FIFTY YEARS of VIOLATIONS of Human Rights in Communist Vietnam 1945-1995

COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY AND GOALS
The Statements

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a one-party state. The Vietnamese Communist Party shows all of its ambitions to seize power to govern the entire Vietnamese people and shape the development of society as well as the fate of the individuals that constitute it. It considers itself the savior of the nation. It empowers itself with the rights to the leadership of the nation. It vests itself with the mission to bring into play what it calls a socialist transformation of the nation. None of the sectors of the political and civil life could escape from it. Despite the 1992 Constitution, which states the separation of power between the Party and the State, the functioning of the actual political institutions of Vietnam exhibits identical entreaties of the Party and the State. The distinction in viewpoints, the interpretation of the laws, regulations, and policies is virtually nominal. The Vietnamese Communist Party is the sole decision maker.The official ideology--communism--is considered to be the legitimate way of life. It forms the backbone of all other social institutions. It institutes the history of the Vietnamese people and establishes the social structure of the country.

On his seventieth birthday, Ho Chi Minh explained how he became a Communist:

At first, patriotism, not yet communism, led me to have confidence in Lenin, in the Third International. Step by step, in the course of struggle, by studying Marxism-Leninism parallel with participation in practical activities, I gradually came to realize that only socialism and communism can emancipate the oppressed nations and the working people throughout the world. There was, in Vietnam as well as in China, the legend of a miraculous book. Anyone faced with difficulties could simply open it and find a ready solution. Marxism-Leninism was not only a miraculous book, but also a radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism (Ho Chi Minh, 1960-1962: 448).

In February 1930, Ho Chi Minh founded the Communist Party of Indochina. In the same year, as Comintern representative, he drafted a program of action. This program aimed at carrying out such slogans as: overthrow French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary Vietnamese capitalist class; establish a worker-peasant and soldier government; and confiscate the banks and other enterprises belonging to the imperialists and put them under the control of the worker-peasant and soldier government. The program was later adopted at a Conference of Communists from Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina held in Hong Kong. As a matter of fact, the Communist Party of Indochina "is the party of the working class. It will help the proletarian class lead the revolution to struggle for all the oppressed and exploited people (Ho Chi Minh, 1960-62: 145-48)."

Ever since its foundation, the Communist Party of Indochina, which later became the Vietnamese Communist Party, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and his successors, has relentlessly striven to achieve Marx’ and Lenin's teachings. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the basic principle. It dictates their goals and aims for a Communist revolution not only in Vietnam but also throughout the Indochinese peninsula.

At the Third Congress of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (1960), Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly Truong Chinh said to the deputies:

The aim of the present revolution is that the entire people and, 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 the Marxist viewpoint. Thus, Marxism-Leninism will assume the leading role in guiding the moral life of our country and will be 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.

After the takeover of South Vietnam, Party Secretary-General Le Duan affirmed at the 1976 Vietnamese Communist Party Congress 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 in the political and spiritual life of the entire people (Quoted from Nguyen Van Canh, 1983: 145)."

Party Secretary-General Nguyen Van Linh, in his address on the 60th anniversary of the Indochinese Communist Party on February 2, 1990, confirmed that the Vietnamese Communist Party determinedly followed the path of dictatorship of the proletariat and resumed its supreme leadership of the people. He advocated that no other political parties but the Vietnamese Communist Party could shoulder the role of leadership of the people and country. On March 6, 1990, he affirmed: that the Communist Party and people of Vietnam, now as before, unceasingly strive to consolidate the lasting and close friendship and all-around cooperation with the Soviet Union, the land of Lenin and the Great October Revolution. This is the principle of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the internationalist sentiments of all Vietnamese.

General Le Kha Phieu declared, in the name of the Politburo, in the magazine "Tap Chi Quoc Phong Toan Dan" (National Defense) in September 1991 that the Party's new platform would be carried out in the light of the Seventh Party Congress, that it would persistently follow the socialist line and other fundamental principles of socialism, and that it would ascertain the leadership role of the Communist Party, remain loyal to and apply creatively Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought, and help cadres and soldiers heighten their love for the country and socialism. He asserted that constant efforts must be made to renovate and enhance the efficiency of party leadership. Resolute measures must be taken to reject the concepts of political pluralism and opposition by a multi-party system as well as to criticize attempts to diminish the party's leading role or to prevent the party from renovating its leadership. It is necessary to closely combine Marxism-Leninism with Ho Chi Minh's thought, in Vietnam, regarding them as the main ideological system to be applied to the revolution in the country because they can play a leading role in shaping the spiritual life of the socialist Vietnamese society (Le Kha Phieu, 1991).

Vu Oanh, member of Party Central Committee Political Bureau, asserted, in the daily "Nhan Dan" (The People) on September 9, 1991, that to make the renovation of the country a success "the people must be armed with a vanguard theory that is Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought and be placed under the leadership of the working class party that must work out correct lines and strategies and effectively organize their implementation. He further stressed that The people want party leadership but demand that the party be composed of the people who are truly devoted to the common cause and have wisdom and ability. Particularly at this historical juncture when our economy is still backward, the enemy has devised many plots to oppose and attack us from both inside and outside. As a result, the people badly need party leadership. The Party must raise its capacity and strengthen its determination and arm itself with the new thinking to meet the needs of our time and the people's admiration (Vu Oanh, 1991: 3).

The Aspirations of the People

Opposition to Marxism-Leninism, thus, has never been tolerated in Vietnam. In February 1976, the National Assembly, indeed, made an official announcement clarifying its position:

This National Assembly will absolutely not admit political speculators or counterrevolutionaries of any kind. This principle must be strictly applied to all activities in the course of the campaign and the elections for the National Assembly. The exploiting classes in the South are seeking ways to conduct a distorted propaganda movement against the socialists by opposing the Socialist North, sowing division between the North and the South, and advancing viewpoints on bourgeois democracy and freedom in order to create illusions in an attempt to sabotage our general elections, including the authorized existence of opposition elements under the capitalist system and the past U.S. puppet regime. Those schemes were only deceitful tricks to consolidate the ruling yoke of the exploiting class.

Contrary to the beliefs the Communists held dear, the Vietnamese people in the South sustained nationalism, democracy, and freedom. Communism, to the vast majority, was identified with despotism, treason of national cause, and destruction to traditional cultural values. The invasion of South Vietnam in 1975 was a breach of the Paris Peace Agreements (1973) by which the Communist North had pledged to abide. It glaringly ignored the international treaty according to which "immediately after the cease-fire the two South Vietnamese parties [and not the North party] will achieve national reconciliation and concord, end hatred and enmity, prohibit all acts of reprisal and discrimination against individuals or organizations that have collaborated with one side or the other, and ensure the democratic liberties of the people: personal freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of meeting, freedom of organization, freedom of political activities, freedom of belief, freedom of movement, freedom of residence, freedom of work, right of property ownership, and right of free enterprise (Article 11, Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring the Peace in Vietnam, January 27, 1973)."

The Popular Resentment and Opposition

Since the Geneva Agreements (1954), the South, in particular, had lived an original life. It had developed its own political, economic, social, educational, and cultural ways of living totally different from those in the North. There was no surprise that the Southerners' resentment toward the State policies and the Communist Party's political lines ever prospered. Moreover, the political developments and democratic ideals in the recent decades have helped them develop their thinking and be conscious of their role as free and responsible individuals of an independent nation. They have enlarged their vision of their country and fostered their duties as citizens toward their people and country. As a result, the Vietnamese Communist Party's obstinacy, its self-proclaimed leadership, its incompetence to build national solidarity, its failure to achieve national economic, political, and social goals, and the conflicts of interests between the Vietnamese Communist Party and those of the people inevitably lead to popular oppositions.

Theses on Land Reform

As Tran Phuong recalled, as soon as the Communist Party of Indochina was founded [1930], its fundamental tasks were to abolish feudalism and French imperialism and to gain full independence. In support of these theses, the Party carried out such slogans as "to requisition all lands belonging to foreign and local landowners and to the Church and to give them to middle and poor peasants."

However, these theses were mere slogans. The Communist Party of Indochina was still a small number. It lagged far behind other national parties, such as the prestigious Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam National Party), in interior organization and popular confidence. In 1939, the Communist Party of Indochina, in seeking support from national parties and soothing broad national strata, encouraged only "the confiscation of the possessions of the French and Japanese imperialists and Vietnamese traitors, the reduction of rents and rates of interests, and the redistribution of communal lands to the peasants (Tran Phuong, 1965: 167-168)."

The Tasks and Measures

During the Resistance, the conduct of the war required national unity. The question of land reform was somewhat neglected. However, in 1948, the Communist Party of Indochina reaffirmed the fundamental tasks of land reform. One of its instructions was: "to limit, by gradual reforms, the exploitation by feudal landowners (for instance, by reducing land rent); at the same time, to bring about changes in the system of land ownership (as far as this measure is concerned, the anti-colonialist National United Front is not to be harmed.) In January of the same year, it laid down concrete measures for implementing its agrarian policy such as to reduce land rents by 25%, abolish all supplementary rents, and redistribute communal lands. Notwithstanding, in May 1950, its government issued a decree ordering the confiscation of those lands that were distributed temporarily to poor peasants who would be exempted from tax for the first three years (Tran Phuong, 1965: 170-174).
 

The Campaign for Rent Reduction

Before the battle of Dien Bien Phu ended (1954), the Vietnamese Workers' Party had launched a "sky-splitting and earthshaking" campaign paving the way for the Land Reform (1953-56). Two others preceded it. They were: first, the implementation of the Chinese system of taxes, the aim of which was to impoverish the whole population and to reduce all Vietnamese society to the level of its lowest members; and, second, a preliminary wave of terror aimed at liquidating all "dangerous reactionaries." The Land Reform program itself was divided into two separate campaigns: the so-called "Land Rent Reduction" campaign and the Land Reform campaign proper (Hoang Van Chi, 1964: 71).

The true operation for Land Rent Reduction began in February 1953 and lasted two weeks. People in the village were called for a meeting to be informed and discuss about the taxes. The purpose, however, was to question taxpayers who had evaded tax or had not duly paid tax. Taxpayers were forced to disclose anyone who had incited them not to pay the taxes. Worse still, they were tortured to declare the reactionary political party to which they had belonged. In reality, the chairman of the meeting had on hands the names of those people the Party considered as reactionaries in the village, and the claimant was prompted to mention those names. If he declared what the Party wanted them to do, he would be set free.

The Persecution

Reactionaries on the black list were arrested and tortured. Survivors from this campaign were detained in prison for further investigation. A few weeks later, the security police declared that they were truly traitors, dangerous members of clandestine organizations working for the French. During this "political struggle," there were at least three to five individuals in each village who were either tortured to death or killed themselves out of humiliation. A Cabinet Minister, Dang Van Huong, was among the victims. He was not tortured to death, but his brother was. Dang Van Huong and his wife hanged themselves afterwards. Dang Van Huong was the father of Colonel Dang Van Viet, who led the Vietnamese People's troops to defeat the French troops at the battle of Cao Bang--Lang Son (Hoang Van Chi, Ibid.: 137).

Terror plagued the countryside. Authorities in the provinces were to submit to the central government a list of typical reactionaries consisting of a landlord, a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, a laureate scholar, and a mandarin and prepare to bring them to stand trials in open military courts of justice. In the Thanh Hoa Province, for instance, top landlord Nguyen Huu Ngoc and Monk Thich Tue Chau were given the death sentence. Catholic priest Mai Ba Nhac and two other compradors were sentenced to 15 years of forced labor. The old mandarin, Ha Van Ngoan, and the laureate scholar, Le Trong Nhi, did not appear before court: they died in prison (Hoang Van Chi, Ibid.: 150).

The "political struggle" was only the prelude towards performing the agrarian reforms that took place after the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1956. In fact, during the Resistance (1946-1954), the Communist leadership continually cultivated approaches to reeducating its party members and cadres with an aim to blot out the influence of French culture. These approaches were developed into theories and methods of reasoning that were destined to level up the elimination of theories of feudalism on private ownership and elimination of the old social order and religions while inculcating in cadres Marxist ideology, dialectic materialism, and class struggle. The Communists prepared sophisticated tactics foreordained to destroy the traditional way of life and potential political opponents in the population.

The Campaign for Land Reform

The land reform in Vietnam began in 1953, but the campaign for what was named by Mao as "the overthrow of the political power and influence of the landowning class, notables, and men of letters" practically started at the end of 1952. During the first Congress of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (November 14-26, 1953), party members and cadres were instructed with methods to carry out the agrarian methods that were modeled on the ones the People's Republic of China had executed in 1949. They were implanted in their minds with such thoughts as: the old regime was a regime of exploitation; the Vietnamese landlords always cooperated with the French imperialists; and the landlords and the imperialists were enemies, and they were to be destroyed.

The Persecution

The immigration of nearly one million people to the South, however, delayed the operation of agrarian reforms. Wiesner pointed out:

After the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, the Laniel government planned the withdrawal of troops from outlining areas of the Red River delta, shortening their lines in order to protect Hanoi, Haiphong, and the connecting road. The withdrawal from Phat Diem, Bui Chu, Nam Dinh, Phu Ly, and Ninh Binh occurred in late June and early July. Laniel's successor, Premier Mendes France, told Ambassador Douglas Dillon on July 2 that the French had offered to provide transportation for those of the local population who desired to move with them, but many had preferred to stay where they were. He added that since Dien Bien Phu the Viet Minh had behaved very well toward the local people, which might be a temporary policy to facilitate the Geneva negotiations (Wiesner, 1988: 215).

In reality, many Catholics were persecuted for practicing their religion, and many others feared of the same fate. The Pentagon Papers reported:

Almost as soon as the [1954] truce became effective, the Catholic bishops entered a test of power with the Viet Minh, using their self-defense forces to back DRV occupation. The response was predictably ruthless: Catholic villages were attacked by PAVN. In two instances, inhabitants reportedly were massacred; churches were burned, church property confiscated, priests tortured or jailed, and heavy taxes levied on Church lands and buildings. Among the consequences of that violence was a Catholic propaganda campaign against the Viet Minh--e.g.,the-Virgin-had-gone-South-theme—and mass migrations of whole parishes (Pentagon Papers, 1972: 12).

The Party, indeed, had to wait until the Communist troops took over Haiphong, the last city of hope, from which people could escape to the South, and resumed their work. Series of fierce operations to denounce crimes were performed in the plains of the Red River. The aftermath was terrible. "Traitors" were tried, detained, or executed, and their properties were confiscated. In the suburb of Hanoi alone, 1,032 families, which is 4% of the population, were classified as reactionary traitors.

The Law and the Practices

Article 4 of Chapter 2 of Decree 197/SL, promulgated on December 19, 1953, stipulated that only superfluous cultivated land, cattle, and farm implement were confiscated. However, landowners and their families were thrown out of their houses. The Decree on the Protection of the Freedom of Conscience, promulgated on June 4, 1955, stipulated: "The Government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe these freedoms (Article 1, Chapter I)." "Churches, temples, pagodas, sanctums, religious institutes, and articles of worship belonging to any religion shall be protected by law (Article 6, Chapter I)." "In the process of land reform, a part of land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government either with or without reparations for distributions to peasants, shall be left to the church, pagoda, or sanctum concerned in an area large enough to ensure the performance of worship and to provide for living conditions of priests and religious dignitaries in order for them to carry out their religious activities (Article 10, Chapter III)." Nevertheless, Geniis and saints were ridiculed. Communal houses, temples, and pagodas were destroyed or turned into offices, classrooms, and granaries. Priests and dignitaries were executed. Neighbors spied on one another. Landlords and members of their families were mocked, beaten, or killed without mercy.

The Aims of the Campaigns for the Land Reform

The campaigns of agrarian reforms were thus aimed at annihilating traditional religious beliefs, abolishing millennial customs and manners, and upsetting the social relations. The Party established in their place a new social order. This was instituted on codes of behavior determined through systems of party cells and its affiliated organizations.

According to Nguyen Viet, General Le Thiet Hung of the Vietnamese People's Army reported in the magazine "Cuu Chien Binh" (Veteran Fighters) in September 1991 that it was Ho Chi Minh who initiated and executed the campaigns for crime revelation and denunciation of landlords. He applied all the experiences he had learned from Stalin during his stay in the Soviet Union and the maneuvers for crime revelation and denunciation from Mao in Hunan during the years 1924-1927 when he served as a secret agent for Communist China.

When launching their programs of land reform in Hunan, the Chinese Communists were still not in power, so they did not have an administration of their own. It was until the Chinese Koumintang applied its "ally with Russia, tolerate the Communists" tactics that the Chinese Communists had a chance to instigate an uprising. On the contrary, when launching the land reforms in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Communists were in power and seized the entire administration, and, consequently, the Party and State directed the "uprising." Their purpose was to let the masses take full responsibilities for all the pillage, killing, and destruction of the entire base of the national culture.

The crime revelation and denunciation campaigns began to take place at the end of 1952, but it was until December 26, 1953, when Ho Chi Minh convened the National Assembly for a special meeting to "discuss the land reform policies and to pass the laws of land reforms" that they were practically carried out. Under his secret name DIN, Ho Chi Minh, in the magazine "For a Lasting Peace, For a People's Democracy," in its issue of publication on August 21, 1953, published a summary on the developments of the land reforms. In part, the summary wrote:

The order was released. Under the leadership of the Party and after cautious preparations, last May, the peasants had a conference. More than 200 representatives were present. They carefully studied the directives from the Party and the decrees of the Government on the new policy of land reform. They traced out a plan of works to practically reduce taxes and incomes. They decided to begin work in a number of areas and gradually expand the movement according to the "oil-slick" approach.

When the conference ended, the representatives were divided in two battalions. These battalions went directly to the villages in two different directions. Each battalion was then divided into teams. Each team comprised of 12 to 15 people, and each team was in charge of a designated village. Every member of the team must firmly observe the internal regulations. One of them regulated the three do's-together: (1) Live in the poor peasants' houses (live together), (2) share meals with them (eat together), and (3) help them with their work (work together).

The team continued its work-plan through different phases. It visited poor peasants and talked with them. It studied the situations in the village and explained to them the root of their poverty. It discussed with them the way to struggle. It explained to them the Party and government's policies of land reform. It selected active people among the peasants. In meetings, it encouraged the peasants to speak out the oppression and exploitation they have suffered. It aroused their hatred and indignation against the pack of landlords. It set up a provisional committee of peasants consisting of peasants from the agricultural commune. This committee consisted of those members who had been selected among the most active peasants. This committee would direct the movement and carry out the new policies of land reform. When all these tasks had been performed, they organized a meeting. They brought the landlords who had committed crimes against the peasants to the meeting. The peasants--their victims--having had the evidence in hand, publicly accused them of crimes. Finally, the People's Court judged them and made decisions. The criminals had to pay back to the peasants the illegal amount of money they received from the peasant's land rent and the money which they exploited from the peasants' work and retained illegally and to return to the peasants the fields they had dispossessed from them by cheating, etc. In cases where the accused committed other serious crimes, the People's Court was entitled the right to give even the death penalty.

Until now, about 20 villages have carried out these measures. The experiences they have gathered are fairly ample. That is a real class struggle in the rural areas.

Later, when Gorbachev forced the Vietnamese Communists to rectify their errors and excused Ho Chi Minh's dishonesty and wickedness, the class struggle in the rural areas was still there as described in female novelist Duong Thu Huong's "Thien Duong Mu" (Paradise of the Blind):

No one knows why the old woman, Tam, owner of an entailed rice field of 1.8 acre , became his enemy and turned out to be an element belonging to the class of "exploitation." A simple false accusation is sufficient for him to easily jump from the position of a participant down into the bottom of a chasm for the accused. Disaster, disgrace and shame, and death hanging in midair were just like an overripe fruit on a high branch that would drop off at any time, and one does not know when. Because of this, amid the thunder of shouts from the crowd of villagers, quite a few shouts could have been used to smother up fear or to calm down disquietude, a hidden unrest one would feel during a storm.

The power of the agricultural commune, in the words of Mao Tse Tung, is absolute. They will forbid the landlords to open their mouths. They will sweep away the landlords' power and influence. That means beating the landlords to the ground and trampling them underfoot (Mao Tse Tung, Selected Works, Vol. I, p.32). A frightening picture was that of the person who was executed by the "Revolution" being buried with his head above the ground. The executioner used a harrow drawn by a buffalo to bush the head forward and backward until it dropped off. Drum beating, gong striking, and shouts of acclaim of the "revolutionary masses" were thundering around. These rituals were again performed in the district of Hoang Hoa, Thanh Hoa Province. It is estimated that more than 500,000 people were executed during the 1952-56 land reform (Nguyen Viet, 1992: 12-14).

The Sao Mai Student Group, an underground organization operating inside Vietnam, reported that, during the first phase, the Communists pushed forward bloody campaigns of terror. Their machinery of propaganda incessantly repeated the trial of the cruelest and most wicked traitor Cat Hanh Long in Thai Nguyen. This was the first trial in a people's court that had ever been carried out in Vietnam. It opened up a purge camouflaged under the so-called "movement for agrarian reforms."

In the early days of July 1993, the portrait of the "cruelest monster Cat Hanh Long" was recreated for the first time on newspapers. After exposing the hideous truth with arguments that only showed underlying nervousness, the "Doanh Nghiep" (Business) magazine published a petition by the victim's son and daughter-in-law who displayed how the homeless children and grandchildren of the family have suffered. Even the wrong accusations during the agrarian reform that killed Cat Hanh Long were acknowledged.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nam, alias Cat Hanh Long, had encouraged her children and grandchildren to take part in the revolution ever since it was clandestinely operated. She herself canvassed people in buying bonds issued by the Viet Minh and stored Viet Minh flags to prepare for the general revolution. Before the revolution, she had tons of salt, rice, and arms transported to the resistance zone (certificates attached to the petition). After the revolution, she joined the campaign "the Week for Gold" in Haiphong (certificates attached to the petition). She had many kinds of copper transported in trucks to the resistance zone to cast ammunitions. During the resistance against the French, she fervently joined in the Movement of Patriotic Women. She even helped the Party Central Committee carry out their economy projects (1945-46). Therefore, she was elected President of the Movement of Patriotic Women in the Interzone of Resistance in Thai Nguyen and was, at the time, a member of the Committee for Patriotic Women of the Interzone of Resistance in North Vietnam. At the Congress of Representatives of the Movement of Patriotic Women, the government of Ho Chi Minh sent her a note of recognition.

Cat Hanh Long was among the victims arbitrarily charged with committing the cruelest and most wicked crimes. They were subject to the most tragic deaths, even though they were truly those who had supported, nurtured, and helped the Communists in the formation of the Communist movement. The main reason for their deaths was that they had been so enthusiastic about the national salvation but refused to accept communism. Their political viewpoints were apparently the immediate danger to the role of the Communists in the political life. Therefore, to maintain their power, the Communists never hesitated to kill them (The Sao Mai Student Group, 1993).

The purpose of those operations, according to Hoang Van Chi, was, after all, to prove to the population that the Party, acting through the Peasants' Association, was all-powerful. If the accused admitted to the various charges, that was good, as far as the party was concerned, because the denouncers appeared to be truthful and reliable. But if too many of them denied the accusations, a substantial number of spectators might be inclined to the view that the charges were merely invented and groundless. In the latter case, the party was often obliged by means of threats to force the victim to change his attitude, or even to shoot him in order to safeguard its prestige (Hoang Van Chi, 1964: 186).

The Rectification of Errors

Only in the later 1950's, owing to the political developments in the Socialist Bloc, were the confessions on errors generated. It was Ho Chi Minh himself who procreated these confessions. With tears in his eyes, he avowed: "Because of ardent enthusiasm, a number of party cadres had made mistakes, thus causing mourning to many families of those who were wrongly convicted. Then, Ho Chi Minh solemnly declared to right the wrongs, to restore citizenship to family members of those who were wrongly convicted of treason, of being reactionaries, and he promised to punish those cadres who committed mistakes. A typical case was that of Truong Chinh. He was the Party's secretary-general, and he was the one who had made the most serious mistake. He was nonetheless removed from office but was appointed President of the National Assembly, instead. The movement for agrarian reforms sank in oblivion and drew with it all the tragic incidents into darkness. Over the past forty years, only one incident of rectification has been seen: Family members of the victims of the massacres during the early 1950's were freed from the siege by the society. They were able to emerge into light from the miserable life comparable to those of people who lived at the edge of death (The Sao Mai Student Group, 1993).

In the provinces in the Red River delta, the masses revolted against the local administration. The Party leadership had to rely on the army to quench the uprising. During November 1956, the Party's press conceded that a popular uprising took place in the Quynh Luu District, Nghe An Province. Approximately 20,000 peasants armed with only coarse farm implement and staffs fought against the 325th Division. Western observers claimed that about 1,000 peasants were killed or wounded between November 10 and 20, 1956. Several thousand people were arrested and deported.

The Land Reform and Its Aftermath

On November 1, 1956, the government announced the release of 12,000 people from prisons and labor camps. However, according to estimates, between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed, and 50,000 to 100,000 were deported and imprisoned. What the agrarian reforms had failed to accomplish, according to Joseph Buttinger, "was to satisfy the need for land of those for whose benefit the regime allegedly had undertaken. It was able to give 1.5 million households of poor landless peasants slightly more than one acre each. Welcome as these gifts were, they were not enough to turn the poor peasants into enthusiastic supporters of the regime. On the contrary, the injustices and atrocities produced widespread resentment, unrest, and eventually open rebellion. The brutality of the cadres embittered not only the victims but also those who were lucky enough to have escaped persecution (Joseph Buttinger, 1968: 428)."

Commenting on the economic impact of the land reform on the life of the North Vietnamese, Adam FForde said:

At first, the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam did not nationalize all agricultural land but instead vested ownership rights in the land taken from "reactionary" landlords in agricultural communes, which, at least, in principle, could relocate land on a five-yearly basis to families who needed it most. This appeared to be a sensible marriage of Communist orthodoxy with pre-colonial traditions.

However, during the Land Reform campaign of 1953-56, a separate organization was established to appropriate and redistribute the land of the "landlords" and "rich peasants" categories of population whose definition was, to a considerable extent, dependent on the whims and wishes of local party officials. This campaign caused major problems in rural areas and was not successful in removing inequalities in access to land and other assets in rural areas.

It was modified in the early 1960's to the one which sought to establish cooperatives that would, in turn, be amalgamated into full scale agricultural collectives. At the same time, the government was implementing a neo-Stalinist development policy at the macro-economic level, emphasizing the rapid development of heavy industry and, of course, waging an increasingly costly war against the American-backed government in the South. Only massive aid from other CMEA countries allowed the DRV to continue these policies to the point where their armies could invade the South and inflict a humiliating defeat on the American and South Vietnamese armies. By any objective standard, the economy of North Vietnam in 1975 was at a very low level of economic development (Adam FForde, 1989: 14).

The Fate of Intellectuals after the War of Resistance

The de-Stalinization policy proclaimed by Krutchev at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1956, the rebellion of Polish workers in Poznan on June 28, 1956, Mao's "Hundred Flowers" campaigns in Communist China, and the defaults in the land reform were all the circuitous causes that generated a profound dissent among the intelligentsia in Hanoi. Many of them were writers and intellectuals who had joined and played an active role in the Resistance war. As Nguyen Manh Tuong put it:

Intellectuals who joined the Resistance were bitterly disillusioned when they realized that the Party had no confidence in them, despite the many sacrifices they had made for the party. Have they been too demanding? Have they asked to be made ministers or ambassadors? No, they haven't. The majority of the intellectuals is not ambitious and would willingly give these positions to politicians and party members. They simply wish to contribute their qualifications and experiences to the service of the people and to safeguard their honor and freedom of thought which they believe are essential to the dignity of the intellectual (Quoted from Hoang Van Chi, 1964: 229).

The Opposition

In truth, their endurance in the spiritual and social life, their suffering in face of the insulting arrogance of party cadres, and their differences in viewpoints on Marxist and Maoist philosophy were all conducive to the rebellion of the intellectuals. Then, while the peasants fought against cadres and troops of the People's Army in the countryside, the intellectuals in Hanoi stood up. They disseminated articles, poems, and stories on papers and magazines. They delivered speeches at open meetings to criticize the Party's oppression against the people and its scornful attitude toward the intelligentsia. All the dissidents were Resistance fighters. They had shared the ups and downs and braved dangers during the nine years of resistance against the French.

The magazine "Giai Pham Mua Thu" (Collected Works for the Fall) carried, in its summer issue of August 29, 1956, a poem with a call to those"... who defeated invaders/ And did not bow/Under colonial domination./Why do you bear with these villains/ Who shame our beloved Fatherland./Stand up!" A week later, the magazine "Nhan Van" (Humanities) appeared with Nguyen Huu Dang, a Communist of long standing, as editor-in-chief. Young writers who were all party members submitted the most violent articles. Phan Khoi, the sole Confucian disciple who survived the Land Reform, made his last attempt to defend Confucianism against the merciless attack of Marxism. The venerable scholar accused the Party of nepotism, despotism, corruption, and oppression. University students joined in the fight. The magazine "Dat Moi" (New Land) accused the party cadres of monopolizing the "bourgeois" girl students. Finally, Nguyen Manh Tuong, a lawyer of reputation, at the National Congress of the Fatherland Front in Hanoi, October 30, 1956, delivered a speech, which vehemently condemned the whole regime.

During the first stage, the intellectuals attacked the "sycophants" and "cadres in the Arts and Letters," exposed cases of corruption and nepotism, and so forth. During the second stage, they turned their attack upon certain party leaders. During the third stage, they criticized the party's policy as a whole. At the first stage, the party did not retaliate. On the contrary, one or two official publications joined with the opposition in denouncing mistakes that they attributed to minor officials and low-ranking cadres. At the second stage, it counterattacked by publishing a series of articles written by one or two pro-party intellectuals. At the third stage, it resorted to secret terrorism to defend itself.

The Repression

To carry out secret terrorization, the Party ordered that paper must not be sold to the opposition. The security police were sent to every bookstore to ensure cooperation. Workers at printing houses were ordered to go on strike. However, the popular support of the intelligentsia was so great. For three months, the wrath of the people boosted to such extent that it could not be restrained. Southerners in the North attacked the Cau Go police station in Hanoi. Students from the South who were living in the Nhan Muc Village near Hanoi set up barricades along the route from Hanoi to Ha Dong. All copies of the Nhan Van, issue number 6, which carried the appeal for a demonstration against the political regime, were confiscated. The Party ordered to close the magazine. The conflict between a minority, which was the Party, and the great majority of writers and intellectuals lasted for three years and resulted in the final 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 and Giai Pham" at the Third Congress of Union of Writers and Artists in Hanoi on June 4, 1958. To crush the growing opposition by the intelligentsia, the Party launched a new operation to terrorize it. Its aim was to fight against and eradicate the bourgeois thinking and the old way of life such as free market economy, adoration of Western philosophy, representative democracy, petty liberalism, individual liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of movement.

The Persecution

Three hundred and four writers and artists were subject to attending "rectification of thoughts" sessions. They were forced to avow the errors in their thinking. Phan Khoi, Truong Tuu, Thuy An, and Nguyen Huu Dang of the "Nhan Van Giai Pham" (Humanities) did not resign themselves to the order. Essayist Nguyen Huu Dang, female novelist Thuy An, and publisher Tran Thieu Bao were isolated and detained. Later, they were brought to stand trials on charges of being spies. Truong Tuu was dismissed from his position as professor at the Faculty of Letters. Phan Khoi was isolated from maintaining relationships with other writers. The Party launched an operation of "reeducation and labor." Its main purpose was to abject intellectuals, writers, and artists into reshaping their ideology and working in line with the Association of Writers for 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 Nguyen 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. Durand was described as an intelligence agent for the French colonialists and American imperialists. The court session was conducted behind closed doors. The defendants were brought to court for their verdicts and then conducted back to prison (Bui Tin, 1993: 157).

The French liberal 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" (Humanities) and were sentenced to prison terms up to fifteen years. Phan Khoi died before going on trial, and his son, Phan Thao, died from unexplained causes seven months later. Thousands of other intellectuals, along with high school and college students, were conscripted into "education and work" programs similar to those instituted in Communist China (Fall, 1966: 128).

In the purges during this "trial of the revisionists," as well as in many other separate incidents, the Party manipulated "the stick and carrots" approach against the intellectuals. The manipulation of this approach, together with the blindness and fanaticism in the attitude of a number of intellectuals, had caused the intelligentsia in the North to become content with their lot, to become craven, and entirely lose their spirit of resistance (Son Long, 1994).

After the "Nhan Van" (Humanities) movement, the Communist rule successfully subdued all oppositions from the intelligentsia in the North. However, it failed to quiet down a frail but strong-willed young man: Nguyen Chi Thien.

Nguyen Chi Thien, who was born in Hanoi, is a well-known underground poet. His poems described the miserable and unbearable life under communism. A frangible youth in Haiphong and then a student at the French Lycee Albert Sarraut in Hanoi, Nguyen, having been fascinated by ideas and thoughts and articles in the "Nhan Van" (Humanities), prepared to publish the magazine called "Vi Dan" (For the People). He was arrested in Haiphong in 1958. The reason was simple: the security police could not stand having a youth who declared that there was no freedom in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The authorities would have brought him to trial in a justice court if they could find evidence of his crime. Nevertheless, he was arrested and incarcerated. Being an enemy to the regime, he spent over half of his life in prison. His latest arrest was in April 1979 when he gave his selected collection of poems, "Hoa Dia Nguc" (Flowers from Hell), to a British diplomat at the British Embassy in Hanoi. The poet never received a trial. He was released due to international pressure on November 15, 1991.
 

The Tax on Goods

A few days after the Communist took over Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh government carried out strict measures to ruin the urban bourgeoisie. The first measure was to execute a special tax imposed on goods "remaining in the store." Cadres were sent to all the shops to list all goods remaining in store and impose on them a special tax called the "remaining-in-store tax." Tax payment, which largely exceeded the price of the goods, was demanded without delay in "Indochinese banknotes." The second measure was to change the banknotes. The government ordered the entire population to exchange its banknotes for newly issued currency. However, they only received a small amount of money in return. The same measure was applied to gold and silver articles. The third measure was to collectivize private enterprises. Capitalist compradors and businessmen were to join the State and Private Enterprises where the former owners were kept as managers (Hoang Van Chi; 1964: 241).

The Elimination of the Petty Bourgeoisie

In 1959, after having confiscated private industries and business enterprises, the Party launched a campaign to eradicate the capitalist compradors and the spirits of petty bourgeoisie. Do Muoi, secretary-general of the Haiphong Party's Committee, was vested with the responsibility to direct the campaign. Those people who were categorized as compradors and bourgeois were encouraged to offer their properties to the State. Many private industry owners and businessmen volunteered to offer theirs to the State. However, in Hanoi, Haiphong, and Nam Dinh, the class categorization was uptight. Denunciations of crimes such as exploitation of labor, oppression of workers, peculation, and smuggling were exasperated. After having offered their properties to the State, the capitalist compradors or bourgeois were restored with their honor. They have the right to be members in the Patriotic Front or a party-affiliated organization. That was the honor given to Ngo Tu Ha, Nguyen Gia Hung, Nguyen Son Ha, and Trinh Van Bo. Their properties were virtually exhausted, but they would be well enough to dispense with contempt (Bui Tin, 1993: 84).

The results of this system were so effective that an article in the newspaper "To Quoc" (The Fatherland), in February 1960, boasted that "our former private entrepreneurs are, at present, outwardly almost identical to comrade workers (Hoang Van Chi, 1964: 241)."

Joseph Buttinger noted:

An Uncompromising Coalition

Upon his abdication and transfer of power to the Ho Chi Minh Government in August 1945, Emperor Bao Dai declared that he himself and the Royal Family were ready for any sacrifice and desired that their sacrifice be useful to the people. He requested the new government to take care of the royal temples and tombs, to deal fraternally with all the parties and groups that had fought for the independence of the country, to give them the opportunity to participate in the reconstruction of the country, and to demonstrate that the new regime was built on the absolute union of the entire people. Contrarily to his wishes, chaos ensued, and terror began to prosper.

The tragedy of Vietnam's modern history, according to Le Tung Minh, began with the Communist extermination of national parties. After the August Revolution in 1945, the Communist leadership, with the late President Ho Chi Minh as its head, executed a policy of extermination of potential political opponents. On September 5, 1945, Ho Chi Minh ordered to dissolve the Dai Viet Quoc Gia Xa Hoi Dang (Greater Vietnam National Socialist Party) and the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang (Greater Vietnam National Party). On September 13, 1945, Ho Chi Minh established the Military Court. The aims were to stifle public opinion regarding the Viet Minh's betrayal and to attenuate merits honoring the nationalists in the usurping against the Japanese-French domination in the August Revolution. It was also an act of defiance against his political opponents. Such opponents were Nhat Linh, Hoang Dao, Khai Hung [who was later assassinated by the Communists in Nam Dinh Province], Nguyen Tuong Bach of the Tu Luc Van Doan (Tu Luc Literary Group), and Truong Tuu of the Han Thuyen Literary Group (Le Tung Minh, 1994: 2).

Strong waves of protests from national political forces spread as the French expeditionary troops invaded South Vietnam on September 23, 1945. In Hanoi, the Communists were subdued by the Chinese Koumintang troops. To avoid strong political opposition from the national political parties, Ho Chi Minh declared, on November 11, 1945, to dissolve the Communist Party of Indochina but founded in its place the Club for the Studies of Marxism. On December 22, 1945, he signed an agreement with his opponents giving them five cabinet posts in the government and 70 seats in the National Assembly.

Upon achieving his strategic compromise, Ho Chi Minh negotiated with the French for a modus vivendi, but he made a volte face to liquidate them thereafter. At Mao Tse Tung's suggestion, Ho Chi Minh and the Communists founded the Vietnamese Workers' Party (March 3, 1951) attracting the peasantry, workers, and poor working people to the Communist side. To blind public opinion to their artful plan, they heightened the nominal roles of the Social Party and Democratic Party to seek support from the petty bourgeois intellectuals and businessmen in the trade and industry.

The Repression against National Political Leaders in South Vietnam

According to Buttinger, "to achieve the control of the masses, the Viet Minh had a choice of either a coalition of all political parties or the elimination of all groups opposed to their leadership and control. The conflict in the South would turn into a national war against the French; it would vastly improve the chances of the Communists for retaining the commanding position they had gained in the August Revolution. They did not want to share control of the national movement with anyone. They were not interested in a free Vietnam dominated by their political enemies in the nationalist camp. The fight for independence was, for them, only a vehicle for the conquest of power. Thus, even before the armed conflict that blanketed the entire country, the Communists felt perfectly justified in equating opposition to the Viet Minh with antistate activities (Buttinger, 1968: 254-258)."

As a consequence, Trotskyite Ta Thu Thau was assassinated in a prison near the My Khe Beach in Quang Ngai Province in September 1945. Prominent intellectuals such as Phan Van Hum and Tran Van Thach were murdered at Di An, Thu Duc District, Gia Dinh Province. Phan Van Chanh, Nguyen Van So, Phan Van Hoa, Tran Van Si, Nguyen Van Soai, and Nguyen Van Tien were buried alive on the bank of Long Song River in Binh Thuan Province on October 8, 1945. Prime Minister of the Royal Cabinet Pham Quynh, who was accused of being a traitor, was executed in Hue in September 1945. Truong Tu Anh, leader of the Dai Viet (Greater Vietnam Party), was assassinated in 1946. His Holiness Huynh Phu So of Hoa Hao Buddhism was abducted to unknown whereabouts in 1947.

The Repression against National Political Parties in North Vietnam

In the North, the Communists launched hefty military operations to destroy national parties such as the "Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang" (Vietnam National Party), the "Dai Viet" (Greater Vietnam National Party), and the "Dai Viet Duy Dan Cach Mang Dang", abbreviated as "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Revolutionary Party) in the provinces of Vinh Yen, Phuc Yen, and Ninh Binh.

On September 9, 1945, a platoon of the Communist army surrounded and attacked the Bac Giang Maquis guarded by a number of party members of the "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Revolutionary Party) and party members and militiamen of Nong Quoc Long's "Viet Nam Phuc Quoc Dang" (Vietnam National Restoration Party). They were all patriots who had agreed to cooperate with the Communists in the building of national independence. Overwhelmed by the Communists, twenty-one men, three of whom were party members of the "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Revolutionary Party), retreated and took the train to Hanoi. However, on their way to the destination, the Communists killed twenty of them.. The only survivor was Nguyen Duc Nhuan, a party member of the "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Revolutionary Party).

In early February 1946, the Communists surrounded the Nga My Maquis--Nga My Village, Gia Vien District, Ninh Binh Province, where the "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Revolutionary Party) station their militiamen. After seven continual waves of attack, the Communists overwhelmed the maquis. Three militiamen were killed, two were wounded, and three were arrested and executed. The rest escaped. Two hundred and sixty-one (261) militiamen of the reinforcements from the cities and the adjacent areas were caught in an ambush. All except one escaped. Two hundred and sixty militiamen (260) were later executed. Ly ba So, a notorious warden of Dam Dun prison, carried out the execution. The executioner, with a hammer, crushed the victims' heads, one by one, within a half hour. The only survivor was Dr. D. Nh. Kim, who is now living in the United States (Vu Hoan, 1995: 2-3).

On the night of December 19, 1946, the Communists overwhelmed the Nhan Bieu Village, known as the "Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam National Party) Village," at the north side of Quang Tri Township, Central Vietnam. They slaughtered the whole village population hashing even babies in their cradles and elders in the village (Phan Thach Han, 1993: 17-18).

In the same year, the Vietnamese Communist Armed Forces ferociously massacred cadres and fighters of the Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi (Vietnam Revolutionary Association), which was under the leadership of Truong Boi Cong and Nguyen Hai Than. Truong and Nguyen were Ho Chi Minh's benefactors who saved him from a Chinese Koumintang prison. In the mountainous district of Bao Loc, Lang Son Province, the Communists played a hoax on a company of armed troops of the Phuc Quoc Quan (National Restoration Army) by inviting them to a party then killing the commander and more than two hundred (200) fighters of this organization (Thach Ma, 1987: 12).

According to Buttinger, Vo Nguyen Giap sent Viet Minh troops into the "Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang" (Vietnam National Party) and the "Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi" (Vietnam Revolutionary Associations) territories. To eliminate the national forces that determinedly counted out the presence of the French on Vietnam soil, the French equipped Giap's troops. Moreover, they sent their own as reinforcements. In the Hon Gai mining district where the "Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi" (National Revolutionary Association) had set up an insurgent government, the French went even further, ejecting the "Viet Nam Cach Menh Dong Minh Hoi" (Vietnam Revolutionary Association) and handing the administration over to the Viet Minh. In some regions of the Red River Valley controlled by the "Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang" (Vietnam National Party), this campaign lasted until October 1946. As a matter of fact, Lao Kay, on the Yunan border, was not "liberated" until November 2, 1946 (Buttinger, 1968: 258).

The Class Struggle

Once it had gained control over North Vietnam after the Geneva Agreements in August 1954, the Workers' Party relentlessly worked on carrying out the class struggle and implemented the dictatorship of the proletariat. Citizens who disagreed on their monopoly of ideology and political power were arrested, and their voice was silenced. The Communist authorities mercilessly tramped underfoot all fundamental human and civil rights of the citizen. It "condemned any citizen who did not accept its leadership as traitor or reactionary. Unquestionably, traitors and reactionaries were subject to severe punishment. The Vietnamese Workers' Party expeditiously executed campaigns of repression throughout the North. In order to dissimulate its leadership, the Vietnamese Workers' Party classified its enemies into four categories of reactionaries: the intellectuals, the rich, the landlords, and the notables of the old regime. Whoever belonged to each of these four categories were brought to trial in a People's Court. The victim was tortured, and his fate ended in a merciless death (The Sao Mai Student Group, 1993)."

The Internal Conflict

In the 1960's, in particular, a number of Communist high-ranking officers and officials were accused as traitors, revisionists, and partisans of and henchmen for foreign countries. Among them were General Chu Van Tan, General Nguyen Vinh, General Dang Kim Giang, Chancellor of the Institute of Philosophy Hoang Minh Chinh, Director of Rituals at the Foreign Ministry Vu Dinh Huynh, and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Minister Ung Van Khiem. There are still thousands of victims of injustice; yet, their accusations have not been established. Some have sent hundreds of petitions to government agencies, but nothing has been heard from the authorities (Bui Tin, 1993: 100).

Nearly after three decades, on August 28, 1993, Hoang Minh Chinh, who was Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, secretary of the Vietnam Youth Union, chancellor of the Institute of Philosophy, and disabled veteran officer, registered his appeal against the so-called "Opposition to the Communist case" to the highest political institutions of the government such as the People's Supreme Court, the People's Supreme Organ of Control, the Ninth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party, the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its affiliates, the Vietnamese Bar Association, and the media and communication agencies. However, the answer he has expected is only either silence or "no comment," and nothing else (Hoang Minh Chinh, 1993).

Important events, again, took place before and after the Sixth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (December 1986). A series of generals and lieutenant generals were killed secretly. Many questions were raised by the public at that time, especially by the public in Hanoi. Who was the assassin? What secret organization was he from?

The fact was that, within a short time and under almost similar circumstances, two generals, Hoang Van Thai and Le Trong Tan, suffered accidental deaths (being poisoned). According to a general's, who is still in service, and his wife's detailed 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 [whose real name is Phan Dinh Dinh, the middle brother of Phan Dinh Khai alias Le Duc Tho] and Tran Binh, were killed. Rumors were that General Dinh Duc Thien died in an automobile accident. Public opinion and military cadres and relatives, in contrast, thought that the general was shot while he was hunting wild animals in the Cuc Phuong Forest (Ninh Binh Province). Public opinion also said that he was killed by an influential relative. Lieutenant General Tran Binh was shot in the Third District of Ho Chi Minh City. Several days later, his son was also shot in the same area (Nguyen Ho, 1993: 41).

Oppression against the People

After the "liberation" of the South, when the wounds of the war were yet to heal, political hatred, economic oppression, social injustice, and corruption spread everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of people were sent to reeducation camps. Thousands of writers, artists, and intellectuals were arrested for ungrounded reasons. Hundreds of priests of all religions were imprisoned for their faith. The economy began to deteriorate as a result of the confiscation of private properties. Hundreds of thousands of families were forced to resettle in the new barren economic zones. People had to eat horse-feeding grain in replacement of rice. Thousands of intellectuals, fearful of political suspicion and persecution, left the country in search for freedom. Vietnam, under the eyes of the world, was no longer an enjoyable place to live. It even ceased to be a military power when the uneven battles ended on the Sino-Vietnamese frontiers in 1979. It truly slid down pitilessly when war began to take place in the western part of the country and then in Kampuchea.

The two five-year economic plans (1976-1985) that aimed to "northernize" the South proved to be a failure. The industrialization in the areas of metallurgy, heavy construction, and agricultural collectivization planned by the Ministry of Planning, which was headed by Vice Prime Minister Le Thanh Nghi, declined. Inexperienced and cupid high-ranking party members, usually blockhead political commissioners, executed unplanned practices, thus destroying the wealth of the country and the hopes of the people. Political commissioners in the Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Rush) had poor peasants transforming moors into arable fields without mapping out groundwork for irrigation. The Tri An Damp failed to take shape due to mismanagement and corruption. Other political commissioners in the provinces next to the highland in the South ordered the clearance of useful forests and woods for the growing of manioc. Precious wood was sold at any price, and the money went to the authorities' pockets. The result was that useful forests and woods were gone, and the manioc never grew since the land was poorly treated and left without attention. Rice fields in many regions were, at times, left uncultivated. The peasants felt that they were betrayed and that they were only exploited for the benefits of others.

In the North, the agrarian reforms also proved to be a failure. The peasants in the provinces in the upper Tonkin Delta sold their properties without state authorization, moved to the northwestern highlands, cleared forests and woods for rice fields, and established permanent settlements. Hard measures were put into action but came to no result. Local authorities were to be resigned to inaction. Besides these serious problems, Communist China withdrew its economic assistance as the war in Kampuchea escalated.

During this period, the Hanoi administration accelerated strict economic measures against and political control over the people in the South. After the campaign of the so-called "defeating the capitalist compradors" in 1976, small traders and even vendors became penniless. Parallel to these campaigns, resettlement operations forced hundreds of thousands of people to move to the new economic zones. Waves of residents in Saigon were driven out of the city. In the Binh Tay Market in Saigon, the biggest center of merchandise distribution in the South, almost all merchandise booths disappeared. Private properties were confiscated, and the owners and their families were to go and live in the new economic zones. Almost everywhere in the city, men, women, children, and even elders in their 70's were seen in lines at police headquarters to be asked to which economic zone they would like to go (Van Duc, 16 (1993)).

Mass Arrest of Journalists, Writers, Artists, and Intellectuals

The repression of writers and artists in the South was severe, expansive, and systematic. After April 30, 1975, journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were "reeducated," arrested, and imprisoned. Very few of them escaped from being arrested because of a sophisticated network of writers and artists who served as intelligence agents for the Communists during the Vietnam war. They were such writers 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, Cung Tich Bien, and Minh Quan.

Aurora Foundation noted three distinct waves of repression that can be delineated in the years that followed the Communist victory. The initial group consisted primarily of writers and journalists who had worked for the government or who had joined or been conscripted into the armed forces. 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. 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 lawyer Tran Van Tuyen, writer Nguyen Manh Con, novelist Duong Hung Cuong, scholar Ta Nguyen Minh, writer and journalist Nguyen Hoat, scholar Ho Huu Tuong, poet Vu Hoang Chuong, film actor Kha Nang, scholar Le Khai Trach, and music composer Nguyen Van Dong. Approximately one hundred journalists, writers, artists, and intellectuals were reportedly detained at unknown whereabouts (The Washington Area League for Human Rights, 1978: 24).

Mass Arrest of Religious Dignitaries

The religions were also primary targets for severe restrictions and elimination. The Communists carried out plans of brutal attack to eliminate the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao Buddhism, which, during the period 1954-1975 under the slogan of "liberation of South Vietnam," they considered to be an ill time to execute. Religious, social, educational, cultural establishments were confiscated. Religious activities and practices were subject to restriction. On November 11, 1975, only six months after the Communists took control of South Vietnam, the Venerable Thich Tue Hien and eleven monks and nuns of the Duoc Su Pagoda in Can Tho Province immolated themselves by fire in protest of the government's repressive policy against religion. Catholic Bishop Nguyen Van Thuan was taken into custody. Hoa Hao Buddhist dignitary Luong Trong Tuong and his wife were imprisoned. Fourteen Catholic priests and followers at the St. Vincent Cathedral on Tran Quoc Toan Street, Saigon, were arrested. The Reverend Nguyen Huu Nghi and two former officers of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Duc Hung and Nguyen Viet Hung, were given the death sentence without trial. Religious oppression and repression has become increasingly rude since the arrest of Catholic priests and the confiscation of the abbey of the Order of Mother Coredemptrix at Thu Duc in 1987.

Personalities representing various social and political organizations continually denounce the Communist crimes and pledge to firmly struggle for the respect for freedom, democracy, and human rights for Vietnam. Typical of these denunciations is the manifesto by seventeen personalities which was read in front of Saigon Cathedral on April 18, 1977:

We, with what remains of our failing strength, with what remains of our mutilated spirits, resolve to struggle nonviolently for the respect of Human Rights in Vietnam. Our strength is diminished by hunger and privation. Our spirits are mutilated; with heads bowed and back 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 moments of rest. The Vietnamese peasant, after toiling all day in the rice fields, is forced to spend his rare moments of leisure undergoing indoctrination lessons and senseless discussion.

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 hope of 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 of 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 by the providence of the government, of the omniscient, all-clairvoyant Party. The most sacred right of the worker is the right to strike. In Vietnam, even this basic right has been denied.

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

May all those praying in churches leave their prayers!

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

May all those who create break up their pens and throw away their 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--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 but to:

- Resign 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 their 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 family.

- Prisoners who, even after their release, must keep silent, not daring to 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 might find the courage to sacrifice one's own life, but who can bear to see his loved ones sacrificed because of his own acts?

This is the reason behind so many pathetic and unthinkable cases, such as the case of 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 is only one of many, unimaginable 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 Law Courts, the Police, 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 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 of the world! Wake up!

To save the human being, 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, U.N.O must intervene to end by all means this savage violation of human rights, this calculated extinction of liberties, this policy 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, 1978: 5-7).