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

THE INDIRECT CAUSES

Evaluation on the Achievements of National Goals

Nguyen Van Linh, secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party Central Committee said at the meeting in the Ba Dinh Conference Hall on the sixtieth founding anniversary of the party, February 2, 1990:

How has the Vietnamese Achieved National Goals?

Van Duc suggested an evaluation of the Vietnamese people's achievements and consequences of the struggles against the French invaders, the American imperialists, and the Chinese hegemonists. Such an analysis is relevant. It is not without difficulties, however. The monopoly of the political power and the supremacy to the leadership of the Communist Party is always a hindrance since the secrets behind all those struggles are mistakenly kept only to itself, even those secrets which international mass media have revealed. The secrets of the Vietnam War, as a case in point, were disclosed to the American people at the time the war was going on. The publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times and the Washington Post in 1970 was a typical incident. It aroused a controversy among the U.S. Administration and the mass media. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the publication of the Pentagon Papers was not against the principles of democracy.

The Vietnamese Communist Party, on the contrary, has prohibited the Vietnamese people to examine and evaluate their true achievements. Such due fairness, in the Communist's view, is detrimental to national security. In reality, in the eyes of an impartial observer, the concealment of such a visible truth could only be unfavorable to the despotic Vietnamese Communist Party that ominously assumes the monopoly of political power and dictatorship of the proletariat!

The Vietnamese people have grown up, politically and intellectually, after years of struggle for independence and democracy for their country. They cannot and must not be regarded as minors who still need to be molded into similar patterns of thinking and by the same political education and propaganda that is solely prepared and directed by the Party and State. They are now responsible and self-directed citizens who definitely know how to decide what they should do and what their fate should be. Totalitarianism and dictatorship will no longer subsist. No secrets can be concealed under the sunlight.

Criteria for Evaluation

Although short of documents that are needed to formulate a viable conclusion, we could establish the criteria by which we would be able to evaluate the achievements of the political movements and struggles in our country for nearly half a century. It could be presupposed that there be criteria. The reasons for establishing such criteria are based on the fact that, ever since the August Revolution in 1945, the Vietnamese people have contemplated national salvation and social betterment as ideals and goals for national independence and reconstruction. They are sanctioned by both nationalists and partisans of internationalism, although internationalists intentionally by-pass the national cause for international cause and take advantage of the nationalistic ideologies as a shield to camouflage their schemes.

International statesmen, like General De Gaulle, Father of French Fifth Republic, often proclaimed that, among other goals, national cause is the only one that will last. Naturally, national cause identifies itself with nationalism in that it is embodied with manners and customs. It symbolizes specific characteristics that pertain to a certain country and the achievements its people have performed, historically and culturally, socially and economically, and morally and politically. There are, of course, other tenets with which a country and people should keep up to live according to the world, especially when we live in the age of renovation and communication explosion.

As is with Vietnam, we can easily agree with one another that the achievements of a political or social movement or struggle can be measured with the fruits it has reaped. In other words, the criteria should be: Has it elevated the moral and spiritual life and raised the people's standards of living to higher levels of culture and civilization and bettered them according to the world progress? If national cause is the goal of a movement or struggle aims to achieve, regardless of the label under which we are fighting for, be it Nationalism or Communism, that movement or struggle should necessarily achieve certain objectives that we may pledge to fulfill. In other words, our achievements should be evaluated with the criteria that have been set for them. Otherwise, if we fail to achieve our proclaimed objectives, they then will remain empty promises.

The late President, Ho Chi Minh, in his last will, wished that Vietnam would become a unified, peaceful, independent, democratic, and prosperous country. (One of our sayings goes that a bird, before it dies, often cries, and it cries earnestly!) Given that peace, national unification, and independence were political objectives we purport to achieve, democracy and prosperity were then supposed to be the social objectives we need to realize for social betterment and national prosperity. The latter objectives cannot be achieved without the realization of the former, or vice versa.

These objectives are also the aspirations of the Vietnamese, be they Nationalists or Communists. They have fortified those who fight under the "red with a yellow star" flag. They served them to divide many combatants who fought against them on the opposite side in the Vietnam War. They discouraged others from leaving their line. They helped force an army to surrender and accept the new political regime after April 1975, even though that army accepted the surrender with bitterness and, later, with a sour experience in various prisons decoratively labeled as "reeducation" camps.

Unfortunately, only one year after the liberation of the South, the Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party altered late President Ho Chi Minh's Testament without an explanation. His successors had reputedly crossed out such terms as Democracy and Prosperity and replaced them with the noun-phrase "Socialist Republic." It was until September 1990 that Vu Mao, Special Secretary to late President Ho, released such a disclosure in the daily "Nhan Dan" (The People), arousing deep astonishment and controversy among the people. Questions were raised as to how Ho's successors had altered his testament and how the Communist Party Congress and the National Assembly it had passed it. No one voiced his or her opinions on the matter, including Colonel Bui Tin! Besides the alteration of Ho Chi Minh's Testament, the Vietnamese Communist Party proclaimed a grandiose program. It announced the by-passing of the period of capitalism. It elaborated a quick, strong, and steady move toward socialism. It gave top priority to heavy industry (including the manufacturing of fighting jets, according to Nguyen Khac Vien), reversed the agricultural production by increasing the yield from 12 to 21 million tons of grain in five years. (This standard for grain production could only be reached 10 years later, and only after the abolition of the system of agricultural communes.)

To What Extent Have National Objectives Been Achieved?

To what extent have Ho's wishes been achieved after nearly two decades since April 30, 1975 ? In other words, has Vietnam enjoyed peace, national unification, independence, democracy, and prosperity? Certainly, no one could say that it has. What would the achievements be if we separately examine one objective after another?

Peace

The gunfire against the Americans ceased after April 30, 1975, but peace did not come right away. The rumble of gun fire was rolling on for more than ten years. The Vietnamese youths resumed their military obligations and continued to go to the battlefields, and ten thousands of them lost their lives in the west and the north of the country.

It was until 1989, fourteen years after the Vietnam war had ended, the sounds of fire ceased. The fire only temporarily ceased, however. In reality, the war was still going on. By the time the Paris Peace Treaty on Kampuchea was about to be signed in 1991, the American side alluded to the fact that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam had to withdraw its 5,000 military advisors. Only until it withdrew all its troops out of Kampuchea that peace could be actually restored and its intervention in its western neighbor country's internal affairs ended. Peace in this situation only means that the Vietnamese people won't be forced to engage in a military war. Still, there is another war that engages every Vietnamese, forcing him or her to fight. That is the war against poverty, misery, injustice, and backwardness. That is the war in which the Vietnamese, for decades, have been strenuously striving to win back their natural and divine unalienable rights they have been stripped off. The claws of a dove accidentally turned out to be those of an owl chopping on their heads, however!

National Unification

In principle, the country became unified in April 1975, after twenty-one years of partition. The people, in both the North and the South, had genuine opportunities to reunite, tallying their losses, recalling painful recollections and warm memories of those who had passed away as well as those who are still living and rekindling their family love. Very compassionate and earnest were the tears for pity and bitterness mingled with happiness and joy! However, besides those emotions and sentiments of affection and love, there appeared innumerable stories that made relatives from both regions become so bewildered that they did not even know why such stories could be real.

Victors from the North were so surprised upon contemplating private properties of the people in the South--not to mention those conveniences and equipment of high technology in public administration and military office buildings. A liberator who had been fighting for eight years in the South, having his grandmother's words of confidence, came to see his uncle in Saigon the day after the city was liberated. Riding on the back of his uncle's motorcycle for an around-city tour, he could not believe his uncle when he was told that tall buildings and large houses along the streets were private. Under his eyes, those constructions must be palaces and government buildings!

A man, who looked like a writer from a liberated zone, came down from Dalat (Central Highland) to Saigon. He might have thought he was lucky to have accidentally bought a Pilot--a fountain pen--at a small magazine booth in the Saigon Market. He did not restrain himself from exclaiming in amazement that the articles at this booth were much more abundant than those displayed in a state-owned store in Hanoi!

A cadre from the South who had been regrouped and resettled in the North in July 1954 (when Vietnam was partitioned according to the Geneva Agreements) heard that the Vietnamese in the South had been exploited and lived miserably under the yoke of American imperialism and henchmen. Amazed at the prosperity of the South, he decidedly used all the money he had saved in years to buy a bicycle for his son. Still, others brought with them gifts from the North, either a dozen of bowls or several kilograms of rice, for their relatives. Upon coming to their relatives' homes and witnessing their daily activities, they could only be ashamed of themselves. They immediately realized that they had become an object of derision!

The people in the newly liberated areas, on the contrary, after having observed the liberators who arrived the first time in the cities in the South, instantly felt too good about the small stature and unkempt uniform of those heroes who came to liberate them. When the gap of communication between them had been bridged, thousands of sad and risible stories were then generated. The standards of living in the North as compared to those in the South were of such a distance that the people in the South could not imagine! To save their faces and maintain prestige, our brothers from the North, due to inferiority of knowledge, did not hesitate to contrive all kinds of bizarre stories! For instance, when asked if there were "frigidaires"--refrigerators--in the North, they would affirmatively answer that there are a myriad of them circulating on the streets. Gasoline can be found in gutters anywhere along the road, and one only needs to draw it from these gutters and fill up the gas tank. (Our liberators might have thought of "refrigerators" as something like "hondas" and associated the gas pipes that had been buried underground along the Ho Chi Minh Trail with some kind of oil gutters!!!).

It might have also been because the people in the South, who were doubtful of their victors' knowledge of foreign languages, sought to ridicule their "heroes" with some language tricks! Such a trick, to be fair, might have originated from the inferiority complex of the vanquished who could never have thought of being defeated by such opponents!

It should be remembered that, during the 1940's and 1950's, the North was the source of supply of skilled workers for the South, specifically those in the areas of handicraft and small industry. In 1954, electrical supplies stores, tailors' shops, shoemakers' shops, and furniture-making shops by owners who came from the North in the 1940's sprang up along all the streets of Saigon and Cho Lon (Saigon China Town). Shoemakers' shops, for instance, mushroomed on Le Thanh Ton Street in Saigon, and furniture-making shops overwhelmed Ngo Gia Tu Street, formerly Minh Mang Street! Now, the situation has proven to be the converse with the present time. Northerners now come to the South to learn a trade. In the construction domain only, a Northerner will take pride in himself if he has his house built by skilled bricklayers from the South. After two decades of partition, differences in the standards of living between the two regions should be considered to be normal. However, the distance in the knowledge and abilities between the people in the South and the North was so great that one could not help casting doubts on the creditability and capabilities of the leadership of those who signed the Geneva Agreements that partitioned the country in July 1954. Those who signed it had more than once witnessed the vile schemes by the Communist international powers that forced them to give in unwillingly. In a reception to celebrate the Peace Treaty on Indochina, the Prime Minister of the People Republic of China, Chou En Lai, held his cup to make a toast to Emperor Bao Dai right in the presence of his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Van Dong. He also arranged for Ta Quang Buu could sit beside his old classmate, Ngo Dinh Luyen. He went so far as to express himself that he would like to have Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem as his guest in Beijing! Later, in 1960, Soviet Prime Minister, concurrently Communist Party secretary-general, Krustchev still proposed in the United Nations General Assembly that both North and South Vietnam be admitted for U.N. membership without consultation with or explanation to North Vietnam!

The inferiority complex of the North is only one side of the coin. There are a multitude of differences in the modes of living, daily habits, ways of thoughts, methods of education, social behavior and interaction, codes of ethics, and so on. The people's ways of life in both regions, thus, require a long time for reunification--integration. Difficulties arising from the problem of national reunification, nevertheless, do not only result in the partition of the country but also derive from the execution of political discrimination that irreversibly aims at preventing national reunification to happen. In other words, national unification is to be achieved in the way the Communists want it to be, regardless of the aspirations of the Vietnamese people! It is because of this supercilious belligerency that the Communists decidedly proceeded the reunification of the country on their own terms. As a result, two decades after April 30, 1975, national reunification is still staggering at a standstill.

Until recently, the Communist Party has maintained separate and different political goals and administrative policies for the North and the South. They divided the country into two separate regions with the Binh Tri Thien provinces as borderlines. Each region was subject to distinct political policies and different administrative systems. After years of separation, as a matter of fact, each region should operate separate and different policies and administer specific methods of governance for its own. However, these policies and methods were undeserving and deplorable in that they originated from unseemly, vile schemes, which are only advantageous to the political monopoly of the Communists. As a consequence, they created insurmountable difficulties that were immensely detrimental to the reunification of the country.

The Communist Party had almost all of its political cadres and specialists and technicians in the North picked up and sent to the South to hold key positions in the political, administrative, economic, and cultural systems in the South. The Communists stepped up the elimination of the civil servant contingency of the old regime, including experts and specialists. They also sought to replace their old comrades-in-arms, their partners and co-fighters in the National Liberation Front in the South and the Alliance for Democracy and Peace led by Nguyen Huu Tho and Trinh Dinh Thao, with their men. To establish the systems of administration in the South in conformity with their schemes, the Communists disregarded all the just aspirations of other national forces and social classes. They recruited and engaged even undesirable elements--corrupt and immoral bureaucrats. They accepted even criminals and others from the North who had never fought in the war against the Americans and assigned them to key and profitable positions in the administration of the South. As a result, these vile schemes turned out to be the very impediments obstructing the people's efforts towards realizing national reunification, defaming the country, and downgrading it into such an utter poverty and misery as it is facing nowadays.

Let's give an evidence in the domain of education and determine who the instigator and culprit were in these vile schemes.

During the Vietnam war, the South followed the traditional educational systems and programs of studies. These systems and programs were initiated and carried out by the Hoang Xuan Han Ministry of Education (1945). They were maintained and developed under the Phan Huy Quat Ministry of Education. They were then implemented and updated in accordance with and in reference to progressive goals and objectives by successive ministries of education under the First and Second Republic.

There was a 12-year (5+4+3) system of general education. Specialization began in the 10th year. Students learned a first foreign language beginning in the 6th year and a second foreign language in the 10th year. There were national graduation examinations after the 9th and 12th grades. In the North, the government abolished the traditional educational programs and adopted the Soviet 10-year (4+3+3) system. There was almost no specialization; only some sort of specialization was given in a number of special classes. A foreign language was given in the eighth year, and the acquisition was not compulsory. Besides foreign languages, the programs of studies for mathematics, for instance, were much less elaborate than those taught in schools in the South. Part of the time schedule was devoted to political indoctrination.

After April 30, 1975, the Communist administration in the South maintained the traditional educational systems (5+4+3) with revisions on programs of studies in the humanities and social sciences. Students learned only one foreign language, beginning in the sixth year. There were no specializations after the ninth year, although teachers were available for a number of specialized fields such as literature, mathematics, physics, and so on. There were no more national graduation examinations after the twelfth academic year.

The differences in the systems and programs of education in the transition period are quite normal. But, what is contrary to common sense is that the 10-year (4+3+3) system in the North remained until 1989. It remained effective for fourteen years after national reunification had been promoted! A student who was born in the South in 1974 had to wait until 1991 to graduate from high school while a student of his same age in the North would already be in the second year at a college or university. The latter would sit on top of his friend in the South and enjoy much more advantages and privileges than the former student, especially, if he were born to a family of a high-ranking cadre or Communist party member and sent to continue his education in the South.

An instructor of Biology at the School of Pedagogy in Can Tho disclosed in a confidential talk that he was sent to fight in the South while he was a student at Hanoi School of Pedagogy. After 1975, he returned to Hanoi, resumed his studies at the same school, and was assigned to be an instructor at Can Tho School of Pedagogy after his graduation. One would wonder how an instructor whose professional capacity was no better than fourteen intermittent years of disrupted education and some meager programs of education would be able to teach a student who had twelve full academic years with more elaborate and intensive programs of studies. One would also wonder how he could win his students' respect and hold up his prestige, given that he could make every best effort to do his job.

Teachers of science from the North or teachers who graduated after the liberation of the South were generally incapable of demonstrating the exercises in textbooks, thus failing to perform their duties as teachers. A mathematics teacher of the old political regime, who was engaged by the new administration after the liberation of the South, told us that mathematics teachers from the North could not solve math exercises from textbooks and always asked their colleague group leader from the South to demonstrate on how to solve them. Learning and teaching in this situation really are a pity for both students and teachers!

Another factor that aggravates and complicates the educational practices in the South is the use of textbooks. Shortly after the liberation, new textbooks for all subjects were compiled and published for the students in the newly-liberated areas. However, most of these textbooks, especially those in the area of natural sciences, have still been in use (1991-92), even though school programs and subject matters have undertaken implementation. It should be remembered that, under the Communist regime, the publication and implementation of textbooks are subject to requirements as defined by laws decreed by the State. Teachers are not entitled, by law, even to correct a mistake that may appear in a textbook if he or she happened to find one.

Those flaws and others make one realize that efforts made towards national reunification are all in vain as they are far from realization. These flaws, in effect, came up with the political shortcomings the Communists had contracted in coercing the Vietnamese people into accepting a form of national reunification that is to be realized in conformity with their schemes, regardless of what the people wish for it to be. It is in their own veins of obstinacy and arrogance that the Communists have forced the Vietnamese people into bending over their will. And, as a result, national reunification has come to a standstill. It is because of all of these that the Vietnamese people have failed to achieve national reunification, and the responsibilities lie with the Communists themselves!

Independence

Also, in principle, Vietnam has become an independent country possessing her national sovereignty, from the Gate of Nam Quan to the Cape of Ca Mau, after 1975. The political rule is in the hands of the Vietnamese Communists who act with full powers in matters of internal and foreign affairs. But, how truly meaningful is Vietnam's national independence? The fact is that whether or not those who are now in power have successfully achieved the national objectives remains a question. And, we should be just and fair to reexamine it. For more than a century, especially from 1945, the year that marked a new era for the country, what have the Vietnamese people wished for their national independence? It certainly should not be an independence with a closed door policy like the one under Emperor Tu Duc of the Nguyen dynasty. Even under King Tu Duc's reign, Vietnam, as compared to its neighboring countries in terms of economy and culture, was not so miserably inferior to the one the world has seen nowadays. In those days, a more far-sighted king would have achieved great accomplishments as Japan had, and this would not have been an impossibility as it is today when Vietnam is ranked among the few poorest countries in the world!

After the country won independence, the Vietnamese Communists have manipulated vile artifices to persuade the Vietnamese people to believe in their national cause while carrying out, instead, their monolithic totalitarianism. They "display a pig head so that they can sell dog-meat soup," as goes one of our sayings. As soon as they have monopolized political power, they change the national cause for their wavering objectives. At one time, they followed the path of the Russians; at others, they obeyed the Chinese's commands. Oriental style Maoism (after the Vietnamese Communist Party Congress in 1951) was converted to Western style Stalinism (after the Vietnam Communist Party Congress in 1976). Nowadays, they cling to a kind of bi-ism, half-Stalinist and half-Maoist. Former politburo-member Tran Xuan Bach himself, at the Congress of Scientists and Technologists in 1990, said that "we have chosen for ourselves a model which is in essence a half-breed of western-style socialism and oriental-style socialism. Now, we have to disengage ourselves from both of these dogmas."

Is it not true that the Vietnamese Communists themselves admit that there is servitude in the minds of the Party's leaders? It is because of this servility that Vietnam has not practically achieved national independence and that, throughout decades, the Vietnamese Communists have missed so many genuine opportunities to accomplish the Vietnamese's wishes and lavishly expended millions of human lives and immense national resources.

Nowadays, those Vietnamese Communists who are just and calm enough should question themselves if the war against the Americans should last for such a long time. In other words, were there any chances that would have helped to terminate the bloodshed earlier, in the years of 1960, 1965, and 1969? Even in 1975, there was the last chance for the Vietnamese people to achieve an independence that would be quite different from the one they are witnessing now.

Ultimately, no international alliance could be an everlasting one. Since 1991, with continual revolution in science, technology, and communication, mankind has striven to destroy the vestiges of the Cold War. It has established foundations for a world alliance that is looser and less tangible than the ones it had in the past but which are more practical and durable. These alliances will promote compromise and mutual interests and fundamental principles owing to which human welfare will be well respected, and no parties could constrain the others into fulsome endurance.

People generally ally with one another for similar interests and work together for objectives that are on the same straight line. On the contrary, they distance from one another when they orient their objectives in different directions. Any group of people has its own objectives, national and social. A common enemy could induce allied countries to come closer and stand side by side. However, when the so-called "patronizing" brother countries, the USSR and Communist China, ceased to serve a common cause and each country serves its own interests; they do not just quarrel with each other, but they may even give each other a good shove, mercilessly and forcefully. The Amor River incident in 1969 is evidence. Witnessing such an incidence, even enthralled in daydreaming, brother comrades in a satellite country should have opened their eyes and disillusioned themselves from enslavement and take care instead of their own fate, their home affairs!

To govern is to anticipate. That is true to any government, whether it is in the East or the West. A social scientist has to conduct inquiries or investigations before predicting certain social acts or events. Still, a writer demands to have the rights to explore novel ideas and thoughts to forecast. One would wonder why the leaders of the Vietnam Communist Party, who proclaim themselves as being the only Vietnamese clear-sighted thinkers, were so illusive as to overlook many chances to achieve national independence. There were so many indications and events signaling the decadence of totalitarian communism. They were the uprising of the German people against the Russian tanks in East Berlin in 1953, the popular revolts in Poland and Hungary against the Russian occupation, the dethronement of Stalin in 1956, the ideological clashes between Moscow and Beijing in 1960, the bloody purges that followed the Culture Revolution in Communist China in 1965, the Prague Spring Movement in 1968, the military confrontation between the USSR and China on the Amor River in 1969... Within the country, the tragic consequences of the agrarian reforms, and the Maoist-style socialist revolution left so much bitterness and hatred in the Vietnamese people! What has imprisoned the Communists in such an illusion? Would it be their dream of monopolizing power that raised the stumbling block obstructing the way to national reconciliation, engaging bothers of the same family into disbelieving each other but associating themselves with "hairy" masters, instead?

Even laymen in international politics knew that the Americans' involvement in Vietnam and their policy of containment in Southeast Asia originated from the fear that Yellow Communism would engulf the continent of Asia and would someday spread over the Pacific Ocean then into America. Upon realizing that Communist China ceased to be a threat to America, and this country would be capable of leveling their military might against the Russians in the North, the Americans changed their strategy. They mercilessly abandoned their back-up South Vietnamese comrades-in-arms, in a way as goes a Vietnamese saying "to abandon one's child in an open market," and made peace with Communist China. The Vietnamese Communists could have learned this practical lesson from their Big Brother Mao: "To make peace with the Americans to have a chance to survive; otherwise, if the Chinese continued to hold grip of the Russians' coattails, they would only have even their loincloths left to sell to subsist.

Communist China, on its part, helped Vietnam because it wanted to contain a mighty enemy against whom it had a chance to test its strength in Korea. To partition Vietnam at the 17th parallel was a vile scheme aiming at establishing a defensive line in the South, the further the better so that it would feel reassured to devote itself to national reconstruction. After it had consolidated its strength, it did not hesitate to invite its old enemy to visit Beijing and kicked out its comrades-in-arms. It even knitted up with its old enemy a conspiracy with which it could take possession of the territorial suzerainty of the brother country's sea islands.

Officers of the Navy of the Republic of South Vietnam who engaged the Communist Chinese in the Paracel Island in 1974 recalled that their embattled ships were very much inferior in power to the modern Chinese ones. Quite coincidentally, several days before the incident, they were given order to take away all the torpedoes on the embattled ships. It came to no surprise when the South Vietnamese Navy lost the battle. However defeated, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam and its Naval Forces had courageously defended the sea islands of the Fatherland. Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese government, like a horse with a mouth agape with straps, could not even utter a word. It is heard that the Paracel Island incident was brought for trial before the International Court, but Communist China brought forwards evidences according to which the North Vietnamese government had recognized Chinese suzerainty over these islands. Lawyers of the South Vietnamese government could only make vain protests and retreated from the court in silence!

The occupation of the Paracel Island by Communist China was kept a dead secret within the inner circle of the Vietnamese Communist Party leadership. The party leadership only explained in a chimerical feat: "If our brotherly Communist China continues to occupy them now, they will be eventually returned to our country." This issue later became an interdict in the South after the liberation. Officials and officers of the Republic of South Vietnam, after having been released from "reeducation" camps, related that during political brainwashing sessions if any camp-detainee ever raised a question about the incident, he would certainly be menaced. No one dared to approach the question again. Even if someone would, there would never be an answer!

The large losses in human life incurred to the Vietnamese people, as a result of the wrong choice of aims and inappropriate goals, are disastrous. Nothing would compensate as amends for these miscalculations since the Communists had only attended to their nearsighted purposes and occupied themselves with their blind ambitions. In 1969, the Vietnamese people heard of, for the first time, the casualties the People's Army suffered during the Vietnam War. General Vo Nguyen Giap, in an interview with female correspondent Fallaci of the Observator Romano, disclosed that those casualties amounted to a seven- digit number. Coming back to his own self the next morning, the general would very much like to retrieve his mistake, but he just could not. Once a sensible piece of news has been disclosed to a journalist, it could hardly be retrieved; one could only lay claims to the Emperor in Heaven to take it back, as goes one of our saying! Interestingly enough, those casualties were raised to 13 million! However, we do not know whether or not this figure was accurate because it did not include the casualties suffered during the war in Kampuchea.

Such a rueful independence is certainly not the one of which Ho Chi Minh might have dreamed before his death, and much less is it the one to which the Vietnamese people have been looking forward. There is no Independence without Freedom. The motto "Nothing is more precious than Independence and Freedom" that Ho Chi Minh had cherished all his lifetime is read everywhere, but it has never been a reality. In 1946, when he was under utter political pressure to sign the March 9, 1946 modus vivendi that opened Haiphong seaport to let France bring her troops into North Vietnam, he had unwillingly received "freedom," instead of "independence," the political status that the French refused to give. Therefore, we should say that, up to the present time, Vietnam has not enjoyed genuine independence simply because the Communists have purposely stifled it.

Democracy

Democracy is a characteristic of the first democratic and independent Vietnam after the August Revolution. The name of the country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, coupled with the motto Independence--Liberty--Happiness, has been the objectives that the Vietnamese people from all social strata have aspired to achieve. In the past, these noble ideals were the propelling motives nurturing and forging the Vietnamese people's will to bear with hardship and sacrifices to fight for national independence. It is in this fervor that the Vietnamese people, the rich and the poor, had learned to familiarize themselves with the spirit of democracy and unite themselves in a solid force to drive out the mighty French colonialists, winning back their freedom. It is also in this warm atmosphere of solidarity that, during the beginning days of the revolution, the new revolutionary administration would be able to strengthen itself and enjoy popular support in handling state affairs and leading the people toward victory.

However, when this so-called revolutionary administration seized complete political power, just and fair demands for the rights to freedom and democracy turned out to be obstacles to their governance of power. The Communists, to achieve their monopoly of power, have never hesitated to apply oppressive measures to assure the proletariat dictatorship, conditioning the people's lives into the most rigorous and sophisticated machinery of despotic rule. Under this rule, the citizens, being terrorized by threats, do not even dare to talk about their civil rights, even though these rights are recognized and explicitly stated in the Constitution. What is fictitious has become real, and, inversely, what is real has become fictitious. Democracy has become an ugly rhetoric!

The division of social classes, on the other hand, has become increasingly evident. The party system and the privileges and interests accorded to cadres and party members as rewards for their loyalty to the political regime and party are so exceptional that even a dead person should be ranked and buried with formalities according to his position within the party system.

A story goes that writer Nguyen Cong Hoan of the school of realist socialism, a protégé of the regime, could be buried in the A section in a state cemetery only when he was accorded an administrative decision worked out by his friends. His merits as a writer were not good enough for a grave in the A section in the national cemetery. Besides, the writer's son was deputy-secretary of the Ministry for the Interior, and his brother was Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee and member of the Politburo. One wonders what would the fates be for other writers who did not have such privileges as did Nguyen Cong Hoan!

The rights to democracy only appear on paper or in the rhetoric of party cadres who mouth their speeches. In reality, they prove to be false, empty words. The monopoly of power, which is illegally based on the decisions from within the Communist party leadership, has continuously increased. This monopoly of power became apparent when Article 4 was introduced into and claimed to be a crucial and fundamental one in the Constitution of 1980. It empowers the Party Secretariat and, specifically, the Party secretary-general and several of his close powerful lieutenants with absolute constitutional rights. The Bird of Democracy is strangled in the hands of the Vietnamese Communist Party!

The Communists have seized this monopoly of power through vile schemes and brutal artifices. It has been carried out alongside rolls of continuous wars that took place for nearly half a century. As the wars went on, this slipknot on the Vietnamese people's neck was increasingly and forcefully tightened under the dexterous manipulation of these war magicians.

A few decades ago, political observers in South Vietnam held that the military junta in power could only perform their services in times of war thanks to the privileges they happened to possess. They could not possibly be leaders in times of peace. The same observation could be applied to the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The majority of the Vietnamese, during the beginning days of revolution, were already aware of the strangling hands the Communists had laid on their necks. However, they closed their eyes on them for the sake of resistance and revolution. However, they felt to be tightly strangled after the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Indochina that took place in 1950. Its leaders, again, declared to dissolve its longtime Communist organization and formed in its place the Vietnamese Workers' Party. That was a deception, but nothing was simpler for the Communists to step up mass campaigns to carry out the Maoist-style agrarian reforms in the years of 1955-56. The consequences were so frightful that the Vietnamese Workers' Party had to promise to rectify its errors six months later.

To rationalize their monopoly of power, the Communists propagated, beyond measure, the Marxist theory of class struggle. They arbitrarily blended the peasantry into the working class which they called under a common name, the working people. They called themselves the vanguards and leaders of the working people, regardless of whether or not they were given this mandate. There are so many old-time political parties, such as the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam National Party). It came into existence before or at the same time as the Vietnamese Communist Party. It fought against the French colonialists and the Japanese fascists. It enjoyed much more popular respect than the Vietnamese Communist Party, but it has never considered itself leader of the people or arrogantly disregarded the Vietnamese people's mandate as has the Vietnamese Communist Party!

One can observe the so-called democratic practices on a television show which reported the opening session of the Eighth Congress of the National Assembly whose composition was more diverse than it had been previously. According to common protocol, as it is practiced in Western democracies, when members of the National Assembly have not yet elected the chair, the oldest member must be the one who fills the chair. Thereafter, a de jure chairman will be elected. On that show, Mr. Nguyen Van Linh, a new deputy, read a speech, giving orders to his colleagues. On the very same day, the National Assembly hastened to debate the Bill of Agrarian Reforms, and the election of the chair was delayed until the next day. Such a procedure is truly unusual. Mr. Nguyen Van Linh was known to be the Party secretary-general, the most powerful figure on the political arena. However, such an incident could not help from generating doubts as to whether democracy exists under the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

Perhaps, the Communists might have realized that their presumed leadership of the people and monopoly of the political power were something ridiculous. They thus created Article 4 of the 1983 Constitution, officially affirming them constitutionally. Before that, the exercise of these rights had no legal basis. One might also think that shallow-minded cadres and party members had irrevocably directed the making of the constitution. A system of laws and principles to which every other laws--judiciary, executive, and regulatory--have to refer should be studied and prepared with thoughtfulness and thoroughness. To the everyone's surprise, the Vietnamese Communist Party leadership was negligent in their conduct of national affairs. It failed not only to foresee national long-term goals, but it also failed to figure out incoming current events in such a way that no sooner than the promulgation had been in effect, the constitution was revised. The preamble was to be rewritten, and the national goals were to be abolished.

In practice, the Vietnamese people might have recognized the role of the Vietnamese Communist Party as a vanguard force during the beginning period of the Resistance War (1946-1954) against the French. Never have they recognized the Vietnamese Communist Party as the unique force that led the resistance to victory, however. Now, its leadership, in the eyes of the people, has become virtually meaningless.

It would be a ridicule, now, to say that the Vietnamese Communist Party is the unique political force that deserves the leadership of the people simply because its membership is accounted for 1.7 million partisans. As compared with the population of 66.7 million people (1990), it is only a minority. Other than that fact, it is becoming increasingly obsolete. Le Quang Dao, a Politburo member of the sixth term, disclosed in an interview with a "Doan Ket" (Solidarity) Magazine correspondent at the end of 1989 that, of 1.7 million party members, 30% were dismissed due to misdemeanor and 50% committed grave mistakes and became belittling. One might wonder how such a corrupt minority could assume the responsibility of leadership of the people and promote democracy for the country. It came to no surprise when a one-time highest leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party exclaimed: "How can we achieve democracy when we don't even have it."

On what basis, then, could we achieve democracy? We certainly agree that democracy, first, embodies fundamental principles where the whole people decided to choose a government system.. This system of government must allow freedom of speech, religion, and political expression. It upholds the rule of law and the principles of democracy--the right of the majority and the respect for the right of the minority. Of most importance, these principles should be realized through democratic processes that are to be conducted openly, constitutionally, and legally.

Openness and Renovation

The realization of democracy cannot possibly advance without openness. In a way, openness can be interpreted, as in Russians term, "Glasnost," which, in turn, cannot be realized in the absence of "Perestroika." One can't exist without the other. Even the Nguyen Van Thieu government, some two decades ago, which was notorious for corruption, had to respect the principle of openness. The Communists, on the contrary, were unable to allow the public the accessibility to its secrets. For instance, in democratic countries, only a civil servant can benefit a salary from the national budget. Contrary to this common practice, the Communists insinuate every kind of party teams and adherents into the administration controlling all sectors of the national life. They create a cumbersome administration and sponge on it. No one ever knows what this machinery is like and how efficiently it contributes to the national life. The Communist Party keeps it a secret to itself.

Nevertheless, this machinery assumes the leadership of the people. Like a shadow (since it is a secret organization), its systems overlap all government branches and control all their members and activities. One might associate its role with that of the U.S. ambassador to Saigon before 1975, whom some journalists jokingly labeled as "Protectorate Governor." He was like a shadow, too, that controlled the government of South Vietnam. The difference between the two, however, is that the latter maneuvered its counterparts' activities with much more dexterity but with much less rigor. Another fact worthy of mentioning is that it always funneled into the people's lives with gas and rice. It did not steal from the people money and rice, automobiles, and houses as has the former.

Power and Prosperity

Political cadres and party members have always mouthed their speeches about the power and prosperity of the country under socialism. In reality, only common cadres and state officials without emoluments could feel what an irony those empty words mean to them. Let's talk, first, about power. In 1975, Vietnam, in the eyes of the Vietnamese Communists, was a military power in Southeast Asia. It enjoyed the respect of many countries. Some neighboring countries even stood in fear of it. Although Vietnam was a small and underdeveloped country, it defeated the mightiest empire, one of the two superpowers that acted freely as it pleased all over the five continents. No one would ever think that a small satellite country of the Soviet Block could throw down the mightiest opponent of the whole Communist Bloc in an unequal match! Indeed, the prestige of Vietnam had never been so admired. The name of Vietnam was identified with loftiest ideals such as the conscience of the world and so on. However, such a prestige caused, at the same time, fear among its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Thailand, where the seeds of communism had been sown and taken root for a long time.

Prime Minister Pham Van Dong's declarations during his visits to Southeast Asian countries engendered both unease and anxiety among leaders of these countries. The invasion into Kampuchea, the search-and-destroy operations against the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh, and the installment of the Heng Samrin clique and its army made the world suspicious of a territory expansion. It was well agog of Vietnam's vile schemes.

One might recall, as if things happened yesterday, the giant Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, with his black eyeglasses and strings of flowers around his neck offered by young Kampuchean ladies, haughtily overshadowed his Kampuchean entourage when he presided over the first press conference in Phnom Penh. (The ladies of the old regime in Saigon who served at the reception that day whispered to one another that Uncle Dong was so feeble that he could not walk. People had to support him on both sides as he came to the conference!)

Being panic-stricken, the world hastened to isolate Vietnam, laying a siege on it and cutting foreign aids and imposing a trade embargo against it. It was so much a surprise when some countries even lent a hand to the Pol Pot-Yeng Sary clique, the bloodthirstiest gang of murderers who had killed millions of their countrymen and whom the world had charged with crimes of genocide. Communist China, which had been weakened by the Culture Revolution disaster and the tragic days under the Gang of Four, flexed its muscles and threatened to give its former brother country a lesson. It came to no question when the elder brother country suffered a great defeat! It could only be dexterous in using sticks and stones to settle internal conflicts and excel in practicing human-wave attacks in battles. Nevertheless, it could not encroach on its brother country's territory. The latter had now all its advantages in its hands. Its army was equipped with armored vehicles, tanks, and cannons of all sizes! To everyone's knowledge, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ceased to be a military power when the uneven battles ended on the Sino-Vietnamese frontiers in 1979. It slid down pitilessly as war began to take place in the western part of the country and then in Kampuchea. The economy began to deteriorate after the confiscation of private properties. A myriad of men, women, and children escaped the fatherland in search of freedom. It was also a great loss for the country when thousands of professionals left the country. Vietnam, in the eyes of the world, was no longer an enjoyable place to live. Misfortunes never come singly. The countries that were inimicable to Vietnam were more than willing to resettle an unlimited number of boat people!

Prosperity

Cadres always boasted about Vietnam's boundless potential wealth, land mines, and sea resources. They incessantly repeated the Ho Chi Minh's prophecies about a prospective wealthy and mighty Vietnam: "After we have defeated the American imperialists, we'll build up Vietnam into a nation which will be tenfold wealthier and mightier than it has ever been." However, every Vietnamese felt ashamed of his or her country's cripple economy when it was ranked among the few poorest countries in the world! Nowadays, not only is it economically underdeveloped, it is also backward in every domain of the political, social, intellectual, and spiritual life. Methods of administration of the economy are in infancy; the laws are untrue, and rules and regulations are carried out in an inconsistent manner. Reports on the economic achievements are unreliable. They often vary depending on whether they are advantageous or disadvantageous to the political regime. In 1989, reports from the People's Council of Thanh Hoa Province said that the province had good harvests. Local newspapers, in contrast, disclosed that the people of the province were facing a great famine! One really does not know where the truth lies. Statistics do lie (!), but the famine is a reality.

It is to our popular belief that the more children we may have, the more wealth we may gain. The growth in population in our country is tremendous, and our natural resources are bountiful. Nevertheless, without scientific knowledge and modern technology, we hardly extract and make proper use of them. In the 1920's, our scholars of the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc (Dong Kinh Institution) brought up with the practical ideals that to realize a 10-year economic plan we need to grow trees, and if we wish to achieve a 100-year national policy, we need to cultivate men. The Vietnamese youths are well known for their intelligence and diligence. Only with a sound, fair, and democratic policy of national education could Vietnam take off and catch up with modern countries in the world.

The most serious setback in the Communist administration is, perhaps, the mismanagement of the economic infrastructure and the squandering of war booties. Those war booties, according to some estimates, valued at 4 billion US dollars, equivalent to the amount of money the Vietnamese signatory at the Paris Treaty in 1973 demanded for the compensation as amends for war damages. Only a few years after the liberation, the people in the South could not help from complaining about the deplorable conditions of road communications. Almost all the inter-provincial roads built by the old administration became timeworn. Many of them were downgrading to an alarming degree. Old-age bridges connecting the highways crumbled one after another due to constant heavy traffic. The roads in the countryside were even almost impassable to vehicles. In the Mo Cay District, for instance, roads that were dug up by bush-fighters for guerrilla tactics remained intact. The road from Ham Long district to Thanh Phu District was entirely impassable to vehicles and was only used for buffalo carts and walkers. The modern Bien Hoa bridge and highways, constructed by the American Johnson and Drake Pipe Co., suffered heavy damages. (One may recall that, by the time the bridge and highway were open to public traffic, the Communist propaganda hissed the rumor that the highway would be used as an airstrip for American jet planes. Until the war ended in 1975, never had the people in the South seen an American plane landing its troops on it, however.) Ever since 1975, the highway networks from the demilitarized zone--Ben Hai to the Ca Mau Cape--with bridges connecting rivers and canals, have become increasingly superannuated but have never been maintained or repaired.

During the war, the Engineering Corps of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces was mostly in charge of the construction, maintenance, and repair of roads, highways, and bridges, from the lowland to the highland of the Republic territory. It was served by a contingent of experts, engineers, and technicians who were well trained in civil and military schools of engineering in the country and abroad. After the South was invaded, these men of expertise and abilities were summoned to reeducation. Many of them were released recently. It was a true waste of the professional personnel!

The waste of means for transportation, road and bridge construction materials and equipment, was another setback in the Communist administration. Thousands of jeeps, trucks, and bulldozers, were found exposed to the scorching sun and heavy rainfall. An engineering officer of the old regime related that, during the time he was detained at the old Fifth Engineering Group Headquarters near Saigon, he happened to find dozens of tractors and trucks left unused in the old hangars of the headquarters. Many of them were all brand new; some were in good conditions, and others only needed some minor repairs. Later, they were all found unusable and became dumps of old scrap iron. Their tires were taken off and used to make troop sandals! Poor gatherers of waste materials also happened to find dozens of drilling machines used in road and bridge construction buried in deep muddy gutters. Those bizarre things were thrown away by the liberation troopers who came to the headquarters right after the liberation and accidentally found that their containers were convenient for some kind of kitchen use! The drilling machines, which did not seem to be handy for the troopers' use, were thrown into the nearby gutters for the sake of convenience! An officer of a new battalion who came to station at the headquarters a few years later reported the incident to a senior officer. To his amazement, his superior said without a sigh: "Well, that doesn't matter, comrade! After reunification, we'll build up our country into a nation that will be tenfold wealthier and mightier than it has been." In a way, the latter really learned by heart Uncle Ho's prophecy about a bright prospective Vietnam!

In 1984, an officer who worked at the Prime Minister's Office in the North told Van Duc the following story. When extracting rock from a mountain for road repair, the Army could not afford to get U.S.-made boring drills, which are made of platinum and are both powerful and endurable, and had to use Soviet-made boring machines, instead. It was estimated that a single drill cost 1,000,000 dong! Expensive American commodities and equipment of all kinds were stored in warehouses at Long Binh, Bien Hoa Province, during the Vietnam war. They were left abandoned there for years. Poor gatherers of waste materials could also find, deep in the ground, tons of precious commodities, sand bags, nylon bags, and even brand new typewriters, which the one time American military authorities had to bury for the storage of new materials and equipment.

Van Duc's remarks are based on actual happenings that, he thinks, would bring us up against the reality, thus requiring us to evaluate the Communist leadership's achievements. In other words, how has the Communist party achieved our national goals? What has it really accomplished for our national salvation and rebuilding throughout half a century? What kind of democracy has it undertaken under the leadership of five party secretaries and throughout six party congresses?

These remarks, he hopes, would help everyone understand why the Vietnamese people live in such an utter poverty as it exists nowadays. They show why the Vietnamese Communist party fails to achieve our national goals. They point out, at the same time, the reasons why the Communist Party's schemes and intrigues are doomed to failures. The Communists have lost its cause. They lack the people's support. For instance, Bui Tin, an old rank Communist, renounced all the privileges the Communist party bestowed on him. Bui even denounced the disastrous consequences the despotic rule has created. Perhaps, this is also the reason he proposed that we should give back to the country its old name: The Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

For half a century, the Vietnamese people have wished and struggled for peace, unification, independence, democracy, and prosperity. No one cares to build up and protect the so-called "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" invented by those who altered the Ho Chi Minh's will at the Seventh Communist Party Congress (1976). Seventeen years after the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was born, the motto "building up and protecting the Vietnamese Socialist Republic Fatherland" becomes an object of derision. Socialism is only a pure illusion and an empty word. It trivializes arrogance and violence. It deserves no praise, and it is unworthy of protection. We should rectify the wrongs. He who closes the door must open it. He who ties the bag must untie it. That is only fairness. Our forefathers have handed down to all of us, the 66.7 million Vietnamese, a heritage to defend and preserve. It is the historic mission we all have to complete. It is not a private affair of an individual, a family, or a group of people, even if this group is the Vietnamese Communist Party (Van Duc, 9-16 (1993)).
 
 

During the Vietnam War, a number of the people in the South still believed that, although they were Communist, the Vietnamese Communist Party will, in the long run, work for and fulfill their promises to respond to the aspirations of the Vietnamese people. Indeed, the people always wish to live in a society in which men will be treated equally, in which man will no longer sweat another man's labor, and in which "man will work according to his labor and gain what he needs" as the Communist propaganda machinery preaches.

In April 1975, many poor people in the South still held dear to themselves the same ideas, feelings, and sentiments they had experienced in the heyday of the August Revolution in 1945. That was the first time Vietnam broke the French colonialists' chains. They had a chance to exercise the same equal rights as people of other social strata. However, they did not know and did not believe what really happened in the North during the years 1952-1956. Poor peasants and workers in the North had readily listened to the Communists and obeyed their commands. Their fanaticism pushed them to the point where they would be ready to disembowel rich landlords at the Communist Party's orders, even though, deep in their hearts, they knew that what they did was barbarian and inhumane. Among the victims were those proprietors who sacrificed money and even the lives of their children and relatives for the revolution cause. Quite a few people in the North who were judges or witnesses at the so-called People's Courts during the agrarian reforms (1956) are still alive. However, many of them became insane, and others were looked upon with contempt. To be fair, we should say that these people are the very ill-fated persons who are unjustly treated. The victim's honor has been restored, but theirs has not.

The majority of the people in the South were also duped by such labels as National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the People's Alliance for Democracy and Peace with promises of carrying out the noble objectives of struggling for Vietnam's national democracy. It is quite natural if they experienced the anger of a people of a small and weak country when America landed half a million of its troops onto their land. The Americans, in their views, did not solely fight off the Communists but they also infringed on the people's rights to govern their country, using their government as a Puppet in their hands.

On the contrary, the sympathy they felt for the Communists was still tangible, although their contact with them during the revolution only lasted for a very short time. They never believed in the national government's denunciation of the Communists' atrocities.

They never believed the true and real story that was well versed into a film, "We Want To Live," directed by the Direction for Information and Culture under the Diem Government. The story was about a battalion commander who fought in the People's Army against the French invaders. One day, he was called back to his village to denounce his parents' crimes before the people's court. His father was sentenced to death. He was buried with his head above the ground and was then run over by a buffalo-drawn plough. That was the true sight of the punishment depicting how the Communists tortured their victims to death. They only thought of this as a contrivance by the imperialists' henchmen to distort the Revolution cause. Incidents of landlords who died of false accusations during the agrarian reforms were numerous. The victims had to either use their finger nails to disembowel themselves or eat rice soup mixed with poison together with the whole family. These were unimaginable but true stories!

Until April 30, 1975, a large number of people in the South still believed that the revolutionary administration was their true government, the government of their dream. They never thought of the Diem and Thieu governments as theirs. They were never theirs. However, realities, in a very short time, awakened them from their illusion. They felt really "beaten," and only at this moment did they realize that what they had been told about the Communists and their atrocities were completely true, especially every time they recalled the scenes depicted in the film "We Want To Live." So, as in a refrain of a song, every time a Communist cadre concluded his speech at a sub-district meeting, they whispered to one another: "Don't listen...!" These were the two words of a slogan that circulated among the population under the Thieu Government: "Don't listen to what the Communists say, but watch what they are doing!" (Van Duc, 19 (1993: 6-7)).
 

THE OPPRESSION and REPRESSION AGAINST the PEASANTRY

The Fourth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1976) heightened its economic platform. It vowed to determinedly carry out the development of heavy industry, light industry, and agriculture. It promised to build up the central economy, to develop the regional economy within the framework of a national and unified structure, to promote coordination of the forces of production, and to establish and perfect the relationship between new modes of production. The motto was: "To move fast, to move strongly, to move firmly toward socialism." To attain these professed objectives, the Vietnamese Communist Party determinedly carried out the Industry Business and Trade Reform, the Land Reform, and the change in currency. It appropriated the entirety of wealth and properties of the bourgeoisie and transferred their ownership to the Party, abolished the private business enterprise and established state companies and the network of distribution of goods and commodities according to the Party's policies. Nevertheless, the Party failed to expropriate their hidden wealth and properties, their industrial projects, and their expertise and experience.

During the Land Reform, the Party seized the entirety of land and means of production of rich landowners and transferred their ownership to the Party. Nevertheless, the Party failed to expropriate their techniques and methods of management. As for the peasantry, those measures were to them only a change of hands. The exploitation of the peasantry under communism was even crueler, although they were "masters of the community" and worked "for the building of the Socialist Fatherland." As a result, the peasants were indignant at the Party; and they either oppose the Party or carried out its orders just as a matter of formality.

As with the change in currency, the Party aimed to seize all the financial resources of the country. It executed the change of money bills. It defined the values of the new money bills on its whims and wishes. However, the rules of economic objectivity had severely punished the party leadership's eccentric ideas. The new currency crumpled, and inflation galloped.

After a few years of reform to develop the new forces of production and to establish and perfect new modes of production, the economy in the South collapsed, damaging the national economy. Cities throughout the country became derelict. Inhabitants in the Mekong delta, which is known as the granary of Indochina, survived on horse-feeding grains. They could not afford rice for food. They had to consume even rotten rice.

The Fifth Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party still affirmed that the Party's policies "are absolutely correct, only the measures are at fault." The instantaneous economic difficulties, in the views of the Party, are only the inevitable consequences of the thirty years of war and the destructive plots of the imperialists and their henchmen. In that regard, the Party devises a number of "undoing measures" in the form of the Soviet NEP (New Economic Programs) under Lenin. The Party called on the capitalists to participate in the joint business ventures to develop state capitalism. Nevertheless, the zeal proves to be ineffective. The economy slides down, and it goes quickly into the abyss (Do Trung Hieu, 1995: 60-61).

The agrarian reforms did not bring good results to the rural areas. The two five-year programs (1975-1985) under the leadership of Le Duan, Truong Chinh, and Le Duc Tho proved to be a failure. To Huu, Vice Prime Minister in charge of agricultural reforms, and eight cabinet ministers was forced to resign from offices.

To remedy the situation, the party leadership took measures to pave the way for "openness" and "renovation" and consolidate the Party. After cautious preparations and under the pressure of the Soviet Union, the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, on December 18, 1985, elected Nguyen Van Linh, party secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, to secretary-general of the Party. Nguyen was empowered to carry out the new policies modeled on the Soviet plans of renovating economy and restructuring administration.

Upon assuming his functions, Secretary-General Nguyen Van Linh repeated Ho Chi Minh's gesture. Ho had used his pen name as XYZ on articles in newspapers to rectify the cadres' errors in the resistance war against the French. Nguyen now used his initials NVL on the press to propagate ideas about "openness" and "renovation." The press was encouraged to criticize errors of cadres and public agencies and flaws in government's programs of economy. However, from 1986 to 1990, the effects of "openness" and "renovation" proved to be exiguous. At the end of August 1989, a month before the People's Army Expeditionary Corps' withdrawal from Kampuchea, Nguyen Van Linh had to acknowledge that the economy was extremely deteriorated.

At the same time, political developments in the Communist Bloc worsened and deeply influenced the "openness" and "renovation" in Vietnam. The Chinese students' uprisings in Kwang Tcheou, Shanghai, and Beijing in June 1989; the struggles for freedom and democracy and economic reforms in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania; the demands for economic reforms, political plurality, and multipartism inside the country caused much anxiety to the party leadership.

Facing both political and economic problems in perspective, the Party, on the one hand, soothed dissidence among the student ranges by apportioning them with larger food rations. At the same time, it loosened economic restrictions, relaxing to some extent small private businesses and preparing laws and regulations for foreign investment and international transactions.

On the other hand, the administration launched campaigns of repression against political plurality and multipartism negating all forms of opposition inside the Party and among the masses. The Central Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party held its conference in Saigon in September 1989 and decided to take harsh measures. The daily "Nhan Dan" (The People) ran a long article warning the masses and public opinion against what it called "the freedom in the manner of capitalism," the phrase which is alluded to the demands of political reforms in Poland. Of particular concern, it called for the protection of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the role of leadership of the Party.

Conditions of Living of the Peasantry

The predominant peasantry, which is approximately 80% of the population, is still exploited mercilessly and still live in misery. Adam FForde commented:

On September 29, 1991, the Voice of Vietnam in English announced that "since 1988, with the introduction of Resolution 10 of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which encourages household economy in the countryside, our cooperation has taken on a new dimension. We have succeeded in classifying rural household, each with its own conditions in land, labor, and capital, thereby working out different business strategies for each group. Since the groups have different problems in production, they should be provided with different technologies. They also need credits for investment in production and assistance in acquiring the necessary inputs as well as in seeking outlets for their products."

However, Chu Van Lam, a state expert on agriculture, acknowledged that

From 1988, the system of agricultural communes was abolished as the first move towards the market economy. However, the land is still state-owned, the peasant can only rent it and work on contract. A family of 6 members, for example, can rent 7 acres. Under this new contract system, the peasant will stand on his own, cultivating his fields and taking care of his crop. At harvest time, cadres will come to evaluate the crop yield and decide the rate of taxes and the amount of rice he owes to the State, generally half of his crop. On the average, in a good season, a peasant cultivating 7 acres can earn 420 kilograms of rice. Under the cooperative system, he will be given only 240 kilograms of rice. Under the new system, the situation isn't better. He has to pay for everything, from seeds to manure. Before 1988, under the old system when he still worked for the cooperative, he could buy commodities on state subsidies. Now, he has to buy them on market prices, which are often ten times higher. Before 1986, schooling was tuition-free. Now he has to pay tuition fees for his children. In the beginning, the peasant seems to rejoice at the new policy, but he soon realizes that he is exploited even more cruelly than he had been. He is now reluctant and feels disheartened, being aware of the fact that he has to face new difficulties and doesn't even know if he will ever be able to continue working on the fields. Many peasants can't afford their children's tuition fees, which often cost almost all the family's crop. They keep them home to work for the family. They need to survive first.

Being asked if market economy worked, Nguyen Thi Diep thought that it didn't. She didn't give an explanation, but gave an experience instead: Think of this situation. A college student majoring in agriculture dropped out of school, nurturing the idea that he could take advantage of the new system to make good money. He went back to his home village asking his parents to borrow money from relatives for him to rent a ploughing machine. He imagined that once he had one, every peasant in the region would ask him to plough his or her fields. He would do this in the shortest time. The peasant would save his or her labor and time, and he would save his. He would just be there to gather money. He would earn a lot more money than an engineer in agriculture. Contrary to his wishes, the peasants couldn't afford to hire him (Thien Nhan, 7 (March 1992)).

Repression against the Peasants in Central Vietnam

Dinh Phu, a peasant in Mo Duc District, Quang Ngai, told how he survived before and after the new agrarian reform. After 1986, the agricultural cooperative ceased to exist. The peasant worked on contract. He was allocated a piece of land, one acre or two, or more, depending on how large his family was. At harvest time, cadres from the agriculture department came to the village. He estimated the yield and determined the rent and taxes. The rent and taxes were always rated far beyond the gain the peasant could get from the field. He had to look for other means to support himself and his family such as cutting wood, baking it into charcoal, and then selling it in the black market. Doing things that way was illegal since the State prohibits any damage of the forests and wood. There was no other way the peasant could do to subsist. State cadres knew it. They searched for lawbreakers. These lawbreakers got caught but they were often released. Only their wood and charcoal were confiscated. Cadres would sell these "exhibits" for their own benefits, also in the black market!

The common people are now in the same boat: They are equally poor and miserable. The absolute majority of the people in his district are peasants. Before 1986, they worked for the agricultural commune but didn't have even the minimal amount of food to support themselves and their families. Three-fourths of the crop yield went to the state--practically local cadres and authorities. After 1986, following the path of market economy, the local authorities allocated 800 square meters of land to everyone who was 18 years old and older. Despite the people's resentment, the situation wasn't better than it had been before 1986. On the average, the crop yield--the peasants usually grow rice--per rice season varies from 60 to 80 kgs per 800 square meters. Subtracting the expenses for the care of the land, there's only half of the crop yield left. The peasants have to pay for all kinds of additional "state contributions," from social relief to military obligations--not to mention the tuition fees for their children. In addition, they "have the right" to pay the rent for the land they are allocated and taxes to the State. There is virtually nothing left after they have done all of their "citizens' obligations." In order to survive, the peasant must look to other means to support himself and his family. Besides cutting wood and baking it into charcoal, many peasants have sought to smuggle foreign-made articles or commodities--soap, watches, etc. --into the local area.

The Vietnamese people know that the Vietnamese Communist Party has lied to them. It says the people are the "masters of the country," but, in reality, the people are only slaves. They are like old and weak water-buffaloes laboring for the benefits of state cadres and Communist party members. The people are "masters of the country," but the State is the true organizer that administers their lives and properties. The Vietnamese Communist Party is the true leader who reserves the rights to the "leadership" of the people! Those plain lies are contrary to reason and common sense. Every Vietnamese knows it. Every Vietnamese, whether he is a peasant in the countryside or a worker in the city, really wants to overthrow the Communist rule. How could he fight back an army of security police with modern weapons while he is without even a piece of steel? (Van Chuong, 11 (July 1993)).

To carry out their political intimidation, the Communist administration often activated campaigns of propaganda to rectify their cadres' faux pas and social corrupt practices. Those campaigns, in reality, were aimed not only to eliminate corrupt officials but also to monitor possible oppositions from the masses, thus negating them right in the early stage. While the campaigns went on secretly in the provinces of Phu Khanh and Binh Tri Thien, they were executed with hard measures in Thanh Hoa Province. Having failed to intimidate the people in the village of Ngoc Tho, district of Trieu Son, the local authorities used violence to crush the villagers' opposition. Thirty district and province security policemen, armed with submachine guns and flanked by police-dogs, were given orders to assault the unarmed villagers (Thien Chuong, 1992: 4).

Repression against the Peasants in the Mekong Delta

The demonstrations by the peasantry took place in many provinces of the Mekong delta in 1987-1988. They were nevertheless ignored in the West because of the censor of the mass media and the politics of "Innermost Recesses." Well-informed sources from Ho Chi Minh City—high-ranking officials on mission in Paris and refugees from the provinces concerned--confirmed such events. The first demonstration occurred in September 1987 at Mo Cay, a district in the province of Ben Tre, 100 kilometers south of Ho Chi Minh City. This district was famous for its "general uprising" (Dong Khoi) on December 20, 1960, the date that well marked the precursory step toward the war of liberation of South Vietnam. Two other demonstrations by the peasantry took place after that, in the same district, in April and May 1988. The second demonstration was organized by veteran fighters of the Front of Liberation, and it was the bloodiest one. Armed with hatchets, knives, and hoes, the protesters occupied the fields of the cooperatives. Their main demands were: the return of their private properties, direct evaluation of land policies, and lowering of taxation on farming. Police forces were sent to the place and crushed down the demonstrations. Many protesters were seriously wounded. Among them was Hai Sinh, a veteran cadre, who was incarcerated later.

The peasantry organized two other demonstrations at Ho Chi Minh City which happened on August 12, 1988 and November 9-10,1988. According to the AFP, approximately 1,000 people were in attendance. Finally, Hanoi was obliged to satisfy some demands by the peasants. Each cooperator was now responsible for the parcel of rice field of his or her own. That was the return to the old mode of individual exploitation in the South. However, the land still belonged to the people as a whole (Article 17 of the 1992 Constitution). The agrarian taxation was lowered. The lease term, according to the law on land passed by the National Assembly on July 15, 1993, is fixed for twenty years for the rice field and 50 years for the land used for multiphase growing. The lease is restorable providing that the clauses stipulated in it be respected. Each family has the right to exploit three hectares of rice field at most. These halfway measures, however, did not satisfy the peasants' demands; they wished to be given the right to private ownership and direct evaluation of the land.

The 1992 Constitution and the new law on land, in contrast, always aim at transforming the peasants into "state farmers" circumscribed by a lease that someday will be manipulated by the government for political reasons, for example, for "anti-socialism." Deprived of the land legally allowed by the government to cultivate, the peasants and their families could only live with difficulty. They suffered almost the same conditions compeers in the North had during the bloody agrarian reforms in 1955-56. Although lowered, the taxation still remained high. The yield of crops in 1982, for example, was not sufficient enough to help them make ends meet due to the heavy costs of farming. Despite good harvests, quite a few peasants went bankrupt, because the selling price of rice in the market (averaging from 750 to 800 dong per kilogram (with one dollar equals 10,000 dong), was equal to or lower than the cost of production. The peasants were no longer interested in implementing the yield of their land because the land did not belong to them. The limit of three hectares per family deceived the old middle cultivators who had possessed more than three hectares. As a consequence, in the Mekong delta where the population was sparse and labor force was in want, the peasantry abandoned their land (Lam Thanh Liem, 1993: 4-5).

In 1985, Hanoi declared that it had completed the period of people's democracy and paved the way for socialism. To carry out this goal, it vowed to accomplish a socialist transformation. In September 1985, Hanoi took a general census of private economic enterprises and changed currency, dispossessing the capital which was still in the hands of entrepreneurs and businessmen. The People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City selected the Third District as a pilot case for the census since there was a large number of small private manufacturing establishments and trade and business enterprises in the district. However, the general census brought the economy to a standstill. To save the situation, Hanoi had to stop short its plans for socialist transformation and had to work headlong for economic renovation. This economic renovation, according to Hanoi's interpretation, was only a by-passing period. Its ultimate goal was to transform Vietnam into a Communist country. It was because of this policy that the general census of private property was postponed.

The Persecution

The Washing Area League for Human Rights (1978) published two important documents, the Disinherited Vietnamese's Manifesto signed by eight public figures and the Testament of Patriotic Prisoners in Vietnam drafted by Dinh Huy Binh and endorsed by 49 prominent political prisoners.

Among other things, the Testament denounced:

The year 1984 involved a mass arrest of "counterrevolutionaries." Charles-Antoine de Nerciat of the AFP, on December 19, 1984, reported 2,000 people on various charges following a treason trial that ended on December 18, 1984, with five defendants sentenced to death. A big trial of about 80 Buddhists from a temple near Ho Chi Minh City on charges of suspected "counterrevolutionaries" was reported. Series of trials were planned in the following months with charges ranging from "counterrevolutionary" activity to opposition to the Hanoi government. Overall, some 2,000 people would be brought to trials in Saigon before April 30, 1984, the 10th anniversary of its fall to the Communists.

Sources inside Vietnam reported that after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, numerous members of organizations operated clandestinely inside the country. Many were listed as reactionary. They were arrested and convicted on charges of "activities aimed at overthrowing the government." Veteran political prisoner Nguyen Khac Chinh (1992) compiled a list of 105 political dissidents who have been detained at Ham Tan Camp. Among them are: Dinh Cong Anh, Caodaist, Le Cong Can, Professor at Can Tho University; Catholic priest Tran Cong Chuc; Buddhist priest Dong Van Kha; Catholic priest Tran Khac Kinh; Catholic priest Nguyen Van Thin; Catholic priest Do Tri Thuyen; Ho Van Ba, Nguyen Trung Truc Army; Phan Xuan Ba, Anti-Communist Patriots' Front; Phan Van Cau, National Self-Determination Front; Phan Dinh Hieu, Vietnam National Party; Huynh Van Chon, Vietnam Patriots' Front; Nguyen Van Chung, Vietnam National Revolutionary Party; Nguyen Van Danh, Youth Organization for National Restoration; Huynh Van Dung, Front for Freedom and National Salvation; Huynh Van Dong, Front for National Security; Nguyen Van Duc, Black Dragon Organization; Nguyen Huu Duc, Bao Long National Restoration; Nguyen Van Duc, Human Rights Front; Nguyen Van Hoanh, Front for National Restoration; Bui Hoa, Civilian and Military Front for National Restoration; Le Van Mon, National Restoration Army; Ha Van Hang, Front for National Restoration; and Bui Xuan Phuong, National Revolutionary Movement.

Tran Tu Thanh, Secretary-General of the League for the Protection of Civil Rights, published four lists of political prisoners who have been detained in prisons and reeducation camps. Twenty-six (26) prisoners are detained in Ba Ria-Vung Tau; eighty-three (83) in camps Z30A (K1) and Z30B (K2), Xuan Loc District; one hundred (100) in camps Z30D (K1) Ham Tan District, Thuan Hai Province; and two hundred forty-three (243) in camps A20, A30, and HT1780, Xuan Phuoc District, Phu Yen Province.

The Directorate of Overseas Affairs of the National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (1993) published a list of one thousand and nine (1,009) political prisoners who have been detained in various prisons and reeducation camps throughout the country.

Information of incidents of arrests and trials of political dissidents were, in most cases, kept from the public. Arrests of dissidents continue. The leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party finds it a necessity to control over the press and secure state secrets. It is then difficult to have access to information about the number of dissidents in prison and the conditions in which they are held.

THE MOVEMENT OF RESISTANCE

The International Committee for a Free Vietnam (1986) attested the fact that the Vietnamese people do not accept the Communist regime and policy:

The Resistance in the Mekong Delta

George McArthur reported in the Los Angeles Times on January 18, 1978, that three years after the collapse of the Saigon government a significant resistance force--possibly numbering several thousand men--continued to operate in the Mekong Delta province which was headquarters for the Hoa Hao Buddhism. McArthur mentioned the fact that the Hanoi radio quoted the district commander, Capt. Dang Huu Trinh, saying that in Cho Moi District, An Giang Province, the "remnants of the puppet army, here, total tens of thousands, and a fairly large number of diehard officers have evaded reeducation. Therefore, maintaining combat readiness is a matter of constant concern to the local armed forces and militia and self-defense forces..."

The troop commander of the district, identified as Hai Man, said that "there are 23,000 puppet army and administration personnel, here. Many of them have stubbornly evaded reeducation. Some have finished reeducation but are unwilling to work honestly for a living. Reverting to their old ways, they have continued to oppose the revolution and the people. Therefore, standing ready for combat in Cho Moi District is one of our permanent task."

McArthur further noted that "the emphasis of the broadcast made clear that the military preparedness was largely directed against 'remnant forces' and not incursions from Cambodia, although these have taken place."

Infiltrations

From early 1981 to September 1984, eighteen infiltrations into the country to activate anti-Communist campaigns had been made by overseas Vietnamese of the United Forces for the Liberation of Vietnam. Correspondent Tran Van Nhien of the Voice of Vietnam reported on December 17, 1984, that commando groups were sent into Vietnam to establish connections with "counterrevolutionary" groups, build up forces, form group of local armed forces, and wage a multifaceted war.

The Hong Kong AFP reported on December 2, 1987 that 18 among 77 armed individuals were arrested in Laos in August [1987] after nearly 200 armed Vietnamese, infiltrating from Thailand, were attacked as they allegedly tried to make their way into Vietnam to prepare for a general uprising in 1992. The group was known to be members of the United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (Hong Kong AFP in English 1304 GMT, Dec. 1987).

On July 30, 1989, the daily "Quan Doi Nhan Dan" (The People's Army) reported that an antigovernment commando unit was reportedly destroyed in Central Vietnam. Three members of a commando unit belonging to the Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FLOR), an armed Vietnamese organization opposing the Communist government, were killed in March [1989]. The paper said they were killed in two ambushes sprung by Hanoi security forces in the high-plateau region of central Gia Lai-Kontum Province, an area populated by ethnic minorities traditionally isolated from the Vietnamese rule. The Army daily also said that two other FLOR members were wounded and five captured. It also added that "Unit ZG23 of the FLOR's second military zone has been crushed." Weapons, munitions, two radio sets, and documents were seized (Hong Kong AFP in English, 1853 GMT, July 30, 1989).

THE STRUGGLE

Since the later years of the 1970's many political organizations in the U.S., including the Luc Luong Nguoi Viet Quoc Gia (Vietnamese Nationalist Forces), To Chuc Phuc Hung Viet Nam (Vietnam Restoration Party), Mat Tran Quoc Gia Giai Phong Viet Nam (National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam), Lien Minh Viet Nam Tu Do (Free Vietnam Alliance), Lien Minh Hung Gia Dai Viet (Coalition of Families of Kings Hung), and Dang Nhan Dan Hanh Dong Vietnam (Vietnam People's Action Party), were either founded overseas or inside Vietnam. Their main goals, in general, were to struggle for a free and democratic Vietnam.

In Australia, the Luc Luong Dan Quan Yem Tro Phuc Quoc Viet Nam (Civilian and Military Forces for the Restoration of Vietnam) was founded in Sidney on September 21, 1978. The first chairman of the organization was Vo Dai Ton. During Vo's return to Vietnam (1980) to join the resistance forces, the organization was directed by a yearly Congress, which established goals and lines and elected a Central Committee for Coordination. Le Linh Thao was entrusted with the duties to coordinate the organization's activities. Vo Dai Ton was released in November 1991 and resumed his duties as president. Ever since February 1993, after Vo's resignation from the chairmanship, Le Linh Thao and other associates--Le Viet Tuan, Vu Quang Dao, Mai Xuan Viet, Le Trung, and Nguyen Viet Thuong-- elected members in the Central Committee for Coordination, who have been entrusted with the leadership of the organization.

In its Statements of Goals, the organization professes to bring back to the people the equality of rights, peace, and welfare. The three basic rights in a humanistic society, it conceives, are human rights--the rights to self-determination, civil rights--the rights to freedom, and democracy--the political rights to participate in the administration of the country. The society in which we live must be a free, democratic, and self-determined society, that is, a civilized democratic society. Besides human rights, which are the unalienable rights of man and which are beyond the realm of all political regimes, the civil rights and the rights to democracy must be equally founded on the principle of equality. The management of national administration and the organization of national administrative systems must be founded on the equality of duties. The building of national welfare must be based on the rights to economic welfare, the rights to freedoms, and the rights to equal opportunities and justice.

In this time of national peril, the Luc Luong Dan Quan Yem Tro Phuc Quoc Viet Nam (Civilian and Military Forces for the Restoration of Vietnam) contributes to the struggle for the rights to self-determination and rights to freedom and democracy. The organization will operate throughout Vietnam. It will promote programs of actions. It appeals to all overseas Vietnamese who share its goals to support the resistance forces inside the country to eliminate communism, to save the people, to liberate the country, and to build up a Republic Civilized Vietnam.

The To Chuc Phuc Hung Vietnam (Vietnam Restoration Party), which was founded on December 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. It has expanded into more than 30 cells established over six countries, many in the United States. Its membership consists of over 200 dedicated cadres; besides, its front organizations, the Federation of Young Vietnamese Volunteers and the Vietnamese Nationalist Forces, merged and renamed as the Youth Federation for Vietnam Restoration with units active in Europe, Australia, and the United States.

Concerning its activities, on June 1981, the VNRP-- together with Admiral Hoang Co Minh, leader of the Overseas Alliance of Civil & Military Forces, and Viet Organization in Japan founded the National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam. As events developed, Admiral Hoang Co Minh became the leader of this front.

On March 22, 1983, the Vietnamese Nationalist Force founded and led by Dang Giang Son merged with the VNRP to create a united organization.

On April 6, 1985, through its front organizations, the VNRP in alliance with the Alliance for Democracy in Vietnam under the leadership of Professor Nguyen Ngoc Huy founded the Vietnamese-Laotian Front on September 17, 1985, with the Alliance for Democracy in Vietnam and VNRP representing Vietnam and the National United Front for the Liberation of Lao under General Vang Pao representing Laos.

On November 25, 1988, the VNRP officially established working relations with the Vietnamese Socialist Democratic Party that resulted in the creation of the Vietnamese Council.

On September 17, 1989, the VNRP together with eight political groups and parties, founded the Coordinating Committee for a Free Vietnam.

The Dang Nhan Dan Hanh Dong Viet Nam (People's Action Party) was founded in Vietnam at about the time the system of communism collapsed in East Europe. It is an orthodox political party. Its methods of actions are non-violent. Its programs of actions are practical. Its goals are to bring Vietnam out of difficult realities by political solutions. However, it will support a revolution if this revolution is led by an impartial organization. Its immediate objectives are to continue the struggle toward the seizure of national leadership, to bring Vietnam out of poverty and injustice in the shortest time and maintain continual political stability, and to purify social mores.

The party upholds the three-faceted basic motto: Independence, Equality, and Effectiveness. The Vietnamese themselves must resolve the question for Vietnam’s independence. Every Vietnamese is afforded the equality of opportunities founded on responsibility and ability. Human rights are respected. The Vietnamese citizens will not have to leave their country and search for freedom. The government has to avoid squanderings and know how to organize and manage. The authority is aware of its responsibility, role, and position in his or her service.

The party will assume the role of an opposition party when political change takes place in Vietnam. In that regard, it will urgently stabilize political situations, develop the economy, and purify social mores. As an opposing political party, it will continue to expand its organization to get support from the people and the world.

Communism proves to be a failure in Vietnam. The Communists' greedy and harsh ways of conduct and their old-fashioned ideology have induced the Vietnamese people into poverty and despair. It is now the time to eliminate Communist despotism. It is now the time for change. It is now the time the Vietnamese to rebuild their country to bring back welfare and prosperity.

Anti-Communist and opposition to the Communist rule in Vietnam received strong popular support in overseas Vietnamese communities. Pham Trac, in his testimony before the California State Assembly Rules Committee, defended the Vietnamese people's cause against the Hanoi despotism. Interpreting reports by international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Asia Watch, Pham accused the Communist regime of rampant political repression--arbitrary arrests, detention without due process and fair trial, and repression against peaceful expression of opinions and thoughts and religious practices. His testimony said, in part:

Among those individuals, organizations, fronts, or movements that have attracted public attention were the following:

Vo Dai Ton and His Co-fighters

Vo Dai Ton, a former Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Lieutenant Colonel who fled to Australia as a refugee after April 30, 1975. He and his co-fighters came back to Vietnam to join the National Restoration Movement in April 1981. One of his co-fighter, Vu Dinh Khoa, was killed on October 21, 1981, in Lower Lao. He and another co-fighter, Nguyen Van Loc, were arrested on the Laotian-Vietnamese borders on October 23, 1981, during their attempt at crossing the borders. Both were first detained by the Communist Laotians and then were transferred to North Vietnam. Vo Dai Ton was taken to the B14 reeducation camp, Thanh Liet, Ha Dong Province, and Vu Loc to an unknown place. On July 13, 1982, Vo Dai Ton foiled "Hanoi's propaganda coup"--a public admission of crimes by an alleged subversive allegedly linked to the United States, China, and Thailand--backfired, and refused to confess. Vo Dai Ton was supposed to have told a Press conference how the three nations had aided his efforts to infiltrate the country and undermine the Communist government. Instead, as reporters scribbled and camera whirred, Vo Dai Ton refused to name names or confess about the Central Intelligence Agency, Thai authorities, or any other government. "I will not betray any of the people who have helped me." (Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1982). Vo Dai Ton was detained for 10 years under solitary confinement. He was released on December 12, 1991 due to international pressure.

Tran Van Ba and His Group

On January 2, 1985, Tran Van Ba, Nguyen Van Thua, Dao Tan Linh, Nguyen Van Quang Tuong, Le Long Ho, Le Chi Nghia, Tran The Hoai, Nguyen Ngoc Tam, Ho Thai Bach, Huynh Vinh Sanh, Le Quoc Quan, Le Quoc Tai, Ho Thai Khuong, Vo Van Ky, Nguyen Thanh Phuoc, Huynh Van Phat, Ngo Duy An, Nguyen Tat Dac, Nguyen Hoang Long, and Duong The Cuoc of the United Front of Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Vietnam were executed in Saigon. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Supreme Court on December 19, 1984 imposed on them severe verdicts. All were convicted on charges of trying to overthrow the Communist government with the help of China, Thailand, and the United Sates. The Court gave 16 other members of the Front long-term prison sentences, from 8 years of forced labor to life imprisonment. They were Tran Nguyen Hung, To Van Huong, Hoang Dinh My, Nhan Van Lap, Tran Ngoc An, Thach Sanh, Nguyen Binh, Nguyen Phi Long, Nguyen Van Thach, Ly Vinh, Trang Van Hung, Tran Van Phuong, Thai Van Au, Dang Ba Loc, Nguyen Van Hoc, and Nguyen Van Cam. Until the last day of trial, the prisoners were reportedly not allowed to have visits from relatives. At the court's sittings, the state "barristers made a deep analysis of the schemes and methods used by China in the conduct of its multifaceted war of sabotage against the Vietnamese people including the use of counterrevolutionary and former members of the puppet administration and army." (Hanoi VNA in English, 1600 GMT, December 17, 1984). No appeal of the sentences was allowed. A main figure linked to the case committed suicide. Although he was not identified by name, he was said to be a senior official of Minh Hai, a southwestern province in South Vietnam. The official daily "Nhan Dan" (The People) said that "the trial of this case is also a strong indictment against the Beijing reactionaries, who, in collusion with the U.S. imperialists and other counterrevolutionary forces, are posing the main threat to peace, security, and stability in Indochina and Southeast Asia as a whole (Hanoi VNA in English, December 19, 1984)."

Dinh Van Be and His Group

On December 3, 1987, the Supreme People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City ended its trials in the first and final instances of Dinh Van Be and 17 other defendants on charges of treason and banditry activities. In his indictment, the representative of the Supreme People's Organ of Control advocated that the case "was of particular importance since the culprits were members of the ultrarightist reactionary organizations which have colluded with the warlike American reactionaries and the ultrarightist in the Thai ruling circles to oppose and sabotage the Vietnamese revolution."

State lawyers Trieu Quoc Manh and Nguyen Dang Trung defended the accused, mentioning "criminal circumstances of each defendant and proposed that the court consider their cases with favor given to those "surrendering themselves," scoring good deeds to redeem their crimes, and honestly making testimonies and showing repentance (FBIS, December 4, 1987).

Hong Kong AFP, on December 2, 1987, reported that "the 18 among 77 armed people arrested in Laos in August [1987] after their group of nearly 200 armed Vietnamese infiltrating from Thailand, were attacked as they allegedly tried to make their way into Vietnam to prepare for a general uprising in 1992." About 100 of the alleged infiltrators were reportedly killed by Laotian and Vietnamese troops during violent clashes at the end of August 1987.

The public trial, held in the city's former municipal theater and broadcast through loudspeakers to a small crowd of some 100 people outside. Hanoi VNA in English, on December 1, 1987, said that "the court was presided by Tran Tuan Sy, judge of the People's Supreme Court. It was attended by hundreds of representatives of 21 southern cities and provinces."

Dinh Van Be, the guiltiest among the 18 defendants, received life imprisonment; Tran De, 19 years imprisonment, and Do Bach Ho, 17. The remaining defendants were sentenced to jail terms varying from 3 to 15 years. Tran Khanh Linh was pardoned from penalty. The trial of 59 alleged accomplices was to be held later.

Hong Kong AFP in English, on December 2, 1987, noted that "the reformists, grouped around party Secretary-General Nguyen Van Linh, have managed to turn the tables by presenting the trial as a purely internal affair carrying the minimum risk of arousing opinion abroad. The authorities appear, nonetheless, to have taken a low profile, showing some 40 foreign journalists and 18 others who look more like peasants recruited by force rather than trained soldiers capable of overthrowing the government."

Nguyen Dan Que

Nguyen Dan Que, ex-professor of the Saigon Faculty of Medicine, member of the Amnesty International, was incarcerated without trial for 10 years (1978-88). Released from prison, he was rearrested and accused of "activities aiming at denigrating the regime and overthrowing the government." Nguyen was rearrested in June 1991. On Friday, November 29, 1991, the Ho Chi Minh City court sentenced him to 20 years of hard labor followed by 5 years under administrative detention. He was convicted on crimes against national security, distributing thousands of pamphlets to denigrate the regime and establishing an organization aiming at overthrow the Communist Party.

The verdict on Nguyen Dan Que aroused deep concerns among international circles and Vietnamese communities in the United States. Amnesty International, in its circulation on November 19, 1991, was particularly concerned about the very broad definition of "crimes against national security" as termed by the Vietnam government. It believed that Nguyen Dan Que "is a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for the nonviolence exercise of fundamental human rights."

On November 21, 1991, U.S. Congress passed a resolution, submitted by Senator Charles Robb, stating that Nguyen Dan Que should be accorded a fair and impartial trial, permitted access to all court proceedings. If Nguyen is merely guilty of nonviolently expressing his views regarding human rights, he should be released immediately.

The attorney Nguyen Huu Thong of the Vietnamese Lawyers Association in San Jose, California, charged the Hanoi administration with abuse of power, arresting, repressing, and terrorizing dissidence. In his view, no one can overthrow a government merely by documents. To overthrow a government requires having an overact such as an assembly with arms intending to overthrow the government of the State.

When the Communists took over South Vietnam in 1975, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que was Chief of the Nuclear Medicine Department at Cho Ray Hospital. In 1976, he was removed from the position due to his criticism of the Vietnamese Communist Party's discriminatory health care policies. In 1978, he formed the National Progressive Front and published two underground newspapers, the "Vung Day" (The Uprising) for the youth and the "Toan Dan Vung Day" (The People's Uprising) for the people of Vietnam, to question the government's violations of basic human rights. He and his 47 associates were arrested and imprisoned without trial. They were tortured, and five died in captivity. After his release in 1988, he became the first member of Amnesty International. In 1990, he formed the Cao Trao Nhan Ban (Nonviolent Movement for Human Rights). On May 11, 1990, he issued a manifesto urging the Communist regime to respect human rights and to accept political pluralism and free and fair elections. He was then rearrested, imprisoned, and held incommunicado. He was then detained in a prison camp in the rural area of Xuan Loc, about 50 miles northeast of Saigon. Despite his poor health, he was forced to perform hard labor and kept in solitary confinement.

Doan Viet Hoat

Doan Viet Hoat is an ex-professor of the Buddhist University Van Hanh in Saigon. He had been incarcerated without trial from 1976 to 1988. He was accused of "having created the Freedom Forum, a political organization aiming at overthrowing the revolutionary power." He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The daily "Saigon Giai Phong" (Saigon Liberated), on May 5, 1991, ran a long article on the subversive activities of an underground political organization operating inside Vietnam. The newspaper charged it with anti-Communist propaganda, denigrating the Vietnam Communist rule, activating political opposition, and subverting the Communist regime.

According to the daily, the organization was organized and led by Doan Viet Hoat, an American university graduate. Doan was Director of the Center for Languages at Van Hanh University, Saigon (1968). He became Assistant to the President of the same university in 1973. In 1989, when political developments rolled on in Eastern Europe, Doan and his collaborators--Pham Duc Kham, Bui The Dung, Le The Hien, Nguyen Van Thuan, Hoang Cao Nha, Nguyen Xuan Dong, Le Duc Vuong, Pham Thai Thuy, Nguyen Thieu Hung, and Nguyen Mau--formed an underground political organization. They planned programs of actions and propagandized among the population goals for a peaceful struggle for freedom and democracy. In fact, the group activated political campaigns, scheming for the overthrow of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

The daily elaborated that, in July 1990, the group circulated the Freedom Forum, a newspaper propagandizing pluralistic democracy and demanding realization of liberty and civil rights. These actions, according to the newspaper, paved the way for a legal political opposition movement and the group's participation in the general elections. They will ultimately create favorable conditions for a coup d'etat once members of the group are elected to seats in the National Assembly.

Overseas, the group allied with leaders of other Vietnamese political organizations and parties, propagated its political goals and canvassed overseas Vietnamese communities for support. Doan and his group's secret activities were exposed to local Communist authorities in Ho Chi Minh City during November 1990. He and his other collaborators were arrested and detained in Phan Dang Luu prison, Ho Chi Minh City.

A report by the official Vietnam News Agency said that the accused "pleaded guilty to activities aimed at overthrowing the government." However, a report by Nguyen Thanh Nam, who was present at the trial, said that Doan strongly rejected the court's accusation. He said that he did not conceive any scheme to overthrow anyone. The accusation that the "Freedom Forum" was a means of publication to propagate antigovernment ideas was unfounded. The four sets of "Freedom Forum" were only typed materials shared among friends, not a newspaper. He said: "the court accuses me of demanding for the revision of the Constitution and considers it an act of opposition aiming at overthrowing the government. The Vietnam government has revised it three times. Could we say that the Vietnam Communist Party itself has overthrown its government three times?." Doan and the other defendants were put on trial without notice. Six defendants spoke for themselves, and a lawyer represented the two other defendants.

On April, 2, 1993, Asia Watch executive director Sidney Jones said in Bangkok, Thailand, that the verdict on Doan Viet Hoat is a serious violation of international laws. The trial was conducted behind closed door. Besides, Doan only called for political freedom and free and fair elections. He never schemed an overthrow of the Communist regime. From his office in San Jose, Lawyer Nguyen Huu Thong issued a statement negating the legality of the verdict on Doan. It was conducted without due process and fair trial. He appealed to international human rights agencies and overseas Vietnamese communities to protest against Hanoi and bring it before an international court. The report by the AFP stressed that the verdict on Doan was a message to Vietnamese politicians who put forward political pluralism in Vietnam. It also said that it was not yet time to talk about it.

Nguyen Ngoc Dai

On May 28, 1992, the Ho Chi Minh City court sentenced five political dissidents on grounds of counterrevolutionary activities. They were Nguyen Ngoc Dai, Le Van Tinh, Nguyen Van Hoang, Tran Huu Duyen, and Huynh Van Cai. Nguyen Ngoc Dai, the group's leader, was sentenced to 20-years of imprisonment, and his other associates were sentenced from 4-12 years in prison. Nguyen Ngoc Dai is a former officer of the pre-1975 Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. He had been detained in reeducation camps for 11 years, from 1976 to 1987.

According to the daily "Nhan Dan" (The People), after being released from camp, Nguyen allied with a number of veteran camp detainees to form an underground political organization and conducted clandestine activities against the Communist government.

The daily "Hanoi Moi" (New Hanoi), on May 29, 1992, alluded to such activities as an act of sabotage. It elaborated that "reactionary elements in the country took advantage of political events in East Europe to increase subversive activities and to stage sabotage against the Revolution and the government." The daily bragged about the achievements of the People's police force in encountering the enemies of the people's clandestine activities and sabotage; it either crushed or dismantled all secret organizations of "reactionary and counterrevolutionary elements." It stressed that political instability throughout the country has been one of the utmost concerns of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Tran Ngoc Khai and His Group

On September 19, 1989, the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme People's Court sentenced Tran Ngoc Khai and 15 other political dissidents to 4 to 20 years in prison on charges of "scheming to overthrow the people's administration." The defendants were not allowed to have lawyers to represent them at the court. Tran Ngoc Khai represented himself. He declared that he had not committed any crime against the people. He only had political viewpoints. His aims were to protect the people's welfare.

The other 15 convicts were: Nguyen Van Ngoc, sentenced to 18 years imprisonment; Pham Dinh Thuan, 16 years of imprisonment; Chu Van Huu, 14 years imprisonment; Vu Duc Huong, 13 years imprisonment; Tran Van Ly, 13 years in prison; Nguyen Thanh Son, 12 years in prison; Pham Dinh Hieu, 11 years in prisont; Truong Tam Muoi, 11 years in prison; Tran Phuc Chau, 10 years in prison; Vong Sac Quyen, 10 years in prison; Diep Ngau, 8 years in prison; Nguyen Thi Hue (female), 7 years in prison; Vong Ky Xuong, 4 years in prison; Truong Ba Truyen, 4 years in prison; and Huynh Vu Thanh, 4 years in prison.

The convicts were workers, peasants, and small vendors. They all belong to the working class. The oldest convict was Nguyen Thanh Son, 79, and the youngest Tran Phuc Chau, 46; both of them are from North Vietnam.

Ngo Van Vinh

On June 6, 1992, the Communist administration in Hue City, Central Vietnam, arrested Ngo Van Vinh, a former judge of the pre-1975 Military Court, Military Corps I, Central Vietnam. Ngo was born in Hue City in 1945. He had lived with his family, his wife and five children, in the city before 1975. Sources close to his acquaintances said that when the Communist troops took over South Vietnam, Ngo and members of other social and political organizations in Hue and provinces in Central Vietnam fled to Saigon to organize a resistance against the Communist rule. In the closing months of 1976, the Communist security police in Saigon discovered their clandestine subversive activities. Ngo was arrested, tortured, and detained for 10 years in prison. He had not received any trial. Ngo Van Vinh was escorted by the agents at the Ministry for the Interior from Hue to Saigon. He was put in prison and was subject to separate confinement. The charges for his arrest were unspecified. Sources close to his family said they did not know whether he would be brought to trial.

Advocates for Human Rights

In 1975, three last leaders of the Association of Lawyers of the Republic of Vietnam--Tran Van Tuyen, Ly Van Hiep, and Vu Dang Dung--became prisoners of the Communists for their national cause. Tran Van Tuyen sacrificed himself in the Ha Son Binh reeducation camp in 1976; Ly Van Hiep was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of propaganda against the regime in either 1981 or 1982. (The date was uncertain since the trial was conducted behind closed door). Vu Dang Dung spent 6 years in reeducation camps without a trial for his participation in Lawyer Tran Danh San's organization of human rights activities.

On April 18, 1977, two years after the fall of South Vietnam, Lawyer Tran Danh San read the "The Disinherited Vietnamese's Manifesto on Human Rights in front of Saigon Cathedral. He was arrested and detained for 10 years without trial. During the first five years, he was lastingly put in fetters, causing him to become disabled. Lawyers Nguyen Huu Giao and Tran Nhat Tan were also detained for 10 years. Lawyers Trieu Ba Thiep and Vu Hung Cuong were detained for 6 years. Lawyer Nguyen Huu Doan and the late lawyer Nguyen Quy Anh were detained for 18 months.

The first lawyer to be brought to stand trial in court was Lawyer Nguyen Khac Chinh. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with forced hard labor on charges "of treason and activities intending to overthrow the people's administration." On May 14, 1992, The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Lawyer Doan Thanh Liem to 12 years in prison on charges of "propaganda against socialism."

Dinh Van Thac

The magazine "Phap Luat" (Legal Gazette), in March 1992, disclosed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced Dinh (Do, according to another source,) Van Thac, an officer of the pre-1975 political regime, and five other members in his organization to 3-12 years of imprisonment for subversive activities. Dinh was accused of having organized "the core team," an underground subversive political system, scheming for the overthrow of the Communist regime. The magazine specified that one of the five members was the son of Pham Dinh Tien, a leader of the "Duy Dan" (Greater Vietnam National Party). The magazine "Hanoi Moi" (New Hanoi), on March 4, also disclosed that many Vietnamese had organized the Dai Viet Dan Chu (Greater Vietnam Democratic Party), to overthrow the Communist regime. Pham Van Thuc, one of the leading organizers, was accused of sending messages to the BBC calling for the West to help Vietnam to overthrow the ruling Communist Party.

Tran Van Tu and His Group

On August 23, 1993, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court rendered sentences ranging from 12 years in prison to life imprisonment to 14 members of the Lien Minh Cach Mang Dang (Coalition of Revolutionary Parties). The convicts were Tran Van Tu alias Nguyen Duy Khuong, Nguyen Van Muon, Do Huu alias Bui Phan, Pham Anh Dung alias Pham Anh Minh, Nguyen Ngoc Dang, Le Hoang Son, Do Hong Van, Pham Duc Hau, Pham Van Thanh, Luc Si Hanh, Van Dinh Nhat, Nguyen Duy Cuong, Tran Thi Nhan, and Nguyen Phu. Of 14 convicts, 10 were overseas Vietnamese coming from Canada, France, and the United States. Hundreds of members of the organization were reportedly not brought to stand trials at the court because they were state cadres, and their trials would cause a state of agitation among the masses.

The police said that they arrested 14 people in early March 1993, a few days before the plot for which they were convicted was due to take place. The case, according to the Reuters, was one of the most serious security scares in the recent years in Saigon. It highlighted the problems the government was facing: it was inviting back overseas Vietnamese, some of them bitterly anti-Communist, as tourists and investors in its fledging market economy.

From Winter 1989, a number of young overseas Vietnamese came back to Vietnam to join other Vietnamese inside the country to instigate upheaval against the Communist rule. Their first objectives were to blow up Radio Saigon headquarters, the Ho Chi Minh statue in front of Saigon City Hall, and other state buildings. The group believed that "openness" in the style of Nguyen Van Linh or Vo Van Kiet would only help maintain their cancerous despotic regime. Their tyrannical power had to be destroyed, and a revolution was a must. This upheaval must be vitalized right in the heart of the regime. A number of members involving in the organization's activities were children of high-ranking cadres, but they luckily escaped from arrests when the Communist authorities aborted the organization's first attempts.

Trinh Van Thuong and His Group

A secret organization was organized and led by Trinh Van Thuong. In December 1975, Trinh and a number of officers and officials of the pre-1975 Republic of South Vietnam formed the Dang Nhan Dan Viet Nam (Vietnamese People's Party) when they were detained in camp. Trinh failed in an attempt to escape from camp in May 1976. Deported to North Vietnam in 1978 and detained at Hoang Lien Son Camp (Ha Giang Province, North Vietnam) then at Nghe Tinh Camp (Nghe Tinh Province, Central Vietnam), Trinh continued to expand his activities. Together with other prisoners--among whom were Nguyen Thanh Van, Ha Minh Hung, Nguyen Van Vang, Nguyen Van Nam, Nguyen Duc Loi, Lam Ngoc Chieu, Nguyen Van Trong, Nguyen Nhu, Nguyen Quoc Bao, Nguyen Thinh Nhuong, Nguyen Ngoc Luong, and Ho Thanh Hai--Trinh formed the Mat Tran Lien Viet (Front of Viet Alliance).

Released from Camp, Trinh Van Thuong and a key member in his organization, Nguyen Thanh Van, planned programs of actions. They developed and conducted clandestine anti-Communist activities. In 1984, Nguyen Thanh Van escaped across the sea by boat. Nguyen propagated the organization's "Hoc Thuyet Dan Toc Vietnam" (Vietnamese Nationalism) among overseas Vietnamese and founded the "Doan Thanh Nien Tu Do" (Free Vietnamese Youths) and "Thanh Nien Vietnam" (Vietnamese Youth).

Beginning in 1990, the Front of Viet Alliance, with former AFVN captain Nguyen Huu Son as its head, organized and directed the Nguyen Trai Operation (Nguyen Trai, a Vietnamese hero, who helped Emperor Le Loi (1428-1433) to drive out the Chinese invaders and liberated Vietnam). The front initiated its anti-Communist activities by writing slogans on money bills and circulating them in populated areas. In April 1991 and in the first months of 1992, the front rallied peasants in Gia Tan Village, Dong Nai Province, South Vietnam, to protest against the Communist agrarian reforms, to demand practical solutions, and to call for civil rights and democratic plurality.

On December 15, 1993, the Vietnamese Communist administration brought to trial five members of the organization: Nguyen Duc Loi, Trinh Van Thuong, Nguyen Thanh Van, Nguyen Huu Son, and Nguyen Van Trong. The defendants were tried without defense lawyers and behind closed doors. They were given sentences of 6 to 11 years in prison. According to the Association of Vietnamese Lawyers in the United States, the spreading of leaflets and writing of slogans on the wall did not constitute the crime of subversion or "activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration." These activities were only ways of expression of opinions and the demand for civil rights. The U.N. International Bill of Human Rights already stated them.. They are also provided by Article 69 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stated them..

Ly Tong

On Sept. 4, 1992, Ly Tong, a Vietnamese American, forced the flight crew on the VN850 airbus to open the airplane hatch when it came to Saigon airspace. Ly threw anti-Communist leaflets calling to the Vietnamese to revolt against the Communist rule. Ly finally bailed out into Ho Chi Minh City and was arrested two hours later. In a letter to the Bangkok Post, Ly said he would hijack a Vietnamese jetliner to complete his mission.

After dropping leaflets and bailing out of the plane, Ly was to stay in Saigon and lead the uprising force to overthrow the Hanoi regime as planned. Ly apologized for any inconveniences he had caused and added: "Your forgiveness will be deeply appreciated by my people and country as a great contribution to the liberation of Vietnam from the Communist yoke." The Far Eastern Economic Review, on September 17, 1992, reported that two other passengers on the flight were also arrested, suspected of being the accomplices. However, Ly Tong only acted by himself, according to his close acquaintances in the United States. Overseas Vietnamese tourists at Saigon's hotels were subject to interrogation later in the evening of that day. Ly Tong is a former lieutenant of the old Republic of Vietnam Air Force. His unprecedented 9,000 mile evasion from Vietnam for freedom was well narrated by the American Readers' Digest and praised by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan as a symbol of freedom.

Nguyen Si Binh and His Group

On April 25, 1992, the Hanoi administration arrested Nguyen Si Binh and 16 members of the Dang Viet Nam Nhan Dan Hanh Dong (People's Action Party of Vietnam), a clandestine political organization operating inside Vietnam. The dissidents were reportedly cooped up in containers. They were then transferred to prison and confined in cells that are only large enough for a man to stand up.

Nguyen Si Binh is a resident of Georgia, U.S.A.. A university graduate from the University of Maryland in 1981, Nguyen first worked for Bechtel and then General Development Corp. in Georgia, from 1983 to 1990. In April 1992, he was visiting Vietnam purportedly to perform a market research. He was thrown into prison as an alleged founder of the People's Action Party of Vietnam. The party called for economic development and democracy. Nguyen Si Binh immigrated to the United States in 1975. Nguyen decided to form a nonviolent opposition party after his return to Vietnam for the first time in 1988.

The Vietnamese People's Action Party was founded in Vietnam in 1989. It pursues its goals to struggle for a free and democratic country in which human rights are respected and the welfare of the people enhanced. The party's ideals attracted many overseas Vietnamese youths who long brooded over their will and love to serve and build up Vietnam into a prosperous country.

Nguyen Si Binh and approximately 1,000 members of the party throughout the country were reportedly arrested when a childhood friend, who turned out to be a spy, betrayed him. Representatives of the People's Action Party of Vietnam Overseas sent to international human rights agencies a list of more than 100 Vietnam Communist party members who participated in the organization's activities.

The Vietnamese People's Action party also published a list of 17 members of the organization who were arrested in Vietnam on April 25, 1992. The list included Nguyen Si Binh, 38, engineer; Du Van Thanh, 50, lawyer; Nguyen Thanh Cac, 42, former chairman of Vinh Long Province People's Council; Thong Minh Phuoc, 49, Army major; Le Hoang Lam, 42, professor; Le Hoang Mai, 35, professor; Ha Hat, 49, professor; Nguyen Van Duoc, 45, businessman; Ly Thanh Trong, 55, high school principal; Nguyen Si Tinh, 32, engineer; Tran Thi Be Sau, 38, businesswoman; Lam Thien Thu, 39, professor; Nguyen Si Linh A, 33, secretary; Nguyen Si Linh B, 33, businesswoman; Pham Van Thuc, 52, engineer; Nguyen Tam, 50 professor; and Nguyen Can, 61, poet.

Nguyen Si Binh was held without trial for 14 months. He was released in July 1993. Nguyen said that the Vietnamese government had promised to release nine other party leaders after he left Saigon. He also said that hundreds of other members remained jailed.

Nguyen Dang Ngon and His Group

On March 23, 1993, the Ho Chi Minh City police announced that it had destroyed reactionaries' schemes to create chaos in the city by setting fire with explosives to crowded areas and public buildings. It also thanked the people of Ho Chi Minh City for their cooperation and called for their vigilance to preserve peace in the city. The announcement was the first immediate action ever taken since the Communists took over South Vietnam in April 1975.

A Foreign Affairs Department official said that the police arrested 18 overseas Vietnamese. One of them had explosives in the baggage. The official added that the police arrested an additional number of overseas Vietnamese belonging to the same group within 10 days. A member of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council said that a few overseas Vietnamese in the U.S. had schemed to overthrow the regime. An attempt was made to create instability in the city to prevent foreign businessmen from investing in Vietnam. On the contrary, observers said that there was no certainty that anti-Communist organizations had attempted to set explosives at crowded places to kill innocent people. Furthermore, explosives, firearms, and ammunitions were easy to get in the black market in Vietnam. It would be foolish to hide explosives in the baggage and get caught in the act. One only needs dollars to get them.

Tom Godfions of the Toronto Daily reported that two Canadians were arrested for pro-democracy activities. They were Nguyen Dang Ngon, 25, of Hamilton and Nguyen Bui Hoang, 46, of Montreal. They were members of the Toronto-based pro-democracy Coalition of Vietnamese National Parties. Their lawyer, Richard Boralm, said that the police arrested coalition members after a cache of bombs and weapons had been found. The men were allegedly planning to plant bombs at key installations in Ho Chi Minh City such as the headquarters of the Communist Party and radio and television stations. Trials for instigators of the plot have not been announced.

Tran Manh Quynh and His Group

On May 27, 1993, the People's Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Tran Manh Quynh and five members of his group for plotting to set off bombs in Ho Chi Minh City. However, on January 20, 1994, Tran said, in his open letter from prison, that "after reading a lengthy and inconsiderate bill of indictment, they charged me with opposing to and sabotaging against the tyrannical administration. The trial committee pronounced against me a sentence of 20 years in prison and 5 years under administrative detention; Le Thien Quang, 15 years in prison and five years under administrative detention; Tran Thi Huong, 6 years in prison and 3 years under administrative detention; Bui Gia Liem, 6 years in prison and 3 years under administrative detention; and Le Quang Trinh, 5 years in prison and 3 years under administrative detention." All of the defendants were not allowed to have defense lawyers. Tran Manh Quynh was a former officer of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam with U.S. citizenship.

The Movement for Union of the People and Building of Democracy

Congressman Robert Dornan (R-Garden Grove), on August 4, 1994, sent to SRVN Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet a letter asking him to release immediately two Vietnamese Americans, Nguyen Tan Tri and Tran Quang Liem. Nguyen was a resident of Houston, Texas, and Tran, a resident of Santa Ana, California. Nguyen and Tran were members of the Movement for Union of the People and Building of Democracy. Upon inferred agreement with some top leaders of the Communist regime, the Movement, with the help of American Professor Stephen Young, planned to organize an international conference on economic development in Saigon by the end of 1993. Nguyen and Tran left the U.S. for Vietnam with Professor Young. However, the conference was canceled for some doubtful reasons. Professor Young was detained 48 hours and then expelled from Vietnam. On November 17, 1993, the Communist administration arrested Nguyen Dinh Huy, the president of the Movement, and two other members, Pham Tuong and Hoang Van Khai. Nguyen Dinh Huy was incarcerated without trial for 17 years, from 1975 to 1992. On February 11, 1995, they arrested three other leaders of the movement. They are Nguyen Ngoc Tan alias Pham Thai, Vice President; Professor Dong Tuy, Vice President; and Nguyen Van Chau, a member.
 
 

The Economy

Commenting on the economic situation, the "Thoi Bao Kinh Te" (Economic Times) published in Saigon, in its issues of December 23-29, 1993, wrote, in part::

Unfortunately, with preconditions, the intervenors seemed to be beset with doubt. There were strictly economic preconditions such as the capability to administer with efficacy the loan on contract, to mobilize corresponding domestic savings, to consolidate, and ameliorate the national monetary system. According to Huynh Buu Son, an economist, the money in the cities is the American dollar, and the Vietnamese "dong" is for the countryside. The newspaper stressed that the administration had to administer scientifically credits to reimburse regularly instead of taking recourse to expedients every year end as it has usually conducted its affairs. Moreover, it had to serve a writ until it reached its purposes: to eliminate theft and peculation in all forms.

Commenting on the Vietnamese Communist Party's approaches to policies, a longtime member in the Vietnamese Communist Central Party Committee said in bitter terms that, after the 1975 victory, there appeared ideas of an eccentric pride among the leadership of the Party, a Communist conceitness.

Even worse, trading and business transactions were virtually monopolized by state enterprises. The Company for Agricultural Commodities and Foods of Ho Chi Minh City directed by Nguyen Thi The, for instance, trampled underfoot laws and regulations, monopolizing the purchase of rice in the provinces. On the other hand, private businesses were in disarray. Sean Kelly, an Australian businessman in Saigon, observed that "one can do anything as one wishes." Indeed, imported goods were not regularized on social needs. Japanese cars and French wine, for instance, were imported to publicize the "freedom of trade." Worse still, contraband goods from Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Communist China inundated the streets of Saigon, creating an atmosphere of false prosperity.

Mismanagement

During the 1980's, the management in state enterprises worsened, leading to the decadence in the lives of cadres, workers, and state employees. The magazine "Cong San" (Communist Review), in March 1987, acknowledged that until December 1986, the real salary of workers and State employees only valued at about 30% of that in October 1985.

The Labor Company of Mines in Hon Gai disclosed that the real value of salary of mine workers remained at 35% of that of 1985. The monthly salary was 3,139 dong. On the contrary, on the average, each mineworker was practically paid only 925 dong. The mineworker and his family then could survive from 7 to 10 days. The conditions of living of the intellectuals were much more deplorable. Their monthly salary, on the average, was 600 dong; it was even less than the monthly income of a soup vendor. During June-August, 1986, 15,700 workers of the Company for Rubber Plantations in the Western High Plateaus quit jobs.

Unemployment

The unemployment was high, and thus, became a serious problem. The daily "Quan Doi Nhan Dan" (The People's Army), on June 8, 1992, disclosed that Vietnam had 7 million people who were either out of work or unemployed. Most of those who were unemployed lived in cities, and 1.5 million people who did not have regular jobs lived in the countryside. The daily also noted that, of 51 million people living in the countryside, 26 million aged 15-59 were out of work. The number of unemployed people aged 15-59 was increased to 75% of the total labor force. The high rate of unemployment resulted from the lack of capital, and the peasants were so poor that they could not afford to invest in grain production.

On the other hand, illiteracy was high--9% of the peasantry were illiterates, and 50% of them had not finished primary education. The increase in population was another serious problem. The daily "Hanoi Moi" (New Hanoi), on June 4, 1992, revealed that the population in Hanoi increased to about 1 million, and the annual increase rate is 1.73%. About 100,000 inhabitants lived in ruined houses; 30,000 inhabitants were allocated each with 1.5 square meters of room for housing, and only 20% of the population in the city enjoyed 6 square meters of room per person for housing. Of more than 10,000 young married couples, only 30% are allocated private housing. Far from controlling unemployment, the Communist administration failed in its control over the economic deterioration. In March 1988, it issued three new banknotes, the 1,000 dong bill, the 2,000 dong bill, and the 5,000 dong bill, to match up with the rising costs of living. The money was depreciated. The daily "Nhan Dan" (The People), on March 1, 1988, reported that every time a state agency wanted to buy a fairly large amount of commodities, it had to have a vehicle to transport the money. The daily commodities became increasingly scarce. Furthermore, the population augmented irrepressibly, and the supply of consumer goods in the rural areas deteriorated exceedingly. The same newspaper, on February 29, 1989, reported that, on the average, a peasant was afforded only 3 kgs of salt, 11/2 kgs of soap, and 1 square meter of fabric for clothing. The daily "Saigon Giai Phong" (Saigon Liberated), on August 23, 1989, reported that the goods were stuck at state warehouses due to poor means for distribution nationwide, and they were valued at 1,700 billion dong.

Social Ills

Ethic decadence and corruption prospered among state officials. The daily "Nhan Dan" (The People), on August 2, 1988, acknowledged that, as of the end of 1987, there were 6,845 thefts of public proprieties valued at 1,320,700,000 dong, and 60% of the peculators were state cadres. Sixty-five percent of the soldiers discharged from military service could not find jobs. Robberies increased daily. Juvenile delinquency was another major problem. Reports from the security police admitted that statistics collected in 1979 revealed that 15,511 teenagers committed crimes, were addicted to drugs, and practiced prostitution.
 
 

Harassment Toward Writers and Journalists within the Communist System

According to Lam Thanh Liem, the burning failure of the three consecutive five-year plans (1976-1985) farfetched the Vietnamese Communist Party to carry out "Doi Moi" (Renovation) which was adopted at the Seventh Congress (mid-December, 1986). The socialist economy was substituted by the "market economy," characterizing an extricate change to "economic openness" towards noncommunist countries.

The change in economy only created waves of dissent and claims, however. Nguyen Van Linh, who took up Truong Chinh's position as Secretary General of the Party, was considered to be the leading "renovators." He seemed, at first, to be in favor of "glasnost" and "perestroika." Modeling on the fashion of his Soviet homologue, Mikhail Gorbachev, he recommended writers, artists, and intellectuals to tell the truth, to fight against bullies, authoritarianism, and corruption. Having had two days of ideological work on literature and arts in Hanoi in October 1987, he recommended the regime's journalists and writers not to bend their pens.

The Secretary-General gave examples himself. He wrote on the daily "Nhan Dan" (The People) a series of articles entitled "Things that have to be done right now." In these articles, he denounced "negative phenomena." He gave them carte blanche. A flow of democratization breezed in, inciting many journalists, writers, and novelists to engage in the battle for "renovation." Many were critical of the political regime. However, their bitter criticisms and their claims for freedom of the press disquieted even the general secretary himself, the architect of "glasnost." To avoid the "irretrievable," he laid a watch against them, against the skids of the editors-in-chief's, mostly. Later, he found fault with the press in the South, most editors of which were superseded or forced to retire or excluded from the Party. Nguyen Ngoc, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Van Nghe" (Literature and Arts), the laureate of the national prize of literature in 1953; Vu Kim Hanh, director of the daily "Tuoi Tre" (Youth), received a warning for having published short stories and excerpts from novels of "reactionary" writers such as Pham Thi Hoai and Nguyen Huy Thiep. Pham was well known for her non-fictional writing "Nam Ngay" (Five Days), and Nguyen Huy Thiep was famous for his short story "Tuong Ve Huu" (The Retired General). Being a recidivist, Vu Kim Hanh published a letter written by Ho Chi Minh to his wife, a Chinese residing in China, which was contrary to Ho Chi Minh's official biography. (Ho Chi Minh was supposed to be single all his life). The female editor-in-chief was accused of having committed "a sacrilege." She was dismissed from her position and then arrested by the security police. The magazines and journals that voiced criticisms such as the "Van Nghe" (Literature and the Arts), the "Lao Dong" (The Worker)) in Hanoi, the "Song Huong" (The Huong River) in Hue, the "Lang Bian" in Da Lat, the "Saigon Giai Phong" (Saigon Liberated) in Saigon, and the "Hau Giang," the "Ap Bac," ... in other provinces were given warnings. Their editors-in-chief were either laid off or excluded from the Party (Lam Thanh Liem, 1994:
1-2 ).

Opposition from the Intellectuals and Party Members

For the past years, the Communist Party has committed errors. It has failed to fulfill elemental national objectives. It has failed to achieve its promises. Its leaders are old, and their knowledge of the world has become increasingly obsolete. They are incapable of solving critical problems that face the country and people. Opportunists overwhelm the contingents of party members and cadres at all levels. On the other hand, the administration is erroneous, and the management is fraudulent. These drawbacks eventually lead to corruption and abuse of power among state cadres and party members. The society immerses in stagnancy. The economy collapses. The national prestige is doomed to ruin, on both domestic and international scenes. Former Politburo member observed: "The Communist Party fails to play the role of an avant-garde political party."

The people, being fully aware of their role, now cease to give the Communist Party their mandate and resist from allowing the Communists to do as they please. Intellectuals, writers, and artists, being conscious of their duties of harbingers "to create and to forecast," reserve the rights to free expression. It is this impulse of awareness and consciousness that has awakened everyone out of a haunted fear. This fear, indeed, is slowly dissipating, and Man again finds his true self.

Little by little, Nguyen Khac Vien, Ly Chanh Trung, Lu Phuong, Bui Tin, Hoang Minh Chinh, Phan Dinh Dieu, etc., consolidate their credibility. Many of them have successfully cleansed such a notorious identity of "intellectuals of bad faith" that has long been attributed to them. There is no surprise when Bui Tin, Hoang Minh Chinh, Phan Dinh Dieu merely repeat Marxist dogmas. On the contrary, it is truly exciting when one listens to these Marxists divulge confidential talks that contradict them. The reason is simple: They were long trained in the Marxist theories and practices. No one ever believes they can talk the truth. The students in the South could not help from complaining about their fate when they were insulted. However, they truly felt relieved of a burden when they happened to read criticisms of the regime by Nguyen Khac Vien, a longtime Marxist from a France university, by Ly Chanh Trung, a leftist professor of philosophy at the old Saigon Faculty of Letters, and by Lu Phuong (La Huy Phuong), a pro-Communist student at the former Saigon Faculty of Pedagogy. They truly felt absolved from blame when listening to Ly Chanh Trung word his real thoughts in his speech or coming across Lu Phuong's analyses of the weakness and backwardness of the Party's policies and his advocacy for remedies and new practices. The intellectuals in the South have the impression that these people speak for them, squarely reiterating and refuting the party leadership's dogmas. They developed the same feelings towards such intellectuals as Lam Vo Hoang and Nguyen Xuan Oanh when they voiced their opinions about the political regime. They no longer think of them as "secret agents the Communists left behind in the South" during the Vietnam War. The cicada's honor is restored. It is no longer blamed for living as a parasite on the miserly and wicked ant's left over.

Writers and artists freed themselves from their haunted fear, bidding farewell to "a Period of Burlesque Literature and Arts," on which the Communists put a showy label: "socialist realism." Before his death, Nguyen Minh Chau was earnestly engrossed in his shameful fear that had obsessed him and corrupted him. It was the fear that compelled writers to think of one thing but write another. They dared not tell the truth. They were untrue to themselves. Everyone knew the economic and political disasters he endured, but no one dared voice his opinions. They erred on the side of the truth, instead. Suddenly, this dominating fear was driven out of their hearts. Just like a mute who happened to recover his ability to speak, they told things as they were. The contingent of these writers became increasingly numerous: Nguyen Huy Thiep, Duong Thu Huong, Pham Thi Hoai, Nguyen Quang Lap, Tran Manh Hao, Nguyen Manh Tuan, Ma Van Khang, Khuat Quang Thuy, among others. There were writers such as Le Luu, who overcame his fear then coiled back into it, as was revealed in his "Of An Immemorial Time." However, there were others who became so brave and so determined in the fighting to overcome this fear that they willingly faced death for their freedom of expression.

The Challenge

Intellectuals, writers and artists assumed their leading role. They refused to sell their souls to the devil. One by one, they raised doubts whether the Vietnamese Communist Party was insightful and clear-sighted. They spoke their own voices and expressed their own thoughts. The most daring writers should be Nguyen Huy Thiep and Duong Thu Huong. These two young writers had the bravery of those who used their pens to challenge fear and wiped it out (Van Duc, 18 (1993)).

Nguyen Huy Thiep

Nguyen Huy Thiep published his books after the political "openness" and economic "renovation." He ignored the literary mode of "social realism," risked even his life, and ventured on sensitive issues--themes that were of Communist taboo. He wrote stories about the exemplary life of the nationalistic leader, Nguyen Thai Hoc, whose shining patriotism the Communist recognized but often distorted and decried. His anecdotes about King Quang Trung and Poet Nguyen Du risked charges of defaming the national hero and denigrating Vietnam's most famous writer. His short stories, "The Retired General" and "Without a King," were, perhaps, the most realistic pieces of literature. In the former story, Thuan, the retired general, was depicted as being a stranger in the very society of which he had all his life dreamed. He now renounced it, nevertheless. Poverty, misery, and depravity pervaded. There were still maid servants and oppressed tenant farmers. His intellectual son reconciled with his lot to live with an adulterous wife. His daughter-in-law, who was an obstetrician, controlled everything in the family. She found the money by raising and trading sheep-dogs fed with fetuses she saved after procuring abortions. Thuan got away from a society in which a kindhearted man would only feel ashamed of himself: "The more kindhearted he is, the more shameful he would feel." Nguyen's short story "Without a King" exposed much more cruel debauchery. Money is King; the intellectual is becoming to degrade, and filial piety is depraved. The father-in-law looked slyly at his naked daughter-in-law while she was having a bath. The younger brother shamelessly courted his sister-in-law, had sex with her, and threw his own brother out of door.

Duong Thu Huong

Duong Thu Huong, a popular and reputed female writer for her frankness, is the author of many famous novels. In her novel "On the Brink of Hallucination," this female writer "proclaimed" war against the "fake idol" of the "socialist republic" society, obviously dethroning the leader of the Literature and Arts Association, Nguyen Dinh Thi. Following the writers and artists of the Humanist Literary Group (1956), she depicted atrocities during the Maoist-style agrarian reforms in North Vietnam. In her novel "Paradise of the Blind," she analyzed the true character of the so-called socialist society through vile abuses of a powerful cadre who sweats even his very sister's labor and resigns to live as a servant to save money while on mission in Moscow.

The writer was incarcerated on April 19, 1991, and accused of "gathering and siphoning abroad documents detrimental to State security," even though the documents in question were only the opinions the accused had presented to the Vietnam Communist Party leadership before the Seventh Vietnam Communist Party Congress that took place in Hanoi in July, 1991. She was freed on November 21, 1991.

Le Duc Tien

Filmmakers such as Le Duc Tien contributed to displaying the oddity in life under socialism. "The Idiot," in particular, truly reflected bitter ironies. To bring bamboo trees through the gate into the courtyard to build his house, the idiot placed them along the gate. He could not make it as the gate blocked the road through. He had to call on his father then his grandfather for help. All three generations of the idiot finally succeeded in bringing the bamboo trees in only after destroying the gate and stumbling with all the useful trees onto the orchards. The three generations of the idiot have made foolish things as such. Will the fourth generation of the idiot do the same things? Perhaps, because of this covert original message that Duong Dinh Thap, the then member of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Party Council in charge of Arts and Mass Media, ordered to cut short off the movie when it was being aired on the Saigon television. Nevertheless, the people of Saigon knew inside out the pretext under which Duong attributed to the reason for stopping the TV show when he apologized to the public.

Luu Quang Vu

Playwrights such as Luu Quang Vu also left original messages here and there in some 50 tragicomedies. Spectators recognized them penetratingly and really enjoyed their performances. "The Warrior's Wife" is an example. After he realized that he had married his own sister by mistake and had a child with her, the warrior hesitatingly revealed his heart to his adopted father: "I have made such a tremendously sinful mistake that I shall never be able to redeem. I must go right now."

The audience noticed the same message in the tragicomedy, "Truong Ba's Soul Reincarnated in the Butcher's Body," through such dialogues as the following:

The Young Man: I only tell the truth. Why are they afraid of it?

Truong Ba's Soul: There are irreparable mistakes... You couldn't patch up an old worn-out coat. You would only make things worse. The best way is to never do the wrong things or just do the right things to mend your ways.

The Young Woman: You wicked bastard! Get out! You butcher! Get out of here!

Another play by Luu Quang Vu, "The Eyes," also conveyed an equally meaningful message. The play was about the real life of a painter. He was a student at a college of plastic arts and had served many years in the army. He was a war hero and had feats of arms. Unfortunately, he lost his eyesight due to an injury in a fighting on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Coming back home, he lived a civil life with his beloved wife and determined to use his artistic expression in clay modeling to serve the revolution and society. He passionately created icons of leaders and soldiers, both male and female, hoping to describe the true images of the modern times' revolutionary warriors for future generations to contemplate. He had support from his beloved wife. The press and his friends praised his works warmly. One day, an ophthalmologist saved his eyesight. However, after having recovered his eyesight, he found out that all the statues he had created with enthusiasm and fervor were mere trivia. That was a true story, but, to the audience, it wore a different meaning: Although one has great feats of arms and does one's tasks with enthusiasm, one could not achieve anything when one loses one's eyesight.

The playwright and his wife died in an automobile accident. The incident was brought for a trial in court. However, the rumor still goes that the couple were murdered.

Veteran fighters of the Resistance against the French colonialists did not escape from redemption. In effect, after 30 years of sacrifices beyond all doubts and loyal services rendered to Hanoi (1945-75), a number of leaders of the former National Front of Liberation of South Vietnam were laid off to retirement. Besides, they were deceived by socialism: despotism, social inequalities and injustices, and corruption. The sacrifices for the Revolution cause were fruitless. Instead of raising the conditions of life of the people, the Revolution impoverished them. Quite a few ranking cadres, born in the South, were from the middle class. Although their services to the Party were enormous, their parents, their brothers, and their sisters were among the victims of merciless repression during the economic reforms in the cities and the collectivization of land in the South in the years 1978 and 1983-85. Since they were dispossessed from their properties, they were exiled in the "new economic zones." Hence, they could not hide their bitterness before a deceptive reality.

A number of "historic" leaders of the former Front then wanted to unite to defend their interests and the rights of veteran fighters of the Resistance. They had nothing to lose. Thus, "the group of the Tran's," the appellation given according to the family name of the three leaders: General Tran Van Tra, ex-president of the Military Committee of Administration of Saigon-Cho Lon-Gia Dinh in 1975, Professor Tran Van Giau, and Tran Bach Dang. The group created a private association "Hoi Cuu Khang Chien" (Association of Veteran Resistance Fighters), having its clubs scattered in Ho Chi Minh City and in the provinces where they could express themselves freely.

The organization had its own magazine "Truyen Thong Khang Chien" (Traditions of Resistance), which was not accorded recognizance by the state, with Nguyen Ho, president of the Patriotic Front of Ho Chi Minh City, as editor-in-chief and Ta Ba Tong, ex-official of the Patriotic Front in charge of propaganda to the intellectuals in the South during the Vietnam War, as assistant editor (Lam Thanh Liem, 1994: 2-3).

Nguyen Ho

In the 1980's, Nguyen Ho was among the veteran resistance fighters who outspoke criticisms against the Vietnam Communist Party's monolithic administration and advocated political and economic reforms. Together with other veteran high ranking cadres, he founded, in 1986, the Club of Veteran Resistance Fighters and published a newspaper to develop their purposes. His arrest, this time, resulted from his criticisms of the Party, demands and proposals for human rights, freedom, and democracy.

In an open letter dated June 22, 1989, Nguyen Ho bluntly criticized Hanoi's conservatism, authoritarianism, and violation of the constitution. He demanded more freedom, pluralism, and multipartism. To extinguish a wave of arguments that might arise inside the Vietnamese Communist Party at the time more than a million of Chinese demonstrated at Tianmen to demand democracy and multipartism and also to prevent the consequences of an unprecedented political crisis in East Europe, Hanoi decided to strike hard and at the head.

Nguyen Ho was arrested in 1990 after having withdrawn from the Vietnamese Communist Party and lived in retirement. He was then placed under administrative detention in Saigon. In May 1993, the Communist rule had to release him supposedly due to intervention by Germany Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel.

On March 9, 1994, the authorities in Saigon arrested and jailed Nguyen at the decision of the chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City's People's Council Truong Tan Sang. He was accused on charges with writing and disseminating articles falsely denouncing the State and Party's policies, thus sowing doubts and division among the masses.

Tran Xuan Bach

Tran Xuan Bach, the ninth member in the Communist hierarchy, was excluded from the politburo and the Central Committee for "serious mistakes. Tran concerned himself with the principle of organization of the Party, predicting that those serious mistake would translate into downcast effects." Tran declared himself in favor of pluralism and multipartism during his meeting with intellectuals and scientists in Hanoi on December 13, 1989. Discussing renovation, Tran believed that economic renovation should go hand in hand with political reforms since, in his words, "politics is a concentrated manifestation of the economy. This means the economy serves as a base for politics. Such is the dialectical relationship between politics and economy. If information from economic bases is lacking or untrue, then politics will be bureaucratic, inflexible, and general or even impose discipline and monopolize the truth. Once politics monopolizes the truth, the economy will be dispersed and disturbed. A recently learned lesson is that if a single model of socialism is applied to different countries, the consequences will be sluggishness and crises.

The vital lesson to learn in renovation, according to Tran, is that in economic and political reforms, we should not be impatient. We must take harmonious, accurate steps. We cannot walk with one short leg and one long leg, nor can we walk lame with one leg." (Tran Xuan Bach, 1990: 69)

Bui Tin

Colonel Bui Tin, editor-in-chief of the daily "Nhan Dan" (The People), took advantage of his official mission in Paris to make public the dissent of the "reformists." Being the author of many articles aired on the BBC, he denounced totalitarianism, intolerance, and corruption. He preached union, national reconciliation, pluralism, and multipartism.

Excluded from the Party, Bui had to live in exile in France beginning in 1990. He cited as proofs cases of oppression, repression, and arrests. Intellectuals and university educators in the North and the South contested peaceful expression of their opinions and political convictions. Many waves of arrests were operated. Several prisoners of conscience were condemned with serious punishment. Hoang Minh Chinh, ex-rector of the Institute of Philosophy, published his "Contribution to the Project for Political Program" on January 22, 1991. In this writing, he denounced "dogmatism, infantile leftist, and Maoist" of the regime. He demanded a "return to the State of Law." He criticized the absence of democracy concerning Article 4 of the 1992 Constitution according to which "the Vietnamese Communist Party is the unique force to lead the State and the society."

Bui Minh Quoc

Bui Minh Quoc, former president of the Association of Literature and Arts of the province of Lam Dong, launched a fight for the renovation of the country, democracy, and human rights. His enemies were fratricide criminals, lies over lies, and the stupidity established as a principle in the Communist system of power. The magazine "Langbian" of which he was the editor-in-chief was prohibited after three issues of its publication. Together with Tieu Dao Bao Cu, he went to Hanoi to petition his demand to some supreme committees. On the way, he collected signatures to demand for the freedom of the press and publication and dismissal of the cultural "mandarins." He was officially excluded from the Vietnamese Communist Party on June 17, 1989.

Ha Si Phu Nguyen Xuan Tu

In September 1988, while political events in Eastern Europe were in a full swing, Nguyen Xuan Tu alias Ha Si Phu sent to numerous state agencies and institutions and friends who were interested in methodology problems a memoir entitled "To Walk Hand in Hand under the Finger-panel of Intelligence." The administration prohibited the memoir in which the writer presented the extreme contradictions between the ideal proclaimed by Marxism-Leninism and the concrete realizations in Vietnam. He also called for the extermination of the "cult" of Marxism-Leninism. In his "Reflections of a Citizen," Nguyen Xuan Tu (1993) criticized the errors of the Vietnamese Communist Party while appealing to it to establish a progressive and moderate democracy.

Lu Phuong

In July 1993, Lu Phuong, an ex-cabinet member in the Provisory Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, published his political memoirs entitled "Dialogues on Marxist Socialism" discussing his viewpoints on Marxism and its evolution. He analyzed the scientific limits, the idealistic logic, and the abstract principles from which are derived economic and social factors and the fruitless attempts of "renovation" in Vietnam. He called for, among other things, the denationalization of the entire economy and establishment of a state rule of law in every aspect of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the people.

Phan Dinh Dieu

Phan Dinh Dieu, a mathematician and professor at Hanoi University, made pealing declarations before the press of the Occident. In early 1991, he sent a motion to the Vietnamese Communist Party leadership requesting it to disengage itself from old political habits and obsession with power and slavery to outmoded ideology, to return the political power to the people. He urged on the party to play the role of an avant-garde force and not that of an all-powerful party, which is, in reality, only representative of a minority in power. He demanded the Vietnamese leaders to "renounce the monopoly of the leadership." In other words, he claimed pluralism and multipartism. He was dismissed from his position of assistant director of the National Center of Science Research of Vietnam and was "authorized" at the moment to teach mathematics. On August 12, 1992, he appealed to the Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary-General Do Muoi to accept more political freedom and abandon the outmoded Communist ideology. He hoped that Do would transform the monolithic totalitarian Communist Party into a leading party in a democratic society. He said :

Nguyen Phan Canh, Professor of Linguistics at Hanoi University, and his family sought political asylum with local authorities in Toronto, Canada, after their arrival to the country on June 14, 1992. Nguyen graduated from the Hanoi Faculty of Pedagogy in 1957 and Prague University, Czechoslovakia, with a doctorate in Linguistics in 1973. He had been teaching at Hanoi University from 1957 to 1971 and had been an interpreter at Czechoslovakia General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City during the years of 1986-89. His latest position was professor of Vietnamese Studies at Prague University. While proceeding the formalities for his and his family's political asylum, Nguyen issued a three-page statement explaining the principal causes that led to the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Vietnam, according to Nguyen, will not be an exception. Feeling indignant at the obstinacy of the present Vietnamese Communist administration in its pursuance of communism, Nguyen assertively contended that the world is now prepared for a new age, and talking about the true and false of communism is truly outmoded. Vietnam is now one of the poorest countries in the world, and the Vietnamese culture is now dramatically degenerating into decadence. The termination of communism must be a prerequisite to any solution that can be promoted for Vietnam.

Nguyen Phong Ho Hieu

In his causerie at the Culture Hall of Workers in Saigon on August 1, 1993, Nguyen Phong Ho Hieu reminded the Communist administration that it should not be under the illusion that the American lifting of the trade embargo would only benefit Vietnam. It should not think that the American imperialism and cliques of capitalists will bring money and products to help Vietnam and build it into a successful socialism. They were excellent opponents of the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Vietnamese people during the war. They are not a bit innocent. The important problem for the Vietnamese Communist Party is to not be dazzled by the glamour of the dollar to lose national prestige, to not neglect the long-term interests of the people in granting long-term leases of national properties such as land, hills, mountains, and mines. It has to abandon the abuses of power, clarify what is untrue, acknowledge mistakes, return to the citizens the civil rights it has violated and appropriated, erase all that is contrary to the people's tradition of harmony and concord, return to the citizens what are of the citizens, and resolve their just demands. The presenter alleged that it is the socialist regime that ties the hands and feet of the country. It will demolish the economy because of its subjective dogmatism. In this regime, all the rights of the people are prescribed in the Constitution, but they are realized in the socialist manner, that is, Nothing. Nguyen Phong Ho Hieu particularly emphasized the characteristics of a party-rule regime. He pointed out that only the Communist Party and its two million members enjoy themselves all the rights of the 66 million Vietnamese and that only the very small number that constitutes the nomenclature have the rights to participate in the "proletariat dictatorship" administration.