Văn Canh Nguyễn - Vietnam under Communism, 1975-1982

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Photographs 15 courtesy of Der Spiegel from Wir sterben und haben keinen Sarg, August 8, 1981.

Photographs 6, 10, and 11 courtesy of Sphia University, Socio-Economic INstitute, Asian Relations Center Boat People: Todays Untouchables (Tokyo, 1978).

Photographs 7, 8, and 9 by Maekawa Makoto, courtesy of Sophia University, Socio-Economic Institute, Asian Relations Center, Refugees: The Cry of the Indochinese (Tokyo, 1980).

Hoover Institution Press Publication No. 285

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Van Canh, Nguyen, 1936

Vietnam under Communism, 1975-1982.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

1. Vietnam History 1975 - . 2. Communism

Vietnam. I. Cooper, Earle. II. Title.

DS559.912.N39 1983 959.7044 83-10754

ISBN: 0-8179-7851-8

ISBN: 0-8179-7852-5 (pbk)

To my parents

From the Tet Offensive to the Communist Takeover

Communism and the Vietnamese Economy

The New Leaders

Conflict, Change, and Ideology

The Party and the People

Repressionand Resistance

Culture with a Socialist Content

Measures Against Religion

Vietnams Bamboo Gulag

Re-education or Revenge?

Hanois Foreign Policy:

Hanois Foreign Policy:

Nguyen Van Canh first became known to me in the course of a brief visit to Saigon in the late 1960s. He was later to become a professor in the law school of Saigon University. I was interested in his research because he had written his doctorate on the Vietnamese communist movement, a subject in which I was greatly interested as a student of comparative communism.

Spending some time with Canh, I was impressed both with his intellect and his integrity. He and his family lived in very humble circumstances. Indeed, for those of us accustomed to the American way of life, his living conditions fell well below the poverty line. But his interest in books, his manner of speech, and his involvement in the problems of the day marked him as an intellectual, albeit one uprooted and tossed about by the turmoil that had engulfed his society.

There could be no doubt regarding his political commitments. He had long been an active member of the Dai Viet, Vietnams staunchly anticommunist nationalist movement. Canh, like millions of other Vietnamese, was living proof that communism and nationalism were not synonymous, the views of certain Americans to the contrary. His love of Vietnam and his determination to fight against all forms of external domination, including that of communism (which he believed to be a creed foreign to basic Vietnamese values), have long constituted the core of his politics.

Above all, this work represents the perspective of a Vietnamese who was himself actively engaged in the political and intellectual life of his society. Hence, it stands apart from any book that might be produced by a disengaged foreign scholar. Canhs views quickly become apparent. If his criticism of the Communists is trenchant and sustained, he is also critical of the South Vietnamese governments headed by Diem and Thieu. Herein is reflected one of the supreme problems of those who opposed the Communists: the disunity of South Vietnams noncommunists, who in actuality constituted the great majority of the citizenry. Canh is also critical of key aspects of American policy, most particularly what he regards as the fraudulent Paris Agreement of January 1973, which he believes paved the way for Hanois victory.

Fortunately for them, Canh and his family were able to escape from Vietnam at the time of the collapse. Otherwise, he would have certainly met the fate of many whom he describes in the pages that follow. It is not surprising that, on occasion, the searing emotional tragedies that form a part of Canhs life are reflected in the words that he chooses, the critique that he offers. In many instances, he is writing about the fate of friends and associates and recounting developments in a society of which he was a dedicated part.

Given the paucity of information on some subjects and the dispute regarding the facts on others, certain of Canhs interpretations and data will undoubtedly be subject to future revision, as he would be the first to acknowledge. Nonetheless, in this work, we have a comprehensive account of the structure and character of Vietnamese society under communism. In presenting this account, moreover, Nguyen Van Canh has turned to a variety of sources: official statements and documents from the leading officials and organs of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam; accounts provided by Western journalists allowed to visit the country; interpretations by longtime students of Vietnam; and by no means least, interviews with a variety of refugees.

Many of Canhs central themes are verified by other sources, and they present a grim picture indeed. I found particularly depressing his account of the treatment of the Catholics, Buddhists, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai leaders. Some of us will remember the thesis that if we Americans would only stop the killing, South Vietnam could have peace, with the South given a goodly measure of autonomy by the North. The National Liberation Front, we were told, would be allowed to establish a system separate from that being operated in Hanoi. A government of reconciliation would be created in Saigon, a united front into which all but the diehard reactionaries would be welcomed.

I am convinced that many Americans who repeatedly voiced these sentiments sincerely believed what they said. It is a tragedy that the skeptics among us were not able to convince a sizable portion of the journalist and intellectual communities otherwise. (In fairness, it should be noted that not a few noncommunist Vietnamese took a similar position.)