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Denouncing the ‘Việt Cộng’: Tales of revolution and betrayal in the Republic of Vietnam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2023

Nu-Anh Tran
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Abstract

The Denounce the Communists Campaign (1955–c.1960) was a key moment in the conflict between the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, South Vietnam) and the Vietnamese communist movement and would eventually escalate to become the Vietnam War. The RVN launched the campaign to turn public opinion against communism and destroy the underground communist network. Building on previous scholarship, this article examines the propaganda associated with the initiative. During the campaign, state propagandists and allied intellectuals developed a historical narrative about the Anti-French Resistance (1945–54) that vilified the communists. Although highly partisan, the narrative illuminates the longer history of violence between communists and anti-communists in Vietnam.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 686 - 708
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Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore, 2023

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Chi Ha, Peter Lavelle, Kevin Li, and Brett Reilly for their help with source materials and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions. This article was revised while in residence at the UConn Humanities Institute.

References

1 Nguyễn Xuân Mậu, Dòng sông sử hận [The river of historical resentment] (Saigon? n.p., 1962?), p. 20.

2 Ibid., p. 15.

3 Thayer, Carlyle, War by other means: National liberation and revolution in Viet-Nam, 1954–60 (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989), pp. 49, 81–3, 112–17Google Scholar; Elliott, David, The Vietnamese war: Revolution and social change in the Mekong Delta, 1930–1975, concise ed. (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2007), pp. 98–110Google Scholar.

4 Miller, Edward, Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the fate of South Vietnam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), pp. 132–4Google Scholar.

5 Chapman, Jessica, Cauldron of resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and 1950s southern Vietnam (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013), pp. 118–21, 128–9, 183–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Stewart, Geoffrey, Vietnam's lost revolution: Ngô Đình Diệm's failure to build an independent nation, 1955–1963 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 45–6, 169–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Tuan Hoang, ‘The early South Vietnamese critique of communism’, in Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia, ed. Tuong Vu and Wasana Wongsurawat (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 17–32. For the most extensive examination of the campaign currently available, see Nu-Anh Tran, ‘Contested identities: Nationalism in the Republic of Vietnam (1954–1963)’ (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2013), pp. 23–90.

8 At the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, I examined Record Group (RG) 59 General Records of the Department of State, RG472 US Forces in Southeast Asia, RG469 US Operations Mission Vietnam Resettlement and Rehabilitation, and RG84 Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State. I have also used the CIA Records Search Tool.

9 ‘Tiểu sử ông Trần Chánh Thành’ [Biography of Mr Trần Chánh Thành], Cách mạng quốc gia 189, 28 Feb. 1956, pp. 1, 4; Quốc Hội Lập Hiến [The Constitutent Assembly] (Saigon? n.p., 1956), p. 12; Edward Lansdale, In the midst of wars: An American's mission to Southeast Asia (New York: Fordham University Press, 1991), p. 340.

10 Thành tích tố cộng giai đoạn 1 [Achievements of the Denounce the Communists Campaign, phase I] (Saigon: Hội Đồng Nhân Dân Chỉ Đạo Chiến Dịch Tố Cộng, 1956), pp. 17, 25.

11 Thành tích tố cộng giai đoạn 1, pp. 73, 77; Charles Joiner and Roy Jumper, ‘Organizing bureaucrats: South Viet Nam's National Revolutionary Civil Servants’ League’, Asian Survey, 3 (1963): 206–8. For the origins of the civil servants’ league, see ‘Quyết nghị của Đại Hội Công Tư Chức Cứu Trợ Đồng Bào Tản Cư’ [Resolution of the Conference of Public and Private Sector Employees for the Assistance of Evacuees], Thần Chung [The sacred bell] 1645, 14–15 Aug. 1954, pp. 1, 4; ‘Tìm hiểu “Liên Đoàn Công Chức Cách Mạng Quốc Gia”’ [Understanding the ‘League of National Revolutionary Civil Servants’], Việt Nam Thông Tấn Xã [Vietnam Press] 2633, 19 May 1958, afternoon ed., pp. C–I, in National Archives Center II (NACII), Hồ Chí Minh City, Phông Phủ Tổng Thống Đệ Nhất Cộng Hòa (Office of the President Collection, First Republic, ĐICH), 16799; Charles Joiner, The politics of massacre: Political processes in South Vietnam (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1974), pp. 39–41.

12 Correspondence 1600-BTT/VP, form letter, Lê Khải Trạch to government offices, 17 Aug. 1955, NACII, Phông Phủ Thủ Tướng Việt Nam Cộng Hòa (Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam Collection, PThTVNCH), 29164; Scigliano, Robert, South Vietnam: Nation under stress (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963), pp. 51, 168Google Scholar.

13 Phạm Văn Liễu, Trả ta sông núi [Give my country back to me], vol. 1 (Houston, TX: Văn Hóa, 2002), pp. 340–41; John Donnell, ‘Politics in South Vietnam: Doctrines of authority in conflict’ (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1964), p. 236; Nguyễn Văn Minh, Dòng họ Ngô Đình [The Ngô Đình lineage], 4th ed. (Garden Grove, CA: Hoàng Nguyên, 2004), pp. 436–7.

14 Correspondence 1578-BTT/VP, form letter, Trần Chánh Thành on the establishment of political study organisations in all ministries, offices, and agencies, 13 Aug. 1955, PThTVNCH 29164; ‘Những tội ác của Việt Cộng’ [The crimes of the Việt Cộng], c.13 Aug. 1955, PThTVNCH 29164; Despatch 266, Saigon to Department of State, 2 Mar. 1960, NARA, RG84, Classified General Records, 1946–1963, Vietnam, Saigon Embassy, box 64, folder 560.1 Trade Unionism, Trade Union Movement-Vietnam.

15 ‘Tài liệu học tập về cuộc trưng cầu dân ý ngày 23-10-1955’ [Political study material about the plebiscite of 23 Oct. 1955], c.Oct. 1955, ĐICH 639.

16 Quân đội học tập chính trị [Political study for the army] (Saigon: n.p., 1956?), p. 55.

17 Thành tích tố cộng giai đoạn 1, 20.

18 Office of the Regional Delegate for Southern Vietnam, summary of the general monthly report for Oct. 1955, c.Oct. 1955, PThTVNCH 17; Thayer, War by other means, p. 49.

19 Scigliano, South Vietnam, pp. 167–8; Elliott, Vietnamese War, p. 101.

20 Despatch 329, Saigon to Secretary of State, 2 Feb. 1962, NARA, RG59, Central Decimal Files (RG59-CDF) 1960–1963, 751G.00/2-262. See also Minh Kinh, Thoái trào của Việt Cộng [The decline of the Việt Cộng] (Saigon? Trần Ánh Nguyệt, 1956), pp. 5–6.

21 Telegram 2763, Saigon to Secretary of State, 10 Jan. 1956, NARA, RG59-CDF 1955–1959, 751G.00/1-1056; Ahern, Thomas Jr., CIA and the House of Ngo: Covert action in South Vietnam, 1954–63 (Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2000), p. 94Google Scholar.

22 Scigliano, South Vietnam, pp. 170–71; William Duiker, The communist road to power in Vietnam, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996), p. 184; George Kahin, Intervention: How America became involved in Vietnam (New York: Anchor, 1987), p. 96; Thayer, War by other means, pp. 116–17, table 6.2.

23 Thành tích tố cộng giai đoạn 1, p. 81.

24 Thành tích tố cộng giai đoạn 1, pp. 80–81; ‘Thông cáo của Hội Đồng Nhân Dân Chỉ Đạo Chiến Dịch Tố Cộng: Cuộc thi văn nghệ tố cộng toàn quốc’ [Announcement of the People's Steering Committee of the Denounce the Communists Campaign: National contest of anti-communist art], Xây Dựng [Build] 7, 15 Mar. 1956, pp. 22, 26; ‘Lễ khánh thành phòng liên lạc của Đại Hội Văn Hoá Toàn Quốc’ [Opening ceremony for the publicity hall of the National Conference on Culture], Việt Nam Thông Tấn Xã 2088, 18 Nov. 1956, afternoon ed., pp. IV–VII, especially VII, in ĐICH 16035; Thanh Sơn, ‘Ca dao tố cộng’ [Anticommunist folk poem], Xây Dựng 3, 15 Jan. 1956, pp. 35; Thế Hoài, ‘Trở về’ [The return], Xây Dựng 13, 16 June 1956, pp. 11–13; Hoàng Minh, ‘Đằng nào cũng chết’ [I'll die either way], Xây Dựng 29, 1 Apr. 1957, pp. 19–22, 30–33; Ban Văn Nghệ Trường Di Chuyển Khánh Hội, ‘Ca dao mới’ [New folk poems], Xây Dựng 16, 1 Aug. 1956, pp. 58.

25 Correspondence 1290-VTV/SVT, Bửu Thọ to the Chief of Cabinet, Ministry at the President's Office, 9 May 1958, ĐICH 16602; various songs composed in the traditional musical style of central Vietnam, 9 May 1958, and ‘Cổ nhạc Bắc Việt’ [Traditional music of northern Vietnam], 4 Feb. 1958, both in ĐICH 16603.

26 Despatch 3076, Saigon to Department of State, 11 June 1956, NARA, RG59-CDF 1955-1959, 751G.00/6-1156; Scigliano, South Vietnam, pp. 54, 167.

27 Hoang, ‘Early South Vietnamese critique’, p. 19.

28 Despatch 339, US Embassy Saigon to Department of State, 23 Apr. 1956, NARA, RG59-CDF 1955–1959, 751G.00/4-2356.

29 Ahern, CIA, p. 95.

30 For various claims about the invention of the term, see Daniel Ellsberg, ‘Communists and Vietnamese: Comments by Hoang Van Chi’, Working notes on Vietnam no. 7, RAND file 19134-ARPA/AGILE, available at Daniel Ellsberg's website, http://www.ellsberg.net/documents/Communists.pdf (accessed 12 Sept. 2014); Neil Sheehan, A bright shining lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1988), p. 189; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A history (New York: Penguin, 1997), pp. 10, 245; Joe Sucksmith and Ngô Vĩnh Long, ‘Vietcong – what's in a word?’ The Blog-O-Bot, 5 Oct. 2013, http://theblogobot.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/vietcong-whats-in-a-word/ (last accessed 1 Oct. 2014).

31 I thank Peter Lavelle for his assistance in locating and translating Chinese-language archival materials from Taiwan and his insight into Chinese terms. All translations from the Chinese are his.

32 ‘Report on Sino-Vietnamese relations and assistance for the Vietnamese Revolution’, 1943, Kuomintang Party Archives, Taipei, Taiwan, Special Collections (SC),11/3.22; ‘Recent situation regarding the activities of the Chinese communists and VC on the border region of Vietnam and Guangxi’, 6 Dec. 1944, SC 29/7.47; cable to Wu Tiecheng, 20 Nov. 1945, SC 11/26.15.

33 For usage of Zhonggong by the Chinese Communist Party, see Zhou Enlai, ‘Zai Yan'an gejie juxing de “shuang shi er” jinianhui shang de jiangyan’ [Speech at a meeting held by representatives of all walks of life in Yan'an in commemoration of the December 12th incident], in Zhou Enlai xuanji [Selected works of Zhou Enlai], vol. 1 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1980), pp. 248–9.

34 Nghiêm Kế Tổ to Zhang Shouxian, 2 Dec. 1944, SC 11/15.89; Nguyễn Hải Thần to Wu Tiecheng, 15 Feb. 1946, SC 11/16.63; Nguyễn Hải Thần to Jiang Jieshi, 14 Dec. 1945, Chiang Kai-shek Archives, Academia Historica, Taipei, Revolutionary Documents, Period of Suppressing Rebellion, 002-020400-00050-025.

35 Chu Đạt, ‘Cộng sản và bù nhìn Pháp’ [The communists and the French puppets], Tiếng gọi, 1 June 1949, unpaginated. I thank Brett Reilly for providing me with this article.

36 Later publications in the RVN claimed that the term Việt Cộng was a contraction of Việt Minh cộng sản. For the claim, see Quân đội, p. 148. For usage of cộng sản Việt Minh and Việt Minh cộng sản, see ‘Hãy vạch mặt bọn sát nhơn!’ [Let's unmask the murders!], c.May 1950, and ‘Kỷ niệm trò Trần Văn Ơn’ [In memory of the student Trần Văn Ơn], 9 Jan. 1951, both in ‘Chánh phủ Bảo Đại kêu gọi đồng bào, 4/49–4/50’, NACII, Phông Phủ Thủ Hiến Nam Việt (Collection of the Office of the Governor of Southern Vietnam, PTHNV), F6-134; ‘Quân đội VN’ [The Vietnamese army], Chiến Sĩ [Warrior] 27, 5 Nov. 1951, pp. 3; CS, ‘Giai đoạn lịch sử’ [A historical period], Chiến Sĩ 42, 20 June 1952, pp. 3, 18; ‘Toàn dân chiến đấu’ [The entire people must fight], Chiến Sĩ 43, 5 July 1952, pp. 3, 18.

37 ‘Hởi [sic] đồng bào!’ [O compatriots!], c.1949–1950, in ‘Chánh phủ Bảo Đại kêu gọi đồng bào, 4/49–4/50’, PTHNV F6-134. I thank Brett Reilly and Chi Ha for providing me with this source.

38 Thu Hương, ‘Anh dân quân Nguyên hay câu chuyện chánh nghĩa’ [Nguyên the civil defense militiaman or a story about the just cause], Chiến Sĩ 24, 20 Sept. 1951, pp. 12–13; Chiến Sĩ, ‘Một đòn chí tử cho Việt cọng [sic]’ [A deathblow for the Việt Cộng], Chiến Sĩ 60, 20 Mar. 1953, pp. 3, 22; ‘Một cuộc mít tinh và biểu tình tuần hành khổng lồ tại Công Trường Nhà Hát Lớn, Hanội’ [A huge meeting and protest march at Opera House Square, Hanoi], Việt Nam Thông Tấn Xã 926, 7 Sept. 1953, afternoon ed., pp. III–IV, in PThTVNCH 20119.

39 For the earliest documented usage of the term in sectarian circles, see Hồ Hán Sơn, ‘Hiệu triệu đồng bào của Tổng Tư Lịnh Bộ Quân Đội Cao Đài’ [An appeal to compatriots from the Commander-in-Chief of the Cao Đài Army], Thần Chung 1639, 6 Aug. 1954, pp. 4. For the earliest recorded usage by Ngô Đình Diệm, see ‘Diễn văn đọc trong dịp lễ mãn khóa lớp cán bộ tuyên truyền (28-11-54)’ [Speech read at the graduation ceremony of propaganda cadres (28 Nov. 1954)], Con đường chính nghĩa [Path of righteousness], vol. 1 (Saigon: Sở Báo Chí Thông Tin, Phủ Thủ Tướng, 1955), pp. 77–9.

40 Trần Chánh Thành to Phan Quang Bổng, 31 May 1955, NACII, Phông Toà Đại Biểu Chánh Phủ Nam Phần (Collection of the Regional Delegate of Southern Vietnam), D1-158. I thank Kevin Li for bringing this document to my attention.

41 Guillemot, François, Dai Viêt, indépendence et révolution au Viêt-Nam: L’échec de la troisième voie, 1938–1955 (Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2012), p. 282Google Scholar.

42 Tô Văn, Sách lược ba giai đọan của cộng sản [The three-stage strategy of the communists] (Saigon? Chống Cộng, 1956), pp. 27–35.

43 Trần Ích Quốc, ‘Mặt Trận Tổ Quốc’: Một chiến thuật sảo quyệt của Việt Minh cộng sản [‘The Fatherland Front’: A devious strategy of the communist Việt Minh] (Saigon: self-published, 1957), p. 69.

44 Trần Ích Quốc, Mặt Trận Tổ Quốc, p. 104.

45 Marr, David, Vietnam 1945: The quest for power (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 251–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marr, David, Vietnam: State, war, and revolution, 1945–1946 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), pp. 410CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Goscha, Christopher, Vietnam: A new history (New York: Basic Books, 2016), p. 194Google Scholar.

46 Marr, Vietnam: State, war, and revolution, pp. 405–28; Guillemot, Dai Viêt, pp. 323–88; Goscha, Vietnam, pp. 206–8.

47 Thanh Lâm, Những vụ án lịch sử [Putting history on trial] (Saigon? n.p., 1957), p. 16. I have not been able to positively identify the author, but Thanh Lâm was one of the pseudonyms employed by the writer Trần Văn Thái.

48 Bernard Fall, The Việt Minh regime: Government and administration in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 2nd ed., (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1956), p. 7, map 2.

49 Thanh Lâm, Những vụ án, p. 20.

50 Trường Xuân Phu Tử Hồ Quang, ‘Sử gia Phạm Văn Sơn’ [The historian Phạm Văn Sơn], Vietnamsuhoc.com (3 Nov. 2013), http://vietnamsuhoc.com/Lsvhnext.aspx?id=12&tentheloaicha=L%E1%BB%8Bch%20S%E1%BB%AD&tentheloaicon=%20Nh%C3%A2n%20v%E1%BA%ADt%20l%E1%BB%8Bch%20s%E1%BB%AD&idtheloaicon=6 (last accessed 21 Dec. 2019).

51 Phạm Văn Sơn [Dương Châu, pseud.], Vĩ tuyến 17 [The seventeenth parallel] (Saigon: self-published, 1955). For his earlier, neutral account of Hồ Chí Minh, see Phạm Văn Sơn, Việt Nam tranh đấu sử [The history of Vietnamese struggles], 1st ed. (Hanoi: self-published, 1949), pp. 185–96, 240–54.

52 Phạm Văn Sơn, Vĩ tuyến 17, pp. 42–3 (capitalised in original). The translation of ‘The Advancing Army Song’ is taken from Jason Gibbs, ‘The music of the state: Vietnam's quest for a national anthem’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 2, 2 (2007): 144.

53 Những mặt trận bịp bợm của cộng sản [The deceitful front organisations of the communists] (Saigon? Bộ Thông Tin và Thanh Niên, 1956), p. 57.

54 Phạm Văn Sơn, Việt Nam tranh đấu sử, 5th ed. (Saigon: Việt Cường, 1959), p. 273.

55 Tăng Xuân An and Nguyễn Thị Hợp [Mrs Tăng Xuân An, pseud.], Việt sử lớp đệ nhất [Vietnamese history for the First Form] (Saigon? Tao Đàn, 1961–62), pp. 237, 251. See also Nguyễn Văn Mùi and Vũ Ngọc Ánh, Việt sử và thế giới sử lớp đệ tứ (Saigon: Thăng Long, 1959), pp. 160–61. I am indebted to Nguyễn Nguyệt Cầm for identifying Nguyễn Thị Hợp's real name.

56 Nguyễn Mạnh Côn never publicly admitted to joining the National Restoration Party, but he was the director of the party's official organ. For biographical details, see Nguiễn Ngu Í, ed., ‘Quan niệm sáng tác của các nhà thơ, nhà viết truyện, nhà soạn kịch’ [Conceptions of artistic creation among poets, fiction writers, and dramatists], Bách Khoa [Enclyclopedia] 122, 1 Feb. 1962, pp. 73–96; Nguyên Mạnh Côn, ‘Tâm sự tác giả’ [A writer shares his confidences], Tin Sách [Book news] 8–9, Aug.–Sept. 1961, pp. 25–33; Viên Linh, ‘Nguyễn Mạnh Côn, nhà văn miền nam tuyệt thực chết trong tù CS’ [Nguyễn Mạnh Côn, the South Vietnamese writer who died from a hunger strike in a communist prison], Người Tình Hư Vô Blog (24 Apr. 2014), https://nguoitinhhuvo.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/nguyen-manh-con-nha-van-mien-nam-tuyet-thuc-chet-trong-tu-cs-vien-linh/ (last accessed 21 Dec. 2019).

57 Nguyễn Mạnh Côn [pseud. Nguyễn Kiên Trung], Đem tâm tình viết lịch sử [Writing history with personal sentiments] (Saigon: Nguyễn Đình Vượng, 1958), p. 61.

58 Nguyễn Mạnh Côn, Đem tâm tình, pp. 61–2.

59 Ibid., pp. 74–6.

60 Guillemot confirms that the communists planned to take advantage of the temporary cessation of fighting after the Preliminary Agreement of 6 March 1946 to pre-emptively attack its non-communist rivals. He also contends that some non-communist leaders made secret plans for an event, possibly a coup, to take place in mid-July. Both Guillemot and Marr suggest that the communists used the suspected plot as a pretext for eliminating the VNP. See Guillemot, Dai Viêt, pp. 323–4, 336–41; Marr, Vietnam: State, war, and revolution, pp. 424–5.

61 King Chen, Vietnam and China, 1938–1954 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), pp. 155–278; Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), pp. 10–64; Chen Jian, ‘China and the First Indo-China War, 1950–1954’, China Quarterly 133 (1993): 85–110; Xiaobing Li, Building Ho's army (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2019), pp. 63–107.

62 Kim Ninh, A world transformed: The politics of culture in revolutionary Vietnam, 1945–1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 83–117; Chen, Vietnam, p. 258; Zhai, China, p. 34–5.

63 Alec Holcombe, Mass mobilization in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1945–1960 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2020), pp. 139–58; Edwin Moise, Land reform in China and North Vietnam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), pp. 178–204.

64 Võ Phiến, Văn học miền nam tổng quan [An overview of South Vietnamese literature] (Westminster, CA: Văn Nghệ, 1986), pp. 168–9; Scigliano, South Vietnam, p. 54.

65 Elliott, Vietnamese war, pp. 67–9.

66 For personal accounts of defection see Phạm Duy, Hồi ký [Memoir], vol. 2 (Midway City, CA: PDC Musical Productions, 1989), pp. 285–331; Lu Lan, ‘The People's War or War on the People?’, in Prelude to tragedy in Vietnam, 1960–1965, ed. John O'Donnell and Harvey Neese (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), pp. 133–4.

67 Elliott, Vietnamese war, p. 76.

68 The term may have been a corruption of the French word rentrer, meaning ‘to return’. See Phạm Duy, Hồi ký, vol. 2, pp. 324–5. For usage of dinh tê and the variation dinh tề, see Phạm Duy, Hồi ký, vol. 2, pp. 111, 118, 210, 269, 293; Phạm Duy, Hồi ký, vol. 3 (Midway City, CA: PDC Musical Productions, 1991), pp. 28, 43, 91; Hà Thúc Ký, Sống còn với dân tộc [Living and dying with the nation] (n.p.: Phương Nghi, 2009), p. 155.

69 Bùi Diễm, Gọng kìm lịch sử [The pincers of history] (Paris: Cơ Sở Xuất Bản Phạm Quang Khải, 2000), pp. 156–8; Võ Văn Tùng, ‘Tưởng nhớ cố đạo diễn Vĩnh Noãn: Đôi lời về một người anh’ [Remembering deceased director Vĩnh Noãn: A few words about an elder], Việt báo (10 Nov. 2003), http://www.vietbao.com/D_1-2_2-282_4-61965/ (last accessed 10 June 2011); Phương Anh and Hoàng Phong Khởi, ‘Behind the scenes with two Vietnamese actresses’, Radio Free Asia, 13 June 2006, https://www.rfa.org/english/features/women/witow_vietnamese-20060613.html (last accessed 12 Aug. 2021).

70 Chúng tôi muốn sống [We want to live], directed by Vĩnh Noãn (Saigon: Tân Việt, 1956). The film is also available as a privately produced DVD (Westminster, CA, 2002?).

71 Ibid.

72 Hoàng Trúc Tâm, ‘Tiểu sử và sự nghiệp’ [Biography and career], in Tìm về sinh lộ [Searching for the path to survival], by Kỳ Văn Nguyên (n.p.: Kyvannguyen USA, 1996), pp. 321–30; Nguyễn Ngọc Thông, introduction to Tìm về, by Kỳ Văn Nguyên, pp. 10.

73 Kỳ Văn Nguyên, Tìm về, pp. 51–76.

74 Ibid., p. 69.

75 Ibid., pp. 70.

76 Lê Phong, Người quân nhân dưới chế độ Việt Cộng [Soldiers under the Việt Cộng regime] (Saigon? Hoàng Ba, c.1955–59), p. 69.

77 Lê Phong, Người quân nhân, p. 70.

78 Nguyễn Mạnh Côn [pseud. Nguyễn Kiên Trung], Việt Minh, người đi đâu? [Whereto, Việt Minh?] (Saigon? n.p., 1957), pp. 36–8.

79 Ibid., p. 38.

80 Nguyễn Mạnh Côn, Đem tâm tình, pp. 104–17.

81 Ibid., pp. 124 (italics in original).

82 Nu-Anh Tran, Disunion: Anticommunist nationalism and the making of the Republic of Vietnam (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2022).

83 Rufus Phillips, Why Vietnam matters: An eyewitness account of lessons not learned (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008), pp. 90–91; Bùi Diễm, Gọng kìm, pp. 157–8; Bùi Diễm, In the jaws of history (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987), p. 92; Kim Văn An, ‘Chúng tôi muốn sống’ [We want to live], Văn Nghệ Tiền Phong [Avant-garde art] 23, 8 Nov. 1956, pp. 29–30, 33.

84 Jeffery Race, War comes to Long An: Revolutionary conflict in a Vietnamese province (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), p. 26; Nguyễn Trân, Công và tội: Những sự thật lịch sử [Merit and crime: Historical truths] (Los Alamitos, CA: Xuân Thu, 1992), p. 218; Hoàng Văn Chí, ‘Land reform’, in To bear any burden: The Vietnam War and its aftermath in the words of Americans and Southeast Asians, ed. Al Santoli (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), pp. 47.

85 Karnow, Vietnam, pp. 243–5; Race, War, pp. 26–7, 37–8; Kahin, Intervention, p. 96; Elliott, Vietnamese War, pp. 96–7.

86 Lê Thị Gấm to Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, 12 June 1956, ĐICH 4320; Lâm Thế Xương, former secretary of the Long Xuyên Provincial Committee, to the leaders and members of the Social Democratic Party, 5 Feb. 1956, ĐICH 4349.

87 This paragraph and the following rely heavily on Tuan Hoang, ‘From reeducation camps to Little Saigons: Historicizing Vietnamese diasporic anticommunism’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 11, 2 (2016): 43–95, esp. pp. 57–9.

88 Trần Văn Thái, Trại Đầm Đùn [Camp Đầm Đùn] (Saigon: Nguyễn Trãi, 1973; Fort Smith, AR: Sống Mới, 1979).

89 Y Thien Nguyen has persuasively demonstrated that Vietnamese-Americans adapted old anti-communist narratives from the RVN of the 1950s to narrate their experiences as refugees. This paragraph draws on Nguyen's work to suggest that Vietnamese refugees also drew on the anti-communist historical narrative to make sense of the mass incarceration of former citizens of the RVN after the war. See Y Thien Nguyen, ‘When state propaganda becomes social knowledge’, in Building a republican nation in Vietnam, 1920–1963, ed. Nu-Anh Tran and Tuong Vu (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, forthcoming).