. In
fact, the first troops that Diem used to guard the presidential palace in Saigon were
21 Herring, America’s Longest War, p. 58-59; Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 900-901.
22 Douglas Pike, “The Dougals Pike Photography Collection,” (Lubbock: The Vietnam War Archive at
Texas Tech, 1954).
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Catholic militiamen from North Vietnam.23 Other Catholic refugees became generals in
the ARVN or cabinet members in Diem’s administration. Diem also appointed northern
refugees to other important positions such as village chief or province governor. These
appointments made him popular among the northern Catholics, but the appointments also
offended many South Vietnamese who did not like the fact that Diem had placed a
northern stranger in charge of their village or province. Thus, as the Catholic refugees
began to settle in the South, many southerners began to dislike the Diem régime because
the President had placed foreigners in positions of authority over them.
Eventually, Diem’s relationship to the northern refugees and his favoritism
towards Catholics led to his assassination. South Vietnamese civilians, who were
mostly Buddhists, disliked Diem for his bias for the northern refugees and
challenged his government for its preferential treatment of Catholics. For
example, Catholic organizations received large amounts of money from the
government to build schools and churches. They also received special permission
to cut and sell lumber from the protected national reserve, and were granted
special commercial trade benefits. Buddhist organizations, on the other hand,
received no money from relief funds or special benefits from the government.
This type of mistreatment served to undermine the Diem government because it
alienated the Buddhist adherents of South Vietnam, which made up over 70% of
the entire South Vietnamese population.24
23 Sheehan, Bright Shining Lie, p. 137.
24 David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire (New York: Random House, 1965), p. 105.
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Catholics who remained in the North the after Geneva Accords of 1954
faired far worse than their counterparts who fled to the South. Soon after the
Communists gained full control over North Vietnam, Catholic communities
became prime targets for persecution and oppression. Communist forces placed
priests under house arrest and closed Catholic churches all over the North. They
also singled out provinces that still held large Catholic populations for particularly
brutal atrocities during Ho Chi Minh’s land reform campaign.25 The treatment of
the remaining Catholics grew to be so harsh that open rebellion broke out in the
province of Nghe An in November of 1956. Thousands of Catholic villagers
began demanding to be sent to the South to join their Catholic brothers and sisters
who had fled in 1954. However, the North Vietnamese government responded to
the demand by sending its 325th Division to crush the rebellion. As a result, some
1,000 peasants were killed or wounded, and another 5,000 were arrested or
deported. 26 Because of the brutality of this incident, very few other villagers
dared to rebel against the North Vietnamese government or even talk publicly of
going to the South.
Aside from the Catholics, victims of Ho Chi Minh’s land reform campaign
also decided to move to the South after the Geneva Accords of 1954. These North
Vietnamese citizens decided to flee to the South because the Communist
government had already alienated them with their persecutory policies. They
hated the Communist régime because Vietminh cadres took their land and
25 Templer, Shadows and Wind, p. 266.
26 Michael Lind, Vietnam the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America’s Most Disastrous Military
Conflict (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999) p. 151-156.
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murdered many of their relatives. They also feared that the Communists would
continue to oppress them if they did not escape to the South while they had the
chance. Most of these evacuees were peasant land owners who owned as little as
two to three acres but had been wrongly classified by Communist cadres as
landlords. 27
Communist authorities in North Vietnam borrowed from the policies of
Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung when they launched the land reform campaign in
March of 1953. They did so in order to gain the loyalty and support of the masses
of landless tenant farmers and poor peasants who made up the majority of the
population of North Vietnam. Communist cadres reasoned that they could win the
loyalty of the landless by declaring class warfare on rich landlords who had often
exploited their tenants in the past. When the Vietminh first launched its war for
independence in 1945, though, Vietminh cadres ignored the issue of class warfare
and focused their attention of gaining the support of all North Vietnamese citizens
in their war against the French. As the war progressed, however, the Vietminh
made the decision to launch the land reform campaign in order to provide the
tenant farmers with land of their own and create a supportive political base for the
rising Communist régime. 28
Ho Chi Minh’s Communist régime initiated the land reform campaign on
March 2, 1953, with the “promulgation of a Population Classification Degree that
divided North Vietnamese subjects into five categories: landlords, rich peasants,
27 Joes, War for South Vietnam, p. 32-33.
28 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p, 911-912.
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middle peasants, poor peasants, and landless agricultural laborers.”29 This division
of the rural population into categories was designed to create a rift between the
richer and poorer classes so that the Communists could exploit the inequalities
between the classes and instigate class hatred and anger.30
In the second phase of the campaign, after dividing the rural population
into arbitrary categories, the Communists whipped up social tension by creating a
campaign of lies in which they enticed villagers to accuse the landlords and richer
peasants of various types of crimes such as theft, rape, and murder. According to
Hoang Van Chi, a witness to the land reform program, landlord denouncers
“could be roughly categorized into three categories. In the first were people who
were attracted by the promise of either in kind or in the form of political
privileges.” 31 The Communist cadres gained their cooperation by promising that
“those who denounce the most shall receive the most.”32 The second category
consisted of those who “wished only to protect themselves and avoid trouble.
They denounced in order to appear to be faithful and obedient to the party.” The
third category of denouncers “was those who denounced through fear.” These
denouncers did so because they were afraid that they would be seen as having a
“landlord spirit” or a connection to a “landlord,” so they denounced others in
29 Lind, Vietnam Necessary War, p. 151.
30 Ho Chi Minh, On Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920-1966, ed. by Bernard B. Fall (New York: Praeger
Publishing, 1967), p. 264-267.
31 Hoang Van Chi, From Colonialism to Communism: A Case History of North Vietnam (New York:
Praeger Publishing, 1964) p. 177.
32 Ibid.
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order to show that they were against the landlords. 33 Through this denunciation
program, some truly exploitative landlords were pointed out to the communist
cadres, but most of those denounced were not true landlords, nor rapists or
thieves. In fact, many of the accused did not even fit into the “landlord” category.
They were simply small landowners who owned as little as two to four acres of
land. However, this fact was irrelevant to the Communist cadres because they had
a quota to fill and there simply were not enough true landlords to fill that quota. 34
(A People’s Agricultural Reform Tribunal in session.)35
Once the cadres received enough accusations to fill their quotas, they
called “People’s Agricultural Reform Tribunals” to determine the fate of accused
landlords. These tribunals “consisted of all the poor and landless of a village and
the trials became mass meetings dominated by people whose chances of obtaining
33Ibid.
34 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 912.
35 Dmitri Baltermants, “Khon Nha Dai Cho.” Saigon USA Newspaper 25 December 2005.
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land increased with every new conviction.”36 Thus, once a villager became
accused of being a landlord, he or she had no chance of receiving a fair trial. After
determining that the victim was guilty, the tribunal then moved on to the
punishment phase of the trial. Sentences imposed by the tribunal generally varied
from “the death penalty to five years’ hard labor, with the confiscation of part or
the whole of the prisoner’s property.”37 Those who received death sentences were
generally shot immediately after a tribunal passed the sentence. In fact, in many
cases, villagers dug the graves before the tribunal even began. Bui Tin, a North
Vietnamese war hero turned party defector described the whole trial process as
follows: “In their (tribunal members’) hands the power of life and death was
absolute…There were no lawyers, and in fact there was no law. Sentences were
carried out by a rifle section from local guerillas who were landless peasants with
no relatives among the middle peasantry or landlords…They were shot having
been condemned by what amounted to kangaroo courts, although they were called
People’s Tribunals. 38 Through this process, the People’s Agricultural Reform
Tribunals executed some 25,000 to 50,000 villagers for being landlords.
36 Ibid.
37 Hoang Van Chi, Colonialism to Communism, p. 188-189.
38 Bui Tin, Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel, trans. by Judy Stowe and
Do Van (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995), p. 26-29.
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(The execution of a “landlord” at the hands of a People’s Agricultural
Reform Tribunal.)39
Because the land reform campaign began in 1953, while the French-
Indochina War was still going on, the Communists were only able to institute the
reforms in areas that they fully controlled. Therefore, by the time the Geneva
Accords were signed, in May of 1954, the reform program had only just begun to
affect the countryside. However, many of the villagers who were exposed to the
39 Baltermants, “Khan Nha Dai Cho.” Saigon USA Newspaper.
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reforms before the Geneva Accords took the opportunity to flee the North because
they were horrified by the actions of the Communist cadres. Thus, many of the
survivors and family members of those who were persecuted by the land reform
campaign saw the three-hundred-day moving period as an opportunity to escape
the oppressive Communist régime before it gained complete control of North
Vietnam.40
One North Vietnamese villager who witnessed the atrocities of the land
reform campaign and chose to leave the North was Vu Van Giai, a native of Nam
Dinh Province, in the Red River Delta. The Communists declared Giai’s family as
landlords and they became a target of the land reform campaign despite the fact
that they only owned a couple of acres of land. According to Giai, the
Communists denounced his family as “high and mighty landlords,” and would
come into the village at night to harass his and other “landlord” families.
Eventually, the Communists arrested his brother and sent him to jail. Giai himself
escaped the Communists’ wrath when his mother sent him to Hanoi to live with
an uncle. A few years after coming to Hanoi, Giai joined the Vietnamese National
Army, antecedent to the ARVN, and went to the South after the Geneva Accords.
41
40 Hosmer, Vietcong Repression, p. 95-100.; James P. Harrison, The Endless War: Vietnam’s Struggle for
Independence (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), p. 149-151.
41 Vu Van Giai, Personal Interview. 12 August 2005
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(Vu Van Giai at the time of enlistment.)42
Much like the victims of the land reform campaign, political dissidents
also saw the three-hundred-day period after the Geneva Accords as an opportunity
to escape persecution by the Communist régime. Many of these North Vietnamese
citizens chose to move to the South because the Communists had previously
threatened their lives because of their political views. They also hated Ho Chi
Minh and the Vietminh because the Communists had made an attempt to kill all
non-Communist political leaders when Ho Chi Minh made initiated political
purges to consolidate his power over North Vietnam. Vietminh assassins also
targeted members of the Communist Party who had challenged Ho’s rule or
disagreed with the policies of the party. Many of the people who survived the
purges, and the families of those who did not, chose to flee to the South with the
Catholics and the land reform victims because they too felt that their lives were in
jeopardy if they remained in the North.
42 Vu Van Giai, Personal photograph. 12 August 2005.
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Members of political organizations such as the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
(VNQDD) and the Dong Minh Hoi, both non-Communist nationalist groups
associated with Chinese, became targets of the Vietminh during the late 1940’s
and early 1950’s when Ho Chi Minh began consolidating his power. Members of
these two parties and numerous other political parties opposed Communist rule in
Vietnam, and sought to stop the Communists from taking power. These political
opponents of Ho Chi Minh used various tactics in their attempts to undermine the
Communists, but they were not successful in doing so because the Communists
responded to their opposition with violence. For example, the pro-Chinese
VNQDD and Dong Minh Hoi published several newspapers, distributed political
tracts, and broadcast anti-Vietminh propaganda on loudspeakers throughout
Hanoi during Chinese occupation of the North after World War II. However, once
the Chinese left, the Vietminh unleashed a vicious wave of violence and
assassination that was designed to liquidate these opposition parties.43
Once the Vietminh had successfully decimated the VNQDD, Dong Minh
Hoi, and other political parties, they forced them to join the Lien Viet (Popular
National Front Party), which served as an umbrella political organization that
united all nationalist political organizations under the control of the Vietminh.
The Communists created the Lien Viet in order to gain complete control over the
actions of the other parties and to gain the support of the constituents of other
parties by creating the appearance that other parties within the Lien Viet were
supportive of the Vietminh’s actions. In order to gain the support of the masses,
43 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 355-356; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Political History (New York:
Praeger Publishers, 1968), p. 256-257.
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the Vietminh portrayed the Lien Viet as a democratic political organization which
supported “independence and freedom” for all Vietnamese, “irrespective of race,
religion, or class.”44 However, the true nature of the Lien Viet was far different. In
reality, the Vietminh were not interested in the independence and freedom of all
Vietnamese people. In fact, politically active Vietnamese who refused to play the
Vietminh’s game and join the Lien Viet were portrayed as traitors to the cause of
independence and freedom and were generally marked for assassination. Also,
those who joined the Lien Viet but attempted to “disrupt the unity” of the party,
meaning challenge Communist authority, were quickly purged by assassination. 45
Ho Chi Minh and the Communist members of the Vietminh used these
tactics of terror and assassination throughout the years of the French War to hold
their political alliance together and maintain the support of the North Vietnamese
masses. For the most part, their strategy worked. However, by using assassination
and terror as their primary political tools, the Vietminh also succeeded in
increasing the numbers of bitter political enemies who stood against them.
Therefore, many of the survivors of these purges and waves of political violence
moved to the South after the Geneva Accords and continued to stand in
opposition to the Communist party.46
Many of the Vietnamese that chose to move to the South in 1954 were
forced to leave everything behind and flee once again when Communist forces
took over the South in April of 1975. The lucky ones escaped with the help of the
44 Buttinger, Embattled Dragon, p. 400-401
45 Ibid.
46 Hosmer, Viet Cong Repression, p. 97-98; and Harrison, Endless War, p. 106-107.
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United States as Saigon fell on April 30. Those that were not evacuated by the
United States faced many daunting hardships. Some became boat people who
risked everything by attempting to escape in over-crowded fishing boats.
However, many other “undesirables” were simply unable to escape and faced
years of oppression and persecution in reeducation camps and prisons.
Bibliography
Buttinger, Joseph. Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled. 2 vols. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Buttinger, Joseph. Vietnam: A Political History. New York: Praeger, 1968.
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Dunning, James F. Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1999.
Gutzman, Philip. Vietnam: A Visual Encyclopedia. London: PRC Publishing Ltd., 2002.
Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire. New York: Random House, 1965.
Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina 1940-1955. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 1966.
Harrison, James P. The Endless War: Vietnam’s Struggle for Independence. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1989.
Herring, George C. America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.
Boston: McGraw Hill, 1979.
Hoang Van Chi. From Colonialism to Communism: A Case History of North Vietnam.
New York: Praeger, 1964.
Ho Chi Minh. On Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920-66. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Hosmer, Stephen T. Viet Cong Repression and Its Implications for the Future.
Washington D.C.: The Rand Corporation, 1970.
Joes, Anthony J. The War for South Vietnam. New York: Praeger, 1989.
Lind, Michael, Vietnam the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America’s Most
Disastrous Military Conflict, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.
Randle, Robert F. Geneva 1954: The Settlement of the Indochinese War. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1969.
Sheehan, Neil, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Van and America in Vietnam. New York:
Random House, 1988.
Templer, Robert. Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam. New York: Penguin
Books, 1998.
Tin, Bui. Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel, trans. by
Judy Stowe and Do Van. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995.
Topmiller, Robert. The Lotus Unleashed. Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky
Press, 2002.
Vu Van Giai, Personal Interview. 12 August 2005.
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Virginia at War, 1862. Edited by William C. Davis and
James I. Robertson, Jr. (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. vii +
243pp., preface, bibliography, index. $35.00 cloth).
William C. Davis and James I. Robertson have done another amazing job with the
recent release of the second installment of their 5-part Virginia at War series, Virginia at
War, 1862. This edited work consists of eight essays by imminent scholars in various
aspects of Civil War history, focusing on the all-important state of Virginia, the center of
the Confederacy and the Southern war effort. “Virginians emerged from the year 1861 in
much the same state of uncertainty and mild confusion as the rest of the Confederacy,”
write the editors, and “no individual and no aspect of Virginia life escaped the impact of
the contest.” The year 1862 would be a crucial year for Virginia, as the war worsened
and the strains of fighting it pressed on the state’s citizens. The impact on Virginians is
the main focus of this volume.
Despite its title, Virginia at War, 1862 is not a military history of the Civil War in
the state but a study of the effects of the conflict on Virginia society. However, the first
chapter, by John S. Salmon, provides an overview of the military situation in Virginia in
1862, centering on the rise of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, as both emerged as
the Confederacy’s war heroes, all the while Union generals were going down to defeat.
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Also in the realm of military history is Dennis Frye’s chapter on General Lee’s efforts to
rebuild his army after its near-disastrous defeat at Antietam in September 1862, where
roughly one-quarter of the Army of Northern Virginia was lost on the bloodiest day in
American history. Lee imposed strict order and discipline, and began a crackdown on
stragglers, a rigid policy which nearly doubled the size of his army in a few short weeks.
The remaining chapters deal with Virginia society and the war, a contest that
affected the state as no other would. Its citizens faced mounting taxes to pay for war,
increasing shortages of commodities, and compulsory military service, first imposed on
them by their own state government. To compound the problem, the Union army invaded
Virginia, yet again, in the spring of 1862. General John Pope issued several General
Orders that directly impacted Virginia’s citizens, with no respect for private property or
individual rights. Virginians viewed to be disloyal could be shot and have any property,
such as their own home, burned. The Confederate government vowed to retaliate in kind.
This was the kind of brutal warfare the state of Virginia faced on a daily basis.
Invading armies also brought battles, giving Virginians terrible carnage, wounded
men, and dead soldiers. The state’s citizens, as was the case in other areas of the
Confederacy, had to deal with this problem themselves. As armies moved away from a
battlefield, dead and rotting corpses were often left in their wake, which required burial
by local citizens, sometimes taking weeks and months, despite the horrid stench. Caring
for the wounded was an even more ominous task. For instance, 5,000 Confederates were
wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines in the spring of 1862, a number that overwhelmed
the few hospitals. To help alleviate the problem, many were placed in private homes.
Yet the women of Richmond cared for and treated them all. Its hardships such as these
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that often get overlooked in basic military studies but this work masterfully paints the
gruesome portrait.
Rounding out the book, as with the first volume and all subsequent editions, is the
diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, who published her day-by-day account of the
conflict, entitled Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War soon after the end of
hostilities. It has been edited for this volume by Dr. Robertson, who refers to this source
as a “rich blend of observations and opinions.” The inclusion of the diary does much to
pull the separate chapters together and put them in proper focus.
Like its predecessor, this latest volume in the Virginia at War series is wonderful
contribution to the understanding of the effects of the Civil War on Virginia and
Virginians. It is not a true military history, and readers who are interested in “nuts and
bolts” war studies will be sorely disappointed. Yet it is a work of War and Society, and
the editors have put together a masterful team who have created a superb book that
should be a lasting contribution to Civil War studies far into the future.
Ryan S. Walters
University of Southern Mississippi
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Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn.
By Leonard A. Cole. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007. xii + 224pp.,
prologue, charts, acknowledgements, bibliography. $24.95 cloth.)
In Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn, Rutgers
University Political Science Professor Leonard A. Cole explores the shattering impact of
recent, pervasive small-scale terrorist attacks on Israeli society. According to Cole, Israel
is better prepared to cope with terrorist attacks than any other nation in the world.
Through interviews and firsthand observations, Cole develops a deep understanding of
Israel’s uncanny ability to respond to and cope with terrorism on a regular basis. The
author also takes the study a step further, by exploring potential applications of Israeli
coping mechanisms in contemporary American society.
Cole bases his look at terrorism in Israel on the second Palestinian ‘intifada’
(‘uprising’). The term refers to the country’s sharp increase in small-scale terrorist attacks
that started in late 2000 and continues into the present. The vast majority of these attacks
are ‘suicide bombings’, perpetrated by Palestinians who want to drive the Israelis out of
the country. These attacks typically occur in public areas like buses, restaurants and
markets. Cole utilizes testimony from eyewitnesses, bombing survivors and family
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members of victims to produce jarring vignettes of small-scale attacks throughout the
book.
According to Cole, Israel has responded to the violence of the second intifada in
several ways. As of 2006, a 400-mile West Bank Barrier prohibiting Palestinian access to
Jerusalem was sixty percent complete. The Israeli medical community has developed new
techniques for treating attack survivors under the ‘terror medicine’ umbrella. Trained
volunteer organizations allow Israeli citizens to take a direct role in helping with the
problem, as these groups often provide ‘terrorist-watch’ services in populated areas and
on-site assistance to victims in the aftermath of attacks. Many Israelis also participate in
therapy groups to cope with the climate of pervasive violence. Mandatory drills for
emergency units and health physicians are conducted to ensure that equipment and
mobilization are in proper working order. Despite the frequency and severity of
Palestinian attacks, the majority of Israeli citizens are determined to continue life-asusual
instead of living in constant fear.
In the eyes of the author, two factors led to Israel’s extensive preparation. First,
Cole argues that recent attacks have forced Israel to take preparation seriously. Israel’s
terrorism emergency teams have the fastest response time in the world because the
resources are widely utilized. Beyond forced preparation, Cole states that the small size
and population of Israel contribute to the country’s preparedness to cope with terrorist
attacks. Cole also notes that the religious bond among most Israeli citizens encourages
the majority of the population to contribute to volunteer-based efforts.
Although Cole spends the majority of the book exploring the second intifada’s
impact on Israel, he ties the study to American society by comparing the emergency
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preparedness of the United States to that of Israel and highlighting potential ‘lessons’ that
could be learned from Israel’s situation. Cole repeatedly states that the United States is
ill-prepared for another terrorist attack. As he sees it, Americans need to abandon the
illusion of ‘safety’. The illusion exists because, unlike Israel, the United States has never
faced a barrage of small-scale attacks. Cole also suggests that American emergency
personnel take a cue from Israeli officials by embracing common sense instead of strict
protocol when coping with the aftermath of a terrorist threat; adherence to protocol often
bears confusion over leadership and reduces efficiency.
Unlike Nechemia Coopersmith’s exhaustive Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror,
the book’s concise scope renders it accessible to most any academic audiences. Although
similar assessments of Israel’s coping ability appear in books like Ira Sharkansky’s
Coping with Terror: An Israeli Perspective, the consistent comparison to United States
policy lends Cole a new angle to explore. In Terror, Leonard Cole reflects an immense
respect for the Israeli ability to cope with ceaseless small-scale terrorism. The author
takes this study a step further with a direct comparison of weathered Israeli policy to
contemporary American policy. Cole’s Terror is an ideal read for anyone interested in the
impact of pervasive terrorism on society.
Wesley Tyler French
University of Southern Mississippi
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Pershing: General of the Armies by Donald
Smythe. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. Reprint, 2007. xv + 399 pp,
maps, illustrations, photos, index, bibliography. $21.95.)
Pershing: General of the Armies is a reprint of Donald Smythe’s work with a new
introduction by Spencer C. Tucker. Smythe was Professor of History at John Carroll
University in Cleveland, and lectured at the Army War College and the National War
College. The author of the new introduction is Spencer C. Tucker. He hopes that this
reissue will inspire future military officers and provide greater understanding of
America’s role in the First World War. First published in 1986, the 2007 reissue is a
timely release to foster further interest in the devastating conflict of 1914-1918. Smythe
is recognized as the preeminent biographer of John J. Pershing. The 2007 reissue is the
second book of Smythe’s two volume set on the life and career of Pershing. The second
volume, Pershing: General of the Armies, focuses on Pershing’s role as leader of the
American Expeditionary Force (AEF).
Smythe provides a brief accounting of Pershing’s life before becoming head of the
AEF in May 1917. The bulk of the book deals with Pershing’s role as leader of the AEF
and the trials and tribulations that came with such a job. The tale of Pershing’s command
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is also one of America asserting her status as a major world power. The United States
experienced many growing pains during the war but the experiences gained served
American interests in the training of future officers. Smythe writes for an eye for detail,
seemingly omitting nothing and yet omitting superfluous details. The words and chapters
maintain a constant flow, propelling the reader on and maintaining interest in the subject.
Smythe’s descriptions transport the reader to the places Pershing stood and can feel what
Pershing felt. Pershing: General of the Armies is a masterful blend of style and content.
Smythe describes not only what Pershing did but who Pershing was as both soldier and
American symbol.
The chapters are laid out chronological. All thirty-six chapters flow together,
except for chapter twenty-seven. This chapter is titled “A Portrait of Pershing (1917-
1948)”. The continuous flow of the book is interrupted as Smythe provides a brief, one
chapter summary of Pershing during the time frame indicated. Chapter twenty-seven
would be better suited at the beginning or end but not in the middle of the work. The
break in continuity can be distracting but this remains one of a few oversights in an
excellent book.
Pershing: General of the Armies contains easy-to-read chapters with many
explanatory maps, drawings, and supplimentary aids. Smythe does not hold Pershing
blameless vis-a vis the World War I learning curve. The curve for Pershing focused upon
trying to build an army where there had been none before. Smythe portrays the reality of
war with leaders learning as they go. The AEF was not without troubles in developing
proper tactics for supply and operations, supply being the chief concern. Symthe weaves
the successes and failures of Pershing with the successes and failures of the AEF.
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Smythe emphasizes Pershing’s troubles with fellow Allied commanders, both political
and military. He also faced criticism and difficulties from his countrymen, mainly the
military establishment. Smythe also describes Pershing’s post-war life and his efforts to
secure a stronger peacetime Army.
Smythe does not hide the fact that this is a hugely pro-American work. In many
instances he adds quotes from various figures stating that the war would not have been
won without American intervention. Other scholars may dispute Smythe’s bias but he
does provide a highly convincing body of evidence. Throughout Pershing: General of
the Armies readers can read about the uphill battle faced by Pershing and the AEF in
establishing the American presence in France. The pro-American emphasis is justified
and contributes to the power of and grandeur of Pershing: General of the Armies.
Smythe wrote a timeless work about General Pershing, a book that provides lessons to
future generations of soldiers and civilians alike about pride, honor, dignity, and the
American spirit.
Smythe’s work is the definitive work on General Pershing, with Frank E.
Vandiver’s Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing coming a close second.
Both authors present excellent biographies of General Pershing but Smythe’s work is
more readable and better organized. The reprint of Pershing: General of the Armies
stands as testament to Smythe’s skill as a historian and should remain the definitive work
on General Pershing for many years to come.
Jason M. Sokiera
University of Southern Mississippi
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