Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City 9780857282354, 0857282352, 9780857282859

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Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City

Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City

Justin Corfield

Anthem Press An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company www.anthempress.com This edition first published in UK and USA 2013 by ANTHEM PRESS 75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA Copyright © Justin Corfield 2013 The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 235 4 (Hbk) ISBN-10: 0 85728 235 2 (Hbk) Cover map courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection), University of Texas at Austin. This title is also available as an eBook.

CONTENTS

Introduction Abbreviations and Acronyms Chronology Historical Dictionary of Ho Chi Minh City Appendices 1. French Officials 2. Vietnamese Government 3. Local Government 4. US Government Representation in Saigon 5. British Government Representation in Saigon 6. Street Names

vii xv xvii 1

342 346 350 351 353 355

v


INTRODUCTION

Ho Chi Minh City – still often refered to by its pre-1975 name, Saigon – has, since soon after the start of French colonial rule in the 1860s, been the largest city in Vietnam in terms of its population, and also the most cosmopolitan of the cities in Vietnam. The city probably had its origins in a Cham frontier settlement called Baigaur, which was most likely a market town during the eleventh century. The area was rich in fish, buffalo and rice, and it seems likely that it was Baigaur that became a part of the Khmer Empire, and became the Cambodian port of Prey Nokor after the Khmers defeated the Chams in 1145 and sacked the Cham capital of Vijaya in Central Vietnam. Over the next few centuries there was a major movement south of the Vietnamese people. In 1623, the Khmer king, Chay Chettha II, allowed the Vietnamese to establish a customs post at Prey Nokor. Many ethnic Vietnamese soon moved to the town, which grew in importance and in 1674, the Vietnamese from there launched an attack on Cambodia. In 1698, the town was taken over by the Vietnamese and it was renamed Gia Dinh. The town, gradually coming to be called Saigon, grew in importance, with a predominantly Chinese township called Cholon emerging to the west. The Tay Son Rebellion saw the Tay Son rebels attack both Saigon and Cholon – indeed when the nephew of the last of the Nguyen lords who ruled at Hue, Nguyen Anh (later Emperor Gia Long), took Saigon in 1789, he ordered the construction of a large citadel there to protect the city from attack. From the early nineteenth century, when French and other foreigners visited Saigon, they found the city dominated by the citadel, with Cholon still a separate township. A number of French settlers started living in the city, including the missionary Joseph Marchand, He became embroiled in a dispute with the imperial government when, in 1833, Emperor Minh Mang ordered that the grave of a popular general Le Van Duyet be desecrated. Many local people were angered by this and, led by Le Van Khoi, the general’s son, they stormed and took over the Saigon Citadel. In 1835, imperial forces took back the citadel and executed Marchand. The citadel was rebuilt in the following year.

viii

Introduction

In 1861, the French attacked this new citadel and in the Battle of Ky Hoa on 24–25 February, the French captured the citadel and took Saigon. This takeover was formalised in 1862 with the Treaty of Saigon, with Emperor Tu Duc ceding the three provinces, which included Saigon and the area around it. Six years later, three more provinces were ceded. These were to form Cochinchina.

Introduction

ix

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the French started constructing many of the buildings which would be important in Saigon’s history until 1975. These included the Notre Dame Basilica, and also the famous Opera House. And as well as the civic buildings, the markets were also rebuilt, with better attention to sanitation. With World War I, some of the Vietnamese elite in Saigon started becoming involved in politics through the Constitutionalist Party and other moderate groups, which sought to gain control of the Constitutional Council, the advisory body set up by the French. At the same time, there were also Vietnamese Nationalists inspired by the Kuomintang in China; and the Vietnamese Communists formed with the help of the Soviet and Chinese communist movements. French rule in Saigon during the 1920s and 1930s led to a major increase in government infrastructure. However, the nationalist and communist movements were becoming better organised and seeking a moment to take power from the French. With the start of World War II, and especially with the defeat of France in June 1940, the French were humiliated. The colonial government in Indochina tried to maintain their rule, but there were inroads made by some Japanese who, on 9 March 1945, seized power and forced Emperor Bao Dai to declare independence. There was much political ferment in Saigon, with Bao Dai’s hold on on the city not being very strong. When Japan surrendered, the communists under Ho Chi Minh used the power vacuum to seize power.

Rue Catinat in the 1930s.

x

Introduction

The communist movement was not as strong in Saigon as it had been in other parts of Vietnam, and the French managed to take back control of Saigon. The French held power through to 1954, initially themselves, and then formed the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, then, after machinations in the city, they managed to get Bao Dai to agree to head the State of Vietnam. However, Bao Dai and the French had to rely on the Binh Xuyen, the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao to maintain their rule. With the defeat of France in 1954, and the French government were determined to pull out under the terms of the Geneva Agreements, prime minister Ngo Dinh Diem decided that he would try to build a state centred on Saigon. With US backing, he destroyed the power of the Binh Xuyen, the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao, and in 1955, following a referendum, he proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam. Initially able to pull together many of the various anti-communist political groups in Saigon and elsewhere, Diem was so successful that in 1960, the communists decided to launch an insurgency with the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, forming the People’s Liberation Armed Forces in the following year.

Boulevard Bonnard in the 1950s.

With the influx of US funds, and growing economic certainty in the city, Saigon started to boom with a rise in construction. Gradually the fields between Saigon and Cholon were covered with buildings, and many of the major hotels had journalists covering the war, and soon the political developments. Also there was rising discontent against President Diem, and the rebel air force

Introduction

xi

officers bombed the Presidential Palace in February 1962, forcing the first family to move to the Gia Long Palace. In the summer of 1963, the protests, mainly by Buddhist activists, reached a peak with the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc. Rebel soldiers, with the backing of the United States, attacked the Gia Long Palace on 1 November. Although President Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu escaped, they were killed on the following day. From November 1963 until June 1965 there were constant coups and coup attempts, with US presidential adviser Jack Valenti describing the government as a ‘turnstile’. The economic boom in Saigon continued, but it was now solely based on US government funding, which increased dramatically after March 1965, when US marines arrived in South Vietnam. The Vietnam War from 1965 until 1975 saw relatively little fighting in Saigon itself which remained – largely – relatively stable, especially when compared to the previous ten years. There were exceptions, such as the attack on the US Embassy in March 1965, and, of course, the Tet Offensive when the Vietnamese communists sought to prove that they could attack targets thought to be safe, including the US Embassy itself. Although the Tet Offensive did not lead to a general uprising, as some of the communist leadership had hoped, and the US and South Vietnamese forces took back control of the city, in the minds of many people around the world, the South Vietnamese were seen to be losing. The increasing number of US casualties, and the use of conscription, led to the war becoming more and more unpopular in the United States. As the US government sought a way of extricating themselves from the fighting, negotiations with the communists started, leading to the Paris Agreement of 27 January 1973. The rest of 1973 and the whole of 1974 was a period of some renewed confidence in Saigon. Many people expected that the fighting might be over, as a political accommodation seemed to have been reached. However, there were regular clashes, especially in late 1974, and the Vietnamese communists decided to attack in January 1975. Intially, they moved slowly, worried about US reaction. Soon they realised that the United States was not planning to intervene. Although the communists had planned a two-year war, they quickly moved on Saigon, with the South Vietnamese throwing all their forces into the Battle of Xuan Loc. After massive communist assaults, the South Vietnamese Army was finally defeated on 21 April, with President Nguyen Van Thieu resigning. Some of the South Vietnamese leadership believed that they could achieve some form of political settlement, but the communists were able to move on Saigon, shelling it from 27 April, The United States launched Operation Frequent Wind to evacuate their citizens, their South Vietnamese allies, and third country nationals. On 30 April 1975, Vietnamese communist tanks burst into the grounds of the Presidential Palace and the South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh urged a ceasefire.

xii

Introduction

Many people appeared on the streets to cheer the communists – as well as the end of the war. The statue to the South Vietnamese Army – known as the Marine Statue – in the centre of the city was pulled down. It seemed as though the communists might be magnanimous in their victory. However, the new regime quickly started rounding up South Vietnamese officials, many of whom languished for many years in terrible conditions in prison camps. The United States maintained a boycott of trade with Vietnam, and the country went through a restructuring by hardline communist ideologues. Many families in Saigon lost everything. Even low-level former South Vietnamese soldiers and civil servants found themselves banned from employment, and the Chinese merchant class was persecuted in 1978, with hundreds of thousands of them forced to flee, creating refugee problems throughout the region. The problem was exacerbated in the following year after the war between China and Vietnam.

Bà Huyn Thanh Quan in 2000. Author’s Photograph.

During the 1980s, Vietnam remained isolated and few foreigners visited Ho Chi Minh City (as Saigon had been renamed). The isolation of Vietnam continued following their invasion of Cambodia in December 1978. With the withdrawal of Vietnamese forces from Cambodia in 1989, and moves towards

Introduction

xiii

liberalising the economy in Vietnam – especially in Saigon – there appeared ready flow of foreign tourists into the country. During the late 1990s, this increased rapidly, and continued through the 2000s, as troubles in Indonesia saw many people who might have gone there heading for the more politically stable Vietnam. Many Vietnamese whose families had fled overseas started to return to Vietnam to visit, and sometimes to set up businesses. During the 2000s, Saigon was transformed again, with a massive construction boom as hotels and guest houses sprang up all over the city to cater for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who came in search of good weather, and the cheap cost of living. Many museums around Ho Chi Minh City show not only aspects of the Vietnam War, but also the French colonial presence and Dong Khoi has now as many exquisite shops as Rue Catinat had in old Saigon. After studying the history of Vietnam and teaching about the Vietnam War for many years, my work on the history of the city, which forms the basis of this book, started during two visits to Ho Chi Minh City when I managed to purchase large numbers of old books, journals, and newspapers from the French period, and visit most of the sites covered in this book. I must also thank Hanh Nguyen, who lived in Ho Chi Minh City for several years, for his checking the Vietnamese diacriticals. References at the end of articles indicate further reading and other background reading. An emphasis is given to works in English and which are accessible to the general reader. This includes the major biographical works, Who’s Who, the British publication (although it does cover some non-Britons), and Who Was Who, the cumulative edition of the same work. Justin Corfield March 2013

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ARVN

Army of the Republic of (South) Vietnam

ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

CEFEO

French Far East Expeditionary Corps

CIA

(United States) Central Intelligence Agency

COSVN

Central Office of (Communist) South Vietnam

CPV

Communist Party of Vietnam

DRV

Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam

EFEO

École Française d’Extrême-Orient

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GNP

Gross National Product

ICC

International Control Commission

ICP

Indochina Communist Party (Communist Party of Indochina)

IMF

International Monetary Fund

MIA

Missing in Action

NFL

National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam

PAVN

People’s Army of Vietnam

PLAF

People’s Liberation Armed Forces

PRG

Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam

RVN

Republic of (South) Vietnam

SRV

Socialist Republic of Vietnam xv

xvi Abbreviations and Acronyms

SVN

(Associated) State of Vietnam

SVN

South Vietnam

UN

United Nations

UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund (formerly United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund)

USA

United States of America

VNA

Vietnamese National Army

VNQDD

Vietnam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party)

VWP

Vietnam Workers’ Party

WHO

World Health Organization

CHRONOLOGY

300–400 A Funan temple is built near a sacred pond (later the site of the Phung Son Pagoda). 1000s

The village or town of Baigaur is noted as being on the southern extremities of the Cham Empire. It is now believed that Baigaur is the predecessor of Saigon.

1145

The Cham capital of Vijaya is sacked by the Khmers from Cambodia, and Baigaur is believed to become the Khmer settlement of Prey Nokor.

1623

The Khmer King Chey Chettha II allows the Vietnamese to establish a customs post at Prey Nokor.

1674

The Vietnamese launch an attack on Cambodia from Prey Nokor.

1698

The town of Prey Nokor is taken over by the Vietnamese and is renamed Gia Dinh. During the eighteenth century, it takes on the name Saigon.

1744

The Giac Lam Pagoda is constructed north of Cholon (Spring).

1760

The Ba Thien Hau Pagoda is built in Cholon by Cantonese settlers.

1769

The Tay Son Rebellion starts, with peasants from the village of Tay Son rising up against the Nguyen lords.

1772

The Giac Lam Pagoda assumes its current name.

1776

The Tay Son rebels capture Saigon and kill most of the Nguyen lords hiding there. Nguyen Anh (later Emperor Gia Long) manages to escape. Mac Thien Tu leading a Nguyen army recaptures Saigon (July).

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Chronology

1777

The Tay Son rebels again take Saigon (August). The rebels execute most of the Nguyen family who escaped in 1776 (18 October). Nguyen Anh manages to retake Saigon (around November).

1778

The Tay Son rebels attack Colon and kill as many as 10,000 Chinese merchants and their families.

1782

The Tay Son rebels capture Saigon for a third time (March). They also sack Cholon again, with more Chinese being massacred

1789

Nguyen Anh (later Emperor Gia Long) captures Saigon from the Tay Son rebels.

1790

Construction starts on the citadel in Saigon with the help of French engineers.

1792

Olivier de Puymanel starts training Vietnamese soldiers in European fighting techniques.

1798

The Giac Vien Pagoda is built.

1800

The Ba Thien Hau Pagoda in Cholon is considerably enlarged.

1802

Nguyen Anh proclaims Hue the capital of the Vietnamese Empire and assumes the title Emperor Gia Long.

1803

The American sailor, John Briggs, visits Saigon.

1819

John White, a US sea captain, visits Saigon.

1820

The death of Emperor Gia Long; his successor becomes Emperor Minh Mang.

1822

George Finlayson, a Scottish surgeon, visits Saigon.

1823

The British envoy George Gibson visits Saigon.

1830

A large bronze bell is installed in the Ba Thien Hau Pagoda.

1832

Chinese schools teaching Confucian classics are formalised in Cholon. The province of Gia Dinh (which includes Saigon) is established. Le Van Duyet dies in the citadel at Saigon (3 July).

1833

Following the desecration of the grave of Le Van Duyet on orders of Emperor Minh Mang, his supporters attack and capture the Saigon Citadel.

1834

Le Van Duyet’s son, Le Van Khoi, dies.

1835

Imperial forces storm the Saigon Citadel and execute Catholic missionary Joseph Marchand.

Chronology

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1836

The Saigon Citadel is rebuilt.

1840

The Grand Homme Pagoda is built.

1844

Dominique Lefèbvre is appointed vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (2 March).

1850

The Giac Vien Pagoda assumes its current name.

1858

The British seaman Edward Brown is incarcerated in the Saigon Prison.

1859

Work starts on the building of the Archbishop’s Palace. The Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery is laid out.

1861

The French attack the citadel at Saigon, leading to the Battle of Ky Hoa (24–25 February), and the demolition of the citadel (8 March).

1862

The Treaty of Saigon results in Emperor Tu Duc ceding three provinces, including Saigon, to the French (5 June).

1864

Work starts on the establishment of the botanical gardens in Saigon, and also the Norodom Palace (later Presidential Palace, now the Reunification Palace). Jean-Claude Miche becomes vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (9 September).

1867

The Vietnamese Emperor Tu Duc formally cedes the provinces of Cau Doc, Ha Tien and Vinh Long, which form the basis of Cochinchina.

1869

The Tan Dan Park was established.

1870

The Ben Thanh Market is destroyed in a fire.

1873

Isidore-François-Joseph Colombert becomes vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (1 December).

1874

The first classes start at Le Collège Indigène (later Lycée Chasseloup Laubat; now Lycée Le Quy Don).

1877

Bishop Colombert lays the foundation stone for the Notre Dame Basilica. Le Collège Indigène is renamed Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) (31 March).

1878

Work starts on the building of the Hôtel Continental.

1880

Notre Dame Cathedral completed (11 April).

1881

Work starts on the railway from Saigon to My Tho.

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Chronology

1891

The Pasteur Institute is established.

1893

The Saigon Race Track is established.

1895

Construction work starts on the Mong Bridge. There is a cholera epidemic in Saigon and the area around it. Jean-Marie Dépierre becomes vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (12 August).

1897

Work starts on the construction of the Opera House.

1899

Lucien-Émile Mossard becomes vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (11 February).

1900

The Opera House opens (1 January).

1902

Work starts on the construction of the Huyen Sy Church.

1906

Work starts on the Jade Emperor Pagoda.

1912

Construction of the New Ben Thanh Market starts.

1913

The Phan Xich Long Rebellion.

1917

The execution of Phan Xich Long (22 February). The newspaper La Tribune Indigène is established by the Constitutionalist Party.

1919

The Cao Dai movement is founded.

1920

Victor-Charles Quinton becomes vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (11 February).

1923

The newspaper La Cloche Fêlée starts publication.

1924

Maison Edmond & Henry builds its impressive headquarters, which later becomes the headquarters of the French Chamber of Commerce.

1925

The Hotel Majestic is built in Saigon. Isidore-Marie-Joseph Dumortier becomes the vicar apostolic of Saigon (17 December).

1926

Air Asie is formed in Saigon for civil aviation in French Indochina. Work starts on the construction of the Temple of Hung Vuong, and also the Tan Dinh Market. Elections are held for the Colonial Council (10 October).

1927

Work starts on the construction of the Grand Hotel in Saigon.

1928

Work starts on the new Binh Tay Market after it was destroyed in a fire. Murder at Barbier Street, Saigon (8 December).

Chronology

xxi

1929

The first international flight from Saigon leaves for Hong Kong (24 May).

1930

Bank of Indochina building constructed. The Vietnamese Boy Scout movement begins. The Communist Party of Indochina is formed in Hong Kong. Elections are held for the Colonial Council (7 December).

1931

Work starts on the construction of the Central Mosque in Saigon. The cities of Saigon and Cholon are merged to form Saigon-Cholon (27 April).

1934

François Xavier Tam Assoa dies.

1935

The Cholon Mosque is built. Elections are held for the Colonial Council (3 March).

1937

The grave of Le Van Duyet is repaired.

1939

Work starts on the Khan Van Nam Vien Pagoda. Elections are held for the Colonial Council (16 April). France declares war on Germany (3 September).

1940

Germany invades France (10 May). French government signs an armistice with Germany (22 June). The French authorities crack down on the Cao Dai (24 August).

1941

Jean Cassaigne becomes the vicar apostolic of Saigon (20 February). Japanese planes from Saigon bomb and torpedo the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battle cruiser HMS Repulse (10 December).

1945

Japanese seize power in French Indochina (9 March). Emperor Hirohito declares the Japanese surrender (15 August). Jean Cédile parachutes into Cochinchina and is captured by Japanese near Saigon (24 August). Japan formally surrenders in Tokyo Harbour; Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (2 September). British forces start to arrive in Saigon (9 September). One hundred and fifty French and Franco-Vietnamese civilians are massacred by the Binh Xuyen and the communists (24 September). Peter Dewey is killed, the first US citizen to die in the conflict in Vietnam (26 September).

1946

The Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina is proclaimed (1 June). French ships bombard communist-held Haiphong, starting French Indochina War (November). Nguyen Van Thinh commits suicide (10 November).

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Chronology

1949

Bao Dai presides over a new pro-French Vietnamese government, but refuses to move to Saigon unless the French high commissioner vacates the Norodom Palace for him (30 June).

1950

Marcel Bazin, deputy chief of police in Cochinchina is murdered (28 April).

1951

Graham Greene comes to Saigon (25 January). The French general Charles Chanson is killed (3 July).

1954

The French forces are defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu as the Geneva Peace Talks turns to discuss Indochina (May). Ngo Dinh Diem is appointed as prime minister (26 June). An agreement to partition Vietnam is reached (July).

1955

The Can Lao Party is created. Simon Hoa Nguyen Van Hien becomes the vicar apostolic of Saigon (20 September). There is a South Vietnamese referendum to oust Bao Dai as head of state (23 October). The Republic of Vietnam is proclaimed, with Ngo Dinh Diem as president (26 October). Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American is published.

1956

Elections are held for the Constitutional Assembly (4 March). The building of the Xa Loi is completed (5 August).

1958

A cloth merchant burns himself to death at the Pointe des Blagueurs (February). The Xa Loi Pagoda formally opened (2–4 May).

1959

Elections are held for the National Assembly (3 August).

1960

The Caravelle Manifesto is issued (April). There is a coup attempt against President Ngo Dinh Diem (11 November). Paul Nguyen Van Binh becomes the metropolitan archbishop of Saigon (24 November). The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam is proclaimed (December). The seven storey tower on the Xa Loi Pagoda is completed (15 December).

1961

Presidential elections held (9 April), seeing President Ngo Dinh Diem being confirmed in office.

1962

The Presidential Palace in Saigon is bombed (27 February). President Ngo Dinh Diem moves to the Gia Long Palace.

1963

Protests against the Diem government start, using the An Quang Pagoda as their base (May). Self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc (10 June). Parliamentary elections are scheduled (31 August), but postponed. Parliamentary elections are held (27 September). Rebel

Chronology

xxiii

soldiers attack the Gia Long Palace (1 November), resulting in the arrest of Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu in Cholon and their subsequent murder (2 November). A Provisional Leadership Committee is established, headed by Duong Van Minh, Nguyen Khanh, and Tran Thien Khiem 1964

Work starts on the construction of the Vinh Nghien Pagoda. A bomb explodes in the Caravelle Hotel (25 August). Phan Khac Suu becomes president (26 October). The bombing of the Brinks Hotel occurs (24 December).

1965

Some 3,500 US marines are deployed in South Vietnam (8 March). The US Embassy in Saigon is attacked (30 March). Nguyen Van Thieu becomes chairman of the National Leadership Committee (14 June).

1966

Repairs on the Presidential Palace are completed and Nguyen Van Thieu moves there from the Gia Long Palace.

1967

Senate elections are held (2 September). Presidential elections are held (3 September), with victory to Nguyen Van Thieu, who becomes president. Parliamentary elections are held (22 October).

1968

The Tet Offensive starts, with attacks on South Vietnamese military and political targets, and the US Embassy (31 January). Eddie Adams takes his famous photograph of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting a captured communist prisoner outside the An Quang Pagoda (1 February).

1970

Senate elections are held (30 August).

1971

The Vinh Nghien Pagoda is completed. National Assembly elections are held (29 August). Presidential elections are won by Nguyen Van Thieu standing unopposed (2 October).

1973

The signing of the Paris Peace Accords ends direct US participation in the war (27 January).

1975

The communist attack occursoccurs (January). The Battle of Xuan Loc occurs (9–21 April). President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns and hands power to Tran Van Huong (21 April). The communists bring their artillery to positions near Saigon and start shelling the city (27 April). Tan Son Nhut Airport is shelled; Tran Van Huong steps down, with Duong Van Minh assuming power (28 April). The US evacuates Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind (29–30 April). The communists capture Saigon (30 April).

xxiv

Chronology

1976

Elections are held for the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (25 April). The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is formally proclaimed at the Rex Hotel; and the province of Sai Gon Gia Dinh is renamed Ho Chi Minh City (2 July). Paul Nguyen Van Binh becomes the metropolitan archbishop of Than-Pho Ho Chi Minh (23 November).

1978

Following persecution of ethnic Chinese throughout the whole of Vietnam, but especially in Ho Chi Minh City, large numbers start leaving the country (April). The Gia Long Palace is transformed into the Revolutionary Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (12 August).

1979

A census is held in Vietnam (1 October).

1981

National Assembly elections are held (26 April).

1983

The Ho Chi Minh City authorities decide to clear the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery.

1987

National Assembly elections are held (19 April).

1989

A census is held in Vietnam (1 April). The Saigon Floating Hotel – The Floater – is brought to Saigon.

1992

National Assembly elections are held (20 July).

1994

Work starts on the Saigon Trade Center.

1996

The Saigon Floating Hotel – The Floater – closes down.

1999

A census is held in Vietnam (1 April).

2002

National Assembly elections are held (19 May).

2007

Construction work begins on the Bitexco Financial Tower. National Assembly elections are held (20 May).

2009

A census is held in Vietnam (1 April).

2010

The official opening of the Bitexco Financial Tower (31 October).

2011

The Grand Hotel in Saigon reopens after a major renovation. National Assembly elections are held (22 May).

Chronology

Saigon in the 1930s.

xxv

xxvi

Chronology

Saigon in the late 1950s.

HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

A ABBOTT, GEORGE MANLOVE (1904–1988). The US consul general in Saigon from 1948 until 1950, he was born on 5 February 1904 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Walter H. Abbott and Winifred (née Manlove). Studying at the Case School of Applied Science, he joined the US consular service, and was vice consul in Calcutta, India, 1928–29; Oslo, Norway 1930–34; and then was US consul in Marseille, France, 1938–41; and at Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1941. Serving in Paris in 1944, he was then posted to Saigon. On 12 September 1946, Abbott met with Ho Chi Minh, and the latter mentioned his admiration for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and for his own wartime collaboration with Americans. Whilst in Vietnam, Abbott also reported on what he saw as the inevitability of a communist victory in the whole of Indochina, unless it was to be an ‘advance bastion against [the] Bolshevist tide in Southeast Asia’. He was also critical of the Elysée Accords and the special rights given to French citizens without any corresponding rights accorded to the Vietnamese. A Republican, he retired in June 1962. He died on 22 February 1988 in Morristown, Vermont. References: William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000, p. 377; Robert Mann, A Grand Delusion: America’s Descent into Vietnam, New York: Basic Books, 2001, pp. 71, 73; Edward Rice Maximin, Accommodation and Resistance: The French Left, Indochina and the Cold War 1944–1954, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 66.

ADAMS, EDDIE (1933–2004). The photographer who captured the famous image of the shooting of a Viet Cong agent by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan in Saigon, Eddie Adams was born on 12 June 1933 in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and became interested in photography at high school. During the Korean War, Adams was a combat photographer and then he went to Vietnam where, on 1 February 1968, the second full day of the Tet Offensive, he managed to take one of the iconic photographs of the war. The photograph of the shooting by General Loan became famous, but Adams said he felt sorry about it, because it destroyed Loan’s life, and he apologised to him. Loan replied philosophically that they were each doing their jobs. Adams later worked taking photographs of Vietnamese refugees and became a freelance photographer in 1980, later covering the Gulf War. He died on 19 September 2004. 3

4 An Quang Pagoda References: ‘Eddie Adams’ Dangerous Weapon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 22, no. 2 (August 2009): p. 28; Hannah Feldman, ‘Eddie Adams’, in Lynne Warren (ed.), Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, London: Routledge, 2006, pp. 14–15; ‘War lensman haunted by one image’, The Australian (21 September 2004): p. 10; ‘Lensman haunted by candid shot’, The Australian (22 September 2004): p. 18; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1987, p. 529; Philip Knightley, The First Casualty: From the Crimea to the Falklands – the War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker, London: Pan Books, 1975, pp. 410, 419; Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of War Journalism, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 2.

AN QUANG PAGODA [Chùa ୖn Quang;ॄ‫ܝ‬ᇎ] (‘Light of the Dharma Seal’). This pagoda dates from 1948 and is located in Master Van Hanh Street to the southwest of central Saigon, and north of Cholon. The pagoda not only served as a religious centre, the monks at the pagoda also helped hundreds of street children, with many local women helping as lay assistants. A famous local craftsman, Truong Van Thanh (Minh Tinh) created a set of interesting lacquer paintings, which are displayed at the pagoda. For many years, the pagoda was the home of the monk Thich Tri Quang, who led a large number of the Buddhist protests. Some of his initial political activities were against the French, and then in May 1963, he used the pagoda as a base for organising some of the increasingly large protests against the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. In 1964, there was further political unrest from monks at the pagoda, as they feared that pro-Diem army officers were about to return to power. In 1966, Nguyen Cao Ky ordered Thich Tri Quang to be placed under house arrest. At the end of the Vietnam War, Thich Tri Quang was again held under house arrest, this time by the communists, then put in solitary confinement, but was later being released. Besides serving as the base for Buddhists who took part in the protests in the early and mid-1960s, the An Quang Pagoda is perhaps best known as the location in front of which, on 1 February 1968, General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shot dead a captured communist prisoner – with the famous photograph of the incident taken by Eddie Adams of Associated Press. It was rumoured that the pagoda, because of the militant Buddhists there, was being used as a field hospital for the communists. The pagoda remains the headquarters of the Institute for Dharma Propagation. References: James McAllister, ‘“Only Religions Count in Vietnam”: Thich Tri Quang and the Vietnam War’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 42, no. 4 (2008): pp. 751–82; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 56; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 365; Ron Steinman, Inside Television’s First War: A Saigon Journal, Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002, pp. 67, 72; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, pp. 230–32.

ANG MEY, Queen (1815–1874). Queen of Cambodia from 1835–41 and then again from 1844–45, she became queen on the death of her father King Ang Chan II. Crowned in May 1835, her rule coincided with a period when the Vietnamese Imperial Court at Hue was exerting considerable influence over Cambodia. Her accession to the throne was supported by the Vietnamese, but

Archbishop’s Palace

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in 1841, they thought she was plotting against them and arrested her, taking her to Vietnam. Released in 1847, she returned to the Cambodian capital at Oudong, and died there in December 1874. References: Justin Corfield, The Royal Family of Cambodia, Melbourne: Khmer Language and Culture Centre, 1993; Michael Dent Eiland, Dragon and Elephant: Relations between Viet Nam and Siam 1782–1847, PhD thesis, George Washington University, 1989; Trudy Jacobsen, Lost Goddesses: The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History, Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2008; Khin Sok, Le Cambodge entre le Siam et le Vietnam de 1775 à 1868 [Cambodia between Siam and Vietnam, 1775–1868], Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1991; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 13; John Tully, A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2005, pp. 74–75.

ARCHBISHOP’S PALACE. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly of Saigon) was established during the French period and was created as the Apostolic Vicariate of Western Cochinchina, with Dominique Lefèbvre, who had been coadjutor vicar apostolic of Cochin, becoming the vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina until 1864. Jean-Claude Miche then took over from 1864 until his death in December 1873. The Archbishop’s Palace was built in 1859–60, when Dominique Lefèbvre was the vicar apostolic, and it was later rebuilt. The Apostolic Vicariate of Western Cochinchina became the Apostolic Vicariate of Saigon until 24 November 1960, when it was promoted to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saigon, until it was renamed on 23 November 1976. Located on the corner of Nguyen Dinh Chieu St (formerly Avenue Richaud), and Tran Quoc Thao St, the Archbishop’s Palace has been one of the centres of the important Roman Catholic community in the city. After the communists took Saigon on 30 April 1975, the new communist government targeted François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the coadjutor archbishop of Saigon (and also a nephew of Ngo Dinh Diem). He was interned for thirteen years and then released on 21 November 1988, but held under house arrest in the Archbishop’s Palace. He went to Rome in 1991 and was not allowed to return. In his absence, the building was renovated.

Vicars Apostolic of Western Cochinchina (Vietnam) 2 March 1844 – 28 Aug 1864 Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre 9 Sept 1864 – 1 Dec 1873 Bishop Jean-Claude Miche 1 Dec 1873 – 31 Dec 1894 Bishop Isidore-François-Joseph Colombert 12 Apr 1895 – 17 Oct 1898 Bishop Jean-Marie Dépierre 11 Feb 1899 – 11 Feb 1920 Bishop Lucien-Émile Mossard 11 Feb 1920 – 4 Oct 1924 Bishop Victor-Charles Quinton Vicars Apostolic of Saigon 17 Dec 1925 – 16 Feb 1940 20 Feb 1941 – 20 Sept 1955 20 Sept 1955 – 24 Nov 1960

Bishop Isidore-Marie-Joseph Dumortier Bishop Jean Cassaigne Bishop Simon Hoa Nguyen Van Hien.

6 Architecture

Metropolitan Archbishops of Saigon 24 Nov 1960 – 23 Nov 1976 Archbishop Paul Nguyen Van Binh Metropolitan Archbishops of Than-Pho Ho Chi Minh 23 Nov 1976 – 1 July 1995 Archbishop Paul Nguyen Van Binh 1993 – 1 March 1998 Bishop Nicolas Huynh Van Nghi (Apostolic Administrator) 1 March 1998 – Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 280; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 148–49.

ARCHITECTURE. There are a wide range of architectural styles in Ho Chi Minh City. Some of the oldest surviving buildings in the city are Chinese pagodas, which are similar to Chinese temples in other parts of southern China and Southeast Asia. In Cholon, as well as some parts of Ho Chi Minh City, there are the traditional Chinese shop houses, pagodas and temples, quite a number of which have survived and continue to ensure that Cholon remains a largely Chinese suburb. From the French period, there are many large colonial buildings. Some of these were uncompromisingly like counterparts in France, albeit smaller. The Notre Dame Cathedral completed in Saigon in 1880 has many features which adorn Notre Dame de Paris. Indeed there was little compromise in the design, and many of the worshippers found the heat within the cathedral oppressive. It was not until 1942 that architects managed to get additional openings in the lateral chapels to allow more air flow. The Hôtel de Ville (now the People’s Committee Building certainly would not look out of place in any town in metropolitan France. The Opera House was built in 1897–1900, with its design was very much like the Opéra Garnier in Paris. Later buildings started to incorporate Indochinese motifs into their design, but classical columns like those on the Norodom Palace (later the Presidential Palace; later rebuilt and now the Reunification Palace) and the Gia Long Palace both incorporate some Vietnamese aspects, with Ernest Hebrard being involved in designing buildings to ‘engage the sympathy of the natives’. The French villas favoured by the French colonists and also the Saigon elite had large verandahs and used brick or concrete to keep them cooler. In these buildings, the kitchens and quarters for servants were on the ground floor, with the owners – French or Vietnamese – living upstairs. Amidst these French colonial buildings and villas, however, there were still many traditional Vietnamese wooden houses. The Vietnam War led to a massive influx of money into the Saigon economy and the need to construct buildings quickly. Some, like the US Embassy and

d’Argenlieu, Georges Thierry (1889–1964)

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Nguyen Cao Ky’s Vice Presidential Palace at Tan Son Nhut, had defensive elements incorporated into their design. After the bombing of the Presidential Palace on 27 February 1962, its replacement, constructed between 1962 and 1966, was very much a functional piece of architecture. It was a large, light and airy, but a remote and rather impersonal structure replete with a large bunker and a helipad. There were also famous conversions, such as the Banier Auto Hall being turned into the Rex Hotel. From 1975 until the late 1980s, there was not much new building work in Ho Chi Minh City. However, with the tourist boom from the 1990s, many buildings were demolished and others converted and transformed to make way for hotel and business complexes. Many houses in Pham Ngu Lao Street were quickly turned into hotels, guest houses and dormitories. At the same time, with the increase in business and foreign investment, tall buildings such as the Saigon Trade Center and the Bitexco Financial Tower raise the skylike of the city. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 122–23.

d’ARGENLIEU, GEORGES THIERRY (1889–1964). The high commissioner of French Indochina from 31 October 1945 until 1 April 1947, Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu was born on 7 August 1889 in Brest, France, his family having a long tradition of service in the French Navy. When he was seventeen he went to the École Navale and after graduating, he served as a midshipman in Morocco in the fighting which led to the signing of the Treaty of Fez in 1912. During World War I, he served in the Mediterranean and in 1917 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau. However, he was disillusioned by the war and went to Rome to study theology. In 1920 he entered the Carmelite Order as Louis de la Trinité. Taking his vows in September 1921, eleven years later he became the provincial superior in Paris. With the start of World War I, Thierry d’Argenlieu was mobilised as an officer in the naval reserve and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander. He was involved in the defence of Cherbourg in 1940, but was captured by the Germans. However, as he was being transported to Germany, he managed to escape and went to Britain, where he rallied to the Free French Forces of Charles de Gaulle. As there were few naval officers who supported de Gaulle, he was appointed chief of staff of the Free French Naval Forces. At Dakar, he tried to persuade the local governor to rally to Free France and was badly wounded when the Vichy French there fired at him. Rising to the rank of counter-admiral, he accompanied de Gaulle into Paris on 25 August 1944. Because of his close support for de Gaulle, Thierry d’Argenlieu was sent to Saigon to help restore the French colonial administration. He tried to return

8

d’Ariès, Joseph Hyacinthe Louis Jules (1813–1878)

Cochinchina back to the system which had operated before 1939. He basked in the grandeur of France and he refused to compromise, viewing communism, and indeed the Vietnamese nationalists, as evil. This led to his replacement, with Émile Bollaert taking over in March 1947. Returning to France, he decided to return to religious life and died on 7 September 1964 in Brest. References: Élisée Alford, Le Père Louis de la Trinité: Amiral Thierry d’Argenlieu, Paris: Desclé, De Bouwer, 1969; Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu, Souvenirs de guerre, juin 1940 – janvier 1941, Paris: Plon, 1973; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1222–23; Jacques Dalloz, ‘Indochine, 1945–1947: Leclerc face a d’Argenlieu’, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, no. 192 (December 1998): pp. 151–66; L.A. Longeaux, ‘L’Amiral Thierry d’Argenlieu Haut-Commissaire de France en Indochine au Printemps 1946’, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, no. 148 (October 1987): pp. 23–43; Spencer C. Tucker, World War II at Sea: An Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2011, pp. 743–44; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 117.

d’ARIÈS, JOSEPH HYACINTHE LOUIS JULES (1813–1878). After the departure of Théogène François Page, d’Aries was the acting governor of Cochinchina from 1 April 1860 until 6 February 1861, when Admiral Léonard Charner was appointed governor. D’Ariès was born on 22 January 1813 at Tarbes, in the south of France, close to the border with Spain, the son of Dominique-Zacharie d’Ariès, a prosecutor, and graduated from the French naval academy in 1829. Sent to Saigon, he took command of the forces there when Page was posted to China. Based at Saigon, his garrison were subjected to many attacks from the Vietnamese and his main aim was to try to keep open his access to the sea. In accordance with the treaty of June 1862, he handed over the citadel of Vinh Long, in the Mekong Delta, to Phan Thanh Gian. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1872 and retired four years later. He died in December 1878. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 26; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1206; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 322.

ARNOUX, LOUIS-PAUL MARIUS (1885–?). The head of the police in Saigon from 1932 until 1945, he was born on 8 September 1885 and grew up in Villeneuve-les-Avignon, Gard, France, and went to work in the police in Indochina, taking up his first position on 3 March 1912. From 1919 he was involved in hunting down Ho Chi Minh, and apparently introduced him (then Nguyen Ai Quoc) to Albert Sarraut in Paris in 1922. Arnoux’s work was highly commended with the policeman being appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour on 23 February 1925. On 1 July 1932 he was appointed head of the Sûreté, his position being confirmed by Jean Decoux. It is believed that Arnoux was the basis for the police official Guy Asselin played by Jean Yanne in the film Indochine (1992).

August Revolution (1945)

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References: Pierre Brocheux, Ho Chi Minh: A Biography, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007, David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, p. 74.

ARROYO CHINOIS. See Ben Nghe Channel. ASSOCIATED STATE OF VIETNAM [Quஃc gia Vi୹t Nam]. This was the state which was established under Bao Dai in 1949 and was a semi-independent state. This was established following the Halong Bay Agreements, which led to a declaration of independence of the State of Vietnam on 14 June 1949. However, it only had partial autonomy and remained an associated state within the French Union, with the French controlling defence and foreign policy. The state was supported by French Fourth Republic and the United States, and recognised by many Western countries. However, its creation was rejected by Ho Chi Minh and the First Indochina continued, with the Viet Minh anxious to defeat the state. Because of its support in Saigon, that city became the capital of the state. Its flag was yellow with the three red stripes, its national anthem was Thanh nien Hanh Khuc (‘The March of Youths’), and its official languages were French and Vietnamese. Although Bao Dai remained the chief of state, he stepped down from the position of prime minister on 21 January 1950 and Nguyen Phan Long became the first prime minister. The Associated State of Vietnam was represented at the Geneva Peace Talks, which were held in early 1954 to decide the fate of Vietnam. It was formally replaced on 26 October 1955, following the referendum held on 23 October, which saw the proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam. References: M. T. Blanchet, La naissance de l’État associé du Vietnam, Librairie de Médicis, 1954; Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Oxford University Press, 1961; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 346–47.

AUGUST REVOLUTION (1945) [Cách m୓ng tháng Tám]. This took place in August 1945, when the communists and their allies under Ho Chi Minh sought to seize power in the three major cities of Vietnam: Saigon, Hanoi and Hue. Following the announcement of the surrender of the Japanese on 15 August, there was likely to be a significant period when there would be a power vacuum in the region before the French could return in force, and Ho Chi Minh was eager to take advantage of this. In Hanoi, the August Revolution started with a general uprising on 19 August, and this resulted in Ho Chi Minh proclaiming Vietnamese independence on 2 September. In Hue, Emperor Bao Dai was forced to abdicate on 25 August and he became the supreme political adviser to a new provisional government. In Saigon, the results of the August Revolution were much more mixed. Some non-communist nationalist groups join with the communists to take

10 Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina

control of the city on 25 August, and together these proclaimed a Committee for the South. However, this foray into independence was short-lived, with the British beginning to arrive in the city on 9 September to secure southern Vietnam ahead of it being handed back to the French who were released from their internment camps. It was not long before there was unrest and soon there was fighting between the French and the Vietnamese, leading to the First Indochina War. References: Louis Allen, The End of the War in Asia, London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1976; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008; William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000, chapter 10; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1987; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 33–34; David G. Marr, ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, in Alfred W. McCoy (ed.), Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980, pp. 125–58; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Shiraishi Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence and the August Revolution’, in 1945 in Southeast Asia, London: Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1985; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991; Truong Chinh, The August Revolution, Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1958.

AUTONOMOUS REPUBLIC OF COCHINCHINA [République Autonome de Cochinchine]. This was a state established by the French during the First Indochina War, and it was officially proclaimed on 1 June 1946, with Saigon as its capital. It was formed to try to prevent the Viet Minh from their planned takeover of all of Vietnam by creating a separate political unit which was proclaimed to be a ‘free state’ within the Indochinese Federation. The Viet Minh denounced the members of the government of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina by calling them French ‘puppets’. The idea for the republic emerged from the Ho–Sainteny Agreement, reached in March 1946 between Ho Chi Minh and Jean Sainteny, the French representative. There was a clause in the agreement by which there would be a referendum in Cochinchina on whether or not it would be able to associate with the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin, which would become a ‘free state’. Worried that this might result in the communists taking over Cochinchina, Thierry d’Argenlieu, the new high commissioner, decided to establish the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, with Dr Nguyen Van Thinh as the president of the provisional government. This entity was clearly centred on Saigon, drawing support from pro-French elements in the city. However, Nguyen Van Thinh’s suicide in November 1946 caused the French major problems and the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina was, in 1947, renamed the Republic of South Vietnam, and then in 1948 it became the Provisional

Aviation

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Central Government of Vietnam. Formally abolished in March 1949 with the Elysée Agreements, a territorial assembly in Cochinchina voted for union with the Associated State of Vietnam under Bao Dai. References: Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Oxford University Press, 1961; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 325–26; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

AVIATION. Because there was a good rail system from Saigon to Hanoi, initially the French did not believe there would be much demand for an air route. However, on 10 January 1921, the French governor flew from Hanoi to Saigon on a military plane, flying back soon afterwards. This highlighted to the local administration the possible importance of flights, and the French started to build airfields in many remote locations to allow contact with towns which could not be reached easily beforehand. In 1926 Air Asie was formed, and in December of that year the Société Indochinoise d’Études d’Aviation Commerciale et Postale was established. The latter, based in Saigon, aimed to start commercial flights. However, this did not eventuate, and it was transformed into the Société d’Études et d’Entreprises Aériennes en Indochine et en Extrême Orient (SEAIE), backed by a number of local banks. The first international flight from Saigon came on 24 May 1929, when a Schreck flying boat from the Compagnie Aérienne Française flew from Saigon to Hong Kong. Gradually, there were more and more flights, with Lignes d’Orient taking over Air Asie and operating as Air Orient, with the first tenday mail service from France to Saigon – the first flight being on 17 January 1931. From that year there was a weekly service from Saigon to Hanoi. In 1939 Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut Airport was one of the four fully equipped airports in the French Indochina – those in Hanoi, Vientiane and Vinh being the others. Indeed, the airport at Saigon was so good that it came to figure in the Japanese planning for their attack on Malaya and planes from there were involved in the attacks on Malaya, and also the crucial sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse on 10 December 1941. The Japanese continued to use the airport for the rest of the war. When the French re-established their colonial rule in Saigon, they secured the airport, which continued to be important in military as well as commercial flights. It became the headquarters of Air Vietnam, which was formed on 1 October 1951, operating flights around South Vietnam after 1954, and also to Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Bangkok, Thailand, and later Hong Kong. The airline became more and more important during the 1960s as the economy of Vietnam boomed, with vast quantities of aid from the US and other countries. Nguyen Tan Trung was the president of Air Vietnam from 1969 until 1975. In 1969, planes from Saigon flew to Quang Duc, Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Kon Tum, Hue, Danang, Quang Ngai, Qui Nhon, Tuy Hoa, Nha Trang, Dalat, Phan

12 Aviation

Rang, Phan Thiet, Phu Vinh, Can Tho, Ca Mau, Rach Gia and also Quan Phu Quoc. Internationally, there were flights to Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. There were also international flights with Pan Am, Continental Airlines and Air France. There were also many military aircraft based at Saigon, and planes were regularly used by the Republic of Vietnam against the communists. From the mid-1960s, there were also many US military aircraft based at Saigon, and other airports around the country, as well as US and foreign cargo planes, including the much celebrated Air America. US pilots were involved in cargo flights all over Vietnam, transporting soldiers, materiel and also food supplies. The planes of Air Vietnam had the traditional dragon symbols decorating them, but in 1973 the new Boeing 707–300, bought from Pan American, was painted yellow, with red stripes. R. E. G. Davies wrote that it ‘epitomized the renewed hope that an innovative spirit could salvage something from the ashes of the old…’ However, this hope came to an end when the communists captured Saigon on 30 April 1975, and Air Vietnam ceased to exist. It was not until November 1976 that the first domestic commercial flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi started again. Until February 1990, the air service was operated by the Ministry of Defence, and was then handed over to the Ministry of Transport and it was called Vietnam Airlines. The increase in tourism in the 1990s led to a major increase in flights – both internal and overseas. References: Mark Berent, ‘Air War Fact and Fiction’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 6, no. 1 (June 1993): p. 18; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, pp. 481–82; General Lionel M. Chassin, Aviation Indochine, Paris: Amiot-Dumont, 1954; R. E. G. Davies, Airlines of Asia since 1920, London: Putnam, 1997, chapter 19; Raphael Littauer and Normal Uphoff (eds), The Air War in Indochina, Boston: Beacon Press, 1972; Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History, of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia, Washington DC: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 1994; Robert C. Mikesh, Flying Dragons: The South Vietnamese Air Force, London: Osprey, 1988; Office of US Air Force History, The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973, Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1986; John Schlight, The War in South Vietnam, The Years of the Offensive, 1965–1968: The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, Washington DC: Office of Air Force History, US Air Force, 1988.

B BA THIEN HAU PAGODA [Chùa Bà Thiên Hୟu;㚵ᖫᯢᏖ໽ৢᒳ]. This pagoda, located on Nguyen Trai Street in Cholon, was built in about 1760 by the Cantonese congregation. It was a time when there were large numbers of Chinese settlers in Cholon. It is dedicated to Thien Hau (also known as Tuc Goi La Ba), known as the ‘Lady of the Sea’, who is revered in the southern coastal provinces of China, and as a result in the overseas Chinese communities (most of whom descend from people from those areas). According to legend, she was able to travel over the oceans and through the skies sitting on a mat, and she has been imbued with supernatural powers to save people lost at sea. For this reason she has been very popular with overseas Chinese and with sailors. As well as the Ba Thien Hau Pagoda, the Quan Am Pagoda is also dedicated to her memory. The pagoda was rebuilt, repaired, and enlarged in 1800, 1842, 1882, 1890, and in 1916 – some books cite that some of the major construction took place in 1847. Opening onto Nguyen Trai Street, there is an iron gate and iron railings at the front. The roof has small Chinese porcelain figures on it. Inside the temple there is a partially covered courtyard with incense burners and also other views of the porcelain figurines on the roof and around the courtyard. There are three statues of the goddess on the main altar. The main statue of Thien Hau is taken from the pagoda on the 23rd day of the third lunar month each year and paraded around parts of Cholon. Inside the pagoda there is also a large bronze bell, which dates from 1830. It is rung whenever a significant donation is made to the temple. The temple is popular with many Chinese tour groups, and there are often people from Hong Kong or Taiwan at the pagoda. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 89; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, pp. 285–86; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 89; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 64; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698– 1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 58–59; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 360–62.

BA TUONG. When the French took over Cochinchina in the early 1860s, most of the mandarins fled, leaving the French without any experienced officials. They quickly turned to Ba Tuong (also known as Ton Tho Thuong). 13

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Baigaur

He had failed in his exams to become a mandarin, but some of his family held high office, and he was familiar with the administration. He collaborated with the French and in 1863 he was one of those who escorted Phan Thanh Gian to Paris for the re-negotiation of the Treaty of Saigon. References: J. Davidson, ‘Collaborateur versus abstentioniste (Tuong versus Tri): a political polemic in poetic dialogue during the French acquisition of Southern Vietnam’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 49, no. 2 (1986): pp. 321–63; Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859–1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969, pp. 80, 83; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 322.

BAIGAUR. This was a Cham village established in the eleventh century at the southern boundary of their empire. It is believed to be the precursor of the Khmer settlement Prey Nokor, which later became Saigon. References: Po Dharma, ‘The History of Champa’, in Emmanuel Guillon (ed.), Hindu-Buddhist Art of Vietnam, Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 1997, pp. 15–17; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 7–8.

BANQUE DE L’INDOCHINE. This bank was established on 19 April 1875 in Paris as a joint-stock company founded with private capital to operate in French territories in Asia. It was involved in issuing banknotes for some of its history. From 1875 until 1888, it operated mainly from Saigon, with its president being Édouard Hentsch; and then from 1889 until 1900 much of its operations were concerned with French businesses in China. From 1900 until the outbreak of the Pacific War, it handled the Boxer Indemnity, the ‘fine’ levied on the Imperial Chinese government and its successors to repay damages incurred during the Boxer Uprising of 1899–1901. Heavily involved in financing the trade in rice from Saigon, a convention of 27 February 1921 ensured that the bank returned a proportion of its capital to the French government if the banknotes issued by it exceeded three times its reserves in gold and silver. The Banque de l’Indochine constructed its magnificent headquarters in Saigon in 1930 which is now the location of the National Bank of Vietnam. In 1974 the Banque de l’Indochine merged with the Banque de Suez to form Banque Indosuez. Bought by the Crédit Agricole group, it was Crédit Agricole Indosuez until 2004 when it merged with Crédit Lyonnais to form Calyon. References: Yasuo Gonjō, Antoine Jeancourt-Galignani, and Patrick Fridenson, Banque coloniale ou banque d’affaires: La Banque de l’Indochine sous la IIIe République, Paris: Comité pour l’histoire économique et financière de la France, Ministère de l’économie et du budget, 1993; Arthur Laurent, La Banque de l’Indochine et la piastre, Paris: Deux Rives, 1954; Marc Meuleau, Des Pionniers en Extrême-Orient: Histoire de la Banque de l’Indochine, 1875–1975, Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1990; Martin J. Murray, The Development of Capitalism in Colonial Indochina (1870–1940), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; William Oualid, Le privilège de la Banque de l’Indo-Chine et la question des banques coloniales, Paris: M. Giard, 1923.

BAO DAI [B୕o Ð୓i; ֱ໻; Nguy୷n Phúc Vënh Th஗y; 䰂⽣∌⨲] (1913– 1997). The emperor of Annam from 1926 until 1945, and the head of state

Bao Dai

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of the State of Vietnam from 13 June 1949 until 21 January 1950; the chief of state of the State of Vietnam, from 14 June 1949 until 30 April 1955, Bao Dai (‘Keeper of Greatness’) had been born on 22 October 1913 at Hue, as Prince Nguyen Van Khai, the third cousin of Emperor Duy Tan. When Duy Tan died in 1916, Bao Dai’s father became Emperor Khai Dinh, spending most of his time in Hue. Bao Dai inherited the throne when he was twelve and then went to school in France. Returning to be crowned in September 1932 and ending the regency of his mother, he came back to Tourane, bypassing Saigon, and decided that he wanted to transform Annam and also Tonkin and Cochinchina. He promised judicial reform and the establishment of a House of Representatives. However, the French prevented him from doing anything and after trying to push through his reforms for some time, he eventually decided not to do anything and resigned himself to life as a playboy. With the Japanese seizing power on 9 March 1945, Bao Dai was forced by them to declare independence on 11 March. The new government floundered badly, with massive numbers of deaths from starvation. In the August Revolution, the communists captured Bao Dai’s wife and children, and Bao Dai himself was forced to abdicate and become the supreme counsellor to Ho Chi Minh. Bao Dai then left for Hong Kong and then for France, where he spent the next three years. In 1949 the French decided to get Bao Dai to return to Vietnam to take over a pro-French government. Bao Dai, now somewhat remote from political

Harry S. Truman and Bao Dai.

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Bao Luong

maneuvers, did come back to Vietnam and on 30 June 1949 presided over a new government. However, he refused to live in Saigon because the French high commissioner was living in the Norodom Palace and refused to vacate it. As a result, Bao Dai lived at Dalat and, as the Australian journalist and writer Denis Warner wrote, he ‘preferred the Happy Valley dance halls in Hong Kong, Paris nightclubs and the Cannes casinos to politics’. Graham Greene saw him as ‘an intelligent and subtle man, resolved not to compromise himself, and to survive.’ He also encouraged gambling at Dalat, but for Saigon, the policing was left in the hands of the Binh Xuyen and other gangsters, resulting in great unpopularity there for the ex-emperor. After the Geneva Agreements in 1954, Bao Dai moved to France with his wife and they lived there in splendid exile. His entry in Asia Who’s Who 1957 notes he ‘spends most of time in Europe; married devout Catholic Nam Phuong & renounced polygamy 1934; has 5 children by Nam Phuong; married Chinese dancing girl named Huang 1946 who bore daughter; later took Vietnamese girl Mong Diep for wife who produced daughter 1949, son 1953.’ He died on 31 July 1997 in Paris. References: Asia Who’s Who 1957, Hong Kong: Pan-Asia Newspaper Alliance, 1957, pp. 40–41; ‘Bao Dai’, Current Biography 1949, pp. 23–25; ‘Emperor’s invidious inheritance’, The Age (2 September 1997): p. C2; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 127–28; Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967; Graham Greene, ‘Indo-China: France’s Crown of Thorns’, Paris Match (12 July 1952); Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Oxford University Press, 1961; L. Bruce McFarland Lockhart, The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy, New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1993; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 40–41; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939– 1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 360; ‘Vietnam’s last emperor dies in playboy exile’, The Weekend Australian (2–3 August 1997): p. 16; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, chapter 6; Denis Warner, ‘Last emperor a colonial puppet’, The Australian (7 August 1997).

BAO LUONG [B୕o LŲţng] (1909–1976). A woman revolutionary, she was born in February 1909 as Nguyen Trung Nguyet, the daughter of Nguyen Van Nham, a farmer from Rach Gia, to the west of Saigon. When she was eighteen, she went to Saigon and took the name Bao Luong (‘Precious Honesty’), staying with members of her extended family. She wrote poetry and contributed to the newspaper Than Chung (‘Morning Bell’). Active in the revolutionary movement, she was related to the wife of Ton Duc Thang and went to Guangzhou (Canton), in southern China, to receive some training. On her return to Saigon, she was involved in a murder at 5 Barbier Street (now Nguyen Phi Khanh Street), Saigon, on the night of 8 December 1928. This killing took place following a complaint by a young female revolutionary that a senior member of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League called Lang had been pressuring her to become his mistress. Criticised by the members of the league, he threatened to inform on them to the French police. Bao Luong then presided over a meeting when it was decided to kill Lang. This killing took place and Bao Luong was one of those who were arrested in the police dragnet.

Baudouin, François-Marius (1867–1957)

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Three men, including one of Bao Luong’s cousins, were sentenced to death and executed. She was badly beaten in custody and served eight years in prison – five for her role in the murder, and three more for ‘rebelliousness’. On her release in 1938, she married the male prison nurse who had looked after her whilst she was in jail. Marriage ended her revolutionary career and she lived quietly, moving to Saigon in 1967. From November 1971 until May 1972, the newspaper Dan Chu Moi (‘New Democracy’) published her account of her actions against the French. She died in September 1976. Her own account, Nguoi con Gai Nam Bo (‘The Girl from the South’) was published in Hanoi in 1996, and eight years later, a second edition was published in Ho Chi Minh City. There is a photograph of her at the Ton Duc Thang Museum in Ho Chi Minh City – it is captioned ‘Vietnam’s first female political prisoner’. Her niece, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, the Kenneth T. Young Professor of Sino-Vietnamese history at Harvard University, wrote about her aunt in Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial Saigon. A street in Ho Chi Minh City was named after Bao Luong. References: Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial Saigon: The Memoirs of Bao Luong, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, ‘Bao Luong’, Harvard Magazine (March– April 2011).

BASHER d’ARBAUD, CHARLES JOSEPH (1816–1876). He was acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 7 March until 16 December 1872. BATTLE FOR SAIGON (1955). This was the name given to the fighting which took place in Saigon from 27 April until May 1955 between the Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam, and the Binh Xuyen who had been licensed to run the city police by Bao Dai. The background to the fighting started on 29–30 March 1955 when Ngo Dinh Diem ordered the sacking of the Binh Xuyen police chief and sent in the Vietnamese National Army to try to take control. It was part of the struggle by Diem to try to wrest power from the Binh Xuyen and other supporters of Bao Dai. Some of the Americans were also keen on removing Diem, but the US secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, ordered J. Lawton Collins to stop any plans to oppose Diem. This allowed Diem to continue sending in his forces to take over, which saw heavy fighting around the École Petrus Ky in Cholon and other areas. Bay Vien was forced to flee, and as the fighting gradually subsided, a large crowd came into the streets to cheer Diem’s forces. References: Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991.

BAUDOUIN, FRANÇOIS-MARIUS (1867–1957). Acting governor general of French Indochina from April until August 1922, he was born on 31 December 1867, moving to Indochina, and being French résident supérieur in Phnom Penh from 22 October 1914 until 20 January 1927. During this

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Baugh, Hubert Gordon (1885–1956)

time he oversaw the opening of the National Museum and an increase in the archaeological work at Angkor by French scholars. He was the acting governor general of French Indochina, taking over from Maurice Long, before Martial Merlin arrived to take up that position. Baudouin died in 1957. References: Michel Igout, Phnom Penh: Then and Now, Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993, p. 87. His date of birth from the Annuaire Administratif de l’Indochine 1942–1943, p. 3.

BAUGH, HUBERT GORDON (1885–1956). The US consul in Saigon in 1913 and vice and deputy consul in Saigon later that year, he was born on 4 July 1880 in Calcutta, India, the son of Rev. George Baugh, originally from Shropshire, England, and his wife Harriett (née Beauchamp). The family migrated to the United States in October 1885, and Hubert grew up in California, graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1903. Keen on training as a US diplomat, he was posted to China to learn Chinese, before being appointed, in 1908, to be the interpreter at the consulate at Tientsin, and was then vice consul general in Hankow. His sister also moved to China and became a missionary with the Methodist Foreign Mission Board, teaching at Gamewell Girls’ High School in Beijing. He then went to Cochinchina and was initially consul until his retirement on 26 February 1913, being appointed vice and deputy consul on the following day, retiring from that position in January 1914. He then returned to California to become the assistant examiner of the State Civil Service Commission. After World War I, he headed to Europe to undertake secretarial work for the YMCA. Marrying Ruth, Hubert worked as a teacher at Sacramento High School, and helped establish the Sacramento Teachers Credit Union in 1933. Because of ill-health, Hubert Baugh had to resign from his position as secretary/ treasurer. He died on 4 July 1956 in Moore County, Texas. Reference: The San Francisco Call (23 July 1908); William English Walling and Harry Wellington Laidler, State Socialism, Pro and Con: Official Documents and Other Authoritative Selections Showing the World-Wide Replacement of Private by Governmental Industry Before and During the War, New York: H. Holt & Company, 1917, p. 404.

BAY VIEN [B୕y Vi୷n, or ‘Vi୷n the Seventh’] (1904–1970). The leader of the Binh Xuyen, he was born in 1904 in Cholon as Le Van Vien [Lê Văn Vin], his father, Le Van Dau, being Chinese from Chaozhou, and his mother being Vietnamese. Le Van Dau, when he settled in Cholon, became a member of the Tiandihui (‘Heaven and Earth Society’), often called the Triad. His son followed his father into a life of organised crime. Bay Vien became one of the major figures in the Binh Xuyen and was eventually captured by the

Bazin, Marcel (1904/5–1950)

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French around 1940. He was sent to the penal colony on Con Son Island (also known as Poulo Condore). During World War II, the Japanese made contact with the Binh Xuyen and decided that they would be useful in the Japanese plan to end French rule. Bay Vien escaped from prison in early 1945 and when the Japanese staged their coup de force on 9 March 1945, taking over from the French, the Binh Xuyen were amnestied and Bay Vien was given a position in the newly established non-French police administration. In August 1945 the Viet Minh decided that they could form a tactical alliance with the Binh Xuyen, who had access to up to 10,000 men whom they could use to their best advantage. In February 1946, Ba Duong, the head of the leader of the Binh Xuyen, was killed in an air raid by the French, and Bay Vien took control of the movement. He decided to move away from the communists and managed to strike a deal with the French, which gave Bay Vien control over much of Saigon. Bay Vien’s men operated as a police force controlling gambling, narcotics and prostitution, and being able to use the police – largely staffed with Binh Xuyen members – to prevent anybody from impinging on the lucrative sources of income. With Bao Dai as the nominal head of the State of Vietnam unable to exert any form of strong control within the areas he ruled, and with the French keen to fight the communists and prepared to turn a blind eye to organised crime in Saigon, the Binh Xuyen moved to support the French in 1947 and became extremely powerful, effectively controlling Saigon from 1951 until 1955. Bay Vien himself ended up as a general in the Vietnamese National Army of Bao Dai. However, with the accession of Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem, the new government, with the full backing of the United States, decided to destroy the Binh Xuyen. From 28 April until 3 May 1955, in fighting throughout Saigon, the Binh Xuyen members were driven from the city, and without their control of the police and sources of income, their movement quickly fragmented. Bay Vien fled to France and lived in comfortable exile, dying there in 1970. References: Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam, London: Faber, 1967; Pierre Darcourt, Bay Vien: Le maître de Cholon, Paris: Hachette, 1977; Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

BAZIN, MARCEL (1904/5–1950). The head of the Sûreté (police detectives) in Saigon and the deputy chief of police in Cochinchina, he was assassinated by the Viet Minh as he was getting into his car on the morning of 28 April 1950, the shooting being witnessed by Edmund Gullion, the US chargé d’affaires. References: ‘Assassination in Saigon’, The Times (29 April 1950): p. 5; Oscar Chapius, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, p. 156; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial Saigon: The Memoirs of Bao Luong, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, pp. 113–34; ‘Reds kill Saigon Police Chief’, The Straits Times (29 April 1950): p. 1; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 367.

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Beau, (Jean Baptiste) Paul (1857–1927)

Paul Beau arriving in Phnom Penh.

BEAU, (JEAN BAPTISTE) PAUL (1857–1927). The governor general of French Indochina from October 1902 until February 1907, Paul Beau was born on 26 January 1857, the son of a master mariner. He studied law and in May 1880 he joined the French diplomatic service, working in the Foreign Ministry in Paris and then as a diplomat in Rome. A keen Republican, he was sent on a mission to China and in March 1901, took over the post of French minister in Peking from Stephen Pichon, who had survived the Siege of the Peking Legations during the Boxer Uprising. In July 1902, Beau returned to Paris and then moved to Vietnam to take up an appointment as governor general of Indochina, which he held from October 1902 until February 1907. Taking over from Paul Doumer, who had been involved in expanding French control, Beau had been appointed at the instigation of Théophile Delcassé, the minister of foreign affairs, because it was thought he was more diplomatic than Doumer and would not clash with either Siam or China. One of Paul Beau’s main achievements as governor general was in the area of education, with the establishment of the University of Hanoi, and also the Tonkin Free School (Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc). He also created consultative assemblies in Annam and Tonkin. A Freemason, he also toned down some of the anti-clerical legislation being introduced in France when it was applied to Indochina. However, he failed to achieve all he had intended because his time as governor general coincided with a rise in unrest, which led to revolts in Central Vietnam. Returning to France, he was appointed as French minister to Brussels. He died on 14 February 1926 at his home in Paris.

Ben Thanh Market

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References: Pascale Bezançon, Une colonization éducatrice: L’expérience indochinoise 1860–1945, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2002; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1218; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858– 1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 42–43; Milton E. Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859–1905), Bangkok: White Lotus, 1997; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 323.

BEGIN, CHARLES AUGUSTE FRÉDÉRIC (1835–1901). The French acting governor of Cochinchina, from 27 July 1885 until 19 June 1886, he took over from Charles Thomson, who had expanded French rule in the region by taking over more responsibilities in Cambodia. However, Thomson had been abrasive and he was replaced by Begin, who had to raise a Cambodian regiment of colonial soldiers. He was replaced by Ange Michel Filippini. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1210.

BEN NGHE CHANNEL [Sông Bୱn Nghé]. This is a canal (‘Buffalo Quay Channel’) which runs through southern Saigon and empties into the Saigon River. Since the establishment of Cholon, it was used for bringing supplies between Cholon and Saigon, with much of the trade being controlled by the Chinese, hence its original name, Arroyo Chinois (‘Chinese Canal’). During the French colonial period, the northern bank of the easternmost part of the channel was a place where the French promenaded. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 78; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 9–10.

BEN THANH MARKET [Chக Bୱn Thành]. This marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City was one of the major markets in Saigon for several centuries. It is on the site of the original market place where traders met from the seventeenth century. When the French attacked the Saigon Citadel, the market was destroyed, but the French encouraged the traders to return. However, it was destroyed again in a major fire in 1870 and it had to be rebuilt. In 1912 Eugène Cuniac, the mayor of Saigon, decided to construct a new building, which is often called the New Ben Thanh Market, and this is still the location of the market, the main structure – with its small tower and large clock – being renovated in 1985. The French often referred to the market as the ‘Halles centrales’. Until 1940 the market also marked the site of the two main bus stations in Saigon, but they have since been moved. The road around it was known as the Rond Point Cuniac (the Cuniac Roundabout) and is now called the Cu Nhac Circle, one of the few roads which has kept its French name. Near the entrance to the market is the statue to General Tran Nguyen Han [Trn Nguyên Hãn] (d. 1429), the famous military commander who defeated the Chinese Ming invaders.

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Ben Thanh Market

Ben Thanh Market in the 1910s.

Ben Thanh Market in 1951.

The market is still very popular with locals, as well as the tourists who go in search of Vietnamese conical hats, basketwork and t-shirts. There is also a section of the market – known as the ‘wet market’ – where fish, frogs and eels are sold, as well as pigs’ ears, live hens and chickens. Not far from that, there is another part devoted to food stalls.

Benoît de la Grandière, Pierre Paul Marie (1807–1876)

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References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 78; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 283; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 78; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 29; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698– 1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 176–77.

BENOÎT de la GRANDIÈRE, PIERRE PAUL MARIE (1807–1876). The French governor of Cochinchina from 16 October 1863 until 5 April 1868 (acting governor until 28 November 1863), Pierre Paul Marie de la Grandière was born on 28 June 1807 at Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine, France, into a family which had served in the marines, his parents being Augustin de La Grandière and Michelle Anne Marie Chaillou de l’Étang. His grandfather, Charles-Marie de la Grandière had served in the American War of Independence. Pierre de la Grandière joined the French Navy in 1827 and served at the Battle of Navarino in Greece on 20 October of that year, when an allied coalition was able to defeat the navy of the Ottoman Empire. He then served in the South Atlantic, being involved in the French blockade of Buenos Aires in 1838–40. He served in the Crimean War and then was involved in the Italian Campaign in 1859, and was posted to the Syrian coast in the following year. On 1 May 1863 de la Grandière was appointed as governor of Cochinchina to succeed Admiral Louis Adolphe Bonard, and took up residence in Saigon. His main task in Saigon was the consolidation of French rule over the provinces of Vinh Long, Chaudoc and Hatien. He was anxious to expand the French colonial empire in Asia and on 11 October 1863 managed to persuade (or force) King Norodom of Cambodia to sign the treaty which led to the French Protectorate over that country. Much of the impetus for his actions seems to have come from Prosper Chasseloup-Laubat, although some of the actions were undoubtedly Benoît de la Grandière acting on his own initiative. Norodom was aware of this and as a result, he decided to negotiate with Thailand before Napoleon III had manaed to ratify the treaty. In 1866, the French decided to intervene more heavily in Asia by sending a naval force to Korea. Benoît de la Grandière remained in Vietnam until 1868. He wrote, ‘I am attached to Cochinchina as to a child of which I took care during an illness and which gave me much concern… Yes, we shall maintain this glory, despite of and against our detractors. Yes, we will guide this colony, slowly perhaps, but with the assurance of its brilliant future. And we shall make ourselves loved and respected by our neighbours, by our Annamite subjects, and what is the most difficult of all, even by our French merchants.’ When he returned to France, he was given the post of maritime prefect at Toulon in 1870. He died on 25 August 1876 at Quimper, in his native Brittany. He was commemorated

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Bideau

on two postage stamps issued in French Indochina in 1943–45, and he is the eponym of Canal Bonard in Saigon. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, pp. 32–33; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1207; Philippe Franchini, Saigon 1925–1945: De la Belle Colonie à l’éclosion révolutionnaire ou la fin des dieux blancs, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992, p. 123; Manomohan Ghosh, ‘French Colonization of Vietnam: the first phase 1861–1885’, Calcutta Review, no. 172 (1964): pp. 119–29; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 100; Melvin E. Page, Colonialism: An International, Social, Cultural and Political Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2003, p. 727; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 333; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, pp. 1–3, 29f.; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 77.

BIDEAU, –. He was the acting governor general of French Indochina, from April until June 1891, taking over from Jules Piquet, and handing over the position to Jean Marie Antoine de Lanessan. References: Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999.

BINH SOUP SHOP. Also known as the Binh Pho – Pho being the Vietnamese noodle soup – this restaurant is famous because during the Vietnam War, the serving of food there was a cover for the place being one of the important communist coordination headquarters in Saigon. In the restaurant the Viet Cong planned their attacks on the US Embassy and many other places in Saigon during the Tet Offensive in 1968. It still remains popular with tourists. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 359.

BINH TAY MARKET [Ch Bình Tây; ᮄ㸫Ꮦ]. This market – the ‘New Market of Cholon’ – is the major market in Cholon, the overwhelmingly Chinese part of Ho Chi Minh City. The former market, on Nguyen Trai Street, still referred to by some locals as the ‘old market’ [㟞㸫Ꮦ] was destroyed in a fire, which resulted in the construction of the present building on Thap Muoi Street. The original market was a place where many Chinese traders came to sell goods. One of the early major businessmen to make a fortune from it was Quach Dam (1863–1927), and he gradually bought up the land on which the market was located, as he cornered the rice trade. However, that market was destroyed in a fire and the new market building was constructed between 1928 and 1930. There are a variety of goods for sale in the market, including a section devoted to food stalls, usually full of people eating a variety of dishes, and also a ‘wet market’ selling fish, meat and fish products. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 286; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 87; Hoang Anh, ‘Cho Binh Tay Xua’ [Binh Tay Market in the past], Xua va Nay, no. 36B (1997): p. 9; Le Quang Ninh and

Bitexco Financial Tower

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Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 180–81.

BINH XUYEN [Bình Xuyên]. This was essentially a group of organised crime gangs which came together in the 1920s and were involved in controlling the Saigon underworld, especially in Cholon. They took their name from the village which had once been their headquarters. They included a number of prominent gangsters and crime families who were involved in controlling illegal gambling, narcotics and prostitution, amongst other activities. The French tried unsuccessfully to crack down on the Binh Xuyen, who gradually came to be controlled by Bay Vien. During the period from March until August 1945, the Japanese made use of the Binh Xuyen, who were able to help enforce Japanese rule in a particularly ruthless fashion. During this period, the group developed political goals which included the prevention of the return to French colonial rule. As a result, members of the Binh Xuyen aided the communists in the massacre of 150 French and Franco-Vietnamese civilians in Saigon on 24 September 1945. The French launched attacks on the Binh Xuyen and essentially it also split with the death of the main leader, Ba Duong. This saw the rise of Bay Vien, but the French were nervous about what he might do. Eventually they came to an understanding with Bay Vien and he used the Binh Xuyen against the Viet Minh. Soon afterwards, the Binh Xuyen came to dominate the trucking industry in Vietnam. With the formation of the State of Vietnam, and the realisation that the Vietnamese National Army of Bao Dai might be no match for the Viet Minh unaided, Bao Dai allowed for the Binh Xuyen to be organised as an ‘independent army’. This saw Bay Vien and his commanders being given ranks in the Vietnamese National Army, and it also meant that Bao Dai was able to form the group to control the police. In return, the Binh Xuyen are said to have paid Bao Dai between 24 million and 30 million piasters a year. The rise to power of Ngo Dinh Diem led to moves to destroy the Binh Xuyen and in the Battle for Saigon in 1954 forces loyal to Diem routed the Binh Xuyen. Some of them remained in the South Vietnamese Army, with others joining the communists. References: Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam, London: Faber, 1967; Pierre Darcourt, Bay Vien: Le maître de Cholon, Paris: Hachette, 1977; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 45; Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 360; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 119f.

BITEXCO FINANCIAL TOWER [Tháp Tài chính Bitexco]. This skyscraper, also known as the Financial Tower, was built between 2007 and 2010, being

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Blanchard de la Brosse, Paul Marie Alexis Joseph (1872–19 )

opened on 31 October 2010 and remains the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City, being 262.5 metres (861 feet) tall, surpassing the Saigon Trade Center. Work started on the Financial Tower with the site being marked out in September 2005, and it was the tallest building in Vietnam until January 2011, when the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower was completed. The tower has some 100,000 square meters of space, and it was designed by the architects from Carlos Zapata Studio, developed by the Bitexco Group. Leslie E. Robertson Associates were the structural engineers, winning an Excellence in Structural Engineering Award in December 2011 from the US-based National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. BLANCHARD de la BROSSE, PAUL MARIE ALEXIS JOSEPH (1872–19 ). Born on 24 July 1872, he started work in Indochina on 20 January 1902 and was the administrator of Kwangchowan in 1922 and again from 1925 until 1926. He was then governor of Cochinchina from 1926 until 1929. He retired on 17 July 1934. The Musée Blanchard de la Brosse in Saigon was named after him. It is now the Museum of Vietnamese History. References: Paul Blanchard de la Brosse, ‘La mission Pavie et Faction pacifique de la France’, in Ligue Maritime et Coloniales Françaises: La Mer et l’Empire, 3rd series, Paris: Editions Ariane, 1945 pp. 54–73; Tobias F. Rettig, Contested Loyalties: Vietnamese Soldiers in the Service of France, 1927–1939, PhD thesis, University of London, 2005.

BLANCSUBÉ, JULES (1834–1888). A politician, he was born in 1834 at Gap, in the southeast of France. He trained for the priesthood but then changed and studied law, working at Marseilles until 1863, when he moved to Cochinchina. There he continued to practise law, and also established Le Réveil d’Orient, the first Masonic lodge in Saigon, in part to counter the increasing influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Running the newspaper Le Mékong, he continually attacked the power of the governors which, he argued, should be held in check by an elected Colonial Council which had wider powers, especially in terms of the finances. In 1874, he became the acting mayor of Saigon, holding that position until 1876, and in 1879, he was elected mayor of Saigon, holding that position until 1880. Blancsubé wanted a member of the French National Assembly to represent Cochinchina, and when this position was created, he was duly elected, holding the seat until his death in 1888. His seat in the National Assembly was subsequently held by Charles Le Myre de Vilers. In 1886 Blancsubé wrote, ‘the vitality of this Cochinchine which I love with passion, which we all want great and prosperous, which we all aspire to see become a useful auxiliary to France.’ He also wrote a number of books. References: Matt K. Matsuda, Empire of Love: Histories of France and the Pacific, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 9; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, pp. 323–24.

Bollaert, Émile (1890–1978)

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BODARD, LUCIEN (1914–1998). A French journalist, Lucien Bodard was born on 9 January 1914 in Chongqing, China, his father being Albert Bodard, the french consul in Shanghai and a few other Chinese cities. He went to school in France, becoming a journalist by 1944. Posted to Asia, he covered the Chinese Civil War and then the First Indochina War. Based in Saigon, he developed a very good understanding of the complexities of political machinations in the city during the war, and also continued to write during the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem. His most famous book is The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam. He later wrote a four-volume history of the First Indochina War, and then some novels. He died on 2 March 1998 in Paris. References: Lucien Bodard, La Guerre d’Indochine, Paris: Gallimard, 1963–73, 4 vols; Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War, Boston: Little, Brown, 1967; Olivier Weber, Lucien Bodard: Un aventurier dans le siècle, Paris: Plon, 1997.

BOLLAERT, ÉMILE (1890–1978). The high commissioner of French Indochina from 1 April 1947 until 11 October 1948, Émile Bollaert was born on 13 November 1890 in Dunkirk, France, and was educated at the Lycée Faidherbe in Lille. He then went to Paris to study law and in 1913 started working for the local government authorities in northern France. A second lieutenant of the Alpine Chasseurs during World War I, he then went to work in the Loire. After holding a number of positions in the local government, he then served with distinction in the resistance during World War II. Captured by the Germans, he survived the war, becoming a member of the Radical Socialist Party and being a deputy in the French National Assembly. Following the recall of Thierry d’Argenlieu, he became high commissioner of French Indochina, in spite of only having experience in the French local government administration. However, unlike his predecessor, he was able to compromise and he was involved in negotiations between the French and Bao Dai to achieve what was known as the ‘Bao Dai solution’, which in turn resulted in the formation of the State of Vietnam. After being replaced by Léon Pignon, he spent eleven years working for the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône. He died on 18 May 1978 in Paris. References: Lucien Bodard, La Guerre d'Indochine, Paris: Gallimard, 1963–73, 4 vols; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1223; Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967; Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Oxford University Press, 1961; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 46–47; Jacques Valette, ‘Les Ambiguités d’une politique: Émile Bollaert et Bao-Dai’, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, no. 148 (October 1987): pp. 45–78.

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Bonard, Louis Adolphe (1805–1867)

BONARD, LOUIS ADOLPHE (1805–1867). The French governor of Cochinchina from 30 November 1861 until 16 October 1863, Louis Bonard was born on 27 March 1805 at Cherbourg, France and studied at the École Polytechnique, joining the French Navy in 1825. Captured in Algeria after a shipwreck, he managed to be released when the French captured Algiers. He then served in the Mediterranean, being the director of the Algerian port of Oran from May 1835 until March 1836. He was in Tahiti during the insurrection there in 1849. In 1853 he was appointed governor of French Guyana, taking up the position in the following year, and remaining until 1855. Moving to Cochinchina in 1861, Bonard was appointed governor by Emperor Napoleon III. He travelled to Cambodia in September 1862 to see whether King Norodom would be interested in signing a treaty with the French. He was also responsible for setting up the military hospital in Saigon, and tried to prevent Chinese being used in the administration of Saigon. In Vietnam, Louis Bonard managed to conclude the Treaty of Saigon on 5 June between the French and Spanish, and Annam – the treaty being ratified by Emperor Tu Duc in Hue on 16 April 1863. This gave the French permanent power there. Also in the same year, he sent Ernest Brière d’Isle to Cambodia. He returned to Saigon on 25 April, and five days later he left for France, taking the treaty with him. He only planned to be in France for a short time before returning to Saigon, but ill-health prevented this. Back in France, Louis Bonard held a number of administrative posts in the navy and was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour in 1864. He died on 31 March 1867 at Amiens. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 30; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1206–7; Manomohan Ghosh, ‘French Colonization of Vietnam: the first phase 1861–1885’, Calcutta Review, no. 172 (1964): pp. 119–29; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991, pp. 119, 152; Miranda Frances Spieler, Empire and Underworld: Captivity in French Guiana, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012, pp. 128, 168; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, pp. 4, 17, 22; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 324; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 65, 75; Peter Zinoman, The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862–1940, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, p. 29.

Bossant, Henri Gaëtan Ernest (1826–1894)

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BONHOURE, LOUIS ALPHONSE (1864–1909). A French colonial official, he was born on 2 July 1864 at Nîmes, France, trained as a lawyer and served on the Court of Appeal from 1883 until 1891. He then moved to Tonkin and in March 1892 he was appointed deputy chief of staff to the governor general of French Indochina, becoming chief of staff on 1 December 1894. However, he was then posted to the Côte d’Ivoire, and then to French Guyana. He was then appointed as governor of French Somaliland, and then governor of Martinique. Returning to Hanoi, he was the acting governor general of French Indochina from February 1907 until September 1908. In Hanoi, he was present when there was an attempt to poison the French garrison. In March 1908 he noted, ‘he vague aspirations that are now appearing and that spring from a still poorly defined desire for political and social reform must not be confused with a revolutionary movement’. Replaced by Antony Klobukowski, he returned to Saigon and committed suicide on 10 January 1909. References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860–1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, p. 310; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 324 (which gives the date of death as 8–9 January).

BOSSANT, HENRI GAËTAN ERNEST (1826–1894). He was the acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 31 January until 7 July 1876. A career soldier with the infantry, he was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

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Botanical Gardens

BOTANICAL GARDENS [Th୕o C୙m Viên]. These were first laid out by the French in 1864, on a site which was close to the northeastern bank of L’Avanche Canal (later the Thi Nghe Canal). The first director, J. B. Louis Pierre (1833–1905), a French biologist who was working at the botanical gardens in Calcutta, came to Saigon on 28 March 1865. He spent twelve years developing the gardens and then returned to Paris. There is still a bust of him on a pedestal in the gardens. Inside the gardens was the zoo, and in 1924 the site of both was expanded, with a concrete bridge built over the Thi Nghe Canal in 1927 to allow easy access. After independence, in 1956, the Thao Cam Vien Saigon (‘Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens’) was established, and it appeared on a postage stamp issued by the Republic of Vietnam postal authorities on 2 December 1964. The place still operates under this name, in spite of the city being renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Both the gardens and the zoo are still under the same administration. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 67–70; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 281; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 80; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 50; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 192– 95; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 369.

BOY SCOUT MOVEMENT [HŲ஍ng Ó୓o]. The original Boy Scout associations in Vietnam were comprised of French and wealthy Vietnamese who went to the French lycées. However, two athletes, Tran Van Khac and

Boy Scout Movement

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Ta Van Ruc, both in Hanoi, decided to set up the Vietnamese Scout Association as an athletic group in 1930. Two years later Tran Van Khac moved to Saigon and he formed the Scout Association of Cochinchina, with Nguyen Tat Thinh being the president of the Vietnam Boy Scouts’ Association from 1935. As scouting became increasingly popular, in 1937 the Scout Association of France sent Raymond Schlemmer to Indochina with the task of establishing the Indochinese Federation of Scouting Associations (FIAS: Fédération Indochinoise des Associations du Scoutisme). In 1941 there were 900 members of the Scout Association of Cochinchina, as compared with 2,250 boys in the association in Tonkin, and 1,350 in Annam. By contrast there were only 60 Girl Guides in Saigon – 40 being French, and the others Indochinese. During World War II, contact with Europe was restricted and there were a number of groups which emerged, including the Christian Association of French Youth (Association Chrétienne de la Jeunesse Française). The scout movement in the whole of Indochina was reformed as pro-Vichy groups, the main one in Cochinchina being the Youth of France (Jeunesse de France). There was little scouting during the First Indochina War, although there was an attempt to re-establish it in Hanoi in 1950. The Scout Association of North Vietnam was abolished in 1954. In the State of Vietnam, a new scout constitution was drawn up in 1952 and five years later it was approved by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, receiving recognition from the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WSOM). All scoutmasters were trained at the Tung Nguyen National Training Camp from 1958, and in the following year, boys from the movement took part in the 10th World Scout Jamboree in the Philippines. Later in 1959, some 2,500 boys met for a National Jamboree at the Trang Bom National Park at Bien Hoa near Saigon. National Jamborees continued to be held until that held at Tam Binh in Gia Dinh, on the outskirts of Saigon. The uniforms also changed from a brown shirt and blue shorts in 1964 to a khaki shirt and blue shorts by 1968. The president of the Vietnamese Boy Scout Association from 1962 until 1974 was Phan Thanh Hy. Some scoutmasters continued with their activities in the overseas Vietnamese community. There were attempts to re-establish a scout movement in Vietnam and there are some groups in Ho Chi Minh City in which boys and girls taking part together, but these have not been officially recognised by the WSOM. References: Anne Raffin, The Causes and Consequences of Patriotic Youth Mobilization in Vichy France and Indochina During and After World War II, PhD thesis, New School for Social Research, New York, 2000; Anne Raffin, Youth Mobilization in Vichy Indochina and its Legacies, 1940 to 1970, Lanham, MD: Lexington

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Bravo, Operation

Books, 2005; Anne Raffin, ‘Easternization Meets Westernization: Patriotic Youth Organizations in French Indochina during World War II’, French Politics, Culture, and Society, vol. 20, no. 2 (Summer 2002): pp. 121–40; John S. Wilson, Scouting ‘Round the World, London: Blandford Press, 1959, pp. 250–51.

BRAVO, OPERATION. This was the plan devised by Ngo Dinh Nhu in 1963 in anticipation of a military coup against his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem towards the end of the year. The plan was that the coup plotters would be allowed to stage their coup, and possibly take control of the Gia Long Palace from which President Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu would escape. The plotters would then think that they had overthrown Diem and try to gain support. This would then allow the two brothers to discover who really remained loyal to them and who did not as they massed their forces outside Saigon and regained control of the city. The plan failed, largely because General Ton That Dinh, who was to lead the loyal forces into Saigon, was in fact one of the conspirators. When Diem and Nhu realised that Operation Bravo had failed on the morning of 2 November 1963, they decided to surrender after attending mass at the Cha Tam Church in Cholon. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008; Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967; Ellen J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1984; Hoang Ngoc Thanh and Than Thi Nhan Duc, President Ngo Dinh Diem and the US: His Overthrow and Assassination, San Jose: Tuan-Yen and Quan-Viet Mai-Nam Publishers, 2001; Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

BRÉVIÉ, JOSEPH JULES (1880–1964). A French colonial administrator, he was born on 12 March 1880 at Bagnères-de-Luchon, in the Pyrénées in the south of France, and was initially posted to the French Sudan. From 1922–29, he was the lieutenant governor of Niger, and then governor general of French West Africa from 15 October 1930 until 27 September 1936. He was then sent to Vietnam as governor general of French Indochina from September 1936 until 23 August 1939. Brévié was appointed by the new Popular Front government which had come to power in France, and one of his first moves was to release the majority of political prisoners held in Vietnam. He made it easier for Vietnamese and Cambodians to gain French citizenship – which was actually taken up by large numbers of Vietnamese in Phnom Penh, rather than by Khmers. Brévié also oversaw the transformation of the tax base of French Indochina, reducing the pressure on the poorer people. Political parties were allowed to be formed in Cochinchina, and also indigenous newspapers such as Nagaravatta started to appear in Phnom Penh. During his time in Indochina, Brévié also established what became known as the Brévié Line. This demarcated the sea boundary between Cambodia and Cochinchina. From April 1942 until March 1943 he was minister of the

Brinks Hotel

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overseas territories and colonies in the government of Pierre Laval in Vichy. He died on 29 July 1964 at Pierrefitte, France. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1221–22; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 48.

BRIGGS, JOHN. A captain in the US Navy, John Briggs was the first American to land in Vietnam when he reached the country in 1803. References: Edward Doyle and Samuel Lipsman, Setting the Stage, Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1981, p. 94.

BRIGGS, LAWRENCE PALMER (1874–1952). The US consul in Saigon from 1914 until 1917, he was born on 17 October 1874 in Manton, Wexford County, Michigan, USA, the son of William H. Briggs and Elsie (née Weddeburn), from Canada. Lawrence Briggs was in England in 1895 when he married Harriet Cook. Back in the United States, he studied at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago, becoming an instructor at public schools in Michigan and then Seattle, Washington. Teaching at the University of California in 1910–11, he won a travelling fellowship from that university in 1911–12 to go to Europe. During his time as the US consul in Saigon, from 24 April 1914 until 1917, he developed a great interest in Cambodia and wrote The Ancient Khmer Empire, which remains one of the key works on Cambodian history. Lawrence Briggs died on 22 September 1952, at Muskegon, Michigan. Some of his papers relating to Latin America and the Falkland Islands are held at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. References: L. P. Briggs, ‘The Treaty of 23 March 1907 between France and Siam, and the return of Battambang and Angkor to Cambodia’, Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 4 (August 1946): pp. 439–54; L. P. Briggs, ‘A sketch of Cambodian history’, Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 6 (August 1947): pp. 356–57; L. P. Briggs, ‘Siamese attacks on Angkor before 1430’, Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 1 (1948): pp. 3–33; L. P. Briggs, ‘The Khmer Empire and the Malay Peninsula’, Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 9 (May 1950): pp. 256–305; L. P. Briggs, ‘The Ancient Khmer Empire’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society New Series, vol. 41, no. 1 (1951).

BRINKS HOTEL. This hotel, also known as the Brinks Bachelor Officers Quarters (BCQ) was located in Rue Paul Blanchy (now Rue Hai Ba Trung). Large numbers of US Army officers and other US personnel lived at the hotel when they were in Saigon in the 1960s. It also attracted many other Americans because of its good food, rooftop gardens and movie theatre. It was not long before two Viet Cong agents in Saigon decided to bomb the hotel, in 1964. One of them, Nguyen Thanh Xuan, later told journalist Stanley Karnow about it for Vietnam: A Television History. The two of them watched the hotel and noted that some South Vietnamese officers fraternised with the Americans. The two Viet Cong agents then managed to get South Vietnamese Army uniforms – one the uniform of a chauffeur and the other that of a major. Getting a car, they loaded the trunk with 90 kilograms of explosives and timed it to go off at 5.45 PM on

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Brown, Edward

24 December 1964, during the ‘happy hour’ at the hotel’s officers’ bar. The two drove into the grounds of the hotel and the man dressed as a major told the hotel clerk that he had an appointment with a US colonel who had, in fact, returned to the USA. Whilst the clerk checked, the ‘major’ took his car down to the car park under the hotel and then sent his ‘chauffeur’ off to find another American. The ‘major’ then said that has he had not eaten all day; he went to a nearby café and was there when the bomb exploded. Two US officers were killed, one being Lieutenant Colonel James Robert Hagen. This bomb explosion frighted the Americans who had come to believe that Saigon was safe. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 55; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War 1954– 1965, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

BROWN, EDWARD. A British seaman who was discharged in Hong Kong, he then worked on a Chinese boat in the run-up to the Second Opium War. Captured by Chinese pirates, he was taken to Saigon in 1858, where he was taken ill with fever. He survived and his harrowing account was published in 1861. References: Edward Brown, A Seaman’s Narrative of his Adventures During a Captivity among Chinese Pirates, on the Coast of Cochin-China, and Afterwards during a Journey on Foot across that Country, in the Years 1857–8, London: Charles Westerton, 1861; Edward Brown, Cochin China and My Experience of It: A Seaman’s Narrative of his Adventures and Sufferings, Taipei: Cheng Wen Publishing Company, 1871; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 38–40.

BROWNE, MALCOLM WILDE (1931–2012). A US journalist and photographer, he became well-known for his dramatic photograph of the selfimmolation of Thich Quang Duc in 1963. Born on 17 April 1931 in New York City, the son of Douglas Browne, a draftsman for Pan American Airways, and later an architect, and his wife Dorothy, he was educated at Friends Seminary, a Quaker school in Manhattan, and then went to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Drafted during the Korean War, he worked for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes for two years. He then returned to the United States and was a journalist for the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York, and then with the Associated Press (AP) in Baltimore, Maryland (1959–61). Appointed AP’s chief correspondent for Indochina, he moved to Saigon. On 11 June 1963 he was asked to attend a Buddhist demonstration and there to his surprise and horror, he saw and quickly photographed the self-immolation of the monk Thich Quang Duc. This was to win him a Pulitzer Prize. After a year with ABC Television, he went freelance and was a fellow at Columbia University for a year before joining The New York Times in 1968 and becoming their South America correspondent in 1972. After some time as a chemist, he returned to journalism in 1985 and covered the Gulf War in 1991. He died on 27 August 2012 in New Hampshire. References: Malcolm W. Browne, Muddy Boots and Red Socks: A War Reporter’s Life, New York: Random House, 1993; William Prochnau, Once upon a Distant War, New York: Times Books, 1995; Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of War Journalism, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 43; Who’s Who in America, from 1974.

Buddhism

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A statue of wooden Buddha in the early 1950s at the National Museum (now the Museum of Vietnamese History). The statue was presented in 1804 by Emperor Gia Long to the Khai Tuong Temple where his younger son and heir (the future emperor Minh Mang) had been born in 1791.

BUDDHISM [Phୟt giáo]. Most of the people in Ho Chi Minh City are Buddhist, with most of the Chinese in the city combining Buddhism with Daoism, and incorporating Confucianism. The first Buddhist missionaries came to Vietnam before 100AD, when northern Vietnam was under Japanese rule, and the area around what was to become Ho Chi Minh City probably being part of the Funan Empire – most likely a kingdom, in spite of the Chinese voyagers calling it an ‘empire’. Funan was Hindu, and it was the precursor to Chenla, and then the Kingdom of Angkor, which were both also Hindu. However, at the end of the twelfth century, under the influence of King Jayavarman VII, Buddhism started to dominate the kingdom, and undoubtedly spread through to the Cambodian village of Prey Nokor, which was to become Saigon. During the Lê dynasty, which ruled from 1428 until 1788, and which transformed Prey Nokor into a significant river port, Confucianism became the main system of thought, but most people still practiced a form of Buddhism. The Nguyen dynasty from 1802 until 1945 was even more Confucian in their philosophy, with Buddhism still remaining important. The Chinese settling at Cholon were Confucian and Taoist, but Buddhism was also important for many of them. The French certainly allowed Buddhism to flourish. However, after independence, the new government of Ngo Dinh Diem was accused of favouring Roman Catholics and trying to erode the

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Bui Quang Chieu

political influence of the Buddhists. Instead, as Diem became more unpopular in 1963, the Buddhists became a major political force, as seen through the selfimmolation of Thich Quang Duc and others. Buddhism flourished again from 1963 until 1975, and remained a major political force in the city, with many senior Buddhist leaders either advising South Vietnamese government officials, or taking an active part in politics themselves. In 1975, when the communists took over, the new regime removed any political influence from Buddhist circles. This saw the closing of most Buddhist pagoda schools, and the arrest of the monks who continued to criticise the government. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 179–84, 235–38; Pierre Guittet and Michel Bodin, ‘L’Aviso la boudeuse en Indochine’, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, no. 199 (July 2001): pp. 67–79; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 49–51; Robert Topmiller, ‘Struggling for Peace: South Vietnamese Buddhist Women and Resistance to the Vietnam War’, Journal of Women’s History, vol. 17, no. 3 (Fall 2005): pp. 133–57.

BUI QUANG CHIEU [Bùi Quang Chiêu] (1872–1945). A journalist, Bui Quang Chieu was born at Mo Cay in Ben Tre Province in the Mekong delta, into a wealthy family. Educated at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don), the École Coloniale and then at the National Institute of Agronomy in Paris, he returned to Saigon in 1897 and became an agronomical engineer. In 1917, with the support of Governor General Albert Sarraut, he founded the newspaper La Tribune Indigène, which soon became associated with the newly formed Constitutionalist Party. Bui Quang Chieu’s views were moderate and he urged for small changes in the colonial administration to allow for equal pay for Vietnamese civil servants. He was horrified by the Yen Bay Revolt of 1930 and the killings that resulted. He remained in Saigon but left political discussions in 1938. Bui Quang Chieu was married with six children. On 29 September 1945 he was arrested by the Viet Minh and charged with working for the French. He was then killed along with his youngest daughter. References: Gisèle Luce Bousquet and Pierre Brocheux, Viet Nam Exposé: French Scholarship on TwentiethCentury Society, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2002, p. 280f.; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 51; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 97–101.

BUNKER, ELLSWORTH (1894–1984). The US ambassador to South Vietnam from 1967 until 1973, he was born on 11 May 1894 in Yonkers, New York, the son of George Raymond Bunker, a founder and chairman of the National Sugar Refining Company, and Jeanie Polhemus (née Cobb). Studying law, he graduated from Yale University in 1916. Working in the National Sugar Refining Company from 1927, he became president in 1942.

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In 1951, Ellsworth Bunker began his diplomatic career as US ambassador to Argentina until 1952, and then Italy 1952–53, being president of the American Red Cross from 1953 until 1956. Ambassador to India from 1956 until 1961, he was replaced by J. K. Galbraith and, back in Washington DC, he became US ambassador to the Organization of American States. In 1967 Lyndon Johnson appointed him US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, replacing Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. During his six years in Saigon, Ellsworth Bunker was a vigorous supporter of the Republic of Vietnam and of US war efforts both in Vietnam and also in Laos and Cambodia. Lyndon Johnson wanted him to help US disengagement, but at the same time make sure that the US was not seen as losing the war. Bunker’s strident efforts saw him remain in office after Richard Nixon became president. In 1973 he was replaced by Graham Martin. Four years later he took part in the negotiations for the Torrijos-Carter Treaties in Panama. His first wife had died in 1964 and he married again in 1967. Ellsworth Bunker died on 27 September 1984 at his dairy farm in Putney, Vermont. References: ‘Ellsworth Bunker, Longtime Diplomat’, Chicago Tribune (28 September 1984); Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 52–53; Douglas Pike (ed.), The Bunker Papers: Reports to the President from Vietnam 1967–73, Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1990, 3 vols; Douglas Pike and Lisabeth G. Svendsgaard, ‘Ellsworth Bunker’, American National Biography, vol. 3, pp. 919–21; Howard B. Schaffer, Ellsworth Bunker: Global Troubleshooter, Vietnam Hawk, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003; Who’s Who in America; Stephen B. Young, ‘LBJ’s Strategy for Disengagement’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 10, no. 5 (February 1998): pp. 20ff.

BUSES. Since the introduction of buses into Vietnam during the early twentieth century, they became the mainstay of the local public transport system, being able to take people to far more places than was possible by train. During the French period motor buses started to be used in Saigon, but these were operated by private companies, mainly Chinese-owned. Bus stations were built near market places. From 1945 until 1975, there were buses operating all over Saigon and nearby areas. There were occasional attacks on buses carrying soldiers or government workers, but the bus system still met the daily transport needs of many people in Saigon. This system continued, in a fashion, after 1975, under government control, but had to be overhauled again in the 1990s with the increase in traffic in the country. Some tourists do use these buses to get around Ho Chi Minh City, but most tend to get around using cycles or taxis. The inter-city bus services tend to be more popular, with tourists trying to avoid paying the major surcharges for foreigners using trains.

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Bushell, John Christopher Wyndowe (1919–1995)

References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 26–27; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 505–6.

BUSHELL, JOHN CHRISTOPHER WYNDOWE (1919–1995). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1974 to 1975, he was born on 27 September 1919, the son of Colonel C. W. Bushell, Royal Engineers, he was educated at Winchester College, and Clare College, Cambridge. He joined the diplomatic service in 1945, and after postings in Europe, was British ambassador to Saigon in 1974–75. Following the departure of John Powell-Jones, he was accredited as Ambassador to Khmer Republic (resident in Saigon) on 18 February 1975, but after reaching Saigon, decided not to head to Phnom Penh, already under heavy siege – he later described it as one of his better decisions. With the British Embassy in Saigon closed down on 21 March, he never managed to present his credentials to Lon Nol. He was subsequently ambassador to Pakistan 1976–79. He died on 14 December 1995 in Fulham, London. References: Letter to the author, 1990; ‘British Embassy staff leave today’, The Times 21 March 1975, p. 7; Justin Corfield, Khmers Stand Up! A History of the Cambodian Government 1970–1975, Clayton, VIC: Monash University, 1994, p. 210; The Times 19 February 1975, p. 8; Who’s Who.

BUU LOC, Prince [Nguy୷n Phúc Bடu L஋c; 䰂⽣ᅱ⽘] (1914–1990). The prime minister of the State of Vietnam from 12 January until 16 June 1954, he was born on 22 August 1914, the great-great-grandson of Emperor Minh Mang. He went to school in France and then studied at Montpellier University, gaining his law degree in 1941. Returning to Vietnam, he was the chef de cabinet of Bao Dai, 1948–49, and special representative to the UN General Assembly in 1949. From 1951–52, he was director of the Imperial Cabinet in Paris, and high commissioner in Paris from 1952–53, and then was prime minister of the State of Vietnam and also minister of the interior. He was then replaced by Ngo Dinh Diem and became the high commissioner in Paris 1954–55. In 1958 he contracted a morganatic marriage to France Pacteau, and they had a son, Jean-François Nguyen-Phuoc-Buu-Loc, born on 18 October 1959. He died on 27 February 1990 in Paris. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 53.

C CAN LAO PARTY [C୙n lao Nhân v୽ Cách M୓ng Ð୕ng]. The Personalist Labour Revolutionary Party was the political party created by Ngo Dinh Nhu in 1955 to support his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem. It was based on the ideas of Personalism after Ngo Dinh Nhu had been influenced by the teachings of Emmanuel Mounier – although many of Mounier’s French supporters denounced this. The Can Lao Party was not an electoral party but operated secretly with membership limited to senior officials and some important political figures in the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. It was highly influential on policy decisions and helped bring together supporters at regular meetings. In some ways, the Can Lao Party was modelled on the Communist Party with a cell structure, and a largely secret membership. After the killing of Diem in 1963, some of the members joined the Nhan Xa party, which was active in the late 1960s. References: Seth Jacobs, ‘Sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem’: Religion, Orientalism, and United States intervention in Vietnam, 1950–1957, PhD thesis, Northwestern University, 2000; Seth Jacobs, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950–1957, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004; Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; Edward G. Lansdale, In the midst of Wars: An American’s Mission to Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 56; Robert G. Scigliano, ‘Political Parties in South Vietnam under the Republic’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 33, no. 4 (December 1960): pp. 327–46.

CAO ANH QUANG, JOSEPH [Cao Quang Ánh] (1967– ). A US politician, he was born on 13 March 1967 in Saigon, the son of Cao My Quang and Tran Khang Thi. His father was a lieutenant in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, being captured by the North Vietnamese in 1975. He was held in prison for seven years. Anh Quang went to the United States with an uncle and two siblings in 1975, and when his father was released from prison, he joined his son in the United States. Cao Anh Quang, a Roman Catholic, went to Jersey Village High School in Houston and then gained a degree in physics from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, going on to spend six years as a Jesuit seminarian. He then decided not to become a Jesuit and completed a Master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University and then gained a law degree (JD) from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana. 39

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Specialising in immigration issues, Cao Anh Quang did much to help Vietnamese settling in America. Galvanised by the government’s inaction over Hurricane Katrina, he contested the 2nd District of Louisiana in the US House of Representatives and was elected in 2008, serving from January 2009 until January 2011. The first Vietnamese American to serve in the US Congress, he was also the first Republican elected for that congressional district since 1891. In November 2009, he was the only Republican to vote to support the Affordable Health Care for America Act. He was defeated when he stood for re-election in November 2010. References: Bruce Alpert and Jonathan Tilove, ‘Cao phone too busy for the president’, Times-Picayune (Metro Edition, 1 March 2009): p. A13; Greg Giroux, ‘Republican Wins Upset Victory over Indicted Louisiana Congressman’, CQWeekly (15 December 2008): p. 3374; Jonathan Tilove, ‘Cao makes splash’, Times-Picayune (6 January 2009): pp. A1, A5.

CAO DAI [Cao Ðài; 催ৄᬭ] (‘High Abode’). This belief traces its origins back to 1919 in the city of Tay Ninh, to the northwest of Saigon. It was founded by Ngo Van Chieu, a minor civil servant, and believers embrace a selection of Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Confucian ideas, with the central belief being that the spirits of the world’s diverse gods and saints communicate directly with mortals. Its ideas quickly gained adherents in Saigon, although Tay Ninh remained the centre of the group. The Cao Dai became powerful under the French and the French certainly feared their power and organised raids on them on 24 August 1940, closing some 284 of the 328 temples raided. Some 5,000 sect members were arrested, of which 1,983 were clergy. Most were held in prison until 9 March 1945. It was the Japanese who managed to harness the power of the Cao Dai sect, and under them it became important. As a result, in 1945, some Cao Dai wanted to support the Viet Minh, with others preferring the French. In the early 1950s, when the Binh Xuyen effectively controlled much of Saigon, the Cao Dai grew in importance, opening new temples in Saigon. However, Ngo Dinh Diem sought to erode their power and as he consolidated his rule, many Cao Dai came to support the new Republic of Vietnam government. They continued to function after 1975, but have no power, nor any of the autonomy they had managed to achieve in the early 1950s. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 184–86, 240–42; Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 22–23; Bernard B. Fall, ‘The Political Religious Sects of Vietnam’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 28 (1955): pp. 235–53; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1984; Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Oxford University Press, 1961, pp. 86–88; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 58–59; William Shawcross, Sideshow: Nixon, Kissinger and the Destruction of Cambodia, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979, p. 66; Ralph B. Smith, ‘An Introduction to Cao Daism I: Origins and Early History’, Bulletin of the School of African & Oriental Studies, vol. 33 (1970): pp. 335–49; Ralph B. Smith, ‘An Introduction to Cao Daism II: Beliefs and Organization’, Bulletin of the School of African & Oriental

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Studies, vol. 33 (1970): pp. 573–89; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 88–90, 111.

CAO GIAO [Cao Giáo] (1917–198?). A political reporter in Saigon for Newsweek magazine in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he had been imprisoned some 21 times by various governments. In 1945 he had sympathised with the Viet Minh and worked with Pham Van Dong. However, they then jailed him for having worked with the Japanese in 1941. After his release, he was jailed again in late 1946 by the French when they returned to power. He then lived with the communists and decided to head to South Vietnam. Diem jailed him in 1958, but after Diem was overthrown, he started working for the South Vietnamese government, and also Newsweek. He usually operated from the Hôtel Continental, and worked for Tiziano Terzani. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, he took part in the thirty-day re-education and then returned home. However, in June 1978 he had been denounced as a CIA agent and was held in prison for nine months, facing daily interrogations and solitary confinement. He was then taken to Chi Hua prison and held for 3½ years. He was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Eventually he was released, and in 1985 he was allowed to move, with his wife, to Germany. He died soon afterwards from cancer. Of his three sons, two lived in Belgium, having moved there to study before 1975, and the youngest escaped from Vietnam by boat. References: Larry Berman, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007, p. 237; Henry Kamm, Dragon Ascending: Vietnam and the Vietnamese, New York: Arcade Publishing, 1996, pp. 190, 195; Nghia M. Vo, The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004, pp. 205–6, 233; Tiziano Terzani, Giai phong!: The Fall and Liberation of Saigon, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1976; Tiziano Terzani, A Fortune-Teller Told me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, London: HarperCollins, 1997, p. 264.

CAO VAN VIEN [Cao VÅn Viên] (1921– 2008). The chairman of the Joint General Staff of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Cao Van Vien was born on 21 December 1921 in Vientiane, Laos, where his father was a merchant. However, soon after Vien was born the family headed for the Mekong Delta after the discovery of gold there. The family initially became influenced by the movement of Ho Chi Minh, but soon came to recognise that the Viet Minh were heavily communist rather than purely nationalist. Cao Van Vien gained a degree in humanities from the University of Saigon, and was trained at the Cap. Saint Jacques Military School, being commissioned second lieutenant in the Vietnamese

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Cao Van Vien

National Army in 1949. Within four years he was a battalion commander, and was promoted to major in 1954. With independence, he transferred to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and was gazetted lieutenant colonel in 1956 and appointed as chief of staff of the Special Military Staff attached to the office of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Cao Van Vien and his family moved to a house in Ngo Quyen Street, Cholon, and continued living there modestly until the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Having been promoted to colonel in 1960, in November 1960, after the coup attempt against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, he was appointed the commander of the Vietnamese Airborne Division. Refusing to take part in the November 1963 coup against Diem, he only found out about the conspiracy at lunch time on the previous day and he narrowly escaped being killed by the intervention of Major General Ton That Dinh. In January 1964, when Nguyen Khanh overthrew Duong Van Minh, Vien used the troops from the Airborne Division to secure Saigon. Promoted to brigadier general, he was appointed chief of staff of the Joint General Staff on 11 September 1964 when Nguyen Khanh sacked Nguyen Van Thieu. In June 1965, he became a member of the military council which served under air marshal Nguyen Cao Ky. As chief of staff, Cao Van Vien proposed taking over southern Laos to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He had to balance decisions made by politicians with what he felt were the best military strategies and on 26 January 1967 was appointed as minister of defence, and on 5 February 1967, was promoted to full general. Aware of the secret bombing of the suspected communist bases in Cambodia, he accidentally revealed this in his first press conference on 10 August 1967, leading to categorical denials from the US government. Soon Vien became critical of the US and South Vietnamese forces for not embarking on major offensives. He opposed the appointment of Tran Van Huong as prime minister in May 1968, and he stepped down as minister of defence, but continued to be an important strategist for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Worried about the United States pulling out its soldiers, Cao Van Vien persuaded the South Vietnamese Army to go onto the offensive by using the change in government in Cambodia in 1970 to launch an attack on southern Laos. Although initially achieving its military targets, the offensive was unsuccessful. In March 1975, Cao Van Vien was present at the meeting where Nguyen Van Thieu decided to abandon the Central Highlands. Vien had become increasingly critical of Thieu in private, but as a career soldier never voiced his opinions in public. On 28 April 1975, he left Saigon, refusing to serve under Duong Van Minh. Settling in the United States with his family – his oldest son was completing his doctorate at the American University, and his second son was in a high

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school in Washington DC – Cao Van Vien wrote about the defeat of the South Vietnamese and became a US citizen in 1982. However, he was suffering badly from arthritis and was in great pain. His wife, Tao Thi Tran, died in 1991. The daughter of a wealthy landowner in the Mekong Delta, she ran a large number of businesses, including a bottling franchise for Pepsi-Cola. He died from a heart attack on 22 January 2008 at Annandale, Virginia. References: Cao Van Vien, Reflections on the Vietnam War, Washington DC: Center of Military History, 1980; Cao Van Vien, The Final Collapse, Washington DC: Center of Military History, 1981; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 59; Philip Smith, ‘Key Vietnam Army Figure Becomes Citizen’, The Washington Post (20 January 1982); William Tuohy, ‘New Defense Minister for S. Vietnam Named’, The Los Angeles Times (28 January 1967); Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 920.

CARAVELLE HOTEL. This massive hotel in Saigon was built in 1958 and run by Air France. There was a massive demand for hotel rooms at the time, and the Australian Embassy and the New Zealand Embassy were both based at the Caravelle Hotel for a period. In addition, the Saigon bureaus of NBC, ABC and CBS were also located there. Some of the reporters enjoyed filming the city from the rooftop. In April 1960 it was the location for the meeting of a number of anticommunist politicians who formed the Bloc for Liberty and Progress (Khoi Tu-Do Tien-Bo). These issued the Caravelle Manifesto, which was critical of Ngo Dinh Diem and urged reforms to his government, especially in the area of freedom of speech. Many of the signatories were subsequently arrested. The hotel also appears in Morris West’s novel, The Ambassador (1965), an account of the overthrow of Diem. The roof was used by journalists watching the events of 1–2 November 1963, when soldiers loyal to coup plotter Duong Van Minh attacked the Gia Long Palace to oust Ngo Dinh Diem. Described in the memoirs of several journalists, the hotel also forms a scene in Anthony Grey’s novel, Saigon (1982), where large numbers of people trapped there by the curfew watch the unfolding attack while being served alcohol by waiters. At 11.30 AM, on 25 August 1964, a bomb exploded in Room 514 – the fifth floor being mainly occupied by journalists. As most of them were out on assignment, although nine rooms were damaged, and a number injured – including people in the street hit by flying glass – there were no deaths. The 1969 edition of the Golden Guide to South & East Asia notes that the hotel is ‘entirely air-conditioned and decorated with glass and Italian marble; skyroom restaurant and roof garden give the best view in town; 100 rooms and suites with bath attached, single US$18.75, double $22.50, suites $31.25, rates include continental breakfast, meals at US$3.50 up; two dining rooms, coffee shop, three bars, cabaret, money exchange, laundry, dry-cleaning, guest privileges at golf course 15 minutes away by car.’

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Caravelle Manifesto (1960)

With the communist victory in April 1975, the hotel was taken over by the government and renamed the Doc Lap (‘Independence’) Hotel. In 1998, with an influx of tourists back to Vietnam, it was renamed the Caravelle Hotel. In addition to the original ten-storey building, another 24-storey tower was constructed to help cater for more people who wanted to stay at the hotel. The Saigon Bar is on the rooftop. In April 2010, there was a reunion of war reporters and war photographers at the Caravelle Hotel. References: Caravelle Hotel, www.caravellehotel.com; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 75; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 54; P. H. M. Jones, Golden Guide to South & East Asia, Melbourne: Paul Flesch & Co. Pty, 1969, p. 415; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 60–61; Don North, ‘Dispatches from Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 23, no. 2 (August 2010): pp. 54ff.; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 372.

CARAVELLE MANIFESTO (1960). The first major challenge to the rule of President Ngo Dinh Diem, this was an open letter issued by a group of eighteen politicians and political activists in April 1960, taking its name from the Caravelle Hotel from where the manifesto was issued. The eighteen signatories were, in the order in which they signed the letter, Tran Van Van, Phan Khac Suu, Tran Van Huong, Nguyen Luu Vien, Huynh Kim Huu, Phan Huy Quat, Tran Van Ly, Nguyen Tien Hy, Tran Van Do, Le Ngoc Chan, Le Quang Luat, Luong Trong Tuong, Nguyen Tang Nguyen, Pham Huu Chuong, Tran Van Tuyen, Ta Chuong Phung, Tran Le Chat and Ho Van Vui. The manifesto was heavily publicised in the United States and led to some US and other foreign politicians starting to challenge their support for Diem. CARLISLE, TOM FFENNELL (1871/2–1941). The British consul in French Indochina from 1 March 1904 until 1916, he was born in Croughton, Northamptonshire, England, the son of Thomas Carlisle, an army officer, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of William Joshua Ffennell of Ballybrado and Carrigataha. Tom was initially a student interpreter in the Far East. Posted to Hanoi, after being appointed on 1 March 1904, his appointment took effect from 1 July 1905, and the seat of the consulate was moved to Saigon. He served in Saigon and from 1917 he was consul general in Louisiana, USA. He died in 1941 in Surrey, UK. Reference: The Foreign Office List 1913, p. 209; Robert A. Hill (ed.), The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. 3, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984, p. 512.

CASSAIGNE, JEAN (1895–1973). The second vicar apostolic of Saigon, and the last non-Vietnamese bishop in Saigon, he was born on 30 January 1895 in France and was ordained priest on 19 December 1925. He was appointed vicar apostolic of Saigon on 20 February 1941, being consecrated bishop on 24 June 1926. He remained in office until 20 September 1955, and died on 31 October 1973.

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References: Trân Thi Liên, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens dans la République du Viêtnam (1954–1963)’, in Pierre Brocheux (ed.), Du conflit d’Indochine aux conflits indochinois, Paris: Éditions Complexe, 2000, pp. 53–80.

CATHOLICS. Accounting for about a tenth of the population of Cochinchina, and probably as much as 15 per cent of the population of Saigon during French colonial rule, the Roman Catholics there were an extremely influential community. This was partly because they benefited from French education, and many of them integrated fairly easily into French colonial society. Quite a number of the Vietnamese elite were from Roman Catholic families and the contact through the church allowed them to mix socially with many of the French. Roman Catholicism was introduced in Vietnam by the French Société des Missions Étrangères, which was founded in 1664 and had its headquarters in Paris. It was active in the region and had been responsible for many conversions by 1700. There were also some Jesuits who gained positions of importance at Hue. Persecution of the Catholics took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with Joseph Marchand in Saigon being killed in 1835, although this was as a result of him joining a revolt, not solely because he was Catholic. In the 1850s, the actions of the Vietnamese court provided the French with an excuse to attack Tourane (Danang) and then establish their main base at Saigon. Because the French took over Cochinchina and had their administrative capital at Saigon, it was not long before many people in Saigon either converted, or those who had converted moved to the city. With the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and the partition of Vietnam, large numbers of Roman Catholics from northern Vietnam (possibly as many as 900,000) fled to the south and these were resettled by the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, a devout Roman Catholic, in the region around Saigon. Ngo Dinh Diem, who was president of the Republic of Vietnam from 1955 until 1963, was from a family which had been Roman Catholic for several generations. He openly favoured Roman Catholics in his administration, and this lead to tensions with Buddhists, especially from July 1963 until his overthrow and assassination in November of that year. Roman Catholics still continued to play a very important role in politics, and were influential at many levels of society in Saigon during the presidency of Nguyen Van Thieu from 1965 until 1975, but there was not the same level of religious tension as there had been under the last years of Diem’s rule. In 1974 and early 1975 Catholics under Father Chau Tin, the director of the newspaper Dot Dien (‘Confrontation’) was vociferous in his opposition to Ngyuen Van Thieu. The power of the Roman Catholic Church was curtailed significantly by the communists from 30 April 1975. François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, the coadjutor archbishop of Saigon (and nephew of Ngo Dinh Diem), was arrested

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Catinat Street

and held in prison for thirteen years. When he was released on 21 November 1988, he was held under house arrest in the Archbishop’s Palace until he was able to leave Vietnam three years later. From the late 1990s, Catholic worship has been allowed – the Catholic Church was always recognised by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Many Vietnamese Catholics who fled overseas have returned – some for holidays, others permanently – and the services in churches in Saigon are well-attended. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 187, 238–40; ‘Le Catholicisme at Viet-Nam’, Sud Est, no. 8 (1950): pp. 1–8; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 148–55; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 70–71; Trân Thi Liên, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens dans la République du Viêtnam (1954–1963)’, in Pierre Brocheux (ed.), Du conflit d’Indochine aux conflits indochinois, Paris: Éditions Complexe, 2000, pp. 53–80.

CATINAT STREET. This was the main street in Saigon from the French period, and was renamed Tu Do Street, and is now called Dong Khoi. CATROUX, GEORGES (1877–1969). The acting governor general of French Indochina, 20 August 1939 – 25 June 1940, he was born on 29 January 1877 at Limoges, Haute-Vienne, the son of a career army officer. He himself joined the military, graduating from St Cyr in 1896. He served in Indochina in 1902–5. During World War I, he was initially posted to Algeria. Back in France, he was captured by the Germans, and during his time in a German prisoner-ofwar camp, he met and befriended Charles de Gaulle. After the end of the war, Catroux served in the French Military Mission to Arabia, and then held posts in the colonial administration in Morocco, the Levant and then Algeria. In July 1939 Catroux was appointed as governor general of French Indochina, with his appointment starting on 20 August. He arrived in Indochina on the day that World War II broke out, and his appointment had been made to strengthen the military in Indochina. However, after the Fall of France in June 1940, he was not trusted by the Vichy government and was replaced by Admiral Jean Decoux. Catroux rallied to the Free French cause and was appointed their commander-in-chief. After World War II, he was French ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1945– 48, and then served in North Africa, although he was not able to take up his appointment as resident minister in Algeria in 1956 because of demonstrations

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by French settlers. He headed what became known as the Catroux Commission, which investigated the defeat of the French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. In 1961 he was a judge on the military tribunal which tried Maurice Challe and André Zeller, who had staged the Generals’ Revolt in Algiers. Catroux died on 21 December 1969 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1222; J. Davidson, Indo-China: Signposts in the Storm, Singapore: Longman, 1979, pp. 28–29; Ellen J. Hammer, Struggle for Indochina 1940–1955: Viet Nam and the French Experience, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966, pp. 15–19; Henri Lerner, Catroux, Paris: Albin Michel, 1990; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 61–62; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 364; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 260.

CÉDILE, JEAN HENRY (1908–1984). A French official, he was born on 26 January 1908 at Pointe-à-Pitre at Guadeloupe, the son of Gaston Cédile, a businessman. The family returned to metropolitan France in 1914. Educated at the Collège d’Auxerre, he gained a law degree and then studied at the École Coloniale, gaining a diploma from the Institute of Oriental Languages. He rallied to the Free French Forces of General Charles de Gaulle in 1940 and served in Syria, Lebanon and then in Libya, before being posted to Tunisia. In March 1944 he was sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and took part in operations in Burma and also led missions to China. With the August Revolution of 1945 underway, on 24 August 1945 he was parachuted into Vietnam, having been appointed as the representative of the Free French to the government of Cochinchina. Captured by the Japanese near Saigon, he and his colleagues were stripped naked and brought into Saigon. There they were interrogated, had their clothes returned, and were given their freedom. Cédile quickly started negotiations in Saigon with the Committee of the South, the pro-Viet Minh leadership in the city. No agreement was reached, and Cédile returned to France. He later served in Togo and then in French Central Africa. Retiring to his house, Le Vivier, Accolay, Yvonne, he died on 13 February 1984 at Saint-Cloud, France. References: Bruce McFarland Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 39, 62; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 266.

CÉLORON de BLAINVILLE, PAUL LOUIS MAXIME (1831–1889). The director of local services in Cochinchina from 25 August 1888 until 16 May 1889, he was from a family which included French administrators in North America. He had been commandant at Mayotte from 19 August until 5 September 1887. CEMETERIES. With a significant Chinese population in Saigon since early modern times, there have been Chinese burial grounds around the city, but

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Cemeteries

many of these were lost in the urbanisation of the city from the 1950s. There was also a large Roman Catholic cemetery in Saigon, which in 1955 was renamed the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery [Mc Ðĩnh Chi Cemetery], or sometimes the Central Cemetery. It had its origins in 1859 when the French buried their dead there after the storming of the Citadel of Saigon. Some non-Roman Catholic Christians were buried there, including one British serviceman who died during World War II. During the Vietnam War, the bodies of senior South Vietnamese officials were buried in the cemetery, which became the subject of a long poem by David Chapman Berry. Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu were both buried there, as was US missionary Grace Cadman and François Sully of Time Magazine. The graves of French and French colonial service personnel were removed in the 1980s and reinterred near Fréjus in the south of France.

In 1983 the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City passed a resolution to close the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery and people were given two months to take the bodies of their family members. Then the whole place was demolished by bulldozers. In the late 1990s, the cemetery was transformed into the park, with a guide in June 2000 commenting that the land ‘used to belong to the rich high class Vietnamese who were buried there – it has now been returned to the people’. The vast majority of the gravestones were smashed and destroyed, with some of the bodies being reburied elsewhere. The action was a particularly sad one for many in Saigon, not just those who had relatives buried there, with the demolition of the graves and mausoleums coming at a period of hardline communist policies affecting so many people in different ways and leading to large numbers of people from Saigon fleeing overseas.

Census

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The Binh Hung Hoa Cemetery on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City has survived and it has some 70,000 graves, making it the largest cemetery in the city. It has been estimated that there are as many as 300,000 people living around the cemetery. There have been no new internments since January 2011, with plans being published to relocate the graves elsewhere and redevelop the site for more housing. There are another 40 cemeteries in Ho Chi Minh City.

A cemetery on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City for the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. Author’s photograph. References: David Chapman Berry, Saigon Cemetery, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1972; James Pringle, ‘Cemeteries tell tale of slow reconciliation’, The Australian (1 May 1995): p. 7; Van Nam, ‘City’s largest cemetery to turn into residential quarter’, The Saigon Times (5 January 2011).

CENSUS. The French conducted their first general estimate of the population of French Indochina in 1906, and they then conducted further estimates in 1921, 1926, 1931 and 1936. The last of these estimates was made in 1943. Demographers do not believe that these estimates were very accurate, although the figures for Saigon are likely to be more accurate (or at least less inaccurate) than those for much of the rest of the region. The Republic of Vietnam never had a complete nationwide census. However, in 1951 there was a census of the Ban-Co region of Saigon, and in 1958 there was a census held in Saigon and five other cities (Cantho, Dalat,

50

Central Mosque

Gia Dinh, Hue, and Nha Trang). The next census that covered Saigon was a demographic survey in 1962. Three years later there was a national estimate. The population survey in 1972 only covered sixteen rural provinces. It was stated by the Vietnamese government that a census of South Vietnam was held in February 1976 but no details were published. The first census covering the whole of Vietnam was held on 1 October 1979. There were subsequent censuses held on 1 April 1989, 1 April 1999, and on 1 April 2009. These all covered the entire country, including Ho Chi Minh City, which was also covered in a mini-census on 1 October 2004. The population of the city was found to be 3,169,000 (1989), 3,924,435 (1999), 5,140,412 (2004), and 6,060,202 (2009). References: General Statistics Office of Vietnam, www.gso.gov.vn; Elaine Domschke and Doreen S. Goyer, The Handbook of National Population Censuses: Africa and Asia, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987, pp. 880–84; Doreen Goyer, The International Population Census Bibliography: Revision and Update, 1945–1977, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 547–48.

CENTRAL MOSQUE. This was built from 1931–35 for the South Indian Muslim community in Saigon, replacing an earlier mosque which had been built on the same site in the late nineteenth century. The building was organised by the Aziz brothers, wealthy businessmen in Saigon, and the worshippers included many Indians, but also Afghans, Algerians, Arabs, Chams, Egyptians and Javanese. The mosque is heavily influenced by Malay architectural designs and it has four minarets, but none of them have been used since at least 1975 when, after the communist victory, most of the Muslims left the country. There are still twelve other mosques in Ho Chi Minh City, but attendance at prayers is sparse.

Central Mosque

51

References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 67; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 168–69; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 44; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 359.

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Cercle Sportif Saigonais

CERCLE SPORTIF SAIGONAIS. This was the main French sports club and was located close to the Norodom Palace (later the Presidential Palace, now the Reunification Palace). Founded on 22 March 1902, it had a large swimming pool which was constructed between April and August 1933 (opened on 2 September 1933) and also tennis courts. A match in the latter forms a part of

Author’s photograph.

Cha Tam Church

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Anthony Grey’s novel Saigon (1982) in which, in 1936, a Vietnamese player from a wealthy family was disqualified after he beat a French player. It is now the Cau Lac Bo Lao Dong (Travellers’ Club). References: Philippe Franchini, Saigon 1925–1945: De la Belle Colonie à l’éclosion révolutionnaire ou la fin des dieux blancs, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992, p. 91; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 45.

CHA TAM CHURCH [Nhà thஏ Cha Tam]. This Church in Cholon is dedicated to François Xavier Tam Assoa, a prominent Vietnamese Roman Catholic who is buried near the entrance to the church. It has long been popular with the Roman Catholic community in Cholon and President Ngo Dinh Diem and his family often prayed there. However, it is best-known from holding a mass on 2 November 1963 for Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, who had decided to surrender after the coup d’état in Saigon and the failure of Operation Bravo. After taking communion at the church and

Author’s photograph.

hearing the service, the two brothers left and were quickly bundled into an armoured car which was waiting outside. On the drive back to central Saigon, the two brothers were assassinated. The coup plotters, notably Duong Van Minh, claimed that the brothers had committed suicide, but the priest at the Cha Tam Church, and other Roman Catholic priests elsewhere in Saigon openly proclaimed this to be untrue by holding memorial services for two of their closest supporters.

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Chamber of Commerce

The belfry to the church has a statue (variously noted as being of François Xavier Tam Assoa or St Francis Xavier), and excellent views of Saigon. However, for most tourists, the main site of interest are the seats at the back right-hand side of the church, which have a brass plaque stating that President Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu prayed there and then took communion on 2 November before leaving the church and being killed. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 64; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 363. Most books state that the church is dedicated to St Francis Xavier himself who, although he travelled around much of Asia, never went to Saigon.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. This large building was constructed in 1924 with an Art Deco design. Originally the headquarters of the company Maison Edmond & Henry, it was soon adapted to become the headquarters of the French Chamber of Commerce. There are some Khmer and Cham-style wall decorations. The building is now the headquarters of the Trade and Industry Department of the Municipality of Saigon. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 30–31; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 126–27.

CHARLES, JEAN FRANÇOIS EUGÈNE (1865–19 ). Born on 22 August 1865, he was the acting governor general of French Indochina from May 1916 until January 1917. He remained working until his retirement on 28 October 1920. CHARNER, LÉONARD VICTOR JOSEPH (1797–1869). The French governor of Cochinchina from 6 February until 28 November 1861, Léonard Charner was born on 13 February 1797 at Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d’Armor, and joined the French Navy when he was eighteen. In 1830 he served in Algeria, and seven years later he was in the naval convoy that brought the body of Napoleon Bonaparte from St Helena back to France. Sent to the Pacific in 1843, his aim was to counterbalance the success of the British in China, and in 1848 he became heavily involved in politics, elected to the Legislative Assembly in the following year. He was involved in the fighting in China in 1860–61. Admiral Charner was then instructed by Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat to take his naval squadron to Saigon, where he lifted the siege after the Battle of Ky Hoa. This allowed the French to take over Saigon and the three adjoining

Chasseloup Laubat, Prosper de (1805–1873) 55

provinces. Then he ensured French control of My Tho, which gave the French oversight of the production of rice going to the western provinces. Made a senator in 1862 and an Admiral of France on 15 November 1864, he died on 7 February 1869 in Paris. Several ships were later named after him, including the Amiral Charner, which was involved in the French attack on Thailand at the Battle of Koh Chang in 1941. He was commemorated on three Indochinese postage stamps issued in 1944; and by Boulevard Charner (now Nguyen Hue). References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 28; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1206; John DeFrancis, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam, The Hague: Mouton, 1977, p. 76; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1984, p. 76; Léopold Pallu de La Barrière, Histoire de l'expédition de Cochinchine en 1861, Paris/Nancy: Berger-Levrault, 1888; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 327; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 63–65.

CHASSELOUP LAUBAT, PROSPER de (1805–1873). A prominent French politician who urged for the expansion of the French Emnpire, Count Justin Napoléon Samuel Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat was the minister of the navy under Napoleon III from 1860 until 1867, and did much to promote the annexing of Vietnam by the French. This was a period when the French were expanding their influence around the world, and was to lead to Saigon becoming the centre of French rule in Southeast Asia – Chasseloup-Laubat supported Regault de Genouilly in his attacks on Saigon. One of the major secondary schools in Saigon was named after ChasseloupLaubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don). He is also the eponym of one of the main streets in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and many other former French colonies named

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Chavassieux, Leon Jean Laurent (1848–1895)

after him including in Algiers. He was commemorated on a postage stamp issued in French Indochina in 1943. References: Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857– 1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 327; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, pp. 2, 19.

CHAVASSIEUX, LEON JEAN LAURENT (1848–1895). He was the acting governor general of French Indochina from March until October 1894. Born on 29 July 1848 in the department of Isère, France, he arrived in Cochinchina in 1874 to work with the College des Stagiaires. He was the acting secretary general for Cochinchina from 16 January until 31 December 1882. Promoted to an administrator 1st class in 1886, he was he mayor of Hanoi and the résident supérieur of Tonkin from 1894, during which year he was the acting governor general of French Indochina. He died on 7 June 1895 in Hanoi. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, pp. 57–58; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999.

CHETTIARS. See Indians. CHEY CHETTHA II (1573–1627). The King of Cambodia from 1618 until 1622, as a boy, he was held in captivity in Siam (Thailand) from 1594 until 1604 while his father was the reigning Khmer king. Chey Chetta eventually married Nguyen-Phuoc Thi Ngoc Van, a ‘princess’, the daughter of Nguyen-Phuoc Nguyen from the Nguyen family of Hue, Vietnam, and ascended the throne in 1618. He established his capital at Oudong, where he welcomed European traders. In exchange for assistance in fending off some Siamese attacks, Chey Chetta ceded a small river port village in the lower Mekong River delta, to his Vietnamese allies. That village soon became the important market town of Saigon. Modern irredentists and nationalists, including some Khmer Krom activists, claim the royal transfer of part of the motherland was not legitimate. The ashes of Chey Chettha are in a stupa at Oudong. References: Justin Corfield and Laura Summers, Historical Dictionary of Cambodia, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003, p. 71; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 2–3; Nicholas Sellers, The Princes of Ha-tien (1682–1867), Brussels: Thanh-Long, 1983.

CHI HOA PRISON [Khám Chí Hòa]. The main prison in Saigon, it was constructed in the late 1930s in a field known as Chi Hoa, to replace the Saigon Central Prison which had been constructed by the French in 1890. With the political and social problems in Cochinchina in the 1920s and early 1930s, that prison had become hopelessly overcrowded and work started on the new prison in either 1939 or 1943. French and Vietnamese architects were responsible for the design which was for a three-floor octagonal building with areas designated along the eight axes, labelled A through to H. There were

Chinese

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separate areas for male and female prisoners. There was a large watch tower in the exercise courtyard. Because of the various upheavals in Vietnam, the prison was not completed and ready to use until 1953, although while half-completed the Japanese did hold some prisoners there; the Viet Minh attacked it to free the inmates in the August Revolution. In 1953, the Saigon Central Prison was then closed and the prisoners there transferred to the Chi Hoa Prison, with a battalion detailed to guard the prison. The reason for its construction was to alleviate overcrowding, but when the prison was opened, it was already overcrowded; although it had 238 cells, there were soon more than 6,000 prisoners. For those sentenced to death, most executions took place outside the Maison Centrale where the guillotine was located. Only two people were actually executed inside the prison: Ngo Dinh Can, the brother of Ngo Dinh Diem; and Nguyen Van Troi. Gradually the number of people held in the prison rose, with an increased number of political prisoners. In 1973 there were some 10,000 people held in the overcrowded prison. Although the treatment of prisoners there was heavily criticised by the communists, after 1975 the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam used the prison to hold many of their internees including Dr Phan Huy Quat who died there in 1977. It remains overcrowded but is one of the most secure prisons in the country. The only person who is believed to have escaped from the prison was the criminal Phuoc Tam Ngon who managed to break out in 1995. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 26; Mary Herschberger, Traveling to Vietnam: American Peace Activists and the War, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998, p. 158; Peter Zinoman, The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862–1940, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

CHINESE. The Chinese, known in Vietnamese as the Hoa people, have always made up a large percentage of the population of Saigon, most living in Cholon. Indeed it seems likely that there was a significant Chinese population in the Mekong Delta before the Vietnamese arrived in the region. However the first large influx of Chinese into the region was when the Mongol dynasty took over in China from the Sung dynasty in 1279. This caused some ethnic Chinese from southern ports to leave. There was a bigger migration with the collapse of the Ming dynasty in China in the 1630s and early 1640s, which led to many Chinese fleeing, and some of these settled in Vietnam. Cholon became a largely Chinese town – later merging with Saigon as both expanded. In 1778 and again in 1782 the Tay Son rebels attacked Cholon and on both occasions large numbers of Chinese were killed. This was because, in part, the Tay Son Rebellion was a peasant uprising and the peasants often resented the wealth and influence of the Chinese – and indeed many urban businessmen. But on another level, there was a distinct nationalist element in the Tay Son Rebellion, exacerbated by the French supporting their enemies. This was reflected in a dislike of many Chinese.

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Chinese

In spite of this, Chinese from China kept coming to Cholon and the area was fortified and called Tai Ngon (‘Embankment’ in Cantonese). During the Nguyen dynasty, the Chinese community flourished, with large numbers of migrants being Cantonese from the city of Guangzhou (Canton), or more strictly speaking from the countryside around Guangzhou. Three of the most important Chinese pagodas in Saigon and Cholon are connected with the Cantonese community: the Ba Thien Hau Pagoda (founded in about 1760); the Jade Emperor Pagoda (built in 1906–9); and the Khanh Van Nam Vien Pagoda (built in 1939–42). This latter pagoda is still the only purely Daoist pagoda in the whole of Vietnam. There were also large numbers of Chinese from Fujian (Fukien) and some of the other important pagodas are for their community: the Ha Chuong Hoi Quan Pagoda; the Ong Bon Pagoda; the Phung Son Tu Pagoda (built in the late 1940s); the Phuoc An Hoi Quan Pagoda (built in 1902); the Phuoc Kien Pagoda; the Quan Am Pagoda; and the Tam Son Hoi Quan Pagoda. Quach Dam from the Teochew community is the subject of one of the best-known success stories of how a poor Chinese boy migrated to Cholon and became immensely wealthy and powerful. Intermarriage between the Chinese and the Vietnamese has been common and a significant number of officials in the French colonial period and in the Republic of Vietnam had some Chinese ancestry. However, with the fall of Saigon to the communists on 30 April 1975, there were moves to break the power of the Chinese. One of the most dramatic of these was the nationalisation of all private and manufacturing businesses which employed non-family members.

Chinese

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A Chinese funerary procession in Saigon in the early 1950s.

This was announced on 23 March and went into effect the following day. Some 30,000 businesses were closed and then a single currency was introduced in May of that year. The Chinese government accused the Vietnamese government of moving to discriminate against Chinese in Vietnam. Starting in April 1978, large numbers of Chinese fled Vietnam. Most headed to China, but a many took to boats to try to reach other countries. These became known in the region as being the ‘boat people’. Vietnam’s isolation, exacerbated after its invasion of Cambodia in December 1978, led to increased economic privations and many more Chinese fleeing Vietnam. The Sino-Vietnamese represent about 1 per cent of the country’s population, and many of these live in Ho Chi Minh City, and Cholon remains predominantly Chinese. With the freeing of the economy in the 1990s and many more tourists coming to Vietnam, a large number of Sino-Vietnamese who fled Vietnam have returned, most on visits, but some semi-permanently. It has been estimated that although the Chinese make up some 3 per cent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City, they control about half of the trade in the city, dominating markets and shops. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 87–89, 247–48; Tracy Christianne Barrett, Transnational Webs: Overseas Chinese Economic and Political Networks in Colonial Vietnam, 1870–1945, PhD thesis, Cornell University, 2007; Clifton Barton, ‘Trist and credit: some observations regarding business strategies of overseas Chinese traders in South Vietnam’, in Linda Y. C. Lim and L. A. Peter Gosling (eds), The Chinese in Southeast Asia, Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1983, vol. 1, pp. 46–64; Nola Cooke and Tana Li, Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750–1880, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004; Bruce Lockhart and

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Cho Quan Church

William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 291–92; Nguyen Lien Van, American Perceptions of the Chinese Role in Vietnam, 1946–1954, PhD thesis, University of South Carolina, 1978; Lewis M. Stern, ‘The overseas Chinese in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1979–82’, Asian Survey, vol. 25, no. 5 (1985): pp. 521–36; Esta S. Ungar, ‘The struggle over the Chinese community in Vietnam 1946–1986’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 60, no. 4 (1988): pp. 596–614.

CHO QUAN CHURCH [Nhà thஏ Chக Quán]. This Roman Catholic Church was built in about 1900 and is located on Tran Binh Trong Street. It is the largest Christian church in Ho Chi Minh City, with a statue of Jesus with a neon halo. There are five masses held on Sundays. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 365.

CHOLON [Chக L஍n]. This suburb to the west of Ho Chi Minh City was originally separated from Saigon by market gardens. It was a Chinese settlement and indeed today remains overwhelmingly Chinese. It has long been the location of major markets, and in fact Cholon means ‘big market’. Until the twentieth century, Cholon was separated from Saigon by the road which is now Tran Hung Dao Street. Although there had been a settlement there for many centuries, essentially the origins of Cholon come from the Tay Son Rebellion, a peasant uprising in Vietnam from 1769 until 1802. Most of the Chinese supported the Nguyen lords who were the effective rulers of southern Vietnam (although the Lê dynasty was still in nominal control). As a result, the forces of Tay Son attacked the Chinese and in the mid-1770s many of them sought refuge in Cholon, which was fortified. In 1778 the rebels attacked Cholon, killing as many as 10,000

Cholon

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of the Chinese, whose bodies were thrown into the Saigon River. Apparently there were so many bodies polluting the river that for a month nobody dared drink any of the river water or eat shrimp caught in the river. Four years later, they sacked part of Cholon, with many more Chinese being killed. The Chinese in Cholon then fortified it and their settlement became known as Tai Ngon (‘Embankment’ in Cantonese). With the establishment of the Nguyen dynasty, the Chinese merchants in Cholon flourished. Petrus Truong Vinh Ky provides an interesting description of it at the time, published in 1885. The population of Cholon in 1872 was about 80,000, making it, after Saigon, the second largest city in Vietnam. Much of the surplus rice crop from the Mekong delta came through Cholon, with merchants such as Quach Dam making a fortune from the trade. Having arrived and living initially in poverty, he soon managed to dominate trade at the Binh Tay Market in Cholon – and in fact owned much of the land on which the market was located. In addition to rice, there was also a crocodile farm there with some 100–200 reptiles, with crocodile meat sold to Saigon. In 1879 Cholon was incorporated as a city but by the 1930s, land between Cholon and Saigon – which had been full of market gardens – was now built over and the two cities were merged on 27 April 1931 and were called SaigonCholon – the name Cholon being dropped after independence. Hermann Norden’s account of Cholon, published in 1890, noted: ‘As truly as Saigon is transplanted France Cho’lon three miles away is transplanted China. With something over two hundred thousand inhabitants, Cholon is more than twice as large as its French neighbour. Completely Chinese, this commercial city is also very modern. Electric signs blaze over shops, trams and motor-cars dash through the paved streets alongside the pousse-pousses. The great rice capital is a rich city; it draws from all Cochin-China, plentiful in rice and rubber. As elaborate as any hotel in the great cities of China is the one in Cholon’s Rue de Paris.’ The British writer, Norman Lewis visited Cholon in 1950 and described the place as ‘swollen so enormously as to become its [Saigon’s] grotesque Siamese twin’. He wrote: ‘Cholon is a purely Chinese city, about three miles from Saigon, which it overshadows in almost all activities. For some reason or other it is supposed to be more ‘typically Chinese’ than the great seaports of China itself, and one is told in proof of this that the city shots in some Hollywood epic of life in China were taken in its streets. There is a great, swollen wartime population of perhaps three-quarters of a million, most of whom live wretchedly, and an exceptional proportion of millionaires whose number is continually added to by black-marketeering triumphs arising out of the present war. The Chinese are go-betweens for both sides. They sell food from the rural Viet-Minh areas to the French towns, and the dollars smuggled in from France, which are needed

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Cholon

to buy arms, to the Viet-Minh. As they are not affected by causes, either good or evil, they prosper exceedingly.’ As the First Indochina War intensified, many people from the countryside sought the relative security of Cholon, even though it had already gained a reputation as being in the hands of gangsters associated with the Binh Xuyen and other crime gangs. Cholon continued to have a reputation as a place where there were illegal casinos and brothels. Graham Greene describes some of the salubrious parts of Cholon in his book Ways of Escape (1980). There are also many poignant descriptions of Cholon in Gontran de Poncins’s novel, From a Chinese City (1957), the author having moved there in 1955.

The Cha Tam Church in Cholon in 2000. Author’s photograph.

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On the evening of 1 November 1963 President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu both sought refuge in Cholon with the coup d’état against them succeeding and their Operation Bravo in tatters. The two went to the Cha Tam Church and then surrendered to be taken away and killed. With the arrival of US soldiers, many of them went to Cholon in search of excellent food, black market items, and also vice. The Viet Cong operated from there and during the Tet Offensive, US journalist Frank Palmos and others were ambushed. Many Chinese fled from Cholon in the run-up to communist victory in April 1975, and many more left in the years that followed. Being a centre of free enterprise, during the austere period from 1975 until the late 1980s, Cholon stagnated. From the 1990s, with the influx of mass tourism, many foreigners visit Cholon. It remains especially popular with visitors from China, and also from overseas Chinese communities. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 59, 88–89; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 284f.; Pierre Darcourt, Bay Vien: Le maître de Cholon, Paris: Hachette, 1977; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 85f.; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 41–43, 97–101; Norman Lewis, A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Indo-China, London: Jonathan Cape, 1951, chapter 12; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 69–70; Hermann Norden, A Wanderer in Indo-China: The Chronicle of a Journey through Annam, Tong-king, Laos and Cambodgia, with some Account of their People, London: H. F. and G. Witherby, 1890, p. 19; Contran de Poncins, From a Chinese city, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1957; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 31f.

CHOLON MOSQUE. This mosque was built in 1935 and served the Tamil Muslim community in Saigon. However, most of them left the city after the communist victory in 1975, and the mosque is now largely used by Malaysian and Indonesian Muslims who live in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 89; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 363.

CHURCHES. There are a large number of churches in Ho Chi Minh City, which has a significant Roman Catholic population. The most well-known is Notre Dame Cathedral, which remains the largest. Others in Ho Chi Minh City include the Cha Tam Church in Cholon, made famous because of the seizure of Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu outside it on 2 November 1963; the Cho Quan Church (built in c. 1900); the Huyen Sy Church (built in 1902), and the Tan Dinh Church (built in 1928). Church attendances in these places are now high. There are also a number of Protestant churches in Vietnam, but many of the congregations meet in private homes. CITADEL OF SAIGON [Thành Sài Gòn]. This was the main fortress established during the Nguyen dynasty in central Saigon, and it was from there

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that the city was administered until the arrival of the French. During the Tay Son Rebellion, when peasants had risen up to take control, there had been fighting in much of Vietnam, including around Saigon. As a result, when Nguyen Anh, the nephew of the last Nguyen lord (and later Emperor Gia Long), took Saigon in 1789, he ordered the construction of a large fortress which could be used as the administrative and military centre for the power of the Nguyen lords who, in 1802, established the Nguyen dynasty which ruled Vietnam until 1945. The citadel was constructed in 1790 with the assistance of French engineers provided by Pigneau de Behaine, and used the Vauban style favoured in Europe at the time, and which was also being used for designs of forts in European colonies around the world. The idea for these new defences was that of the Marquis of Vauban (1633–1707), a French military commander. The forts have much lower walls than the traditional medieval defences. However, the walls are much thicker, to withstand artillery attack. The other part of the design is to have the fortress built in the shape of an octagon – as was the case with the Citadel of Saigon – often with protruding towers from which artillery can be used to better effect. The construction of the Citadel of Saigon was overseen by Olivier de Puymanel and it was called the Citadel of Eight Trigrams [Thành Bát Quái], or the Tortoise Citadel [Thành Quy]. It was so strong that the Tay Son rebels never attacked it. There are two surviving maps of it showing it clearly in the form of a lotus flower with eight gates, and positions around, which meant that the artillery could be used to fire in just about any direction, especially being able to be used against people attacking the gates. The British trade envoy John Crawfurd wrote that ‘the citadel of Saigun (sic), or rather of Pongeh, is, in form, a parallelogram distant from half a mile to three-quarters of a mile from the western bank of the river, the principal part of the town intervening. I conjecture, from appearance, that the longest side of the square may be about three-quarters of a mile in length. The original plan appears to have been European, but left incomplete… With the exception of the four principal gateways, the whole of the fortress is constructed of earth, now covered every where with a green sward. There are no guns mounted any where, though there be several hundred lying in the arsenal.’ The British naturalist and surgeon George Finlayson, who also saw it, noted it was ‘of square form, and each side is about half a mile in extent’. By contrast, Lieutenant John White from the US Navy claimed there were only four gates to the citadel, but this can easily be explained because Crawfurd noted that there were ‘four principal gateways’ and also ‘many small ones’. The citadel was attacked in 1833 when Le Van Khoi led a rebellion following the desecration of the grave of his father, Le Van Duyet, by order of Emperor Minh Mang. The attack was a total surprise, which explains why the citadel fell so quickly. The rebels then tried to get a French priest, Joseph Marchand, to stay in the citadel to win over support from the Roman Catholics.

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Imperial forces laid siege to the citadel soon afterwards, with Le Van Khoi dying in November 1834. Finally, in September 1835 the Imperial forces won the citadel and executed most of those they captured, including Joseph Marchand, who was later declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Minh Mang ordered that the original citadel be replaced with a new one, which had a small square stone structure with four main towers. It became known as the Citadel of the Phoenix [Thành Ph ng]. Each side was 1,558 feet (475 metres) long, and the walls were made from granite and brick, backed by earth – these were 66 feet (20 metres) tall. This citadel was completed in 1836 and was much smaller than its predecessor, and also vulnerable to enfilade bombardment from naval vessels. It proved easy to capture and the French took it after the Battle of Ky Hoa on 24–25 February 1861. They recognised that it was indefensible and Captain Deroudele destroyed it with explosives on 8 March 1861. It is reported that he had to use 32 chests of explosives, and the fire smouldered for a long time – according to tradition, for three years. The site is now occupied by many buildings, including the Saigon Trade Center. References: Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2004, p. 22f.; Nola Cooke and Tana Li, Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750–1880, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004; John Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China…, London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830, p. 344; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 15–18; Frédéric Mantienne, ‘The Transfer of Western Military Technology to Vietnam in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Case of the Nguyen’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (October 2003): pp. 519–34; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991; Frédéric Mantienne, ‘The Transfer of Western Military Technology to Vietnam in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Case of the Nguyen’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (October 2003): pp. 519–34; Nguyen Thanh Thi, The French Conquest of Cochinchina 1858–1862, PhD thesis, Cornell University, 1992; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 37f.

LA CLOCHE FÊLÉE (‘The Cracked Bell’). This was a Saigon newspaper which was founded in December 1923 by Nguyen An Ninh (1900–1943) and which operated for two years before being closed down. The newspaper did not have any particular party political viewpoint, although it did constantly point out the problems with French colonial rule and was critical of many aspects of the French colonial government. In one article, it noted ‘…the evil is colonization itself. It constitutes the causes of all our sufferings. To demand that this colonial official be replaced or that colonial administrator be transferred elsewhere will not be enough. It would then mean that we, the indigenous people, have accepted the regime that is imposed on us, without our consent.’ As a result of this criticism, Maurice Cognacq, the governor of Cochinchina, closed down the newspaper. The origins of the name of the newspaper are not known, although it might have come from the poem of that name by Charles Baudelaire; ‘my soul is cracked, and when amidst its care, it tries with song to fill the frosty air…’

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References: Truong Buu Lam, Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism 1900–1931, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2000; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 73–74; David Lan Pham, Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940– 1986, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008; p. 134; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 101–2.

COCHINCHINA [Nam K஥]. This was the administrative name used by the French for the southern part of Vietnam from 1862 until 1954, which was ruled from Saigon. The name was first used by the Portuguese in about 1516 and derived from the Malay name Kuchi, which they used to refer to Vietnam. Some of the area had been part of Cambodia at the time, but during the eighteenth century the Vietnamese gradually took control of the region and with the establishment of the Nguyen dynasty in 1802, the Vietnamese took complete control of the area. The French decided to take over some of Vietnam and in 1867 they managed to force the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc to cede the provinces of Chau Doc, Ha Tien and Vinh Long. These became the basis for French Cochinchina, which gradually expanded to occupy the whole of southern Vietnam, in 1887, becoming part of the Union of Indochina. However, unlike the rest of Indochina, Cochinchina was a colony – the remainder (Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia and Laos were protectorates). This meant that there were greater civil rights for the people in Cochinchina, especially those in Saigon, compared to those elsewhere in French Indochina. With the First Indochina War, some people in Cochinchina – mainly from Saigon – wanted to preserve their special status, and they helped the French, eager to prevent the Viet Minh from taking over all of Vietnam. This led to the formation of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, which was proclaimed on 1 June 1946, at the urging of d’Argenlieu who wanted France to continue to dominate at least a part of Vietnam. In the following year it was merged into the Republic of South Vietnam and then was renamed again the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam. This separate identity ended with Bao Dai forming the State of Vietnam in 1949, claiming suzerainty over the whole of Vietnam. Although Cochinchina formed a major part of the Republic of Vietnam, it included southern Annam and the city of Hue, and Cochinchina ceased to have a separate identity. References: Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Oxford University Press, 1961; Tana Li, Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University SEAP Publications, 1998; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 75–76; Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859–1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969; Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, London: Murray, 1886, p. 226;

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COGNACQ, MAURICE (1870–1949). A French colonial official, he was from the Indian Ocean island of Réunion and was a medical doctor who specialised in tropical medicine. As a result, he was sent to Hanoi to head the School of Medicine, which was being reopened. In 1920 he moved to Saigon as director of Public Instruction. Then, in 1921, he became the governor of Cochinchina, taking over from Maurice La Gallen, having the support of the Constitutionalist Party in Saigon. Curtis Cate, in his biography of André Malraux, called Cognacq one of the ‘pompous nobodies whose absurd claims to “superiority” over “backward natives” could flourish only in a closed, semichloroformed, carefully policed society’. Cognacq held the position until 1926 when he was replaced by Paul Marie Alexis Joseph Blanchard de la Brosse. Prior to being governor, Cognacq had been the director of Public Education. Duong Van Mai Elliott noted that Cognacq ‘eventually became the most corrupt governor of Cochinchina’, relating an instance when a family member had to give Cognacq ‘a beautiful old Vietnanese vase’ to allow him to get into medical school – Coqnacg being ‘an avid collector of antiques’. David Marr quotes him as telling a nationalist, Nguyen An Ninh, ‘We don't need intellectuals in this country If you wish to be one, go to Moscow!’ References: Curtis Cate, André Malraux: A Biography, New York: Fromm International Pub. Corp, 1997, p. 90; Duong Van Mai Elliott, The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 76; David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981, p. 330; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 46, 75, 117.

COLBY, WILLIAM EGAN (1920– 1996). The station chief in Saigon of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and later the director of the CIA, William Colby was born on 4 January 1920 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA, the son of Elbridge Colby, a professor of English who had worked at Tientsin, China, before returning to the United States and lecturing in Georgia, Vermont and Washington DC. William Colby was in his first year at Columbia University when he left his studies to work with the Office of Strategic Studies and served behind enemy lines in France. Joining the CIA, he served in Rome and then in 1959 he moved to Saigon as deputy chief and then chief of station. Colby described his time in Saigon thus: ‘We moved into a lovely former colonial villa, located on a handsome tree-lined boulevard near the Presidential Palace, with spacious rooms, high ceilings from which graceful fans whirred, a

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well-manicured garden and the appropriate number of charming Vietnamese servants to look after our needs. The children – there were now four; Paul had been born in Rome, and soon there would be a fifth, Christine, born in Saigon in 1960 – were enrolled in the local French and American schools. We joined the Cercle Sportif, and the family would gather there weekly for lunch at poolside. Barbara plunged into a host of church and community activities with diplomatic and Vietnamese women’s groups. There were dinners in Cholon, Saigon’s Chinese quarter, for some of the best Chinese food in Asia (or anywhere else for that matter), weekend picnics in the outlying rubber plantations, and outings to the beautiful beaches of the coast – a measure of the sense of security we had, not only in Saigon itself but also in the countryside.’ Initially given the task of using US resources to bolster the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, he remained in Saigon until 1962 and was always deeply critical of the decision to dump Diem and support the coup plotters. He later became one of the main architects of the ‘Phoenix Program’ in an attempt to destroy the Vietnamese communist movement in the south but discovering and tracking communist infrastructure. During this many communists and also innocent civilians were killed. In 1973 William Colby was appointed the 10th director of the CIA, holding that position until 30 January 1978. He retired and died in a boating accident on 27 April 1996. Considering that he was s staunch Roman Catholic, suicide – as suggested by some commentators – seems unlikely. References: William Colby, Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 77; John Prados, Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

COLOMBERT, ISIDORE-FRANÇOIS-JOSEPH (1838–1894). The third vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina, he was born on 19 March 1838 at Mayenne in the northwest of France and was ordained a priest on 30 May 1863. Working as a missionary at Cai Nhum, in Vinh Long province, in 1866 he started work as the private secretary to Bishop Colombert of Saigon, and coadjutor of Jean-Claude Miche, succeeding him on 1 December 1873 as vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina. Patrick Tuck describes him as ‘an able, wryly and humorous administrator’ who ‘trod far more warily than his brusque and rancorous predecessor in dealings with French authorities’. He failed to prevent the ending of the annual subsidy to the church, but did get funds to help with a cathedral and he laid the foundation stone for Notre Dame Basilica in Saigon on 7 October 1877. In the Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of 1874, Colombert managed to get Clause 9 added, whereby Spanish missions gained the same privileges as the French ones. He died in office on 31 December 1894, and the Colonial Council named a road in Saigon after him.

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References: Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859– 1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, pp. 327–28.

COLONIAL COUNCIL (‘Conseil Colonial’). Created on 8 February 1880 in Cochinchina, and operating from Saigon, this council was dominated by French colonial interests, with twelve French members and six Vietnamese who were sympathetic to the French. The council had deliberating powers which involved discussing the management of the budget of the colony and the public works expenditure. On 6 January 1922 a new decree changed the membership, with ten French members who were elected by a direct vote of the French citizens in Cochinchina, and also ten ‘native’ members who were elected from an electoral college, as well as two representatives from the Chamber of Commerce of Saigon, and two from the Chamber of Agriculture (one French, the other ‘native’). The members formed from their number a Permanent Commission of seven members, and only two of these were allowed to be ‘natives’. By the 1930s, some 22,000 ‘natives’ formed the electoral college. These had to be at least 25 years old and paid at least ten piastres in land tax, or had completed secondary or university education, or were a civil servant with five years of seniority, or were industrial or commercial employees with a primary school certificate or professional certificate (and had served for at least ten years), as well as local ‘notables’, canton chiefs and their assistants who had at least three years of seniority. See Elections. References: Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hemery, Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; 2010, p. 385; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 78–79.

COMMITTEE OF THE SOUTH [஘y Ban Nam B஋]. Officially, the Provisional Executive Committee of the Southern Vietnam, this was a committee of nine people which was established on 23 August 1945 by the Communist Party of Indochina to bring together their leaders and also some other political figures from non-communist parties to take control of Saigon as part of the August Revolution. It sought to exploit the power vacuum that had emerged in Indochina following the surrender of Japan and before the French could reassert their control. The chairman of the Committee of the South was Tran Van Giau, and six of the members were from the Viet Minh. General Douglas Gracey when he arrived with the British Expeditionary Forces refused to recognise the Committee of the South and instead released the French who had been interned in March 1945. The French sought to take back their houses and other property, with fighting rapidly starting around Saigon. On 23 September, the Committee of the South fled Saigon and there were skirmishes

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until the Ho–Sainteny Agreement in March 1946 between Ho Chi Minh and Jean Sainteny. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 80; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDOCHINA [Ð୕ng C஋ng s୕n Ðông DŲţng]. Founded in Hong Kong in 1930 by Vietnamese Marxist-Leninists and assisted by the Comintern agent Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh), most communist parties in colonies took the name of the colonial territories, but Ho Chi Minh decided against the idea of a Communist Party of Annam. The Moscow-based Communist International (Comintern) wanted the party to organize in the whole of French Indochina and specifically asked them to include Cambodia and Laos. As a result, the Communist Party of Indochina (CPI) emerged from a second plenum held in October, also in Hong Kong, announcing that the Nanyang (‘South Seas’) branch of the Communist Party of China which had been already organizing in Indochina would ‘merge’ its duties and members to the new Vietnamese-led party. There were a number of party members in Saigon, but as the party was banned by the French, the exact number could not be ascertained. On 11 November 1951, as the Viet Minh insurgency intensified, the CPI announced that it was officially being dissolved and superseded by three separate, fraternal national parties, namely the Workers’ Party of Vietnam (WPV), the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party and the Laotian People’s Party. References: Wilfred Burchett, The China Cambodia Vietnam Triangle, London: Zed Press, 1981, chapter 1; William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000; Motoo Furuta, ‘The Indochina Communist Party’s Division into Three Parties: Vietnamese Communist Policy towards Cambodia and Laos 1948–1951’, in Takashi Shiraishi and Motoo Furata (eds), Indochina in the 1940s and 1950s, Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1992, pp. 143–63; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 176–77; Sophie Quinn-Judge, Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, New York: C. Hurst & Company, 2003; Ton That Thien, The Foreign Politics of The Communist Party of Vietnam: A Study of Communist Tactics, New York: Crane Russak, 1989, p. 117.

CONEIN, LUCIEN EMILE (1919–1998). The CIA bureau chief in Saigon at the time of the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963, he was born on 29 November 1919 in Paris, France, and grew up in Kansas after his widowed mother sent him to live with her sister in the United States. Her sister had married a US soldier, but Conein retained his French citizenship and went to France in 1940 to enlist in the French Army. Refusing to support the Vichy regime, in June 1940 he deserted and managed to escape back to the United States where he was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services. Parachuted back into France, he worked with the Resistance and attacked the Germans. His fluency in French and his knowledge of guerrilla warfare led to him being

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sent to North Vietnam in 1944 to take part in attacks on the Japanese. In the August Revolution of 1945 he went to Hanoi and was there when the Japanese surrendered, and met with Ho Chi Minh. Conein worked on the overthrow of the Mossadeq government in Iran, and then was posted back to Vietnam, being in Saigon and organising clandestine sabotage operations against North Vietnam to disrupt its economy. He quickly established many close links with the army commanders in Saigon, especially with Tran Van Don. Stanley Karnow wrote ‘just as Don was a Frenchified Vietnamese, so Conein was an Americanised Frenchman.’ Using the codenames ‘Lulu’ and ‘Black Luigi’, Conein was soon consulted by the Buddhist generals who were keen to overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem. Conein had to find out whether or not the US government would support an impending coup d’état. The US ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge sent instructions through Conein that they would support the coup, which took place on 1 November 1963 and saw the killing of Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu on the following day. In 1964, Lucien Conein left Vietnam after another coup, but returned in 1965–66. He left the government service in 1968 – officially he was a member of the US Army – and in 1973 he was appointed as head of the covert operations section of the newly created Drug Enforcement Agency. He later retired and settled in McLean, Virginia, with his wife, Elyette (née Bruchot), a real estate agent. They had six sons and a daughter. Lucien Conein died on 3 June 1998 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and was buried on Bastille Day at the Arlington National Cemetery. The character Harry Yaffa in Morris West’s The Ambassador was loosely based on him. References: Bart Barnes, ‘Lucien E. Conein Dies at 79: Fabled Agent for OSS and CIA’, The Washington Post (6 June 1998): p. B6; Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Justin Corfield, ‘Covert soldier a CIA legend’, The Australian (15 June 1998): p. 20; James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he Died and why it Matters, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2008; Tim Weiner, ‘Lucien Conein, 79, Legendary Cold War Spy’, The New York Times (7 June 1998).

CONFUCIANISM [Nho giáo; ‫ۦ‬ᬭ]. This belief in the teachings of Confucius is a philosophical system that was followed by many Vietnamese, including the Vietnamese Imperial family. At its heart is the idea of humanism, which is that all human beings can be taught, and can improve themselves morally and as far as their status is concerned. There is also a fundamental belief in meritocracy, which has expressed itself through an examination system to work in the Imperial Court, a system used until 1945. Confucius lived from 551 until 478BC in China and his ideas have long influenced Chinese philosophy. His support for family values, filial piety and obligations to the emperors – the latter must return these with righteousness and equity – has long won it adherents in monarchical systems. It was officially adopted as a ‘state ideology’ by Emperor Le Thanh-tong (r. 1460–97) and it

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formed a part of the Le legal code. The Confucian classics then formed the basis of examinations for the Mandarinate, with Confucian ethics forming the basis of the Can Vuong resistance movement of the 1880s. Even after 1945, Confucianism has had a revival in some countries in southeast Asia, particularly those which have a significant Chinese population and a strong government. Many Vietnamese, not just those of Chinese descent, describe themselves as being Confucian, some incorporating it within a Buddhist framework. Those who referred to themselves as Confucian in Who’s Who in Vietnam in 1974 included: Professor Dam Trung Phap, diplomat Hoang Co Thuy, Huynh Ngoc Anh, engineer Luong The Sieu, government minister Ngo Khac Tinh, and geologist Tran Kim Thach. Denis Warner named his book, The Last Confucian, as a description of President Ngo Dinh Diem because, in spite of being Roman Catholic, he was clearly A portrait of Confucius from influenced by many Confucian ideals. the Temple of Literature, Hanoi.

References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860–1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, pp. 46–58; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 83–84; Shawn McHale, Print and Power: Confucianism, Communism, and Buddhism in the Making of Modern Vietnam, 1920–1945, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991, pp. 1–2; Ralph B. Smith, ‘The cycle of Confucianization in Vietnam’, in W. F. Vella (ed.), Aspects of Vietnamese History, Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 1973, p. 24; Denis Warner, The Last Confucian. New York: Macmillan, 1963; John K. Whitmore, ‘The Vietnamese Confucian Scholar’s View of His Country’s Early History’, Michigan Papers Asia, no. 11 (1976); John K. Whitmore, ‘Social Organization and Confucian Thought in Vietnam’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 15, no. 2 (September 1984): pp. 296–306.

CONG LY BRIDGE. Known in Vietnamese as Cau Cong Ly (‘Justice Bridge’), it is located in the north-central part of Saigon, and it connected Nguyen Van Troi Street in Phy Nhuan with Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street in District 3. The Vinh Nghiem Pagoda is located nearby. It was on this bridge that, in May 1964 Nguyen Van Troi planned to kill US secretary of defense Robert McNamara. The bridge was widened in 2008–9, with plans to link it to a road which would take people straight into central Ho Chi Minh City. CONG VIEN VAN HOA PARK [Công viên VÅn hóa]. This park in central Ho Chi Minh City was constructed on the site which had previously been occupied by the Saigon Christian Cemetery. The cemetery was cleared in the

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late 1980s, with some communist literature reporting that ‘the land which was occupied by the wealthy has now been returned to the people’. Luckily, many of the old trees in the cemetery have been preserved and provide shade for those strolling and also for people who come to practise thai cuc quyen – a yoga movement exercise popular in Ho Chi Minh City. To beautify the gardens, there are also contemporary sculptures erected around it. These were initially expected to be part of a temporary exhibition, but have remained there for years. There is an active sports club there which has eleven tennis courts, and a swimming pool. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 359.

CONNER, JACOB ELON (1862–1949). The US consul in Saigon from 1907 until 1909, he was born on 21 October 1862 in Wilmington, Ohio, son of William Burton Conner and Sarah E. Smith. Jacob Conner was appointed as a Fellow in Sociology at the State University of Iowa, becoming a special agent for the US Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1912 his article on Angkor Wat in the National Geographic Magazine was the first in that journal about Cambodia. From 1907 until 1909 he was in Saigon and probably visited Angkor during his time in Cochinchina. He was the US consul at St Petersburg, Russia, 1909–14, and wrote another article on Troy, which was published in the National Geographic Magazine in 1915. He died on 27 July 1949 at Trenton, Iowa. References: Kenton J. Clymer, Troubled Relations: The United States and Cambodia since 1870, DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007, pp. 6–7; Jacob E. Conner, ‘The Forgotten Ruins of Indo-China’, National Geographic Magazine (March 1912): pp. 209–72.

CONSTANS, JEAN ANTOINE ERNEST (1833–1913). He was the first governor general of French Indochina, holding office from 16 November 1887 until April 1888, and was then director of Local Services in Cochinchina from April 1888. Born on 3 May 1833 in Béziers, Hérault, he was a lawyer and an industrialist, becoming an associate professor of Law at the University of Toulouse in 1870, and again from 1875 until 1901. A deputy in the National Assembly for Toulouse, he was minister of the interior in 1880, in 1882, and again from June until July 1887. Ernest Constans was then appointed as minister to China, before moving to take up his position in Indochina, lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 3 November 1887 until 15 January 1888, and also governor general of French Indochina, until April 1888, and lieutenant governor of Cochinchina, from November 1887 until April 1888. He then returned to Paris and was minister of the interior, and then ambassador to Constantinople from December 1898 until 1909. He died on 7 April 1913 in Paris.

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References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1216; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aixen-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Lockhart Bruce Fulton, The Political Ascent of Ernest Constans: A Study in the Management of Republican Power, PhD thesis, Toronto University, 1971; Bruce Fulton, ‘Ernest Constans and the struggle for power in the French Republic, 1892–93’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 43, no. 3 (1997): pp. 361–71; Bruce Fulton, ‘France’s Extraordinary Ambassador: Ernest Constans and the Ottoman Empire, 1898–1909’, French Historical Studies, vol. 23, no. 4 (1 October 2000): pp. 683–706.

CONSTITUTIONALIST PARTY. This was an informal political organization which operated in Saigon from 1917 and sought to influence changes in the French colonial administration through moderate changes. It was formed by Bui Quang Chieu, the editor of La Tribune Indigène and its successor newspaper, La Tribune Indochinoise. Its power came from its members, who were elected to the Colonial Council, and also the importance of its newspapers. One of the first aims of the party was to try to get the French colonial administration to ensure that local civil servants get paid the same as French ones. They also wanted a larger role for Vietnamese in the economy and in manufacturing. However, the 1930 uprisings against the French shocked most members of the Constitutionalist Party and its influence collapsed as more and more Vietnamese started to support either the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, the Vietnam Quoc Dan Dang; or the communists. References: Megan Cook, The Constitutionalist Party in Cochinchina: The Yeas of Decline 1930–1942, Clayton, VIC: Monash University, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, 1977; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 85.

CONTINENTAL HOTEL. See Hôtel Continental. COOKINGHAM, HARRIS NICKS (1883–1966). The US consul in Saigon in 1926, he was born on 3 November 1883 in Red Hook, New York, and was the vice and deputy consul in Seville, Spain, in 1911–14, and then US vice consul at Barcelona in 1916. After serving in World War I, he was the consul in Tunis in 1919–22, and was then posted to Saigon. His much quoted message to Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes was that Indochina was ‘almost cut off commercially from the United States’. He also reported that rubber interests in Indochina would welcome US investment. Afterwards posted to Tenerife, Canary Islands, he was then in Vancouver, Canada from 1932 until 1938. He died on 4 April 1966 in Red Hook. References: Leo J. Daugherty III, The Marine Corps and the State Department: Enduring Partners in United States Foreign Policy 1798–2007, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009, p. 359; Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years 1941–1960 – the US Army in Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1983, p. 7.

de CORNULIER-LUCINIÈRE, ALPHONSE (1811–1886). The French governor of Cochinchina from 8 January 1870 until 1 April 1871, he was born on 16 April 1811 at Joué-sur-Erdre in France, the son of Jean-Baptiste

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de Cornulier-Lucinière, Comte de Lucinière. He joined the navy, serving in Africa, and also in Sumatra and in the Crimean War. He took up his post in Saigon in 1870, with the Vietnamese court being informed by Napoleon III that de Cornulier-Lucinière spoke in his name. When he heard news of the start of the Franco–Prussian War, he started reinforcing the defences at Saigon in case of a Prussian attack. However, his tenure in Saigon only lasted for 15 months. In ill-health, he asked to be able to return to France. In Saigon, he was a liberal governor, as evidenced by a letter which Joseph Buttinger quoted de Cornulier-Lucinière writing to a complainant, M. H. Semanne, ‘In your letter you complain about the latitude given the natives occasionally to set off firecrackers in public. We occupy this country under a treaty by which we are bound not to offend Buddhist customs. Even if this were not the case, we would have to abide by this duty, if merely for political reasons. The use of firecrackers, dear to that religion, is reserved for some high holidays. It would be impossible to forbid it entirely without committing the gravest offence. Two races of such differing, even opposing, customs, living side by side, tend mutually to embarrass each other. But they must tolerate each other’s habits. The natives suffer our horses, our carriages, our police regulations, which contradict theirs. We suffer, from time to time, from their firecrackers. The kind of equality you demand asks all for us and nothing for them.’ Back in France, he recovered and joined the naval reserve in 1873, becoming mayor of Nantes in the following year. He had married Louise de la Tour du Pin Chambly de la Charce in 1838 at Nantes, France, and they had three sons and three daughters. He died on 23 March 1886 at Nantes. A street in Saigon was named after him. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1207–8; Charles Fourniau, Vietnam: Domination colonial et résistance nationale 1858–1914, Paris: Indes Savantes, 2002, pp. 180, 181, 210.

COULTAS, WILLIAM WHITHAM (1890–1973). The British consul general in Saigon from 27 October 1937 until 26 September 1938, William Coultas was born on 17 February 1890 and educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Kent, UK. He graduated with a BA from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He served as a student interpreter in Siam (Thailand) from 1913, he held a wide range of posts in Siam – in Bangkok and in other Siamese towns – and in 1937 was appointed as consul general in Saigon. He was transferred back to Bangkok in 1938, where he served until the start of the Pacific War. He retired to England and died on 10 November 1973. References: The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1944, p. 172; Register of St Lawrence College 1879 to 1934, Ramsgate: Old Lawrentian Society, 1934, p. 84; Who’s Who; The Times (16 November 1973): p. 23.

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COUP DE FORCE (1945). By March 1945, the Japanese were concerned that the French in Indochina might be aiming to desert their tacit agreement with them and try to declare their support for the Allied side in World War II. This had been a possibility since the Liberation of Paris on 19 August 1944, and the collapse of the Vichy government in France. As a result, on 9 March 1945 the Japanese decided to take over, and they forced Emperor Bao Dai to abrogate the 1884 treaty with France and declare Vietnamese independence. This Japanese coup de force saw the Japanese intern all French in Indochina. The coup de force began with the Japanese ambassador to Indochina, Matsumoto Shunichi getting an audience with Admiral Jean Decoux, who was in Saigon. Shunichi arrived at the Norodom Palace (now the Reunification Palace) at 6PM and met with Decoux from about 6.30 PM. After thirty minutes, during which time Shunichi had been discussing agreements over rice supples, he suddenly changed the topic and gave Decoux an ultimatum that all the military forces and the police in Indochina had to be placed under Japanese control at 9PM. Decoux soon discovered that the telephone lines had been cut and reluctantly was forced to acquiesce to the Japanese move. The official Japanese announcement of their actions was broadcast on Radio Tokyo early on 10 March. It ordered all civil servants, including French, to continue working as normal. Others were interned. The Japanese also seized the Bank of Indochina, which held some 1,200 kilograms of gold in the vault of their main Saigon branch. The takeover in Hanoi saw fighting, with some French managing to escape to southern China. References: David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

CROSBY, JOSIAH (1880–1958). The British consul in Saigon from 20 September 1917 until 2 September 1920, and consul general from 2 September 1920 until 1 January 1921 (although he did not take up this latter position), Josiah Crosby was born on 25 May 1880 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, the son of Captain J. P. Crosby and his wife Christina. He grew up in a large house in Falmouth with his three older sisters, and the family then moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, with Josiah starting at the Royal Grammar School there when he was 14. He left in the following year, but returned a year later and remained until 1899, being a keen rugby player. Winning a

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scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he graduated in 1902 and two years later he entered the British consular service, being posted to Siam (Thailand). For most of his career, Josiah Crosby worked in Siam, but spent three years in Saigon, being awarded the OBE in 1918 and the CIE in 1919. He was then posted to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) as consul general, and from 1931 until 1934 he was minister to Panama. In 1934 he returned to Thailand after a request from the new government, which had come to power two years earlier. Crosby was a great admirer of the ‘revolution’ and he soon immersed himself in Thai politics. He managed to persuade the British Foreign Office that only he understood Thai political machinations, and also that the political establishment in Bangkok cared about what he thought. His staff did not like him, and he was a known homosexual, with writer Peter Elphick suggesting that he was compromised. It was Crosby who argued against the British sending soldiers into Thailand in December 1941, and by the hesistation to send soldiers delayed Operation Matador, which was to cause the British to lose northern Malaya. Crosby himself was shocked when he was interned by the Japanese in Bangkok, and later returned to Britain where he retired, dying on 4 December 1958. References: Justin Corfield and Robin Corfield, The Fall of Singapore: 90 Days: November 1941 – February 1942, Singapore: Talisman Books, 2012, pp. 88–89; Peter Elphick, Singapore: The Pregnable Fortress – a Study of Deception, Discord and Desertion, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995; The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1941, p. 210; Sir Andrew Gilchrist, Malaya 1941: The Fall of a Fighting Empire, London: Robert Hale, 1992; Who’s Who; The Times (5 December 1958): p. 15.

CU CHI TUNNELS [Cங Chi]. Located in the district of Cu Chi, some 30–40 kms northwest from Saigon, these tunnels were constructed by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL) and were a base for the NFL’s operations during periods of the Vietnam War, in particular during the Tet Offensive of 1968. The tunnels were a vast network built during the early 1960s and constantly enlarged. As well as for hiding combatants and materiel, they also contained communications centres, hospitals, schools and other facilities. During the war, many villagers throughout the country constructed tunnels in which to hide during fighting and bombing raids. The Cu Chi tunnels, because of their size, became well-known and were subject to attacks by the Americans and Australians. In Operation Crimp (8–14 January 1966), Operation Cedar Falls (8–27 January 1967) and other raids, the US forces tried to locate and destroy the tunnel system. This saw the Vietnamese communists develop booby-traps in some tunnels, as well as false entrances and passageways. Some of the US, Australian and New Zealand personnel involved in the attacks became known as the ‘tunnel rats’.

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The Cu Chi tunnels quickly caught the imagination of Western journalists and novelists, and it was not long before they became an important tourist attraction. Several tunnels, some enlarged and now better-ventilated, are used by tourist groups who come to capture some of the atmosphere of life in the tunnels. The tunnels continue to feature in a number of Western novels set in Vietnam. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 65–66; Tom Mangold and John Penycate, The Tunnels of Cu Chi, New York: Random House, 1985; Tom Mangold and John Penycate, The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Remarkable Story of War in Vietnam, London: Cassell Military, 2005; Tom Mangold and John Penycate, The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Harrowing Account of America’s Tunnel Rats in the Underground Battlefields of Vietnam, New York: Ballantine Books, 2005; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 390–93; Gordon Rottman, Viet Cong and NVA Tunnels and Field Fortifications of the Vietnam War, London: Osprey Publishing, 2006.

CUISINE. The food in Ho Chi Minh City is an interesting combination of Vietnamese, Chinese and French food. In Cholon most of the food is Chinese, the Cantonese community being renowned for its chefs. Elsewhere in Ho Chi Minh City it is possible to eat all sorts of different dishes from around the world, with vegetarian food being common on account of the large Buddhist population, some of whom do not eat meat. Generally Vietnamese food requires fresh ingredients, and utilises fish, chicken, pork or beef. The most well-known dish, internationally, is probably the pho noodles which are made from rice and have become an unofficial national dish. Most other food is served with rice, and often adorned with a salad. However, a legacy of the French years can be seen in the number of bakeries around Ho Chi Minh City, which produce baguettes, often sold stuffed with meat, vegetables and salads. A number of celebrity chefs have promoted Vietnamese food around the world. Luke Nguyen did so in a television series called Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, the first two episodes of which involving him taking part in cooking foods in Saigon where his extended family lives. During the second episode, he visited the house in which his father grew up, and his grandmother watches him producing a salad. References: Ghillie Basan, Vietnamese Food and Cooking, London: Hermes House, 2006; Bobby Chinn, Vietnamese Food, London: Conran Octopus Publishing Group, 2010; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, pp. 50–53; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 34–41; Jennifer Ferro, Vietnamese Foods and Culture, Vero beach, Florida: Rourke Press, 1999; Ha Mai, Celebrity Chefs’ Cookbooks: Vietnamese Soul Food, Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, 2004; Bach Ngo and Gloria Zimmerman, The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam, New York: Barron’s/Westbury, 1979; Pauline Nguyen, Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart, with Recipes by Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen, Millers Point, NSW: Murdoch Books Australia, 2007; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 61–73; Anh Thu Stuart, Vietnamese Cooking: Recipes my Mother Taught me, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1986.

D DAM SEN CULTURAL PARK [Công viên VÅn hóa Ð୙m Sen]. This is an amusement park in Ho Chi Minh City, northwest of Cholon, and covers some 50 hectares. The land was marsh until the end of the Vietnam War. In 1976–78 it was drained and turned over to cultivation. It was then decided to create a park with a monorail in which visitors can travel around it. There is a large lake, and artificial water fall, as well as a replica antique castle, rock gardens, tropical garden, a butterfly garden and also a square with a theme representing ancient Rome. As well as entertainment for families, there are also musical facilities, and the ability to catch crayfish. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 368.

DAN SINH MARKET [Chக Dân Sinh]. This market, located not far from the Ben Thanh Market, is best-known for its sale of war memorabilia, including khaki uniforms, pith helmets and items claimed to be US war surplus. Some of these items may undoubtedly be leftovers from the Vietnam War, but many items, including probably the vast majority of the identity tags, are modern replicas. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 79.

DANEL, HENRI (1850– ). The lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1889 until 1892, he took over from Augustin Julien Fourès, and on Danel’s departure, Fourès returned as lieutenant governor. DANG VAN QUANG [ÐÅng VÅn Quang] (1929–2011). The minister of defence of the Republic of Vietnam, he was born on 21 June 1929 in Ba Xuyen province in the Mekong delta, and was a non-commissioned officer in the French colonial army. Appointed Aide-de-camp to Bao Dai, he was the commander of the ex-emperor’s personal guard. Transferring from the Vietnamese National Army to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, he was promoted to brigadier general and in 1965 was further promoted to lieutenant general. Taking over the command of IV Corps (covering the Mekong Delta) from Nguyen Van Thieu, he quickly gained a reputation for corruption, although he always denied this. The special advisor on military affairs from 79

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1968–69, he was advisor of national security and intelligence from 1969–75. Escaping arrest by Air Force officers acting under orders from Nguyen Cao Ky, he managed to join the evacuation of Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind, only just making it out of the US Embassy. He initially lived in Canada, but then moved to the United States. He died on 15 July 2011 in Sacramento, California. References: Larry Englemann, Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 63; John Prados, The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1995, pp. 68–69; Quang Thi Lam, The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon, Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2001, pp. 139, 151, 162–63, 168, 178, 314, 393; Joseph J. Trenton, Prelude to Terror: Edwin P. Wilson and the Legacy of America’s Private Intelligence Network, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005, p. 45.

DAOISM [Ð୓o giáo; 䘧ᬭ]. This is a philosophy and tradition that always emphasizes the need to achieve harmony with the Dao. It was better known as Taoism until the adoption of a different system of transliteration was used. Daoism came to Vietnam from China, and remained popular in the Chinese community, especially in Cholon. The Khanh Van Nam Vien Pagoda, constructed between 1939 and 1942 in Cholon remains the only purely Daoist pagoda in the whole of Vietnam. References: Georges Coulet, Cultes et religions de l’Indochine Annamite, Saigon: Ardin, 1929; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 98–99.

DECOUX, JEAN (1884–1963). The governor general of French Indochina from 25 June 1940 until 9 March 1945, Jean Decoux was born on 5 May 1884 in Bordeaux, France, and entered the French Navy in 1901. He was promoted through the ranks, serving in World War I and then had many posts, leading up to being put in charge of the defence of the Toulon sector in 1938. On 13 January 1939, he was put in charge of the naval forces in the Far East. In 1940 Decoux was appointed governor general of French Indochina by the Vichy government installed in France under German occupation. He took up his position on 25 June and, as David Marr wrote, ‘considered himself the custodian of French sovereignty in Indochina, endeavouring even in these tortuous times to retain something of a heroic tradition, at least keeping the colony physically intact so that it could be presented back to Paris at the end of the world war.’ He was described by the acting British consul in Saigon, William Meiklereid, as being ‘small physically as in mental outlook, and irascible to a degree which deprives him of all charm.’

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Following the disastrous Franco–Siamese War of 1940, and lacking the military strength to resist an invasion of the colony by Japan, Decoux agreed to the stationing of Japanese forces in Indochina in exchange for Japanese assurances not to disrupt French administration. In 1941, it was Decoux who recommended to the government in Vichy that the young Prince Norodom Sihanouk be crowned king upon the sudden death of King Sisowath Monivong. During his period as governor general, Decoux was involved in introducing antiSemitic laws, and also promoting a personality cult around Marshal Philippe Pétain. Decoux was among those imprisoned by the Japanese during their coup de force on 9 March 1945. Several hundred Frenchmen who were loyal to the resistance lost their lives while trying to stop what they saw as a Japanese coup. When British forces arrived in Indochina to secure Japan’s surrender, Decoux was branded as a collaborator, for working with both the Japanese and Vichy. Arrested and detained in France, he was held without trial until 1949. He died on 21 October 1963 in Paris.

Admiral Decoux at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat, 1940. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1222; Jean Decoux, A la barre de l’Indochine: Histoire de mon gouvernement général 1940–45, Paris: Plon, 1949; Jean Decoux, Sillages dans les mers du Sud, Paris: Plon, 1953; Michel Huguier, L’amiral Decoux. Sur toutes les mers du monde, De l’École Navale (1901) au gouvernement de l’Indochine (1940–1945), Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007; Eric T. Jennings, Vichy in the Tropics: Petain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940– 1944, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001; Pierre L. Lamant, ‘La Révolution Nationale dans l’Indochine de l’Amiral Decoux’, Revue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et des conflits contemporains, 5, no. 138

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(April 1985): pp. 21–41; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 101; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997; Martin L. Mickelsen, ‘A mission of vengeance: Vichy French in Indochina in World War II’, Air Power History (Fall 2008); Milton Osborne, Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness, St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1994, pp. 24–26; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 364.

DEJEAN, MAURICE ERNEST NAPOLÉON (1899–1982). The commissioner general of French Indochina from 28 July 1953 until 10 April 1954, he was born on 30 September 1899 at Clichy-la-Garenne, and after finishing university, he entered the diplomatic service working as press secretary at the French Embassy in Berlin. He had returned to Paris before war was declared in 1939 and served as the deputy chief of staff to Édouard Daladier, the foreign minister. After a short period in Morocco, he went to London and rallied to Charles de Gaulle and the Free French. The French ambassador to Prague, Czechoslovakia from 1945–49, he was ambassador to Tokyo in 1952–53, before moving to Saigon as commissioner general of French Indochina. He was later ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1955–64, being recalled after being trapped in a KGB sting operation. He died on 14 January 1982 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1224; Richard Deacon, The French Secret Service, London: Grafton Books, 1990, pp. 207–8; Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 292, 415; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 398.

DÉPIERRE, JEAN-MARIE (1855–1898). The fourth vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina, Jean-Marie Dépierre was born on 18 January 1855 in France and was ordained priest on 20 September 1879. On the death of Bishop Isidore Colombert, he was appointed as his successor, but died on 17 October 1898. References: Louis-Eugène Louvet, La Cochinchine religieuse, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1885.

DEWEY, (ALBERT) PETER (1916–1945). The first US soldier killed in French Indochina, he had been born on 8 October 1916, in Chicago, the son of Congressman Charles S. Dewey and his wife Marie Suzette de Marigny (née Hall), being a relative of New York governor and later presidential hopeful Thomas E. Dewey. Educated in Switzerland, and then at St Pauls School, Concord, New Hampshire, he studied French history at Yale University and graduated in 1939. Becoming a journalist for the Chicago Daily News, he reported for them from Paris. In May 1940 anxious to fight in the war, he gained a commission as a lieutenant in the Police Military Ambulance Corps in France, escaping from the Germans by heading to Spain and Portugal. Back in the United States, he married Nancy Weller and they had a daughter. In 1944 Dewey was parachuted into southern France to take part in operations organised by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Awarded the Legion of Merit, the French awarded him the Legion of Honour and the Croix

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de Guerre. On 4 September 1945 he was sent to Saigon as part of an OSS team ‘to represent American interests’. He worked with the Viet Minh and helped with the repatriation of 240 US prisoners of war, and some 4,300 other Allied prisoners. Dewey was critical of the French, who were trying to reassert their authority in Saigon and this earned him the ire of General Douglas Gracey, the British commander. Gracey managed to get the Americans to order Dewey home. On 26 September, he went to Tan Son Nhut Airport to catch the flight, but the plane was delayed and he then went for lunch at a villa being used by the OSS. He ran into an ambush prepared by the Viet Minh and it appears he called out to them in French. They thought he was French and shot him, his body being dumped nearby. It was never recovered. References: Peter Dewey, As They Were: France in the Dark Days of 1939–1940, New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1946; ‘Indo-China Rebels Kill US Officer’, The New York Times (28 September 1945): p. 1; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 103; Seymour Topping, Fatal Crossroads: A Novel of Vietnam 1945, Norwalk, CT: East Bridge / Signature, 2005.

DO KIEN NHIEU [Ðஃ Kiên Nhi୳u] (1931–1996). The Mayor of Saigon from 1968 until 1974, Do Kien Nhieu was born on 13 May 1931 in Thanh Phu Long, Tan An, in the Mekong Delta. He completed his secondary education and then went into the army, being appointed as the commander of the 510th Rifle Battalion on 15 August 1953. Two years later he was made commander of the 61st Battalion of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a fortnight later was made district chief of Duc Hoa. On 1 October 1955 Nhieu was promoted to become the commander of the 32nd Infantry Regiment and on 8 January 1956 was promoted to be the commander of the Long Xuyen sector, and province chief. He was made cabinet chief of Operational Command on 12 April 1959, and after the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, he was cabinet director of the Army Revolutionary Council. On 29 February 1964, Do Kien Nhieu was appointed as the military assistant to the Office of the Chief of State of the Republic of Vietnam under Duong Van Minh. On 11 April 1964 he was made province chief of Dinh Tong and on 5 March 1965 moved to the Psywar II Corps. The military assistant at the Ministry of Defence on 2 September 1965, he was the acting cabinet director at the Ministry of Defence from 4 August 1966. Holding two positions with I Corps, on 11 June 1968 he took over as mayor of Saigon from Nguyen Van Cua. He retained that position until at least 1974. A brother-in-law of Prime Minister Tran Thien Khiem, he was married with five children. Getting to the United States, and living in San Francisco, he became a naturalised US citizen on 10 August 1982. He died on 4 November 1996. References: Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972, p. 206; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1968; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 578–79.

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DO MUOI [Ðஉ MŲஏi] (1917– ). A senior Communist Party of Vietnam official, he was the prime minister of Vietnam from 1988 until 1991. Born on 2 February 1917 in Thanh Tri, Hanoi, he was from a family of artisans. Joining the Vietnamese Communists in the late 1930s, he was jailed by the French in 1941 but was able to escape four years later, and took part in the August Revolution. A supporter of the Viet Minh, in 1954 he was appointed minister of domestic trade in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and he served in the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam. Following the victory of the communists in April 1975, he was sent to Saigon where he had the task of transforming the capitalist economy there to a communist one, being ‘in charge of the socialist transformation of trade and industry’. From 1988 until 1991 he was prime minister of Vietnam, and then from 1991 until 1997, he was secretary general of the Communist Party of Vietnam. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 128; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 108; Murray Hiebert, ‘The compromise candidate’, Far Eastern Economic Review (7 July 1988).

DONG KHOI AREA [ÐŲஏng Ðஅng Kh஑i]. This is the area in Ho Chi Minh City around the street Dong Khoi (formerly Rue Catinat). During the French colonial period, the street was the most important commercial one in Saigon and was named after the French military commander Marshal Nicolas Catinat. The street starts in the north at Notre Dame Cathedral and leads from there to the Saigon River, with the Café de la Rotonde being popular during the French period. The Opera House, the Lam Son Park, the Caravelle Hotel and the Sheraton Hotel are all located along the street. Many newspaper officers were also located in the street Rue Catinat, and on 28 April 1956 the last French soldiers took part in a march down the street before leaving the city. Even though after independence the street was renamed Tu Do Street, the old name was still used by many people and the terrace of the Hôtel Continental, one of the major buildings in the street, was nicknamed Radio Catinat. The street was renamed again after 1975 as Donh Khoi Street.

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References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 72–74; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 27–28; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, p. 24f.

DONG NAI RIVER [Sông Ðஅng Nai]. This river flows from the Central Highlands into the Saigon River some 18 miles (29 kms) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

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DOUMER, (JOSEPH ATHANASE) PAUL (1857–1932). The governor general of French Indochina from 13 February 1897 until October 1902, he was born on 22 March 1857 in Aurillac, Cantai, France, he trained as a scientist and a lawyer, eventually becoming a journalist. In 1885 he was elected to the National Assembly for Aisne, and in 1890 represented Yonne. In parliament, he was from the Radical Left, and after a major debate on the running of Annam and Tonkin, he was appointed governor general. Under Doumer, the administrative framework of the five-part federation of Indochina was established, ensuring him a permanent place in history as the architect of French Indochina. He centred the French administration in Hanoi and started a major railway building programme. He was also involved in the cultivation of rubber at Dalat with Dr Alexandre Yersin. This was to lead, two decades later, to the establishment of rubber plantations in Cambodia. Paul Doumer’s aide, Louis Salaun, noted that ‘many common tendencies make [the Vietnamese] understand our French war of governing…[and were] capable of understanding, if not the general spirit of modernity, at least some of its traits.’ Returning to France in 1902, he was again elected for Yonne to the National Assembly. Losing his seat in 1910, he was elected as a senator for Corsica in 1912. From September until November 1917 he was minister of state in the Cabinet. The minister of finance from 1925, he became president of France in 1931, then the oldest person to be elected to that office, but was assassinated in Paris on 6 May 1932 by a White Russian emigrant. He was commemorated on three postage stamps issued in French Indochina on 8 June 1938, and another series issued in 1944. References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860–1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, p. 22; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1218; Catherine Clémentin-Ojha and Pierre-Yves Manguin, A Century in Asia: The History of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient 1898–2006, Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2007, p. 19; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 113; Amaury Lorin, Paul Doumer, gouverneur général de l’Indochine (1897–1902), Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004; Margaret Slocomb, Colons and Coolies: The Development of Cambodia’s Rubber Plantations, Bangkok: White Lotus, 2007, p. 21; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002.

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DREW, FREDERICK BERNARD (1909–1962). The editor of The Times of Saigon in 1945–46, Frederick Drew was born in 1909 in Bexley Heath, Kent, in the southeast of England, the son of Frederick Augustus Drew, a mining engineer’s draughtsman and his wife Emilie Millicent (née Bensted). Educated at Upton College, Bexley Heath, he was in Saigon with the Allied Forces. From 1952 he worked as the news editor of the Sunday Express, and was the author of two books, Farningham Against Hitler (1946) and One Hundred Years of Farningham Cricket (1957). He died in 1962 in London. References: The Author’s & Writer’s Who’s Who, London: Burke’s Peerage, 1960, p. 108.

DUCOS, ALEXANDRE ANTOINE ÉTIENNE GUSTAVE (1851– 1908). The lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1895 until 1897, he took over from Augustin Julien Fourès and held office until he was replaced by Ange Eugène Nicolai. Born on 12 January 1851, moved to Indochina and served in Saigon as president of the Court of Appeal, he was the lieutenant governor from 1895 until 1897, during which time he complained about the expenditure in villages on ceremonies which caused many of the inhabitants to go into debt. He moved to Phnom Penh as the French résident there from 14 May 1897 until 16 January 1900. He tried to increase the level of taxation in Phnom Penh, but was angered that employees of the government or the Royal Palace were exempt from paying the Poll Tax. He also faced much criticism in the Yukanthor Affair when Prince Yukanthor went to Paris to complain about the role of the French administrators in his country. After leaving Cambodia, Ducos returned to Saigon and retired in 1902, returning to Paris, and dying there in 1907. References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860–1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, p. 364; Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, pp. 58–59; Margaret Slocomb, Colons and Coolies: The Development of Cambodia’s Rubber Plantations, Bangkok: White Lotus, 2007, p. 23; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 38.

DUMORTIER, ISIDORE-MARIE-JOSEPH (1869–1940). The first vicar apostolic of Saigon, he was born on 6 April 1869 at Halluin, France and was ordained priest on 27 May 1893. He was appointed vicar apostolic of Saigon on 17 December 1925, being consecrated bishop on 25 March 1926. He remained in office until his death on 16 February 1940. References: Eric Thomas Jennings, Imperial Heights: Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011, p. 199.

DUNN, WILLIAM NORMAN (1873–1961). The British consul in Saigon from 28 November 1916 until 1917, he was born on 9 April 1873, the son of Jonathan Williamson Dunn and Edith Ellen (née Laming) of Castle Hill, Newport, Staffordshire, and was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity

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College, Cambridge. Appointed vice consul at Bangkok in 1907, at Phuket from 1911 and consul at Singgora from 1914, he served as 2nd lieutenant in the 4th Bn, Leicestershire Regiment, being wounded in 1916. He was posted to Saigon from 1916 until early 1917, leaving to take up an appointment at the British Embassy in Washington DC. Returning to Southeast Asia, he was consul general at Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia) from 1917; and at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 1921–24; and at Cologne, Germany, 1924–27. Retiring to Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, he died on 11 February 1961. References: J. E. Auden, Shrewsbury School Register vol. 1: 1798–1908, Shrewsbury: Wilding & Son, 1928, p. 308; Who’s Who; The Times (13 February 1961): p. 16.

DUONG QUYNH HOA [DŲţng Qu஥nh Hoa] (1930–2006). A communist politician, she was born in 1930 and was from a well-to-do family. Living in Paris in the 1950s where she was training as a paediatrician, she became interested in communism and returned to Vietnam after the 1954 partition. She became a secret member of the Communist Party of Vietnam and, living in Saigon, she fraternised with the leaders of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam, working as a doctor in Saigon. In 1960 she was one of the founders of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, but she and her husband remained in Saigon, still working secretly for the communists. It was not until the Tet Offensive of 1968 that she and her husband fled Saigon and joined their soldiers in the jungle. Her son died in the jungle, but she was stoical and in 1969, with the formation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, she was appointed as deputy minister of health. With the victory of the communists in 1975, Duong Quynh Hoa took over a children’s hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The vice minister of health in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, she resigned from the Communist Party in 1976, intent on working solely on health issues. She soon became critical of the communists and felt that the communist rulers, although they had defeated the Republic of Vietnam, were too ideological in their approach to matters. She died in 2006. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 114–15; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Robert G. Mangrum, ‘Duong Quynh Hoa’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, pp. 316–17.

DUONG VAN MINH [DŲţng VÅn Minh] (1916–2001). A senior South Vietnamese Army officer, and president of the Republic of Vietnam on two occasions, as well as the leader of the country (with other titles) on other occasions, Duong Van Minh – nicknamed ‘Big Minh’ – was born on 16 February 1916 in My Tho province, in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landlord who served in the Finance Ministry of the colonial administration. He went

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to Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) and then was educated in France at the École Militaire, joining the French Army at the start of World War II. Captured by the Japanese, he was tortured by them, having some of his teeth pulled out. Through torture and ill-treatment he only retained a single tooth. Joining the Vietnamese National Army of Bao Dai, he was captured by the Viet Minh but managed to escape from them and moved to Saigon, where he was particularly important in leading his troops against the Binh Xuyen as Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem was anxious to establish his control of the country. He also disarmed the Hoa Hao private army and became popular with Ngo Dinh Diem. He was also very popular in Saigon with many people who hated the Binh Xuyen. However, by 1960, Minh was totally disillusioned with the Diem government. He did not come to the aid of President Diem during the coup attempt in November 1960. Sidelined as a presidential military advisor, he became was one of the Buddhist generals who led the military coup against Diem on 1 November 1963. When Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were taken prisoner on the following day, it was probably Minh who ordered them to be killed. Minh became the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee on 2 November 1963 and held that position until 30 January 1964 when he was deposed in a bloodless coup launched by General Nguyen Khanh. However, Minh intrigued and took back power, becoming president of the Republic of Vietnam from 8 February until 16 August 1964. He was a member of the Provisional Leadership Committee, 27 August 1964 – 8 September 1964; chairman of the Provisional Leadership Committee of the Republic of Vietnam from 8 September until 26 October 1964, and then stepped out of the political limelight, moving to Bangkok, Thailand, for a period. He did plan to contest the 1971 presidential election, but in the end decided not to challenge President Nguyen Van Thieu. He took a moderate political line in the early 1970s. His entry in Who’s Who in Vietnam in 1974 gives his position as ‘General of the Army, Ret.’, and his former position as ‘Chief of State of Vietnam’. His last appointment was as president of the Republic of Vietnam on 28 April 1975, in the hope that he might be able to negotiate with the communists. He was in the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace) when the communist tanks broke into the compound on 30 April and announced a handover of power. He was told

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by the successful communists that he was not able to transfer power as ‘you cannot hand over what you do not have’. He was then taken to the radio station and from there made the famous announcement, ‘I declare that the Saigon government, from central to local level, has been completely dissolved.’ He urged the South Vietnamese to surrender in order to prevent street fighting. He lived in his villa in Saigon, raising birds and growing orchids. In 1983 he was able to move to France, and then to Pasadena, California. He died on 6 August 2001 at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. He was survived by his daughter and two sons. References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Fox Butterfield, ‘Duong Van Minh, 85, Saigon Plotter, Dies’, The New York Times (8 August 2001), republished in The Age (15 September 2001): p. 9; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 128; ‘General Duong Van Minh’, The Daily Telegraph (8 August 2001); Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; ‘Last president saw Saigon fall’, The Australian (14 August 2001): p. 16; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 115; Myrna Oliver, ‘Duong Van Minh: Last President of S. Vietnam’, Los Angeles Times (8 August 2001); Howard R. Penniman, Elections in South Vietnam. Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1972; Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945– 1965, London: Andre Deutsch, 1966; Judy Stowe, ‘General Duong Van Minh’, The Independent (9 August 2001); Sarah Tippit, ‘The man who surrendered Saigon dies’, The Age (9 August 2001): p. 11; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 517.

DUPÉRRÉ, VICTOR AUGUSTE, BARON (1825–1900). The French governor of Cochinchina, from 1 December 1874 until 16 October 1877, he was born on 4 August 1825 in Paris, the son of Admiral Victor Guy Dupérré, a commercial sailing master who joined the French Navy, serving during the Napoleonic Wars through to the capture of Algiers in 1830. His son followed him into the French Navy, serving in the Baltic during the blockade of Sveaborg in the Crimean War. After a posting as the chef de cabinet of Justin Chasseloup-Laubat, the minister of marine, from 1869–70 Victor Dupérré, a Bonapartist by inclination, was head of the colony of Gorée and Dependencies (now Gabon). In Cochinchina, he ruled autocratically and Patrick Tuck noted that he ‘had the reputation of making excessive use of his discretionary powers as governor’. He was totally opposed to any expansion of the French into Tonkin and instead became interested in extending French rule into Cambodia. In Saigon, he helped with the establishment of the Bank of Indochina, and also gave money to the Church to start work on the construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral. He died on 26 March 1900 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1209; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 329.

DUPRÉ, MARIE JULES (1813–1881). The French governor of Cochinchina from 1 April 1871 until 16 March 1874, he was born on 25 November 1813 in

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Albi, France, and graduated from the French Naval School as a midshipman in 1831. Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1847, he saw action at the Antilles in 1848–51, and was raised to the rank of commander in 1854. He was involved in the fighting during the Crimean War and then in the expeditions to Syria and Saigon. In 1862 he signed a trade treaty with the King of Madagascar. Appointed the governor of Réunion in 1864, he was promoted to rear admiral in 1867. In 1870 he took part in the French naval blockade of some ports in China and Japan, being at Tianjin during the massacre there. In Saigon, Dupré – who had seen action earlier at Tourane – was involved in the consolidation of French rule and forced the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc to sign the treaty which recognised French rule over the provinces of Vinh Long, Chaudoc and Hatien. In 1873, when the French trader Jean Dupuis was involved in a dispute with the Vietnamese over his use of the Red River for trade, the French government was reluctant to expand their rule in the region – in spite of Dupré writing to them many times – but Dupré sent a naval force under Francis Garnier to Hanoi where the French captured the citadel. However, a diplomatic solution was not reached until 1874, when Emperor Tu Duc was forced to ratify a treaty allowing French to trade with Haiphong, Hanoi and Qui Nhon. This was to lead to an annexation of all the rest of Vietnam from 1883–85. Dupré also managed to improve and transform the health care in Saigon, as well as establish a few new schools, notably the Collège de Stagiaires (‘College of Probationers’), to help train officials to work for the French. In a letter to the minister of the navy, quoted by Joseph Buttinger, Dupré wrote, ‘Nothing is more sensitive than a change of customs, religion and legislation of a people. It is a question of time. New ideas must infiltrate slowly, over successive generations… Such as it is, with all its imperfections, the Annamite legislation, based on the Chinese, is far from being a barbaric and despicable work. … To attempt changing it in its totality…would mean a revolutionary act that would profoundly trouble the country and push it toward insurrection… My conscience will not let me accept this responsibility.’ Back in France, recalled after the French government were angered by his attitudes, he was appointed maritime prefect of Rochefort and then Toulon, he retired in 1878 and died on 8 February 1881 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1208; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 116; D. R. SarDesai, Vietnam: Past and Present, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2005, p. 39; Nicholas Tarling, Imperialism in Southeast Asia: “a fleeting, passing phase”, London: Routledge, 2001, p. 117; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, pp. 329–30.

DURBROW, ELBRIDGE (1903–1997). The US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1957 until 1961, Elbridge Durbrow was born on 21

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September 1903 in San Francisco, the son of Charles W. Durbrow, a lawyer, and his wife Lizzie. Graduating from Yale University in 1926, he went to Stanford University, and then went to the University of Dijon in France, and also studied at the Hague Academy of International Law and then the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, in Paris, before going to the University of Chicago. He was appointed vice consul at the US Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, and then served in Bucharest, Romania; Naples and Rome, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; and then in Moscow. Appointed chief of the Eastern European division of the US State Department in 1944, he succeeded George F. Kennan as the counsellor at the US Embassy in Moscow, and also deputy chief of Mission. After serving in Italy, on 14 March 1957 he was named as ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam. In Saigon, Durbrow had the task of bolstering US support for the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. He did not like the task and frequently disagreed with Diem’s policies, and also clashed with Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. When a coup attempt was put down in November 1960, Nhu accused Durbrow of supporting the rebels. In April 1961 with the new US president, John F. Kennedy, anxious to change US representation in Saigon, Durbrow was replaced with Frederick Nolting. Durbrow remained a diplomat until 1968. In the 1970s he was the chairman of the American Foreign Policy Institute and was the director of the Center for International Strategic Studies and the Freedom Studies Center in South Boston, Virginia. He died on 16 May 1997. References: Michael R. Adamson, ‘Ambassadorial Roles and Foreign Policy: Elbridge Durbrow, Frederick Nolting, and the US Commitment to Diem’s Vietnam, 1957–61’, Presidential Studies Quarterly, vol. 32 (2002): pp. 229–55; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Richard Pearson, ‘Elbridge Durbrow, 93, Dies; Ambassador to S. Vietnam’, The Washington Post (20 May 1997); Wolfgang Saxon, ‘Elbridge Durbrow, US Diplomat, Dies at 93’, The New York Times (23 May 1997); Who’s Who in America.

E EDUCATION. Although there have been pagoda schools in Vietnam for many centuries, the education system in Ho Chi Minh City was built on the French system, which as introduced from the 1870s. It was adapted during the Republic of Vietnam, and changed again from 1975. In 1832 schools started to be constructed in Saigon, teaching focusing on the Chinese classics. With the arrival of the French, the pagoda and temple schools continued to offer primary education, the schools being called ‘preparatory schools’. Most were still attached to Buddhist temples and taught Buddhism as well as Confucian philosophy, and also the history and geography of Indochina. Many also taught the French language. Vietnamese was the language of instruction with four million textbooks printed in Vietnamese. For French children, and wealthier Vietnamese, there were kindergartens, elementary schools, and higher elementary schools. There were some ‘native secondary schools’ and also some schools such as Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) which catered for French, other Europeans and wealthy locals. Collège d’Adran was opened on 21 September 1861 by Admiral Victor Charner; and École Taberd was founded on 31 August 1874 by Father I. de kerlan (1844–1877). There was also one school, École Petrus Ky (now Lycée Le Hong Phong), which was established on 11 August 1928 and in 1937 it had 879 primary and secondary students. To give some idea of how few children completed secondary education, in 1937 there were only 4,611 students enrolled in secondary schools in the whole of Indochina. Marguerite Duras described how the school she attended in Saigon only admitted French citizens, and Vietnamese children if their parents were French. The Chinese had some of their own schools, the largest of these in Saigon being École Cholon, located in Cholon. For the Roman Catholics, their schools were connected with churches, and the most well-known of these in Saigon was École Taberd. As for tertiary education, the University of Hanoi, founded in 1917, provided education in medicine, law, fine arts, education, agriculture and commerce. In 1937 there were 631 students, of whom 541 were Vietnamese, 87 were French and three were Chinese. The figures showed that a significant proportion of those going to high school – from all over Indochina – went to university. 93

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A class at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in 1940.

The system remained very much the same during the first years of the Republic of Vietnam, except that there was a massive increase in the number of students attending primary and secondary schools. There were also moves to introduce some US educational philosophy, although in many secondary schools, the French language remained the medium of instruction. The current education system in Vietnam essentially has five levels of education. From the age of about three until six, children attend pre-school playgroups and kindergartens. They then go to primary school for five years, from the ages of about six to around ten/eleven. There are then four years of secondary school (grades 6–9, ages 11/12 until 14/15), followed by three years in high school (grades 10–12, ages 15/16 until 17/18). Tertiary education at university, or college, often lasts for up to four years. There are now two semesters for each year. The first lasts from late August until Tet in early the following year, and the second term lasts from Tet until June. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, chapter 9, pp. 143–58; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, pp. 156–59; Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2004, pp. 117–19; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 134–41; Micheline R. Lessard, ‘“We Know…the Duties We Must Fulfill”: Modern “Mothers and Fathers” of the Vietnamese Nation’, French Colonial History, vol. 3 (2003): pp. 119–41; Bruce

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Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 124–26; Trinh Van Thao, L’école française en Indochine, Paris: Karthala, 1995; Vu Tam Ich, ‘A Historical Survey of Educational Developments in Vietnam’, Bulletin of the Bureau of School Service, vol. 32, no. 2 (December 1959).

ELECTIONS. The first elections held in Saigon were for the Colonial Council, established in 1880 to advise the governor of Cochinchina. There were about 22,000 electors by the 1930s, and they were responsible for choosing the ten Vietnamese members of the council. Elections were held regularly. The last four were held on 10 October 1926, 7 December 1930, 3 March 1935 and 16 April 1939. After World War II, the communists organised elections in their zones of control in 1946, but these did not include Saigon, and no data was published The first major ‘election’ held in Vietnam was the State of Vietnam referendum, held on 23 October 1955. All men and women over 18 and living in the State of Vietnam were eligible to vote, and they would decide on the future of their state. Essentially, the election was to approve Ngo Dinh Diem moving towards a Republican form of government, or keeping the existing status quo with Bao Dai. In many ways, it replaced the nationwide referendum, which was agreed upon at Geneva in 1954 by the major powers – but which was not held in South Vietnam (which never signed the Geneva Agreements) or North Vietnam (which did sign the agreements). Ngo Dinh Diem was clearly more popular than Bao Dai, but Edward Lansdale cautioned Diem that ‘While I’m away I don’t want to suddenly read that you have won by 99.99%. I would know that it’s rigged then.’ A victory with Diem polling between 60–70 per cent of the vote was thought adequate. However, Diem felt that he had to defeat Bao Dai and announced on 6 October that the election would be held on 23 October. Most of the election campaign consisted of Diem attacking Bao Dai and criticising the ex-emperor’s lifestyle – his drunkenness and his womanising – and manner of running the country. There were floats with images of Bao Dai showing him with sacks of money slung over his shoulder, and playing cards in his hands, with naked European women relaxing on top of him. There were many criticisms of the election as the entire government machine – including the police and army – were used to ensure that there would be a high turnout and strong support for Diem. Even though historians have been highly critical of the campaign, there seems little doubt that Diem was far more popular than Bao Dai, especially in Saigon. Bao Dai had presided over a disastrous government in 1945, which had led to widespread starvation (although this was the fault of the Japanese, not his government). He had also allowed the police in Saigon to be controlled by the Binh Xuyen gangsters, and there is no doubt that Bao Dai had led a scandalous private life. In return, members of

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the Hoa Hao sect, including their leader Ba Cut, claimed that Diem was being manipulated by the Americans. The election process was funded by the US government and a number of US Roman Catholic charities. Ballot papers showed on one end a photograph of Diem printed in red – a colour associated with prosperity and good luck; with the other half showed Bao Dai in imperial robes, were in green. Voting started at 7AM, and ended at 5PM, with voters tearing the ballot paper in half and putting the half they wanted in the ballot box. When the votes were counted, it showed that Diem had won with 5,721,735 votes (98.2 per cent), with 63,017 supporting Bao Dai and 44,105 spoilt ballots. There were a number of anomalies with the poll. There were said to be 5,335,668 people on the electoral roll but when the votes were counted, some 5,784,752 ballots were cast. Furthermore, there were some 450,000 voters registered in Saigon but 605,025 votes were cast in the city. The latter has been regularly cited as evidence of the irregularity of the poll, although it was clear that many refugees from North Vietnam and who had recently arrived in the south were voting in Saigon, but also that there were large numbers of country people who were registered in villages and towns around southern Vietnam who were actually living in Saigon, and as a result voted in the capital. Certainly voters did not need to vote in the places where they were registered. There was much greater doubt over votes tallied from the Mekong Delta, where communists and the Hoa Hao had organised a boycott of the elections. And the problems with the referendum could be compared with the North Vietnamese parliamentary elections held five years later, where the turnout was 99.9 per cent, and only candidates from one political group were allowed to stand. Three days after the 1955 referendum, Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam. On 4 March 1956 elections were held to the Constitutional Assembly. In these, a total of 431 candidates contested 123 seats. Some 85 per cent of the electorate were part of the National Revolutionary Party (or Movement), which gained 58 seats, and eight independents affiliated with the party were also elected. The other parties represented in the assembly were the Citizens’ Rally (18 seats), Workers’ Part (10 seats, including six affiliated independents), the Conquest of Liberty Party (7), the Social Democrats (2), the Dai-Viet (1), and 19 unaffiliated independents. The first four parties were all supportive of Ngo Dinh Diem. The assembly drew up a constitution and then the body was transformed into the National Assembly. The next elections for the National Assembly were held on 3 August 1959, again with some 123 seats contested by 460 candidates. The pro-Diem National Revolutionary Movement won 78 seats, with the Vietnamese Socialist Party getting 4 seats, the Social Democratic Party with

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3 seats, the Vietnamese Restoration Party and the Democratic Liberties Party with 2 seats each, with 32 independents, and 2 opposition independents. In Saigon, Phan Quang Dan, who had formed the Democratic Bloc in 1957 was elected as one of the opposition independents, with Nguyen Tran, another independent opposed to Diem, both being elected with large majorities. The trade union movement was also very active in Saigon, with two of their leaders also being elected to represent seats in the capital. The next election held in the Republic of Vietnam took place on 9 April 1961. It was a presidential election which saw Ngo Dinh Diem easily reelected with 5,997,927 votes (89 per cent), with Nguyen Ngoc Tho as his vice presidential running mate. The other two candidates were Ho Nhat Tan, a doctor of Oriental medicine who famously declared Diem had killed the Vietnamese Constitution ‘like a mother killing its child’ (with Nguyen The Truyen for the vice presidency) and Nguyen Dinh Quat (with Nguyen Than Phuong as his vice presidential candidate), who managed 475,125 (7 per cent) and 268,668 (4 per cent) respectively. In Saigon, some 146,517 people voted for Ho Nhat Tan, 51,098 for Nguyen Dinh Quat and 354,732 for Diem, showing that much of the opposition to Diem came from the capital. The next parliamentary elections were scheduled for 31 August 1963, but four days before, because of the Buddhist Crisis, they were postponed until 27 September 1963, with candidates standing for all of the 123 seats, and 6,329,831 of the 6,809,078 registered voters taking part. The elections took place five weeks before the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem, with Ngo Dinh Nhu winning his seat with 99.9 per cent of the vote, and his wife winning her seat with 99.8 per cent of the vote. The assembly met for the first time on 7 October. After a period of instability in South Vietnamese politics, the next elections, for a constitutional assembly, were held on 11 September 1966, with 540 candidates contesting the 117 seats. Some 59 of the nominated candidates were disqualified for political reasons, with 136 others having their nominations rejected on technical grounds, or withdrawing prior to the voting. Of those elected, 96 were independents, 12 from the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang), and 9 from the Dan-Viet Progressive Party. The most well-known candidates were from Saigon constituencies. These included former head of state Phan Khac Suu, Tran Van Van who had been the Chairman of the People’s and Armed Forces Council; and Dr Dang Van Sung, the leader of the Dai Viet and editor of the party newspaper. A presidential election was held on 3 September 1967, with ten candidates vying for the votes of some 5 million. The election was won by Nguyen Van Thieu, who received 1,649,561 votes (34.8 per cent), with Thieu having persuaded Nguyen Cao Ky to be his running mate. In second place was Truong Dinh Dzu, a prominent Saigon lawyer, with 817,120 votes (17.2 per cent).

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He campaigned for compromise and was prepared to coexist with the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. In third place was the former president Phan Khac Suu with 513,374 votes (10.8 per cent). Tran Van Huong, the former mayor of Saigon and briefly prime minister from November 1964 until January 1965, came fourth with 474,100 votes (10.0 per cent). In fifth place was Ha Thuc Ky of the Dai Viet Party with 349,473 votes (7.3 per cent). He had been influenced by the events of the August Revolution in 1945 and after briefly supporting the Viet Minh, he had become a leading non-communist nationalist. He was followed in the election by Nguyen Hoa Hiep with 160,790 votes (3.5 per cent); Vu Hong Khanh of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, with 149,276 votes (3.2 per cent); Hoang Co Binh with 131,071 votes (2.9 per cent); Pham Huy Co, a French-trained dentist from the Viet-Nam Restoration Party, with 106,317 votes (2.2 per cent); and Tran Van Ly, former governor of Central Vietnam and a monarchist, with 92,604 votes (1.9 per cent). There were 132,817 blank or invalid votes. Overall voter turnout was 83.2 per cent. On the day before the presidential elections, there were elections to a new senate. These were a little complicated, with each voter having six votes and having to vote for six lists of candidates (of the 48 candidates in total). The number of votes cast was 21,884,602. Allowing for 212,060 invalid and blank votes, there were 4,902,748 votes cast, with the turnout being 83.8 per cent. On 22 October 1967 another series of parliamentary elections were held, with 4,270,794 votes cast, a turnout of 72.9 per cent. There were a total of 137 seats were at stake, and some 1,140 candidates – all independents – stood. The turnout was 72.9 per cent nationwide, with only 57.8 per cent in Saigon. The success of these elections was noted on a series of three postage stamps issued by the Republic of Vietnam postal authorities on 1 November 1967. The next elections were new elections for the Senate on 30 August 1970 where there were sixteen lists of candidates and each voter had three votes. In each of the Senate elections, half the senators retire, but as there had only been one previous election, the 30 retiring were chosen by ballot. Voter turnout was 65.4 per cent, the lowest in South Vietnam up until then. The most successful list was the ‘Lotus Flower List’ of Vu Van Mau, which campaigned for negotiations with the communists. The second list was the ‘Sun List’ of Major General Huynh Van Cao. It drew together a coalition of former Diem supporters with Cao Dai and Hoa Hao. The ‘Lily List’ which came third was headed by Nguyen Van Huyen and was largely supported by Catholics, drawing most of its support from Saigon. The next parliamentary elections were held on 29 August 1971 with a turnout of 78.5 per cent. At stake were the 159 seats in the National Assembly, and there were 1,404 candidates, with 118 being disqualified. The 13 seats in Saigon, where the turnout was the lowest (59.6 per cent), were contested by 184

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candidates. Amongst those elected to represent Saigon were some supporters of Duong Van Minh, and also others endorsed by the Buddhist leadership from the An Quang Pagoda. Ho Van Minh topped the poll for Saigon, with Ly Quy Chung and Tran Van Tuyen were also elected for Saigon seats. In the run-up to the Paris Peace Agreement, a new presidential election was scheduled in South Vietnam for 2 October 1971. Unlike the previous one, four years earlier, there was a move to reduce the number of candidates so that each person who wanted to stand would have to have their nomination supported by 40 of the 197 senators and members of the National Assembly, or 100 of the 545 members of provincial and city councils. President Nguyen Van Thieu could easily muster this number, and two opponents, Duong Van Minh and Nguyen Cao Ky decided to challenge. They decided that Minh should try to enlist the support of any opposition legislators, and Ky should try to get the requisite number of councillors. On the first day of the week for filing nominations, Nguyen Van Thieu managed to get the support of 15 senators, 89 deputies and 452 councillors. Minh managed to rustle up 16 senators and 28 deputies, with Ky only lodging his nomination on 4 August, after driving through Saigon in a motorcade of Air Force jeeps. He had signatures of 101 councillors, but 39 of them had already signed Thieu’s papers. His nomination was declared invalid. Minh then withdrew from the election, after which Ky’s papers were then declared to be valid to ensure that there was a contest. Ky refused to stand, and Thieu stood unopposed. Nguyen Van Thieu had been anxious not to win with a massive majority and to try to make the election credible – being the only candidate – he said that it was possible for people to vote against him by spoiling their ballot paper, or even tearing it. Despite trying to reduce the size of his certain victory, he managed to get 5,971,114 votes, with 356,517 votes being invalid or blank. The last elections held in the Republic of Vietnam were those for the Senate on 26 August 1973. There were only four lists from which the two who won the election would get 15 seats each in the Senate – all voters having two votes. Tran Minh Tung headed the Dan Chu (‘Democratic Party’) list, which supported the government, followed by Tran Van Lam. The voter turnout was 92.7 per cent. After the formation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the first parliamentary elections were held on 25 April 1976, and the only formal political group allowed to stand was the Vietnamese Fatherland Front. Saigon was divided into four constituencies, which returned a total of 44 people contesting the 35 seats – six of the candidates were independents from the ‘third force’ made up from non-communist opponents of Nguyen Van Thieu. The Vietnamese Fatherland Front won all 492 seats, with a total of 22,895,611 valid votes cast for it, and 204,054 votes declared to be invalid or blank.

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The turnout in Saigon was 98.14 per cent. To help promote the elections, they were featured on three postage stamps issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 10 April 1976. There have subsequently been elections held on 26 April 1981, on 19 April 1987, on 19 July 1992 (with 2 independent candidates standing), on 20 July 1997 (with 3 independent candidates elected, as opposed to 447 for the Vietnamese Fatherland Front), on 19 May 2002 (with 51 independents elected from the 125 standing, as opposed to 447 members of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front being elected), on 20 May 2007 (with 1 self-nominated candidate elected and the other 492 seats won by the Vietnamese Fatherland Front), and on 22 May 2011 (with 42 independents elected and 458 for the Communist Party). As the National Assembly starts to gain more of a role in the governing of Vietnam, there is now more interest in the elections. References: Jessica M. Chapman, ‘Staging Democracy: South Vietnam’s 1955 Referendum to Depose Bao Dai’, Diplomatic History, vol. 30, no. 4 (September 2006): pp. 671–703; Keesing’s Contemporary Archives; James McAllister, ‘A Fiasco of Noble Proportions: The Johnson Administration and the South Vietnamese Elections of 1967’, Pacific Historical Review, vol. 73, no. 4 (November 2004): pp. 619–51; D. Nohlen, F. Grotz and C. Hartmann, Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook, Volume II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 321–42; ‘South Viet Nam: a vote for the future’, Time (15 September 1967): pp. 22–26; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 153–54.

ÉLY, PAUL (1897–1975). The commissioner general of French Indochina from 10 April 1954 until April 1955, Paul Ely had been born on 17 December 1897 at Salonica (now Thessaloniki), Greece, the son of Henri Ely, a civil servant, and Thérèse (née Coste). Educated at the Lycée de Best, he went to St Cyr and was commissioned lieutenant in 1919. He then remained in the army and studied at the École Supérieure de Guerre, was promoted to captain in 1930, and commandant in 1938. Gazetted lieutenant colonel in the Free French Forces in 1942, and full colonel in 1944, in 1946 was a general, he served under Jean de Lattre de Tassigny in 1948–49. Posted to Washington DC in 1953–54, his appointment as commissioner general of French Indochina was due to his connections with the US Army. Indeed, soon after he took over in Indochina, he flew to Washington DC to urge in the strongest terms that the United States commit itself to Operation Vulture by intervening in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and bombing the communist bases. Most of his time in Indochina was spent evacuating Hanoi and parts of North Vietnam, and consolidating what remained of France’s interests in what was to become the Republic of Vietnam. He was the French chief of the Defence Staff from June 1958 until February 1959, and died on 16 January 1975 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1224; Paul Ely, L’armée dans la nation, Paris: Librarie Arthème Fayard, 1961; Paul Ely, Mémoires: L’Indochine dans la tourmente, Paris: Editions Plon, 1964; Paul Ely, Mémoires: Suez…le 13 mai, Paris: Plon, 1969; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 126; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 500.

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ETHERINGTON-SMITH, (RAYMOND) GORDON (ANTONY) (1914– 2007). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1963 to 1966, he was born on 1 February 1914, the son of T. B. Etherington-Smith. Educated at Downside and Magdalen College, Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, he joined the British Foreign Office in 1936 and was posted to Berlin in 1939. After leaving Germany, he served in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1939–40; Washington DC 1940–42; Chungking, China, 1943–45, and then served in Kashgar, Moscow and the Vatican. A counsellor in Saigon in 1954–57, he served at the Hague, Netherlands, and Singapore, returning to Saigon as the British ambassador from 1963. In his reports to the British Labour government, he was critical of the ‘uncoordinated and often misguided American economic aid to Vietnam’. He also advised that ‘a limited increase in our aid is desirable if we are to retain influence in this theatre with Americans as well as Vietnamese’. He later served in Berlin again, and then was ambassador to the Sudan in 1970–74. In retirement, he edited the diary of Ernst Pitner (1838–1896), an Austrian Army officer who served under Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. He died on 14 April 2007. References: Eugenie Blang, Allies at Odds: America, Europe and Vietnam 1961–1968, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011, p. 161; Jonathan Colman, ‘No Tea Party’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 20, no. 2 (August 2007): pp. 46ff.; Sylvia Ellis, Britain, America and the Vietnam War, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004; Who’s Who; The Times (30 May 2007).

EUTROPE, EUGÈNE HENRI (1881–19 ). Born on 20 March 1881, he started work in Indochina on 21 March 1903. He was the French acting governor of Cochinchina from 21 November 1931 until 11 November 1932 while Jean-Félix Krautheimer was on leave. Eutrope was born in Cayenne, French Guiana, and was subsequently the resident superior in Laos from August 1934 until April 1938.

F FARON, JOSEPH (1819–1881). The French acting governor of Cochinchina from 10 December 1869, after Marie Gustave Hector Ohier left for France. Faron remained in that position until 8 January 1870 when Alphonse de Cornulier-Lucinière came to Saigon to take up the post. Faron had served in Martinique and in 1870 was promoted to the rank of general of a division. References: Hubert Jules Deschamps, Perspectives nouvelles sur le passé de l’Afrique noire et de Madagascar, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1974, p. 275; Yvnes-Jean Saint-Martin, Le Sénégal sous le second empire, Paris: Karthala, 1989, p. 264.

FILIPPINI, ANGE MICHEL (1834–1887). The French governor of Cochinchina from 19 June 1886 until 22 October 1887, he was sent to Saigon to take over from Charles Thomson, who had been temporarily replaced by Charles Auguste Frédéric Begin. Filippini was governor for sixteen months, and during that time he managed to gain some concessions in Cambodia to help the attempt to regain French influence over Cambodia. He was replaced by Noël Pardon as acting governor. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1211; Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859–1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969.

FINE ARTS MUSEUM. This museum in Ho Chi Minh City has a large collection of artwork, covering aspects of Vietnamese culture. It includes lacquer ware and enamels, as well as Vietnamese abstract paintings and also, on the second floor, art which shows aspects of the Vietnam War, including much imagery of Ho Chi Minh. On the third floor there are pieces of Vietnamese art going back to ancient times, including sculptures of Hindu deities and also Buddha. It has the second best collection of Cham stone carvings in the world – the best being at the Museum of Cham Sculpture at Danang. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 283; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 79; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 57; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 120–21; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 356–57.

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FINLAYSON, GEORGE (1790–1823). A Scottish surgeon and naturalist, he visited Saigon in 1822, part of the mission of John Crawfurd to the courts of Siam and Vietnam. Born in 1790 in Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, he worked as a clerk to Dr William Somerville, who was chief of the army medical staff in Scotland, and then started work for Dr Farrel, who held the same position in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In 1821–22 he was attached to the Crawfurd mission, and left a description of Saigon. Finlayson wrote, ‘We were told that the Governor would give an audience to the Agent of the Governor General at an early hour. About ten a.m. the mandarin, who had conducted us from the ship, came to say that the Governor waited our arrival. Being asked what conveyance had been prepared for us, he said that we must proceed on foot. This being objected to, five elephants were sent for. These were furnished with haudahs [howdahs], such as are used by the natives of India. A few minutes brought us into the citadel, where the Governor resides. His house, though large, is plain, and without ornament, in the interior or exterior. It is situated nearly in the centre of the fort, in an open space. When we had arrived within fifty yards of the entrance, we were requested to descend from our elephants, and to proceed the remainder of the way on foot. A crowd of soldiers, armed chiefly with spears, occupied both sides of the court. The Governor, surrounded by the mandarins, was seated in a large hall, open in front. We advanced directly in front of him, and taking off our hats, saluted him according to the manner of our country. Chairs had been provided, and we took our seats a little in front, and to the right of the mandarins. In the back part of the hall sat the Governor, upon a plain, elevated plat- form, about twelve feet square, and covered with mats, on which were laid one or two cushions. On a lower platform to his left, and a little in front, was seated the Deputy Governor, a fine-looking old man, who appeared to have passed the age of seventy. Directly opposite to the latter about a dozen mandarins, dressed in black silk robes, were seated in the Indian manner, on a platform similar to that opposite; and behind these stood a number of armed attendants, crowded into one place. In front of the Governor, two Siamese, who had come hither on their private affairs, lay prostrate on the ground, in the manner that they attend upon their own chiefs. ‘The Governor of Saigon is reputed an eunuch, and his appearance in some degree countenances that notion. He is apparently about fifty years of age, has an intelligent look, and may be esteemed to possess considerable activity both of mind and body: his face is round and soft, his features flabby and wrinkled; he has no beard, and bears considerable resemblance to an old woman: his voice, too, is shrill and feminine; but this I have observed, though in a less degree, in other males of this nation. His dress is not merely plain, but almost sordid, and to the sight as mean as that of the poorest persons.

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‘He had requested that the letter from the Governor General of Bengal should be brought with us to the audience. Seeing it in my hand, he inquired what it was I held; and having examined the gold cloth in which it was contained, he returned it, at the same time observing that having, according to the custom of the country, taken copies, it must not be again opened. ‘He now inquired how long it was since we left Calcutta, and what our respective ages were. He observed that it was customary for kings only to write to kings: “How then,” said he, “can the Governor General of Bengal address a letter to the King of Cochin China?” He seemed to comprehend what the objects of the mission were, and to view them in a favourable light. “All ships,” he observed, “are permitted to trade with Cochin China. If, “he continued,” the subjects of the King of Cochin China visit Bengal or any other British settlement, it is right that while there they should be amenable to the laws of the country, and be judged by them. In like manner the subjects of other nations resorting to Cochin China must be governed and judged by the laws in use in that country; that otherwise there could be no strict justice.” He asked if we were going direct to Turon, or the port of Hue, and what conduct the Agent of the Governor General meant to pursue on arriving at that place. He was told that a report of our arrival should be immediately forwarded to court from that place; on which he observed that the mandarin of elephants was in charge of matters of this nature, and would give all requisite information on the subject of commercial affairs. ‘I have above described, in general terms, the nature and extent of the conversation that transpired. The mandarins appeared to be perfectly at their ease in the presence of the Governor, exhibiting neither fear nor awe of any kind. They frequently addressed questions to us during the interview. The conversation was carried on through the medium of the Portuguese language, by means of a native called Antonio. Towards the close of the conversation, M. Diard came in, dressed in the style of a mandarin, and took his seat beside us. Tea was offered to us, according to the usual custom.’ Finlayson became very ill during this voyage, and died soon after his return. His journal was edited by Stamford Raffles (the founder of Singapore) and was published as The Mission to Siam and Hue, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821–2, from the Journal of the Late George Finlayson, Esq in 1826. In the following year German and Dutch translations were published. Finlayson is commemorated by the bird, Strip-throated Bulvul (Pycnonotus finlaysoni), and some botanical names have ‘Finl.’ after them. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 24–28; George Finlayson, The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821–2, London: John Murray, 1826; J. M. Rigg and Giles Hudson, ‘George Finlayson’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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FIRE BRIGADE. Because of the large number of wooden houses, there were regular fires in Saigon. The Ben Thanh Market had been destroyed in 1870, and the Binh Tay Market in Cholon was also destroyed in a major fire. As a result, the French established a fire service. During the Vietnam War, the fire brigade worked with the US forces in the countryside, and were involved in protecting military bases as well as civilian areas. The telephone number for the fire brigade was ‘60046’. During the Fall of Saigon, in Operation Frequent Wind, some of the fire brigade were asked to come to the US Embassy to help after an accident on the roof of the Chancery Building. Variously described as part of the embassy’s own fire brigade, or volunteers from the Saigon fire brigade, their families had already been evacuated and they were assured that they would also be evacuated. When Colonel Summers was told to leave, the firemen and many others were left behind. After April 1975, the communist system of government control used in North Vietnam was imposed in Saigon. This saw the police, the People’s Security Force (PSF), being in charge of not only public order but also fire fighting, with the People’s Protection Squads able to be raised. In the villages around Saigon, the responsibility for fighting fires lies with the residents’ protective committee of each village. The Ho Chi Minh City fire brigade is well-equipped and welltrained, with a much-publicised fire drill in the Thu Thien tunnel before it was opened to the public. In Ho Chi Minh City, the telephone number for the fire brigade is ‘14’. References: David Butler, The Fall of Saigon: Scenes from the Sudden End of a Long War, London: Sphere, 1985, p. 443; ‘HCM City holds fire fighting drill in Thu Thien tunnel’, http://www.eng.hochiminhcity. gov.vn/eng/news/default.aspx?cat_id=513&news_id=12986 (April 2012), John Pilger, Heroes, London: Jonathan Cape, 2010, p. 228.

‘THE FLOATER’. This was the colloquial name given to the Saigon Floating Hotel, which was brought from the Australian Great Barrier Reef and moored in river at Ho Chi Minh City in 1989 to provide 180 rooms for what was expected to be a tourist boom. Initially, as the only first international class hotel in the city, charging $200 a night, it was fully booked. Gradually, as many other hotels were constructed, it started to face major financial problems, and on 31 August 1996, it closed down and it was towed away to the Pacific. References: Geoffrey Murray, Vietnam – Dawn of a New Market, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997, p. 134; Adam Schwarz, ‘House of Cards’, Far Eastern Economic Review (19 September 1996): pp. 62–63.

FOURÈS, AUGUSTIN JULIEN (1853–1915). A French colonial official, he was born on 14 June 1853, and was one of the first French administrators in Indochina who spent his entire career there. In 1874 he started at the Collège des Stagiaires in Saigon. He then became a trainee administrator for Indigenous Affairs on 7 January 1875, and was posted to Cambodia. He

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was the acting French representative in Cambodia from 10 May 1881 until 12 August 1885, and was then secretary general in Cochinchina 1886–87, and administrator for the province of Soc Trang, Cochinchina from 1887 until 1888. The lieutenant governor of Cochinchina in 1889 and again in 1892–95, he was résident supérieur in Tonkin. He was then acting governor general of Indochina from December 1896 until 13 February 1897. In 1881 he wrote Organisation politique du Cambodge. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, pp. 56–57 (as Julien Auguste Fourès); Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 331.

FREQUENT WIND, OPERATION. The US evacuation of Saigon on 29–30 April 1975, it was signified by the radio announcing ‘it is 112 degrees and rising’ and then playing Bing Crosby singing White Christmas. Plans for a US evacuation from Saigon had been discussed for many years. Essentially it relied on the evacuation of as many people as possible by commercial air flights from Tan Son Nhut Airport and any others that were operable. If this was not possible, then the airlift would be undertaken by military aircraft. There was also the option of a sea lift from Saigon. As a last resort, there was the back-up plan of an evacuation by helicopter to US ships which would be located in the South China Sea. Initially it was regarded as defeatist to plan an evacuation but Frank Snepp, the CIA analyst in Saigon, urged that more detailed plans be drawn up. He was horrified by discovering that a proper evacuation – given the length of time the United States had been involved in Vietnam and the number of nationals of allied countries – might see the removal of up to tens of thousands of people. Despite air shuttles by fixed wing aircraft – commercial and military – to reduce the number of US citizens in Vietnam by late March, there was gradually the need to evacuate dependents of officials in the Republic of Vietnam government. With the defeat of the South Vietnamese soldiers at Xuan Loc on 20 April 1975, and the resignation of President Nguyen Van Thieu that day, it was clear that the evacuation had to start. To complicate things, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines stated that he did not want more than 2,500 Vietnamese evacuees in his country at any one time, making the planning even more difficult. On 27 April 1975, the communist artillery was able to hit Saigon and Cholon, with bombs being dropped on Tan Son Nhut Airport on the following day. It was clear that the remainder of the evacuation had to be undertaken by helicopter. Henry Kissinger had ordered for a large US naval task force to be located in the South China Sea and US helicopters were used to evacuate a planned 10,000 people.

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With Operation Frequent Wind announced by the code on the radio, most remaining US citizens, those of allied countries and officials of the South Vietnamese government and their dependents, headed for the nominated evacuation sites, especially the US Embassy. The evacuation from there was relatively orderly, but at the end some 400 would-be evacuees were left behind. These included some 100 South Korean citizens, including General Dai Yong Rhee, former deputy commander of South Korean forces in Vietnam, and later South Korean intelligence chief in Saigon. He was held until April 1980, although most of the South Korean civilians were released in 1976. The evacuation is best-known through the photograph of Hubert van Es, who took a picture of an Air America helicopter picking up evacuees from the rooftop of the Pittman Apartment Building, 22 Gia Long Street (now 22 Ly Tu Trong Street), which had been used by the Central Intelligence Agency and other US officials. The overall evacuation saw a total of 50,493 evacuees, including 2,678 orphans from Tan Son Nhut Airport. There were also 395 Americans and 4,475 Vietnamese and third country nationals evacuated from the DAO Compound, and 978 US citizens and 1,120 Vietnamese and third country nationals from the US Embassy, as well as other evacuees from elsewhere in Saigon. This meant some 7,000 people were airlifted to US naval craft, with two marines killed in action, and two missing at sea. References: Alan Dawson, 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam, New York: Prentice-Hall, 1977; Larry Englemann, Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990; Dan Feltham, ‘Trapped in Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 10, no. 6 (April 1998): pp. 42ff.; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Charles Patterson, ‘World Airways’ Audacious Airlift’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 21, no. 4 (December 2008): pp. 52ff.; Edward Rasen, ‘Final Fiasco – The Fall of Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 23, no. 1 (June 2010): pp. 34ff.; Major General Homer D. Smith, ‘The Final 45 Days in Vietnam’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 7, no. 6 (April 1995): pp. 46ff.; Frank Snepp, Decent Interval, London: Allen Lane, 1980; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 188f.

FRIENDSHIP HOTEL. This hotel was built in 1972, having been designed by Vu Ba Dinh, with the interior decoration by Le Quy Phong. Occupying a corner site, it had a total of 150 rooms. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 230–31.

G GIA DINH [Gia Ð୽nh]. This was the name of the province dating from as early as 1698 as a prefecture which included the town of Saigon. The area was devastated during the Tay Son Rebellion and the Citadel of Saigon (sometimes called the Gia Dinh Citadel) was constructed soon afterwards. The administrative area of Gia Dinh was created in 1832 and in 1889 it was split, with the area around Saigon remaining Gia Dinh, with the other three provinces created being Cholon, Tan An and Tay Ninh.

The Ho Chi Minh City Museum. Author’s photograph. 108

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In 1957, Gia Dinh province was sub-divided into six districts: Binh Chanh, Go Vap, Hoc Mon, Nha Be, Tan Binh, and Thu Duc. The nearby districts of Quang Xuyen and Can Gio were added in 1970. The communist government changed the borders in February 1976, adding Bien Hoa, Binh Duong and Hau Nghia to Gia Dinh province, which was then renamed Sai Gon – Gia Dinh and, on 2 July 1976, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. References: Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2004, chapter 1; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 11f.

The Gia Long Palace.

The Ho Chi Minh City Museum. Author’s photograph

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The Ho Chi Minh City Museum. Author’s photograph.

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GIA LONG PALACE [Óinh Gia Long] (now the Ho Chi Minh City Museum; Vi୹n b୕o tàng Thành phஃ Hஅ Chí Minh). This neoclassical palace was designed in 1885 by the architect Foulhoux and it was built between 1886 and 1890 and used by the French colonial administration. It was named after Emperor Gia Long who had founded the Nguyen dynasty in 1802, and who ruled until his death in 1820. He was also famous for adopting the Gia Long Code, a new law which more strictly followed a Chinese model, and was to continue into French colonial rule. Located in what was then Rue de la Grandière (now Ly Tu Trong), the building has a large formal garden with fluted Doric columns along the front, a flight of eight stairs and an impressive entrance. The main hall has sweeping stairs from either side of the room, leading to the second floor. There were plans to use the palace as a museum, but by the time it was completed plans had changed and it was used as official office of the governor of Cochinchina, and it forms one of the early scenes in Anthony Grey’s novel, Saigon (1982), which features a reception held there for a visiting fictional US Senator in 1925. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese took over the building and used it as the headquarters for the Japanese governor. On 25 August 1945, when the communists seized power, the palace was then used as their headquarters for the Committee of the South. On 23 September 1945 the French high commissioners started using the palace as their office and then it became the office of the governors operating under the French. Ngo Dinh Diem used the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace) until 27 February 1962, when two air force pilots bombed the Presidential Palace in an attempt to kill President Ngo Dinh Diem and his family. He was unharmed, but some of his aides were killed and the building was badly damaged. As a result, Diem moved to the Gia Long Palace and it was the scene of the meeting of Diem with Henry Cabot Lodge, so perfectly described in Morris West’s novel, The Ambassador (1965). Diem was governing from there when Buddhist generals staged a coup d’état on 1 November 1963. Diem’s own office was on the third floor. Attached to it there was a bedroom and bathroom. The office of his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was on the second floor. When rebel soldiers attacked the palace, the Presidential Guard held them off for several hours while Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu took refuge in the bunker under the palace and then escaped down a tunnel and from there managed to get to Cholon. They were both killed on the following day. The soldiers who captured the palace looted it. The Gia Long Palace was used as the office of the president until October 1966, when the new Presidential Palace was completed. It was then the headquarters for the South Vietnamese Supreme Court. Empty for a short period, on 12 August 1978 the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City

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decided to transform the Gia Long Palace into the Revolutionary Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which is now called the Museum of Ho Chi Minh City [Vi n bo tàng Thành ph H Chí Minh]. It has a variety of displays connected with the Viet Cong and also the fall of Saigon to the communists in 1975. As well as the museum itself, it is sometimes possible to visit the tunnel complex under the Gia Long Palace. This was probably built in early 1962 when Diem moved to the palace, although some of the original structure might have predated this. It runs under the back garden, is made from ferro-concrete and has a long 20 metre long U-shaped corridor. There is a command room under there, and there are 10-centimetre-thick steel doors. Contrary to some accounts that the tunnel ran to Cholon (which would have been impossible to build in any secrecy), it runs to two blockhouses and it is from there that Diem and Nhu escaped into a nearby car and from there drove to Cholon. In addition, in front of the museum there is a US F–5E jet which was used by rebels to bomb the Presidential Palace on 8 April 1975. In the garden behind the museum, there is a Soviet tank and also a US Huey UH–1 helicopter and an anti-aircraft gun. Wedding groups occasionally are photographed in front of the Gia Long Palace. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 283; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 76–77; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 24; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 118–19; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 355.

GIAC LAM PAGODA [Chùa Giác Lâm; 㾎ᵫᇎ]. Probably the oldest surviving Chinese pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, it is located to the north of Cholon. It was built from the spring of 1744 by Ly Thuy Long, a wealthy Vietnamese from Minh Huong village. He raised funds to build a modest pagoda. At that time the area around the temples was covered in flower gardens, with the temple looking out onto the markets at Gia Dinh. The temple was named Giac Lam in 1772 when Thich Vien Quang was appointed as abbot. He managed to change a number of aspects of the temple and from 1799 until 1804 there was a major reconstruction of most of the buildings. The next major restoration took place between 1906 and 1909 under Thich Hong Hung, who was helped by Thich Ngu Phuong. This included the repainting of the dragon’s heads on the ends of the rafters. In 1953, the Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist monk and author, the Venerable Narada Maha Thera (1898–1983), visited Saigon and prayed at the Giac Lam Pagoda. He brought with him a sapling grown from the famous Bodhi tree in Sri Lanka, and it was planted in the centre of the pagoda on 18 June 1953 – it is now quite large. Narada also brought over some relics of Buddha which were for the Long Van Temple in Binh Thanh district in the north of Ho Chi Minh

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City. On a later visit in 1960, Narada brought over another sapling, which was planted at the Thich Cao Phat Dai Temple in Vung Tau province, to the east of Saigon. The main altar in the central building of the temple has a statue of the celestial Amitabha Buddha in the centre, surrounded by four seated bodhisattvas: Avalokiteshvara, Mahasthamaprapta, Manjusri, and Samantabhadra, as well as the Sakyamuni Buddha. In total there are 119 historic statues in the pagoda, seven of which are made from bronze, with the remainder from wood and painted with gold. In 1970 the architect Vinh Hoang drew up plans to build a stupa or tower at the temple. However, this work did not take place because of political problems, and with the start of communist rule, all plans were shelved. With the opening up of Vietnam in the early 1990s, the plans were located and building work started. The temple was massively enlarged with the construction of a seven storey tower which was opened on 17 June 1994 with much publicity as the relics of Buddha which had been brought by Narada in 1942 and had been held at the Long Van Temple, were brought to the Giac Lam Pagoda. The stips in the grounds of the temples hold the ashes of the patriarchs with a particularly impressive stupa holding that of Hong Hung. Interred at the pagoda are the ashes of General Nguyen Khoa Nam (1927– 1975), an army officer who was well-respected by all. He had planned to hold out with his troops in the Mekong Delta, but he had reluctantly agreed to surrender. At his headquarters, he donned his white dress uniform and shot himself in the head. Initially buried at Cantho Military Cemetery, his remains were exhumed in 1994 and cremated, and interred at the Giac Lam Pagoda. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 81; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, pp. 286–87; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 89–90; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 22–23; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 54–55, Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 363–64; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, pp. 177–81; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 196.

GIAC VIEN PAGODA [Chùa Giác Viên]. The first known temple on this site was built in 1798 by Hai Tinh Giac Vien, hence its name. However, the current structure is believed to date from 1805, when Huong Dang built a new pagoda on the site. It was originally called the Quan Am Garden, and Emperor Gia Long (reigned 1802–1820) worshipped there when he was in Saigon. In 1850 it was renamed the Giac Vien Pagoda by the then-patriarch, Hai Tinh – named after one of his predecessors. In 1889 it was again rebuilt under the direction of Hoang An, and in 1910 Nhu Phong oversaw another reconstruction effort.

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In the pagoda there are 153 statues and 57 carved wooden figures of divinities in Chinese mythology. However, of particular note is a 3-metre lantern which shows 49 Buddhas riding dragons and the phoenix. Around the base are carvings of a lion, and there are a large number of impressive incense burners. There are also many funerary tablets, and some tombs – in addition to those of monks – just outside the pagoda. In the second chamber of the pagoda there is a statue of Hai Tinh Giac Vien holding a switch made from horse hair. In the temple grounds there is also a Bodhi tree. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 286; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 91; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 33, 56–57; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 364; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, pp. 205–9.

GIBSON, GEORGE. A British envoy, he was born in Madras, with a British father and a Telinga mother. He was sent to the King of Burma in January 1823 with 45 followers, ostensibly to enquire about whether it would be possible to buy swallows’ nests from there, but on a political front, to see whether Hue would ally with Burma against Siam. They left Ava on 21 July 1822 and managed to get to Saigon on 8 June 1823 – a Siamese junk sinking their original boat. Later in Singapore, Gibson met by chance with John Crawfurd, who had led the mission which included George Finlayson, and Crawfurd published it as an appendix to his own book although he notes ‘this gentleman was so imperfectly educated, that the original was replete with errors in grammar and orthography in every line’. Gibson’s account describes the governor in unflattering terms. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 29–34; Mayurī Ngaosīvat and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn, Paths to Conflagration: Fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam 1778–1828, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1998, p. 99.

GIVRAL COFFEE SHOP. This coffee shop, located on Lam Son Square, on Tu Do Street (formerly Rue Catinat, now Dong Khoi), faces the Continental Hotel and it was a meeting place for war correspondents covering the Vietnam War. It opened in 1955 serving food and also ice cream. One of the regulars there, Pham Xuan An, who worked for Time magazine, later turned out to be a communist spy. The coffee shop still provides excellent coffee and cakes. References: Larry Berman, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 98; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 47; Richard Pyle and Horst Faas, Lost Over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery and Friendship, Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2003, p. 69.

GORTON, FREDERICK GROSVENOR (1885–19 ). The British consul general in Saigon from 1921 until 1934, he was born on 27 January 1885 in

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Hoxne, Suffolk, the son of Rev. Robert Gregson Gorton and his second wife, Alice (née Hodgkinson). Joining the British consular service, he was initially posted to Siam as a student interpreter and was vice consul in Chiengmai from 1908, and vice consul in Nagkok from 1913. Promoted to acting consul in Saigon in 1914, he was posted to Senggora in 1917 and appointed consul general at Saigon on 1 January 1921. After a stint in Batavia from March 1921 until April 1923, he was then back in Saigon on 18 May 1923, remaining there until 1934. He returned to England via the United States in May 1934 on the Amerika. He was later consul general in Tahiti, resigning on 3 October 1938. References: Burke’s Family Records, p. 265; The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1935, p. 254.

GOURBEIL, (JULES) MAURICE (1867–19 ). A French colonial official, he was born on 25 April 1867, and from 17 October 1908 until 23 February 1909 he was governor of Senegal. Then in Saigon, he was the last lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1909 until 1911, and was then the governor of Cochinchina, a post he held until 1916, when he was replaced by Maurice La Gallen. From 1917 until 1920 he was governor of Guadeloupe, and from 1920 until 1921 he was governor of Martinique. He retired on 31 December 1922, and died after 1942. GRACEY, DOUGLAS DAVID (1894– 1964). A British Army officer, General Gracey had the task of taking over Saigon and southern Vietnam after the Japanese surrender in 1945. Born on 3 September 1894, he was educated at Blundell’s School and then proceeded to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being commissioned into the Indian Army. Serving in France in World War I, he was awarded the Military Cross and then after being an instructor at Sandhurst, he became a general staff officer at General Headquarters in India and then moved to Western Command. He was on the North West Frontier at the start of World War II and was posted to Iraq, and then to Syria, and later to Burma where he saw action at Imphal. With the Japanese surrender, the French were anxious to retake Indochina after the August Revolution and in line with the agreement made at the Potsdam Conference, Gracey arrived in Saigon with 20,000 Indian soldiers. Refusing to talk with the Committee of the South which he rejected as lacking legitimacy, he immediately faced opposition from Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh. Gracey released French from internment camps and armed the

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French civilians, and also sought help from the Japanese. This allowed him to take control of Saigon and hold it until October 1945, when General Philippe Leclerc arrived with French troops. In early 1946 there were enough French troops to allow Gracey to pull out the Indian soldiers. By that time, the stage had been set for the First Indochina War. After the partition of India in 1947, Douglas Gracey was appointed the chief of the General Staff and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, and then, in 1948, he became the commander-in-chief. He refused to send soldiers to the Kashmir front and in 1951 he retired. He died on 5 June 1964. References: Louis Allen, The End of the War in Asia, London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1976; Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 2006; Peter Dennis, Troubled Days of Peace: Mountbatten and Southeast Asia Command, 1945–46, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987; Peter M. Dunn, ‘Britain’s Vietnam War’, in War in Peace, vol. 1, no. 3 (1983): pp. 74–79; Peter M. Dunn, The First Vietnam War, London: C. Hurst & Company, 1985; Germaine Krull, ‘Diary of Saigon, Following the Allied Occupation in September 1945’, http://www. vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=2410207001; Peter Neville, Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to Disaster, 1945–6, London: Routledge, 2007; T.O. Smith, Britain and the Origins of the Vietnam War: UK Policy in Indo-China, 1943–50, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007; John Springhall, ‘Kicking Out the Vietminh’: How Britain Allowed France to Reoccupy South Indochina, 1945–46’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 40, no. 1 (January 2005): pp. 115–30; Who’s Who; The Times (6 June 1964): p. 14.

GRAM, KOYNE VIRGIL (1896–1963). The US vice consul in Saigon in 1926, he was born on 14 February 1896 in Illinois, the fourth child of Evans P. Gram and Olive (née Turley). He served in the US forces in World War I. After Saigon, he was posted to Rangoon in 1927 and Colombo in 1929. Returning to the United States by 1930, he died on 18 November 1963. GRAND HOMME PAGODA. This pagoda was built around 1840 and is located in Nguyen Trai Street (formerly Hartmann Street), not far from the more famous Ba Thien Hau Pagoda. For the Teochew Chinese community, its decorations celebrate people from the Three Kingdoms Period (220–280) and it has an elaborate roof with porcelain decorations. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 60–61.

GRAND HOTEL. One of the major hotels in Saigon, the Grand Hotel was built in 1927–28, with it being mentioned in October 1928 when it gained a license to sell alcohol. In 1930 the US vice consul, Walter F. Dement, was living at the hotel. The manager in 1938 was Patrice Luciani and he was replaced in the following year by Antoine Giogetti. The hotel has sixty rooms on four floors, with an iconic bell-shaped roof on the corner of Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi). Currently owned and operated by Saigontourist, it is now known as the Grand Hotel Saigon, and has had a major overhaul and expansion in 2011.

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References: Grand Hotel, http://grandhotel.vn; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 188–89.

GRAVES, HUBERT ASHTON (1894–1972). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1955, he was born on 10 August 1894 in Thurcaston, Leicestershire, the son of Henry Graves, a carpenter and joiner at Thurcaston. He left school and at the age of sixteen he became a bank clerk. Serving in World War I, he was appointed vice consul then consul in Japan (1926–41). After service first with the Australian government, and then in London, he was involved in intelligence at the end of World War II. He was then counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington DC (1946–51). Whilst there, he was involved in liaising with Kenneth Landon and Abbot Low Moffat of the Southeast Asian Division of the US State Department regarding British opposition to Phibun Songgram in Thailand. On 4 May 1951 he was accredited envoy and minister plenipotentiary to Saigon; being responsible for British interests in Cambodia. He left Saigon in 1954 and he wrote a report that is regularly quoted by historians, describing Ngo Dinh Diem as ‘useful as a figurehead’, but lacking the necessary qualities to become a leader. Graves retired from the diplomatic service in the following year. Writing a foreword to Andrew Graham’s book on Indochina, he retired to live at Leatherhead, Surrey, England, and he died on 5 April 1972. References: Arthur Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, p. 263; Daniel Fineman, A Special Relationship: The United States and Military Government in Thailand 1947–58, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, p. 23; Andrew Graham, Interval in Indo-China, London: Macmillan, 1956; The Times 6 April 1972, p. 15; Who’s Who.

GREENE, GRAHAM (1904–1991). A famous British writer, Graham Greene was born on 2 October 1904, north of London, and was educated at Berkhampstead School and Balliol College, Oxford. He wrote his first novel in 1929 and soon gained a reputation as a novelist. He also worked for British intelligence, and his visits to foreign countries combined some intelligence work with getting ideas for his books. Graham Greene came to Saigon on 25 January 1951 to report for The Times and Le Figaro, and enjoyed himself in the city, loving its vibrancy and also its danger. He tried opium for the first time on 31 October, and part of his experiences became incorporated in the novel he wrote about Saigon, The Quiet American (1955). Inspired by a car trip from Ben Tre back to Saigon, the book is about a British journalist called Thomas Fowler. In his 50s, he had been covering the First Indochina War for two years. He is in love with Phuong, a Vietnamese woman. Fowler meets a US aid official called Alden Pyle, who seemed young and idealistic, but who he soon realises is working for the ‘third force’ with the attempt to arm another force to take over should the French lose and the Viet Minh head for victory. The book, which took

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Greene three years to write, told of the US involvement in Vietnam before it became common knowledge to many people. Although many saw Pyle as based on Edward Lansdale, this was not the case. Because of the book, Greene was apparently put under surveillance by the US intelligence agencies from its publication until his death on 3 April 1991. In the early 1980s, artist Paul Hogarth travelled to the sites mentioned in Graham Greene’s books and produced a large number of watercolours. One was used on the cover of the new Penguin Books edition of The Quiet American, with the others appearing in Graham Greene Country. Two films were made based on The Quiet American. The first, released on 5 February 1958, was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starred Michael Redgrave (as Fowler), Audie Murphy (as Pyle) and Giorgia Moll (as Phuong). It was filmed in Rome, with some of the filming in Saigon and was the first major feature film ever shot in Saigon (and indeed Vietnam). The second film, in 2002, starred Michael Caine (as Fowler), Brendan Fraser (as Pyle), and Do Thi Hau Yen (as Phuong). It was filmed in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Leopoldo Duran, Graham Greene: An Intimate Portrait by his Closest Friend and Confidant, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, pp. 132–33; Paul Hogarth, Graham Greene Country, London: Michael Joseph, 1986, pp. 90–97; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994; Anne Thompson, ‘Films with War Themes are Victims of Bad Timing’, The New York Times (17 October 2002).

GULLION, EDMUND ASBURY (1913–1998). The US chargé d’affaires in Saigon in 1950, he was born on 2 March 1913 in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of Major General Allen Wyant Gullion, and his wife Ruth (née Matthews). Educated at Princeton University, he joined the Foreign Service and was the US vice consul in Marseille, France in 1938 and at Salonika (Thessaloniki), Greece in 1939. He then served in London and Helsinki during World War II, working with the Department of State in Washington DC from 1945 until 1950. Posted to Saigon, he took over from Donald Heath on 9 February 1950, and relinquished his position to Heath at the end of the year. In Vietnam, Gullion went on a tiger hunt with ex-emperor Bao Dai. He was, however, very concerned about his safety in Saigon, especially after, one morning, he witnessed the assassination of Marcel Bazin, the head of the French police detectives in Saigon. Also in the same year he met John Kennedy when he visited Saigon. The US ambassador to the Republic of the Congo 1960–61, he became Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Massachusetts. He died on 17 March 1998 at Winchester, Massachusetts. References: Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 367; Seymour Topping, On the Front Lines of the Cold War: An American Correspondent’s Journal from the Chinese Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010, pp. 125, 152.

H HA CHUONG HOI QUAN PAGODA [H஋i quán Hà ChŲţng]. A pagoda in central Cholon, it was built by the Fujian community and is dedicated to Thieu Hau. Some parts of the pagoda were made in the province of Fujian, with the four main carved stone pillars having been brought to Cholon from China by boat. The murals around have interesting scenes, and many people come to see the other scenes on the roof made from ceramic. Each year for the Lantern Festival, on the first full moon of each lunar year, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, many people gather at the pagoda. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 89; Nick Ray, YuMei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 362.

HALBERSTAM, DAVID (1934–2007). A US war correspondent in Vietnam, he was born on 10 April 1934 in New York City and grew up in New York and in Winsted, Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard University and worked as a journalist for the Daily Times Leader in Mississippi. He became interested in the American civil rights movement and in mid-1962 he was posted to Vietnam by The New York Times. In Saigon he worked with Neil Sheehan on the story that the special forces of Ngo Dinh Nhu had been involved in the raid on the Xa Loi Pagoda, not the regular troops of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This earned him the ire of the Diem government and he was famously involved in a fight with the special forces after they punched a fellow journalist, Peter Arnett. Halberstam left Saigon in 1964, in which year he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. Back in the United States, he was involved in covering the American civil rights protests and wrote a number of books including some on Vietnam. He was killed in a traffic accident on 23 April 2007 at Menlo Park, California. References: Peter Arnett, Live from the Battlefield, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994; Clyde Haberman, ‘David Halberstam, 73, Reporter and Author, Dies’, The New York Times (24 April 2007); David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965; David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest, New York: Random House, 1972; The International Who’s Who 2006, p. 791; George Packer, ‘David Halberstam’, The New Yorker (7 May 2007); Who’s Who in America, from 1974.

HEALTH SERVICES. The Vietnamese used a number of ways of treating people suffering from ailments and accidents, many of these being based on Chinese herbal or acupuncture treatment. The French, soon after they arrived, 119

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established a military hospital, but it treated only the Europeans and the Vietnamese elite. One of the early hospitals built by the French in Saigon was the Hôpital Graal (now the Nhi Dong Hospital). There was a small hospital which, in 1870, was replaced by the current building, which had wide shaded verandahs and an emphasis on fresh air. Another was the hospital at Cho Quan, which looked after lepers. With large numbers of tropical and other dangerous diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, cholera (especially with the great cholera epidemic of 1895), the plague, dysentery and many fevers, the French started studying the causes of these diseases. This in turn led to the establishment of a medical school in Hanoi, two branches of the Pasteur Institute, one in Saigon, and the other at Nha Trang; and a centre to train midwives was opened at Cholon. The French formalised their system with the appointment of an inspector general of public health, and by 1939 there were 110 European medical staff, and a number of locally qualified doctors. By 1945 there was only one doctor per 180,000 people in Tonkin, but the city of Saigon was probably the bestcovered urban centre in the country. In 1936–37, work started on the building of the Clinique St Paul. Although called a clinic, it was a large building, capable of treating several hundred people at any one time. The start of fighting in 1946 sapped resources from the provision of health services, although private and government clinics in Saigon continued to treat people. With the creation of the Republic of Vietnam, the hospitals in Saigon were considerably improved, with referrals to them also coming from regional clinics. However, the fighting in the country from 1960 led to half of the estimated 600 qualified medical doctors in South Vietnam being assigned to the military. There was some aid from the United States, and this resulted in an improvement in medical care in Saigon, but little change in much of the rest of the country. The Thong Nhat Hospital was opened in 1971 and at that time it was not only the most modern in Vietnam, but also one of the best ones in the region. Designed by the architect Tran Dinh Quyen, it was paid for by US aid funds. Its construction was followed by work on the Cho Ray Hospital. After 1975, the Vietnamese government focused on programmes to help prevent the spread of malaria. In 1990 work on the Thong Nhat Hospital was finished, and five years later, with aid from the French government, the Nhi Dong Hospital was restored. The large number of prostitutes operating in Saigon during the French colonial period and when large numbers of US soldiers were stationed there, led to a spread of venereal diseases. In recent years, HIV/AIDS has begun to emerge as a serious problem in Saigon.

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References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, p. 123f.; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 130–33, 218–21; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 153–54.

HEATH, DONALD READ (1894–1981). United States ambassador 1950– 52. Born on 12 August 1894 in Topeka, Kansas, USA, the son of Hubert A. Heath and Estelle H. (née Read), he graduated with a law degree from Washburn College and, after working as a newspaper reporter and serving in the US Army in World War I, Heath joined the US diplomatic service and was posted to Rumania, Poland, Switzerland, Haiti, Germany, Chile, and Bulgaria, before taking up his appointment as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Being the first US minister to both Vietnam and Cambodia, the appointment was criticised by some politicians, as it was essentially a recognition of the Bao Dai government in Vietnam, and also, less controversially, of the Royal government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia. Heath subsequently served in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and died on 15 October 1981. References: David Shavit, The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary, New York: Greenwood Press, 1990, p. 227; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 154; Kathryn C. Slater, Replacing France: The Origins of American intervention in Vietnam, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2007; Who’s Who in America.

HENDERSON, HECTOR BRUCE (1895–1962). The British consul general in Saigon from 10 December 1939 until mid-1941, Hector Henderson was born on 1 April 1895 in Lambeth, London, UK, the son of Andrew Bruce Henderson and his wife Billa Emslie, and trained as a draper’s apprentice. He served as a lieutenant in the Northumberland Hussars in World War I and then joined the Siam consular service, becoming the local vice consul in Saigon from February 1924 until March 1926, and then serving at Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies. After postings to Siam (Thailand), and various parts of the Netherlands East Indies, he returned to Saigon as consul general in 1939 and remained in that position until William Meiklereid took over as acting consul general on 15 May 1941. The consulate was closed in December 1941 and Henderson was seconded to the admiralty in February 1942, working for the Naval Intelligence Division. There he probably worked on the Naval Intelligence Division’s book on Indochina. Appointed as minister to Monrovia, Liberia, he did not take up that appointment. He was the consul general in Dakar, Senegal, from 1945 until 1951, he died on 1 February 1962 at Eastbourne, England. References: British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943; The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1944, p. 217; Who’s Who; The Times (5 February 1962): p. 15.

HISTORY MUSEUM. Located in the building that was constructed in 1929 and used to be the headquarters of the Société des Études Indochinoises, the museum is located inside the botanic gardens. The museum covers the history

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of Vietnam from prehistoric to medieval times. It includes exhibits from the Dong Son culture, through to Funan, and has artefacts connected with Angkor and Champa. Also located near the entrance to the museum is the Temple of King Hung Vuong, one of the first legendary rulers of Vietnam, who established a kingdom along the Red River region close to what is now Hanoi. The museum was commemorated on a postage stamp issued on 10 June 1999. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 62–64; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 281; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 80–81; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 355.

HO CHI MINH [Hஅ Chí Minh] (1890– 1969). The most important figure in the modern history of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh was born on 19 May 1890 as Nguyen Sinh Cung. He was born in Central Vietnam and went to school in Hue. In 1911, to see the world, he decided to work on a ship as a cook and this took him to Saigon, the only time he definitely visited the city, although it is possible that some of the ships on which he worked might have taken him back here later. Working on a variety of ships and then living in London, he went to Paris, where he became a founder member of the French Communist Party and became heavily involved in French politics. Going to the Soviet Union soon afterwards, he established the Communist Party of Indochina and went to Thailand and then to Hong Kong, where he was arrested and jailed. After his ill-treatment in prison there, he was treated in the Soviet Union and then, after many years in China, in 1941 he returned to Vietnam to work for Vietnamese independence. Ho Chi Minh’s great opportunity came with the August Revolution, when he proclaimed Vietnamese independence in Hanoi and persuaded Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate and become his ‘supreme adviser’. However, the French managed to return and talks started, followed by the First Indochina War. This ended with the Geneva Accords, which left Ho Chi Minh in charge of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, with Hanoi as his capital. Ho Chi Minh remained in Hanoi for most of the rest of his life, and in spite of a major war from 1960, Ho Chi Minh did not manage to see the unification of Vietnam. The communists took control of Saigon on 30 April 1975 and on the following day they renamed the city Ho Chi Minh City after their leader. The reunification of Vietnam took place in the following year. Ho Chi Minh’s body was embalmed and is on display in a marble mausoleum in Hanoi. There are museums to Ho Chi Minh around Vietnam, with the Ho Chi Minh

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Museum in Saigon being at the former customs house through which he left on his voyages in 1911. References: Claude Berube, ‘Ho Chi Minh and the OSS’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 22, no. 4 (December 2009): pp. 52ff.; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 129; William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000; David Halberstam, Ho, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1971; A. W. R. Hawkins, ‘Lenin’s Influence on Ho Chi Minh’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 19, no. 2 (August 2006): pp. 20–26; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Jean Lacouture, Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography, New York: Random House, 1968; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 156–58; Sophie Quinn-Judge, Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, New York: C. Hurst & Company, 2003.

HO CHI MINH CITY STOCK EXCHANGE. This was established in 2000 as the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center, changing to its present name on 8 August 2007. Initially there was a foreign ownership limit of 20 per cent for equities, and 40 per cent for bonds. However, the former was raised to 30 per cent to attract more capital to the country. By July 2010, there were 247 companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, and together these had a market capitalisation of 537.4 trillion dong. References: ‘Ho Chi Minh took Exchange: Key Executives’, Bloomberg Businessweek (10 January 2011).

HO CHI MINH MUSEUM. This museum in Ho Chi Minh City has been established in the old customs house, which had been built in 1863. Located close to the quay in Nha Rong Harbour, the building was often known as the Dragon House and it was from there that Ho Chi Minh (then called Van Ba)

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Author’s photograph.

left Vietnam in 1911, having taken up work as a stoker and galley boy on a French freighter, the Amiral Latouche Treville. As a result, it is the only building which has a definite link to Ho Chi Minh in the city which is now named after the Vietnamese nationalist hero. It was set up from 1979 as a branch of the main Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi. Exhibiting some personal effects of Ho Chi Minh, the museum has a total of 2,000 exhibits. One of the central features is a statue of Ho Chi Minh, showing him as a young man. Sculpted by Pham Muoi, Ho Cho Minh is walking slowly forward with his head erect and looking towards his future. Nearby there is a map showing the places around the world that are known to have been visited by Ho Chi Minh. This certainly makes him unique in the history of communism, as few of the other communist leaders have travelled much before they came to power, and none have travelled as extensively as Ho Chi Minh. Other exhibits in the museum include some photographs of his early life, a painting showing the founding of the Communist Party of Indochina, and then photographs showing Ho Chi Minh’s life through to his death. The exhibition, which covers five rooms, as well as a meditation room and two others devoted to special exhibitions, ends with the photograph of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam’s tank breaking into the gates of the Presidential Palace of South Vietnam (now the Reunification Palace).

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References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 75–77; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 284; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 112–15; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 357.

HO NGOC NHUAN [Hஅ Ngoc Nhuân] (1935– ). A politician, he was born on 24 April 1935 in My Tho, into a Roman Catholic family. He became director of Lasalle School and was then the founder of the Xay Doi Moi (‘New Life Edification Project’), and chief of the 8th precinct of Saigon. A founder member of the Catholic Student Association of the University of Saigon, and the political director of the Tin Sang, Dien Tin and Dai Dan Toc daily newspapers, he was elected to the National Assembly to represent Saigon in 1967, and reelected in 1971. A member of the Saigon ‘Fatherland Front’, he hoped to form a ‘third force’ which would negotiate a peaceful end to the Vietnam War. He remained in Vietnam and was alive in 1988. References: Robert J. Willis, Breaking the Chains: A Catholic Memoir, Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, p. 149; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 581.

HO VAN MINH [Hஅ Vân Minh] (1936– ). A politician, he was born on 20 September 1936 in Bien Hoa and was a Roman Catholic. Training as a physician, he worked at the Duy Tan Military General Hospital at Danang, and then moved to Saigon was the manager of the 8th Precinct Development Program of the New Life Education Project. As the first vice chairman of the House of Representatives, he represented Saigon in the late 1960s, and again from 1971 (when he received the highest number of votes in Saigon of any candidate there) until 1975. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 94; Jayne Werner and David Hunt, The American War in Vietnam, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1993, p. 63.

HOA HAO [Hòa H୕o; ੠ད䘧]. A reformist Buddhist sect, it was founded in 1939 by Huynh Phu So, developing from the millenarian sect, Buu Son Ky Huong (The Strange Fragrances from the Precious Mountain), which had become popular in the Mekong Delta region. The essential difference between Hoa Hoa and mainstream Buddhism is that the Hoa Hao emphasize that Buddhists should practise their beliefs in the home and that this is far more important than worship in temples. As a result, the Hoa Hao were against the construction of elaborate temples or the spending of large sums of money on weddings or funerals. During the early 1940s, a period of economic hardship, the Hoa Hao gained great support from many people, especially in the rural areas around Saigon. The sect’s leaders collaborated with the Japanese and with the surrender of Japan, Huynh Phu So considered joining with the Viet Minh on account of their support for the Hoa Hao’s social welfare programmes. However, he soon

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saw them as rivals, and after Huynh Phu So was killed by the communists in 1947, the Hoa Hao leadership came to support the French. With the rise to power of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954, the new government of the Republic of Vietnam sought to marginalise the political influence of the Hoa Hao. In 1956 Duong Van Minh crushed the Hoa Hao, and its new leader, Ba Cut, was arrested and then publically beheaded. As a result of the persecution by the Diem government, some of the Hoa Hao supported the communists. Most sought to oppose Diem by other means and came to support the governments which followed Diem. After the communist victory in April 1975, the Hoa Hao lost all political influence, but were allowed to continue to worship as long as they did not involve themselves in politics. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 186, 240–42; Bernard B. Fall, ‘The Political Religious Sects of Vietnam’, Pacific Affairs, vol. 28 (1955): pp. 235–53; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Millenarianism and Peasant Politics in Vietnam, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 163–64; Nguyn Long Thành Nam, Hòa Ho Buddhism in the Course of Vitnam’s History, New York: Nova Science Publishing, 2004; Philip Taylor, ‘Apocalypse Now? Hòa Ho Buddhism Emerging from the Shadows of War’, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3 (2001): pp. 339–54; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 88–90.

HOEFFEL, ERNEST THIMOTHÉE (1900–1952). The French governor of Cochinchina from 16 March 1943 until the Japanese coup de force on 9 March 1945, Ernest Hoeffel was born on 11 January 1900 in Bouxwiller, Bas-Rhin, France, the son of Dr Thimothée Hoeffel and Berthe (née Hiller). During his period as governor, he made some moves, at the suggestion of Michel Van Vi, a banker, to encourage Vietnamese intellectuals with the establishment of a summer camp near Saigon for young people to take part in musical, literary and artistic activities. He also gave Van Vi approval for the establishment of the Cochinchina Association for the Dissemination of Quoc Ngu, the Vietnamese writing system. Hoeffel also made the keynote speech at the anniversary of the famous poet, Nguyen Dinh Chieu (1822–1888). References: Hommes et destins, Paris: Académie des sciences d’outre-mer, 1975, vol. 6, p. 182; David Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, p. 93.

HOGG, JOHN DRUMMOND (1886–1937). The British consul general in Saigon from 3 December 1934 until his death on 26 October 1937, John Drummond Hogg was born on 3 May 1886 in Berwick-on-Tweed, the son of Thomas Hogg. Educated at St Olave’s Grammar School, he was a student interpreter in Siam (Thailand) from 1907 and was vice consul at Bangkok in 1916, at Phuket in 1921 and was consul at Songkhla in 1924. Consul at Surabaya, Java, from 1928 until 1934, he was appointed British consul general in Saigon, where he was active in the local community as a member of the

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Cercle Sportif, the Saigon Polo Club, the Saigon Golf Club and the Saigon Club. Awarded the MBE in 1920, he died on 26 October 1937. References: Who’s Who.

HOHLER, HENRY ARTHUR FREDERICK ‘HARRY’ (1911–2001). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1960 until 1963, Harry Hohler was born on 4 February 1911, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Preston Hohler. Educated at Eton, he proceeded to Sandhurst and was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. Posted to Budapest, Hungary in 1936 – his uncle had been minister there in the 1920s – he returned to London and had a series of positions in the Foreign Office before various postings overseas, to Berne, Switzerland; and to Helsinki, Finland; and Moscow. The minister in Rome in 1956–59, he was appointed ambassador to Saigon during the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem. It was a period of great tension in Saigon, with the start of major moves against President Ngo Dinh Diem, a coup attempt, an assassination attempt, and finally a successful coup. Hohler was then posted to France as minister in Paris, was assistant under-secretary at the Foreign Office 1966–67, and his final posting was as ambassador to Switzerland. He retired to live in Gloucester, Virginia, in the United States. He died on 19 May 2001. References: Peter Busch, ‘Supporting the War: Britain’s Decision to send the Thompson Mission to Vietnam, 1960–61’, Cold War History, vol. 2, no. 1 (2001): pp. 69–94; ‘Harry Hohler’, The Daily Telegraph (14 August 2001); Who’s Who.

HOPPENOT, HENRI (1891–1977). The commissioner general of French Indochina from April 1955 until 21 July 1956, he was born on 25 October 1891 in Paris, the son of Paul Hoppenot and Alice (née Corbin). Educated at Collège Stanislas and the Faculté des lettres et de droit, Paris, and Christ Church, Oxford, he joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was posted to Berne in 1917, Rio de Janeiro in 1918–20, Tehran in 1920–23, Santiago, Chile in 1923–25, Berlin in 1925–27, Beirut in 1927–33, and Beijing in 1933–37. Returning to Paris in 1937, he was posted to Montevideo, Uruguay as French minister from 1940–43 and Washington DC in 1943–45. He was ambassador to Switzerland from 1945–52, then was posted to New York in 1952 as the French permanent representative in the United Nations, and then to Saigon in 1955. His role in Vietnam was to help with the consolidation of French interests in what was to become the Republic of Vietnam, and to help French citizens move south, or to France. Later serving in Algeria in 1958, he held a few legal posts in the military before retiring. He had been a member of the French Council of State from 1956 until 1964. He died on 10 August 1977. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1224; Who’s Who in France 1967–68, p. 707.

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HÔTEL CONTINENTAL. This hotel was built from 1878 by the French and is located in the heart of old Saigon on what was then Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi), near all the main buildings, such as the Saigon Opera House and the City Post Office. The idea to build a hotel there came from Pierre Cazeau, a manufacturer of home appliances and construction material. He wanted to provide luxury accommodation in the city and it took two years to build, being completed in 1880. It took its name from the famous Hôtel Continental (now the Westin ParisVendôme) in Paris. One of the early famous (or strictly speaking infamous) guests was the adventurer Marie-Charles Mayréna (the self-proclaimed Marie I, King of Sedang) who was there in 1885. Henri, Duke of Orleans, stayed there in 1901. The hotel was sold in 1911 to the Duke Montpensier, and then from 1930 until 1975 it was owned by Mathier Francini, described as being a ‘dubious character’ from Corsica. Being one of the most famous hotels in the city, many of the famous visitors to Saigon stayed at the hotel. These included the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. In Anthony Grey’s novel, Saigon (1982), the Sherman family stay there during their first visit to Saigon in 1925 and again when Joseph Sherman returned to the city in 1936. The hotel also features in the section of the novel set in 1963. In 1926, the French writer André Malraux stayed there, and in 1951, so did the British journalist and writer Graham Greene. The hotel features in Graham Greene’s book, The Quiet American (1955), and was then used in the 2002 film of the book, as well as the award-winning film Indochine. It also is mentioned in another novel, Jean Larteguy’s Yellow Fever (Paris, 1965), also set in Saigon a few years after The Quiet American, with one of the characters, Julien, staying at the hotel in mid-1955. Seymour Topping from Associated Press, who stayed there with his wife, wrote, ‘We’d checked into the hotel after a long flight and had just sat down on the huge bed under a ceiling fan barely stirring the air, when a shattering explosion ripped the square under out windows. We rushed to look… One of the cyclo drivers had thrown the plastic bomb. The cyclo drivers took off in all directions to divert the police. Thus the one that had actually thrown the bomb wouldn’t get caught. French soldiers and sailors, dead and wounded, lay amid overturned tables and shattered glass inside the café.’ After the communist victory, the hotel was taken over by the government and left empty for some time. It is now owned by Saigon Tourist. The façade of

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the hotel has been maintained, and the building has been renovated on many occasions. Some of the quirkier features of the hotel have gone, and it is still the hotel of choice of many recent visitors to the city, including French politician Jacques Chirac (Mayor of Paris when he visited), and the Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed. The hotel has been designated a ‘green hotel’ by the ASEAN Green Hotel Standard. The hotel appears in many books, such as the ‘Continental Palace Hotel’. References: Continental Hotel, http://continentalhotel.com.vn; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 74–75; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 184–85; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 47–49; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 86; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 366.

Author’s photograph.

HOTEL MAJESTIC. Built in 1925 on Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi), this hotel replaced the Taverne Alsacienne. Occupying a corner site, it had 44 rooms and was one of the best hotels in Saigon for some years, with classical French designs. For a period at the start of the First Indochina War, the hotel was requisitioned by the French Army as a base for their soldiers. In 1948 the Indochina Tourism and Exhibition Department bought the entrance, the ground floor and the 1st floor, renting the remaining 44 rooms. The British writer Graham Greene often used its roof garden.

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In 1951, Mathieu Franchini, who was the owner of the Hôtel Continental, became the manager of the Hotel Majestic, having signed a contract to run the hotel for fifteen years and develop it. He did improve the hotel considerably, introducing air conditioning. However, with the French government pulling out and Vietnam becoming independent, the hotel was handed over to the Saigon Authority. In 1965 the management of the hotel was placed under the National Office of Tourism. Three years later, the hotel – then called Hotel Hoan-My – had two more storeys added. The 1969 edition of the Golden Guide to South & East

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Asia notes, ‘125 airconditioned rooms and suites, facing river, rates US$12.25– 20.87 incl breakfast and one meal; Trianon French restaurant and cocktail lounge on fifth floor, snack and American bars on ground floor with open air terrace facing river; dry-cleaning and laundry.’ After the communist victory in 1975, the hotel was operated by Saigontourist. In 1985 there were 99 rooms, and it was closed on 1 August 1994 for renovations, which cost US$5.5 million. Opened on 1 August 1995, with new rooms, and new facilities, a new eight-storey wing was added in 2003. Popular with many tourists on account of its history, some of its rooms have spectacular views of the river. In February 2007 it was the first Vietnamese-managed hotel to be given a 5-star rating. The hotel has an impressive list of guests who have stayed there. These include Vo Van Kiet, and also former French president François Mitterrand. Royalty who have stayed there include Prince Akihito of Japan, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward of Britain, Prince Henrik of Denmark, and Princess Srindhorn of Thailand. Others who have stayed there include former Singaporian prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, his successor Goh Chok Tong, and the next prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 68; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 49; P. H. M. Jones, Golden Guide to South & East Asia, Melbourne: Paul Flesch & Co. Pty, 1969, p. 415; ‘Hotel Majestic, Saigon-Vietnam’, www. majesticsaigon.com.vn; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 186–87; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 372; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 365.

HÔTEL DE VILLE. See People’s Committee Building. HUNG VUONG, TEMPLE OF [Chùa Hùng VŲţng]. This was constructed between 1926 and 1929, and is often called the Temple of Remembrance. It was originally dedicated to the memory of soldiers from Indochina who died fighting for France during World War I. In 1956, after independence, the temple was rededicated to the memory of Hung Vuong (‘King Hung’), the legendary Vietnamese ruler who ruled in around 3000BC, and was an important figure in Vietnamese folklore. The temple appeared on the first series of State of Vietnam postage stamps, issued in 1951. It also appeared on two postage stamps issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 5 April 1960. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 170–71; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 172.

HUYEN SY CHURCH. This church was built in 1902, with the plans being drawn up by Rev. Father Bouttier. It was the parish church for the village of Tan Hoa and is one of the ten large Roman Catholic churches in Ho Chi Minh City. The money to finance the construction came from Huyen Sy, the

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grandfather of Empress Nam Phuong, the wife of Bao Dai. In this church there is a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, along with a cave decorated with plaques from people who have recovered after their prayers there. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 156–57.

HUYNH NGOC ANH [Hu஥nh Ng୿c Anh] (1930–2003). A pharmacist and politician, he was born on 26 February 1930 in Vinh Long, near Saigon. Graduating from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Saigon, he gained his doctorate for his studies in bacteriology, serology and medicinal plant science. In 1957 the University of Toulouse in France gave him their Gold Medal for his thesis. Working at Huyen Sy Church under the Ministry of Health and then the Ministry construction. of Education where he was chef de cabinet, he lectured in bacteriology at his old university and his work on toxicity and other topics appeared regularly in French medical journals. In 1967 Huynh Ngoc Anh was elected to the House of Representatives for Saigon and was re-elected in 1971. He left to live in Annandale, Virginia, USA, and died on 28 November 2003. References: Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 15–16.

HUYNH TAN PHAT [Hu஥nh Tୗn Phát] (1913–1989). The last president of the Republic of Vietnam, from 30 April 1975 until 2 July 1976, he was a communist who was appointed to that position to symbolise a separate South Vietnam until the referendum on reunification was held in 1976 and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was formed. Born in 1913 in My Tho, in the Mekong Delta, he gained a degree in architecture from the University of Hanoi and was an architect in Saigon, becoming involved with the Communist Party of Indochina. An opponent of Ngo Dinh Diem, he was arrested several times before going underground and emerging as the president of the Provisional Revolutionary Government from its formation in 1969. From this role, he became president of the Republic of

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Vietnam until its official unification with North Vietnam in 1976, and died on 30 September 1989 in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 129; Donald Kirk, Wider War: The Struggle for Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, London: Pall Mall Press, 1971, p. 83; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 173–74; Norodom Sihanouk and Wilfred Burchett. My War with the CIA, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973, p. 40.

I INDIAN JAMIA MUSLIM MOSQUE. This mosque was built in the 1930s; it is Indian in its design and layout. The Iman told Sudhir Devare that it was the ‘property of India’, and the Rough Guide notes that there are signs up asking for tourists to not cause offence by wearing a ‘tie shirt’ or ‘short pants’ or to ‘wear shoes enter the moss’. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 75; Sudhir Devare, ‘Rising India and Indians in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam’, in K. Kesavapany, A. Mani and Palanisamy Ramasamy (eds), Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2008, p. 291.

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INDIANS. There has long been a small Indian community in Saigon, with most of them being Tamils, including many Chettiars. Some were involved in trade, especially in rice, and others in currency exchanges, using their business contacts in the region. Indian migrants provided a major cultural influence on the Chams in Central Vietnam, and indeed Buddhism in Vietnam was brought from India in the first century AD. During the French colonial period, more Indians came to settle in Saigon, and these included some from Pondicherry, a French colony in India. The most well-known centre of the Indian community is the Mariamman Hindu Temple. As well as Hindus, many of the Indians in Saigon were Muslims, and this accounts for most of the mosques in the city, with three major ones being constructed in the 1930s: the Central Mosque, the Cholon Mosque, and the Indian Jamia Muslim Mosque. Although most Indians left after the communists took over on 30 April 1975, there are still some 2000 Indians living in Vietnam, and most of these live in Ho Chi Minh City References: Nasir Abdoul-Carime, ‘Les communautés indiennes en Indochine française’, Siksackr: Journal of the Center for Khmer Studies, no. 7 (2005): pp. 19–26; Nayan Chanda, ‘Indians in Indochina’, in K. S. Sandhu and A. Mani (eds), Indian Communities in Southeast Asia, Singapore: ISEAS, 1993, pp. 31–45; J. B. P. More, ‘Pathan and Tamil Muslim Migrants in French Indochina’, Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 1, nos. 1–2 (2000): pp. 113–28; Georges Vidu, ‘La communauté indienne en Indochine’, Sud-Est (Paris) no. 6 (November 1949): pp. 1–8.

INDOCHINA WAR (FIRST). This war, from 1946 until 1954, is also known as the French Indochina War, and for the Vietnamese communists, the AntiFrench Resistance War. It was fought between the French and their Vietnamese allies, and the Viet Minh. Although there was some fighting in September 1945 in Saigon and a few other places, the war effectively began on 23 November 1946, when a French naval force started bombarding Haiphong after a dispute over collecting customs dues. There had been an uneasy peace since the August Revolution and the end of World War II, with the Viet Minh nationalists of Ho Chi Minh trying to prevent the French from restoring their colonial rule. The fighting at Haiphong quickly spread and although the Viet Minh hugely outnumbered the French, the latter had much greater firepower, which they used to their advantage. This led to Ho Chi Minh and his forces having to evacuate Hanoi in December 1946, leaving the French in control of all the major population centres in Vietnam, and indeed in most of Cambodia and the cities and towns of Laos. The Viet Minh decided to strike back in 1947, but their commander Vo Nguyen Giap did not want to engage in a set-piece battle. In Saigon, large numbers of French and French colonial troops arrived to help in the war effort, and the city quickly filled with soldiers from France, North Africa, West Africa and those of the French Foreign Legion. The economy came to revolve around

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the war effort, with hotels converted to accommodate the soldiers. During 1947 the French went on the offensive with Operation Lea from October until December, which started with a parachute attack, but, although it did inflict heavy casualties on the Viet Minh, it failed to destroy most of their forces. In 1948, as Saigon filled with even more soldiers, and now a number of foreign journalists, the French started looking for a political solution. On 1 June 1946 the French had established the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina to try to hang onto Saigon and the southern part of Vietnam. However, this collapsed in November 1946 with the suicide of Dr Nguyen Van Thinh and in 1947 the entity was renamed the Republic of South Vietnam which, in 1948, became the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam. The search for a long-term solution led to the encouragement of ex-emperor Bao Dai to return as head of state of what became the State of Vietnam, which was established in March 1949 with the Elysée Agreements and received international recognition. In some ways, the State of Vietnam might have managed to survive had it not been hopelessly divided politically. The Vietnamese National Army had been formed but there were also militia from the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao, as well as the Binh Xuyen gangsters who were controlling Saigon. And in 1949 there was also another major problem for Bao Dai, with the communists in China winning the Chinese Civil War and being clearly willing to help the Vietnamese communists. France fought by itself, quickly running into military problems as well as having trouble financing the war. The United States started to give military aid to the French at the same time that the Chinese communists started resupplying the Vietnamese communists. Saigon, although away from much of the intense fighting which was taking place in the Red River Delta – although there was some fighting in the Mekong Delta – was subject to regular bombings and attacks by Viet Minh and their allies. There were also disputes between rival gangsters, and with many foreign journalists in the city reporting on these, Saigon became a hive of political ferment. In 1951 the Viet Minh were able to go on the offensive, but were caught in a French trap on two occasions. Nevertheless, the French were still not able to destroy their forces. On 31 July 1951, the French general Charles Chanson was assassinated near Saigon, although whether he was killed by the Viet Minh or the Cao Dai remains subject to some debate. By the end of the year, the French had managed to prevent a Viet Minh attempt to take Hanoi, but the French commander, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, was ill and had to return to France, where he died from cancer. General Raoul Salan was left in overall control of French troops. Throughout 1952 the Viet Minh continued their attacks, but failed to win a decisive victory. However, they were gradually wearing down the will of the French. With the French planning a political solution with a possible

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Indochinese Federation, the communists decided to launch an attack on Laos. To prevent the Viet Minh from moving easily from northern Vietnam to Laos and back, the French took over the village of Dien Bien Phu, where they established a massive base and invited a Viet Minh attack. On 13 March 1954 the Viet Minh launched a massive artillery barrage against the French base at Dien Bien Phu. They were keen to take it before the Geneva Conference, being held in Switzerland, started discussing Indochina. In spite of valiant French resistance, and massive Viet Minh casualties, Dien Bien Phu fell on 7 May (although there was some fighting until early the following morning in an isolated position). The result was devastating for French morale and they were forced to agree to a partition of Vietnam at Geneva. This saw northern Vietnam, with a capital at Hanoi, being handed to the Viet Minh, with the French retaining Saigon and Hue, and southern Vietnam. There was then to be a referendum on reunification in two years. Bao Dai refused to agree with the Geneva Peace Accords and his government never signed the agreement. The United States also never signed it. For Bao Dai, it was the end of his political career, with Ngo Dinh Diem having been appointed as prime minister, and in the next year becoming president of the Republic of Vietnam. References: Lucien Bodard, La Guerre d’Indochine, Paris: Gallimard, 1963–73, 4 vols; Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War, Boston: Little, Brown, 1967; Michel Bodin, La France et ses soldats, Indochine, 1945– 1954, Paris: l’Harmattan, 1996; Michel Bodin, Dictionnaire de la Guerre d’Indochine (1945–1954), Paris, Economica, 2004; Anthony Clayton, The Wars of French Decolonization, London: Longman, 1994; Jacques Dalloz, The War in Indochina, 1945–54, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1990; Jacques Dalloz, Dictionnaire de la guerre d’Indochine, 1945–1954, Paris: Armand Colin, 2006; Christopher E. Goscha, Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945–1954): An International and Interdisciplinary Approach, Copenhagen: NIAS Press / Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011; R. E. M. Irving, The First Indochina War: French and American Policy, 1945–54, London: Croom Helm, 1975; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Jean-Marc LePage and Elie Tenenbaum, ‘French and American Intelligence Relations During the First Indochina War’, Studies in Intelligence, vol. 55, no. 3 (September 2011): pp. 1–27; Alain Ruscio, Les communistes français et la guerre d’Indochine, 1944–1954, Paris: Harmattan, 1985.

INDOCHINA WAR (SECOND). The Second Indochina War started in 1970, when the Vietnam War spread to include Cambodia. From the Vietnam’s point of view, this was an extension of the Vietnam War rather than a new conflict. However, the fighting in Cambodia did see massacres of many Vietnamese civilians in Phnom Penh, Takeo and other cities in the country. Government militia viewed all Vietnamese as communists, in spite of the fact that many of the Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia at that time were small business people and their loyalties were with the Republic of Vietnam. Large numbers of Vietnamese then fled from Cambodia, seeking refuge in the Republic of Vietnam, with President Nguyen Van Thieu helping their resettlement. He was faced with a difficult situation in which he was anxious not to cause any political problems for the pro-American (but anti-Vietnamese) Lon Nol government in Cambodia.

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References: Wilfred Burchett, Second Indochina War: Cambodia and Laos Today, London: Lorrimer Publishing, 1970; Justin Corfield, Khmers Stand Up! A History of the Cambodian Government 1970–1975, Clayton, VIC: Monash University, 1994; Donald Kirk, Wider War: The Struggle for Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, London: Pall Mall Press, 1971; William Shawcross, Sideshow: Nixon, Kissinger and the Destruction of Cambodia, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

INDOCHINA, UNION OF. This is the name used to describe the fourpart Union of Indochina created in 1887 for the administration of the French colonial territories today known as Vietnam (and under the French divided into Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina) and Cambodia. Laos was added in 1893, and the Chinese port of Kwang Chow Wan (now Guangzhouwan) in 1900. Crafted by Paul Doumer, governor general from 1897 until 1902, the Federation was formed at a time when the French government was moving through a period of protectionism and sought to bridge the large linguistic, religious and cultural differences amongst the peoples who inhabited the region. The more ambitious of the French administrators hoped that they would be able to develop an integrated colonial economy, a move that was from the start more positively received in Vietnam than in Cambodia or Laos, as it was clear that Vietnam would dominate the economic life of the region on account of its much larger population, if nothing else. The French governor general was based in Hanoi, with Saigon being as the hub of Indochina’s commercial life and global trading. The system of local French résidents ensured that each of the dominant nationalities would have direct and rapid access to French officials, especially where royal hierarchies and lines of communication remained. The unified postal system saw stamps showing a variety of Indochinese scenes and French personalities. The promotion of an ‘Indochinese’ identity became the task and duty of the many priests, explorers, surveyors, teachers, doctors and scholars whose names were, and in many places still are, used for buildings, roads and institutes. French Indochina nearly collapsed on 9–10 March 1945 when the Japanese Imperial Army, anticipating their defeat in the Pacific, interned their Vichy French allies and granted sovereign independence to the indigenous monarchs, with Bao Dai declaring independence in Vietnam on 11 March 1945. However, this was suppressed in October 1945 when the armed forces of the United Kingdom under General Douglas Gracey, who took the surrender of Japan, lent a helping hand to Gaullist France. After World War II, the French recreated French Indochina and were keen on establishing some sort of federal government to hold the five parts together, Kwang Chow Wan having been returned to China. The plan in its simplest form was that in a federal system, there would be pro-French governments in Cambodia, Laos and Cochinchina (dominated by Saigon) which, although containing a minority of the population, would be able to control the Indochina Federation. However, the First Indochina War ensured that this did not succeed, and the Geneva Conference of 1954 saw the end of French Indochina.

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References: Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hemery, Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; 2010; William Duiker, The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam, 1900–1941, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1976; David Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971; David Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; David Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Martin J. Murray, The Development of Capitalism in Colonial Indochina (1870–1940), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859–1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969.

INDOCHINESE FEDERATION. See Indochina, Union of.

J JADE EMPEROR PAGODA [Chùa Ng୿c Hoàng]. This pagoda – often called the Da Kao Pagoda by the French – was constructed between 1906 and 1909 by the Cantonese Congregation in Saigon with the support of Liou Ming, a local Chinese businessman. It is dedicated to the Emperor of Jade, or King of Heaven, the supreme Taoist deity. Clouds, Wind, Rain, Thunder and Lightning all appear on murals in the main hall, with a statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha in the front all. The statues in this pagoda are particularly dramatic and when facing the altar, on the right is a 4-metre-high statue of a general defeating the Green Dragon, and on the left is one vanquishing the White Tiger. On the altar itself is the Taoist Jade Emperor flanked by his guardians. In the pagoda there is also a room known as the Hall of the Ten Hells, where there are elaborate carvings to the evil people being tormented in the ten regions of Hell. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 82–83; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 287; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 83–84; References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 162–63; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 357–58; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, p. 216.

JAPANESE. There had been a significant Japanese community in the city of Hoi An (then Faifo) in Central Vietnam until 1639, when all Japanese were ordered to return to their homeland and were forbidden to leave it until the 1850s. By the 1890s, there were a few Japanese traders in some parts of Vietnam but many arrived during World War II, just before the start of the Pacific War. Following the fall of France to Germany in June 1940, the Japanese sought to get permission from the French administration in Indochina to base some of their soldiers there, especially in Saigon where the Japanese were keen on using the airport for their aircraft. The aircraft from there proved vital in attacks on the British in Malaya, and were responsible for the sinking of the British ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. Gradually from 1942, the Japanese started to control more and more of the important decisions being made in Indochina, especially Saigon. 140

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At the end of World War II, there were a small number of Japanese civilians in Vietnam, including the family of Yoko Ono, her father working at the Yokohama Specie Bank in Hanoi. These and the service personnel were repatriated to Japan. During the Vietnam War, there were again some Japanese in Saigon. The Vietnamese nationalists have always had an ambivalent attitude to the Japanese Occupation. They worked with the French from 1940 until March 1945, and failed to intervene to protect Vietnamese nationalists who were inspired by their ‘Asia for the Asians’ slogans but were then left to the mercy of the French. It was then, in March 1945, that the Japanese ousted the French, but the short-lived Empire of Vietnam (March–August 1945) saw a period of mass starvation in parts of the country, partially as a result of the Japanese seizing large amounts of food, especially rice stocks. With the Vietnam War, there were again a number of Japanese in Saigon. These included reporters, such as the photo-journalist Taizo Ichinose who went missing, presumed killed in Cambodia in November 1973. They all left Saigon before it fell to the communists on 30 April 1975. During the 1980s, large numbers of Japanese tourists started visiting Vietnam, with many staying in Ho Chi Minh City. There were soon hotels advertising in Japanese, and a number of Japanese restaurants in the city, although these do have a large non-Japanese clientele. Asian Kitchen in Pham Ngu Lao offers some inexpensive Japanese meals, with K Café providing a wider range of Japanese dishes. There are also a number of sushi bars. In 2011, there were 481,000 Japanese tourists visiting Vietnam, with a very large number of those spending at least some time in Hanoi.

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References: John E. Dreifort, ‘Japan’s Advance into Indochina, 1940: the French response’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 13, no. 2 (September 1982): pp. 279–95; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 183–84; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Yoshizawa Minami, ‘The Nishihara Mission in Hanoi, July 1940’, in Shirashi Takeshi and Furata Moroo (eds), Indochina in the 1940s and 1950s, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992, pp. 9–54; Murakami Sachiko, Japan’s Thrust into French Indochina, 1940–1945, PhD thesis, New York University, 1981; Masaya Shiraishi, Japanese Relations with Vietnam: 1951–1987, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1990; Nicholas Tarling, ‘The British and the first Japanese move into Indo-China’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 21, no. 1 (March 1990): pp. 35–65.

JAURÉGUIBERRY, JEAN BERNARD (1815– 1887). The acting governor of Cochinchina, from 1859 until March 1860, he took over after the departure of Charles Rigault de Genouilly and remained in Tourane (now Danang) until Théogène François Page arrived in Vietnam. Born on 26 August 1815 in Bayonne, he joined the French Navy when he was sixteen, serving as commander of the gunboat Grenade during the Crimean War. During the Franco–Prussian War, he fought on land as an auxiliary general, being given command of a Division. He then served as minister of the navy from February until December 1879 in the cabinet of William Waddington, and then again from December 1879 until September 1880 under prime minister Charles de Freycinet. He was elected a Senator for life on 27 May 1879. Jauréguiberry died on 21 October 1887 in Paris. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 26 (notes death on 25 October 1887); Rachel Chrastil, Organizing for War: France 1870–1914, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010, p. 95; Theodore Ropp and Stephen S. Roberts, The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy 1871–1904, Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1987, p. 46; Barnett Singer and John Langdon, Cultured Force: Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008, p. 104; R. Stanley Thomson, ‘The diplomacy of imperialism: France and Spain in Cochinchina 1858–1863’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 12 (1940): pp. 334–56; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 62.

JOBLIN, MILLER (1875–1923). The US vice and deputy consul in Saigon from 1909 until 1914, he was born on 9 December 1875 in Batesville, Arkansas, the son of William John Joblin and Louisa Maria (née Miller). After gaining a BA degree from Arkansas College, he worked in the Philippines as the disbursing officer in the Bureau of Health under Governor Taft. He them moved to China where, from 1906–9, he worked for Standard Oil Company of New York, before being posted to Saigon and being appointed vice and deputy consul in Saigon on 24 March 1909, living with his wife Amelia Adelia (née Dickinson), and his mother. After leaving Saigon, he worked for Standard Oil in New York and enlisted in the US forces in World War I. In January 1922 he was appointed general

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manager for the Near East of the Standard Oil Company of New York, and also was president of the American Chamber of Commerce for the Levant. He was at Maison Belart, in Constantinople, Turkey, and committed suicide on 17 June 1923. He was buried in the American section of the Protestant cemetery in Constantinople. He was survived by his widow and their daughter Patricia. References: The New York Times (18 June 1923): p. 3; Miller Joblin, ‘Plantation rubber in Cochin China’, US Daily Consular Report (5 February 1914): p. 471.

K KHANH VAN NAM VIEN PAGODA [Chùa Khánh Vân Nam Vi୹n]. This pagoda was constructed in Cholon between 1939 and 1942 by the Cantonese Congregation. It remains the only purely Daoist pagoda in the whole of Vietnam, with many colourful statues of the various disciples of Lao Tse, the founder of Daoism. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 362–63.

KHMER KROM. The Cambodian minority in southern Vietnam, these were descendants of the Cambodians who lived in the region from before it was taken over by the Nguyen lords in the eighteenth century. Most of the Khmer Krom lived in villages in the provinces of Tay Ninh and Chau Doc. However, a few did move to Saigon. Because of the better education system in Cochinchina, especially in Saigon, some of the Khmer Krom held senior positions in the Cambodian government and in business circles throughout the twentieth century. Many of the Khmer Krom spoke Vietnamese, and a number of them held administrative and government positions in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). One of these was Son Thai Nguyen, a member of the RVN Senate from 1970, and brother of Cambodian nationalist Son Ngoc Thanh. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 89–90; Justin Corfield, Khmers Stand Up! A History of the Cambodian Government 1970–1975, Clayton, VIC: Monash University, 1994; Justin Corfield and Laura Summers, Historical Dictionary of Cambodia, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003, pp. 219–20; Dinh Van Lien and Thach Voi et al., ‘Khmer culture in the Mekong Delta’, Vietnamese Studies, no. 97 (1990): pp. 7–85; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 188.

KIRBY, AUGUSTUS MONTILLMON (1886–1965). The US vice consul in Saigon from 1919 until 1924, he took over from Harry H. Pethick and served under Horace Remillard, Karl MacVitty and Leland L. Smith. Born on 21 October 1866 in Butler, Kentucky, USA, he graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1907, and served as a lieutenant in the US forces in World War I before moving to Indochina. He worked in China until 1940 and then he and his wife Allie, moved to Chicago. He died on 24 November 1965, being buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California. 144

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KLOBUKOWSKI, ANTONY (1855–1934). He was the governor general of French Indochina from September 1908 until January 1910. A diplomat and lawyer, he joined the government service in 1873 and went to Indochina where he was the chef de cabinet to Governor Charles Thomson. Paul Bert appointed him as his chef de cabinet, and in 1887 he married the second daughter of Bert. From 1889 until 1894 he was consul and then consul general in Yokohama, Japan, then was consul at Calcutta in 1896. After being French minister in Bangkok, Lima, Cairo, and then Ethiopia, he was nominated as governor general of French Indochina. He tried to reverse some of the changes made by Paul Doumer and in Tonkin changed the manner of choosing the membership of the Chambre consultative indigène. However, Klobukowski returned to France soon afterwards and was appointed as ambassador to Belgium. References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860–1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, p. 320; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1219; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial francovietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 189–90; Roger Osborne, The Deprat Affair: Ambition, Revenge and Deceit in French Indo-China, London: Jonathan Cape, 1999; Jean-Baptistse Saumont, L’oeuvre de Klobukowski en Indochine, Hanoi: Imp du Courrier d’Haïphong, 1910; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 337.

KRANTZ, JULES FRANÇOIS ÉMILE (1821–1914). The French acting governor of Cochinchina from 16 March until 1 December 1874, Krantz was born in 1821 in Givet, France, and served in the Marines, seeing action in China and Japan. In 1877 after his service in Saigon, he was named vice admiral. He had not wanted to serve in Saigon but managed to conclude a treaty with the court of the Vietnamese emperor at Hue in August 1874, which extended the political gains made by his predecessor Jules Marie Dupré. Back in France, he was minister of the navy and colonies from 5 January 1888 until 22 February 1889, and then minister of the navy from 19 March 1889 until 17 March 1890. During his short period as minister, he did much to improve the navy, which he inherited after it had been seriously underfunded for many years. He died on 25 February 1914 near Toulon. References: Randy Carol Balano and Craig L. Symonds, New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Fourteenth Naval History Symposium, Held at Annapolis, Maryland, 23–25 September 1999, Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 2001, p. 57; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1208–9; Theodore Ropp and Stephen S. Roberts, The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy 1871–1904, Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1987, p. 109.

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KRAUTHEIMER, JEAN-FÉLIX (1874–1943). A French colonial official, he was born on 3 December 1874 and started work in Indochina on 1 November 1908. He was the French administrator of Kwangchowan from 1919 until 1922, and then again from 1922 until 1923. He was then French governor of Cochinchina from 1929 until 1934. This was the time of the major upsurge in political ferment and protests in 1930, seeing revolts in the country. He was replaced in 1934 by Pierre André Michel Pagès. References: Philippe Franchini, Saigon 1925–1945: De la Belle Colonie à l’éclosion révolutionnaire ou la fin des dieux blancs, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992, p. 87; John Andrew Tully, The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011.

KY, PÉTRUS (TRUONG VINH) [TrŲţng Vënh Ký] (1837–1898). A Vietnamese scholar who was born on 6 December 1837 in Vinh Long province, as Truong Vinh Ky [Trương Vĩnh Ký], he was baptised as Jean-Baptiste Pétrus. A prominent linguist who helped popularise the romanisation of the Vietnamese language, he taught as a professor of Oriental Languages at the College of Probationers (Collège de Stagiaires). Working in the French colonial administration, his books helped explain much about Vietnamese culture in France, and further afield. His Souvenirs Historiques sur Saigon provides an important picture of the city before it changed under the French. Made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Pétrus Ky died on 1 September 1898. A school in Saigon was named after him (now Lycée d’élite Le Hong Phong), and there is Petrus Ky College Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia. The Truong Vinh Ky Mausoleum is also well-known in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 41–45; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 63–64; Truong Vinh Ky, Cours d'histoire Annamite à l'usage des écoles de la Basse-Cochinchine, Saigon: imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1879; Truong Vinh Ky, École Domestique – Un Père à ses Enfants, Saigon: Gulland et Martinon, 1883; Truong Vinh Ky, Souvenirs Historiques sur Saigon et ses Environs, Saigon: Impr coloniale, 1885; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 77, 83.

KY HOA, BATTLE OF (1861). This battle on 24–25 February 1861 saw the French and their Spanish allies capture the Citadel of Saigon and start their occupation of the city, which lasted uninterrupted until 1945. The French and Spanish soldiers – the latter from the Philippines – were under the command of Admiral Léonard Charner and they had established a small base in Saigon, where some 3,000 soldiers were in defensive positions. They had built entrenchments and a Vietnamese force of some 22,000 regular soldiers and 10,000 militiamen, lay siege to them. The Vietnamese, under Nguyen Tri Phuong, had established their base around the village of Ky Hoa and the French and Spanish decided to attack. On 24 February they moved their soldiers to within a kilometre, and using their artillery, they started bombarding Ky Hoa. The infantry then charged the main redoubt and captured it, as well as some of the Vietnamese trenches.

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There were only minor losses on the European side, while the Vietnamese had large numbers killed. However, in their exuberance, the French Commander General de Vassoigne and also the Spanish Commander Palanca y Guttierez were both wounded. At dawn on 25 February, the Europeans then used their artillery to devastating effect and then their infantry advanced. They had lost some of their scaling ladders during the advance, but were able to throw grenades over the walls at the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese then fled. They lost as many as 1,000 men, with many more injured including, their commander. The French and Spanish lost only 12, with 225 wounded – although quite a number of the wounded later died from their injuries. With this victory, the French were able to capture nearby towns and in April 1862, the Vietnamese sought a peace agreement. The French managed to get Emperor Tu Duc to surrender three provinces: Vinh Long, Chaudoc and Hatien. References: H. Bernard, Amiral Henri Rieunier, Ministre de la Marine – La vie extraordinaire d’un grand marin (1833–1918), Biarritz: H. Bernard, 2005; Manomohan Ghosh, ‘French Colonization of Vietnam: the first phase 1861–1885’, Calcutta Review, no. 172 (1964): pp. 119–29; James M. Haley, ‘The French Conquest of Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 19, no. 1 (June 2006): pp. 18–25; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 190; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991; G. Taboulet, La geste française en Indochine, Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1956, 2 vols; A. Thomazi, La conquête de l’Indochine, Paris: Payot, 1934; A. Thomazi, Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française, Hanoi: Imprimerie d’Extrême-Orient, 1922; R. Stanley Thomson, ‘The diplomacy of Imperialism: France and Spain in Cochin China 1858–1863’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 12, no. 3 (1940): pp. 334–56; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 62–66.

L LA GALLEN, JOSEPH MAURICE (1873–1956). A French colonial official, he was born on 20 November 1873, and was the acting French résident supérieur in Cambodia from 25 July until 22 October 1914. He was then resident superior in Tonkin from 1915–16 and governor of Cochinchina from 1916 until 1918. On leave from June 1918 until February 1920 when Georges Maspero was acting governor, he was governor of Cochinchina again from February until November 1920 and retired on 2 May 1922. References: Van Nguyen-Marshall, In Search of Moral Authority: The Discourse on Poverty, Poor Relief, and Charity in French Colonial Vietnam, New York: Peter Lang, 2008, p. 41; Thomas Adrian Schweitzer, The French Colonialist Lobby in the 1930s: The Economic Foundations of Imperialism, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1971, p. 68.

LA THANH NGHE (1929–19 ). A politician, he was born on 30 June 1929 at Cantho, and graduated from the Hanoi Faculty of Pharmacy in 1947. Moving to Saigon, he was chairman of the Saigon City Council 1964–65, and vice chairman of the People-Army Council in 1965. In 1966 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, and was also president of the Administrative Board of the Bank of Saigon from 1966. In 1970, he was elected to the Senate. He was married, with four children. He was accused of corruption in taking large payments from US pharmaceutical companies for his own business, and as early as 1965 the US government found that he had been involved in overcharging and demanded that the Olin Mathieson Company return $250,000 for medicines shipped to Vietnam and Cambodia. References: Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam, London: Macmillan, 1972, p. 351; Louis E. Lomax, Thailand: The War that Is, the War that Will Be, New York: Vintage Books, 1967, p. 114; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 547.

LAFONT, LOUIS CHARLES GEORGES JULES (1825–1908). The French governor of Cochinchina from 16 October 1877 until 7 July 1879, he was born on 24 April 1825 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, in the Caribbean, and joined the Marines when he was sixteen. He saw action in the Crimean War, and served in the Baltic and Indian Ocean. In 1859 he was at Tourane, serving as an aide de camp to Rigault de Genouilly. In October 1870 he served in the Franco–Prussian War in Aube. Appointed a counter-admiral (contre-amiral) in 1875, he was promoted to major general and in July 1876 was appointed as president of the High Commission into Maritime Defences. 148

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Lafont then went to Saigon to take over as governor of Cochinchina from Victor Auguste, Baron Duperré, and was appointed commander-in-chief of the Naval Station – he was the last naval governor. He saw his task as being the improvement of the taxation system, making it fairer. He was particularly concerned that small landowners often had not registered their land and this allowed rich landowners to exploit a loophole in the law to claim a minimum of their property was under cultivation. Although he reduced taxes on land property, he did impose a tax on rice exports, which only affected the wealthy landowners, earning himself some powerful enemies but also establishing a more equitable tax base for the country. He confirmed the titles held by the Roman Catholic Church and was thanked by Bishop Colombert and made an honorary member of the Société des Missions Étrangères. As well as the changes in Cochinchina, in spite of emerging problems with the 1874 Treaty over Annam and Tonkin, Lafont wanted to prevent the Vietnamese dealing directly with the Chinese. After two years in Saigon, he was replaced by Charles Le Myre de Vilers, and he was promoted to vice admiral in 1881. He was the prefect maritime of Brest from 15 February 1882 until 15 October 1885, and was president of the Conseil des travaux de la Marine in November 1886. Retiring from active service in April 1890, in 1903 he was placed in the reserves. He died on 31 January 1908 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1209; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, pp. 337–38.

de LALANDE de CALAN, OLIVIER CHARLES ARTHUR (1853– 1910). He was the acting French résident supérieur in Cambodia from 16 October until 29 December 1905, and was the acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 10 March 1906 until mid-1907. LAM SON SQUARE [Lam Sţn Square]. This square, off Dong Khoi (formerly Rue Catinat) was, during the French period, one of the most fashionable addresses in Saigon. The terraces of the Continental Hotel face the square, and many people used to sit under the shade of the terraces to eat, drink and watch people go past. The famous Givral Coffee Shop is located nearby. On the other side of the square was the Opera House (Municipal Theatre), the original location of the National Assembly in 1955, and later in the square there was a statue of some South Vietnamese marines which was famously pulled down after the fall of Saigon to the communists on 30 April 1975. This saw a crowd tie ropes around the statue, which they pulled down and it collapsed into rubble. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 74–75.

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de LAMOTHE, HENRI FÉLIX (1843–1926). A French colonial official, he was born on 8 August 1843 in Metz, the son of Benjamin Lamothe, a colonel in the artillery. In 1862 Henri enlisted in the Hungarian Legion of Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894) to serve in Italy and he fought alongside French soldiers for Garibaldi and the Reunification of Italy. He went to Poland to fight for Polish independence, and when that failed, he returned to France and joined the French Army, serving in Senegal from 1867 until 1871. He worked as a journalist from 1871 until 1886, then joined the colonial service as commandant then governor of St Pierre and Miquelon 1886–87, and again from 1888–89, and governor of Senegal 1890–95, governor of French Guyana 1895–96, and then commissioner general in the French Congo September 1897 until April 1900. Moving to Indochina, he was lieutenant governor in Cochinchina, 1901–2, and then was French résident supérieur in Cambodia from 26 October 1902 until 25 September 1904. This saw him involved in negotiations to try to get the Thais to return Battambang and Siemreap to Cambodia. It was also a period overshadowed by the death of King Norodom I and the accession of King Sisowath. In retirement, Henry de Lamothe settled in Paris and died on 20 March 1926 in the French capital. His son, Édouard de Lamothe, was a famous test pilot and died in a plane crash on 20 December 1927. References: Alain Forest, Le Cambodge et la colonisation Française: Histoire d’une colonisation sans heurts 1897– 1920, Paris: L’Harmattan and CNS, 1980; David Robinson, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania 1880–1920, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2001; James F. Searing, ‘God Alone is King’: Islam and Emancipation in Senegal: The Wolof Kingdoms of Kajoor and Bawol 1859–1914, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002, p. 111.

de LANESSAN, ANTOINE (1843–1919). The governor general of French Indochina from 1891 until 1894, he was born on 13 July 1843 at Saint-Andréde-Cubzac in Gironde, in the southwest of France, joined the French Navy at the age of nineteen and served off the coasts of East Africa and Cochinchina. Returning to France to be in the army medical service during the Franco– Prussian War, he then went back to study and completed a doctorate in 1892. Initially a supporter of the Radical Party, he moved to the Republican Union in support of colonial expansion. He wrote a book on Indochina in 1889, and became governor general of Indochina in June 1891, retaining that position until 31 December 1894. During his tenure, the French took over the tax collection in Cambodia, and in Phnom Penh he started the construction of the Treasury Building. De Lanessan also saw the return of some lands along the Mekong River back to Laotian (i.e. French) control. Recalled, he published another book on his administration in 1895, which was essentially an apology for it. He served as minister of marine in 1899–1902, and sought to remove special protection by the French for Christians in Vietnam, also wanting the same position in the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Empire. He was also

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keen on natural history, an interest he pursued more actively in retirement. De Lanessan was commemorated on two postage stamps issued in French Indochina in 1944. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 50; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1217; Jean de Lanessan, L’Expansion coloniale de la France: étude economique, politique et geographique sur les etablissements français, Paris: F. Alcan, 1886; Jean de Lanessan, L’Indo-Chine Française, Paris, 1889; Jean de Lanessan, La Colonisation Française en Indo-Chine, Paris, 1895; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 338; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 103. Portrait from Joseph Uzanne, Figures contemporaines tirées de l’Album Mariani, Paris: Librarie Henri Floury, 1904, vol. 9.

LANCTOT, RAYMOND (1895–1932). The US vice consul in Saigon from 1927 until 1929, he had been born on 5 February 1895 in Syracuse, New York and was educated at New York State Normal School. He served in various consular positions in Czechoslovakia in 1919–21, Paris in 1921–24, and then on 15 February 1927 was appointed a clerk at the US Consulate in Saigon, being promoted to vice consul on 6 September, returning to the United States on home leave in April 1929. On 2 July 1929 he was posted to Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), and then was posted to Canada, dying there on 3 June 1932. References: Raymond Lanctot, ‘Tea Production in Tonkin’, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal (1928); Register of the Department of State, July 1, 1933, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1933, p. 288.

LANSDALE, EDWARD (1908–1987). A US Air Force officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services and then the Central Intelligence Agency, Edward Lansdale helped bolster the government of the Republic of Vietnam under President Ngo Dinh Diem. He was born on 6 February 1908 at Detroit, USA, the son of Henry Lansdale from Virginia and Sarah Frances (née Philips) from California. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and in World War II, he joined the Office of Strategic Services, being heavily involved in intelligence work. At the end of World War II, Lansdale worked with the Philippine Army in defeating the communists during the Huk Rebellion. Because of his success there, he was sent to Vietnam in 1953 to advise the French on counterinsurgency operations. He returned to Saigon in 1954 as head of the Saigon Military Mission and was involved in trying to help the Vietnamese National

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Army of Bao Dai’s State of Vietnam. During this, he helped organised the militia of the Cao Dai. Lansdale saw Ngo Dinh Diem as the best hope for defeating the communists in Vietnam, and from 1955 until 1957 was an adviser to Diem, with whom he struck up a friendship. He managed to ease out pro-French military figures, and he also urged Diem to try to be a little more conciliatory, especially with the 1955 referendum which established the Republic of Vietnam. There is no doubt that Diem would defeat Bao Dai, but Lansdale wanted the results to be a little more credible. Leaving Saigon in 1957, Lansdale went to Washington DC to work in the Department of Defence, including operations to topple the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba. He returned to Saigon in 1965 and was there for three years, as the US government wanted desperately to stabilise the South Vietnamese government. He retired in 1968 and in 1972 his memoir, In the Midst of Wars, was published. He died on 23 February 1987 in McLean, Virginia, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Lansdale became a symbol of the CIA in Cambodia, and in several films in the late 1960s, directed by and starring Prince Norodom Sihanouk, there is a US CIA agent called ‘Lansdale’. Lansdale is also wrongly believed to have been the basis for Graham Greene’s character Alden Pyle in The Quiet American (1955), but Greene wrote the book before Lansdale arrived in the country. This has not, however, stopped Lansdale’s own biography by Cecil Currey being called The Unquiet American. He was also said to be the basis for ‘General Y’ in Oliver Stone’s film JFK (1991). References: ‘Asia’s 007?’ Wall Street Journal (15 November 1968); Marc D. Bernstein, ‘Edward Lansdale’s Black War’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 22, no. 6 (April 2010): pp. 44ff.; Cecil B. Currey, Edward Lansdale: The Unquiet American, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988, pp. 200–204; Richard Drinnon, Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-hating and Empire-building, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997, p. 430; Edward Lansdale, In the Midst of Wars: An American Mission to Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972, second edition, New York: Fordham University, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 198; Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005, p. 21.

de LATTRE de TASSIGNY, JEAN JOSEPH MARIE GABRIEL (1889–1952). The high commissioner of French Indochina from 17 December 1950 until 11 January 1952, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was born on 2 February 1889 in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, La Vendée, Brittany, France, the same village where Georges Clemenceau was born 48 years earlier. Joining the army, he graduated in 1911 from St Cyr and was wounded twice in World War I. He served in the cavalry and was posted to Morocco, being involved in fighting in the Rif War.

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Joining the headquarters staff of General Maxime Weygand, he became head of the 151st Regiment of Infantry at Metz in 1935. At the start of World War II, he was given command of the French 14th Infantry Division. Appointed in charge of the Vichy forces in Tunisia, he became disillusioned with the Vichy government and plotting to join the Free French, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years in jail. Escaping from prison, he ended up serving with the US Forces in North Africa and then went to France, landing in Provence on 16 August 1944. He led the Free French Forces into Germany and represented France on 8 May 1945 in Berlin to take the unconditional surrender of the Germany forces. Appointed the chief of staff of the NATO infantry in Europe, in December 1950 he was appointed high commissioner and also the commander-in-chief of the French Expeditionary Force, trying to rally them after their defeat in the previous year. Arriving in Saigon on 17 December 1950, he arrived by plane with the Marseillaise playing. He told the officers, ‘I guarantee that from today you will be commanded’. He was able to save Hanoi from being captured, but his only son, Bernard, was killed at the Battle for Nam Dinh. However, his victory was significant and led to reporters such as Seymour Topping regarding him as nothing less than ‘magnificent’. However, suffering from cancer, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny returned to France and died on 11 January 1952. His burial took place in front of his own father, Roger, aged 97. He was commemorated on a French postage stamp issued on 8 May 1952. References: Lucien Bodard, La Guerre d'Indochine, Paris: Gallimard, 1963–73, 4 vols; Lucien Bodard, The Quicksand War, Boston: Little, Brown, 1967; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1223; Pierre Darcourt, De Lattre au Vietnam, Paris: La Table Ronde, 1965; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 100–101; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, pp. 360–64.

LEFÈBVRE, DOMINIQUE (1810–1865). The first vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina (Vietnam), he was born on 1 August 1810 in Courtonne-laMeurdrac, France and was ordained on 20 December 1834. A missionary with the Paris Foreign Missions Society, he arrived in Vietnam in 1835 at a time when it was still illegal to seek Christian converts in the country. He was arrested and condemned to death in 1845. US naval captain John Percival tried to seek his release but failed. However, Admiral Jean-Baptiste Cécille managed to get Lefèbvre released. The second time he was arrested and jailed in 1847, the French sent a naval force under Charles Rigault de Genouilly to attack Tourane (Danang). After bombarding the place, Lefèbvre was released. He died on 30 April 1865. References: – Sallet, ‘Campagne franco-espagnole du Centre-Annam: Prise de Tourane (1858–1859)’, Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Hue, vol. 15, no. 3 (1928): pp. 170–79; Etienne Taillemite, ‘Un amiral-ministre polytechnicien, Rigault de Genouilly’, Bulletin de la Société des amis de la Bibliothèque de l’École Polytechnique, vol. 35 (2004); A. Thomazi, La conquête de l’Indochine, Paris: Payot, 1934; R. Stanley Thomson,

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‘The diplomacy of Imperialism: France and Spain in Cochin China 1858–1863’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 12, no. 3 (1940): pp. 334–56.

LE MYRE de VILERS, CHARLES (1833–1918). The French governor of Cochinchina from 7 July 1879 until 7 November 1882, he was born on 17 February 1833 in Vendôme, France. Joining the French Navy, he left in 1861 to become a deputy commissioner in the government and in 1869 he became commissioner in Algiers. With the outbreak of the Franco–Purssian War, he rejoined the navy. In 1873, he returned to Algiers as the director of Civil and Financial Affairs, and was subsequently posted to Saigon, where he embarked on policies aimed at assimilation. Taking over from Louis Charles Georges Jules Lafont, he was involved in continuing the work of his predecessor in trying to make the tax base more equitable. Le Myre de Vilers suggested that the economy could be improved by the building of railways. The French government thought that these would be too expensive, but did build a line from Saigon to Mytho. One member of the Colonial Council described this railway as a ‘toy offered [for] the curiosity of the natives’. Le Myre de Vilers also managed to reorganize the Public Works Department and improve the coastal and river trade. There was also the establishment of a Court of Appeal to help improve the judicial system. However, as with his predecessor, he clashed with Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry, who was still keen on taking control of Tonkin. De Vilers felt that the terms of the second Treaty of Saigon had not been fulfilled.

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In 1882 he was replaced as governor by Charles Thomson. He was later appointed resident general of Madagascar from 1886–88 and then went to Paris, where he was deputy for Cochinchina from 1889–1902. However, he was not in Paris for all that time, being minister plenipotentiary in Thailand in 1893, and returning to Madagascar in 1894–95. There he established a reputation for his support for French Catholic missionaries. A member of the French National Assembly from 1889–1902, he died on 9 March 1918 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1209–10; James Patrick Daughton, An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism and the Making of French Colonialism 1880–1914, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 187; Thomas M. Ilams Jr, Dreyfus, Diplomatists and the Dual Allance: Gabriel Hanotaux at the Quai d’Orsay 1894–1898, Geneva: Librarie E. Droz, 1962, p. 32; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 208; Auguste Pavie, ‘Le Myre de Vilers’, La Géographie, vol. 32 (1918): pp. 145–64.

LE QUY DON, LYCÉE [Lê Quý Ðôn]. This school was established in 1874 as Le Collège Indigène with the aim of helping educate children from the local elite. The first classes were held on 14 November 1874. It was not long before enrolment increased considerably, and on 31 March 1877, the school was renamed the Collège Chasseloup Laubat, after the French minister who had been instrumental in expanding French influence in Southeast Asia. Louis de Chasseloup Laubat, the son of the minister, Count Justin Napoléon Samuel Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, visited the school in 1920 and was impressed with what he saw. By this time it had too many students but it was not until 1927 that it moved to a new building and became Lycée Chasseloup Laubat and retained that name until 1959.

Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in 1925.

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A junior class at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in 1933.

Many of the classes at the school had both boys and girls, and the school attracted students from not only Saigon and further afield in Cochinchina, but also from Cambodia and even Laos. There were always a significant number of French students at the school. The classes were divided into the French section and the Annamese (Vietnamese) section. Nguyen Van Xuan was at the school in the 1900s. Vietnamese students who attended the school in the 1930s included Nguyen Van Hinh and Duong Van Minh. Marguerite Donnadieu (later well-known as Marguerite Duras) went to the school, as did the journalist Nguyen Van Tao (who was expelled). One of the earliest students from Cambodia was King Norodom Suramarit. As most of the Cambodian and Lao students, he was educated in the French section. He was followed twenty years later by Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirikmatak, who became friends there and remained political allies through to 1970, when they overthrew Suramarit’s son Prince Norodom Sihanouk (another former student). Another Cambodian politician who was at the school with Prince Sihanouk was Hoeur Lay Inn, son of a wealthy Chinese timber merchant. Other famour students were Cambodian prime ministers, Prince Sisowath Youtévong, Chau Sen Cocsal, Nhiek Tioulong and Prince Norodom Kantol. From Laos, most of the former students were members of the Laotian Royal Family. King Sisavang Vong was at the school at the end of the nineteenth century. Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa, who founded the

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Free Lao (Lao Issara), was also a former student, as was Prince Phetsarath, who wrote about the school in his memoirs, Iron Man of Laos, and mentions several other Lao students. Photographs of the students from the 1930s show the students dressed in light-coloured clothes, with most of the boys in white shirts and white shorts, with the girls wearing light long dresses. However, in 1947 the Lycée Marie Curie changed to being a girls only school, and most of the girls from the Lycée Chasseloup Laubat went there, with the result that the school soon only had boys. In a stirring speech to the school on 11 July 1951, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny he told the boys, ‘Vietnam will be saved by you. Young men from the Vietnamese elite to whom I feel as attached as to the youth of the land of my birth, the moment has come for you to defend your country. It will still be necessary for blood and sweat to raise the harvest of free men under the sunshine from independence. The intellectual youth of Vietnam has its place today in this great task, alongside the peasant youth. I have confidence in you. You are the hope that has not faltered, and will not be disappointed. I believe that the World will be saved by a few. I believe that Vietnam will be saved by you.’ In 1959/60 the school was renamed Lycée Jean Jacques Rousseau. By this time, most of the students were Vietnamese, although there were still a small and significant number of Europeans. One of the students who graduated in 1959 was the musician Trinh Cong Son. In the early 1970s, the government of the Republic of Vietnam took over the school and changed its name to Lycée Le Quy Don, after the famous eighteenth-century Vietnamese philosopher. It kept the same name after the victory of the communists on 30 April 1975. The alumni association, the Association des Anciens du Lycée ChasseloupLaubat de Saigon, was established on 1 July 1901 and was re-established in France on 3 October 1975 under the presidency of André Tardy. References: Association des Anciens du Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat de Saigon, Annuaire 1983; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 134–35; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 35–36.

LE HONG PHONG [Lê Hஅng Phong] (1902–1942). A revolutionary, he was born on 6 September 1902 in Nghe An province, in north-central Vietnam, as Le Van Duc. His father became a farmer after his scholastic career failed, but died when his son was young. Leaving school early, Le Hong Phong left his primary school, and as a teenager he changed his name to Le Huy Doan, and found work in local salt factories. It was during this time he was involved in a strike against poor working conditions and was sacked. Becoming active in the anti-colonial movement, he went to Thailand, and then to China. In 1925 she started studying at the Whampoa Military School and in February 1926 he met Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh) and joined the Communist Party of China.

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Le Van Duyet Temple in the early 1950s.

Increasingly interested in air power, he studied in China and then in the Soviet Union, joining the Red Army. He became active in the Communist Party of Indochina, and took part in the Seventh Congress of Comintern with Nguyen Thi Minh Khai whom he later married, and they had a daughter. Moving back to French Indochina, he worked in Saigon and was effectively the second leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam, holding office from October 1931 until July 1936. On 22 June 1939 he was arrested by the French and sentenced to six months imprisonment. On 6 February 1940 he was again arrested and this time was sentenced to five years in prison and sent to Con Dao where he died on his 41st birthday. References: David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; Sophie Quinn-Judge, Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, New York: C. Hurst & Company, 2003.

LE VAN DUYET TEMPLE [Chùa Lê VÅn Duy୹t]. This temple is dedicated to the memory of Marshal Le Van Duyet (1763–1832) who, with his wife, is buried at the site of what is now a temple. Le Van Duyet had been appointed by Emperor Gia Long to put down the Tay Son Rebellion and help with the unification of Vietnam under the new Nguyen dynasty. Sympathetic to the role of the French, Le Van Duyet fell out of favour with Emperor Minh Mang, Gia Long’s successor, and when he died on 3 July 1832 in the Citadel of Saigon, he was, posthumously, convicted of various crimes and orders were given for his original grave, known as the ‘Tomb of the Marshal in Ba Chieu’ [Lăng Ông Bà Chiu] to be desecrated.

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Le Van Duyet was long held in high regard by the people in Saigon and in 1937 his grave was renovated and the temple was constructed. During the Republic of Vietnam, Le Van Duyet appeared on banknotes, and many politicians took part in annual commemorations at the temple. After the communists came to power in 1975, his grave fell into disuse and a nearby street named after him was renamed. In 2008 the government attitude to him changed, and money was allocated to renovate the tomb, and a play celebrating him was allowed to be performed in public. The temple appears on a postage stamp issued by the Republic of Vietnam postal authorities on 2 December 1964. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, p. 85; Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response, Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2004, chapters 2–3; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 287; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 84; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, p. 34; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 212; Frédéric Mantienne, ‘The Transfer of Western Military Technology to Vietnam in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Case of the Nguyen’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (October 2003): pp. 519–34; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 365; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 46–53.

LE VAN HOACH [Lê VÅn Ho୓ch] (1896–1978). President of the provisional government of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina from 7 December 1946 until 8 October 1947, he was born in Phong Dien, near Can Tho. After gaining a medical degree from the University of Hanoi, he went to France for further studies and then returned to Saigon, where he became active in the Cao Dai movement. He then was the police chief in Can Tho at the time of the coup de force in March 1945. Van Hoach took control in Can Tho and protected the French there. In June 1946, the French, recognising the help he had given them, made him a delegate for Can Tho province at the Consultative Council. On 10 November 1946, after Nguyen Van Thinh committed suicide, the French supported the move to make Le Van Hoach the new prime minister. Based in Saigon, he tried to continue the move to independence for Cochinchina, but in September it was clear that support for it amongst the people in Saigon had collapsed. The result was the abandoning of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, with the French deciding to embark on what became known as the Bao Dai solution. On 11 December 1947, Le Van Hoach formed the Vietnam National Assembly, based in Saigon. He managed to get support from some groups in Annam and Tonkin, and this led to the Assembly being transformed into the Vietnam National Rally on 23 December 1947. The rally operated in Annam and Tonkin. Le Van Hoach then announced that he supported the monarchy and claimed extensive support from the Cao Dai, the Hoa Hao, Roman

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Catholics and also Protestants. He stated that in his view, as the abdication of Bao Dai in 1945 had been forced and not a voluntary act, it was invalid. The support for the group was, however, smaller than the level it claimed. Le Van Hoach continued to work in a variety of public roles during the Republic of Vietnam, and on 17 April 1973 he became the director of the Cao Dai University. Living in Cantho, he died in 1978 at home, aged 83. References: Oscar Chapius, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, p. 146; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, pp. 527–28.

LE VAN KHOI. See Le Van Duyet Temple. LE VAN KIEM [Lê VÅn Ki୵m] (1945– ). A wealthy businessman, he was born on 22 November 1945 in Hue, the son of Le Lan Van and Nguyen Nhieu Thi. He trained as an engineer in the North Vietnamese Army and then worked in the Ministry of Transport, being involved in projects such as repairing roads and bridges. He moved to Ho Chi Minh City, and his wife, who was also an engineer, managed to design a new type of paint made from rubber seeds. During the 1980s the sales of this paint managed to earn the couple some money and when the economy was liberalised in 1989, they used this money to invest in establishing a joint-stock company which funded a number of textile factories to make clothes. The business quickly diversified to become involved in construction and work on the major infrastructure projects in Ho Chi Minh City, including hydroelectric plants. In 1996, he was hailed in the Far Eastern Economic Review as ‘probably Vietnam’s richest private businessman’. References: Geoffrey Murray, Vietnam – Dawn of a New Market, St Martin’s Press, 1997, p. 37; Adam Schwarz, ‘Capitalist Cadre’, Far Eastern Economic Review (29 February 1996): pp. 42–44; Who’s Who of the Asian Pacific Rim, 1996, p. 185.

LETOURNEAU, JEAN (1907–1986). The high commissioner of French Indochina from 1 April 1952 until 28 July 1953, he was also minister for Associated States, with Raoul Salan being the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Letourneau was born on 18 September 1907 in Lude, Sarthe, to the southwest of Paris, the son of Emmanuel Letourneau, bank director, and Juliette (née Reveilchien). He was educated at Collège Saint Louis at Mans and the Faculty of Law in Paris. Working as a civil servant and an active member of the People’s Democratic Party, in 1946, after having serving in the Constituent Assembly, he was elected to the National Assembly, and re-elected in 1951. He was then posted to Indochina, where he had to deal with a very difficult situation as it became clear that France was losing the First Indochina War. Letourneau went to Washington DC and requested more US military aid and was granted an additional $385 million. By the end of 1952, after requests from Letourneau, the US government was paying 40 per cent of the costs of

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the French war effort. After leaving Saigon, he was an adviser to the French Union. He died on 16 March 1986. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1224; Duong Van Nguyen, The Tragedy of the Vietnam War: A South Vietnamese Officer’s Analysis, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, p. 34; Who’s Who in France 1967, p. 871.

John Kennedy with Henry Cabot Lodge, 10 November 1952. Courtesy John F. Kennedy Library.

LODGE, HENRY CABOT (1902–1985). The US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1963–64 and again 1965–67, he was born on 5 July 1902 at Nahant, Massachusetts, into a family which included a large number of politicians, his grandfather was Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. He was educated at Middlesex School, St Albans School and Harvard University, going to work for the New York Herald Tribune and other papers before, in 1931, being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Five years later, as a Republican, he was elected to the US Senate, remaining there until 1944. He had two tours of duty in World War II, the first being in North Africa. For his second tour he resigned from the Senate to serve – the first to do so since the US Civil War – and was posted to Italy and then to France. He then returned to Massachusetts and was a senator again from 1947 until 1953. Helping with the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, Lodge neglected his own Senate campaign and lost to

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John F. Kennedy – in 1916 their grandfathers had fought over the same seat. Henry Cabot Lodge then was named as the US ambassador to the United Nations in February 1953, and remained there until 1960, when he stood down from that post to run as Richard Nixon’s vice presidential candidate. He lost and became the first director general of the Atlantic Institute in 1961–62. Kennedy then appointed Lodge as Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam in 1963 to try to get bipartisan support for the events in the country. Kennedy was deciding what to do with President Ngo Dinh Diem and had Henry Cabot Lodge. recalled Frederick Nolting, a supporter of Photograph: US Department Diem. Lodge supported the overthrow of the of State. Diem government, and with the acquiescence of the US government, the Buddhist generals led by Duong Van Minh staged the coup on 1 November 1963, which led to the killing of Diem on the following day. Diem had contacted Lodge during the coup, and Lodge’s answers, as given in his interview on Vietnam: A Television History, were clearly evasive. In the 1964 Republican Party primaries, Lodge was a surprise write-in candidate in New Hampshire. He returned, but Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination, later losing badly in the election. Lyndon Johnson reappointed Lodge as ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam. During his second term in Saigon, Lodge continued to believe that the United States had a duty to prevent the whole of Vietnam from becoming communist and he supported the expansion of the US role in the fighting in Vietnam. Lodge was then ambassador-at-large (1967–68), and then ambassador to West Germany (1968–69). He then headed the US delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969. In Vietnam: A Television History, he revealed his slightly overbearing attitude in his relations with President Diem, certainly seeing himself, on grounds of protocol, at least an equal of Diem, complaining that the president had, on one occasion refused to discuss sacking Nhu when he wanted to raise the topic. Lodge died on 27 February 1985. He is clearly the subject of Morris West’s novel, The Ambassador (1965). References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Ellen J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 219; Henry Cabot Lodge, The Storm Has Many Eyes: A Personal Narrative, New York: Norton, 1973; Henry Cabot Lodge, As it Was: An Inside View of Politics and Power in the 50s and 60s, New York:Norton, 1976; William J. Miller, Henry Cabot Lodge: A Biography, New York: Heinemann, 1967; Carol Morris Petillo, ‘Henry Cabot Lodge’, American National Biography, vol. 13, pp. 814–15.

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LONG, MAURICE (1866–1923). He was the governor general of French Indochina from February 1920 until April 1922. Born on 15 March 1866 in Crest, France, he was a lawyer and the editor of a law journal. A Radical Socialist in the French National Assembly, he was particularly interested in aspects of Morocco, and was appointed as minister of food in the French government. He did relatively little during his time in French Indochina, and left in April 1922 to return to France. On his way back to Indochina, he died on 15 January 1923 in Colombo, Ceylon. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1220; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 219.

LUCE, PAUL LOUIS (1856–19 ). The interim French résident in Phnom Penh from 16 January 1900 until 3 June 1901, and résident superieur from 29 December 1905 until 26 July 1911, he was also acting governor of Cochinchina from 2 August until 5 September 1901, and governor general of French Indochina from February until November 1911. He had served in the artillery in 1876, being appointed to the military office of Governor Charles Thomson of Cochinchina in 1883–84. Entering the Indochina civil service in 1889 as vice president, he served in Laos and in most other parts of Indochina before his appointment to Cambodia. During his time in Phnom Penh, he established the local archives (now the National Archives); and was the eponym of a street in the capital. According to an account by Roland Meyer, after the coronation of King Sisowath in April 1904, Thiounn, ‘accompanied by a bald Frenchman with eyes as big as a fish penetrated into the veang, opened the coffers of the royal treasury, and for several days appears as the real masters of the place.’ John Tully saw this as being a description of Luce. References: Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857– 1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 340; John Tully, Cambodia Under the Tricolour: King Sisowath and the ‘Mission Civilisatrice’ 1904–1927, Clayton, VIC: Monash University, 1995, p. 31; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 123.

LY QUY CHUNG [Lý Quý Chung] (1940– ). A journalist with neutralist views, he was born on 1 September 1940 in My Tho and worked in Saigon as a newspaper editor, first of Thanh Viet Daily in 1963, then was the managing editor of the Binh Minh Weekly Magazine 1964–65, publisher and editor of the Saigon Tan Van Daily, the managing editor of the Tieng Viet Daily 1965–66 and the Buoi Sang Weekly magazine in 1966; a correspondent for the Thoi Dai Daily, and editor of the Tieng Noi Doc Toc Daily and the But Than Daily, and a contributor to the Dien Tin Daily and the Dai Dan Toc Daily. In 1967 Ly Quy Chung was elected to the House of Representatives, heading the Restoration Bloc, and later the People’s Bloc. In a press conference held

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on 12 June 1970, he had urged for a peace settlement to be held for Indochina as had been outlined by French president Charles de Gaulle in a speech in Cambodia in 1966. Ly Quy Chung remained in Saigon and in the 1990s was still a newspaper editor. He supported the moves made to establish the free market economy, noting that the Vietnamese were ‘like animals being let out of their cage’ and commenting on the continued communist control, he said ‘we are free to graze around, but only inside the fences’. References: Claire Boobbyer, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2008, p. 423; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1972, p. 75; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 135.

M MA NGUY. This was a mound (sometimes called a ‘hill’) that served as a burial ground in Saigon, and which was given the name ‘Traitor’s Tomb’ because in 1834 some 2,000 rebels killed by the troops of Emperor Minh Mang were buried there. On old French maps it was sometimes designated as ‘Cimetière des Révoltés’ (Cemetery of Rebels). It is now at the west of what was the intersection of Ha Ba Trung Street and Dien Bien Phu Street. There are still ceremonies held there each year. References: ‘The Confucian scholars in Vietnamese History’, Vietnamese Studies (1979): p. 185; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 19.

MAC DINH CHI CEMETERY. See Cemeteries. MacLEHOSE, (CRAWFORD) MURRAY (1917–2000). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1967 to 1969, he was born on 16 October 1917 in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Hamish A. MacLehose and Margaret Bruce (née Black), and was educated at Rugby School, and Balliol College, Oxford. The principal private secretary to George Brown, the foreign secretary, during the 1960s, he accidentally left a four-page confidential cable at a bank branch. The cable was about the Vietnam War from the British prime minister Harold Wilson to US president Lyndon Johnson. It urged an end to the war in Vietnam, and was handed over by another British diplomat who found it. Later in 1967 Murray MacLehose was appointed ambassador to Vietnam. After serving at the British Embassy in Beijing, in 1971 he was appointed governor of Hong Kong, holding that position until 1982. Retiring, he was made a life peer as Baron MacLehose of Beoch, of Maybole in the District of Kyle and Carrick, and of Victoria in Hong Kong. He returned to Hong Kong for the handover ceremony in 1997, and died on 27 May 2000 in Ayrshire, Scotland. References: A. G. Blunt, Rugby School Who’s Who, Rugby: The Old Rugbeian Society, 1975, p. 158; Sylvia Ellis, Britain, America and the Vietnam War, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004; Peter Graff, ‘Mislaid MacLehose cable reveals UK efforts to end Vietnam War’, The Standard (2 November 2007); John Jones and Catherine Willbery, The Balliol College Register 1940–1990, Oxford: Balliol College, 1990, p. 60. Who’s Who.

McNAMARA, ROBERT STRANGE (1916–2009). The US secretary of defense from 1961 until 1968, he was one of the US politicians most identified 165

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with the Vietnam War. Born on 9 June 1916 in San Francisco, California, the son of a sales manager in a wholesale shoe company, he was educated at Piedmont High School and the University of California, Berkeley. He then completed a Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and worked as an accountant for one year, teaching accounting at Harvard for another year, before joining the US Army Air Force and serving in the China-Burma-India area of operations. After the war he joined the Ford Motor Company and having turned around the fortune of the corporation, in 1960 he became the first president of Ford who was not from the Ford family. Following the election of John F. Kennedy, he was invited to become secretary of defense, but also advised Kennedy on many other matters. With increasing problems in Vietnam, McNamara was to oversee initially the training of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, raising the number of US military advisers there from 900 to 16,000. In September 1963 he went to Saigon to meet with President Ngo Dinh Diem and other South Vietnamese officials. In his book, In Retrospect, he makes no comment on the city of Saigon, instead concentrating on a number of his meetings with Diem, of whom he states, ‘his serene self-assurance disconcerted me.’ He also noted that he ‘seriously questioned whether the South Vietnamese generals would proceed with a coup if they believed the American government opposed it’, but carefully avoids explicitly stating his position. McNamara visited Saigon in May 1964 to try to bolster the government of Nguyen Khanh. Although he made public statements in favour of Khanh, he was gloomy about the chances of defeating the communists. When his visit was announced the communists tried to assassinate him with Nguyen Van Troi being arrested and later executed. The escalation of the war in August 1964 after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, led to the Vietnam War almost totally preoccupying the remainder of McNamara’s time as secretary of defense. On several occasions McNamara overruled or rejected advice by the JCS leading to him being seen as the chief architect of the US involvement in Vietnam and the divisions in US society that emerged from this. After being defense secretary, McNamara was president of the World Bank until June 1981. Controversially, in his 1995 book, In Retrospect, he admitted he soon came to feel that the war was ‘futile’, and conceded that ‘we were wrong’. He died on 6 July 2009 in Washington DC. References: Robert McNamara, with Brian VanDeMark, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, New York: Times Books, 1995; Robert Scheer, ‘McNamara’s Evil Lives On’, The Nation (8 July 2009); Obituary in The Daily Telegraph (6 July 2009).

MacVITTY, KARL de GIERS (1883–1959). The US consul in Saigon in 1920, he was born on 27 February 1883 in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Frank Dow MacVitty and Katheryn (née de Giers). He spent two and a half years studying abroad with a private tutor and then became a part-time

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journalist until 1917, when he was appointed vice consul in Genoa, Italy, in 1917. Transferring to Belfast, Ireland and then to Nassau in the Bahamas, in 1920 he moved to Saigon for a year. He then had a number of other postings in Australia and New Zealand, and then joined the US foreign service, holding a large number of positions around the world, and was the consul general in Alexandria, Egypt, until his retirement in 1944. A keen philatelist, he returned to Nashville, and died on 6 February 1959. References: Who’s Who in America.

MADAME DAI’S BIBLIOTHÈQUE. This restaurant opened in April 1975 at a time there were few other restaurants in what was about to become Ho Chi Minh City. The owner, Nguyen Phuoc Dai, was a lawyer and politician in the Republic of Vietnam. Her husband was Dr Nguyen Phuoc Dai, a Roman Catholic medical doctor who had trained at Montpellier University in France and then returned to Saigon, where he was a prominent surgeon and also the vice dean of the Medical Faculty in Saigon. His wife, born in 1924, had spent much of her childhood in France and married her husband in 1947. With a doctorate in law, she became the first woman to be called to the Saigon Bar. In the early 1960s, she was the second woman to be elected to the National Assembly – the first being Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu. In 1967 she became a senator and a member of the opposition to President Nguyen Van Thieu. She ended up as the vice speaker of the Senate. Her two sons and most of her relatives fled Saigon ahead of the communists but she stayed and said, ‘I had no crimes or blood on my hands… My sympathies went out to the Viet Cong…for me they were heroes.’ Knowing that she was unable to continue practising law, Mme Dai opened a restaurant in her law library – it became known as La Bibliothèque, and then Madame Dai’s Bibliothèque. Edith Shillue described her as ‘petite, gray-haired and elegant.’ The food was always good, and people enjoyed sitting in a room surrounded by books and family heirlooms, including exquisite Vietnamese ceramics and temple carvings from Cham sites. In 1991, the French president François Mitterrand ate there, as did the former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, and also Barbara Colby, whose husband had been the CIA station chief in Saigon. Nguyen Ngoc Luong, a former writer with The New York Times is a regular customer there, and having studied music at the Saigon Conservatory of Music, often performs in the restaurant. The Rough Guide notes that Madame Dai ‘floats around like royalty.’ Although it remained popular for so many years, it appears that Madame Dai died in the mid-2000s, and the restaurant closed down. References: Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour, London: Bloomsbury, 2002, pp. 54, 60–62; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 92; Andrew Renard, ‘Madame Dai’s Past is Present in Ho Chi Minh City’, The New York Times (10 September 1993); Edith Shillue, Earth

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and Water: Encounters in Viet Nam, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, p. 150; Carey Zesiger, ‘Spice of life’, Far Eastern Economic Review (17 October 1996): p. 118; Who’s Who in Vietnam, 1974, p. 182.

MAJESTIC HOTEL. See Hotel Majestic. MARCHAND, (Saint) JOSEPH (1803–1835). A French missionary in Saigon, he was born on 17 August 1833 at Passavant, in the east of France. Becoming a missionary with the Paris Foreign Missions Society in 1828, he was ordained on 4 April 1828, and left for Vietnam on 12 May 1828, working in the Saigon region, but travelling as far as Phnom Penh. In 1833, following the desecration of the grave of Le Van Duyet by Emperor Minh Mang, Le Van Duyet’s son, Le Van Khoi, decided to lead a rebellion against Emperor Minh Mang and replace him with his nephew, who was Roman Catholic. They launched a surprise attack on the Citadel of Saigon, capturing it. Marchand then joined Le Van Khoi in the citadel and urged Roman Catholics to support them. The Imperial forces arrived soon afterwards and laid siege to the citadel, which held out until September 1835. Marchand was captured and taken to Hue. There he was sentenced to the ‘torture of the hundred wounds’, by which his flesh would be pulled out using tongs. He died on 30 November 1835, aged 32. Hailed as a martyr, he was beatified on 27 May 1900, and finally canonised by Pope John Paul II on 19 June 1988. His feast day is 30 November, the day on which he was killed. There has been some academic debate about the role of Marchand in the rebellion. Phan Phat Hon and Georges Taboulet claim that Marchand was a prisoner in the citadel rather than an active supporter of Le Van Khoi. Marchand certainly claimed this. By contrast, some Marxist historians, such as Nguyen Phan Quang, felt that Marchand was actually the main plotter and, with support from Siam, they hoped to establish a Catholic state around Saigon, with Le Van Khoi as their puppet. References: Paul Chauvin, Vie du bienheureux Joseph Marchand, martyrisé en Indo-Chine le 30 novembre 1835, Besançon: Impr Catholique de l’Est, 1936; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 35–37; J. B. S. Jacquenet, The Life of the Venerable Joseph Marchand, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1886; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991, p. 31f.; Herman Wegener, The Venerable Servant of God, Blessed Joseph Marchand, Martyr of Cochin China, Techny, Illinois: The Mission Press, nd.

MARIAMMAN HINDU TEMPLE. This temple for the Southern Indian community, mainly Tamils from Tamil Nadu, in Ho Chi Minh City, was built from 1885, and is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Mariamman. It is now the only Hindu temple in the city which is still in use, and is also visited and respected by many ethnic Chinese and ethnic Vietnamese. There is a grand procession by the Hindus which starts from the temple every year in autumn. There are only about fifty Tamil families in Saigon, but

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there are also Vietnamese and Chinese who take part in the ceremonies. The large lion which is at the left of the entrance is carried around the streets. After the communist victory in 1975, most of the Indians in the city left, and the government used the grounds of the temple for a workshop to make joss sticks. There were also people packaging seafood there and they dried it on the roof before preparing it for export. Now it has returned to being used as a temple. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 283; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 78; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 44; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 166–67; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 358–59.

Graham Martin at the Oval Office, The White House, on 25 March 1975, with General Weyland, Henry Kissinger, and President Ford.

MARIE CURIE, LYCÉE. This high school was built on Cong Ly (later Avenue General de Gaulle; now Nam Ky Khoi Nghia) and was a primary school for French girls. The buildings date from 1916–18 and in December 1942 it was renamed College Calmette. In 1947 it was transformed to Lycée Marie Curie, a high school only for girls, with many girls from Lycée Chasseloup Laubat enrolling. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 36–37.

MARINE STATUE. This large statue of a marine from the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam was located in Le Loi Park (now Lam Son Park), in front of the Opera House, and also the Rex Hotel. After the fall of the

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Republic of Vietnam, large crowds gathered around the statue and pulled it down amid much cheering. MARTIN, GRAHAM ANDERSON (1912–1990). The US ambassador to Vietnam from 1973 until 1975, he was born on 22 September 1912 in Mars Hill, North Carolina, the son of a Baptist minister. Graduating from Wake Forest College in 1932, he worked as a journalist in Washington and then joined the staff of the National Recovery Association, serving in US intelligence during World War II. Present on the USS Missouri during the surrender of the Japanese on 2 September 1945, he joined the US foreign service and served in Paris, France, from 1947–55, ending up as assistant chief of Mission. He was then the US representative to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva from 1960–62. On 10 September 1963 he was appointed US ambassador to Thailand, and held that position until 9 September, and was then ambassador to Italy from 30 October 1969 until 10 February 1973. Following the end of the Paris Peace Talks, Richard Nixon felt that it was important to have a new US ambassador to Saigon and Graham Martin was appointed ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam on 21 June 1973. The Vietnam War meant much to Martin. His foster son, Marine 1st Lieutenant Glenn Dill Mann, had been killed in November 1965 when his helicopter gunship came under fire. Martin was an anti-communist, and he was eager for the United States to maintain its commitment to Vietnam and never believed that the Republic of Vietnam was doomed. Indeed, even in March 1975, he felt that it would be possible to hold Saigon and the Mekong Delta, maintaining his optimistic position to the foreign press during the Battle of Xuan Loc. His refusal to believe in the possibility of defeat meant that he left behind the South Vietnamese signals intelligence operatives in Saigon when the eventual evacuation – Operation Frequent Wind – took place. Martin was evacuated by helicopter from the US Embassy in Saigon in the early morning of 30 April. That helicopter is now on display at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at San Diego, California. Martin died on 13 March 1990 and is buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. References: Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, London: Bloomsbury Press, 2009, pp. 125–27; Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 233; Who’s Who in America.

MASPERO, GEORGES (1872–1942). A French colonial official, he was born in 1872, the older son of the Egyptologist Gaston Masperi (1846–1916). Educated at the École Coloniale, he held a range of posts in the French colonial administration in Cambodia from 1894 until 1920, being the French acting resident superieur in Cambodia from 15 April until 6 December 1920, and then

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moved to Saigon to be acting governor of Cochinchina from June 1918 until February 1920. He had joined the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1903. His brother, Henri Maspero (1883–1945) was a noted sinologist and active in the EFEO, and his daughter was Eveline Maspero (later Eveline Porée Maspero). References: Catherine Clémentin-Ojha and Pierre-Yves Manguin, A Century in Asia: The History of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient 1898–2006, Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2007, pp. 29–30.

MAURICE LONG PARK. See Tao Dan Park. MEI LINH SQUARE. Located to the east of Dong Khoi (formerly Rue Catinat), this square is close to the Saigon River, and is at the middle of Ton Duc Thang. There is a statue of Tran Hung Dao, born as Prince Tran Quoc Tuan [Trn Qu c Tun; 䱇೟ዏ], in the square. He was the general who commanded the Vietnamese armies against the invading Mongols in 1285 and again two years later. Acknowledged as one of the great military tacticians of all times, he wrote several military treatises, and the manner in which he defeated a much larger and better-armed Mongol force has ensured his place in Vietnamese history. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 77.

MEIKLEREID, (ERNEST) WILLIAM (FREDERICK) (1899–1965). The acting British consul general in Saigon at the start of the Pacific War, William Meiklereid was born on 12 October 1899 in Leghorn (now Livorno), Italy, the son of William Meiklereid and his wife Beatrice Maude (née de Norman). His father was from a shipping family from Scotland, and after soon after William Jr was born, the family moved to Britain, with William being educated at Monkton Combe School (1914–18), where he was a prominent rower in the school crew. He then served in the British forces in 1918–19, and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Joining the Foreign Service, he learnt the Thai language and in 1923 he was appointed as a student interpreter in the Siam consular service. In 1927–28 William Meiklereid was in Saigon in charge of the British consulate general, being vice consul briefly before being posted to the Netherlands East Indies and Siam. On 15 May 1941 Meiklereid was appointed as the acting consul general in Saigon. While he was there, in the run-up to the start of the Pacific War, he uncovered two crucial pieces of intelligence which he relayed to the British government. The first was that a French printing company in Saigon had been awarded a contract to print 50,000 copies of a map of Malaya, with all the place-names in Japanese. The second piece of information was that the same firm was printing a Japanese–Malay dictionary. This indicated that the Japanese were planning to invade Malaya.

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Meiklereid remained in Saigon until his appointment, on 19 January 1943, as consul general at Dakar in French West Africa. After World War II, he returned to Saigon, where he was political advisor to the British Mission in Indochina in 1945, serving under General Douglas Gracey. During that time he met with Ho Chi Minh. He was subsequently appointed consul general for French Indochina, being based in Saigon from 1946 until 1948, and also having responsibility for Cambodia during the same time. He was then posted to San Francisco and then to the British Embassy in Paris. He was the head of the British Delegation to High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, and then was on the Commission of European Atomic Energy Community. Knighted in 1955, he died on 12 January 1965 at Bethnal Green. References: Justin Corfield and Robin Corfield, The Fall of Singapore: 90 Days: November 1941 – February 1942, Singapore: Talisman Books, 2012, p. 92; The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1944, p. 261; Evan Mawdsley, December 1941: Twelve Days That Began a World War, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, p. 57; Peter Neville, Britain in Vietnam: Prelude to Disaster 1945–6, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge, 2007, pp. 128, 133, 155; Nicholas Tarling, Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Pacific War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; Nicholas Tarling, Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Cold War 1945–1950, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 85, 152, 238; A. T. Wicks and A. F. Lace (eds), Monkton Combe School Register, Bath: Monkton Combe School, 1965, p. 71; The Times (13 January 1965): p. 12.

MEKONG RIVER [Sông Mê Kông; Sông Cடu Long]. Stretching over 4,200 kms (2610 miles), the Mekong (the ‘river of the Nine Dragons’) is the fourth longest river in Asia. From its source in the Tibetan plateau, it flows southwards through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before reaching the South China Sea. Much of the upper Mekong is impassable owing to rapids, rocks and also rapid flows. As the river flows southwards, it descends steadily to sea level, its currents slow and the river beds widen. The middle Mekong, which flows along the frontier between Laos and Thailand, continues past Phnom Penh, and then past Saigon, draining into the South China Sea. The river is extremely rich in fish, and the water helps in irrigation. This made the original settlement at Prey Nokor (later Saigon) important. When the French arrived in the region, they hoped that the Mekong might provide access for their ships to reach the heartland of China. This led to the Mekong Expedition of 1866–68, proving that parts of the river from northern Cambodia through to Laos, are unnavigable, and the river also has its source in Tibet, not southern China. During the period of colonial rule, the French never managed to gain total control of the Mekong Delta region where there were frequent outbursts of anticolonial activity and it was an extremely dangerous posting for soldiers during the First Indochina War. Likewise, during the Vietnam War, many South Vietnamese, US and allied soldiers were killed in actions in the Mekong Delta.

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The Mekong River continues to me a major route for communication for many of the villages in the delta region, and also from Vietnam into Cambodia. In recognition of the need for better management and development of the resources of the river, the four lower basin Mekong countries established the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission in 1995. To maximize the impact of international assistance, the commission produced a Basin Development Plan in February 2002, in which projects of cross-border importance receive priority. Burma and China have only slowly lent support to the basin-wide planning framework. References: Pierre Brocheux, The Mekong Delta: Ecology, Economy, and Revolution, 1860–1960, Madison: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin, 1995; David W. P. Elliott, The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta 1930–1975, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2003, 2 vols; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 234; Milton Osborne, Mekong, Crows Nest NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2001.

MERLIN, MARTIAL-HENRI (1860–1935). He was the governor general of French Indochina from August 1922 until April 1925. Born on 20 January 1860 in Paris, he served in the French Army from 1880 until 1885, and then joined the French colonial administration in 1887. He worked under Henri Félix de Lamothe when he was governor of Senegal, and Martial Merlin became governor of Guadeloupe from 1901 until 1903. Later serving in Dakar, he spent many years in French West Africa and was governor general of Madagascar in 1917–18. When Merlin came to Indochina, he was welcomed because of the good reputation he had achieved in West Africa. However, the French government wanted him to cut the financial deficit in Indochina, and his budget cuts were unpopular. Most of these were in the system of education, where he transferred more money to primary schools, taking from the provision of scholarships for tertiary education in France, leading to much criticism from the Vietnamese elite in Saigon, some of whom hoped to undertake higher education in France. Returning to France, he died on 8 May 1935 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1220–21; Hommes et destins. Dictionnaire biographique d’outre-mer, Centre universitaire mediterranéen, 1995, p. 329; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 234–35; David Robinson, Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880–1920, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2000.

MICHE, JEAN-CLAUDE (1805–1873). A French missionary and the second vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina, Miche was born on 9 August 1805 in Saint-Dié, Vosges, France, and was ordained on 5 June 1830. He joined the Missions Étrangères, arriving in Cochinchina in 1836. In 1839 he was posted to Battambang, then under Thai control. In 1848, alarmed by news of the persecution of Catholics in Vietnam, Miche went to Phnom Penh, where he received permission from his friend and confidante King Ang Duang of

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Cambodia to establish a Roman Catholic community at Ponhea Leu. Miche then became vicar apostolic in Cambodia, where he lived until 1864. Back in Saigon, Miche was appointed vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina on 9 September 1864, and remained in that position until his death on 1 December 1873 in Saigon. He was the eponym for École Miche in Phnom Penh, which was run by the Christian Brothers of Saint John-Baptist de la Salle order. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 23; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 341; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 25.

MILITARY MUSEUM. This is a small museum in Ho Chi Minh City, located near the Botanical Gardens and is dedicated largely to the Vietnam War, in particular military operations which took place in South Vietnam. On display there is one of the tanks which broke through the gates of the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace) on 30 April 1975. Another of the tanks is located in the grounds of the palace itself. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 80; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 356.

The port of Saigon with the Mong Bridge visible in the centre of the photograph.

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MONG BRIDGE [C୙u Móng]. This steel bridge, known as the Rainbow Bridge, was built in 1893–94 by the Public Works Service across the Ben Nghe Canal to help with the development of a new dock in what became the Khanh Hoi area (now District 4). Prior to the building of the bridge, there was a ferry, but after its construction, the Quai de Belgique (now Quai Chuong Duong) quickly developed into a business and residential area. The bridge is 7.6 metres wide and 371.2 metres long, and as a result it is only used by pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles. During the 1980s and 1990s, a small animal market emerged. It sold cats and dogs, as well as chickens and cockerels – the latter for cock fighting. It was also possible to get rarer animals, such as porcupines and pangolins. In the mid-2000s, with plans to improve rods in the area, the Thu Thiem Tunnel was built next to the Mong Bridge. This saw the closure of the animal market, but it was decided to save the Mong Bridge for pedestrians, but mainly because of its historical importance. References: ‘Gone is the market, but the bridge remains’, The Saigon Times (17 September 2009); Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 190–91.

MONTGUILLOT, MAURICE ANTOINE FRANÇOIS (1874–19 ). He was the acting governor general of French Indochina from May 1919 until February 1920, and then served as resident superieur in Tonkin. He was again acting governor general from April until November 1925 after the departure of Martial Merlin. As Montguillot was ‘associationalist’, the French writer André Malraux asked him whether he would allow for the publication of the newspaper L’Echo Annamite partly in Vietnamese. Montguillot refused. It was during this time that some Vietnamese nationalists planned to kill Montguillot and Maurice Cognacq when they were attending a parade in Saigon. However, the parade was cancelled and the assassination attempt never took place. Montguillot was acting governor general for a third time from January until August 1928. It appears that he died soon afterwards. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1220; Axel Madsden, Silk Roads: The Asian Adventures of Clara & André Malraux, New York: Pharos Books, 1989.

MORDANT, EUGÈNE (1885–1959). The commander of the French colonial forces in Indochina from 1940, in 1942 he had rallied to the Free French of Charles de Gaulle and had the task of organising the resistance in Indochina. He had not realised that the Japanese had completely infiltrated his network, he only discovered this in 1946 when the British started producing inventories of Japanese records held in Singapore. Charles de Gaulle appointed Mordant as his representative in Indochina, but he was arrested and jailed in the coup de force in March 1945. Released

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by the nationalist Chinese when they took control of northern Vietnam, he returned to France. References: Duong Van Mai Elliott, The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 109; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 241–42; Martin L. Mickelsen, ‘A mission of vengeance: Vichy French in Indochina in World War II’, Air Power History (Fall 2008); Eugène Mordant, Au service de la France en Indochine, 1941–1945, Saigon: Edition IFOM, 1950; Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 297; Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991, pp. 49, 158, 243.

MORETON, JOHN OSCAR (1917–2012). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, he was born on 28 December 1917, the son of Rev. C. O. Moreton and Margaret Katherine (née Fryer). Educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, and Trinity College, Oxford, he served in World War II in the Royal Artillery and then worked in the Colonial Office. This later merged with the Foreign Office and John Moreton was posted to Saigon, later being appointed British high commissioner to Malta 1972–74. Knighted, he retired to Cobham, Surrey, near London. He died on 14 October 2012. References: J. M. D. Gauntlett (ed.), The Roll of St Edward’s School 1863–1963, Oxford: St Edward’s School, 1963, p. 183; Who’s Who.

MOSSARD, LUCIEN-ÉMILE (1851–1920). The fourth vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina, he was born on 24 October 1851 in France and was ordained priest on 23 September 1876. He was appointed vicar apostolic on 11 February 1899 after the death of Bishop Jean-Marie Dépierre. He remained in office until his death on 11 February 1920. MUNICIPAL THEATRE. See Opera House. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. See Fine Arts Museum. MUSEUM OF HO CHI MINH CITY. See Gia Long Palace. MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY [Vi୹n B୕o tàng L୽ch sட Vi୹t Nam]. This museum was opened during the French colonial period and was known at that time as the Musée Blanchard de la Brossé, named after Paul Blanchard de la Brosse, the French governor of Cochinchina from 1926 until 1929. It was later renamed the National Museum of Viet Nam in Saigon, and in 1979 was renamed the Museum of Vietnamese History. The museum has artefacts and exhibits from the prehistoric period though to 1945, including some particularly valuable items from the Dong Son culture. It also has carvings from Champa and even from the Cambodian civilisation of Angkor, as well as many more mainstream Vietnamese historical items. There are also important findings from the archaeological site at Oc-Eo, which include two Roman coins showing indirect links between the Roman Empire and ancient Southeast Asia.

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The National Museum of Viet Nam in 1956.

References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 34–35; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 116–17; Iola Lenzi, Museums of Southeast Asia, Singapore: Archipelago Press, 2004, pp. 182–83; Kristin Kelly, The Extraordinary Museums of Southeast Asia, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001, pp. 201–207.

MUSLIMS. Since the first settlement of Prey Nokor, there has always been a Muslim community in the city, initially Malays, and later Chams and other Muslims. During the period of French rule, Muslims came to settle in Saigon, many being involved in trade. One of these was Noor Khan, who ran the Café Anglais – John Macgregor, a visiting British surgeon-major, noted in his account, published in 1896, that he had ‘one of the purest and best of Mohammedan names…[who] spoke English well…’ During the early twentieth century a number of mosques were built in Saigon, reflecting the continuing presence of significant and well-to-do Muslim communities. These include the Central Mosque, the Cholon Mosque, the Indian Jamia Muslim Mosque, and also nine others. Since the start of communist rule on 30 April 1975, many Muslims who had remained in Saigon fled, and the community shrank considerably. Since the late 1980s, there have been more Muslims living in the city, and many Muslim tourists to Ho Chi Minh City. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 95–96; John Macgreor, Through the Buffer States: Travels in Borneo, Siam, Cambodia, Malaya and Burma, London: F. V. White & Company, 1896.

N NAM CHON COMMUNAL HOUSE. This house dates from about 1850 and was built to accommodate migrants from Danang and Quang Ngai in Central Vietnam. It is mentioned in the Royal Decree of 1852 and was named after Nam Chon, who looked after the newly arrived migrants. It was restored to much of its former beauty in 1949 and is located in Tran Quang Khai (formerly Avenue Paul Bert). References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 62–63.

NAM KY UPRISING [Nam K஥ kh஑i nghëa]. This was an uprising by Vietnamese communists in Cochinchina in November 1940. It had been planned by the regional committee for Cochinchina of the Communist Party of Indochina (CPI) who hoped that the political unrest that resulted from conscription and also the defeat of France in Europe by the Germans might provide a good opportunity to push out the French. It coincided with much discontent from peasants in the Mekong Delta region, but the CPI’s central committee, holding its Seventh Plenum in Tonkin wanted the uprising delayed and sent messengers to the south to urge them to postpone their attacks on the French. These were arrested by the French and the revolt broke out in the Mekong Delta. Communists did manage to capture some villages, but the French were able to defeat the rebels and in the repression that followed, many communists were arrested, destroying much of the CPI’s network in Cochinchina, especially in Saigon. One of the main streets in Ho Chi Minh City was named Nam Ky Khoi Nghia. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 246.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY [Quஃc H஋i]. This is the supreme legislative body of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Established by decree in 1945, and confirmed by the Constitution of 1946, it is now ‘the highest organ of state power’. A unicameral assembly, its powers were confirmed in the new communist constitutions of 1959, 1980 and 1992. The assemblies meet in Hanoi – the fourth being from 1975 until 1976, the term in office of its 424 deputies being cut short to allow for new elections to cover all of Vietnam. Following the elections in 1976, some 243 deputies from the South (35 representing Saigon) 178

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The Opera House, later the Municipal Theatre, was the venue of the National Assembly of the Republic of Viet Nam.

and 249 from the North, met and established the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The National Assembly continued to meet at the Ba Dinh Hall in Hanoi until it was demolished in 2008 to make way for a new parliament house. However, during work on the site, some important archaeological remains were found and plans had to be changed. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 248–49.

NATIONAL BANK OF VIETNAM. The headquarters of the Bank of Indochina under the French, the large and impressive colonnaded building was designed by the architect Félix Dumail (1883–1955) and built in 1930 on what was then Quai de Belgique (now Ben Chong Duong). It was made using granite quarried from Bien Hoa and was partly inspired by Cham and also Khmer architecture, the interior being largely Art Deco. After independence, the National Bank of Vietnam was the central bank of the Republic of Vietnam. In July 1976 it was formally merged into the State Bank of Vietnam, which has its headquarters at Hanoi. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 30; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 124–25.

NATIONAL FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF SOUTH VIETNAM [Mt trn Dân tc Gii phóng min Nam Vi t Nam]. Formally established

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The National Museum of Viet Nam in 1956.

in December 1960 in a secret location close to the Cambodian border, and hence not that far from Saigon, it brought together a range of groups who were opposed to the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Officially it was not communist, including South Vietnamese from a range of backgrounds and political complexions. However it was soon clear that it was controlled by communists, with many arguing that this had always been the case since its foundation. The front served to some extent as a rival government to that of the Republic of Vietnam, with the People’s Liberation Armed Forces serving as its armed wing. The NFL was superseded by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam in 1969. See also Viet Cong. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 250–51; Douglas Pike, Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1966.

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NAVELLE, AUGUSTE EUGÈNE (1846–19 ). The acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 15 January 1888 until 12 April the same year, he took over from Ernest Constans, and was replaced by Augustin Julien Fourès. He was then appointed director of Local Services in Cochinchina from 3 August until 25 August 1888, and acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 25 March 1894 until 5 August 1895. Born in 1846, he was the son of Pierra Gabriel Navelle. On 25 March 1877 he issued banns to marry Marie Joséphine Bonnesseur. Further banns were issued on 7 April 1901. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1211.

NEWPORT BRIDGE. This bridge on the northern outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City connects the city with Bien Hoa. There was fighting there in May 1968; and on 28 April 1975, communist soldiers reached the bridge, signifying the inevitable defeat of the Republic of Vietnam. References: Alan Dawson, 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam, New York: Prentice-Hall, 1977, p. 316; Keith William Nolan, House to House: Playing the Enemy’s Game in Saigon, May 1968, St Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, 2006, pp. 51, 115–16, 211.

NEWSPAPERS. The first modern newspaper in Saigon in Vietnamese was the Gia Dinh Bao (‘Journal of Gia Dinh’), which was published in the city from April 1865. It was established by Paulus Huynh Tinh Cua (1834–1907). The plan was to promote the quoc ngu (the romanized Vietnamese script) to the general public. It was four pages long and contained official announcements, important news items, and agricultural news. It later included historical essays, poems and accounts of Vietnamese legends. Published twice a month until 1869, it was then issued three times each week. In the early twentieth century the French introduced strict regulations so that each newspaper would need a license showing that it was owned by French citizens and had authorization. However, there were many papers published. La Dépêche d’Indochine was always popular, and there were a range of nationalist papers, La Tribune Indigène (from 1917), L’Echo Annamite (from 1919), La Cloche Fêlée (from 1923) and Duoc Nha Vietnam (‘Vietnamese Torch’). There was also the leftwing Bulletin Socialiste de la Cochinchine. The newspaper La Lutte was largely the work of Vietnamese intellectuals, some of whom were Trotskyites, and others more clearly communist. Trung Lap Bao (‘Neutral News’) managed to sell 15,000 copies each day. The newspaper Presse Indochinoise supported petty bourgeois radicalism. Many of these papers catered for the Francophone Vietnamese middle class and articles critical of the French were relatively mild. From 1936 with the establishment of the Popular Front government in France, some more intensely anti-colonial papers started to appear. After World War II, there was a manjor change in the newspapers in the country, with a large number of anti-communist papers, of which the most

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important were Chinh Luan (‘Right Opinion’), with a circulation of 20,000, and Dan Chu (‘Democracy’), with a circulation of 10,000. Both were widely read by the Saigon elite and opinion makers in the capital. Also important were Dan Chung (‘The Mass’) which had a circulation of 6,000 and was generally pro-government; and Ngay Nay (‘Today’) which was heavily read in Buddhist circles, and had a circulation of 22,000. The more politically active Buddhists tended to read Tin Sang (‘Morning News’). The most avidly pro-US paper was Tu Do (‘Freedom’) which had a circulation of 12,000, the same number of copies sold as Xay Dung (‘Construction’), read by the Catholics. Amongst the Chinese community in Cholon, Yuen Tung (‘Far East’), with a circulation of 16,000, was the most popular and influential Chinese paper, having first been published in 1939. In 1963 two English-language newspapers started publication: Saigon Post and Saigon Daily News with circulations of

Newspapers available in Saigon in 1956.

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6,000 and 4,000 respectively. Both were important, as they were heavily read by foreigners in Saigon, especially foreign journalists, with the latter having many US syndicated news stories. After the communists took control of Saigon, they closed down the newspapers and there is essentially one communist paper in the city, Sai Gon Giai Phong, the organ of the Ho Chi Minh City Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, founded in 1975, with a circulation of 100,000 copies. There is also the Saigon Times, founded in 1991, published in Vietnamese, England and French. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 286–89; Pierre Cenerelli, Revisions of Empire: The French Media and the Indochina War, 1946–1954, PhD thesis, Brandeis University, 2000; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 185–87, 220–21; Anne Raffin, Youth Mobilization in Vichy Indochina and its Legacies, 1940 to 1970, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005, p. 45; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 82–83, 97.

NGHIA AN HOI QUAN PAGODA [Chùa Nghëa An h஋i quán; 㕽ᅝ᳗ 仼䭶Ᏹᒳ]. Located in Cholon and constructed by the Chaozhou Chinese Congregation, this pagoda is noted for the quality of its gilded woodwork. Over the entrance there is a large model of a wooden boat showing the journey that the Chinese made to Vietnam, and inside the doorway, on the left, is a larger than life-size statue of the red horse of Quan Cong with his groom. The statue of Quan Cong himself is located behind the great altar – it is now in a glass case to protect it, and on either side are statues of General Chau Xuong and the mandarin Quan Binh. In the roof decorations, models of fish, sheep and peacocks have been incorporated into the design. On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, there is dancing outside the pagoda, with offerings made to the spirits. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 285; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 89; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 362.

NGO DINH DIEM [Ngô Ðình Di୹m] (1901–1963). The leader of the State of Vietnam from 1954 until 1955, and the president of the Republic of Vietnam from then until his assassination on 2 November 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was born on 3 January 1901 in Hue, the son of Ngo Dinh Kha, a mandarin at the Vietnamese Imperial Court and later headmaster of the National Academy in Hue. The family was devoutly Roman Catholic. After his schooling, Ngo Dinh Diem briefly trained in a monastery, and then left to go to the School of Public Administration and Law in Hanoi. He then joined the civil service, initially working at the Imperial Library and by the age of 25 was a provincial chief. He was made governor of Binh Thuan Province in 1930, and in 1933, when Bao Dai returned to Vietnam to end the regency and become emperor in his own right, Diem became the interior minister. However,

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Ngo Dinh Diem, front, centre.

he disagreed with the French and after his plans to establish a Vietnamese legislature were shelved, he resigned from office and lived in Hue where he became a scholar. Moving to Saigon in 1945, the Japanese offered to make him the premier under the nominally independent Bao Dai government. He rejected this and in the August Revolution he urged Bao Dai not to support Ho Chi Minh. Back in Saigon, initially living with his older brother Ngo Dinh Thuc, he formed the

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Vietnam National Alliance and tried to get the French to grant Vietnam some form of ‘dominion status’, as operated in the British Empire. Leaving Saigon, Diem went to Europe and obtained an audience with Pope Pius XII and then went to the United States where he lived at the Maryknoll Seminary of Cardinal Spellman, meeting with some US legislators and soon becoming recognised by them as a person who might be able to stop the communists taking over the whole of Vietnam. As a result, towards the end of the Geneva Conference, Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed by Bao Dai as the prime minister of the State of Vietnam. Diem then returned to Saigon on 26 June 1954 to formally take up the role. His arrival at Tan Son Nhut Airport was low-key with a few hundred mainly Roman Catholic supporters there to cheer him. As refugees from North Vietnam fled south, Ngo Dinh Diem had the task of maintaining the administration and preventing the communists from overwhelming all of Vietnam. Diem took over control of the Vietnamese National Army, his first task being to sack General Nguyen Van Hinh, the commander. He then ended up trying to retake control of Saigon which was partly under the control of the Binh Xuyen. Elsewhere, his forces fought the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao. The French disliked Diem and hoped that he would fail, but using his power network and support from his family, he managed to force Hinh to leave Vietnam, and destroyed the power of the sects. From 30 April 1955, sidelining Bao Dai, Ngo Dinh Diem was the acting chief of state of the State of Vietnam, and on 23 October 1955 he held a referendum to get rid of Bao Dai. He won a sweeping majority, with an official count of 98.2 per cent of the vote, and this included 605,025 votes in Saigon, although, apparently there were only 450,000 registered voters. In spite of these irregularities, there is no doubt that Diem had much popularity in the State of Vietnam, especially in Saigon, where many people were angered by the policy which Bao Dai adopted, leaving the city in the hands of the Binh Xuyen. On 26 October 1955, the Republic of Vietnam – known around the world as South Vietnam – came into being, with Ngo Dinh Diem as its first president. For a while there was no constitution and no legislature, leaving him in firm control of the new country. In 1956, the elections which were scheduled to be held in Vietnam under the terms of the 1954 Geneva Accords were not held. Diem pointed out that South Vietnam had never agreed to hold them, and that without the ability of

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non-communists to campaign freely in North Vietnam, any referendum or elections would be meaningless. The result was that North Vietnam did not hold elections either. During the 1950s, Ngo Dinh Diem provided a major degree of certainty for the people in Saigon and elsewhere in the Republic of Vietnam. Diem’s removal of the power of the Binh Xuyen and his improvement of government services, particularly education and health care, were also welcomed by many people. In the country areas, his land reform programme did gain some measure of support, although some Americans claimed that it never went as far as it should have gone. There were some political opponents, such as Phan Quang Dan, who ran against candidates from Diem’s Can Lao Party during the legislative assembly elections held in August 1959. He was commorated on a series of postage stamps issued in 1956, and another series issued on 29 April 1961. Diem’s rule had led to a low-level insurgency, which was reflected in the emergence of communist resistance. On 20 December 1960, this resistance led to the formation of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. It included a number of non-communist nationalists who were opposed to Diem, but was always dominated by communists. In the countryside, to combat this, Diem’s younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu introduced the strategic hamlets programme based on the successful New Villages constructed by the British in Malaya. There was a coup attempt against Ngo Dinh Diem on 11 November 1960. The rebel officers who staged it failed to block the main roads to Saigon, allowing Diem to bring in loyalist soldiers. The coup attempt failed, but two years later two dissident Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence Palace on 27 February 1962, badly damaging it and nearly killing members of Diem’s family, notably Mme Nhu. The palace sustained structural damage and was rebuilt, and renamed in 1976 the Reunification Palace. With the palace so badly damaged, Diem moved the presidential office to the Gia Long Palace and lived there until his overthrow in the following year. In the summer of 1963 there were Buddhist protests against Diem and these led to the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on 11 June 1963. He was a Buddhist monk who was involved in one of the demonstrations. Press coverage of this event appeared in newspapers around the world. It was followed, on 21 August, by a series of raids on pagodas throughout the Republic of Vietnam, particularly the Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon. Morris West, in his novel, The Ambassador (1965), described President Cung (clearly modelled on Diem) as ‘an able politician…[who] had lost the sympathy of the city dwellers and lacked the personality to rally the country folk. He had withdrawn into isolation and surrounded himself with sycophants who justified his most extreme follies’. Later in the book, he is portrayed as a

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competent, well-informed and reflective ruler who has to preside over a country at war, with protests threatening to bring down the government. These Buddhist protests led to a number of senior Buddhist generals plotting for the overthrow of Diem. They managed to get support from the US Embassy, in particular Lucien Conein from the Central Intelligence Agency. On 1 November 1963, General Duong Van Minh and others launched their coup. Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu were in the Gia Long Palace and they anticipated the coup. Indeed, Nhu had devised Operation Bravo, which would lead to the coup, and then the two brothers would leave Saigon, rally loyal troops and return following a top secret Operation Bravo II. They managed to escape through an underground passage to a safe house, from where they escaped to Cholon. There they found that the officers entrusted with Operation Bravo II had either turned on them or had been killed. On the following day, 2 November, Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu went to the Cha Tam Church in Cholon, dedicated to François Xavier Tam Assoa. They both attended a mass, took communion and on emerging they were herded into the back or an armoured personnel carrier and taken to Saigon. On the way, both were murdered. Initially, Duong Van Minh and others claimed that the brothers had committed suicide. This was widely disbelieved, especially when it became clear that Diem and Nhu had been shot and stabbed a large number of times.

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Although the United States government had real differences with the Diem government, John F. Kennedy was shocked by the news of Diem’s murder and Mme Nhu predicted that the US experience in Vietnam would get far worse. US intervention in the overthrow of a constitutional government led to a period of great instability in the Republic of Vietnam and the eventual defeat of that country in war. Ho Chi Minh recognised this and remarked, ‘Diem was one of the most competent lackeys of the US imperialists.’ Mme Nhu stated at the time, ‘if the news is true, if really my family has been treacherously killed with either official or unofficial blessings of the American government, I can predict to you all that the story in Vietnam is only at its beginning.’ References: Asia Who’s Who 1957, Hong Kong: Pan-Asia Newspaper Alliance, 1957, p. 350; Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Anthony T. Bouscaren, Last of the Mandarins: Diem of Vietnam, Duquesne University Press, 1965; Philip E. Catton, Diem’s Final Failure: Prelude to America's War in Vietnam, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 131; Eight Years of the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration, Saigon, 1962; James T. Fisher, ‘The Second Catholic President: Ngo Dinh Diem, John F. Kennedy, and the Vietnam Lobby, 1954–1963’, US Catholic Historian (Summer 1997): pp. 119–37; Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967; Ellen J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987; Hoang Ngoc Thanh and Than Thi Nhan Duc, President Ngo Dinh Diem and the US: His Overthrow and Assassination, San Jose: Tuan-Yen and Quan-Viet Mai-Nam Publishers, 2001; Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Seth Jacobs, ‘Sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem’: Religion, Orientalism, and United States intervention in Vietnam, 1950–1957, PhD thesis, Northwestern University, 2000; Seth Jacobs, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950–1957, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004; Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Peter Kross, ‘The Assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 17, no. 3 (October 2004): pp. 34ff.; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 255–57; Edward Miller, ‘Vision, Power and Agency: The Ascent of Ngo Dinh Diem, 1945–1954’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 35, no. 3 (October 2004): pp. 433–58; Edward Garvey Miller, Grand Designs: Vision, Power and Nation Building in America’s Alliance with Ngo Dinh Diem, 1954–1960, PhD thesis, Harvard University, 2004; Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006; ‘Ngo Dinh Diem’, Current Biography March 1955, January 1964; Colonel Herbert Y. Schandler, ‘Ngo Dinh Diem: Washington’s Frankenstein Monster?’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 19, no. 3 (October 2006): pp. 32ff.; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, chapter 7; Denis Warner, The Last Confucian. New York: Macmillan, 1963.

NGO DINH NHU [Ngô Ðình Nhu] (1910–1963). The younger brother and senior political adviser to Ngo Dinh Diem during Diem presidency from 1955 until 1963, Ngo Dinh Nhu was born on 7 October 1910 in Central Vietnam, his father being a former court mandarin and devout Roman Catholic who had retired from court politics to become a school headmaster. Ngo Dinh Nhu studied literature in Paris and then continued his studies in palaeography and librarianship, also becoming influenced by the concept of Personalism as expounded by the Catholic progressive thinker Emmanuel Mounier. He returned to Vietnam around the start of World War II, and worked at the National Library in Hanoi, marrying Tran Le Xuan in 1943 – she converted to Roman Catholicism to marry him.

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With the rise to power of his older brother Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954, Nhu started to help establish the Can Lao Party, also known as the Personalist Labour Party, to harness support for the family. When Diem became president of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Nhu and his wife lived in the Presidential Palace (now Reunification Palace) and later the Gia Long Palace, and were active in the political machinations until Diem and Nhu were killed in 1963. Nhu held no official position, but was in charge of the special forces, and his advice was always sought by his brother. In the 1959, legislative elections were held in the Republic of Vietnam and Nhu was elected, but apparently never attended any of the sessions. His main attention was spent on planning how to retain political power, and also, from 1962, the Strategic Hamlet Program, which was modelled on the creation of the New Villages in Malaya. The New Villages were credited with assuring the British of victory during the Malayan Emergency. There were 97 groups and 18 inter-groups established in the Saigon Prefecture, accommodating a total of some 250,000 people. In the Buddhist Crisis of 1963, Nhu’s Special Forces were heavily involved in attacking the Buddhists in Hue, and later in the Xa Loi Pagoda attack on 21 August 1963. Much of the anger at the Diem government was specifically aimed at Nhu, but Diem always recognised the importance of Nhu in the family maintaining their position. US president John F. Kennedy, in an interview, sent a subtle message to Diem urging him to get rid of Nhu, and when this did not eventuate, he gave US support to the coup that was launched on 1 November 1963. Expecting the coup, Nhu had planned Operation Bravo whereby the coup plotters would be able to take control of the city and then, in a secret twist, he and loyalist soldiers would seize back control, having flushed all the regime’s enemies into the open. However, when Diem and Nhu fled the Gia Long Palace when it was attached on 1 November, after arriving at Cholon, they soon found that they had been betrayed. Diem and Nhu then went to the church of François Xavier Tam Assoa – the Cha Tam Church, in Cholon, where after communion they surrendered to rebel soldiers whom they had notified about their plans to surrender. Taken away in an armoured car, both Diem and Nhu were killed – Nhu being stabbed with a bayonet up to twenty times. References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Philip E. Catton, ‘Counter-Insurgency and Nation Building: The Strategic Hamlet Programme in South Vietnam, 1961–1963’, International History Review, vol. 21, no. 4 (December 1999): pp. 918–40; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 131–32; Eight Years of the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration, Saigon, 1962, p. 236f.; Bernard Fall, The Two Vietnams, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967; Ellen

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J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987; Hoang Ngoc Thanh and Than Thi Nhan Duc, President Ngo Dinh Diem and the US: His Overthrow and Assassination, San Jose: Tuan-Yen and Quan-Viet Mai-Nam Publishers, 2001; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 257.

NGO DINH NHU, Mme [Tr୙n L୹ Xuân] (1924–2011). The de facto first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 until 1963, Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu was born as Tran Le Xuan on 22 August 1924 at Hanoi, the daughter of Tran Van Chuong and his wife Than Thi Nam Tran, a granddaughter of Emperor Dong Khanh. Educated at Lycée Albert Sarraut, she was eighteen when she married Ngo Dinh Nhu, fourteen years her senior. Converting to Roman Catholicism, she was captured by the communists along with her motherin-law and eldest daughter. The Viet Minh later released them and she and her husband moved to Hanoi, where Nhu worked in the National Library, before moving to Dalat. When Mme Nhu’s brother-in-law Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed prime minister of the State of Vietnam, the Nhus moved to Saigon to work with him in the running of the country. As Diem was unmarried, Mme Nhu became the first lady, and she became active in social reform movements, advocating strict morality laws. Mme Nhu supported laws to end divorce, adultery, contraception and abortion. She had dance halls, brothels and opium dens closed, and also campaigned against cock fighting and other forms of animal baiting. She also celebrated the Trung Sisters, who had fought for Vietnamese independence from China in AD 43. A statue of them, partly modelled on her, was constructed in Saigon. In the 1959 legislative elections Mme Nhu won a seat in the new parliament. Soon Mme Nhu was being criticised by the foreign press. The French journalist François Sully wrote that she was ‘conceited, and obsessed with a drive for power that far surpasses that of even her husband… It is no exaggeration to say that Madame Nhu is the most detested personality in South Vietnam’. This saw Sully expelled from the country. Mme Nhu’s combative style saw her openly criticise the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on 11 June 1963 and referring to her death as a ‘barbecue’. She was on a tour of the United States when her brother-in-law and husband were overthrown and killed on 2 November 1963. One of her children was with her in California, and the other three were allowed to leave Vietnam for Rome, where she joined them.

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Very critical of the US role in the death of her husband and brother-in-law, she predicted that what was happening in Vietnam would get worse and noted ‘Judas has sold the Christ for thirty pieces of silver. The Ngo brothers have been sold for a few dollars.’ She spent most of the rest of her life in Rome, and spent some time in France. She died on 24 April 2011 in Rome. Before she died she had written her memoirs, which were to be published posthumously. References: Peter Brush, ‘Rise and Fall of the Dragon Lady’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 22, no. 3 (October 2009): pp. 32–37; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 136–37; Joseph R. Gregory, ‘Madame Nhu – Vietnam War Lightning Rod, Dies’, The New York Times (26 April 2011); Ellen J. Hammer, A Death in November: America in Vietnam, 1963, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1987; Hoang Ngoc Thanh and Than Thi Nhan Duc, President Ngo Dinh Diem and the US: His Overthrow and Assassination, San Jose: Tuan-Yen and Quan-Viet Mai-Nam Publishers, 2001; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 376; Robert Templer, ‘Madame Nhu’, The Guardian (26 April 2011), republished as ‘South Vietnam’s Joan of Arc really Lucrezia Borgia’, The Age (3 May 2011): p. 18.

NGUYEN AN NINH [Nguy୷n An Ninh] (1900–1943). A revolutionary and writer, he was born on 5 September 1900 in Cholon, the son of Nguyen An Khuong, who was also an anti-French activist, having supported the Can Vuong (‘Save the King’) movement. Educated at École Taberd, he then went to College My Tho and then Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don). When he was only fifteen he started work on the newspaper Le Courrier Saigonnais. His initial plan was to have a career in medicine, but then decided to change to read law, going to France and studying at the University of Paris, completing his doctorate on the social contract of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Repudiating violence, he was influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and also Rabindanath Tagore. Back in Saigon, in 1924 he established the newspaper La Cloche Fêlée which was opposed to French colonialism, and in the following year he went to France. Returning to Saigon, he married for a second time – having divorced his first wife whom he met in France. He continued his political activism and on 21 March 1926 he urged people to oppose French colonialism. Arrested on 24 March, he was jailed for eighteen months for calling on people to riot in an article in La Cloche Fêlée. He was released after ten months but in September 1928 he was again jailed for organising a group called ‘The Hopes of Youth’ to oppose the French. His third jail sentence was in April 1936 when he attacked the French in the newspaper La Lutte. Although sentenced to another eighteen months in prison, he was released at the end of the year with the new Popular Front government in France eager to establish more political calm. However in July 1937 he was rearrested for his role in an anti-French demonstration in Can Long. After his release, he was again arrested on 5 October 1939 and sentenced to five years in jail, and ten years in exile after he urged a revolt against the French. He died on 14 August 1943 in the prison at Poulo Condore.

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References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 260–61; Philippe M. F. Peycam The Birth of Vietnamese Political Journalism: Saigon, 1916– 1930, New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

NGUYEN BA CAN [Nguy୷n Bá C୛n] (1930–2009). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 4 until 24 April 1975, Nguyen Ba Can was born on 9 September 1930 in Cantho. His family were wealthy farmers and he chose to train as a reservist in the army. He then attended the National School of Administration from 1954 until 1957, when he graduated. In December 1950 he had married Elizabeth Nguyen Thi Tu, a Roman Catholic, and they had a son and two daughters. He was the district chief of Cai Be district, Dinh Tuong, in 1958, and then deputy governor of Dinh Tuong from 1959, deputy governor of Phuoc Tuy from 1962, and deputy governor of Long An from 1964. In 1967, Nguyen Ba Can was elected to the National Assembly, representing Dinh Tuong, and was then elected as second vice president of the Assembly. In late 1967 he helped establish the Social Democratic Block in the parliament with Senator Dang Van Sung. When he was re-elected in 1971, he was the elected as speaker. On 4 April 1975, with the collapse of South Vietnam’s forces, he was appointed as prime minister, taking over from Tran Thien Khiem. His task was to head a ‘Government of National Unity’ in the hope of trying to bring together the disparate political forces in Saigon. With the resignation of President Nguyen Van Thieu on 21 April, his government collapsed and he submitted his resignation on 24 April. However, President Tran Van Huong refused to accept the resignation until 28 April. On the morning of 27 April, he met with Tran Van Huong about handing over power to Duong Van Minh and how to achieve the support of the National Assembly and the Senate to do so in a constitutional fashion. By the end of the meeting, it was possible to hear communist artillery firing at Saigon. That afternoon, the parliamentarians met and executive authority was handed over to Duong Van Minh. Nguyen Ba Can organised for his wife and their youngest daughter to leave on the last Air France flight to Paris, which left Saigon on 26 April. Two days later, Nguyen Ba Can left for the Philippines, and from there to the United States. His wife and daughter were allowed to join him and he started running a petrol station at Mountain View, but he had to close it down three months later with mounting debts. Aged 46, he retrained as a computer programmer and worked for Standard Oil, Chevron Texaco and then for Computer Department, retiring in 1998. He died on 20 May 2009 in San Jose, California. References: David Lan Pham, Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940–1986, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008, p. 153; Lam Quang Thi, The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon, Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2001, p. 372; Nguyen Ba Can, Dat nuoc toi [My Country], San José, Calif: Hoa Hao Press, 2003; Nguyen Xuan Phong, Hope and Vanquished Reality, New York: Center for A Science of Hope, 2001, pp. 45, 329.

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NGUYEN BINH [Nguyên Bình] (1906–1951). One of the main commanders of the Viet Minh in Cochinchina, he was born Nguyen Phuong Thao in 1906 and became interested in communism when talking to other prisoners after he was jailed at Poulo Condore Island. On his release, he headed to China, returning to Vietnam around the time of the August Revolution. After training in the north, he replaced Tran Van Giau as the Viet Minh commander in the south. The French were worried by Nguyen Binh’s ability to mobilise soldiers and the cruelty and fanaticism which he frequently displayed. He also did not always obey commands from the Communist Party leadership. However, his early tasks were fighting the militia from the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao. In 1951 he was dismissed and recalled to the North – the defeat of the Viet Minh in the previous year being the cited reason. Killed in an ambush in Cambodia, it was long believed that he was assassinated by orders of the Viet Minh leadership. References: Hilaire du Berrier, Background to Betrayal: The Tragedy of Vietnam, Boston: Western Islands, 1965, pp. 60, 68f.; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 261; Martin Windrow, The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004, pp. 85, 95, 115, 143–45.

NGUYEN CAO KY [Nguy୷n Cao K஥] (1930–2011). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 1965 until 1967, and then vice president of the country until 1971, Nguyen Cao Ky was born on 8 September 1930 in Son Tay, Tonkin, in northern Vietnam. Joining the Vietnamese National Army of the pro-French State of Vietnam, he was an infantry officer and then the French trained him as a pilot in Morocco, gaining his pilot’s wings on 15 September 1954. During his time in France, he married a Frenchwoman and they had five children; but they were divorced in the late 1950s. With his second wife, Mai, they had one child. Nguyen Cao Ky in 1967. With the partition of Vietnam in 1954, he was posted to the Vietnam Air Force, and put in charge of Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. Studying at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Field, Alabama, he was one of those who took part in the November 1963 coup d’état which deposed Ngo Dinh Diem. He was then promoted to air marshal. However, Ky was dissatisfied with the new government of Duong Van Minh, and he helped General Nguyen Khanh stage a coup, which deposed Minh on 30 January 1964. Ky had close links with the US military establishment

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in Vietnam and it was through him that the US were able to diffuse the coup attempt launched by General Lam Van Phat and General Duong Van Duc on 13 September 1964. The plotters had expected him to help them, but he did not do so. On 19 December 1964, Ky was again involved in a coup. This brought him into an alliance with General Nguyen Van Thieu, and the two backed Khanh to try to retire some generals and replace them with younger officers. Ky and Thieu and their supporters came to be known as the ‘Young Turks’. After taking power, a military junta was established, with Tran Van Huong becoming prime minister. In February 1965 there was another coup plot, with Ky again implicated. When troops came to arrest him, he, his wife, who was a former flight attendant with Air Viet Nam, and his mother-in-law fled in a sports car for the safety of Tan Son Nhut Airport. The United States decided to support Ky, resulting in another coup attempt on 20 May. On 19 June 1965, Ky was appointed prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam, serving under Nguyen Van Thieu, who was expected to be a figurehead president. Thieu and Ky clamped down on press freedom and in March 1966 they dismissed General Nguyen Chanh Thi, resulting in a Buddhist Uprising. Ky was able to get enough support to remain in power, and backing from the US, who saw him as the most effective person to battle the communists. Firmly in control, Ky took part in a number of visits overseas, including ones to Australia and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Flamboyantly dressed, often in flying suits, with his wife often similarly dressed, he lived a fast lifestyle, with girlfriends and gambling. In 1967, with elections for a new president, Ky endorsed Nguyen Van Thieu, who was duly elected with Ky as his vice president. He stepped down as prime minister on 31 October, to become vice president. He built for himself a headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Airport, but Thieu started eroding his support, managing to replace many of Ky’s allies in the overhaul of the South Vietnamese armed forces which followed the Tet Offensive of 30–31 January 1968. Ky became alienated from Thieu and planned to run against his former ally in the 1971 presidential elections. However, he realised that he would not win, as Thieu controlled the political system, and he was marginalised. However, he remained in Saigon until just before the fall of the city to the communists in April 1975. Leaving on the USS Blue Ridge, he ran a liquor store at Westminster, California. In exile, he wrote two autobiographies: How We Lost the Vietnam War, and Buddha’s Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam. Both served to justify Ky’s role in his political battles with Thieu. In 2004 Ky returned to Vietnam in a move which was denounced by anticommunists. This made him the first major South Vietnamese leader to return to Vietnam after reunification, and he established a business encouraging foreign investors, settling permanently in Vietnam. In a reflective look back on

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the Vietnam War, he said ‘That war was instigated by foreigners, it was brothers killing each other under the arrangements by foreign countries’, and that ‘in another 100 years, the Vietnamese will look back at the war and feel shameful. We should not dwell on it as it will not do any good for Vietnam’s future. My main concern at the moment is Vietnam’s position on the world map.’ He added, ‘I’m an old man now, so I have decided to dedicate to my country all that I have left to contribute – my mind, my health, my wisdom. I just want to help.’ Nguyen Cao Ky died on 23 July 2011 at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur where he was being treated for respiratory problems. He had been a smoker for much of his life. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 132; Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, New York: Penguin Books, 1997; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 262; Nguyen Cao Ky, How We Lost the Vietnam War, New York: Stein & Day, 1979; Nguyen Cao Ky with Marvin J. Wolf, Buddha’s Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam, New York: St Martin’s Press, 2002; ‘Nguyen Cao Ky’, Current Biography December 1966; Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945–1965, London: Andre Deutsch, 1966; Brian VanDeMark, Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1967; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 403–5; David Wurfel, ‘The Saigon Political Elite: Focus on Four Cabinets’, Asian Survey, vol. 7, no. 8 (August 1967): pp. 527–39.

NGUYEN DINH CHIEU [Nguy୷n Ðình Chi୵u; 䰂ᓋ⊐] (1822–1888). A prominent poet, he was born on 1 July 1822 in the province of Gia Dinh, close to Saigon, his father having been in the service of the Nguyen emperors at Hue, before being posted to the south to work under Le Van Duyet. Nguyen Dinh Chieu passed the imperial examinations in 1843 in Saigon, and then went to Hue three years later to sit the main imperial examinations. With the death of his mother, he returned to Saigon but soon lost his sight after the development of an eye infection. He ran a small school and also practised medicine. However with the arrival of the French he fled the region for the Mekong Delta. After the Treaty of Saigon and the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, he remained with the rebels and wrote poetry which was critical both of the French and also of the Vietnamese who supported them or who had converted to Roman Catholicism. His poetry remained influential in the Mekong Delta region where he lived in exile for nineteen years. He died on 3 July 1888 at Ba Tri, in Ben Tre. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 264; David G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925, Berkeley: University of California, 1970, p. 37f.; Mark McLeod, ‘Truong Dinh and Vietnamese anti-colonialism, 1859–64: a reappraisal’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 24, no. 1 (March 1993): pp. 88–106.

NGUYEN DINH QUAT [Nguy୷n Ðình Quát] (1916–2007). A wealthy rubber plantation owner and businessman, he contested the 1961 presidential elections against Ngo Dinh Diem and received 268,668 votes (as compared with 5,997,927 for Diem). His vice presidential running mate was Nguyen Thanh

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Phuong, a former commander of the Cao Dai militia. Born on 31 December 1916, he had become very wealthy during the last years of French rule and it was reported that this came as a result of large construction contracts he had secured for their bases in North Vietnam, but with the Geneva Partition, did not get around to completing them. He died on 30 April 2007 in Long Beach, California. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1140; David Lan Pham, Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940–1986, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008, p. 93.

NGUYEN HUE [Nguy୷n Hu୹]. Previously known as Boulevard Charner during the French period, this street in Saigon was often called the ‘Champs Elysées of the East’ at a time when Saigon itself was known as the ‘Paris of the East’. The Hôtel de Ville (now the People’s Committee Building) is located on this street. The street was subsequently named Nguyen Hue after the leader of the Tay Son Rebellion. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 75–76; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 268–69.

NGUYEN HUU THO [Nguy୷n H஡u Th୿] (1910– 1996). The final prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam, from 30 April 1975 until Vietnamese Reunification on 2 July 1976. Nguyen Huu Tho was born on 10 July 1910 in Ben Luc district in the Mekong delta region near Saigon. Trained as a lawyer in France, he practised in Cochinchina and joined the Communist Party of Indochina in 1949 after having been active in the French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO). Nguyen Huu Tho was arrested by the French in 1950 and held by them for two years. Supporting the Geneva Peace Agreements, he founded the Committee in Defense of the Peace and the Geneva Agreements, a nominally non-communist political group formed in Saigon in August 1954. Its aim was to get support for the holding of a nationwide referendum in 1956. His political involvement led to Nguyen Huu Tho being arrested and held in prison until he managed to escape in 1961. Nominated as the Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL), Nguyen Huu Tho was the titular head of the NFL, and then in 1969 became the chairman of the Consultative Council of its successor, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.

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When the communists captured Saigon on 30 April 1975, Nguyen Huu Tho became the titular head of the Republic of Vietnam until the referendum on Reunification in the following year – in an effort by the communists to show that the Vietnam War had been a civil war and the NFL was a genuinely southern-inspired movement. Greatly respected in communist circles, Nguyen Huu Tho became a vice president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam until Ton Duc Thang’s death, whereupon he became the acting president of Vietnam from 30 March 1980 until 4 July 1981, when Truong Chinh took over. Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1983, he died on 24 December 1996. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 269; Denis Warner, ‘Statesman was thrust into revolution’, The Australian (6 February 1997): p. 12.

NGUYEN KHANH [Nguy୷n Khánh] (1927–2013). One of the leading politicians in the Republic of Vietnam during the mid-1960s, and variously president and prime minister in 1964, Nguyen Khanh was born on 8 November 1927 in Travinh, west of Saigon. His father was a wealthy land owner and his mother worked in Dalat, where she ran a nightclub which was popular with the French. Khanh went to school in Saigon and in 1945 he and some of his school friends joined the Viet Minh, eager to end French colonial rule in Vietnam. Later in 1945, Nguyen Khanh left the Viet Minh and joined the French. He had initially been swept up in the euphoria which surrounded the August Revolution of 1945 and then gradually found that the nationalist movement was dominated by the communists. He went to France and trained at the French Military Academy at St Cyr, and then at the École des Troupes Aéroportées before returning to Vietnam, where he attended the Vien Dong (Dap Da) Military Academy. Soon afterwards he became an officer in the Vietnamese National Army, fighting the Viet Minh. In the later period of the First Indochina War, from 1949, he was in command of the 1st Airborne Unit of the Vietnamese National Army and was under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. He was involved in the parachute attack on Hoa Binh, and in 1955, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, appointed him commander of the newly created Vietnam Air Force. Sent to the United States to train at Fort Leavenworth and then at Okinawa, Khanh was the secretary general of the Ministry of Defence in 1959, and in the following year, as major general, he was appointed as chief of staff of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. In the November 1960 coup attempt against Ngo Dinh Diem, some of the paratroopers rebelled against the government and Khanh was involved in negotiations, persuading a few rebels to accept concessions from Diem. It was later claimed that Khanh was probably sympathetic to the coup plotters but

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realised that they would fail. Then after some political manoeuvres in the Central Highlands with the Montagnards, he played a minor role in the November 1963 coup which saw the overthrow of Diem. Not appointed to the new twelve-man Military Revolutionary Council, he was given command of the II Corps in the Central Highlands, and decided to try to seize power himself. In December 1963 Khanh was approached by other generals and started plotting to overthrow Duong Van Minh. His troops surrounded Tan Son Nhut Air Base in the early morning of 30 January and Khanh became the president of the Republic of Vietnam, holding that position until 8 February 1964. The next year was full of political manoeuvring and coup attempts. Khanh became prime minister until 29 August 1964, having become president again from 16 until 27 August, when he was a member of the Provisional Leadership Committee, holding that position until 8 September 1964. On 3 September he had become prime minister again, until 4 November. These constant changes of government – both leadership and ministerial changes – annoyed the United States and at the same time allowed the Vietnamese communists to consolidate their advances. Finally, to get Khanh out of the country, he was appointed ambassador-at-large and went to New York to attend a session of the United Nations. After the communists took control of Saigon on 30 April 1975, Khanh remained in France and worked as a consultant for Soditee Inc., and then he and his wife and four of their children moved to the United States where he worked with a number of companies. Heavily involved in émigré politics and popular amongst many of the hardline South Vietnamese living in the United States, on 2 January 2005, Khanh took up the position of chief of state of the Government of Free Vietnam, an anti-communist government in exile, based in California. He died 11 January 2013 at San Jose, California. References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 132–33; Major Michael R. Fowler, ‘War Within a War: 1 Corps 1966’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 6, no. 5 (February 1994): pp. 38ff.; Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 270–71; Edward Rasen Jr, ‘The Man in the Eye of the Storm’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 22, no. 1 (June 2009): pp. 38ff.; Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945–1965, London: Andre Deutsch, 1966; Brian VanDeMark, Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

NGUYEN MINH TRIET [Nguy୷n Minh Triୱt] (1942– ). The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 2006 until 2011, he was born on 8 October 1942 in Ben Cat district, in Binh Duong province just to the north of Saigon. He studied mathematics at the University of Saigon. During the early 1960s, he became associated with the communists in the Saigon region and from 1963 until 1973 he was active in South Vietnamese communist organisations.

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In 1974 he was appointed deputy director of the General Affairs Department of the Youth Union, a post he held until 1979. He then studied at Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School in Hanoi, continuing his connections with youth groups and youth organisations. In January 1997, Nguyen Minh Triet was appointed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Elected to the politburo in 1997, he was the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. He was nominated as president by the National Assembly on 27 June 2006 and held that figurehead position until 25 July 2011, when he was succeeded by Truong Tan Sang, also from Ho Chi Minh City. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 133.

NGUYEN NGOC LOAN [Nguy୷n Ng୿c Loan] (1930–1998). The police chief in Saigon during the Tet Offensive in 1968, Nguyen Ngoc Loan became infamous around the world after US journalist Eddie Adams took a photograph of him shooting dead a Vietnamese communist who had just been captured. Nguyen Ngoc Loan was born on 11 December 1930 in Hue, and he was a school friend of Nguyen Cao Ky, rising through the ranks of the South Vietnamese Air Force to head of the National Police, the Military Security Service, and the Central Intelligence Organisation (the South Vietnamese equivalent of the CIA). When Nguyen Cao Ky became prime minister in 1965, Nguyen Ngoc Loan was one of his major power brokers. He was responsible for investigations into corruption in the military, and there are various accounts of his success. Alfred McCoy linked him to the purchase of opium in Laos, but James S. Robbins’s book, This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive, there is a much more sympathetic picture of Loan, who was a staunch nationalist and refused to allow the US military to interfere in the South Vietnamese justice system. He insisted that all US soldiers and journalists had to abide by South Vietnamese laws. There are also suggestions in Robbins’s book that the US did not like Loan, who had uncovered details of US dealings with the communists. Ron Steinman wrote that he was unimpressed by Loan and the National Police. However, Nguyen Ngoc Loan was an efficient operator and he managed to massively reduce communist attacks in Cholon. In one district, there were forty incidents a month before Loan came to power, but during his crackdown from October 1966 until January 1968, there were none. Then, on 1 February 1968, during the Tet Offensive, he shot the captured prisoner at point blank range. On 5 May 1968, while pursuing another Viet Cong suspect in Saigon, Loan was shot in the leg and baldy injured. His brother-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel

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Van Van Cua, was killed on 2 June when a US helicopter accidentally bombed a meeting of Loan’s supporters in Cholon. Anthony Grey’s novel, Saigon, stated that Loan threatened to kill Americans if they abandoned South Vietnam (p. 769), but there are no other references to this and if he did so, it was only a demonstration of his and others’ anger if the United States abandoned them. With the fall of Saigon to the communists, Loan moved to the United States and opened a pizza restaurant in Rolling Valley Mall, in Burke, Virginia, a suburb of the US capital. In 1991, his identity was revealed and he had to stop working there. He died on 14 July 1998 from cancer, survived by his wife Chinh Mai and their five children. References: Justin Corfield, ‘Executioner whose shot shook the world’, The Australian (17 July 1998): p. 14; Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972; ‘Nguyen Ngoc Loan, 67, Dies; Executed Viet Cong Prisoner’, The New York Times (16 July 1998); James S. Robbins, This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive, New York: Encounter Books, 2010, pp. 94–104; Ron Steinman, Inside Television’s First War: A Saigon Journal, Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 72.

NGUYEN NGOC THO [Nguy୷n Ng୿c Thţ] (1908–?). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 4 November 1963 until 30 January 1964, Nguyen Ngoc Tho was born on 26 May 1908, his family being wealthy landowners in the Mekong Delta. He held a number of provincial positions under the French and was briefly interned during the Japanese period – during that time he shared a cell with Duong Van Minh. In 1955, Nguyen Ngoc Tho was appointed as Vietnam’s first ambassador to Japan to try to secure reparations from them. In this he was relatively successful. However, in 1956 he was recalled to Saigon as Ngo Dinh Diem was trying to destroy the power of the sects, in particular the Hoa Hao. This was a personal struggle for Tho, because Ba Cut, the leader of the Hoa Hao, bore a grudge against him for Tho’s father having taken land from Ba Cut’s family in the 1930s. In December 1956 Nguyen Ngoc Tho became vice president under Ngo Dinh Diem. This was largely because Diem’s family were from Hue and he was anxious to get more support from the south and Nguyen Ngoc Tho’s connections in the Mekong Delta were seen as important. Tho had the task of implementing the land reform programme, but was half-hearted, being accused by critics of moderating the land distribution because he was a major landowner himself. Tho had little power, but was seen as a voice of moderation in the government and able to negotiate a few compromises. Despite being a Buddhist, Tho was supportive of Diem’s pro-Catholic policies and many Buddhists saw him as an apologist for the government crackdown on the Buddhists, especially when he refused to criticise Madame Nhu’s comments on the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc. This was exacerbated when, during the farewell dinner for US ambassador Frederick Nolting, Tho made disparaging remarks about Buddhist monks. However, Tho did manage

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Nguyen Ngoc Tho as vice president and minister of national economy in 1956.

to persuade many cabinet ministers not to resign. His exact role in the coup of November 1963, when Diem was overthrown, remains a little vague. However, he was appointed prime minister on 6 November 1963, to lead a nominally civilian government that was, in fact, controlled by Duong Van Minh. He only remained in office until 30 January 1964, when General Nguyen Khanh seized power. Tho then left politics and went into a comfortable retirement. It is not known what happened to him. References: Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945–1965, London: Andre Deutsch, 1966.

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NGUYEN PHAN LONG [Nguy୷n Phan Long] (1888–1960). The prime minister of the State of Vietnam from 21 January until 26 April 1950, Ngyen Phan Long was born in 1889 in Hanoi, into a family of landowners in Saigon. He went to Hanoi to study at Lycée Albert Sarraut and then returned to Saigon, where he worked as a high school teacher and became active in politics, working from 1917 as a journalist at La Tribune Indigène. In 1920 he founded the liberal newspaper L’Echo Annamite. He wrote about spiritualism and also Cao Dai. Active in the Constitutionalist Party, he was elected to the Colonial Council. He then became the editor of L’Echo du Vietnam. In 1949 he was appointed minister of foreign affairs and minister of the interior in the State of Vietnam serving under Bao Dai, and then became prime minister. However, the French did not like him because he occasionally took a nationalist viewpoint and was seen by the French as too pro-American. They managed to persuade Bao Dai to accept his resignation and replaced him with Tran Van Huu. Nguyen Phan Long then returned to teaching, and also free-lance writing. Living modestly in Saigon, he died on 16 July 1960. References: Philippe Franchini, Saigon 1925–1945: De la Belle Colonie à l’éclosion révolutionnaire ou la fin des dieux blancs, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992, pp. 147ff.; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 273; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 367.

NGUYEN THI MINH KHAI [Nguy୷n Th୽ Minh Khai] (1910–1941). A Vietnamese revolutionary leader, she was born as Nguyen Thi Vinh on either 30 September or 1 November, in Vinh, in Nghe An Province, in north-central Vietnam. Her father was Nguyen Huy Binh, and her mother was Dau Thi. Starting school when she was nine, when she was seventeen she was a founder member of the New Revolutionary Party of Vietnam [Tân Vi t Cách mng Ðng] and moved to Hong Kong in 1930 where she was a secretary at the Eastern Bureau for Comintern, working for Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh). She was jailed by the British in Hong Kong from 1931 until 1934, and on her release she accompanied Le Hong Phong to Moscow for the Seventh Congress of Comintern. She started studying at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, and they were later to marry. In 1936 she returned to Vietnam taking messages from Comintern to the communists in Saigon, and operating fom Saigon, she was a senior leader in the Communist Party of Indochina. In 1940 she was arrested by the French and held in prison where she wrote some stirring poetry which noted that the ‘road forward [to the revolution] will be strewn with thorns’. As she was about to be executed on 26 August 1941, her last words were ‘Long Live the Communist Party of Vietnam’. The current government in Vietnam honour her as a revolutionary martyr and she is the eponym of many streets and some schools in Vietnam. Her younger sister married Vo Nguyen Giap, the communist military commander.

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References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 276; David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; Sophie Quinn-Judge, Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, New York: C. Hurst & Company, 2003.

NGUYEN VAN BINH, PAUL [Paolô Nguy୷n VÅn Bình] (1910–1995). The first archbishop of Saigon, he was born on 1 September 1910 in Tan Dinh, Saigon, the son of Nguyen Van Truong and his wife Nguyen Thai Luong. When he was twelve, he studied at the Little Seminary in Saigon and in 1932 went to Rome to further his studies. He was ordained on 27 March 1937 at the John Lateran Archbasilica in Rome, and then returned to Vietnam to become the spiritual head of the Duc Hoa community in Long An province, north of Saigon, in 1938. In 1942 Nguyen Van Binh moved back to Saigon to become a teacher at the Little Seminary, and in 1947 he moved to the Saigon Seminary to be a teacher, and also chaplain for the Taberd Brothers. He then moved to Cau Dat in 1948, returning to Saigon in 1955 to become teacher at the Great Seminary in Saigon. On 20 September 1955, he was appointed bishop of Dalat, and was ordained on 30 November 1955. On 24 November 1960 he was named as archbishop of Saigon. His appointment came as a surprise because President Ngo Dinh Diem had been lobbying for his brother Ngo Dinh Thuc to get that position. Nguyen Van Binh remained archbishop after the communist victory on 30 April 1975, becoming the metropolitan archbishop of Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh, and remaining in that post until his death on 1 July 1995. He had urged that all Roman Catholics in Vietnam support the new communist government from 1975, and cooperated with the formation of the Solidarity Committee of Patriotic Vietnamese Catholics. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 279; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1972.

NGUYEN VAN HIEN [Nguy୷n VÅn Hiୱn], SIMON HOA (1906– 1973). The third and final vicar apostolic of Saigon, he was born on 23 March 1906 at Nhu Ly, in Quang Tri province in Central Vietnam, the nephew of Ngo Dinh Thuc, and Ngo Dinh Diem. He started his religious studies when he was eleven and was ordained priest on 21 December 1935. He took the name Simon Hoa from the Venerable Simon Phan Dac Hoa, who had been killed on 12 December 1840 for his faith. In 1937 he went to Rome to embark on further studies at Propaganda Fide, which had been founded by Pope Urban VIII in 1627, completing a doctorate in theology in France in 1939. The rector of Phu Xuan Seminary, he taught dogmatic theology. He was appointed vicar apostolic of Saigon on 20 September 1955, being consecrated bishop on 30 October 1955. He remained in office until 24 November 1960, when the Apostolic Vicariate of Saigon was transformed into the Archdiocese of Saigon. He then became bishop of

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Dalat from 24 November 1960, remaining in that position until his death on 5 September 1973. References: André Nguyen Van Chau, The Miracle of Hope: Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace: Life of Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1972.

Raoul Salan decorating Nguyen Van Hinh, 26 March 1953.

NGUYEN VAN HINH [Nguy୷n VÅn Hinh] (1915–2004). A general in the State of Vietnam, he was born on 20 September 1915 in Vung Tau, in southern Vietnam, his father being Nguyen Van Tam. He went to Lycée Chasseloup Laubat in Saigon, and then moved to France, where he attended Lycée Saint Louis in Paris, and in 1929 he was naturalised as a French citizen. Graduating from the French Air Force Academy, in 1938 he gained a commission as an officer in the French Air Force. Returning to Vietnam, he was appointed as a military aide to Prime Minister Nguyen Van Xuan, and was promoted to major and was the chief of staff to ex-emperor Bao Dai. With the formation of the State of Vietnam in 1949, Hinh became the first Vietnamese air force officer. Gazetted as a major general in 1952, in March of that year he was promoted to chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the State of Vietnam, his father becoming prime minister of the State of Vietnam three months later. When Ngo Dinh Diem sought to take control of Saigon, the two clashed, and Hinh tried to stage a coup d’état on 26 October 1954. When the United States intervened and said they would not support Hinh, the coup failed and

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on 29 November 1954 Hinh was forced to leave for France, where he rejoined the French Air Force and eventually became its deputy commander. In 1969 he retired and started a small air cargo company in Paris, in which Bao Dai was one of the investors. His spare time was spent painting. He died on 26 June 2004 in Paris. The character ‘General Ngoc’, also known as ‘Bel Ami’ in Jean Lartéguy’s Yellow Fever (Paris, 1965), is loosely based on Hinh. References: Ngo Ngoc Trung, ‘Nguyen Van Hinh’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, p. 839; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 1043.

NGUYEN VAN LOC [Nguy୷n VÅn L஋c] (1922– ). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam in 1967–68, Nguyen Van Loc was born on 24 August 1922 in Vinh Long, in the Mekong Delta. Serving with the Viet Minh in 1945– 47, and editing a Viet Minh newspaper, he later rallied to the French and studied law in France. From 1955 he was practising as a barrister in Saigon. An ally of Nguyen Cao Ky, he was a keen poet and novelist. In 1966, he drew up the election of the constituent assembly and in November 1966 was appointed chairman of the People’s and Armed Forces Council. President Nguyen Van Thieu appointed him as prime minister on 31 October 1967, taking over from Nguyen Cao Ky. He then remained in office until 17 May 1968, when Tran Van Huong was appointed prime minister. He remained in Saigon after the city’s fall to the communists and was interned at the Nam Ha Camp near Hanoi. On his release, he returned south and hid for eighteen months with his family, south of Ho Chi Minh City. On his fourteenth attempt to flee the county, he, his wife and eleven-month-old child managed to escape as refugees on 10 May 1983, getting to Singapore. He later settled in Houston, Texas. He and his wife subsequently had three more children and his wife was the subject of a biography by Danny Lane. References: Danny Lane, Black Silk Pajamas, privately published, 2000; James S. Robbins, This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive, New York: Encounter Books, 2010, p. 284; ‘Vietnam Ex-Premier Tells How He Escaped’, The New York Times, (29 May 1983); Nghia M. Vo, The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004, p. 170.

NGUYEN VAN TAM [Nguy୷n VÅn Tâm] (1893–1990). The prime minister of the State of Vietnam from 6 June 1952 until 17 December 1953, he was born in 1893 in Tay Ninh, near Saigon, and worked as a school teacher, spending a year studying in Hanoi. A district chief from 1930, he became a French citizen, holding a number of positions in the French colonial administration. Working for the police, he was involved in putting down the Nam Ky Uprising in November 1940, and gained the nickname ‘Tiger of Cailay’. The head of the Vietnamese Sûreté from 1950, he then served in the State of Vietnam as minister of the interior under Tran Van Huu. In November 1951 he was

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appointed as governor of Tonkin, and on 6 June 1952 he succeeded Tran Van Huu as prime minister. Nguyen Van Tam tried to push through the land reform programme, but found that this was being undermined by corruption. Trying to increase the democratisation of government, he was heavily defeated in the elections held in January 1953. He then sought to gain more support by trying to get the French to grant further concessions. This did not gain him much support, but it did anger the French, who forced him to resign. In 1955 he went into exile in France and died on 23 November 1990 in Paris. He was the father of Nguyen Van Hinh. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 281–82; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, pp. 366–67; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 120.

NGUYEN VAN TAO [Nguy୷n VÅn T୓o] (1908–1970). A prominent communist, he was born on 20 May 1908 at Cholon, and was educated at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) where he became active in anti-colonial protests after he took part in demonstrations following the death of Phan Chu Trinh. Expelled from the school, he went to France and there he joined the Communist Party of France and represented the party at the Sixth Congress of Comintern. He also wrote for the communist newspaper L’Humanité. In 1930 he took part in demonstrations in front of the Elysée Palace in support of the Yen Bay rebels who had been executed. With nineteen other people, including Ta Thu Thau, he was deported from France and returned to Saigon where he continued his agitation, being elected to the Saigon Municipal Council in 1937. He was arrested in 1939 but was released in March 1945 and took part in the August Revolution. Elected to the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1946, he went to northern Vietnam and was minister of labour in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1946 until 1965. He died on 16 August 1970 in Hanoi. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 282; A. Richardson (ed.), The Revolution Defamed: A Documentary History of Vietnamese Trotskyism, London: Socialist Platform, 2003.

NGUYEN VAN THIEU [Nguy୷n VÅn Thi୹u] (1924–2001). The chairman of the National Leadership Committee, and then president of the Republic of Vietnam from 14 June 1965 until 21 April 1975, Nguyen Van Thieu was born in November 1924 in Phan Rang, in the coastal province of Ninh Thuan in southern Vietnam. His father was a relatively comfortable landowner, and he adopted as his official birthday 5 April 1923. Educated in Hue, he returned to the family farm and worked there until 1945, when he decided to join the Viet Minh. However, he saw that the communists were seizing land and disrupting rural life in Vietnam, and Thieu

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Nguyen Van Thieu, 19 July, 1968. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Image Serial Number: A6588-2A.

decided to join the armed forces of the Frenchsupported State of Vietnam of Bao Dai. He trained at the National Military Academy at Dalat and after graduation in 1949 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the newly created Vietnam National Army. After some training at the Coëtquidan Infantry School in France, and then the Staff College in Hanoi, following Vietnam’s independence in 1955, he was gazetted lieutenant colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The head of the National Military Academy from Nguyen Van Thieu. 1956 until 1960, Thieu formed many ties with army officers and spent some time training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA and also at the Joint and Combined Planning School of the Pacific Command at Okinawa. In the coup attempt to overthrow President Ngo Dinh Diem in November 1960, Thieu remained loyal to the government and was rewarded by

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being given command of the army’s 1st Division at Hue. However, three years later, in November 1963, Thieu led the artillery and tank attack on the Gia Long Palace in another coup attempt against Diem. This was successful and Thieu became one of the twelve members of the new Military Revolutionary Council headed by General Duong Van Minh. Over the next year, Thieu was active in battling the communists and then, as a member of the self-styled ‘Young Turks’ he was part of the December 1964 coup, and then another coup in 1965, which propelled him into the position of being the figurehead chief of state with his main ally, Nguyen Cao Ky, as prime minister and holding most of the power. In 1967 there was a presidential election and Thieu contested it, with Ky as his vice presidential running mate. They took 34.8 per cent of the vote and soon Thieu was able to outmanoeuvre Ky and establish an authoritarian regime. Thieu managed to work well with Richard Nixon and at Guam, accepted the inevitability of Vietnamisation as the United States tried to reduce its military commitment to the region. As peace talks started, to strengthen his position, Thieu ran for re-election in 1971 and to his chagrin, both the other potential candidates refused to stand, leaving him as the only candidate. There was a turnout of 87 per cent and he managed to garner 94 per cent of this, amidst many allegations of electoral fraud. Some of his support came from his agrarian reform laws with the third anniversary of them was commemorated on a postage stamp issued on 26 March 1973, the only one showing Nguyen Van Thieu. The journalist Oriana Fallaci conducted an extensive and particularly insightful interview with Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon in January 1973, during which it was revealed that Thieu was starting to become critical of the US policies in Vietnam and its plans to extricate itself from Vietnam. In March 1973, with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement, Nguyen Van Thieu only agreed under immense pressure from the United States and with Richard Nixon promising in writing to intervene if the communists broke the peace agreement. Hostilities continued, and in 1974 Thieu felt he had no option but to go on the offensive as the communists tried to consolidate their hold on much of South Vietnam. Lacking the military supplies he wanted, and with the economy in tatters following the rise in price of oil, the communists went on the offensive at the start of January 1975. Nguyen Van Thieu tried to hold onto as much of the country as he could, but by early March realized that this was impossible, and he would have to abandon the Central Highlands and pull his forces back to establish a new defensive line, possibly repartitioning Vietnam again. The communists annihilated Thieu’s forces and he was forced again to pull them back to Xuan Loc, where the South Vietnamese soldiers, under General Le Minh Dao, held out for twelve

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days. Their defeat on the morning of 21 April led to Thieu announcing his resignation. He then left on a military transport plane for Taiwan. Moving to England, and settling at Coombe Park, Kingston, on the outskirts of London, his house was called the ‘White House’ (named by a former owner), and his son was educated at Eton College. Then in the early 1990s he moved to Foxborough, Massachusetts and lived quietly, shunning requests for interviews. He always felt guilt for the fall of South Vietnam, and part of the reason for his reclusive life was probably his worry about hostility from other South Vietnamese. He died on 29 September 2001 at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. References: Fox Butterfield, ‘Nguyen Van Thieu is Dead at 76: Last President of South Vietnam’, The New York Times (1 October 2001); Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 134; Larry Engelmann. ‘Profile of Nguyen Van Thieu, Former President of South Vietnam’, West Magazine, San Jose Mercury News (June 1990); Oriana Fallaci, Interview with History, London: Michael Joseph, 1976, chapter 2: ‘Nguyen Van Thieu’, pp. 45–73; Arnold R. Isaacs, Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; David Lamb, ‘Nguyen Van Thieu, 78, S. Vietnam’s President’, Los Angeles Times (1 October 2001); Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 283–84; ‘Nguyen Van Thieu’, Current Biography June 1968; ‘Nguyen Van Thieu’, The Age (2 October 2001): p. 7; Richard Pyle, ‘Nationalist led Saigon to disaster’, The Australian (2 October 2001): p. 14; Lewis Sorley, ‘South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu was far from the American Patsy he is often portrayed to have been’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 16, no. 6 (April 2004): pp. 14, 56; Judy Stowe, ‘Nguyen Van Thieu’, The Independent (2 October 2001); Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 166f.; ‘Whatever happened to Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnam;s Wartime Chief’, Asiaweek (5 February 1982): p. 6; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 754–55.

NGUYEN VAN THINH [Nguy୷n VÅn Thinh] (1888–1946). The president of the provisional government of the Republic of Cochinchina from 1 June 1946 until 10 November 1946, he was born in 1888 and was a French citizen, having studied medicine in France and had married a French lady. Returning to Saigon, he practised medicine and also grew rice. He became an active member of the Constitutionalist Party, which he had joined in 1926. In 1937 he founded the Cochinchinese Democratic Party and after World War II, he quickly became a leading proponent of Cochinchinese separatism, heading a provisional government from 26 March 1946, and nine weeks later he was appointed president of the provisional government of the newly created Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina. He seems to have genuinely believed that Cochinchina could become an independent and viable nation state. He quickly became angered by the French negotiating directly with the Viet Minh, ignoring him. He commented, ‘I am being compelled to play a farce’. He died on 10 November 1946 in Saigon, almost certainly by committing suicide. References: ‘Death in the Monsoon’, Time Magazine (25 November 1946); Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs and Oxford University Press, 1961; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 284.

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NGUYEN VAN THUAN, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER [Nguy୷n VÅn Thuୟn] (1928–2002). A cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and coadjutor archbishop of Saigon from 1975, he was born on 17 April 1928 in Hue, the son of Nguyen Van Am, and his wife, Elizabeth Ngo Dinh Hiep, a sister of Ngo Dinh Thuc and Ngo Dinh Diem. Starting his studies at the An Ninh Minor Seminary when he was thirteen, he was ordained priest on 11 June 1953 and then went to Rome where he studied for six years. He returned to Vietnam and from 1959 until 1967 he was the rector of the Seminary at Nha Trang. Appointed bishop of Nha Trang on 13 April 1967 in Hue, on 24 April 1975 he was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Saigon. However, the communists captured Saigon six days later and he was arrested and held in prison for thirteen years – nine of which were in solitary confinement. In prison, Nguyen Van Thuan managed to smuggle out messages and reflections, some of which were published in the book, The Road of Hope. The prayers he wrote in prison were published in Prayers of Hope. Finally, after years of protests by Vietnamese Catholics overseas and many others, Nguyen Van Thuan was released from prison and lived under house arrest in the Archbishop’s Palace in Hanoi – being refused permission to return to Ho Chi Minh City. In 1991 he was allowed to go to Rome but was not allowed to return. On 21 February 2001, Nguyen Van Thuan was made a cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria della Scala by Pope John Paul II. However, by that time he was very ill and died on 16 September 2002 in Rome, from cancer. Five years later, the beatification process started, which might lead him to sainthood. References: ‘Late Vietnam cardinal put on road to sainthood’, Reuters (17 September 2007); Gerald McManus, ‘Cleric’s aith strengthened by persecution and prison’, The Australian (20 September 2002): p. 9; André Nguyen Van Chau, The Miracle of Hope: Political Prisoner, Prophet of Peace: Life of Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003.

NGUYEN VAN TROI [Nguy୷n VÅn Trஉi] (1940–1964). A member of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, he was born on 1 February 1940 in the village of Than Quyt, in Dieng Thang sub-district, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province, in Central Vietnam. After the partition of Vietnam, he moved to Saigon and started work as an electrician, and married Phan Thi Quyen. Joining the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, on 2 May 1964 he was tasked with hiding a bomb on the Cong Ly Bridge to kill the US secretary of defense Robert McNamara when crossing it. The local police came to hear of this plot and Nguyen Van Troi was arrested on 9 May and put before a military court martial which sentenced him to death. McNamara arrived on 12 May. A Venezuelan left-wing guerrilla group offered to release US Air Force lieutenant colonel Michael Smolen in exchange for Nguyen Van Troi, and although Smolen was freed on 12 October, Nguyen Van Troi was executed.

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Taken from his cell in Chi Hoa Prison, Nguyen Van Troi, at 9.45 AM on 15 October 1964, in the presence of a number of foreign journalists, he was tied to a post to be shot. He refused a blindfold and shouted defiantly that the journalists should realise that the Americans were the aggressors and have been killing the Vietnamese. He added ‘I have never acted against the will of my people. It is against the Americans that I have taken action.’ Just before the firing squad opened fire, he called out ‘Long Live Vietnam.’ His body was interred at the Van Giap Cemetery where his father, after searching for several days, was able to locate the grave. The Vietnamese Communists celebrated Nguyen Van Troi as a martyr and he was commemorated on a postage stamp issued in 1965, in which year his widow wrote an account of the life of her late husband. A memorial was later erected in his memory at the Martyr’s Cemetery, in Quang Nam province. A street in Ho Chi Minh City has been named after him, as have streets in other cities, and he is also the eponym of a sports stadium in Cuba. References: Phan Thi Quyen, The Way He Lived: The Story of Nguyen Van Troi, edited by Trn Ðình Văn, Hanoi: Liberation Publishing House, 1965; Donald Price, The First Marine Captured in Vietnam: A Biography of Donald G. Cook, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2009, pp. 7–12; ‘Saigon Executes Youth For Plot on McNamara’, The New York Times (15 October 1964).

NGUYEN VAN XUAN [Nguy୷n VÅn Xuân] (1892–1989). A French Army officer, he was born on 3 April 1892 in Vietnam, and went to Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) and then went to France where he graduated from the École Polytechnique. Becoming a French citizen, he joined the French Army. A strong supporter of the French, he soon became the focus of the plans to establish a separatist movement in Cochinchina and he was appointed vice president and minister of National Defence in the government of Dr Nguyen Van Thinh’s Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina. He then succeeded Nguyen Van Thinh as president of the provisional government of the Republic of Cochinchina from 15 November 1946 until 7 December 1946; and again from 8 October 1947 until 27 May 1948. When the French decided to establish a more broad-based government, Nguyen Van Xuan became the president of the Central Government of Vietnam from 27 May 1948 until 14 June 1949. However, he could not get much support outside Saigon because of his involvement in the Republic of Cochinchina. During the First Indochina War he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, but he was forced to reign in June 1949, which led to the formation of the Associated State of Vietnam under Bao Dai. Nguyen Van Xuan became the vice president and the minister of National Defence. In 1954, after the Geneva Conference, he recognised that he was being sidelined by Ngo Dinh Diem and sought to prevent Diem taking control of Saigon. However, he failed and left for exile to France, where he died in 1989.

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References: Oscar Chapius, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, p. 146; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 285; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

NGUYEN XUAN OANH [Nguy୷n Xuân Oánh] (1921–2003). The acting prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam in 1964 and again in 1965, Nguyen Xuan Oanh was born on 14 July 1921 in Phy Lang Thuong, in Tonkin. He was educated at the Lycée Albert Sarraut, Hanoi, from 1930–39 and then studied at the International Institute of Languages in Tokyo, Japan 1940–42, and then at Sanko Junior College, Kyoto 1942–45. The Japanese hoped that he would be able to make a study of how the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere could help Indochina. He then completed his BA in Economics at Kyoto Imperial University, graduating in 1949. Going to the United States, he completed his doctorate at Harvard University, his thesis being Some Aspects of the Theory of Economic Development. Working as an Associate Professor of economics at Harvard, and then an Trinity College, Connecticut, and Wesleyan University, Connecticut, he worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1960–63. He then moved to Saigon and was governor of the National Bank of Vietnam, becoming deputy prime minister for Economy and Finance in the governments of Nguyen Khanh and Tran Van Huong. He was acting prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 29 August until 3 September 1964, taking over from Nguyen Khanh, and then handing back power to him. He was acting prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam again from 28 January until 15 February 1965, taking over from Tran Van Huong and handing over to Phan Huy Quat. He worked as an economic adviser to the South Vietnamese government and then went into business. The author of many works, Nguyen Xuan Oanh wrote An Introduction to Vietnam (Saigon, 1969), and he chose not to leave Saigon in 1975. Unlike many other officials, he was not sent to a re-education camp, partly, it was alleged, because his wife, a famous film actress, had influence in the new communist administration. In the late 1970s, he managed to persuade Vo Van Kiet that the communist government should liberalise the economy. In 1986, when this did happen, it was thought that he could help influence the United States to stop its embargo on trade with Vietnam, and he was allowed to travel overseas, returning to the United States for several trips. He wrote Vietnam: The New Investment Frontier in Southeast Asia (Singapore, 1992), and died on 29 August 2003. References: Judy Stowe, ‘Vietnam economic reformer dies’, BBC News (1 September 2003); Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 595–96.

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NHA BE. This is a rural district in the south of the municipality of Ho Chi Minh City, and covers some 100 square kms. It has a population of about 70,000, some of whom live on reclaimed land. NHAT HANH [Nhୗt H୓nh], THICH (1926– ). A Buddhist monk and political activist, Nhat Hanh was born as Nguyen Xuan Bao on 11 October 1926 in Tha Thien in Quang Ngai province of Central Vietnam – his family having been prominent Buddhist teachers at Hue. In 1942 he went to study at a Buddhist temple near Hue, and then went to the Bao Quoc Buddhist Avademy. Trained as a monk, he was ordained in 1949. Seven years later he started working as editor of Vietnamese Buddhism, a journal published by the Unified Vietnam Buddhist Association. He established the School of Youth for Social Services in the early 1960s to help people who needed to flee from their villages because of the fighting. In 1960 Nhat Hanh went to the United States and studied at Princeton Unievrsity, and was briefly a lecturer in Buddhism at Columbia University. He became involved in the protests by Buddhists against Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. However, he did not like the violence of the demonstations and was in the United States teaching comparative religion at Princeton University, USA when Diem was overthrown and killed on 1–2 November 1963. Returning to Saigon, he became active in education, promoting ‘Engaged Buddhism’. Worried about the escalating war, he left the country in 1967 to promote peace efforts and was denounced by the government of the Republic of Vietnam. In 1967 the US civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Prize. In exile, initially in France, he was active in helping to rescue Boat People escaping the communist rule in 1976–77. The author of more than 100 books, it was not until 2005 that he was allowed to return to Vietnam, and did so again in 2007, later returning to the Dordogne area of France where he still lives. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 286; Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. New York: Hill and Wang. 1967; Philip Taylor (ed.), Modernity and Re-enchantment: Religion Post-Revolutionary Vietnam, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007.

NHAT LINH [Nhât Lin] (1906–1963). A novelist who used the pen name Nhat Linh (‘One Zero’), he was born on 25 July 1906 as Nguyen Tuong Tam [Nguyn Tưng Tam] at Cam Giang, Hai Dyong, and initially studied painting in Hanoi, and then went to Paris to study science. He returned to Vietnam in 1930 and founded the Self-Reliance Literary Group aiming to encourage Vietnamese writers to use more Western styles and concepts. Nhat Linh himself wrote a number of romantic novels in which characters demonstrate individualism to combat the problems facing Vietnamese society. By the late 1930s Nhat Linh had become active in politics with the Vietnamese Nationalist

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Party (Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang). During World War II, Nhat Linh went to China and returned to Vietnam in 1945 becoming, briefly, the minister of foreign affairs of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He was a negotiator with the French in April 1946 but fearing that the Viet Minh wanted to kill him, he fled to China, moving to Hong Kong. After the partition of Vietnam in 1954, he moved to Saigon and lived there quietly until 1960 when he was arrested. He committed suicide on 7 July 1963 in Saigon in what was taken as a protest against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc. References: Ming-Trang T. Dang, In Search of Nhat Linh: Translations of His Short Stories, PhD thesis, Harvard University, 1994; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 286–87; Hy V. Luong, Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003.

NICOLAI, ANGE EUGENE (1845–19 ). The French lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1897 until 1898, he took over from Alexandre Ducos, and held office for a year, until he was replaced by Édouard Picanon.

Lyndon Johnson, Ngo Dinh Diem and Frederick Nolting.

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NOLTING, FREDERICK ERNEST (1911–1989). The US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1961 until 1963, Frederick Nolting was born on 24 August 1911 in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Frederick Ernest Nolting Sr and Mary (née Buford). Graduating from the University of Virginia in 1933 with a Bachelor’s degree in History, he then went to Harvard University for his MA, graduating in 1941, and subsequently returned to the University of Virginia for his doctorate. Serving in the US Navy in World War II, in 1946 Frederick Nolting bought Sully, the Virginian estate which had belonged to Richard Bland Lee. In the same year he joined the State Department and was the special assistant for mutual security affairs for John Foster Dulles and was a member of the US delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 1961 Frederick Nolting was appointed as US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam. He was a strong supporter of President Ngo Dinh Diem and saw Diem as being in a very difficult political position and having to balance a large number of contending forces to maintain his control over the country. He refused to support any move to overthrow Diem, or request that Diem distance himself from Ngo Dinh Nhu. In fact, Nolting recognised that if Diem was overthrown, there would not be an effective leadership for the Republic of Vietnam. However, President Kennedy felt that Nolting had become too close to the Diem government and wanted changes in the Republic of Vietnam. As a result he recalled Nolting and replaced him with Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Nolting returned to the United States and worked for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company and then in 1970 became the founding director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Nolting always maintained his support for the Diem government and spoke out regularly about the shame of the US connivance in the coup d’état on November 1963. Married, with four daughters, he died on 14 December 1989 at Charlottesville, Virginia. References: Michael R. Adamson, ‘Ambassadorial Roles and Foreign Policy: Elbridge Durbrow, Frederick Nolting, and the US Commitment to Diem’s Vietnam, 1957–61’, Presidential Studies Quarterly, vol. 32 (2002): pp. 229–55; Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; ‘Frederick Nolting Jr., US Envoy to Saigon in 60s, Is Dead at 78’, The New York Times (16 December 1989); Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 288; Frederick Nolting, From Trust to Tragedy: The Political Memoirs of Frederick Nolting, Kennedy’s Ambassador to Diem’s Vietnam, New York: Praeger, 1989; Who’s Who in America.

NORODOM PALACE. See Reunification Palace.

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Notre Dame Cathedral from the air.

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. The main Roman Catholic place of worship in Ho Chi Minh City, this cathedral was built from October 1877 in the middle of the main square facing Dong Khoi (formerly Rue Catinat). It was completed on Easter Day, 11 April, 1880 with Charles Le Myre de Vilers presiding at the opening ceremony. It had cost some 2,500,000 French francs. The two

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Notre Dame Cathedral by Paul Hogarth. Courtesy Chuyuen Corfield.

bell towers were added in 1895. The cathedral was used by the French and the large Roman Catholic population in the city, and remains the main place of worship for the latter. The cathedral had stained-glass windows, but these were damaged during fighting around the time of the August Revolution, and they have subsequently been replaced. In Anthony Grey’s novel, Saigon (1982), it is the first building in

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Notre Dame Cathedral in 2000. Author’s photograph.

the city mentioned in the novel when the ship captain tells his US passengers that the cathedral is ‘the first sight any traveller ever sees of the Pearl of the Orient’ (p. 17). References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 56–58, 65; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 280; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 74; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 41–42; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 154–55; Nick Ray, YuMei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 358.

NOVELS. There have been a significant number of novels set in Ho Chi Minh City, most set around the US presence in South Vietnam in the late 1960s. The earliest novels are French. Peter Baugher noted, ‘The novels and essays of colonial authors suggest that from the 1890s on (if not earlier) many of the men and women who went to Indochina did so because they desperately wanted to leave behind the insignificant lives of political powerlessness, dull routine, and rigid, petty bourgeois social conventions they had known or would have known in France as bureaucrats, white collar workers, and housewives,

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and take up the demanding, exciting task of building a brave new world in the tropics. Yet with the exception of those men who fought the Vietnamese, the French who came to Indochina led essentially the same sort of lives they would have led in France, whether they were bureaucrats, military officers, engineers, office workers, teachers or housewives’. Frédéric-Charles Bargone (1876–1957), using the pseudonym Claude Farrère, wrote Les Civilisés (‘The Civilised’), which caused an uproar when it was published because of its portrayal of life in Saigon, and it was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1905. Charles Valat’s Kilomètre 83 (1913) involves the construction of a section of the railway through the Cambodian jungle and has railway engineer Tourange, the hero, going to Saigon. Many other novels focus on French civilians with their ‘evil’ Vietnamese mistresses, as in Jean d’Estray’s Thi Sen: La petite amie exotique (Paris, 1911), Jean Marquet’s La Jane et le blanc (Paris, 1927), and Jehan Cendrieux’s François Phuoc, métis (Paris, 1929). Henry Casseville’s Sao: L’amoreuse tranquille (Paris, nd) has the mistress living with her French boyfriend solely for money. In contrast, there was Jean d’Esménard’s Thi Ba: Fille d’Annam (Paris, 1956), portraying the mistress as entirely honourable, with her wish to commit suicide because of the death of her French lover. The most famous French novelist who wrote of Indochina, Jean Hougron (1923–2000), based many of his stories on observations and anecdotes from his many years in Southeast Asia. One of them, Blaze of the Sun (1954) involves a Viet Minh ambush north of Saigon. Many years later, Christophe Bataille captured the atmosphere of French rule in Annam (1994). There are also a number of Vietnamese-language novels about Saigon, including To Tam, written by Hoang Ngoc Phach and published in 1925. Another early novel was by Khai Hung (Tran Khanh Giu), who wrote Nua Chung Xuan (‘In the Midst of Spring’) in 1933. This story remained popular throughout the twentieth century, and in 1935 Nguyen Tuong Tam (1906–1963; using the pen-name Nhat Linh) wrote Doan Tuyet (‘Breaking the Ties’ or ‘Rupture’), another novel which sold well, as did his other books, Doi Ban (‘Friends’) and Lanh Lung (‘Coldness’). He went on to become minister of foreign affairs in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but later left and moved to Saigon in 1954. Arrested in 1960, he committed suicide in prison in 1963, possibly in a final protest against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Also during the 1930s, Ngo Tat To (1894–1954) wrote novels which were critical of the feudal lifestyle endured by many people during French colonial rule. He was also involved in translating historical works into quoc ngu, the romanized Vietnamese script. The one novel which seeks to encompass the modern history of the city is Anthony Grey’s Saigon (London, 1982). The author, who was British, had been a journalist working for Reuters in China when he was arrested as a spy and held a prisoner for 27 months. He wrote of his experiences and then visited Vietnam, that trip inspiring him to write his 789-page novel, which starts in

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1925 with a fictional US Senator, Nathaniel Sherman, from Virginia, visiting the country with his wife and two sons. During their time there, they attend a reception hosted by the governor of Cochinchina (then Maurice Cognacq). At that reception, held at the Gia Long Palace, the Shermans meet with the Tran family, a wealthy Vietnamese family who own large holdings in the Mekong Delta. Two other families appear in the story. One are the French Devrauxs, the son enlightened in some respects, but anxious to preserve French colonial rule. The other family are the Nguyens – poor Vietnamese servants who support the Vietnamese nationalist cause. The story resumes in 1929–30 with part two, entitled ‘The Hatred of a Million Coolies’. It involves a rubber plantation manager trying to increase profits for Parisian shareholders, and his actions lead to a riot, with the plantation workers going on the rampage. The rebellion is savagely put down, with many of the ringleaders being guillotined. The next part of the story is set in 1936, with Joseph Sherman, a teenager in 1925, returning to the city and running into problems with the French establishment. Then the period of war 1941–45 shows the emergence of Ho Chi Minh, with the next part of the story being around the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The section about the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem is set around one of the Shermans, a CIA officer, working with the coup plotters – after betraying a young Buddhist to Nhu’s secret police. The story continues through the Tet Offensive and then ends with the fall of Saigon.

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The sweeping story is savagely critical of French colonial rule, with portrayals of French citizens beating Vietnamese openly in the streets and the Vietnamese having to accept being bullied, harbouring great resentment but usually powerless to act. There is also the sleazy French labour recruiter involved in raping a boy labourer at a rubber plantation, the family getting revenge on him, and taking part in the nationalist, and later the communist cause. Of the Americans in the novel, some are idealistic, but gradually become involved in moving against Diem, with an even more idealistic British reporter who can afford to remain a seeker of justice. Although not all the book is set in Saigon – there are parts set in Hue and Hanoi – the book does show the changes in the city and how they would have affected the lives of many different people. Most of the characters are fictional, but there are a few real people: Charles Piroth at Dien Bien Phu, and Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu, as well as Duong Van Minh. A more thought-provoking portrayal of the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem is found in Morris West’s The Ambassador (1965), which shows the events of late 1963 from the point of view of an American ambassador. The fictional Presudent Phung Van Cung is clearly closely modelled on Diem, with the ambassador facing conflicting advice from his embassy staff. Christine Dickason’s The Dragon Riders (1984), published in the United States as Indochine (1987), is another large novel which follows the career of Luoc, a Catholic-educated Vietnamese boy who flees to Saigon in 1926 after having killed a Frenchman who has murdered his father. The most famous novel set during this period is undoubtedly Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955). It tells of an alcoholic British journalist called Thomas Fowler, who is in Saigon, where he meets Alden Pyle, who appears to be an idealistic young American – Fowler being notoriously cynical. Fowler has a girlfriend called Phuong, and in the countryside, Fowler and Pyle take refuge in a defence tower. They return to Saigon, where Pyle woos Phuong, and also it emerges that Pyle is a part of the US anti-communists, who are trying to build up a ‘Third Force’ to prevent Ho Chi Minh from coming to power. Although many have sought to identify Pyle with Edward Lansdale, this is not correct. Lansdale is also identified with the subject of Eugene Burdick and William Lederer’s The Ugly American (1958). Homer Atkins, the ‘ugly American’ is living in Sarkhan, a fictional Southeast Asian country. The story was made into a film in 1963. Marlon Brando played the US ambassador, with Kukrit Promoj from Thailand playing the fictional Kwen Sai, the prime minister of Sarkhan – in 1975 Kukrit Pramoj was to become prime minister of Thailand. The same period is also covered in Jean Lartéguy’s (Jean Pierre Lucian Osty) Le Mal Jaune (Paris, 1965), published in English as Yellow Fever (London, 1965). This novel is divided into two parts – the first being ‘Hanoi, or the

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Strangled City’, and the second being ‘Saigon, or the Lost Souls’. The story begins in Hanoi, with a cast of characters who include ‘the great administrators and the petty crooks…this communion between a yellow race, a white army and a handful of officials, adventurers and revolutionaries’, noting ‘all this died in Hanoi on the same day.’ The story then resumes in Saigon on 25 April 1955: ‘…the corpse went on decomposing in Saigon, in a nauseating stench of carrion’. President Dinh-Tu, advised by his brother, clearly represents Ngo Dinh Diem as he battles the Binh Xuyen, the Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai. Some of the other characters are also loosely based on people in Saigon around that time: Nguyen Van Hinh (General Ngoc, or Bel-Ami), and Edward Lansdale (Colonel Teryman). Other novels set, or partly set, in Saigon during the Vietnam War include Robert Shaplen’s A Forest of Tigers (1958), with a clash between different people in Saigon in the early 1950s. Chris Mullin’s The Last Man Out of Saigon (1986) covers the evacuation of Saigon, with plans to establish stay-behind agents; and John Maddox Roberts’s The Ghosts of Saigon (1996) shows the continuing effect of the war on the lives of some Americans. References: Peter Frederic Baugher, The Contradition of Colonialism: The French Experience in Indochina 1860– 1940, PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980, p. 8; Cécile Vernier Danehy, ‘‘Textual absence, textual color: a journey through memory – Cosey’s Saigon-Hanoi’’, in Mark McKinney (ed.), History and Politics in French Language Comics and Graphic Novels, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 4–9, 84–86; Kevin Hillstron and Laurie Collier Hillstrom (eds), The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Film, Troy, Missouri: Greenwood Press, 1998; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 259, 286–87; Donald Ringnalda, ‘Fighting and Writing: America’s Vietnam War Literature’, Journal of American Studies, vol. 22 (1988): pp. 25–42; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 104–8.

O OHIER, MARIE GUSTAVE HECTOR (1814–1870). The French acting governor of Cochinchina from 5 April 1868 until 10 December 1869, he was born on 5 August 1814, the son of Antoine Alexandre Marie Ohier, a cloth merchant, and his wife Pauline (née Dehargne). Joining the Naval School on 15 September 1830, he graduated in 1833 and served in campaigns in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and in Chile, being involved in the blockade of Buenos Aires when French troops occupied the island of Martin Garcia in the River Plate. Posted to the Crimean War, he was involved in the siege of Sevastopol serving under Charles Rigault de Genouilly. After some postings in the Mediterranean, he was sent to Southeast Asia, being made a commander of the Legion of Honour in 1860 and also being awarded the Grand Cross of Cambodia. When Admiral Benoît de la Grandière fell ill, Ohier was appointed as governor of Cochinchina. In 1869 he was named a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and signed the Treaty of the West Mekong on 25 August 1869. However, the treaty did not manage to get the Vietnamese emperor to confirm French rule over the three provinces they had seized. Returning to France in illhealth, Ohier died on 30 November 1871 at Saint-Louis-Prés-Fayence, Var. A street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was named after him – it is now Street 13. References: Michèle Battesti, La Marine de Napoléon III: Une politique navale, Paris: Service Historique, Marine, 1997, p. 991; Sir Henry Keppel, A Sailor’s Life under Four Sovereigns, London: Macmillan, 1899, p. 227.

ONG BON PAGODA. This pagoda, also known as Nhi Phu Hoi Quan, is located in Cholon and serves the Fujian (Fukien) Congregation. Dedicated to Ong Bon, the guardian of Happiness and Virtue, worshippers bring and burn fake money to appease the spirits. See also Phung Son Tu Pagoda. References: Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 362.

OPERA HOUSE [Nhà hát l஍n Thành phஃ Hஅ Chí Minh]. Also known as the Municipal Theatre, this building is one of the most well-known in Ho Chi Minh City. There had been a theatre on the site of what is now the Caravelle Hotel, but the French wanted a larger one. The location of this, off Lam Son Square, towards the north of Dong Khoi (Rue Catinat), was chosen on 4 December 1893, with work starting in late 1897, the main architect being 224

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Félix Olivier, and work at the site supervised by two other architects, Ferret Eugene, and Ernest Guichard. The design was similar to the opera house in Hanoi, which was built in 1901–11 (and is larger), and was influenced by the Opéra Garnier in Paris. The main opera house reflects the grandeur of the French Third Republic and there are two levels of seating, which can accommodate up to 1,800 people. It was opened on 1 January 1900, with Prince Waldemar of Denmark in the audience. The British Army officer Francis Younghusband noted, ‘To mitigate the appalling hardships of service at Saigon, the Government imports yearly at heavy expense an operatic company from Paris, and this is the soldiers’ only pastime. Operas are no doubt excellent things, and form a welcome relaxation for the educated soldier’s evening; but speaking from a purely utilitarian point of view, the French Government would secure better results, and lose fewer soldiers if it made the men play cricket and football and the officers polo before settling down to a long night in a stuffy opera house. Imagine, for instance, the British subaltern taking his daily exercise in full uniform, reclining in a barouche or victoria like a dowager duchess!’ Certainly, the costs of the theatre companies coming from France to Saigon were paid by the local municipal government until World War II. The theatre was very popular in the 1920s, but began to decline in importance with the proliferation of nightclubs elsewhere in the city. The number of performances was reduced and there were more concerts and Vietnamese theatrical shows. Criticisms of the costs led to plans to change it into a concert hall, and in 1943,

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to transform the building, some of the façade was changed, with a number of engravings and statues removed. In 1944 the theatre sustained some damage during an Allied bombing attack and it closed down. In 1954, when the French evacuated northern Vietnam, it was used to house French civilians from the North, before they left for other countries. With the establishment of a unicameral Constitutional Assembly for the State of Vietnam in March 1956, the building was used for this body, which, in October 1956, was transformed into the National Assembly. The Assembly continued to meet there until 1975, after which the building became a theatre again. In 1998, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of Saigon, the pre-1943 façade of the theatre was restored. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 64–65; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 75; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 46–47; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 110–11; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 359; George John Younghusband, The Philippines and Round About: With Some Account of British Interests in these Waters, London: Macmillan & Company, 1899.

OPIUM. This narcotic, which was grown in Vietnam, but more often in southern China, or in Laos, was controlled during French colonial rule. Prior to the arrival of the French, it was only smoked by Chinese, but Paul Doumer established a refinery in Saigon, producing a new blend that burned quickly. This led to a rise in the number of Vietnamese addicted, and soon opium contributed a third of the income for the colonial administration. There were opium dens in Saigon and descriptions of these were published by many visitors to them, such as Harry Franck. In the 1940s and early 1950s, the Binh Xuyen controlled much of the opium trade in Saigon until Ngo Dinh Diem took over and sought to destroy the power of the Binh Xuyen and end drug smuggling. During the Vietnam War, opium in Saigon was sold to foreign soldiers relatively openly, and it was used by many US soldiers, leading to mass addiction, and this problem led to many of the men, after they had returned to the United States, still taking drugs. Alfred McCoy, in his controversial book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972) highlights the involvement of many Saigon politicians in drug smuggling. Under the communists, from 30 April 1975, there have been many crackdowns on opium and heroin, with drug smugglers executed or jailed for long terms. References: Descours-Gatin Chant, Quand l'opium finançait la colonisation en Indochine, Paris: l'Harmattan, 2000; Harry A. Franck, East of Siam: Ramblings in the Five Divisions of French Indo-China, New York: The Century Co, 1926; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991, p. 128; Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972; Dominique Niollet, L'épopée des douaniers on Indochine, 1874–1954. Paris: Kailash, 1998.

P PAGE, THÉOGÈNE FRANÇOIS (1807– 1867). An admiral, François Page was sent to Cochinchina to take over from Charles Rigault de Genouilly, being governor of Cochinchina from October 1859 until February 1861. He was born on 31 March 1807 on Vitry-le-François, in northeast France, the son of an innkeeper. He studied at the École Polytechnique, being in the 1827 promotion, and then served in the French Navy. His account of visiting Muscat in 1842 has been published. The French commissioner in Tahiti in 1852–53, he took part in the attack on Tourane led by Charles Rigault de Genouilly. Then when Rigault de Genouilly was to return to Europe, on 19 October 1859, he handed over command to Page, who retained that position until 23 March 1860, being based at Tourane (Danang). His role was to take a less confrontational style and negotiate a treaty which would protect Roman Catholics in Vietnam. Later serving in China, François Page went to Saigon in 1861, remaining there until the arrival of Admiral Charner. He was instrumental in opening up Saigon to Western trade. The author of a number of technical books, and semi-autobiographical sea stories, he retired to Rochefort, France. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, pp. 1250– 56; John DeFrancis, Colonialism and Language Policy in Viet Nam, The Hague: Mouton, 1977, p. 71; R. Stanley Thomson, ‘The diplomacy of imperialism: France and Spain in Cochinchina 1858–1863’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 12 (1940): pp. 334–56; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 343.

PAGÈS, PIERRE ANDRE MICHEL (1893–1980). Born on 5 September 1893 in Argelès-sur-Mer, in the Pyrénées, in the south of France, the son of Commandant André Pagès and Marie (née Moret), he was educated at Collège de Perpignan, Prytanée militaire de la Flèche, and Lycée de Tarbes, joining the colonial service in 1917. Five years later he was promoted to inspector of the Colonies, and he was the French résident supérieur in Laos in March 1931. 227

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He was appointed the French governor of Cochinchina in 1934, taking over from Jean-Felix Krautheimer after a period of instability and a rise in nationalist attacks on the French. He was the governor in 1936 when the Popular Front government came to power in France and ordered the release of most of the nationalist political prisoners held in Indochina. On 23 June 1939, he stepped down and was replaced by René Veber. In 1941 he was the prefect of Algiers. He died in 1980. References: Tran My-Van, A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan: Prince Cuong De (1882–1951), Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005; Who’s Who in France 1967–1968, p. 1067.

PALMER, JOHN PEABODY (1907–19 ). The US vice consul in Saigon in 1937–38, he was born on 5 May 1907 in New York City, and was educated at Phillips Academy, graduating in 1925, and the University of Washington. Serving in the US Naval Reserve, he lived at Seattle, Washington, and served as the US vice consul in Marseille (France) in 1932, in Genoa (Italy) from 1933, at Penang (Malaya, now Malaysia) from 1936, and on 23 July 1937 was posted to Saigon. In 1940 he was posted to London as the US vice consul. In 1946 in Budapest, Hungary, he married Jeanette Bailly Reynolds, and their daughter, Joan, was born on 3 January 1948 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. References: Ruth Allendorf Breck et al., The Eddy Family in America: Supplement 1980, Boston, Mass., 1980, p. 217; Clarence Ray Carpenter, Naturalistic Behaviour of Nonhuman Primates, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1965. He is listed in the 1975 alumni directory for Phillips Academy but not in the subsequent (2003) edition.

PARDON, NOËL. The acting French governor of Cochinchina from 23 October until 2 November 1887, he took over from Ange Michel Filippini and saw the country through some of the changes in the French administration in Saigon which were going to lead to the formation of French Indochina. Jules Georges Piquet took over from him as acting governor. PARKES, RODERICK WALLIS (1909–1972). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1957 to 1960, he was born on 2 April 1909, the son of Llywelyn Childs Parkes and Sara May (née Green). Educated at St Paul’s School and Magdalen College, Oxford, he entered the Indian Civil Service in 1932 and served in the Punjab for three years before transferring to the Indian Political Service and being at the British Legation, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1936– 39. After Indian independence, he joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Cairo, Egypt; and Beirut, Lebanon; before being posted to Jakarta, and was the ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1955–56. Posted to Saigon, he was the ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam and was involved in advising President Ngo Dinh Diem, and also providing help from counter-insurgency experts from British Malaya. He was then ambassador

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to the Sudan 1960–61 and to Jordan 1962–66. Retiring to the Isle of Man, he died on 2 November 1972. References: Peter Busch, ‘Supporting the War: Britain’s Decision to send the Thompson Mission to Vietnam, 1960–61’, Cold War History, vol. 2, no. 1 (2001): pp. 69–94; James McAllister and Ian Schulte, ‘The Limits of Influence in Vietnam: Britain, the United States and the Diem Regime, 1959–63’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, vol. 17, no. 1 (2006): pp. 22–43; Rev. A. H. Mead, St Paul’s School Registers, London: St Paul’s School, 1990, p. 195; Who’s Who; The Times (6 November 1972): p. 14; (7 November 1972): p. 17.

PASQUIER, PIERRE (1877–1934). He was the governor general of French Indochina from 22 August 1928 until his death on 15 January 1934. Born on 6 February 1877, he was the son of Pierre Henri Pasquier, a merchant, and Marie Eulalie Sophie (née Arnoux). His father died when he was eleven months old, so he was brought up by his mother and his maternal grandmother, who was the widow of a naval officer who had served in Asia. Pierre Pasquier attended the École Coloniale, and was put in charge of the civil service in Indochina, becoming résident superieur of Annam in 1921, before becoming governor general of French Indochina. With the death of King Sisowath approaching, Pasquier decided to support a member of the Sisowath branch of the Royal Family succeeding their father or grandfather. Although his relations with the Cambodian royal family were good, he clashed with the young Bao Dai, who returned to Vietnam and was keen on introducing reforms. However, Pasquier was also responsible for helping Bao Dai adapt to take on some more French influences in his plans. Pasquier, who wrote a history of Vietnam, also regularly clashed with French commercial interests. He was killed in the crash of his Dewoitine D332 L’Émeraude on 15 January 1934 at Nevers, in central France, as he was returning home at the end of his term in office. Services were held for him all around Indochina, and Osbert Sitwell, who was at Angkor, noted that there were two services held for him at Siem Reap – one in the Roman Catholic Church, and the other at a Buddhist temple. He was commemorated on two postage stamps issued in French Indochina in 1944. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1221; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 297; Michel Igout, Phnom Penh: Then and Now, Bangkok: White Lotus, 1993, p. 48; Pierre Pasquier, ‘Indo-China Today’, The Asiatic Review, vol. 25, no. 84 (October 1929): pp. 596–600; Osbert Sitwell, Escape with Me! An Oriental Sketch Book, London: Macmillan, 1939, p. 151; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 197.

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PASTEUR INSTITUTE. This was established in Saigon in 1891, only four years after the institute was initially established in Paris. Founded by Louis Pasteur, the aim was to use modern science to investigate diseases, with a particular emphasis in Saigon on tropical diseases. The founder in Saigon was Albert Calmette and the institute was originally located in the grounds of the Saigon Military Hospital. Subsequently, other Pasteur Institutes were established in Dalat and Nhatrang. On 25 November 1958 an agreement was signed between the government of the Republic of Vietnam and the Pasteur Institutes by which the institutes were, in 1959, transferred to the control of the government in line with a statute on 29 December 1958. This stated that the government would continue the work of the institute in terms of ‘studies, research, analysis and surveys in microbiology and biochemistry, with regard to public health, prevention and treatment of virus and contagious diseases which affect man and animals; [and the] production of vaccines and serums for the prevention and treatment of these diseases.’ In 1975 the Pasteur Institute was renamed the Institute of Epidemiology and from 1991 was called the Institut Pasteur in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Au Sokhieng, Mixed Medicines: Health and Culture in French Colonial Cambodia, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011; Eight Years of the Ngo Dinh Diem Administration, Saigon, 1962, pp. 139– 47; J. A. Gelinas, ‘Albert Calmette. The Saigon years 1891–1893: A historical review’, Military Medicine,

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vol. 138, no. 11 (November 1973): pp. 730–33; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 39; ‘History of the Pasteur Institute’, www.pasteur-hcm.org.vn/english/aboutus.htm (April 2012); Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 128–29; Noël Léopold Nègre, Albert Calmette, sa vie, son oeuvre scientifique, Paris: Masson et Cie, 1939.

Hôtel de Ville, Saigon.

Hôtel de Ville, Saigon.

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People’s Committee Building in 2000. Author’s photograph.

People’s Committee Building. Photograph: Brand X Pictures.

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PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE BUILDING [Tr஗ s஑ ஘y ban Nhân dân Thành phஃ Hஅ Chí Minh]. This was the Hôtel de Ville and initial plans for its construction took place in 1871, on a site located on what was then Boulevard Charner (now Nguyen Hue), facing the river. Work had originally started in 1898, but was stopped when Édouard Picanon, the lieutenant governor, made some changes to the floor plan. Then the painter and sculptor Ruffier, who was working on murals and sculptures, insisted on advance payment and also an indemnity in case of further delays. It was not until September 1901 that construction was resumed, with Ruffier starting work in May 1902. Eventually the building was completed in November 1908 at a cost of 469,822 piastres, with Ruffier being sacked and the decorations being left to Bonnet. The building was the official address of the mayor of Saigon, and it was from here that the public works department for the city operated. In April 1934 there was a demonstration against the Banque de l’Indochine in the square in front of the building. After the August Revolution in 1945, it was the place captured and held by the Viet Minh as a show of strength just before the French internees were released and fighting started. It was in this building on 30 December 1949 that Bao Dai signed the accords which established the State of Vietnam; and it was from this place that Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed the results of the 1955 referendum which deposed Bao Dai and led to the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam. It remains one of the best-known and most picturesque buildings in the city and is regularly photographed. Partially floodlit at night, the insects attracted by the light led to large numbers of geckos living on the outside of the building. The People’s Committee Building is not opened to the public. The statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of the building was sculpted by Diep Minh Chau, and unveiled on 14 December 1990. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 68–71; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 76; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 25; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 102–3; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 359; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 79.

PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMED FORCES [Quân Ð஋i Nhân Dân Vi୹t Nam]. The armed forces of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (from 1969 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam), this was created formally in February 1961 at a meeting near Saigon, and was quickly dubbed the Viet Cong. References: Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam’s Armed Forces, New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1992; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 301–2; Douglas Pike, Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1966.

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PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL. This building was constructed between 1881 and 1885 having been designed by the architect Foulhoux, who was then the director of Civil Engineering. At the time of construction it was on Rue MacMahon, which was later renamed Charles de Gaulle and is now Nam Ky Khoi Nghia. Originally the Palace of Justice, and the location of the Criminal Court for Saigon, as well as the Court of Appeal for Cochinchina, in October 1945, General Leclerc used it has his headquarters when he took control in Saigon. After the communists came to power, it was renamed the People’s Tribunal. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 25; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 106–7.

PERSONALISM [Thuyୱt Nhân V୽]. The political ideology of the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem from 1955 until 1963, it was devised by Diem’s brother and adviser Ngo Dinh Nhu, who had been influenced by the French philosopher Emmanuel Mounier. Emphasising the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, the ideology led Nhu to form the Can Lao Party. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of Mounier’s French supporters claimed that Nhu’s beliefs had nothing to do with those of Mounier. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 302.

PETHICK, HARRY HATHAWAY (1888–1966). The US vice consul in Saigon from 1917 until 1919, he was born on 12 February 1888 in Binghampton, New York, USA, the son of Howard B. Pethick and Mamie (née Steed). Educated at Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania, he then started working as a teacher. He then worked for the Standard Oil Company, taking up an appointment in China and then Saigon, becoming US vice consul for two years, and briefly acting consul from 1919 until 1920. He visited the Cambodian temples at Angkor and it was probably during his time in Saigon that he made the long journey up the Mekong. The moved to Hong Kong, where his son was born in March 1921, he left with the fighting in China. In 1935 he was appointed governor of the Royal Masonic Hospital in London and then moved to the United States becoming secretary of the Standard Vacuum Oil Company in New York City. He studied hospital administration at the Duke Medical School in 1941 and held a variety of appointments, being an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention from North Carolina. Retiring from Standard Vacuum Oil, he died on 29 March 1966 and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Southern Pines, North Carolina. References: Richard Lightburn Sutton, Tiger Trails in Southern Asia, St Louis: C. V. Mosby Company, 1926, pp. 12, 19; Who’s Who in America.

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PETRA, YVON (1916–1984). The French male tennis player, he was born on 8 March 1916 in Cholon, and became a prominent tennis player, playing in the Davis Cup between 1937 and 1947. Wearing flannel trousers and sporting a sunhat, he won the French Doubles Championships in 1938 with Bernard Destremau, and in 1946 with Marcel Bernard (whom he had lost to in the semi-finals of the French Open Singles). During World War II he also won two French national titles. He then became the last Frenchman to win the men’s singles title in the Wimbledon championship in 1946 after beating the Australian player Geoff Brown in five sets. He died on 12 September 1984 in Paris. References: Jon Henderson, The Last Champion: The Life of Fred Perry, London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2009.

PHAM BUU LOC, Prince. See Buu Loc, Prince. PHAM CONG TAC [Ph୓m Công Tୡc] (1890–1959). The Pope of the Cao Dai religion from 1935 until 1955, he was born on 21 June 1890 in the village of Binh Lap, in Chau Thanh district of Long An province, the seventh of eight children. He worked as a customs officer in Saigon at the Dragon House (now the site of the Ho Chi Minh Museum). During the 1920s he joined the Cao Dai movement and when Le Van Trung died in 1935, he became the head of the Cao Dai and soon he became heavily involved in politics as well as supporting social movements. The French disliked this and tried to suppress the church in the early years of World War II. Indeed, they arrested Pham Cong Tac in 1941 and exiled him to the Comoros Islands. In August 1946 Pham Cong Tac returned to Saigon, and then went to Tay Ninh where he resumed his leadership of the Cao Dai. Initially, he supported the French against the Viet Minh, but soon moved towards a neutralist attitude. Phan Cong Tac was a monarchist and welcomed the French inviting back Bao Dai to head the State of Vietnam. However, he opposed the rising influence of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954 and Diem, in October 1955, sent his soldiers into the Cao Dai headquarters at Tay Ninh, forcing Pham Cong Tac to flee to Cambodia, where he died on 10 April 1959. His remains were kept safely in the Cao Dai pagoda until they were able to be returned to Vietnam and interred there on 5 December 2006. References: Serguei A. Blagov, Caodaism: Vietnamese Traditionalism and its Leap into Modernity, Huntington, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2001; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 303; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

PHAM MINH MAN, JEAN-BAPTISTE [Ph୓m Minh Mଢ଼n] (1934– ). The current Metropolitan archbishop of Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh, he was born on 5 March 1934 in Ca Mau, in the far south of Vietnam. He studied at Can Tho and then Saigon, being ordained a priest on 25 May 1965 and going back to Can Tho to serve. He then studied in the United States and taught for many

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years, being appointed as the coadjutor bishop of My Tho in 1993. After five years in that position, he was promoted to become archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City on 1 March 1998. Later that year, he officiated at a Mass held at the village of La Vang for the 200th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. This was the largest Vietnamese Catholic event held up to that time. On 21 October 2003, Pham Minh Man was appointed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, being the cardinal-priest of San Giustino. He took part in the papal conclave in April 2005 that saw the election of Pope Benedict XVI. PHAM NGOC THACH [Ph୓m Ng୿c Th୓ch] (1909–1968). A leftwing medical doctor, he was born on 7 May 1909 at Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh province. His father Pham Ngoc Tho was a teacher, and his mother was a minor member of the Nguyen Imperial family. His father died when he was two and his mother brought him up. He went to Hanoi to train in medicine and continued his studies in Paris. After working as a doctor in France in 1935–36, he returned to Vietnam and opened private clinics, making a small fortune. However he moved to Saigon where he decided to become active in the anti-colonial movement and in March 1945 he joined the Communist Party of Indochina. During the August Revolution, he was appointed minister of health of the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. With the restoration of French rule, he remained active in the Viet Minh in the south and then was vice minister of health of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1954 until 1958, and then minister of health form 1958. He went to the south to take part in treating wounded communist soldiers. He was increasingly in poor health and died, reportedly of malaria, on 7 November 1968, near Tay Ninh. References: Arthur J. Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 304–5; Mari Olsen, The Soviet Union, Vietnam and China 1949–64: Changing Alliances, London: Routledge, 2006.

PHAM NGU LAO [Ph୓m Ngī Lão]. This is the area in Ho Chi Minh City around the Pham Ngu Lao Street [㣗Ѩ㗕], in the west-central part of the city, south of the Reunification Palace. It was named after the famous general Pham Ngu Lao (1255–1320), who served three emperors in the Tran dynasty and fought against the Mongols. From the mid-1990s, it became popular with foreign tourists, and many hotels and hostels were built as large numbers of tourists flooded into Vietnam. The hostels and hotels ranged from dormitory style accommodation to three star hotels. Along with the hotels and hostels, there was also a proliferation of cafés catering for the tourists, selling a wide range of Vietnamese and Western foods.

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References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 94f.; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 369–70.

PHAM QUYNH [Ph୓m Qu஥nh] (1892–1945). A monarchist, he was born on 17 December 1892 near Hanoi, Tonkin, and was orphaned when he was young. However he gained a scholarship and went to school in Hanoi and became a journalist. A Confucian, and a supporter of the Nguyen dynasty, he saw his role as being to show how the Vietnamese monarchy and the French colonial regime could coexist. In 1917 he founded the journal Nam Phong (‘Southern Wind’) and he wrote many articles urging for the Vietnamese monarchy to assume greater powers, with the mandarins able to maintain their position in the evolving political scene. In 1933 when Emperor Bao Dai tried to change his government, Pham Quynh was appointed minister of education, with Ngo Dinh Diem being appointed minister of the interior. Diem was to resign from his position soon afterwards but Pham Quynh was anxious to continue to urge for change from within the government. He wrote in favour of the Vichy government, arguing that the French had lost their soul with a republican government, and that Marshal Philippe Pétain was restoring French dignity. In May 1942 he was appointed minister of the interior, and remained living in Hue. The communists hated him and arrested him on 23 August 1945 during the August Revolution. They killed him on 6 September 1945. He was survived by his wife; they had thirteen children. On 9 February 1956, his remains were reinterred at the Van Phuoc Pagoda, Hue. Vilified for many years by the communists, there was increased interest in him from 2000 with a number of books and editions of his works published in Vietnam since then. References: David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; Sarah Whitney Womack, Colonialism and the Collaborationist Agenda: Pham Quynh, Print Culture, and the Politics of Persuasion in Colonial Vietnam, PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 2003.

PHAM XUAN AN [Ph୓m Xuân ୚n] (1927–2006). A Vietnamese spy working in Saigon for the communists, he was born in 1927 in Binh Truoc village, in the south of Dong Nai province. His father was a land surveyor and An followed him around. In 1945 he dropped out of his school in Chantho to join the Viet Minh. In March 1950, the USS Richard B. Anderson came to Saigon, bringing supplies for the French, and Pham Xuan An led a dockside demonstration. It was after this that it was suggested to him that he should become a spy and work under cover in Saigon, which he did until 1975. Initially working for Caltex, and then for the Colonial Customs Service, he became fluent in English and even befriended Edward Lansdale, who thought that An could become an important anti-communist and in 1957 he went to the United States on a scholarship, studying at Orange Coast College in California.

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Returning to Saigon, soon Pham Xuan An found himself working with many journalists, including Stanley Karnow, who admired his perception and his knowledge of South Vietnamese politics. An continued to supply the communists with important and insightful information and political comment. Keeping his cover, Pham Xuan An’s family were evacuated to the United States. He himself remained in Saigon and briefly was the only Time Magazine correspondent in the city. Worried because he was under such deep cover that only the North Vietnamese communist leadership knew about his role, he and his mother spent two days at the Hôtel Continental and then they returned home. An continued reporting for Time Magazine, and news reached Ho Chi Minh City (as it had been renamed), that he had been a spy all along. Pham Xuan An’s wife and children left the United States for France, then flew from Paris to Moscow and then to Hanoi, travelling to Ho Chi Minh City by car. An was commanded as a hero of the nation at the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in December 1976. He went through a brief re-education process and then the family returned to Ho Chi Minh City. An was the subject of two Vietnamese government publications about his time as a spy. Pham Xuan An: His Name Is Like his Life (Hanoi, 2002) was given an award for the best non-fiction book published that year in Vietnam. The other book had a similar title, as ‘Xuan’ means ‘secret’; the title was His Name Is His Life (Hanoi, 2002). These and various press stories led to US professor, Larry Berman, meeting with him and writing a detailed account of his life, which was published just after An died on 20 September 2006, from cancer. However, he had read much of the manuscript whilst in ill-health. References: Larry Berman, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007; Dennis Hevesi, ‘Pham Xuan An Dies at 79; Reporter Spied for Hanoi’, The New York Times (22 September 2006); Morley Safer, Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam, New York: Random House, 1990; ‘Vietnamese scribe wrote for different readers’, The Age (23 September 2006).

PHAN BOI CHAU [Phan B஋i Châu; ┬Խ⦴] (1867–1940). The Vietnamese nationalist revolutionary who started the modern Vietnamese nationalist movement, he was born on 26 December 1867 in the village of Sa Nam, in the north-central province of Nghe An. His father, Phan Van Pho, was from a family of poor scholars, and he taught his son the Chinese classics, especially the Analects of Confucius. He was growing up at a time when the French were taking control of Vietnam and there were some clashes near Hue. Some of these centred on the attempt to use the boy emperor Ham Nghi to lead the Vietnamese against the French. However, this failed and the plotters had to flee Hue and establish a base in Nghe An.

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Phan Boi Chau was eighteen at the time of the revolt and became a supporter of what was called the Can Vuong movement. He sat exams to become a mandarin and finally passed in 1900. His elderly father died in the same year, and from 1900 until 1905, he started planning for Vietnamese independence. Influenced by Western and Eastern philosophers, the focus of his plans was Prince Cuong De, a member of the Vietnamese imperial family. In 1904 Phan Boi Chau founded the Vietnamese Modernization Association (Vi t Nam Duy Tân Hi). Hoping to get support from Japan, or from Chinese Revolutionaries, Phan Boi Chau started writing about his ideas before actually going to Japan to enlist support. The French pressured the Japanese to deport him and he left for Hong Kong, planning to go to Siam (Thailand) to establish a base. However, he heard of an armed revolt in Vietnam and sent over some weapons. The revolt failed. However, the Chinese Revolution in 1911 greatly inspired Phan Boi Chau, and he formed the Vietnam Restoration League. Prince Cuong De was the president, and Phan Boi Chau was the vice president. In spite of many intellectuals in Hue and Hanoi reading and discussing the ideas of Phan Boi Chai, he never had much support in Saigon – Cochinchina having far more political rights than the rest of the country. Phan Boi Chau was jailed in China for three years and on his release, he continued agitating, including seeking help from the Soviet Union. In 1925 he went to Shanghai but was seized there by French agents and taken to Hanoi. Held in prison, he had already been tried in absentia and sentenced to death in 1913. Now he was sentenced to penal servitude for life and was jailed until 24 December 1925 when Alexander Varenne, the governor general, released him. He spent his last fifteen years living quietly in Hue with his family. Although Phan Boi Chau does not seem to have visited Saigon, the influence he had on the Vietnamese nationalist movement in the entire country was important and long-lasting. He knew Ho Chi Minh’s father, and his work was a great influence on Ho Chi Minh himself. Phan Boi Chau’s views were actively discussed by the Vietnamese in Saigon, with a large number of books on him published during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was also commemorated on two Republic of Vietnam postage stamps issued on 24 March 1967. References: William Duiker, ‘Phan Boi Chau: Asian Revolutionary in a Changing World’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 31, no. 1 (November 1971): pp. 77–88; William Duiker, The Rise of Nationalism in Vietnam, 1900–1941, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976; Yves Le Jariel, Phan Boi Chau, 1867–1940: Le nationalisme vietnamien avant Ho Chi Minh, Paris: l’Harmattan, 2008; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 306–7; Mark W. McLeod, ‘Nationalism and Religion in Vietnam: Phan Boi Chau and the Catholic Question’, International History Review, vol. 14 (1992): pp. 661–80; David Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism 1885 – 1925, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971; Phan Boi Chau, Overturned Chariot: The Autobiography of Phan-Boi-Chau, translated by Vinh Sinh and Nicholas Wickendam, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999; Vinh Sinh (ed.), Phan Boi Chau and the Dong-du Movement, New Haven, CT: Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale Center for International

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and Area Studies, 1988; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 91–97.

PHAN HUY QUAT [Phan Huy Quát] (1909–1979). The acting prime minister of the State of Vietnam in June 1954, and the prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam from February until June 1965, Phan Huy Quat was born on 1 July 1909 in Ha Tinh in Central Vietnam. He attended Lycée Pellerin in Hue and then Lycée du Protectorat in Hanoi from 1927–30, and then went to the Faculty of Medicine in Hanoi, graduating in 1936. Remaining at the Faculty of Medicine as a member of the teaching staff, he was also chairman of the board of Management of the Vietnamese Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and the founding chairman and then adviser to the Indochinese University Students Association from 1936 until 1945. After the August Revolution, Quat was offered a position as chairman of the Administrative Committee of Central Vietnam, but refused to be involved and returned to Hanoi in 1946. On 2 July 1949 he was appointed minister of education in the first government of the State of Vietnam, then appointed minister of defence on 22 January 1950, resigning in the following month. He was again minister of defence in 1953– 54 under Prime Minister Nguyen Van Tam, with Prince Buu Loc appointing him special minister in charge of the democratization process. He became the acting prime minister of the State of Vietnam from 16 June 1954, until 26 June when Bao Dai appointed Ngo Dinh Diem as prime minister. Under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, Phan Huy Quat was opposed to the government and in April 1960, he was a signatory to the Caravelle Manifesto, which was issued by a number of anti-communist politicians from the Caravelle Hotel. This saw Dr Phan Huy Quat and a number of other politicians arrested after the coup attempt on 11 November 1960. A military court ordered his release in July 1963. After the overthrow of Diem, Quat was appointed chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Notables Council, which advised the Army Revolutionary Council. He was appointed foreign minister in 1964. On 16 February 1964 he became prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam after Nguyen Khanh decided to try to establish a civilian government under intense US pressure. Leaving the prime ministership on 8 June 1965, Phan Huy Quat returned to practise medicine. He also was a member of the Advisory Committee of the International League for the Protection of Human Rights from 1965, and was also chairman of the Asia/World Anti-Communist League [Liên Minh Á Châu Ch ng Cng]. Married with six children, with the fall of Saigon to the communists on 30 April 1975, Phan Huy Quat went into hiding and tried to leave Vietnam. Arrested and held at Chi Hoa Prison, he died in prison on 27 April 1979.

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References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 309–10; Ngo Ngoc Trung, ‘Phan Huy Quat’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, pp. 903–4; Nguyen Cao Ky, Twenty Years and Twenty Days, New York: Stein & Day, 1976; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 149; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 641–42; David Wurfel, ‘The Saigon Political Elite: Focus on Four Cabinets’, Asian Survey, vol. 7, no. 8 (August 1967): pp. 527–39.

PHAN KHAC SUU [Phan Khୡc Sடu] (1905–1970). The president of the Republic of Vietnam in 1964–65, he was born on 9 January 1905 in My Thuan village, Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta. He spent six years studying in France, graduating in 1929 as an agricultural engineer from the Nationale Supérieure d’Agriculture Coloniale at Nogent-sur-Marne, in eastern Paris. In the following year he returned to Vietnam and worked as a chief of the Economic and Technical Information division in the Department of Agriculture. With the founding of the United National Party for the Vietnamese Revolution in October 1940, a Trotskyite political grouping, Phan Khac Suu became associated with it and was arrested by the French in February 1941 and sentenced to eight years in jail. Sent to Poulo Condore, he was released in 1945 and remained in the Mekong Delta in the region controlled by the Viet Minh. In 1954 Phan Khac Suu was appointed minister of agriculture by Ngo Dinh Diem. However, he urged Diem not to suppress the Cai Dao and Hoa Hao and resigned from the cabinet. Elected to the National Assembly in 1959, he was arrested after the failed coup attempt of 11 November 1960. In July 1963 a military court found him guilty and sentenced him to eight years in solitary confinement, sending him back to Poulo Condore. However, this imprisonment did not last long because Diem was overthrown on 1–2 November 1963. After his release, Phan Khac Suu became chairman of the High National Council, which served as an advisory body for President Nguyen Khanh. The body elected Suu as the president of the Republic of Vietnam, a position he held from 24 October 1964 until Catholic protests against the government forced him to resign on 14 June 1965. In 1966 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly and in the following year he ran for the presidency finishing third with 10.8 per cent of the vote. He died on 24 May 1970. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 310; Ngo Ngoc Trung, ‘Phan Huy Quat’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, p. 904; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 961–62.

PHAN QUANG DAN [Phan Quang Ðán] (1918– ). A medical doctor, he was born in 1918 at Vinh, Nghe An, and graduated from the University of Hanoi in 1945, having been an agent for the US OSS during World War II. The editor of the Binh Minh Daily in that year, he was advisor for Youth Affairs in the government of Tran Trong Kim in 1945, and then left for China, being a physician at the Fourth Municipal Hospital in Shanghai, China in 1946–47. The political adviser to Bao Dai in 1947–48, he was also minister of information

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in the government of Nguyen Van Xuan. He then went to the United States and gained his doctorate in public health from Harvard University, completing his thesis, Vietnam’s Health: Present Conditions and Proposals of Reorganization in 1954. Lecturing in preventive medicine at the Saigon School of Medicine, he was elected to the National assembly to represent the 2nd precinct of Saigon, but was arrested in 1960 for involvement in the attempted coup d’état against President Ngo Dinh Diem and held at Poulo Condore until 1963. The chairman of the Gia Dinh Provincial Council in 1965, and a deputy in the Constituent Assembly in September 1966, he survived an assassination attempt in December 1966, and was the vice presidential running mate of Phan Khac Sun in the 1967 presidential elections. Working in a number of charitable groups, he was minister of state in charge of land reclamation and hamlets establishment, he helped with the resettling of Vietnamese refugees from Cambodia. In 1976 he left Saigon for the United States. References: Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; George McT Kahin, Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam, New York: Knopf, 1986; ‘South Vietnam leader hurt in car blast’, The Valley Independent (Monessen, PA) (27 December 1966); Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 185–88.

PHAN VAN HUM [Phan VÅn Hùm] (1902–1945). A journalist and revolutionary, he was born on 9 April 1902 in the village of An Thanh, in what is now the province of Binh Duong. From a peasant family, he managed to get a scholarship to Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don), and then went to Hanoi where he taught before moving to Hue. He spent some time in prison and then was released and went to France, studying at the University of Paris. Teaching English in Toulouse, he was involved in the Fourth Communist International, and after having to leave France for Belgium, he then returned to Saigon. Teaching at École Paul Doumer, he was elected to the Saigon Municipal Council, and was re-elected in 1939. He was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail, being taken to Poulo Condore. Released in 1942, he was killed during the fighting in 1945. References: David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982; A. Richardson, (ed.), The Revolution Defamed: A Documentary history of Vietnamese Trotskyism, London: Socialist Platform, 2003; Peter Zinoman, The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862–1940, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

PHAN VAN HUU [Phan VÅn H஡u] (1935– ). The director of the National Library in Saigon from 1971 until 1975, he was born in 1935 in Rach Gia province. A teacher at Petrus Ky High School in Saigon, he became an assistant professor at Can Tho University. Studying in the United States at Pittsburgh University, and then gained a licentiate of letters at Saigon University. In 1971 he was appointed director of the National Library and was also the president of the National Institute of Library Administration. He managed to get crucial

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funds for the library, with a new building added, which appeared on a series of two postage stamps issued on 14 April 1974. References: Who’s Who in Vietnam, 1974, p. 350; The World of Learning 1971–72, p. 1738.

PHAN VAN KHAI [Phan VÅn Kh୕i] (1933– ). The prime minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1997 until 2006, he was born on 25 December 1933 near Saigon. When he was a teenager, he joined the communist movement and with the partition of Vietnam, he moved to North Vietnam and then studied economics in the Soviet Union. Returning to Hanoi, he took up a position at the State Planning Committee and was involved in the planning for what would happen to South Vietnam after eventual reunification. From 1975 until 1989 he was back in Ho Chi Minh City helping with the reunification and the problems that arose. However, in 1989 he was back in Hanoi as the deputy prime minister and was elected prime minister on 24 September 1997, being reelected in August 2002. On 24 June 2006, he announced his resignation and was succeeded by Nguyen Tan Dung, who had also been born near Saigon. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 135–36; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 311–12.

PHAN XICH LONG REBELLION. This anti-French rebellion was launched by Phan Xich Long [Phan Xích Long; ┬䌸啡], the son of a Saigon merchant (some sources state he was a policeman). Born in 1893 in Cholon as Phan Phat Sanh, he had been involved in a messianic movement and claimed descent from Emperor Ham Nghi. In March 1913, after many protests which followed the raising of higher taxes and also the imposition of the corvée labour ‘tax’ in the Mekong Delta area, he gained many supporters and planned to march on Saigon and take the city. The uprising also had support from people in the Cambodian town of Kampot. However, the French pre-empted this and arrested him. In 1916 his supporters were involved in disturbances in Saigon aimed at freeing him from prison. These failed and Phan Xich Long and his closest supporters were all executed on 22 February 1916. References: Do Thien, Vietnamese Supernaturalism: Views from the Southern Region, London: Routledge, 2003; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 312; R. B. Smith, ‘The Development of Opposition to French Rule in Southern Vietnam 1880–1940’, Past & Present, vol. 54 (February 1972): pp. 94–129; Tai Hue-Tam Ho, Millenarianism and Peasant Politics in Vietnam, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983.

PHOTOGRAPHY. The first photographer to operate in Saigon was Charles Parant, who worked there in 1864–67, with Clément Gillet also working

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in the city in 1865–66. John Thomson also photographed Saigon in 1867, the photograph appeared eight years later in his book The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China, or, Ten Years’ Travels, Adventures and Residence Abroad. William H. Seward also records taking photographs in 1871. However, the photographer who had a studio in the city for the longest period of time was Émile Gsell (1838–1879), who was born in Alsace and went to Indochina, photographing the Cambodian temples at Angkor in June 1866. In September or October 1886, in Saigon, he opened a studio and remained in the city until his death on 16 October 1879. Another photographer connected with the city was Aurélian Pestel (1855– 1897), who arrived in Vietnam in 1883 and took up photography twelve years later. Pierre M. Dieufils took photographs of the city which appeared in some books. The French administrator Etienne Aymonier took some photographs in Saigon, although most of his work was done in Cambodia. An early Asian photographer was Pun-Lun, who had a studio in Saigon opposite that of Gsell from 1869–72. The only Vietnamese photographer of that period appears to be the retired mandarin Dang Huy Tru, who worked in Hanoi. References: Jérôme Ghesquière, ‘Emile Gsell’, in John Hannavy (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, London: Routledge, 2008, p. 624; Joel Montague, ‘Postcards from the Empire’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 21, no. 1 (June 2008): pp. 34ff.

PHUNG SON PAGODA [Chùa Ph஗ng Sţn]. This Chinese temple is built on a site which has a long and curious history. During the renovation work on it, remains which have been dated back to the ‘Empire’ of Funan have been located on the site – from about 300–400 AD. There was a sacred pond nearby, and a moat, and it might have been close to where the Chinese built the current pagoda between 1802 and 1820, in the first years of the rule of the Nguyen dynasty. There is a famous folk story about this pagoda. It involved a decision being made to move it to a new site. During the relocation, the ritual objects from the temple – the bells, drums and statues – were loaded onto a white elephant for the journey. However, because the elephant was carrying too much, it slipped near the pond (or the moat which surrounded the temple until the 1980s). During the fall, most of the objects tumbled off the elephant and into the water. Nearly all the objects were retrieved and the temple authorities thought that this was an omen against the move and they decided to remain at the original location. The main temple bell was never recovered from the pond and at full moon each year until about 1900, it could be heard tolling. In 1888 French archaeologists worked at the site and it was then that the presence of a previous building – probably a temple – from the Funan period was confirmed. It was not until 1991 that another large archaeological examination of ruins took place. The temple underwent a major renovation in 1909. Until the 1980s there was a large moat around the temple.

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The temple has in the centre a large gilded statue of Buddha under a canopy. On the left of it is a statue of Bodhidharma, who is credited with bringing Buddhism to China from India. The face is fashioned with Indian feathers, and the statue itself is made from Chinese ceramics. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 286; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 30, 52–53; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 364–65.

PHUNG SON TU PAGODA [Chùa Ph஗ng Sţn Tண]. This is a small Chinese temple located at 338 Nguyen Cong Tru Street and was built in the late 1940s by the Chinese from Fujian (Fukien). Dedicated to Ong Bon, the Guardian of Happiness and Virtue, there are models of dangerous-looking temple guardians on either side of the elaborately painted entrance. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, pp. 283–84.

PHUOC AN HOI QUAN PAGODA [Chùa Minh HŲţng – PhŲ஍c An H஋i Quán]. This Chinese pagoda located in Cholon was built in 1902 by the Fujian Congregation and is regarded as one of the most beautiful pagodas in the city. Much of its beauty comes from the porcelain figures and the elaborate brass work throughout. The pagoda is dedicated to Quan Cong and there is a life-size image of his famous and sacred horse to the left of the entrance. Before making a long or important journey, people would make offerings to the horse, stroke its mane, and ring the bell around its neck. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 88–89; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 60.

PHUOC HAI PAGODA. See Jade Emperor Pagoda. PHUOC KIEN PAGODA [Chùa PhŲ஍c Ki୵n]. This temple was built by the Chinese from Fujian (Fukien) and it is located in Nguyen Kiem (formerly Rue Louis Berland). It was originally surrounded by a burial ground, but some of that has now been incorporated into the Tan Son Nhut Park. During the French-Spanish attack on the citadel, the foreign soldiers occupied the pagoda. Because it was built some distance from the crowded streets of Cholon and Saigon, it has a wide frontage with three doors – the central one leading into the main courtyard, and the others into small patios. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 19; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 160–61.

PICANON, ÉDOUARD (1854–1939). The French lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1898 until 1901, he took over from Ange Eugène

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Nicolai, and was replaced by Henri de Lamothe. Picanon was the governor of New Caledonia from 14 November 1902 until 2 September 1903, and the governor of French Guyana from 1906–7. He was later appointed inspector general of the colonies and produced a number of important reports, especially his one in 1917, on the revolt in French West Africa. References: William F. S. Miles, Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: Identity and Development in Vanuatu, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998, p. 199; Mahir Saul and Patrick Yves Royer, West African Challenge to Empire: Culture and History in the Volta-Bani Autonomous War, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2001, p. 28.

PICQUIÉ, ALBERT JEAN GEORGE MARIE LOUIS (1853–1917). The acting governor general of French Indochina from January 1910 until February 1911, he was later appointed the governor of Madagascar, 1911–14. In Madagascar, Picquie was very unpopular for continuing the policy of his predecessor of closing down many of the schools which the French had created under Joseph Gallieni in 1896–1905. The only major school for locals left was Le Myre de Vilers, which was named after the former resident general of Madagascar, Charles Le Myre de Vilers, who had served as governor of Cochinchina in 1879–82, and later represented Cochinchina in the National Assembly. However, Picquié did also start work on the main railway from Antananarivo to Antsirabe in Madagascar. References: Philip M. Allen and Maureen Covell, Historical Dictionary of Madagascar, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005, p. 204; Jennifer Cole, Sex and Salvation: Imagining the Future in Madagascar, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010, pp. 31–32; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Emmanuelle Saada and Arthur Goldhammer, Empire’s Children: Race, Filiation and Citizenship in the French Colonies, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012, p. 285.

PIGNON, LÉON (1908–1976). The high commissioner of French Indochina from 20 October 1948 until 17 December 1950, he had been born on 18 April 1908 at Angoulême in the southwest of France. In 1928 he studied at the École Coloniale and graduated at the top of his class in 1931. Working in the colonial civil service, in 1936 he returned to France to work at the Colonial Ministry. With the outbreak of World War I, he was commissioned lieutenant and sent to Senegal, where he was involved in raising a company of riflemen. In the Battle of France he was taken prisoner on the Somme, being repatriated to France in January 1942. Refusing to work for the Vichy administration in France or Algeria, he went to Indochina where he was appointed as an adviser to Jean Sainteny. A hardline opponent of any concessions to the Vietnamese nationalists, he was regarded as being too close to Admiral Thierry d’Argenlieu, and Émile Bollaert posted him to Cambodia. However, when Bollaert left office, Pignon succeeded him. During his term as high commissioner, the Elysée Accords were signed and Bao Dai returned to office in charge of the newly established State

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of Vietnam. As a result of this, Pignon felt that the remaining French problems were military. The French and State of Vietnam forces continued to be defeated by the Viet Minh and Pignon was blamed for this, and wawss recalled to be replaced by Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. After leading some overseas missions and working for the United Nations, Léon Pignon died on 4 April 1976. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1223; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 315; Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years 1941–1960 – the US Army in Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1983, p. 106; Daniel Varga, La politique française en Indochine (1947–50): Histoire d’une décolonisation manquée, thesis, University of Provence, 2004; Who’s Who in France 1975–1976, p. 1334.

PIQUET, JULES GEORGES (1839–1923). After serving as French résident general in Cambodia from 17 May 1886 until 4 November 1887, he was the acting governor of Cochinchina from 3 until 15 November 1887. This period saw the establishment of French Indochina, with Piquet moving to India and then becoming governor of French India 1888–89, and returning to Saigon as the governor general of French Indochina from 31 May 1889 until April 1891. Joseph Buttinger famously noted, ‘so pale a memory left this Governor General that posterity does not record his given name.’ He notes that the most important actions by Piquet were closing down many illegal gambling houses, and misrepresenting events in Tonkin to the French government. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1216; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Virginia Thompson, French Indochina, New York: Macmillan, 1937, p. 73.

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POINTE DES BLAGUEURS (‘Jokers’ Point’). Marked by a signal mask, this place is where the road Ton Duc Thang turns to head west as the Ben Nghe Channel meets the Saigon River. During the period of French colonial rule, in the evenings, many people would walk from Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi) along the river front on Hang Bot (‘Flour Street’, now Ton Duc Thang) to this spot. Many would exchange gossip about society and this led to it gaining its name. In February 1958, a cloth merchant who was in debt after a change in the law went to the Pointe des Blagueurs, poured petrol over himself and set himself alight – this was some five and a half years before Thich Quang Duc did this in his political protest against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 78; Hilaire du Berrier, Background to Betrayal: The Tragedy of Vietnam, Boston: Western Islands, 1965, p. 75.

POLICE FORCE. The police force in French Indochina followed the French model with the Sûreté générale being the criminal police, which includes the detective agency, with its headquarters on Rue Catinat (now Dong Khoi). It gained some notoriety for its tracking down of political dissidents. In addition there was the garde civile, all the officers of which were Vietnamese. These liaised with the garde indigène in Annam, Tonin, Laos and Cambodia. The State of Vietnam inherited the resources and the personnel of the French colonial administration. However, in Saigon, it allowed the Binh Xuyen gangsters effectively to run ‘law enforcement’. This changed when Ngo Dinh Diem came to power and he had two police forces – the sûreté, and also the ‘Special Forces’, dressed in white and used for the enforcement of law and order in Saigon and other places. These were the ones regularly seen in photographs in the early 1960s having to deal with Buddhist demonstrators. After the overthrow of Diem, most of the police were retained, and they were used, less publically, by the leaders, notably from 1965 by Nguyen Van Thieu, for enforcing his rule. Under the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the People’s National Police System is effectively paramilitary, with 100,000 police in the mid-1980s, and a large number of volunteers. Directly responsible to the government and the Communist Party, the police were involved in patrolling, criminal investigations, intelligence gathering and dealing with emergency situations. References: Harold K. Becker and Donna Lee Becker, Handbook of the World’s Police, Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1986, pp. 274–75; Erwan Bergot, Les gendarmes au combat en Indochine, Paris: Jeannine Balland, 1994; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, pp. 209–10; ‘News from Viet Nam’, Police Administration Division at Michigan State University, vol. 4 (10 October 1958): pp. 6–13; D. G. Porter, ‘Saigon’s Secret Police’, Nation (27 April 1970): pp. 498–500.

POSTAL SERVICES. There had been a messenger service in Vietnam since medieval times, and the Chinese community had a well-developed system of taking letters and packages between Saigon and Cholon, and China. There were also messengers taking packages from one city to another in early modern

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The Post and Telegraph Office, Saigon.

Vietnam – these were portrayed on a Republic of Vietnam series of postage stamps on 6 June 1971. The French started issuing postages stamps for Indochina in 1889 – these were French colonial stamps overprinted with ‘R’ for the dovernor, Étienne Richaud, and ‘D’ for P. Demars, the postmaster general. This was followed by a series of the ‘Navigation & Commerce’ stamps, denoted with ‘Indochine’. The Saigon Post Office, designed by A. Foulhoux and A. Vildieux, was built between 1886 and 1891, with the postal system under the French was standardised and improved. The stamps, mainly definitives, showed a variety of scenes, with the top two values in the 26 September 1927 set showing the founding of Saigon. By 1936 there were 338 post offices in Indochina, most of which were located in Cochinchina and Tonkin. There was an airmail service with planes taking letters regularly from Saigon to Hanoi. During that year, some 1.76 million letters and parcels were sent to France, with 2.243 million letters and parcels received from France. Within the countryside, the postman took letters by railway, boat, motor car, and also by horse and on foot. And from 1938 until 1944, postage stamps tended to show a range of Indochinese personalities. Following the Elysée Accords, postage stamps were first issued for the State of Vietnam on 6 June 1951. This was a definitive set with the stamps showing Bao Dai, the Bongour Falls in Dalat, the Imperial Palace in Hue, the Small Lake in Hanoi, and the Temple of Hung Vuong in Saigon. On 20 July 1955, the first postage stamps for the Republic of Vietnam were issued. These had of an image of a mythological turtle, with the second series of stamps showing refugees on a raft, and the third series was of the Post Office in Saigon. A definitive series showing President Ngo Dinh Diem followed. Some 466 postage stamps were issued from then until April 1975, with a wide variety of topics and sites shown. Some of these included places in Hanoi, and there was a clear effort not to focus heavily on sites in Saigon. First Day Covers

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generally have Saigon postmarks. After April 1975, the stamps of the united Vietnam were used. During the 1980s, a number of unissued South Vietnamese stamps were put on the market, often at high prices. There were also stamps issued by the National Liberation Front (NLF) from 5 October 1963 until June 1976. The ones issued from October 1963 until April 1975 were to demonstrate the claims of the NLF to be a government. Copies of these on postally used covers are perhaps the most interesting for serious stamp collectors. Some stamps issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam show scenes from Saigon, with more of those from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, decorated with buildings and scenes from Ho Chi Minh City, including two to commorate the centenary of the Saigon Post Office on 30 April 1992, but none for the tercentenary of Saigon in 1998. References: British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, p. 478; Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 53–55, 67; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 280; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 74; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 26; ‘Indochina’, International Encyclopedia of Stamps, vol. 3, pp. 971–72, ‘South Vietnam’, vol. 6, pp. 1764–65, ‘Vietnam’, p. 1943; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698– 1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 108–9; Scott 2006 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, vol, 3, pp. 877–81; vol. 6, pp. 904–60; Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 21: South-East Asia, London: Ringwood, 2004, pp. 554–684.

POULET, ACTON (1875–1937). The US vice consul in Saigon from 1922 until 1929, he was born on 21 January 1876 in Kansas, the son of Alexis Poulet, a banker. He was appointed to work for a US oil company in Saigon from 1909 until 1922, when he was appointed vice consul. He served for seven years in Cochinchina and was described by Richard Sutton as ‘the best known and most popular European business man in Southern Asia’ dressed ‘in his snowy helmet and immaculate linen whites’. Retiring to France, he lived at 57 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Nice, France, with his sister. He died on 10 August 1937 in France, and his body was cremated at Marseille, with his ashes held at the Columbarium there. References: Frank Wilson Blackmar, Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History…, Chicago: Standard Publishing Company, 1912, p. 1326; Federal Writers Project, Kansas: A Guide to the Hawkeye State, Kansas City, 1939, p. 311; Richard Lighburn Sutton, The Long Trek: Around the World with Camera and Rifle, St Louis; The C. V. Mosby Company, 1930, pp. 13, 234.

PRESIDENTIAL PALACE. See Reunification Palace. PREY NOKOR. ‘The [Royal] Village in the Forest’ was the Cambodian name for the settlement which became Saigon. Probably built on the site which had been occupied by the Cham trading post called Baigaur, it was a significant Khmer sea port and control of it was handed over to the Vietnamese in 1623 by King Chey Chettha II of Cambodia, who allowed the them to set up a

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customs post which later led to the Vietnamese dominating the city, and soon massively overshadowing the ever-smaller Khmer Krom community. In 1674, the Vietnamese took Prey Nokor, and used it to launch an attack on Cambodia. In 1698 it formally became Vietnamese and was named Gia Dinh. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 2–3; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 15; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 8–9.

PRISONS. There were obviously prisons in Saigon before the arrival of the French, but little is known about them except for the famous account of Edward Brown, who was held in one of them in 1858 after having been captured by Chinese pirates. Under the Nguyen dynasty in 1825 there were less than 1,000 prisoners, with floggings, exile and execution used. Under the French, there was a central prison in Saigon, and also prisons for those sentenced to hard labour on Poulo Condore and Phu Quoc. In addition, there was a maison de correction (reformatory) for boys at Thu Dau Mot. Peter Zinoman, in his study of imprisonment in Vietnam under the French, noted that while stories of the Long March dominate Chinese communist political culture, prison narratives are common in the history of Vietnamese communism. One of the stories which appears in a number of Vietnamese accounts of the prison centres on the escape by many prisoners on 14–15 February 1916. During the State of Vietnam and the republic of Vietnam, there were many highlighted cases of political prisoners, especially in the period of 1960–63. However, most of the inmates in the prisons were not held for political offences but for routine criminal activities. During the 1960s, war correspondents and visiting US officials started writing of the holding of prisoners in terrible conditions in what became known as the ‘tiger cages’, Much was made of the terrible conditions in the prisons under Nguyen Van Thieu. Certainly there were problems, but the communists, when they took power, held 2,000 people in the Le Van Duyet Prison (as opposed to 200 under Thieu), and as many as 40,000 in the Chi Hoa Prison (as opposed to 8,000 under Thieu). Most South Vietnamese officials were taken to other prison camps, where many of them died. The Western press who had condemned the ‘tiger cages’ used by the South Vietnamese were much less vocal in criticising the far worse treatment of the South Vietnamese. References: British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, p. 210; Edward Brown, A Seaman’s Narrative of his Adventures During a Captivity among Chinese Pirates, on the Coast of Cochin-China, and Afterwards during a Journey on Foot across that Country, in the Years 1857–8, London: Charles Westerton, 1861; Edward Brown, Cochin China and my Experience of it: A Seaman’s Narrative of his Adventures and Sufferings, Taipei: Cheng Wen Publishing Company, 1871; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 38–40; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 26; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 203; Peter Zinoman, The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862–1940, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

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PROVISIONAL REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT. See National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. PROTESTANT MISSIONS. There have been many Protestant missions active in Saigon, with the members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance visiting in 1895, and the French colonial administration allowing Robert Jaffray to visit in 1911. From 1927 the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN) was in operation, having some 123 local congregations by 1940 throughout Vietnam. The main Protestant missionary efforts stared in 1954 with the ECVN starting to branch out from spiritual work to humanitarian endeavours. During the 1960s there were increasing numbers of small and active Protestant churches in Saigon. In late 1975 all foreign missionaries in South Vietnam were expelled from the country. Some have started to be re-established in recent years. de PUYMANEL, OLIVIER [Nguy୷n VÅn Tín; 䰂᭛ֵ] (1768–1799). A French military engineer, he was born in 1768 at Carpentras in the south of France. Enlisting as a second-class volunteer in the French Navy, he served on the warship Dyade and deserted the vessel when it was moored at Poulo Condore, the island off the south coast of Vietnam. He then joined the army of Nguyen Anh, who was using Pigneau de Behaine to establish a small force of French volunteers to take control of the country which he eventually did in 1802, becoming Emperor Gia Long. Olivier de Puymanel worked with the French engineer Théodore Lebrun to design and build the Citadel of Saigon to protect the city against attacks by the Tay Son rebels – the Nguyen forces having retaken the area in 1789. In 1792, Olivier de Puymanel, who had adopted the Vietnamese name Nguyen Van Tin, was training Vietnamese soldiers in European fighting techniques. He also later designed a fort at Duyen Khanh, near the town of Nha Trang, and he fought there defending it against the Tay Son rebels. When the British envoy John Crawfurd visited Hue in 1822, he remarked on the training of the Vietnamese and their use of artillery. After being involved with Jean-Marie Dayot in surveying the coast of southern Vietnam, Olivier de Puymanel left Vietnam. He had been a heavy drinker, and his use of prostitutes in Saigon had annoyed Pigneau de Behaine. Puymanel went to Malacca, then a Dutch colony, and he died there in 1799. References: Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991, pp. 10–11; Frédéric Mantienne, Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine, Paris: Editions Eglises d’Asie, 1999; Frédéric Mantienne, ‘The Transfer of Western Military Technology to Vietnam in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: The Case of the Nguyen’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 3 (October 2003): pp. 519–34.

Q QUACH DAM [Quách Ðàm] (1863–1927). A Chinese businessman, he was from the Teochew community and was born in the village of Trieu An, Long Khanh, in Chaozhou, China. He arrived in Cholon as a poor boy and started working collecting goods for recycling. He soon moved into dealing in buffalo skins and shark fin before focusing on the rice trade. Often also known as Thong Hiep, the name he used for his businesses, he soon came to control much of the rice trade in the Binh Tay Market in Cholon. His agents were known to buy up much of the rice in the countryside and bring it to Cholon, where it would be stored in his warehouses. As soon as there were rice shortages, he would then sell the rice for a large profit. It was not long before he owned much of the land on which the market was located. Indeed, he lived in a mansion next to the market. There are still several statues to him in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the Reign of Minh Mang (1820–1841): Central Policies and Local Response, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2004, pp. 78–79; William Siew Wai Lim, Asian Alterity: With Special Reference to Architecture and Urbanism, Singapore: World Scientific, 2008, p. 300.

QUAN AM PAGODA [Chùa Quan Âm; 㾔䷇ᇎ]. This pagoda was built by the Fujian congregation in the late nineteenth century and it is dedicated to Quan The Am Bo Tat, the Goddess of Mercy. There is a statue of her inside, dressed in white robes, but it is not always easy to find amongst the many elaborate displays. Nearby there is another statue of A Pho, the Holy Mother Celestial Empress. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 286; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 88; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 360.

QUESNEL, ACHILLE PAUL MICHEL (1871–19 ). Born on 14 July 1871, he was the French acting governor of Cochinchina from 18 November 1920 until 14 February 1922, and was the administrator of Kwangchowan in 1923– 25. He continued working in Indochina until his retirement on 17 September 1926. QUINTON, VICTOR-CHARLES (1866–1924). The fifth and the last vicar apostolic of Western Cochinchina, he was born on 4 November 1866 at Carelle, France, and was ordained priest on 21 September 1889. He was 253

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consecrated bishop on 15 April 1913, being the bishop of Laranda (now called Karaman, in modern-day Turkey) until 11 February 1920, when he became vicar apostolic in Saigon. He died in office on 4 October 1924. His successor, Isidore-Marie-Joseph Dumortier, was appointed as vicar apostolic of Saigon. References: Jacob Ramsay, Mandarins and Martyrs: The Church and the Nguyen Dynasty in Early NineteenthCentury Vietnam, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008, pp. 107, 189.

R

The Radio Headquarters, 1956.

RADIO. The French operated the Société Indochinoise de Radiodiffusion in Saigon and in Hanoi, broadcasting by World War II in Vietnamese, Chinese, English, French and Japanese. In 1940 it was estimated that there were about 9,000 radio sets in the country, with the number increasing rapidly after the war. Many of the major news announcements were made by radio, such as the announcement of the Japanese coup de force and the Japanese surrender, as well as the developments in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Although newspapers in Saigon imparted much news, when communications around the countryside broke down with the fighting, Radio Saigon became more and more important. The radio station appeared on a postage stamp issued by the Republic of Vietnam postal authorities on 24 April 1966. By 1967, Radio Saigon had some thirty transmitters and projected the news from the capital, with many regional stations relaying or retelling news. At the start of the Tet Offensive, soldiers from the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam stormed the National Radio station and held it for six hours, hoping to be able to broadcast tape recordings of Ho Chi Minh urging a general uprising. However, the communists were unable to get 255

256 ‘Radio Catinat’

the radio started and blew up the radio station after they were surrounded. Some of them then managed to escape. And on 30 April 1975, following the surrender of Duong Van Minh, he was then taken to the radio station to make an announcement to ask all Republic of Vietnam forces to surrender. The radio remains important in modern-day Vietnam, and remains heavily state-controlled, although most people can also listen to Radio Free Asia, the BBC World Service, and Voice of America. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 290–93; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943.

‘RADIO CATINAT’. This was the nickname given to the Hôtel Continental because it was used as a place where many journalists met to discuss political and military developments. The name was given because the gatherings led to the generation of large numbers of rumours.

The Railway Bridge, Saigon, in about 1954.

RAILWAYS. The French were keen on developing the economy of Vietnam, and one of the key developments was the construction of railways. The first railway line built by the French in Indochina was the line from Saigon to My Tho. Work started in 1881 and was completed in 1885 – with plans to extend the lines to Vinh Long, and then to Soc Trang and to Phnom Penh. The grandest plans by Paul Doumer were for the lines to be extended through Cambodia to connect with the Siamese (Thai) Railways. However, this did not

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eventuate, with the French deciding to concentrate on a railway which would connect Saigon with Hanoi. The plan for this was to connect through to the Chinese railways, but also was never completed. From 1898, when Doumer first drew up his grand plans, work started on the line from Saigon to Nha Trang. However, this was not completed until 1942. World War I had stopped work on the railways, but it started again in 1922 with new loans from the French government, which was keen to complete the Saigon-Hanoi line. It was finally completed in 1936, some 38 years after Doumer first drew up his proposals. This railway was cut during the French Indochina War – indeed it was often cut during floods. After 1975, the railway was rebuilt and it is still used by locals and tourists. The journey from Saigon to Hanoi takes between 30 and 41 hours with odd-numbered trains travelling south, and even-numbered trains going north. References: David Jenkins, ‘From Here to Eternity’, Good Weekend (Melbourne) (25 November 1989): pp. 71–76; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, chapter 19; David W. Del Testa, Paint the Trains Red: Labor, Nationalism, and the Railroads in French Colonial Indochina, 1898–1945, PhD thesis, University of California at Davis, 2001; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 29.

Frederick Reinhardt presenting his credentials.

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REINHARDT, (GEORGE) FREDERICK (1911–1971). The US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from his appointment on 20 April 1955 until he left the post on 10 February 1957, G. Frederick Reinhardt – better known as ‘Fred Reinhardt’ – was born on 21 October 1911 in Berkeley, California, the son of George Reinhardt and Aurelia Henry (née Henry), later the president of Mills College. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1933, joining the US Foreign Service. He worked as a fellow in political science at Cornell University, where he studied, and was also involved with the International Boundary commission between the USA and Mexico. In 1937 he joined the US Foreign Service and worked in Vienna, the Baltic, Moscow, Algiers, Naples, Paris and Frankfurt. On 28 May 1955 he formally presented his credentials to Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon and was ambassador for the next two years. His task was to establish good relations with the new government and support them as they made their transition from the State of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam. Subsequently, Fred Reinhardt was appointed ambassador to the United Arab Republic and North Yemen from 1960–61, and to Italy from 1961 until 1968. Married, with four children, he retired to Switzerland and died on 23 February 1971 at Wohlen. References: Kathryn C. Slater, Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2007; Who’s Who in America.

REMILLARD, HORACE (1885–19 ). The US consul in Saigon from 1918 until 1920, he was born on 5 August 1885 in Rosbury, now a part of Boston, Massachusetts. A translator, he was made US deputy consul general in Hankow, China, and then rise to be vice consul there and then in Swatow. He moved to Saigon in 1918 and there, at the Hôtel de Ville (now the People’s Committee Building) on 19 February 1918, he married Yvonne L. Gay from Drôme, France. After three years in Saigon, he went to Rome in 1924, Tangier in 1926–29, and Port Said from 1931 until 1932. He worked for the US Foreign Service, returning to the United States in 1937. US consul in Nice, in 1942 he and his wife left Lisbon, Portugal, and they arrived back in New York. REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM [Vi୹t Nam C஋ng hòa]. This was established by Ngo Dinh Diem on 26 October 1955 and was commonly known as ‘South Vietnam’. Its origins lay in the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina, and its successor Republic of South Vietnam, the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam and the State of Vietnam. The Republic of Vietnam was very much the creation of President Ngo Dinh Diem, following the referendum held on 23 October 1955, which formally deposed Bao Dai and led to elections for a Constitutional Assembly on 4 March 1956. This introduced a constitution and on 26 October it was transformed into the National Assembly.

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A demonstration of support for the proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam on 26 October 1955.

After Ngo Dinh Diem was ousted and killed in November 1963, there was a period of instability for two years until Nguyen Van Thieu came to power. He remained the president of the country until 1975, when he resigned before the fall of Saigon to the communists. Following the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, the communists in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (Chính ph Cách mng lâm thi Cng hoà min Nam Vi t Nam) ran what was claimed to be a separate government until 1976, when North Vietnam and South Vietnam were formally merged into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. References: Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 326–27.

REUNIFICATION PALACE [H஋i trŲஏng Thஃng Nhୗt]. When the French established Saigon as their base, they built their headquarters on the site now occupied by the Reunification Palace in 1863. Five years later, the wooden building was demolished to make way for a new massive building which was called the Norodom Palace, after the king of Cambodia. Pierre Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière, the French governor of Cochinchina laid the foundation stone on 23 February 1868, with the building designed by Hermite, who also designed the old Hong Kong City Hall. The first stone had indentations with French gold and silver coins from the reign of Napoleon III.

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The Norodom Palace.

Many of the building materials were brought from France, and construction was delayed because of the Franco–Prussian War. As a result, it was not until 1873 that the palace was finished. Overall, the complex covered 12 hectares, and the palace had a 80-metre-wide façade. The guest chambers could cater for 800 people. There is also a story that the palace was built on the head of a dragon, and some superstitious people in Saigon often called it the Dragon’s Head Palace. From 1871 until 1887, the palace was the office and residence of the governors of Cochinchina. However, from 1887, the governors were moved to a nearby villa and the governor generals of French Indochina used the palace for their work and residence. The French remained in control of the palace until 9 March 1945. On that day, at 6PM, the Japanese ambassador, Matsumoto Shunichi, came to see Admiral Jean Decoux, ostensibly over the annual rice agreement. The meeting in Decoux’s office in the palace began at 6.30PM, and at exactly 7PM Shunichi informed Decoux that the Japanese were requesting the unconditional surrender of all French forces by 9PM that evening. This coup de force saw the Japanese taking over all of Indochina, and in Saigon, the palace was used as their headquarters until the end of World War II. The French governors general returned to use the palace, and as a result, former emperor Bao Dai refused to live in Saigon because the building represented supreme power and its continued occupation by the French meant that they had not really handed over power.

Reunification Palace

The Norodom Palace in 1931.

The Presidential Palace, Saigon.

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On 7 September 1954, the palace was handed by General Paul Ely of France to Ngo Dinh Diem as prime minister of the State of Vietnam. In the following year the Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed and the palace was renamed the Independence Palace, appearing on two postage stamps issued by the Republic of Vietnam postal authorities in 1959. Ngo Dinh Diem lived in the Palace, and operated from there until 27 February 1962, when two air force pilots decided to take part in a coup attempt and bombed the palace. Diem and his family escaped injury, with Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu giving a famous interview about how she found an unexploded bomb in her room. As the building was badly damaged, the architect Ngo Viet Thu was commissioned to design a new Presidential Palace. Work started on 1 July 1962, with Ngo Dinh Diem taking up residence in the Gia Long Palace, from where he was operating when the coup took place in November 1963 which led to his overthrow and death. It was not until 31 October 1966 that the new Presidential Palace was finally completed. General Nguyen Van Thieu took over the building and it was his office and residence until his flight from Saigon on 21 April 1975. The palace was bombed on 8 April 1975 by a pilot from the Vietnam Air Force who had been a spy for the communists. When Nguyen Van Thieu left, his vice president, Tran Van Huong, became president but scarcely had time to move in. A week later, he also fled, leaving Duong Van Minh as its final occupant, but being only president for 36 hours, he certainly would not have had time to move his effects to the palace. Duong Van Minh was waiting at the palace when, at 10.45 AM, a North Vietnamese Army tank with men flying the flag of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, broke in through the gates of the palace, the scene being captured by Australian cameraman Neil Davis. The tank is still there in the grounds of the palace. In 1976, North Vietnam and South Vietnam were formally reunified, and the palace was renamed the Reunification Palace. There are still official functions held in the building, and on other days it is possible for tourists to visit. Unlike its neoclassical predecessor, the current building is very functional, with glass bricks, light wells and extensive electric lighting and air conditioning. The first main room in the building is the Presidential Receiving Room (Phu Dau Rong, or Dragon’s Head Room). It was where President Nguyen Van Thieu welcomed foreign dignitaries and accepted the accreditation of foreign diplomats. There is another room for the vice president, initially Nguyen Cao Ky. The president’s office has been preserved, but the books on the shelves – collections of works by North Korean leader Kim Il Sung – were hardly those left by Nguyen Van Thieu. In one section of the palace, there are the quarters for the president’s family, and there is also a helicopter to whisk Thieu away in the event of an emergency. The rooms are large, spacious, but devoid of the

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The Reunification Palace, 2000. Author’s photographs.

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The helicopter landing pad on the top of the former Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace), 2000. Author’s photograph.

The tank which burst into the grounds of the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace), 2000. Author’s photograph.

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personal effects which have clearly been removed either by Thieu himself, or later. The basement to the building has a large bunker, which has a telecommunications centre and a network of tunnels. It was the command centre for many of the major battles of the latter part of the Vietnam War: the Tet Offensive of 1968, the Battle of Xuan Loc in 1975, and the final fall of Saigon. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 72–74; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 282; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 81–82; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 214–15; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 53–54; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, p. 13f.; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 353–54.

REVOLUTIONARY MUSEUM. See Gia Long Palace.

The Rex Hotel, 2000. Author’s photograph.

REX HOTEL. One of the most famous hotels in Saigon, the Rex Hotel has its origins in a two-storey car dealership called the Banier Auto Hall, which was built in 1927 for Mr Banier for his Citroën, Renault, and other cars. However, in 1959, with many foreigners – especially Americans – coming to Saigon, Ung Thi took over the building and renovated it completely, turning it into a

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100-room hotel, with three cinemas, a dance hall, a cafeteria, and a library, the Abraham Lincoln Library (which was established in 1965). To illustrate its new name, the hotel’s symbol is a crown. The dance hall was initially controversial, as Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu was anxious to close down such places. In December 1961 some 400 US soldiers were based there. From that time, the entire Rex Hotel was occupied by US soldiers and daily press briefings were held in its conference room on the ground floor. These were nicknamed the ‘Five O’Clock Follies’ by many war correspondents who were cynical about the press statements. These correspondents often fraternised with soldiers in the rooftop bar. The communists took over the Rex Hotel after the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, and renamed it the Ben Thanh Hotel. It was there that the press conference was held in 2 July 1976 which announced the reunification of Vietnam. The hotel was renamed the Rex Hotel in 1986 and it has been owned by Saigon Tourist, a state company, since September 1976, and has 284 rooms, having been extensively renovated in 2003, ensuring that it is now a five star hotel. The front of the hotel is still used by many people from Saigon as a backdrop for wedding photographs. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 278; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 76; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 55; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 228–29; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 372.

RICE. The growth of Saigon during the eighteenth century was linked closely to the rice trade from the Mekong Delta. This delta region is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world, and since widespread cultivation started in early modern times, much of the wealth of the region derives from the surplus rice which has been sold to other parts of the region. Until early modern times, Cambodian farmers lived throughout the region and started the system of irrigation and canals which led to the increase in rice cultivation. Gradually more and more of the region was turned over to rice, and the markets in Saigon from the late eighteenth century were some of the main places for the purchase and sale of rice in the region. This saw some merchants establish warehouses and also rice mills in the city, the vast majority dominated by Chinese businesses. The French further encouraged rice cultivation which continued to increase under their rule and generated much of the wealth of Cochinchina. They also established a rice research station at Can Tho, some 167 kms from Saigon. The French organised the construction of some embankments to protect the rice harvest, after floods devastated cultivation in Tonkin in 1926.

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The Japanese were keen on taking control of the rice trade and after seizing power in Indochina in March 1945, they commandeered much of the rice from there. There were already some shortages in parts of Vietnam because of the disruption to transport – both land and by sea. As a result the Japanese seizure of much of the rice was to lead to a famine in 1945 which saw the deaths of at least 400,000 people, and possibly as many as two million. During the First Indochina War, even though the communists controlled much of the Mekong Delta region, the rice trade continued, but was heavily disrupted during the 1960s with the US forces being involved in bombing the area. Reprisal attacks led to rice shortages. This was to lead to South Vietnam becoming a net rice importer in 1965. From very soon after the end of the Vietnam War, rice cultivation rose rapidly and with aid from the government, a large rice industry once again started to flourish, again based around the markets of Ho Chi Minh City. Although Vietnam remains the world’s seventh largest consumer of rice, it is the second-largest exporter with some 80 per cent of people in the Mekong Delta still involved in rice cultivation. References: Nola Cooke and Tana Li, Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750–1880, Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004; British Naval Intelligence, Indochina, London: Naval Intelligence, 1943, pp. 262–78; Philippe Franchini, Saigon 1925–1945: De la Belle Colonie à l’éclosion révolutionnaire ou la fin des dieux blancs, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992; Tana Li, Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University SEAP Publications, 1998; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 328–29; Martin J. Murray, The Development of Capitalism in Colonial Indochina (1870–1940), Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; Riziculture en Indochine, Hanoi: Imprimerie d’Extrême-Orient, 1931; Tran Van Huu and Jacques-Jean-Maxime Robin, La Riziculture en Cochinchine, Paris: Agence économique de l’Indochine, 1927.

RICHARDS, Sir (FRANCIS) BROOKS (1918–2002). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1972 until 1974, he was born on 18 July 1918, the son of Francis Bartlett Richards, an engineer who had been involved in designing the Vertical Retort for changing coal into coke. Educated at Stowe and then Magdalene College, Cambridge, he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and then served in World War II. His wartime experiences were described in Secret Flotillas: The Clandestine Sea Lines to France and French North Africa (HMSO, 1996). Joining the staff of the British Embassy in Paris in 1944, he held a range of postings before being appointed the British ambassador to Saigon. At that time, the British still had a plane, and Richards was able to travel from Saigon to regional centres. He left in 1974 and was posted to Athens as ambassador to Greece. He then retired from active diplomacy, moving to Surrey, near London, planning to work on renovating a country house. However, after losses in his investments, he retired to Dorset and died on 13 September 2002. References: ‘Sir Brooks Richards’, The Daily Telegraph (14 September 2002); Who’s Who.

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RICHAUD, ÉTIENNE (1841–1889). The second governor general of Indochina, he had served as the inspector for the French Navy from 1880–84, and then was nominated as governor of French India, becoming the governor of Réunion Island in 1887. Moving to Indochina to become the resident general for Annam and Tonkin, he was a sharp critic of the manner in which Constans was running Indochina. Richaud was appointed to take over from him in April 1888, and remained in office until 31 May 1889. During this time, he sought to improve relations between the French and the Cambodians, visiting Phnom Penh in 1888 to see King Norodom. His term also saw the first postage stamps for Indochina being issued – these included an ‘R’ overprinted to show approval by Richaud. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1216; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999; Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response 1859–1905, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, pp. 102–3.

RIGAULT de GENOUILLY, CHARLES (1807–1873). The French governor of Cochinchina from 1858 until 1859, he was born on 12 April 1807 in the port of Rochefort in the southwest of France. His father was a naval engineer and his mother, AdélaideCaroline Mithon de Genouilly, was the niece and adopted daughter of Claude Mithon de Genouilly, who had been a commander in the French Navy during the American War of Independence. Charles Rigault de Genouilly studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris from 1825 and in 1827 joined the navy, serving as a midshipman, being in the Morea Expedition when the French intervened in the Greek War of Independence. He later took part in the French capture of Algiers and then was involved in the blockade of the Dutch coast in the Belgian War of Independence in 1830–31. Posted to Southeast Asia, in April 1847 he was sent to Tourane (now Danang), where he was to negotiate for the release of two French Catholic missionaries. Rigault de Genouilly took part in the bombardment of Tourane and was later promoted, returning to France and then serving in the Crimean War, including during the siege of Sebastopol. After two Spanish Catholic missionaries were executed by order of Emperor Tu Duc, Rigault de Genouilly was sent to Vietnam to launch a punitive raid,

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which saw a joint French and Spanish force capture the port of Tourane in 1857. The Europeans quickly found themselves under siege, and Rigault de Genouilly became the governor until 1859, in which year he decided that it would be better to try to establish a base at Saigon. In a letter to the minister of the navy on 29 January 1859, Rigault de Genouilly wrote, ‘There is really no important action but at Saigon…’ On 17 February 1859 the French, under Rigault de Genouilly, captured Saigon but were unable to hold it, so on 8 March 1859, they blew up the Saigon Citadel. Heavily criticised in France for his actions, Rigault de Genouilly returned to France, went into politics and became a Senator in 1860. He then succeeded Chasseloup-Laubat as navy minister from 20 January 1867 until 4 September 1870. He was also, for two days, minister of war from 13–15 August 1869. Following the defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Sedan, he used gunboats to try to break the siege of Paris, and then moved to live in France and later Spain, dying on 4 May 1873 in Barcelona. He was commemorated on an Indochina postage stamp issued in 1943. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, p. 25; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1205; Manomohan Ghosh, ‘French Colonization of Vietnam: the first phase 1861–1885’, Calcutta Review, no. 172 (1964): pp. 119–29; Hubert Granier, Histoire des marins français, 1815– 1870, Nantes: Marines éditions, 2002; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 329; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991; Jean Martin, L’Empire Renaissant 1789–1871, Paris: Denoël, 1987, p. 237f.; Sallet, ‘Campagne franco-espagnole du Centre-Annam: Prise de Tourane (1858–1859)’, Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Hue, vol. 15, no. 3 (1928): pp. 170–79; Etienne Taillemite, ‘Un amiral-ministre polytechnicien, Rigault de Genouilly’, Bulletin de la Société des amis de la Bibliothèque de l'École Polytechnique, vol. 35 (2004); A. Thomazi, La conquête de l'Indochine, Paris: Payot, 1934; R. Stanley Thomson, ‘The diplomacy of Imperialism: France and Spain in Cochin China 1858–1863’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 12, no. 3 (1940): pp. 334– 56; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 347; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 62.

RIVOAL, ANDRÉ GEORGES (1886–1963). The acting French governor of Cochinchina from 1 March until 12 October 1936, he was the penultimate French governor of Cochinchina, when he took over from René Veber on 16 November 1940, and was acting governor until 11 December 1940, holding the office of governor until 16 March 1942. ROBERTS, QUINCY FRANKLIN (1893–1978). The US consul in Saigon in 1938, he was born on 6 December 1893 in Bryan’s Mill, Texas, the son of John William Roberts. He was vice consul in Genoa in 1916–17, and then at Salonika (now Thessaloniki, Greece) in 1919–20, Apia (Samoa) in 1921–26 and Suva (Fiji) in 1927, being promoted to US consul in Suva in 1929–32. There his wife, Dr Regina Flood-Keyes Roberts, was active in local child welfare work.

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In Saigon, he was critical of the French colonial administration doing little to include the local elite in their decision-making processes. In one report, he felt that the French attacking communism had simply resulted in the communists portraying themselves as nationalists, appealing to the Vietnamese over the ‘love of his country and his desire for independence for support in the fight against French colonialism.’ He was specifically critical of the French minister of the colonies, Marius Moutet. Repatriated after the start of the Pacific War, he was posted to Belfast, Northern Ireland, as US consul, 1943–47. In Belfast on 15 September 1945, he married his second wife, Margaret H. Byrne from Ballycastle, County Antrim. He remained in England and died in December 1978 in Exeter, Devon, UK. References: Christian G. Appy (ed.), Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism 1945–1966, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000, p. 278; Mark Philip Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919–1950, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 215; Anne L. Foster, Projections of Power: The United States and Europe in Colonial Southeast Asia, 1919–1941, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010, p. 170.

ROBIN, (EUGÈNE JEAN LOUIS) RENÉ (1872–1954). The governor general of French Indochina from 27 February 1934 until September 1936, he was born on 6 August 1872 and started work in Indochina on 10 March 1900. The resident superieur of Tonkin from 1925 until 1930, he was the acting governor general from 1 December 1930 until 30 June 1931. During his term as governor general, he visited Phnom Penh in 1934 and during that time inspected the mobile library outside the National Library. In the same year, he also recommended the promotion of King Sisowath Monivong to the rank of brigadier general in the French Army. The René Robin Hospital in Hanoi was named after him. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1221; Chheat Sreang, Yin Sombo, Seng Hokmeng, Pong Pheakdeyboramy and Saom Sokreasey. The Buddhist Institute: A Short History. Phnom Penh: The Buddhist Institute, 2005, p. 28; William S. Logan, Hanoi: Biography of a City, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2000, p. 122; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 199.

RODIER, FRANÇOIS PIERRE (1854–1913). A French colonial official, he was born in 1854 at Vieille-Brioude in Haute Loire, France. The resident superior in Tonkin from 1893 until 1895, he was acting governor general of French Indochina from December 1894 until February 1895. Rodier was then governor general of French India from February 1898 until 11 January 1902 and he was lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 1902 until 1906. From 1907 until 1909 he was governor of French Guyana, and from 18 September 1910 until 28 July 1912 he was governor of Réunion. References: Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999.

ROUME, ERNEST (1858–1941). He was the governor general of French Indochina from March 1915 until May 1916. Born on 12 July 1858 in Marseilles,

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he graduated from the École Polytechnique, and then became an auditor at the Council of State. Serving in the diplomatic service in the United States, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, he was appointed as governor general of French West Africa in 1902, remaining there until 1908, when he returned to France in ill-health. He was then posted to French Indochina, but his term there was one of extreme lethargy on account illness. Just before he left Indochina, he deposed King Duy Tân of Vietnam, after the teenaged monarch looked as though he would support a rebellion against the French. Roume was the president of Air Orient, and in 1933 became the president of Air France at its creation. He died in 1941 in Marseilles. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1220.

ROUSSEAU, ARMAND (1835–1896). He was the governor general of French Indochina from February 1895 until 10 December 1896. Born in August 1835, he was a construction engineer who served in the army in 1870– 71, being gazetted colonel. He then turned to politics and was elected to the National Assembly, working in the Ministry for Public Works and the Ministry for Maritime Affairs. Much of his time as governor general was occupied with the ‘pacification’ of Tonkin. He died in Hanoi in December 1896 from a tropical fever. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1217; Charles Fourniau et al., Le contact colonial franco-vietnamien: Le premier demi-siècle, 1858–1911, Aixen-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence, 1999.

ROZE, PIERRE-GUSTAVE (1812–1883). A French admiral, he was the acting governor of Cochinchina from 29 March until 26 November 1865. Born on 28 November 1812 in Toulon, France, he joined the French Navy and served in Mexico during the French actions there to support Emperor Maximilian, and in 1865 he was appointed commander of the French Far Eastern Station, which had its headquarters at Yokohama. This saw him serve in Korea and also in Indochina, where he was acting governor of Cochinchina for eight months. During his time in Saigon, the newspaper Gia Dinh, which had started in the previous year, was beginning to become important, and Roze felt that it was helping to provide news and cultural information to the locals, as well as highlighting some agricultural developments. Recalled to France in 1868, he served on the Brittany coast during the Franco–Prussian War, and in 1875 was appointed commander of the French Mediterranean Squadron. He died in November 1883 in Paris. References: Étienne Taillemite, Dictionnaire des marins français, Paris: Editions maritimes & d’outre-mer, 1982, p. 301; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 83.

RUE CATINAT. The most famous street in Saigon during the French period, it is now called Dong Khoi.

S SAIGON RACE TRACK [Cau Lac Bo The Thao Phu To]. This was originally established by the French in 1893 and it flourished during the 1940s, although there were occasional hand grenades tossed into it. It was even featured in Life Magazine on 7 March 1949. During the Tet Offensive, some 400 guerillas from the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam took over the grandstand and set up a medical aid post there, holding out there for some time. Jack Crouchet reported that the buildings were ‘scarred by thousands of bullets’. Closed in 1975, the race track was reopened in 1989 and quickly helped the government raise money, although there have been many allegations of the drugging of horses during the 1990s. References: Alan Pollock, An Asian Tragedy: Conflict in Indochina, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 57; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 382.

SAIGON RIVER [Sông Sài Gòn; Rivière de Saigon]. Ho Chi Minh City is located on the west of this river which flows through to the South China Sea, close to where the Mekong River also flows into the sea. The Saigon River has been a trade route since at least medieval times and rises near Phum Daung in southeastern Cambodia, and is 140 miles (225 kms) in length. As well as facilitating trade, it is the source of water for Ho Chi Minh City. SAIGON TRADE CENTER. Work on this building in Saigon started in April 1994, and it was completed in July 1997, being the tallest building in Vietnam from then until 2010, when the Bitexco Financial Tower was completed. It was surpassed a year later by the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower. The architects were WMKY Architects Engineer Ltd of Hong Kong, and the developer was LUKS Industrial Ltd, also of Hong Kong. Made with glasclad reinforced concrete, there are two basement floors, with office space on the ground floor, and on floors 6–30, with floors 2–5 having retail space. There is a restaurant and bars on floors 30–33, with a coffee shop called Panorama on the roof. The building has a total of 54,000 square metres of space, with ten elevators for customers, and two for service use. Originally the building was 145 metres (476 feet) tall, with three antennas later adding an additional 15 metres (44 feet). 272

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References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 278; Mason Florence and Robert Storey, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2001, pp. 120–21, 125.

SAIGON UPRISING. See Nam Ky Uprising.

Raoul Salan in Tonkin supervising the evacuation from the north of Vietnam, October 1954.

SALAN, RAOUL ALBIN LOUIS (1899–1984). The deputy commanderin-chief of French forces in Indochina, serving under Jean de Lattre de Tassigny in 1950–51, Raoul Salan effectively ran the French forces in French Indochina from December 1951 until April 1952. He was born on 11 June 1899 at Roquecourbe in the south of France. He served in World War I and then in World War II, working for the Vichy government as a staff general in the Colonial Ministry. After the war, he was posted to Tonkin and took command of the armed forces when Jean de Lattre de Tassigny had to hurriedly leave to return to France, where he died. In January 1953, Salan was replaced by Henri Navarre and was posted to Algeria. In 1958 he urged the return of Charles de Gaulle, but was horrified when de Gaulle decided to give independence to Algeria. Salan was involved in the attempted putsch on 21 April 1961 and then went into exile to run the Secret Army Organisation (OAS). Arrested in 1962, he had been found guilty in absentia of treason, but the sentence was commuted

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to life imprisonment. Six years later he was granted an amnesty and wrote his memoirs. A controversial figure, he died on 3 July 1984. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 335; Raoul Salan, Mémoires Fin d’un empire, Paris: Editions Presses de la Cité, 1970–74, 4 vols.

SANDRET, GUSTAVE GUILLAUME (1852–1909). He was the acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 22 March until 20 November 1896. SARRAUT, ALBERT (1872–1962). He was the governor general of French Indochina from November 1911 until January 1914, and again from January 1917 until May 1919. Born on 28 July 1872 in Bordeaux, France, he was a radical politician and his family ran the newspaper La Dépêche de Toulouse. In politics, Albert Sarraut was a deputy of the National Assembly from 1902 until 1924, and senator from 1924 until 1940. In Indochina, Sarraut introduced major reforms to the education system in 1918 throughout the region, with the increase in the years of compulsory schooling to thirteen for children eligible to sit for the baccalauréat and, if they do well, access to French universities. The Musée Albert Sarraut in Phnom Penh is now the National Museum. After being prime minister of France from 26 October until 26 November 1933, and again from 24 January until 4 June 1936, Sarraut was sent to Morocco to report on the problems there after the nationalist uprising in 1937. In 1940 he retired from politics when Philippe Pétain dissolved the National Assembly in July 1940. Three years later, his brother Maurice was killed by the pro-Vichy milice, and Albert Sarraut took over the running of the family newspaper. He was the chairman of the Pau Conference held from June until November 1950. In 1951 he was president of the Assembly of French Union. Jean Sainteny (1907–1978), the French politician sent to Vietnam to accept, formally, the surrender of the Japanese in Indochina, was his son-in-law. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1219; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 335; Roger Osborne, The Deprat Affair: Ambition, Revenge and Deceit in French Indo-China, London: Jonathan Cape, 1999; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 348; Martin Thomas, ‘Albert Sarraut, French Colonial Development, and the Communist Threat, 1919–1930’, The Journal of Modern History, vol. 77, no. 4 (2005): pp. 917–55; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 348; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 221; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 99.

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SCOTTEN, WILLIAM EVERETT (1904–1958). The US consul in Saigon from 1931 until 1932, he was born on 24 August 1904 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, the son of William E. Scotten and Florence Viola (née Fleming). His first consular posting was as vice consul at Ciudad Juarez in Mexico in 1929. After serving in Saigon, he went to Hong Kong, where he married Josephina Bryant in 1933. He was later posted to Palermo, Sicily in 1938. During some of World War II, he was posted to Morocco. Retiring to California, he died on 27 November 1958 in Orange County. SEWARD, WILLIAM HENRY (1801–1872). The US secretary of state during the American Civil War, William Seward was born on 16 May 1801 in Auburn, New York. A determined opponent of slavery, the governor of New York from 1838 until 1842, and US senator from 1849, he helped in the formation of the Republican Party and was a candidate for that party’s nomination in the 1860 presidential elections. As secretary of state, during the American Civil War, his diplomatic skills were used to try to prevent other countries from becoming involved in the war. He was also famous for ‘Seward’s Folly’, when he bought the territory of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. At the time it was denounced in the press, but Seward felt it was his major achievement. From August 1870 until October 1871, he decided to travel around the world. He died on 10 October 1872. Seward’s book, Travels Around the World, published posthumously in 1873, described his arrival in Saigon from China on 8 January 1871. He writes: ‘Saigon, January 8th. We closed our eyes last night wishing that we might remain forever afloat on the dark water of the Saigon. Long before morning, however, swarms of mosquitoes and gnats made us impatient for the shore, where we felt sure that flowers, birds, and butterflies, were awaiting us. The Blue-book bears no name of United States consul at Saigon. From the deck, nevertheless, we espied the United States flag, and learned, on inquiry, that the German who raised it there had left it to the care of some friendly native keeper. We inquired no further, and in this lonely place, the only one thus far in our voyage, no one inquired for us. ‘The commandant of La Provence put us ashore in his gig. We bargained for the first two carriages we found there, at the rate of one dollar an hour for each, and in these vehicles, called “garries,” each drawn by a rough Chinese pony, and having seats for four passengers (a very close fit), a guide, and a servant, we set out on our travels in Cochin China. ‘Saigon is a native city of from sixty thousand to a hundred thousand inhabitants. The European settlement adjoining it differs from those we have

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seen in Japan and China, only in being French. This is a matter of no special moment, because all foreigners assimilate in the East. The population is perhaps two hundred and fifty, exclusive of the garrison. There is a public garden filled with plants, but it wears an air of neglect, in consequence, we think, not of declining trade, but of political insecurity growing out of the war in Europe. All Eastern potentates and nobles maintain menageries. The garden at Saigon proclaims itself an appendage to the French republic, by a meagre collection of leopards, tigers, bears, monkeys, birds, and reptiles. The French Government is building a large palace for the residence of the admiral commanding the forces in Eastern waters. ‘The native city consists of two towns, standing on two rivers, distant two miles from each other, and connected by a firm road. ‘The population is by no means homogeneous. The merchants and traders are not Cochin Chinese, but chiefly Chinese, and all classes speak, to some extent, the French language. A happy accord seems to exist between them and the French. All show the pleasing impress of French manners. We alighted from our vehicles whenever we found anything noticeable, and invariably were waited upon by polite and assiduous attendants. We entered and inspected a Buddhist temple. The bonzes, with great courtesy, showed us everything it contained. Whenever we stopped, tea, fruit, and sherbet, were offered us. The smallest payment was thankfully received, and, when we declined, the refreshments were urged upon us without .cost. In short, Saigon is the only place we have found thus far, in the wide world, where everybody seemed pleased with us, with themselves, and we had reason to be pleased with everybody. ‘The French have a peculiar facility in effecting colonial assimilation to their national ways and manners. One experiences the same gentle and kind welcome on the banks of the lower St Lawrence that he finds here on the banks of the Saigon. It is almost enough to make us wish that the French nation might be more successful in extending their foreign dominion. The whole field of French empire in Cochin China, which figures so largely in the ambitious manifestoes of the Government in Paris, is hardly more than forty miles square. But France, by means of that possession, has acquired a protectorate over the province of Cambodia, which is adjacent, and nominally belongs to the empire of Annam. The sovereign of that empire concedes to France this protectorate over Cambodia, in consideration of the French guarantee of the integrity of his empire. This great potentate, like the ostentatious fiddler, has two strings to his bow; for, while he thus enjoys this alliance with France, he at the same time, as titular vassal, claims protection from the emperor of China. It would be long to tell how, after European discoveries in the East Indies, France energetically attempted to secure positions advantageous for trade and conquest in Madagascar, Ceylon, and Bengal; how unsuccessful and vain those attempts were, until the great Colbert found in the ambitious Louis XIV.

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a monarch wise enough to accept the project of a French East India Company; how successfully that company established factories at Mauritius, at Surat, and Pondicherry, and other places in India. It would be sad to tell how, in the great war in which France lost nearly all her American possessions, she also lost nearly all her acquisitions in the East; how the French Jesuit missionaries in Cochin China cunningly secured from the native emperor the concession of Saigon to Louis XVI; how the French nation exulted in a gain of this position in the rear of Hindostan, from which they might hope to assail and over-throw British dominion on the Asiatic Continent; how this ambition of France died, with all ambition of colonial aggrandizement, in the great Revolution of ninetythree; how that ambition, in regard to the East, revived in 1861, in the period of the Second Empire, and Admiral Charner enforced the concession which had so long before been made to Louis XVI. ‘Saigon is by no means valueless as a seat of commerce. The earth has no more fertile fields than those of Cochin China. Among its products are luxuries the most desired by civilized nations. While rice is an abundant staple, Saigon exports the gum of lacquer, cinnamon, and many useful and precious woods. It is not, however, chiefly for local trade that France values Saigon. It is a convenient station for commercial and postal steam-lines, by which she has expected to maintain her prestige as a maritime power of the first rank. Her experience has demonstrated the truth of two political axioms: First, that the possession of extensive foreign colonies adds immeasurably to the credit and prestige of a nation; secondly, that a nation which cannot maintain peace at home, cannot permanently hold foreign possessions. ‘As our habit is, we take away from Saigon many photographic illustrations of manners, dress, and scenery. They are French, and admirably executed. ‘We are puzzled, however, in our efforts to determine the truthfulness of one of them, notwithstanding its official verification. It represents the Queen of Cambodia, protégée of the French Empire, with naked feet and ankles, encircled by costly gold bangles and jewels, while her head is covered with a Parisian bonnet of the year 1862, presented to her, with other articles of European fashion, by the French emperor.’ References: Frederic Bancroft, The Life of William H. Seward, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1900, 2 vols; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 (which dates the trip to 1873), pp. 59–61; William H. Seward, Travels Around the World, New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1873; John M. Taylor, William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s Right Hand, New York: HarperCollins, 1991; Glyndon Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, New York: Oxford University Press, 1967.

SHEEHAN, CORNELIUS MAHONEY ‘NEIL’ (1936– ). A US war correspondent, he reported from Saigon during the Vietnam War. Born on 27 October 1936 at Holyoke, Massachusetts, the son of Cornelius J. Sheehan, a farm hand, and his Irish-born wife Mary, he grew up on the family farm and was educated at Mount Hermon School and Harvard University. Serving in the

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US Army in 1959–62 in Korea and Tokyo, he started working for United Press International (UPI) in Tokyo and then moved to Vietnam to become the UPI Saigon bureau chief for two years. There he was a good friend of Pham Xuan An who later turned out to be a communist agent. One of Neil Sheehan’s first major stories was on the raids on the Xa Loi Pagoda which the South Vietnamese government stated had been carried out by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, but Sheehan was able to correctly attribute the operation to special forces of Ngo Dinh Nhu. In 1964 Sheehan returned to the United States to work for The New York Times, and then was posted to Indonesia, and spent another year in Vietnam, moving to Washington DC, to be the Pentagon correspondent. In 1971 he obtained the Pentagon Papers about the US war in Vietnam and this was published in The New York Times, with the paper winning a Pulitzer Prize. He long wanted to write about Vietnam, and his book, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, was published in 1988 and won a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. References: Michael C. Emery, On the Front Lines, Washington DC: American University Press, 1995; Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of War Journalism, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 130; Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, New York: Random House, 1988; Neil Sheehan, After the War Was Over: Hanoi and Saigon, New York: Random House, 1992.

SLAVERY. There was slavery in Vietnam until the arrival of the French. Some of the slaves were convicts, and others were people captured in fighting, including Cambodians and some Siamese, as well as Chams and the highland people or montagnards. Many of these were brought to Saigon where they were sold in the slave market, Cay da thang Moi, which operated in the eighteenth century. SMITH, LELAND LESLIE (1885–1974). The US consul in Saigon from 1922 until 1924, he was born on 29 June 1885 in Portland, Oregon, the son of Walter Vincent Smith and Edith Jewett (née Carter). A student at Portland Academy, and at the École Internationale, in Paris, he worked in the mortgage and security business in Portland and then was a captain in the US Army 1917–19. He then was the assistant military attaché at the US Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, being appointed US consul in Saigon in 1921. There, in 1922 he married Gilberte Garros of Versailles. In June 1922, Leland Smith went to Cambodia and produced the first comprehensive report on the country for the US government. He was travelling with the local manager for the Standard Oil Company, and felt that there were great opportunities in Cambodia, and that it had a greater economic potential than Cochinchina. In 1924 he was appointed consul at Tunis. He died on 30 December 1974 in Tunisia.

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References: Kenton J. Clymer, Troubled Relations: The United States and Cambodia since 1870, DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007, pp. 7–8; Who Was Who in America, vol. 7.

SOUCHÈRE VILLA. This magnificent villa, located in Nam Ky Khoi Nghia (formerly Avenue MacMahon, and then Avenue de Gaulle) was owned by Madame Riveriere de la Souchère – the ‘Princess of Heavea’ – whose family owned many rubber plantations in Cochinchina. She established her first plantations in 1910, but lost some 50,000 small trees to fire in 1912. Many more trees were planted and by the early 1920s she was immensely wealthy and was the vice president of the Rubber Planters’ Association of Indochina. To show her connection with rubber, there is a small rubber plantation within the gardens of the villa. In June 1929 her estates were worth some 13 million francs. However, she was bankrupted by the Great Depression and returned to France. The magazine The Rubber Age noted her sale of a plantation near Saigon which covered 8,892 acres, of which 2,717 had rubber trees. The villa was later the residence of General Leclerc, the commander of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO), and later the home of the politician Tran Van Huong. It is now known as ‘Maison de l’enfance’ (The Childhood Home). References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 146–47; John Andrew Tully, The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011, p. 221.

SRI THENDAYYUTTHAPANI TEMPLE. This Indian temple, not far from the Rex Hotel (and also the infamous ‘Thieves Market’) in central Ho Chi Minh City is on Ton That Thiep Street. It was built by South Indians who lived in Saigon and is heavily decorated with Hindu deities. There are also faded paintings of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. There is a staircase which leads up onto the roof of the temple, from where it is possible to get a clear view of the statues of deities. Guidebooks refer to two of the statues of figures relaxing, which look like schoolboys sitting watching passersby. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 76.

STANG, LAURITZ LEGANGER. The US commercial agent in Saigon in 1906, he had been vice commercial agent from the late 1890s, after the US government requested the appointment of a consul in Cochinchina, becoming commercial agent in 1906. References: Robert Hopkins Miller, The United States and Vietnam 1787–1941, Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 1990, pp. 145–46.

STEPHENSON, HUGH SOUTHERN (1906–1972). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1957, he was born on 29 November 1906, the son of Sir Hugh Stephenson. Educated at Bilton

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Grange School, Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, he was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple and entered the Indian Civil Service in 1931. Moving to the Foreign Office in 1947, he was deputy high commissioner to Pakistan and was appointed British ambassador to Vietnam in 1954. There he helped provide advice on counter-insurgency from the British experiences in Malaya. He was also involved in providing aid for the refugees who had fled from North Vietnam. He was later ambassador to South Africa and retired in 1966. Involved in negotiations after Rhodesia declared independence, he died on 23 September 1972. References: L. H. Lamb, Winchester College, Winchester: P. & G. Wells, 1974, p. 313; Who’s Who; The Times (25 September 1972): p. 14; (27 September 1972): p. 16.

T TA THU THAU [T୓ Thu Thâu] (1906–1945). A Trotskyite, he was born on 6 May 1906 at a village near Long Xuyen, in the Mekong Delta, from a poor peasant family, his father being a carpenter. He emerged as a brilliant student and he was educated at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don),

The grave of François Xavier Tam Assoa. Author’s photograph. 281

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and then went to France to go to university. However on 22 May 1930 he took part in a demonstration in Paris outside the Elysée Palace in support of the Yen Bay rebels who had been executed. Arrested, he was deported back to Vietnam. In Saigon, he became involved in the Communist League and soon became a leader of the Trotskyites, writing for the newspaper La Lutte. He was elected to the Saigon Municipal Council in 1937. In 1945 during the August Revolution, the Communist Party of Indochina decided to destroy the Trotskyites and Ta Thu Thau was killed by them. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 351–52; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Ngo Van, Revolutionaries They Could Not Break: The Fight for the Fourth International in Indochina 1930–1945, London: Index Books, 1995; A. Richardson (ed.), The Revolution Defamed: A documentary history of Vietnamese Trotskyism, London: Socialist Platform, 2003.

TAM ASSOA, FRANÇOIS XAVIER (1855–1934). A Chinese-born vicar apostolic in Saigon, he was born in 1855 and worked with the poor in and around the Saigon area, especially with the Chinese community in Cholon. A recognisable figure in Cholon for many years, with a large white beard, he died on 24 January 1934, and was buried at the Cha Tam Church in Cholon, his gravestone being close to the entrance to the church. It was outside that church that President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu surrendered to the coup plotters on 2 November 1963 and were taken away and killed. TAM SON HOI QUAN PAGODA [Tam Sţn h஋i quán]. This Chinese pagoda in Cholon was built during the nineteenth century by the Fujian Congregation. It is dedicated to Me Sanh, the Goddess of Fertility and as a result, many women come to pray for children at the temple. There are a number of statues around the pagoda. That of General Quan Cong is easily recognised on account of his long black beard. He is flanked by a statue of General Chau Xuong on his left and the mandarin Quan Binh on his right. There is also a model of Quan Cong’s sacred red horse. People make offerings to the horse before they go on long voyages. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 285; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 89; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 360.

TAN DINH CHURCH [Nhà thஏ Tân Ð୽nh]. This Roman Catholic church was built in 1928 in Rue Paul Blanchy (now Hai Ba Trung Street). The site had previously been occupied by the Orphanage of the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, but in the early 1920s it was decided to build a church there, which was to be constructed in the Renaissance style, with red bricks and grey facings, as well as its ornate masonry. The church tower is 52.6 metres tall, and the church is the second largest in Ho Chi Minh City, with only the Notre Dame Basilica being larger. The Tan Dinh Market is nearby.

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During the fighting in the Vietnam War, many Roman Catholics and others sought refuge in the church, and some certainly did so during the fighting of the Tet Offensive of 1968. General Nguyen Van Hieu, assassinated on 8 April 1972, was initially buried at the Bien Hoa Military Cemetery, but his remains were later moved to the Tan Dinh Church, where they remain. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 158–59; Mason Florence and Robert Storey, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2001, p. 87.

TAN DINH MARKET [Chக Tân Bình]. This market, located on Rue Pal Blanchy (now Hai Ba Trung Street) was constructed in 1926–27 by the Société d’Études et de Constructions (SIDEC) and it has a wide roof, partly in the Vietnamese style, and was built to complement the other markets in Saigon at the time. There was some fighting there during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Writer Nguyen Xuan-Lan notes in his memoir that in the early morning of 30 April 1975, the shopkeepers at the Tan Dinh Market, undoubtedly realising what was about to happen, and the possibility of a power vacuum and looting, closed their stalls, pulling down their iron gates as a number of communists tanks appeared on the scene. The market still operates, but it is not popular with foreign tourists, and as a result, those who do go there are not routinely pestered, as sometimes happened to those in the Ben Thanh Market. References: Mason Florence and Robert Storey, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 2001, p. 140; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 178–79; Nguyen Xuan-Lan, The Sea and the Mulberry Field, Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing Company, 2009, p. 56.

TAN SON NHAT AIRPORT [Sân bay Tân Sţn Nhୗt]. The largest international airport in Vietnam in terms of its size and passengers handled, it was completed in January 1926 when it was clear that the airfirled at Phu Tho was inadequate. Later a number of runways were contructued at what became known as the Tan Son Nhat Airfield, because these were located on what was then the outskirts of Saigon, near a village called Tan Son Nhat (formerly Tan Son Nhut). The first flight from there to Paris took place on 11–20 October 1927. Japanese aircraft located at the airport were to play a crucial role in the Japanese attack in British Malaya and Singapore during World War II. It was from there that Japanese planes launched their surprise attack on Singapore on the morning of 8 December 1941, and planes from the airport were used in the sinking of the British capital ships the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse on 10 December, changing the power balance in the region. The airport was considerably expanded in 1954. The US presence in the Republic of Vietnam saw the enlargement of the airport, with US aid being used to build concrete runways at what became known as Tan Son Nhut Airport. Between 1968 and 1974, it was one of the busiest military airports in the world, used for US and South Vietnamese military aircraft. There were also

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Pan Am flights, with Boeing 747s flying four times a week from there to San Francisco, via Guam and Manila, as well as flights from Continental Airlines and the local Air Vietnam flights, which flew to many cities in the Republic of Vietnam. During his time as vice president, Nguyen Cao Ky lived in a fortified compound at the airport, known as the Vice Presidential Palace. During the fighting in 1975, the airport became the main evacuation point for US personnel, third country nationals, and South Vietnamese, until it was shelled on 28 April, necessitating the helicopter evacuation from central Saigon in Operation Frequent Wind. The airport continues to be used and because the Vietnam War necessitated the construction of such a large airbase as the fighting started, and the city sprawled during the war, it remains one of the few airports for a large city which is within walking distance of the centre of that city. Because most people arriving in Vietnam by air come into Ho Chi Minh City, Tan Son Nhat International Airport – which retains its old IATA code ‘SGN’ – handled 15,500,000 passengers in 2010 and 16,668,400 in 2011, roughly twice the number at Hanoi. It also dealt with 593,494 metric tonnes of cargo in 2011. There are now two terminals at Tan Son Nhat Airport, Terminal 1 for domestic flights, and Terminal 2 for international flights. For the domestic flights, there are 284 flights each week to Hanoi, 105 to Danang, and 75 to Phu Quoc, 41 to Haiphong, 40 to Vinh, 32 to Plaiku, 30 to Ban Ma Thuot, and 28 to Dalat, Hue and Nha Trang. Of the international flights each week, 112 head to Singapore, 62 to Bangkok, 60 to Kuala Lumpur, and 42 to Seoul and the same number to Tokyo, with 36 to Taipei, 35 to Siem Reap, 25 to Hong Kong, 21 to Guanzhou and the same number to Phnom Penh, with 18 to Sydney. References: Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 51–52; Ho Chi Minh City Airport, www.hochiminhcityairport.com; Robert C. Mikesh, Flying Dragons: The South Vietnamese Air Force, London: Osprey, 1988; Tan Son Nhat International Airport, http://tsnairport.com/?f.

TAO DAN PARK [Công viên Tao Ðàn]. This park was established by the French in 1869 as the City Garden (‘Jardin de la Ville’), following a decision by the civic authorities to establish a municipal park. It had many interesting trees and by 1887 it was named as Saigon’s ‘Bois de Boulogne’ after the park in Paris. Officially renamed the Parc Maurice Long Park after Maurice Long, the governor general of French Indochina from February 1920 until April 1922, some sporting and, later, cultural events were held in it, including gatherings of Boy Scouts. The communists renamed it Tao Dan Park. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 196–97.

TAY SON REBELLION [Tây Sţn]. With the decline of the Lê dynasty, the Tay Son Rebellion was a peasant uprising which was launched in 1769,

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following the defeat of the Nguyen lords in Cambodia. Three brothers from the village of Tay Son started a peasant uprising in 1770 and they quickly gained much support in the south. The oldest of the Tay Son brothers, Nguyen Hue, after whom a part of Ho Chi Minh City is now named, proved to be a good military commander and he led the peasants to victory against the Nguyen Lords in Hue. The aim was to smash the power of these Nguyen Lords and restore the Lê dynasty to actual control. Redistributing land alienated some landowners, but the relaxing of financial controls ensured that local merchants supported them. The Nguyen Lords quickly came to a peace agreement with the Siamese, giving up some land, and then raised an army. However, the Trinh lords in North Vietnam decided that this was the perfect opportunity to strike against the Nguyen capital of Hue, and the Nguyen fled to Saigon. In 1776 the Tay Son rebels captured Saigon and most of the Nguyen family were killed, although one of them, Nguyen Anh, did manage to escape. Mac Thien Tu retook the city for the Nguyen in July 1776, and it was attacked again by the Tay Son rebels, who took it in August 1777. On 18 October 1777, most of the Nguyen family who had been captured were executed. With so much local support in the south, Nguyen Nhac, one of the Tay Son brothers, proclaimed himself as Emperor Quang Trung in 1778 and the Trinh then turned against them. Nguyen Anh had managed to take Saigon again in late 1777, and it was not until March 1782 that the Tay Son captured the city for a third time. This time there was a massacre of some 20,000 people in the city. It was also probably at the same time that the massacre of 10,000 Chinese in Cholon took place. This led the Chinese to become angered by the Tay Son and Nguyen Anh exploited this by making overtures to the Chinese. He also managed to get some support from the Siamese, with the Lê emperor fleeing to Qing China. Nguyen Hue, another of the Tay Son brothers, managed to defeat all his opponents and he agreed to pay tribute to the Qing Chinese. Soon there were plans to expand Vietnamese rule into southern China. The death of Quang Trung led to French adventurers supporting Nguyen Anh, who was able to defeat the Tay Son forces and in 1802 proclaimed Hue as his capital, and taking on the title of Emperor Gia Long. Some Marxist historians have seen the Tay Son Rebellion as a peasant uprising to get rid of the Nguyen Lords, who only won with support from the French. However, other historians have argued that many of the policies of the Tay Son leaders in power were not that different from those of their rivals. Indeed, it seems that the Tay Son might have been opportunists who were able to work on the pent-up hatreds of the peasants to attack their enemies but had no major strategy or plan of what they should do if they were victorious.

286 Taylor, Maxwell Davenport ‘Max’ (1901–1987) References: Thomas J. Barnes, Tay Son: Rebellion in 18th Century Vietnam, Xlibris Corporation, 2000; George Edson Dutton, The Tay Son Uprising: Society and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006; Tana Li, Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University SEAP Publications, 1998, pp. 139–54; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 256–57; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 30–34.

TAYLOR, MAXWELL DAVENPORT ‘MAX’ (1901–1987). The US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1964 until 1965, he was born on 26 August 1901 in Keytesville, Missouri and in 1922 he graduated from the US Military Academy. He then served in the US Army and during World War II he served in Italy and then was involved in the D-Day invasion, as well as Operation Market Garden (Arnhem), but was back in the United States during the Battle of the Bulge. The superintendent of West Point from 1945– 49, he served as the commander of Allied troops in Berlin 1949–51, and from 1953 he was in Korea. The US Army chief of staff from 1955 until 1959, he was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation. Under John F. Kennedy, he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and in 1964 he was appointed US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, taking over from Henry Cabot Lodge. However, he was not in that position for long, as he clashed badly with General Nguyen Khanh – Taylor being a supporter of Duong Van Minh. Lodge was reappointed in the following year, and Taylor returned to the United States. He was a special consultant to the president and chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 1965–69, and also president of the Institute for Defence Analyses 1966–69. He died on 19 April 1987 in Washington DC and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Peter Kross, ‘The Taylor Mission to Vietnam’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 17, no. 5 (February 2005): pp. 44ff.; Albin Krebs, ‘Maxwell D. Taylor, Soldier and Envoy, Dies’, The New York Times (21 April 1987); Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 357; John M. Taylor, General Maxwell Taylor: The Sword and the Pen, New York: Doubleday, 1989; General Maxwell D. Taylor, Swords and Plowshares: A Memoir, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 148.

TELEPHONE SYSTEM. The telephone system in Saigon was established by the French in the 1890s, with another telephone exchange being built in Haiphong at around the same time, and connecting Haiphong with Hanoi by at least 1902. By the 1930s, the Saigon telephone service was well ahead of that in other parts of Indochina, and was already operating on a dial system,

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rather than having people ringing the exchange for a connection. In 1936 there was a network connecting many places in Indochina, and there were 10,438 kilometres of telephone lines, and 7,293 subscribers. A British report in that year noted that the telephone exchanges in French Indochina were linked and it was possible from Saigon to telephone Hanoi and Hue, as well as Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The system grew during World War II, and the telephone directory for Indochina from 1942 runs to 422 pages. By that time, it was being used for most essential communications. During the coup de force on 9 March 1945, the Japanese cut the telephone lines, hindering the French ability to organise and allowing the Japanese to take over Saigon relatively easily. During the First Indochina War, the telephone system in Saigon was largely unaffected by the fighting and it continued to grow, with more and more subscribers. However, communications outside the city were often haphazard as Viet Minh guerrillas and others routinely cut telephone lines. The 1955 telephone directory for South Vietnam, Dien-Thoai Nien-Giam Nam-Viet va Hoang-Trieu Cuong-Tho: Annuaire du telephone du Sud Viet-nam, published by Agence Publi-Asia in Saigon, runs to 290 pages, and its size continued to grow during the Republic of Vietnam, reaching 944 pages in 1970 with the Ðiên thoai niên giám 1970: Nam phén và cao nguyên trung phn, being published in Saigon by Bu´u Ðiên Viêt Nam. In addition to the directory for Saigon, the US Embassy also issued a long telephone directory of its own, covering US personnel and their numbers in the country. In 1957 this directory listed 890 people, and by January 1963, had some 3,100 US officials and military personnel who could be reached by telephone, showing the vastly expanded US presence in the country. The telephone network was taken over by the communists after the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, and it is not known whether any telephone directories were issued before that in 1990/91, and since then annual directories have been issued for Ho Cho Minh City: Thành ph H Chí Minh niên giám diên thoai và nhng trang vàng = Ho Chi Minh City Telephone Directory and Yellow Pages, published by Bu’u diên Thành ph H Chí Minh & Worldcorp Holdings. TELEVISION. With US support, two television channels were established in Saigon in the 1960s – one used English and the other used Vietnamese. The first broadcast was on 7 February 1966, with people able to watch on television sets placed at various locations in Saigon. These two networks became part of the national network after the communists took

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power in 1975. There is still a national network with a major broadcasting centre in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 293–94.

The celebration of Tet in Saigon in the early 1950s.

TET OFFENSIVE. This was an offensive launched by the Vietnamese communists on 30 January 1968. The aim was to launch attacks throughout the Republic of Vietnam in the hope of inspiring a general uprising. The targets included large numbers of command posts to help influence public opinion in the United States at the start of the US presidential election campaign. The focus of many of the attacks was in Saigon and in other cities in the Republic of Vietnam, including a major attack on Hue. There was no plan to take Saigon, but six major attacks were launched at the Independence Palace (now Reunification Palace), the United States Embassy, the Tan Son Nhut Air Base, the Long Binh Naval Headquarters, and the National Radio Station. Other military positions were also attacked. The attack on the National Radio Station involved a Viet Cong unit which had tape recordings of Ho Chi Minh urging for a general uprising. Holding the station for six hours, the communists were unable to broadcast because the audio lines had been cut. They finally exploded a massive bomb, and a few of them escaped. The most dramatic attack was on the US Embassy, when Viet Cong broke into the chancery at 2.45 AM, but were uncertain what to do after their officer was killed as they entered the chancery grounds. By 9.20 AM, the entire embassy

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site was back in US hands and secured, but the television news coverage of the fighting there caused consternation in the United States, with many more people beginning to question whether or not the South Vietnamese were winning the war as US General William Westmoreland had claimed in November 1967. It was also during the Tet Offensive that police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan shot dead the Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem near the An Quang Pagoda, an incident captured on film, and also in the photograph taken by Eddie Adams. Although the South Vietnamese and the US forces were able to defeat the Viet Cong, and actually very badly damaged the Viet Cong network, the fighting in Saigon, and in Hue, led to many people in the United States beginning to have serious doubts over the Vietnam War, which reflected in a surprisingly high level of support for Democratic Party candidate Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primaries. This was to lead to Robert Kennedy standing, and after his assassination, Hubert Humphrey leading the Democratic Party to defeat to Richard Nixon, who offered ‘Peace with Honour’. References: Peter Brush, ‘Reassessing the Viet Cong Role After Tet’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 14, no. 5 (February 2002): pp. 34–43, 64; Ronnie E. Ford, ‘Tet Revisited: The Strategy of the Communist Vietnamese’, Intelligence And National Security, vol. 9 (1994): pp. 242–86; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 358–59; John C. McManus, ‘Battleground Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 16, no. 5 (February 2004): pp. 26–33; James Matthews, ‘A Combat Medic Remembers Tet’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 19, no. 5 (February 2007): pp. 52–58; Don North, ‘VC Assault on the US Embassy’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 12, no. 5 (February 2000): pp. 38–47, 72; Rod Paschall, ‘Tet: The Center of the Storm’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 24, no. 5 (February 2012): pp. 24–31; Jacques Prindiville, ‘The CIA’s Costly Mistake’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 19, no. 5 (February 2007): pp. 28–35; Brenda Rosen Rodgers, ‘A Civilian in Tet 1968’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 9, no. 5 (February 1997): pp. 42ff.; Robert Barr Smith, ‘A Grevious Miscalculation in the Year of the Monkey’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 17, no. 5 (February 2005): pp. 34ff.; Harry G. Summers Jr, ‘Turning Point of the War’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 5, no. 5 (February 1993): pp. 22ff.; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 158–63; James J. Wirtz, The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991; David T. Zabecki, ‘Battle for Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 2, no. 1 (Summer 1989): pp. 19–25; David T. Zabecki, ‘The Battle for Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 20, no. 5 (February 2008): pp. 26–33.

THANH BAT QUAI. See Citadel of Saigon. THICH QUANG DUC [Thích Qu୕ng Ð஛c] (1897–1963). A Mahayana Buddhist monk, his self-immolation in Saigon on 11 June 1963 led to the protests which culminated in the fall of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem in November of the same year. Thich Quang Duc was born in 1897 in the village of Hoi Khanh, in Khanh Hoa province, in Central Vietnam. His father was Lam Huu Ung and his mother was Nguyen Thi Nuong – he was born as Lam Van Tuc [Lâm Văn Tc]. He started studying Buddhism when he was seven, living with his maternal uncle Thich Hoang Tham [Thích Hong Thâm], who raised him essentially as his own son. Changing his name to Nguyen Van Khiet [Nguyn Văn Khit],

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The Thich Quang Duc Memorial. Author’s photograph.

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he became a monk and when he was twenty took the name Thich Quang Duc, living in a mountain retreat as a hermit for three years. In the late 1920s, Thich Quang Duc started travelling around Vietnam, encouraging people to study Buddhism. He also went to Cambodia for two years to study Theravada Buddhism. Before he went to Cambodia, he had overseen the construction of fourteen temples, and helped with coordinating the building of another seventeen after his return. The last of these was the Quan The Am Pagoda in Gia Dinh, then a village on the outskirts of Saigon – now in Saigon. The chairman of the Panel on Ceremonial Rites of the Congregation of Vietnamese Monks, he was also abbott of the Phuoc Hoa Pagoda, where the Association for Buddhist Studies of Vietnam was based. It was later moved to the Xa Loi Pagoda. There had been tension between Roman Catholics and Buddhists during the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, who was a Roman Catholic. In early May 1963 the ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag was enforced. This was much resented, as only a few days before, Roman Catholics had flown the Vatican’s flag to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ngo Dinh Thuc becoming bishop of Hue. The government cracked down heavily, especially in Hue, where a number of Buddhist protestors were killed. Thich Quang Duc was angered by the heavy-handed government treatment of the Buddhists. Duc had decided on self-immolation and US journalists were told on 10 June 1963 to come to the street outside the Cambodian Embassy in Saigon, where ‘something important’ would happen. Only a few journalists came, including Malcolm Browne, the Saigon bureau chief for the Associated Press, and David Halberstam of The New York Times. They saw about 350 Buddhist monks and nuns marching carrying banners that criticised the Diem government, preceded by a car. The procession stopped at the intersection of Phan Dinh Phung Boulevard (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street) and Le Van Duyet Street (now Cach Mang Thang Tam Street). Duc emerged from the car, an Austin Westminster sedan, with two companions. One of the latter placed a cushion on the road and Duc sat on it, assuming the lotus position. The other monk, carrying a gasoline can be took from the trunk of the car, poured gasoline over Duc, who recited a prayer and rotated his wooden prayer beads, then as the companions pulled back, he struck a match and dropped it on himself. Duc had left a letter stating, ‘Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.’

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The police, in attendance, tried to get to Duc, and one prostrated himself before the burning Duc in reverence, as did some others. The fire ended in ten minutes, with Malcolm Browne managing to take one of the iconic photographs of the Vietnam War. The burned corpse was then taken to the Xa Loi Pagoda and a banner was unfurled there, stating in English and Vietnamese, ‘A Buddhist priest burns himself for our five requests.’ Ngo Dinh Diem had scheduled a cabinet meeting that morning but cancelled it, talking individually to his ministers. Acting US ambassador William Trueheart spoke to Nguyen Dinh Thuan, the secretary of state, and urged Diem to talk about the demands of the Buddhists. Meanwhile, the photographs of the self-immolation appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. It had a massive political impact, and US president John F. Kennedy said that he felt that ‘no news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.’ The government of the Republic of Vietnam hit back. Madame Nhu, the sister-in-law of President Diem said in an interview that Thich Quang Duc had been intoxicated by others who had ‘abused’ his confidence and then ‘barbecued’ him. She also stated that ‘even that barbecuing was not done with self-sufficient means – they used imported gasoline.’ There were subsequent claims by the government press that Duc had been drugged. The cremation of Thich Quang Duc, scheduled for 15 June, was postponed for four days. After the cremation, it was found that Duc’s heart did not burn, and there was another cremation, but it still did not burn. Treated as a holy relic, his heart was put on display at the Xa Loi Pagoda and it is still there. His death led to five more self-immolations, major Buddhist protests and the eventual overthrow of the Diem government by Buddhist generals led by Duong Van Minh. The spot where the self-immolation took place is now commemorated by a monument which still attracts large numbers of visitors. References: Peter Brush, ‘The Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 17, no. 6 (April 2005): pp. 18ff.; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 55; David Halberstam, The Making of a Quagmire, New York: Random House, 1965; Gilbert Harrison, ‘South Vietnam: Whose funeral pyre?’, The New Republic (29 June 1963); Seth Jacobs, Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam, 1950–1963, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; William Prochnau, Once upon a Distant War, New York: Times Books, 1995; Jerrod L. Schecter, The New Face of Buddha: Buddhism and Political Power in Southeast Asia, New York: Coward-McCann, 1967; Denis Warner, The Last Confucian, New York: Macmillan, 1963

THIEN HAU PAGODA. See Ba Thien Hau Pagoda. THOLANCE, AUGUSTE EUGÈNE LUDOVIC (1878–1938). Born on 16 July 1878, he went to work in Indochina on 17 November 1900. He was the French acting governor of Cochinchina from 1 January until 6 March 1929. He remained in Indochina and was the resident superior in Tonkin from 1930 until 1937.

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References: Auguste Tholance, ‘La situation politique et economique du Tonkin’ [The political and economic position of Tonkin], Revue du Pacifique, vol. 10, no. 12 (15 December 1931): pp. 714–27.

THOMSON, CHARLES ANTOINE FRANÇOIS (1845–1898). The French governor of Cochinchina from 7 November 1882 until 27 July 1885, Charles Thomson was born on 25 September 1845 at Mustapha, Algeria. He worked at the Ministry of Finance from 1864 until 1870 and was then the subpréfect and then the préfect of the Loire from 1870 until 1880. In November 1882 took up his position as governor of Cochinchina, based in Saigon. Thomson did very little in Saigon, but advocated the shelling of Hue to force more concessions from the Vietnamese emperor. In March 1884, he travelled from Saigon to Cambodia to force King Norodom to sign a new treaty that give the French far more powers than they had previously enjoyed. One aspect of this was that it would allow the French to modernize the country, but they also wanted to ensure that Norodom and the Royal Family would be far more compliant. He managed to get Norodom to sign the treaty, but this was to lead to the rebellion by Prince Si Votha. This rebellion threatened the entire French presence in Cambodia, and the French authorities felt that Thomson had been too aggressive and removed him, replacing him, temporarily by Charles Auguste Frédéric Begin and then with Ange Michel Filippini. He married Louise Valentine Virginie Carilian on 11 April 1874. Returning to France, Charles Thomson died on 9 July 1898 at Marseilles. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1210; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 73f.

THOMSON, JOHN (1837–1921). A Scottish photographer. Born on 14 June 1837 in Edingurgh, the eighth of nine children of a tobacconist, he was apprenticed to a local manufacturer of optical and scientific instruments. There he became interested in photography and in April 1862 he left Scotland for Singapore, where his brother lived, spending ten years travelling around Asia. In September 1865 he went to Bangkok and photographed King Mongkut and other members of the Siamese royal family. Whilst in Bangkok, Thomson became fascinated by the stories of Angkor from the book of Henri Moubot. This saw him head to Saigon in order to go to the temples of Angkor from December 1865 until January 1866. Accompanying him was H. G. Kennedy, a British consular official from the Siamese capital. After some time in Saigon – his description of the city is not that different from

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Frank Vincent’s – the two of them spent a fortnight photographing the temples, some of the earliest photographs of Angkor. Thomson contracted jungle fever and was saved by Kennedy. Thomson then returned to Singapore and from there went to Hong Kong and then to China. Back in Britain in 1872, he lived in Brixton, London, but did venture to Cyprus in 1878. He operated a portrait studio and was appointed photographer to the British royal family. He retired in 1910 and went back to Edinburgh. He died on 29 September 1921 in London, and was buried at Streatham Vale Cemetery. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 68–72; C. S. Lee, John Thomson: A Photographic Vision of the Far East, 1860–1872, MLitt thesis, University of Oxford, 1985; R. Ovenden, John Thomson (1837–1921): Photographer, Edinburgh: The Stationery Office, National Library of Scotland, 1997; Robert Philpotts, South of the Heart, London: Blackwater Books, 2010, p. 51–52; J. Thomson, The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China, new York: Harper & Brothers, 1875; S. White, John Thomson: Life and Photographs, London: Thames & Hudson, 1985.

TON DUC THANG [Tôn Ð஛c Thୡng] (1888– 1980). The second and final president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), and the first president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, he was born on 20 August 1888 on Ong Ho island, in Long Xuyen province, the son of Ton Van De and his wife Nguyen Thi Di. According to tradition, he went to a traditional Chinese school but wanted to attend a Franco-Annamite school, where children used the new Romanised script. His father refused, but the boy enrolled himself and was thrown out of his home as a result of this. The Ton Duc Thang in 1948. teacher at the new school and his wife took him in, and after finishing school, he went to the school for Asian mechanics in Saigon, 1913–15. He then joined the French Navy. In 1919, he was in the Black Sea when there was an attempted mutiny to turn over the French ships to help the Russian revolutionaries. His role in the mutiny remains unclear. An active revolutionary, in 1929 he was arrested by the French during the investigations which followed a murder at Barbier Street, Saigon, in December 1928. His wife was related to Bao Luong, the woman revolutionary whose role was made famous in Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s book, Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial Saigon. Jailed at Poulo Condore, Ton Duc Thang remained there until 1945, when he was released. He then became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, being appointed to their Central Committee in 1947. He took part in fighting against the French in the First Indochina War and led the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, a pro-communist organisation that operated in the South. Awarded the Stalin Peace Award in 1955, he had moved to

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Hanoi after the partition in the previous year. Ho Chi Minh appointed him vice president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and when Ho Chi Minh died on 2 September 1969, Ton Duc Thang took over as president. It was a symbolic office, and after the reunification in 1976, he became president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, remaining in that position until his death on 30 March 1980 in Hanoi, aged 91. At the time of his death, he was the oldest serving president in the world. He was succeeded by Nguyen Huu Tho. To commemorate his life, there is a small museum on the waterfront dedicated to him and is, appropriately, called the Ton Duc Thang Museum. Opened in August 1988, it has many exhibits showing the career of Ton Thuc Thang, including his long imprisonment on Poulo Condore (Con Son island). Ton Duc Thang University is named after him. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 284; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 136; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 77; Christoph Giebel, Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 56; Liam Kelley, ‘Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism: Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory’, Canadian Journal of History (Autumn 2006); Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 364–65; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 357; Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Passion, Betrayal, and Revolution in Colonial Saigon: The Memoirs of Bao Luong, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

TOURISM. There were certainly tourists visiting Saigon during the period of French colonial rule, with visitors staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, the Hôtel Continental or the downtown Hôtel de l’Univers. Some came to see the country and the local cultures, with others involved in hunting. During the Vietnam War, there were some tourists, but it was not until the late 1980s that very large numbers of foreign tourists started going to Vietnam, most heading to Ho Chi Minh City. During the 1990s there was a massive increase in tourism to Vietnam in general, and Ho Chi Minh City in particular, and this continued through the 2000s. Part of this boom in tourism was on account of the low costs of tourists going to Vietnam, the good weather, personal safety, and relaxed lifestyle. Many visitors were interested in aspects of the Vietnam War, and these included a large number of US veterans and their families. As well as visiting the sites in Ho Chi Minh City, many also venture to the nearby Cu Chi Tunnels. The increase in tourism also coincided with some international travel advisories warning against travel to Indonesia, and many people who ordinarily might have gone to Indonesia for their ‘experience of Asia’ went to Vietnam instead. Tourism made up a major part of the 2.9 million international arrivals in 2004, 500,000 more than in the previous year. It rose steadily, and in 2011 there were 6 million international visitors, a million more than in the previous year. The country with the largest number of tourists in 2011 was the People’s

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Republic of China (1,416,804), followed by South Korea (536,408), Japan (481,519), the United States (439,872), Cambodia (423,440), the Republic of China / Taiwan (361,051), Australia (289,762), Malaysia (233,132), France 211,444) and Thailand (181,820). In Saigon in particular, this influx of tourism has led to renovations of many of the famous hotels: the Caravelle Hotel, the Hôtel Continental, Hotel Majestic, and the Rex Hotel. Other areas replete with cheaper hotels and accommodation for backpackers include the area around Pham Ngu Lao Street, and also parts of Cholon. There has also been a proliferation of good guides to Ho Chi Minh City, including the Footprints Guide, the Lonely Planet Guide and the Rough Guide. Interestingly, most guides started with Ho Chi Minh City, with the Lonely Plant changing around 2000, and starting instead with Hanoi. TRAMS. The French established a steam-operated tram system in Saigon on 27 December 1881 and this was upgraded to an electric tram system on 4 August 1923. It continued until about 1953, and connected Saigon with Cholon and also with Hoc Mon and Thu Dau Mot. The trams operated on a metre-gauge and the network covered 72 kilometres. References: ‘Tram Views of Asia: Indochina’, www.tramz.com/tva/vn.html (April 2012).

TRAN HUNG DAO TEMPLE [Chùa Tr୙n HŲng Ð୓o]. This temple is dedicated to the memory of Tran Hung Dao [Trn Hưng Ðo] (1228–1330), a Vietnamese army commander and national hero who fought against the Mongols under Kublai Khan, who invaded Vietnam, for a third time, in 1287. According to legend, some tens of thousands of Vietnamese managed to defeat 300,000 Mongol soldiers. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 287; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 84; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 172–73; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 358.

TRAN KIM TUYEN [Tr୙n Kim Tuyୱn] (1925–1995). The chief of intelligence for the Republic of Vietnam from 1955 until 1963, Tran Kim Tuyen was born on 24 May 1925 and was from a staunchly anti-communist Roman Catholic family from Phat Diem, in North Vietnam. Educated at the University of Hanoi, he disliked French colonial rule, especially when they exerted their control over the Catholic Church. He disliked Ho Chi Minh and in 1946 met Ngo Dinh Nhu, who was coming from Hanoi to visit a Catholic area on the border near Laos, and a priest recommended Tuyen, who ended up working for the Vietnamese National Army of the pro-French State of Vietnam and then with the partition of Vietnam in 1954, he decided to move south, urging many other Catholics to do so.

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Trusted by President Ngo Dinh Diem, he was appointed as the head of the Service d’Études Politiques et Sociales (SEPRS: Bureau of Political and Social Research) in 1955. This organisation operated from the Presidential Palace – Tuyen actually lived in the palace for many years – and collected information on supporters and opponents of the government. Tuyen started to organise the Can Lao Party and in 1960 urged the coup plotters to stand down when it was clear that this attempt to overthrow Diem had failed. However, in 1962 he became critical of the increasingly important role being played by Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu and urged that she be sidelined. Tuyen was appointed consul general in Cairo, but only went to Hong Kong. With the overthrow of Diem in November 1963, he returned to Saigon, but was arrested and jailed for the next two months. He was tried for corruption and abuse of power and was sentenced to five years in jail. Tuyen believed this was because he knew about the corruption of the military officers in the incoming regime. Released after the intervention of the brother of Nguyen Van Thieu, he taught at a high school and wrote some newspaper articles on politics, always under a pseudonym. As the communists closed in on Saigon in April 1975, British intelligence intervened to extricate his wife and three youngest sons – his oldest son was a student at Cambridge University at the time. In the evacuation of Saigon – Operation Frequent Wind – he headed to the US Embassy at the last moment, but the helicopter lift there had been temporarily suspended, so he went to 22 Gia Long, another evacuation point, and was pulled into the helicopter at literally the last minute by General Tran Van Don. Living in England as Anthony Tran, he died in July 1995 in Cambridge. References: Larry Berman, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007, pp. 84, 147, 222f.; A. J. Langguth, Our Vietnam: The War, 1954–1975, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000; Robert Shaplen, The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945–1965, London: Andre Deutsch, 1966; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 141.

TRAN NGOC CHAU [Tr୙n Ng୿c Châu]. An opposition member of parliament in the National Assembly in Saigon, Tran Ngoc Chau had been involved with the Viet Minh in the 1940s, then joined the South Vietnamese military, becoming chief of Kien Hoa province in the Mekong Delta, and being gazetted lieutenant colonel. Winning a seat in the National Assembly for Kien Hoa, he urged for a political peace settlement with the communists and after criticising a friend of President Nguyen Van Thieu, he was accused of being a communist agent and sentenced to twenty years in jail. His brother was a communist, which helped the government move against him. Some CIA officials tried to get him evacuated in April 1975, but this was rejected by the chief of the CIA’s East Asia division, Theodore Shackley. The communists, after the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, held him in custody, and he was released only in 1978, after which he secured false Chinese papers and escaped.

298 Tran The Minh References: David Lan Pham, Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940–1986, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008; p. 128; Frank Snepp, Decent Interval, London: Allen Lane, 1980, pp. 27–28; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 213.

TRAN THE MINH [Tr୙n Thୱ Minh] (1917–1977). A Saigon politician, Tran The Minh was born on 20 June 1917 at Thai Bin, in the Red River Delta in North Vietnam. He was educated at Bui Vien High School and in 1954 he was the chairman of the Starvation Relief Movement to help with refugees from North Vietnam moving to the south. He then moved to Saigon, where he lived with his wife and three children. In 1966 he was elected a deputy to the Constituent Assembly, and in the following year he became a member of the Saigon City Council. He was also elected to the Senate, remaining a member until 1963. Remaining in Saigon, after the city fell to the communists, he was taken to Nam Ha Camp, where he was interned with other South Vietnamese officials. He died in 1977 in the prison from poisoning. References: Nghia M. Vo, The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004, p. 170; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 525.

TRAN THIEN KHIEM [Tr୙n Thi୹n Khiêm] (1925– ). A general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, he was born on 15 December 1925 in Saigon, into a Roman Catholic family, and was the godson of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, an older brother of Ngo Dinh Diem. He studied at the Vietnamese National Military Academy at Dalat, graduating in 1947. Commissioned lieutenant, he served in the Vietnamese National Army of Bao Dai and was promoted to captain in 1951 and major in July 1954. Gazetted colonel in 1957, he was appointed as the deputy chief of general staff / logistics and was acting chief of the joint general staff in October 1957. Soon afterwards he went to train in the United States and on his return in 1958 he was given command of the 4th Field Division, which he held until February 1960. On 11 November 1960, two army officers staged a coup attempt against President Ngo Dinh Diem. Khiem was able to bring loyalist soldiers to the Presidential Palace and he was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of staff. Three years later he was part of the plot to overthrow Diem, but the rest of the conspirators did not trust him and he was demoted to command of III Corps. In 1964 he took part in another coup, this time against General Duong Van Minh. Khiem was rewarded by the new leader, Nguyen Khanh, with the position of minister of defence. He was also a member of the Provisional Leadership Committee, from 27 August until 8 September 1964. By the end of 1965 Khiem had been appointed ambassador to the United States, with the task to help bolster US support for Khanh. With the rise to power of Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu later that year, he was appointed ambassador to the Republic of China (Taiwan), remaining in Taipei until mid-1968. Returning to Saigon, he was minister of the interior and

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then from 1 September 1969 until 4 April 1975, he was prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam. Alfred McCoy described him as ‘probably the most fickle of Vietnam’s military leaders’, who established a strong power base as prime minister, especially with the appointment of his brother Tran Thien Khoi as chief of the Fraud Repression Division of the customs service. Able to flee the country before the communists won the Vietnam War, he is believed to have sought quiet exile in France. References: Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1991; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 381; Alfred W. McCoy, with Cathleen B. Read and Leonard P. Adams II, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, New York: Harper & Row, 1972, pp. 205–10.

TRAN TRONG KIM [Tr୙n Tr୿ng Kim; 䱇ӆ䞥] (1883–1953). A Vietnamese scholar, he was born at Dan Pho, in Ha Tinh Province, in north-central Vietnam. He studied in France at the École Coloniale, and was a teacher in Annam and then in Tonkin. A Freemason, he was the author of many textbooks in the Romanized Vietnamese script, including a much acclaimed history of Vietnam until 1893, which was published in 1920. He was an inspector of elementary public schooling in Tonkin in 1942, and moved to Bangkok, Thailand. He was sought out and brought to Saigon in March 1945 by the Japanese, who wanted him to lead the new ‘independent’ government of Vietnam formed after their coup de force. He eventually became the prime minister of Bap Dai, being in office from 17 April until 23 August 1945, when he was forced from office by the August Revolution. References: Huynh Kim Khanh, Vietnamese Communist 1925–1945, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982, p. 301f.; Shawn McHale, Print and Power: Confucianism, Communism, and Buddhism in the Making of Modern Vietnam, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 113–14; Vu Ngu Chieu, ‘The Other Side of the 1945 Vietnamese Revolution: The Empire of Viet-Nam’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 45, no. 2 (February 1986): pp. 293–328.

TRAN VAN CHIEU [Tr୙n VÅn Chi୳u] (1919–2006). A businessman, he was born on 20 December 1919 in Saigon, and was a member of the Cao Dai. He became the chairman of the Saigon Chamber of Commerce in the late 1950s. In 1967 he stood in the presidential elections as the vice presidential running mate of Truong Dinh Dzu. The two urged negotiations to end the Vietnam War and came second after the ticket of Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky. He died on 2 March 2006 in California. References: Howard Rae Penniman, Elections in South Vietnam, Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, c1972, p. 61; Sir Robert Thompson, Peace Is not at Hand, London: Chatto & Windus, 1974, p. 11.

TRAN VAN GIAU [Tr୙n VÅn Giàu] (1911–2010). A revolutionary, he was born on 11 September 1911 into a farming family. In 1926 he started studying at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat (now Lycée Le Quy Don) in Saigon, and then went

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to France to complete his education at the University of Toulouse. In 1929 he joined the Communist Party of France, and was active with the communists in Toulouse, being arrested, jailed and then deported. Back in Saigon, he became active in the Communist Party of Indochina, and went to the Soviet Union for a while to study at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. His thesis was on land problems in Indochina. Returning to Saigon, he worked on communist agitation. Arrested by the French colonial authorities, on 25 June 1935 he was jailed for five years for subversion and sent to prison where he was held for a while in solitary confinement. Released on 23 April 1940, he was rearrested a few days later but managed to escape in a jailbreak in 1941. In the August Revolution, he was in charge of the communist movement in Saigon and was also the chairman of the Committee for the South. He was particularly aggressive and he was blamed for the killing of non-communist nationalists. He also wanted to continue to use the Communist Party of Indochina’s policies from the 1930s without adapting them. This saw him being replaced by Nguyen Binh and he worked in Hanoi as an historian, authoring a number of histories of the Vietnamese Revolution and the communist movement. He died on 16 December 2010 in Ho Chi Minh City, aged 99. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 383; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991.

TRAN VAN HUONG [Tr୙n VÅn HŲţng] (1903–1982). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam on two occasions, and the president for a week after the resignation of Nguyen Van Thieu on 21 April 1975, Tran Van Huong was born on 1 December 1903 at Vinh Long in the Mekong Deta region. His father was a landless labourer and Huong took part in anti-French demonstrations

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whilst at school. Expelled from his first school in Vinh Long, he moved to Saigon and worked as a coolie to pay for his studies at Lycée Chasseloup Laubat from 1920–21 and then went to the School of Pedagogy in Hanoi in 1926. Married, with two children, he was a teacher at My Tho High School from September 1926 until October 1937 and then became an inspector in Primary Education from October 1937 until November 1945. He briefly joined the Viet Minh. After the August Revolution, he was chairman of the Tay Ninh Administrative Committee from September until November 1945. In November 1954 Tran Van Huong was appointed as prefect (mayor) of Saigon and held that position until April 1955. It was a very difficult time, because Ngo Dinh Diem was trying to assert central control over a city which had essentially been left in the hands of the Binh Xuyen gangsters. Then from 1956 until 1960 Tran Van Huong was secretary general of the Vietnam Red Cross. In April 1960 the Caravelle Manifesto was issued by a number of anticommunist politicians. It was critical of the restrictions on freedom of speech by President Ngo Dinh Diem and urged reforms. Written at the Caravelle Hotel, it received some publicity at the time, but saw Tran Van Huong arrested and jailed. However, when Diem was overthrown, Huong was even more critical of the coup plotters. He later said, ‘The top generals who decided to murder Diem and his brother were scared to death. The generals knew very well that having no talent, no moral virtues, no political support whatsoever, they could not prevent a spectacular comeback of the president and Mr Nhu if they were alive.’ In September 1964, General Nguyen Khanh and other senior army officers finally gave in to US pressure to form a civilian government. This saw the establishment of the High National Council (HNC), which was an advisory body made up of nominated members. The HNC chose Phan Khac Suu as the head of state, and he selected Tran Van Huong to become prime minister – Huong, who took up the position on 4 November 1964, being in a more powerful position than Suu. Gradually Huong managed to make changes by using aid money to help bolster the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, increasing the number of soldiers by introducing conscription in January 1965. This latter move was very unpopular and there were many protests, especially from Buddhists. Huong was a Confucian, but relied heavily on support from the Buddhists. However, before Huong was able to react, Nguyen Khanh decided to remove the prime minister in a bloodless coup d’état. Huong had been planning to shore up his support using Nguyen Van Thieu and also Nguyen Huu Co. In the presidential elections held on 3 September 1967, Tran Van Huong came fourth with 474,100 votes (10 per cent). Two years later, with Thieu as president, Tran Van Huong was nominated as prime minister, again holding that position from 28 May 1968 until 1 September 1969. His oratory was

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powerful, but he was better at criticising people than supporting a cause. When Thieu was re-elected president in 1971, Tran Van Huong was his vice presidential running mate, chosen partly because in the 1967 election, he had topped the poll in Saigon. As a result, on 21 April 1975, when Thieu resigned the presidency, Tran Van Huong, by this time half-blind, became president of the Republic of Vietnam. He remained in office until 28 April 1975, apparently telling his friends that he wanted to be president for at least a week. He then handed over the position to Duong Van Minh, with Saigon falling to the communists some 36 hours later. Placed under house arrest by the communists, in 1977 Tran Van Huong had his civil rights restored to him, and his house arrest lifted. However, he refused to accept, asking for all officers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to be released before he would agree to full freedom. It was an offer similar to that of John McCain when he was taken prisoner by the Vietnamese communists in 1967. The new government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam never replied to Huong’s request and he died in his home in 1982. He was married and had two children. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 137; Howard Jones, Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 435–36; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, New York: Penguin Books, 1997; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 384; Mark Moyar, ‘Political Monks: The Militant Buddhist Movement during the Vietnam War’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 38, no. 4 (2004): pp. 749–84; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 147f.; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 347.

TRAN VAN HUU [Tr୙n VÅn H஡u] (1896–1984). The prime minister of the State of Vietnam from 27 April 1950 until 6 June 1952, Tran Van Huu was born in 1896 and was from a well-to-do family. A French citizen, he trained as an agricultural engineer and served in the Department of Agriculture in the early 1920s. During that time he bought up much land, becoming a wealthy landlord. A monarchist, in the late 1940s he became a major figure in the movement which aimed to restore Bao Dai, and in 1949 was made the governor of Cochinchina. Following the French managing to ease Nguyen Phan Long out of power, Tran Van Huu became prime minister. At the party at the Hôtel de Ville (now the People’s Committee Building) when he took over from Nguyen Phan Long, a champagne cork popped, causing everybody to duck instinctively. Tran Van Huu faced many political problems. When he was governor of Cochinchina, he had supported the separatist movement there. However, as prime minister of the State of Vietnam, he sought to bring together Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin, and get the French to grant concessions. The French refused and Tran Van Huu embarked on the same policy as his predecessor in trying to get the United States to influence the French. The French were angered by this and forced him from office on 6 June 1952. He died in 1984.

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References: ‘Aim of New Government in Viet Nam’, The Times (8 May1950): p. 3; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 384; Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene vol. 2: 1939–1955, London: Jonathan Cape, 1994, p. 367; The New York Times (10 May 1950).

TRAN VAN KHAC [Tr୙n VÅn Khୡc] (1902–1990). The founder of the Vietnamese Scout Movement, Tran Van Khac came across the Boy Scout movement from a few issues of the magazine Scouts of France, and first established the Boy Scout movement in Hanoi with Hoang Dao Thuy [Hoàng Ðo Thúy]. Khac was a teacher and also a keen athlete. The original Boy Scout movement, called Le Loi, focused more on athletics than camping and traditional European scouting pursuits. In 1932 he moved to Saigon leaving Hoang Dao Thuy to run the movement in Hanoi. In Saigon, he was helped by Luong Thai [Lương Thái], Huyng Van Diep [Huỳnh Văn Di p], and Tran Con [Trn Con], and these, with the assistance of Tran Van Tuyen, formed the Scout Association of Cochinchina. Continuing to run the association, he fled south and in 1975 he left for Canada and was active in the scouting movement amongst the Vietnamese there, and died in 1990 in Ottawa. He was the eponym of the Tran Van Khac Rover Crew. References: Anne Raffin, Youth Mobilization in Vichy Indochina and its Legacies, 1940 to 1970, Lanham: Lexington Books, 2005, p. 56; Robert Trando, Letters of a Vietnamese Émigré, privately published, 2010, p. 34.

TRAN VAN LAM, CHARLES [Tr୙n VÅn Lୡm] (1913–2001). The South Vietnamese foreign minister from 1969 until 1973, Tran Van Lam was born on 30 July 1913 at Cholon, the son of an ethnic Chinese landlord. He completed his secondary education in Saigon and then went to study at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Hanoi. Graduating in 1939, he returned to Saigon and established the Vietnamese Pharmacists’ Association, becoming its first secretary general. In 1952 he was elected to the Saigon District Council,

and was briefly its president. With the proclamation of the Republic of Vietnam in 1955, Tran Van Lam became a prominent businessman and was active in the Economic Commission for the Defence of the Piastre, the currency, and was also active on regional hygiene committees. In March 1956 he led the Citizens’ Rally, a largely Roman Catholic political party which supported Ngo Dinh Diem, and was elected to the Constituent Assembly for Saigon. When it met, he was elected its president and became the president of the new National Assembly, and was its majority leader until 1961.

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In 1961 Ngo Dinh Diem appointed Tran Van Lam as the South Vietnamese ambassador to Australia and New Zealand. Over the next two years, he became a leading spokesman for the increasingly beleaguered Diem government, When Diem was overthrown, Tran Van Lam left politics and devoted himself to running the Vietnam Commercial and Industrial Bank, which he had founded in 1956, and of which he was the chairman. In the Senate elections in 1967 he headed a ‘neo-Diemist’ list, which saw him and nine others elected to the Senate – albeit having to withstand a challenge by the Hoa Hao-sponsored list. When the Nixon administration tried to extricate the United States from Vietnam, President Nguyen Van Thieu was anxious that he had the best possible team to help in the tense negotiations. Tran Van Lam was appointed foreign minister in 1969 and held that position until January 1973. He then returned to politics as chairman of the South Vietnamese Senate. Tran Van Lam was technically the third most powerful man in the country, after the president and vice president. As the communists advanced on Saigon, Tran Van Lam became a power broker in the increasingly irrelevant South Vietnamese legislative structure. When Nguyen Van Thieu left Saigon, Tran Van Huong, the vice president, took over and remained president for six days until Tran Van Lam was able to persuade him to leave, allowing General Duong Van Minh to become president. To achieve this, Tran Van Lam managed to gather together 134 legislators who were still in Saigon, and after hours of arguments, Minh was elected – but Huong insisted on remaining in office for another day so that he could tell his friends that he had been president for a week. Tran Van Lam escaped to Australia and lived in Canberra until his death on 6 February 2001. TRAN VAN MINH [Sylvain Tr୙n VÅn Minh] (1923–2009). A general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, he gained the nickname ‘Little Minh’ to distinguish him from Duong Van Minh who was ‘Big Minh’. Born on 19 August 1923 in Saigon, he trained at St Cyr in Paris and served in the French Forces. After the coup de force on 9 March 1945, he managed to flee into southern China with General Marcel Alessandri’s soldiers. When the French re-established their rule in southern Vietnam, he returned to Saigon and then was posted to Hanoi to work in Intelligence, and then worked for General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. One of the French delegates to the Geneva Conference in 1954, he returned to Saigon and was promoted to the rank of major general. The commandant of the Dalat Military Academy from 1957–59, he was appointed inspector general for National Defence until 1963. Promoted to chief of the general staff in 1964–65, he was later promoted to minister of defence. Then, to get him

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away from Saigon, where he was involved in plots and conspiracies against the government, he was appointed ambassador to Tunisia, and lived in Tunis from 1971 until 1975. Retiring to France, he died on 31 May 2009. He was married, with three children. References: Lam Quang Thi, The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon, Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2001, pp. 91, 381; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, p. 526.

TRAN VAN THAI [Tr୙n Thái VÅn] (1964– ). A US politician, he was born on 19 October 1964 in Saigon and his family were evacuated from the city in April 1975, a week before the fall of Saigon to the communists. They lived in Michigan and then moved to Orange County, California. There Tran Van Thai attended the University of California, Irvine, and worked as an intern and then as a staff aide for Congressman Bob Dorman and then for State Senator Ed Royce. Completing a Master of Public Administration from Hamline University, he completed a law doctorate (JD) from the Hamline University School of Law, being admitted to the California State Bar in 1994. In 2000, Tran Van Thai became the second Vietnamese American to hold elected office in the United States, the first being restaurateur Tony Lam in nearby Westminster. He was then elected to the California State Assembly, being re-elected in 2006 and 2008. In 2008 he was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention from California. TRAN VAN TRA [Tr୙n VÅn Trà] (1918–1996). The commanding general of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, with the fall of Saigon to his forces on 30 April 1975, he became the military governor of the city. Born in 1918 in Quang Ngai province in south-central Vietnam, the son of a bricklayer, he joined the Communist Party of Indochina when he was twenty, but was arrested soon afterwards by the French, spending much of World War II in prison. Released at the end of the war, he joined the People’s Army of Vietnam and fought against the French, rising to the rank of general in 1961, at which time he was in command of the forces of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. In 1974, when the communists were planning their attack on the Republic of Vietnam, Tran Van Tra urged for a cautious policy whereby the communists should attack the South Vietnamese in Phuoc Long province, and test the resolve of the Americans to see whether or not they would react. When it was clear that the US government was not going to get involved, the attack on Saigon saw Tran Van Tra placed under General Van Tien Dung, who organised the final assault on Saigon. Tran Van Tra was made military governor of Ho Chi Minh City and he ordered that all officials of the Republic of Vietnam above the level of a service chief, and all officers of the armed forces from the rank of second lieutenant

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upwards, had to report for thirty days’ re-education. For many of them, it was to lead to years in prison. The vice minister of defence from 1978 until 1982, Tran Van Tra wrote Vietnam: A History of the Bulwark B–2 Theatre (1982), in which he wrote that his view was that the politburo in Hanoi massively underestimated the strength of the US and South Vietnamese forces during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Purged from the party for what was seen as ill-discipline, he was placed under house arrest until his death on 20 April 1996 in Hanoi. References: Larry Berman, Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, New York: Smithsonian Books, 2007, pp. 233, 236.

TRAN VAN TUYEN [Tr୙n vÅn Tuyên] (1913–1976). A politician and lawyer in Saigon, Tran Van Tuyen was born on 1 September 1913 at Tuyen Quang, North Vietnam, and in 1929 became a supporter of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party [Vi t Nam Qu c dân Ðng]. He gained a law degree from the University of Hanoi in 1943 and was arrested by the French. Then he worked as an advisor to Nguyen Tuong Tam, the foreign minister in the coalition Nationalist–Communist government. A member of the National Central Front for Reunification (Trung uong Mat Tran Quoc Gia Thong nhat Toan quoc) in 1947–48, he was secretary general of the Vietnam National Restoration League [Vi t Nam Quang Ph c Hi], in 1948–53. In 1949 he was appointed as minister of information in the Bao Dai government, and from 1950–52 he served as minister at the prime minister’s office under Tran Van Huu. He was then a delegate to the Geneva Conference held in 1954. A lawyer in the Saigon Court of Appeals, he also wrote a number of books, his first being a novel, Hiu qunh [Loneliness] (Saigon, 1943). This was followed by Ð quc đ [Red Empire] (Saigon, 1957); T nh M ng [Disillusion] (Saigon, 1957); Hi Ký H i-Ngh Genève 1954 [Memoirs of the Geneva Conference] (Saigon, 1964); Chánh Ðng [Political Parties] (Saigon, 1967); and a collection of short stories, Ngưi Khách L [A Strange Visitor] (Saigon, 1968). He was a founder member of the Vietnam Boy Scout movement, being the chief scout for many years. An opponent of Ngo Dinh Diem, in 1960 he was one of the signatories of the Caravelle Manifesto which was issued form the Caravelle Hotel. At his trial in July 1963, after having been changed with subversion over his role in the manifesto, he was found not guilty and returned to practise law. In 1971 he was elected to represent Saigon in the House of Representatives and was a vigorous opponent of Nguyen Van Thieu. Married, with eleven children, in April 1975 he decided not to leave Saigon. Arrested by the communists, he was interned at a number of prison camps and was badly ill-treated. He committed suicide by slashing his wrists on 28 October 1976, his death not being acknowledged until 1978.

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References: Tran Thi Dam-Phuong, ‘In Memoriam: Tran Van Tuyen’, Worldview Magazine (1 July 1978): pp. 19–20; Nghia M. Vo, The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2004, p. 170; Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 889–90.

TREASURY BUILDING. This building was located in Boulevard Chaner (now Nguyen Hue) and was constructed in the 1920s by Brossard & Mopin on a site previously occupied by a market. It is an impressive structure, displaying many aspects of French architectural style. The stalls in that market were destroyed in a fire in 1870 and a new market with a metal roof was built. However, in 1908 this was moved to a new place and became the Ben Thanh Market. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 122–23.

TREATY OF SAIGON (1862). This treaty was signed by Emperor Tu Duc and French representatives on 5 June 1862. In this treaty, the emperor ceded to France Saigon and the three southern provinces: Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh and Dinh Tuong, as well as the island of Poulo Condore. Leading to the start of the French control of Cochinchina, the treaty was confirmed by the Treaty of Hue, which was signed on 14 April 1863. Emperor Tu Duc certainly did not like the treaty, but saw it as a necessary action to satiate the French, hoping for a later retrocession of the provinces. This was a move not to antagonise the French and stop any harassment of Catholics in Vietnam. There was a second Treaty of Saigon, signed on 15 March 1874, which restated the terms of the original treaty and also opened up the Red River around Hanoi to trade. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 387–88; Mark W. McLeod, Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1991; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 66–74.

TREMLETT, CHARLES FRANCIS (1835–1903). The British consul in Saigon from 1871 until his death on 11 April 1903, Charles Francis Tremlett was born on 11 February 1835 in St John’s, Newfoundland, the son of John Bryant Tremlett, merchant, and his wife Anne (née Breenlen). He moved to Saigon in 1869 and lived in Cochinchina for the rest of his life. He was head of the firm of Hale & Company. A scholar, he contributed to an article in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute in 1879, and contributed to the Royal Geographical Society in London. References: The Foreign Office List gives his date of death as 17 April, the actual date comes from The Straits Times 18 April 1903, p. 4; The Foreign Office List 1901, p. 228.

de TRENTINIAN, LOUIS EDGARD (1851–1942). He was the acting lieutenant governor of Cochinchina from 4 March until 4 November 1881. Born on 25 August 1851 in Brest, France, his grandfather was Edgard Trentinian, who

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was an army commander during the American War of Independence. Growing up on the Caribbean island of Martinique, de Trentinian fought in the Franco– Prussian War, serving in the Loire. After the war, he graduated from St Cyr in 1872 and in the following year went to Tonkin, where he served under Francis Garnier and was involved in the storming of the citadel at Hanoi. Remaining in Indochina until 1892, he spent most of his time in Tonkin. Serving in the French Sudan, he was the governor of Mali from 16 June 1895 until 1898, and then promoted to the rank of brigadier in 1898 – at that time the youngest in the French Army – he served in Madagascar. In World War I, he led the column of soldiers taken by taxi to prevent the Germans advancing on Paris, but was sacked for losing so many soldiers at Ethe. He was later exonerated. Edgard de Trentinian died on 24 May 1942 in Paris. References: Philippe Héduy, Histoire de l’Indochine: La perle de l’Empire (1624–1954), Paris: Société de Production Littéraire, 1983, vol. 1, p. 220; Pascal Imperto and Gavin H. Imperato, Historical Dictionary of Mali, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.

TRINH CONG SON [Tr୽nh Công Sţn] (1939–2001). A composer and songwriter, Trinh Cong Son was born on 28 February 1939 in Buon Ma Thuot (Ban Me Thuot), in the Central Highlands, and grew up near Hue. Moving to Saigon, he attended Lycée Jean-Jacques Rousseau (now Lycée Le Quy Don). After independence, he was one of the best-known songwriters in the Republic of Vietnam. Playing the guitar, many of his songs urged for peace and there were anti-war lyrics which led to him being described as ‘Vietnam’s Bob Dylan’. The government of the Republic of Vietnam were angered by this, but because he refused to accept that the US was waging an aggressive war, the communists also did not like him. As a result, in 1975 he was arrested and thrown into a re-education camp. When released, he started writing songs in the late 1980s and the 1990s, but these dealt with love and he steered well clear of politics. He died on 1 April 2001. References: ‘Friends of Trinh Cong Son’, http://tcs-home.org/ (April 2012); Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 390–91; John C. Schafer, ‘The Trinh Cong Som Phenomenon’, The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 66, no. 3 (2007): pp. 597–643.

TROTSKYITES. There was a small Trotskyite group in Saigon which has its origins in the National Party of Independence of Vietnam, later the Annamite Party of Independence. Initially led by Nguyen The Tuyen from December 1927, after his return to Vietnam from France, the party was restructured, with Ta Thu Thau and Huynh Van Phuong being the main organizers. In late 1929, in solidarity with the anti-French activists in Vietnam, a group of nationalist students in Paris held a demonstration outside the Elysée Palace. Some nineteen students were deported to Saigon. The French then started a crackdown on communists in Vietnam, including Saigon.

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There were soon three groups of Trotskyites in Vietnam: the Opposition de Gauche Indochinoise, led by Dao Hung Long and Ho Huu Tuong; the Communisme Indochinois (Dong Duong Cong San) led by Ta Thu Thau, and organized from 1931; and a study circle, Editions de l’Opposition de Gauche (Ta Doi Lap Tung Thus), which was set up in 1932 by Huynh Van Phuong and Phan Van Chang. In spite of major ideological differences, the Trotskyites in Vietnam decided to form a United Front with the Viet Minh in Ho Chi Minh’s Communist Party of Indochina (CPI). The Trotskyites are well-known on account of their newspaper La Lutte, and also their participation in the Saigon municipal elections held on 30 April and 7 May 1933, and their successes in the 1937 municipal elections. However, in 1937 the Communist International, Comintern, forbade the CPI from cooperating with the Trotskyites and later, during the August Revolution and the weeks that followed, the Viet Minh persecuted and killed many of the Trotskyites. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 392–93; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Vu Tuong, Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China and Indonesia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 185; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 108–9.

TRUEHEART, WILLIAM C. (1918–1992). The acting US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from May until July 1963, during the height of the Buddhist protests against the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, William Trueheart was born on 18 December 1918 in Chester, Virginia, USA, the son of William C. Trueheart, Sr, a bank cashier. He graduated with a BA from the University of Virginia in 1939, and an MA two years later. Working as a civilian intelligence analyst in the US Department of the Navy from 1942–43, he then served in the army and in 1949 he joined the US Department of State as an intelligence officer. He was posted to Paris in 1954, and four years later was posted to Ankara, Turkey, where he was executive assistant to the Secretary General of the Baghdad Pact. He was then posted to London, and in October 1961 was sent to Saigon as chargé d’affaires and deputy chief of mission. As the Buddhist Crisis started in the spring of 1963, Trueheart disagreed with his ambassador, Frederick Nolting, who was a supporter of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. When the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death in central Saigon on 11 June 1963, Trueheart was acting ambassador and was critical of the previous actions of the Diem government, urging them to recognise the emerging political crisis. Nolting returned from vacation, but was soon recalled to the United States to be replaced by Henry Cabot Lodge. William Trueheart was director of Southeast Asian Affairs at the State Department from 1964 until 1966 and deputy director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from 1967 until 1969, becoming US ambassador to

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Nigeria in 1969–71. He died on 24 December 1992 in Washington DC from cancer, survived by his wife and two sons. References: Anne Blair, Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; ‘W. C. Trueheart, 74, Ex-Diplomat in Saigon’, The New York Times (28 December 1992).

TRUONG DINH DZU [TrŲţng Ðình Dzī] (1917–1980s). A Saigon lawyer and candidate in the 1967 presidential elections, he was born on 10 November 1917 in Binh Dinh Province, in the central part of what became South Vietnam. Educated in Hanoi, he gained a law degree and then moved to the city of Can Tho in 1944, but in the following year, he moved his law practise to Saigon. During the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, Truong Dinh Dzu had a successful law company, with his firm employing Tran Van Khiem, the younger brother of Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu. This helped him with his advocacy as well as getting some advantageous settlements for his clients. He went to the United States, joining the Rotary Club and becoming its director for Southeast Asia. In 1961 he planned to stand in the presidential elections, but received threats of having engaged in illegal money transfers out of the country, and decided to return to law. However, in 1967, Truong Dinh Dzu did decide to stand. He did not reveal this until his candidacy had been approved. Dzu used the dove as his symbol, and his campaign platform was offering to negotiate with the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL). He felt it was possible to coexist with the communists. Nguyen Huu Tho, the leader of the NFL, had been a former partner in Dzu’s law firm and people obviously felt that he might be able to end the war by negotiation. Two weeks before the election, a US Embassy study suggested that he might get 4 per cent of the vote, but in the elections he garnered 17 per cent, coming second. He won five provinces which were under the control of the NFL and it was suggested that the communists there voted for him. After the election, Truong Dinh Dzu denounced the results as fraudulent and filed formal complaints. He later took on the title of leader of the opposition. Dzu was arrested and charged with illegally opening and running a bank account in San Francisco, USA. Jailed for five years, he was released after five months. Sent to a re-education camp by the communists after they came to power in April 1975, he died in the mid-1980s. Reference: James McAllister, ‘A Fiasco of Noble Proportions: The Johnson Administration and the South Vietnamese Elections of 1967’, Pacific Historical Review, vol. 73, no. 4 (November 2004): pp. 619–51; Ngo Ngoc Trung, ‘Truong Dinh Dzu’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, pp. 1146–47; ‘South Viet Nam: a vote for the future’, Time (15 September 1967): pp. 22–26.

TRUONG TAN SANG [TrŲţng Tୗn Sang] (1949– ). The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 25 July 2011, he was born on 21 January 1949 in My Hanh village, Long An province, near Saigon. Joining the

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Communist Party on 20 December 1969, he was studying law, and gained a law degree. Arrested by the South Vietnamese in 1971, he was held in the prison on Phu Quoc Island. Released in 1973 following the Paris Peace Treaty, he returned to work for the Communist Party. In 1983 Truong Tan Sang was appointed to head the forestry department of the municipality of Ho Chi Minh City and also the New Economic Zone Development Department. After three years he was promoted to the Standing Board of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s committee for Ho Chi Minh City, becoming party chairman in 1992. Joining the politburo in 1996, he was the party secretary for Ho Chi Minh City and rose in the ranks of the politburo, although he was reprimanded in 2003 for not cracking down harshly enough in the wake of the Nam Cam corruption scandal. In April 2006, he was promoted to fifth place in the politburo, and in October 2009, he moved to second place. He then managed to outmanoeuvre his main rival, Nguyen Tan Dung, and was elected president by the National Assembly on 25 July 2011 with 97.4 per cent of the vote. He stated that he hoped to solve the Spratly Island dispute peacefully and wanted Vietnam to further industrialize. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 396–97; Michael Michalak, ‘US embassy cables: Vietnam picks its new leaders’, The Guardian (12 January 2011).

TRUONG VINH KY. See Ky, Pétrus. TRUONG VINH KY MAUSOLEUM [LÅng m஋ c஗ Petrus TrŲţng Vënh Ký]. This mausoleum was built in 1928 after a subscription was raised by the Mutual Teaching Company of Cochinchina (Société d’Enseignement Mutuel de Cochinchine) around the original tomb of Pétrus (Truong Vinh) Ky. References: Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 174–75; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 397.

U UNITED STATES EMBASSY. The US Embassy in Saigon was one of the best-known buildings in the city during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first embassy in the city had been established in May 1950 and was located at 39 Ham Nghi Boulevard. It became an important nerve-centre in the city and as a result, on 30 March 1965 the Viet Cong attacked it with a car-bomb which exploded outside the building, killing twenty-two: a female embassy employee; another American; nineteen Vietnamese and one Filipino. Some 183 other people were injured. The vulnerability of this Embassy saw the US government decide to move to a larger and more secure location. They chose a 3.18-acre site at 4 Thong

The United States Embassy in the 1960s. Photograph: US Department of Defense. 312

United States Embassy

The United States Embassy Annex on Boulevard Ham Nghi. Photograph: US Department of Defense.

The site of the US Embassy in 2000. Author’s photograph.

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Nhut Boulevard (now Le Duan), at the corner of that street and Mac Dinh Chi Street. This was close to the Presidential Palace (now the Reunification Palace), next to the French Embassy, and opposite the British Embassy. There was a consular section, and then the Chancery Building. The latter had six storeys and a concrete lattice façade, which not only cooled the building but was also able to deflect rockets. The tallest building in Saigon when it was opened in September 1967, it cost US$2.6 million. There was a small helipad on the roof, and a large tamarind tree in the grounds. The old embassy building was retained and used as an embassy annexe. In the early hours of the morning of 31 January 1968, during the Tet Offensive, 19 Viet Cong sappers attacked the embassy. Their leaders were killed in the initial attack but the sappers managed to fight their way in, taking up positions in the chancery. It has been surmised that had Bay Tuyen and Ut Nho, their commanders, survived, the Viet Cong might have used their explosives to blast their way into the Chancery Building itself. War correspondents rushed to the embassy and some television crews filmed the US counter-attack, interviewing a few of the US soldiers. One marine and four military police were killed in the fighting. This attack also features in Anthony Grey’s novel Saigon (1982). On 18 February 1971 there was a fire-bomb attack on the embassy. In late April 1975, with the impending fall of Saigon, many would-be evacuees sought help from the US Embassy in the evacuation as a part of Operation Frequent Wind. As the communists came closer and closer to Saigon, with the bombing of Tan Son Nhut Airport on 28 April, a helicopter evacuation started from the embassy and other locations. This was largely successful, although it was cut short at the end, with quite a number of Vietnamese left behind. With the fall of Saigon, communist intelligence officers went to the embassy and discovered many classified documents. Some of these had been shredded but, with patience, were able to be put together again. These provided much information on the Vietnamese who worked for the Americans, including many who were involved with the US Central Intelligence Agency. During the 1980s, PetroVietnam used the embassy as their offices. In 1995, with the resumption of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States, the US Embassy and the land on which it was located were returned to the US government. However, given the connotations attached to the building, from May until July 1998 it was demolished and a new consulate general was built in the former consular compound. The ladder leading to the helipad on the roof of the embassy was saved and given to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where it is on display. Some of the large concrete planters at the front of the Chancery Building, which were used by the Viet Cong in the Tet Offensive, remain, as do some of the outside concrete walls. The plaque commemorating the five killed defending the embassy in the Tet Offensive was displayed at the War Remnant Museum but it is not known

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where it is currently located. The result of this was a dedication ceremony being held for a new plaque on 14 November 2002. Tourists who approach the site are often waylaid by vendors offering for sale pictures of the old embassy building. References: Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 79; Bob Drury, ‘An Alamo Stand in Saigon’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 24, no. 2 (August 2011): pp. 42ff.; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 54; Don Hirst, ‘Capturing the Embassy Sapper’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 24, no. 5 (February 2012): pp. 32–35; Norman Kempster, ‘Albright Opens Consulate Near Infamous Saigon Spot’, Los Angeles Times (8 September 1999); Kiem Thai Van, ‘Les premières relations entre le Viêtnam et les États Unis d’Amérique’, Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises, vol. 37 (1962): pp. 286–310; Don North, ‘VC Assault on the US Embassy’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 12, no. 5 (February 2000): pp. 38–47, 72; Vietnam Magazine, vol. 20, no. 5 (February 2008): pp. 34ff.; Don North, ‘The “Suicide” Mission That Wasn’t’, Vietnam Magazine, vol. 23, no. 5 (February 2011): pp. 32ff.; Jane Perlez, ‘A U.S. Office Opens, Stirring Saigon Memories’, The New York Times (8 September 1999).

UNIVERSITIES. The French colonial administration was slow to establish tertiary education facilities in Indochina and in 1954 the University of Hanoi was only real tertiary institution in Indochina – prior to this, good students had attended universities in France. The government of Ngo Dinh Diem set about establishing three new universities; the University of Saigon, the University of Dalat, and the University of Hue. Together they managed to have 12,000 students attending courses at the three places by 1960, with the University of Saigon taking over from the Université Indochinoise, which had its origins in various colleges established in 1917, being renamed in 1955. In 1962 there were 280 teachers and lecturers, with 6,712 students. This increased to 372 teachers and 19,071 students by 1966, with seven faculties: Law, Medicine, Science, Education, Letters, Pharmacy, and Dental Surgery, and also a School of Architecture. Many other students studied abroad – either fee-paying, or on scholarships offered by the governments of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and other places. In 1975, with the communist victory, the government in Hanoi tried to bring the University of Saigon into line with its counterparts in the north. Many of the professors were sacked, and a number fled overseas. Others had to take low salaries with no hope of any promotion. By 1993, the higher education system was in a mess and it was decided to reorganise it. The universities in Ho Chi Minh City include the Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City [Ði hc Ngân hàng Thành ph H Chí Minh] (founded 2004); Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City (previously the Music Division of the Gia Dinh Art College; raised to university status on 2 February 1980); Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts University [Ði hc M thut Thành ph H Chí Minh] (founded as the École des Dessin in 1913; raised to university status in 1981); Ho Chi Minh City International University [Ði hc Qu c t Thành ph H Chí Minh] (founded 5 December 2003); Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University [Ði hc Y Dưc Thành ph H Chí Minh] (founded

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in 1947 as faculties of the University of Saigon; raised to university status in 1976); Ho Chi Minh City Open University [Ði hc M Thành ph H Chí Minh] (founded 1990; adopted present name on 26 June 2006); and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture. On 27 January 1995, nine universities: the University of Ho Chi Minh City, the Thu Duc Technology Training University, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Silviculture, the University of Economics, the University of Accounting and Finance, the Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University; the Ho Chi Minh City Architecture University; and the local branch of the Law University of Hanoi; were all merged to form the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 404–6; Tran Hoa Phuong, Vietnamese Higher Education at the Intersection of French and Soviet Influences, PhD thesis, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1999.

UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY. This university was founded in 1977 and achieved university status in about 1990. In 1995 it was one of the nine universities merged to form the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City. References: The World of Learning, 2003, London: Europa Publications, 2003, p. 2152.

V VAN TIEN DUNG [VÅn Tiୱn Dīng] (1917– 2002). The chief of staff of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), he planned the campaign which led to the capture of Saigon by the communists on 30 April 1975. Born on 2 May 1917 at Hanoi, into a peasant family, he joined the Communist Party in 1937 and fought against the French. Jailed in 1943, he was released and was arrested and jailed again in 1946. Returning to join the Viet Minh, Van Tien Dung fought in the Red River Delta, including at Hoa Binh, and worked with Vo Nguyen Giap at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. After the Geneva Peace Agreement, he worked in North Vietnam in the PAVN planning campaigns with Giap. Following the Paris Peace Agreement in 1973, Van Tien Dung started planning for the campaign which began at the start of 1975. He expected to be able to take the Republic of Vietnam in two years, but when the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) collapsed quickly, Dung realised that it might be possible to advance on Saigon and capture the city before the start of the rainy season in May. However, rather than attacking Saigon straight away, Dung recognised the strategic importance of the town of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. Then he threw all his forces at Xuan Loc where, after twelve days of bitter fighting, Dung’s forces overcame the ARVN and were able to advance on Saigon, capturing it on 30 April. When he took Saigon, General Dung apparently marvelled at the resources of the Republic of Vietnam, including the computers in their headquarters. However, he said, ‘American computers had not won this war… The will of the nation had won completely.’ A supporter of the hardline communist Le Duan, Dung succeeded Giap as minister of defence in 1980, but was removed seven years later when he opposed the moves towards a free market economy. In 1986 he was removed from the politburo. He was able to comment on military matters, including expressing his view that the United States was bound to lose in Afghanistan as the Soviet Union had done before them. He died on 17 March 2002 in Hanoi. 317

318 Varenne, Alexandre (1870–1947) References, ‘Hardliner knew only resistance’, The Australian (27 March 2002): p. 14; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 407; Michael Maclear, Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1981; ‘Van Tien Dung, 84, of Vietnam; led the final assault on Saigon’, The New York Times (21 March 2002).

VARENNE, ALEXANDRE (1870–1947). The governor general of French Indochina from 18 November 1925 until January 1928, he was born on 3 October 1870 in Clemont-Ferrand, France, his family being merchants. The young Alexandre Varenne went to the Lycée Blaise-Pascal and then trained as a solicitor. After his military service, he gained a law degree and became a lawyer in the Court of Appeal in Paris, also working as a journalist for the newspapers Le Petit Clermontois and Stéphanois. Alexandre Varenne was one of the early organisers of the Socialist Party and in 1902 he unsuccessfully contested the French National Assembly seat of Riom. From 1906 until 1910 he was a deputy for Puy-de-Dome and was then a member of the National Assembly from 1914 until 1936, variously as a socialist and an independent. In 1924 he was elected vice chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, and there were plans for him to become ambassador to the Soviet Union. He also founded the newspaper La Montagne. After his appointment to Indochina, he tried to introduce some of the liberal plans he had formulated. Certainly, between November 1925 and October 1926 there were many changes. He initiated legislation to help with labour relations in the rubber plantations. Although he had little knowledge of affairs of Indochina, he did manage to get the budget under control, a task which had tested his predecessor, Martial-Henri Merlin. He also extended health care, with widespread vaccinations and prophylactic treatment centres being opened. However, his major change was reorganising the consultative assemblies in Annam, Tonkin and Cambodia, renaming them the Chambers of People’s Representatives. From late 1927, Varenne changed his reforms and sought to improve education in French Indochina, with the aim of getting the support of the Indochinese elite. In 1928, he presided over the ceremony for the coronation of King Sisowath Monivong. Popular with many Cambodians and Vietnamese, he returned to France and was mayor of Saint-Éloy-les-Mines. He died on 15 February 1947 in Paris. References: Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1221; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 408; Margaret Slocomb, Colons and Coolies: The Development of Cambodia’s Rubber Plantations, Bangkok: White Lotus, 2007, pp. 25–28, 65–66; Martin Thomas, The French Empire Between

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the Wars: Imperialism, Politics and Society, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005, pp. 65–66; John Tully, France on the Mekong: A History of the Protectorate in Cambodia 1863–1953, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002, p. 199.

VEBER, RENÉ (1888–1972). The French governor of Martinique in 1934, the governor of French Guyana from 1936 until 1938, he was the French governor of Cochinchina from 1939 until 1940. He was replaced by André Georges Rivoal, and later supported the Vichy government. In February 1947 he visited New York. References: Fitzroy André Baptiste, War, Cooperation and Conflict: The European Possessions in the Caribbean 1939–1945, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988, p. 196; Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State, Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009, p. 448.

VIAL, PAULIN FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE (1831–1907). The first director of the interior in Cochinchina, holding that position from 1864 until 1875, he was a naval captain, who was born on 16 April 1831 in Voiron, Isère in the Rhône-Alpes, France. Posted to Saigon, he accompanied Paul Bert to Tonkin in 1886 and then went to Cambodia, becoming a friend of Sisowath, later King of Cambodia. In 1872 Vial wrote a two-volume history of the first years of French rule in Cochinchina. Paul Bert nominated him as his successor and he was acting resident from 12 November 1886 until 28 January 1887. Returning to France, he died on 3 June 1907 in Grenoble. References: Antoine Brébion, Livre d’Or du Cambodge, de la Cochinchine et de l’Annam 1625–1910, Saigon: Imp. F. H. Schneider, 1910, pp. 39–40; Patrick J. N. Tuck, French Catholic Missionaries and the Politics of Imperialism in Vietnam, 1857–1914: A Documentary Survey, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1987, p. 350; Paulin Vial, Les Premierès années de la Cochinchine, Paris: Challamel aîné, 1872.

VIET CONG [Vi୹t c஋ng]. This was the pejorative name applied to the armed wing of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. It was formally established in December 1960, although the name was used in newspapers in Saigon as early as 1956 to refer to communists – it was a contraction of the term ‘Vietnamese Communist’ [Vi୹t Nam C஋ng-s୕n]. The National Front was proclaimed in December 1960 in the village of Tan Lap, in the province of Tay Ninh, to the west of Saigon. It was to bring together groups who were opposed to the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Although initially not officially communist, and including a few non-communists, it was always dominated by communists, and Diem and the US government claimed that it was being run from Hanoi. Launching guerrilla attacks against the forces of Diem, it had a fair degree of success, especially when bolstered by North Vietnamese regular troops. The was to lead to the US Air Force being used to bomb North Vietnam in retaliation,

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and then US ground forces being deployed to protect the airbases. For the first part of the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong were successful in villages, but never managed to pose much of a threat to Saigon. There were certainly fewer high profile attacks in the city than had happened during the last years of French colonial rule, although the bombing of the Brinks Hotel on 24 December 1964 was an exception. However, after General William Westmoreland famously stated in November 1967 that a South Vietnamese/US victory was probable when ‘the end begins to come into view’, the Viet Cong launched their Tet Offensive in February 1968, which was a military disaster. Many of their soldiers were killed or captured – attacks such as that on the US Embassy and the Radio Station proved futile and costly. The communists had anticipated that the Tet Offensive would lead to a general uprising, and this certainly did not take place. However, in political terms, the attacks in Saigon had a devastating effect on US public opinion and morale. Many people in the United States had heard of fighting in the countryside, but with US targets in Saigon under attack, they began to feel that the war was being lost. This was reflected in an increasingly polarised political situation in the United States during the 1968 US presidential elections. The failure of the Tet Offensive to inspire a general uprising, and the resulting sweeps by Republic of Vietnam and US soldiers, saw the destruction of much of the Viet Cong network in Saigon. However, it was slowly rebuilt and when the communists launched their attacks in early 1975, the communist tanks that spearheaded the taking of Saigon on 30 April 1975 were all flying Viet Cong flags. References: Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam’s Armed Forces, New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1992; Douglas Pike, Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1966.

VIETNAM WAR. This conflict officially started in December 1960 with the formation of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, and ended with the fall of Saigon to the communists on 30 April 1975. During this time, Saigon was the focus of the campaign by the communists, who launched numerous attacks on the government of the Republic of Vietnam, based in Saigon. For most of the war, the government and their US allies sought to downplay the war and ensure that Saigon and the other main population centres were safe. Initially, most of the military problems facing the capital were caused by the instability in the government itself, with large demonstrations from mid-1963 – including the self-immolation of some Buddhist monks – leading to the coup d’état which overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem in November, and many subsequent coups and coup attempts over the next two years. The communists also sought to prove that the city was not safe, and they were behind a number

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of brazen attacks, including the bombing of the Caravelle Hotel on 25 August 1964, and the more dramatic bombing of the Brinks Hotel on 24 December of that year. This early part of the Vietnam War had a dramatic effect on Saigon in many ways. It saw a very large US contingent of military advisers, civilian advisers, journalists and tourists in the city and a large service sector appeared, with many Vietnamese managing to take advantage of it. This continued in March 1965 with the deployment of US marines in Vietnam, with – at the height – some 500,000 US soldiers based in the country. Many of them spent at least some of their time in Saigon, with the population of the city swelling. On 31 January 1968, the communists launched a large series of coordinated attacks on the South Vietnamese, including many in Saigon, which became known as the Tet Offensive. It was hoped that these attacks would lead to a general uprising, but this did not happen. The most famous of these attacks was an assault on the US Embassy. Although it was unsuccessful and the attackers were killed, and elsewhere in the city the communists were driven out, suffering many casualties, the fighting on the streets of Saigon convinced many Americans and others that the war was being lost. It led to disenchantment at the start of the 1968 US presidential election, and this in turn led to Richard Nixon’s plan for Vietnamization and ‘Peace with Honour’. Saigon managed to rebuild its municipal structure after the Tet Offensive of 1968. There was some construction work, with the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda being completed. Elections were held, and the Paris Agreement saw a lull in the war from January 1973. However, some people in Saigon were beginning to realise that the communists were gradually strengthening their hand, and when they attacked in 1975, there was a rapid loss of morale in Saigon, with many of the Saigon elite fleeing the city for overseas. In the Battle of Xuan Loc, from 9 until 21 April 1975, the South Vietnamese government fought with all their reserves. Their defeat signalled it was only a matter of time before the communists would capture Saigon, which they did nine days later, with the US military coordinating Operation Frequent Wind, in which they evacuated their citizens, most foreigners from allied countries, and many South Vietnamese officials. References: David L. Anderson, The Vietnam War, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, New York: Penguin Books, 1997; Fredrik Logevall, The Origins of the Vietnam War, New York: Longman, 2001; Marilyn B. Young, The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990, New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

VINCENT, FRANK, Jr (1848–1916). Briefly hailed as the ‘second Marco Polo’, Frank Vincent was born on 2 April 1848 in Brooklyn, New York, into a wealthy family. He was educated at Yale University and spent eleven years of his life travelling around the world. He went to Southeast Asia, and visited Rangoon, Burma, before heading to Mandalay, where he had an audience with the king. Vincent then went through the Shan states and Laos, into northern

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Siam and then to Bangkok. From there he went to Malacca and Singapore, before he went to Saigon and became the first American known to have visited Cambodia in the late 1860s, fascinated by the accounts of Henri Mouhot. Vincent’s account appears in his book, The Land of the White Elephant, published in 1873. There are striking similarities between his book and that of the Scottish traveller John Thomson. Original copies of the first British edition, with a brown cover, of the book are now rare and sell for US$1500. The first US edition, with the blue cover, is worth about half of that, and a later edition, with a white elephant on the cover, is about half of the first US edition. The book was republished in facsimile in 1988. Vincent also collected some Cambodian antiquities, art and industrial objects, which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1884. References: Kenton J. Clymer, Troubled Relations: The United States and Cambodia since 1870, DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007, pp. 5–6; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 65–67; Frank Vincent Jr, The Land of the White Elephant: Sights and Scenes in South-Eastern Asia – A Personal Narrative of Travel and Adventure in Farther India Embracing the Countries of Burma, Cambodia, and Cochin-China (1871–2), London: Sampson Low, Marston Low and Searle, 1873; F. Vincent, ‘The Wonderful Ruins of Cambodia’, Journal of American Geographic Society of New York, no. 10 (1878).

VINH NGHIEM PAGODA [Chùa Vënh Nghiêm;∌ಈᇎ]. This pagoda, its name meaning ‘Ever Solemn’, is in the north of the old part of Saigon, located on Nguyen Van Trai (formerly Avenue Charles de Gaulle), and on the Thi Nghe Channel. The Rough Guide called it ‘missable’, noting that the pagoda has a ‘decidedly well-to-do air’. Work started on building it in 1964 – very soon after the overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The idea for the pagoda came from two monks called Thich Tam Giac [Thích Tâm Giác] and Thich Thanh Kiem [Thích Thanh Kim], who were inspired by the original Vinh Nghiem temple in Duc La Village in Bac Giang province to the east of Hanoi. That temple dated from the eleventh century and the village became a centre of the Truc Lam sect of Vietnamese Buddhism. Nguyen Ba Lang designed the Vinh Nghiem temple in Saigon, with the help of Le Tan Chuyen and Co Van Hau, and Bui Van To was involved in building it. The temple was completed in 1971 and it was the first made in a traditional Vietnamese style but constructed with from concrete. Guarding the entrance to the temple are two large statues of warriors, and in the main part of the temple there is a Japanese-style Buddha in a meditation pose, flanked by two goddesses. On the walls are paintings of jataka tales. At the centre of the temple is a 40-metre-high tower which has seven storeys providing good views of the area. In the memorial room of the temple there are funerary tablets which contain the name and date of death of a former worshipper, along with a photograph and a small offering of rice and tea. The pagoda is now the place for the Basic School of Buddhist Studies in Ho Chi Minh City. Across the road from the pagoda, there is a war memorial.

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References: Chua Vinh Nghiem, www.vinhnghiemvn.com; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 287; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 84–85; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 56; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 224–25; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, pp. 258–60.

VO VAN KIET [Võ VÅn Ki୹t] (1922–2008). The prime minister of Vietnam in 1988 and again from 1991–97, Vo Van Kiet was born on 23 November 1922 as Phan Van Hoa, into a peasant family living in a village in the Mekong Delta at Trung Hiep. When he was eighteen, he joined the Viet Minh and adopted the nom de guerre Sau Dan. He then fought in the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam. In 1976 Vo Van Kiet was appointed the Communist Party secretary for Saigon, and had the task of integrating Saigon into the communist Vietnamese economy. This involved the arrest and continued internment of people who had supported the Republic of Vietnam, and the persecution of many of them after their release. Gradually, Vo Van Kiet was seen as being more reform-minded and he resisted the efforts of party hardliners to totally end any form of free enterprise. He was promoted to the politburo in 1982 and then became the vice chairman of the Council of Ministers, moving to Hanoi to take up that position. However, three months later, he was ousted and replaced by Do Muoi, who was more hardline. The moves introduced around this time wrecked the economy and pushed inflation up to 600 per cent. Vo Van Kiet was briefly chairman of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) of Vietnam from 10 March until 22 June 1988. Do Muoi took control for the next three years and then Vo Van Kiet returned to the chairmanship on 8 August, the office being officially named that of prime minister on 24 September 1992. He remained in that office until his retirement on 25 September 1997. The period when Vo Van Kiet was in office helped transform Vietnam. In 1994, the United States lifted its trade embargo, and in the following year restored diplomatic relations. Also in 1995, Vietnam became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Tourists were welcomed back into the country, and the economy of Ho Chi Minh City was changed dramatically. Foreign investment was encouraged, and the economy started to boom, with a growth of hotels, restaurants and other facilities catering to the tourists who flocked to Ho Chi Minh City in large numbers. A keen tennis player, and a follower of soccer, Vo Van Kiet lost his first wife and their two children during US bombing raids. He later remarried, and

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after his retirement from politics, he lived in Ho Chi Minh City, although he remained passionately interested in preserving the old quarter of Hanoi. He died on 11 June 2008 at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. His state funeral was held at the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City. References: Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, p. 138; Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 422; Murray Hiebert, ‘Reform and succession’, Far Eastern Economic Review (31 March 1988); ‘Viet Cong guerrilla became reformist prime minister’, The Age (13 June 2008): p. 16; ‘Vo Van Kiet’, The Daily Telegraph (12 June 2008).

van VOLLENHOVEN, JOOST (1877– 1918). He was the acting governor general of French Indochina from January 1914 until March 1915. Born on 21 July 1877 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from a Dutch family, his family moved to Algeria and van Vollenhoven studied law, and then went to the École Coloniale, initially as a student, but remained there as a teacher. In 1903 he was appointed secretary general at the Ministry of the Colonies, and then the director of finance, he was secretary general to the governor of French Equatorial Africa. After serving as acting governor of Senegal and Guinea, he took over as acting governor general to French Indochina after his predecessor Albert Sarraut became ill and was forced to return to France. The press savaged van Vollenhoven, who was appointed as governor of French West Africa. He was criticised for his decisions made in Indochina and for his seeming lack of patriotism – he had taken out French citizenship in 1899. He managed to transform French West Africa to help the war effort and then, to prove his loyalty to France, he felt that he had to return to France and enlist in the army. He was killed on 20 July 1918 at during the Second Battle of the Marne. A street in Phnom Penh was named after him, and he was commemorated on two postage stamps issued in French Indochina on 10 October 1944. References: Une âme de chef. Le Gouverneur général J. van Vollenhoven, Paris: H. Diéval, 1920; Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled: Vietnam at War, New York: Praeger, 1967, p. 1219; Pol Mangeot, La vie ardente de van Vollenhoven, gouverneur général de l’AOF. Un grand colonial et un grand Français, Paris: Fernand Sorlot, 1943; Albert Prévaudeau, Joost van Vollenhoven, 1877–1918, Paris: Larose, 1953; Silvia Wilhelmina, De Groot Joost van Vollenhoven 1877–1918: Portret van een Frans koloniaal ambtenaar, De Groot, Université d’Amsterdam, 1991.

VU VAN MAU [Vī VÅn Mଢ଼u] (1914–1998). The prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam for three days, Vu Van Mau was born on 25 July 1914 in Hanoi, and was educated at the university there, then going to the University of Paris, from which he graduated with a doctorate in 1948. In 1949 he returned

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to Vietnam and practised as a lawyer in Hanoi, becoming a lecturer at the University of Hanoi. In 1954, he was promoted and appointed the dean of the law faculty in Hanoi, but had to leave the city when the communists were given control of it later that year. In 1951, and again in 1953, Vu Van Mau was the Vietnamese delegate to the UNESCO general assembly. He was very successful and this encouraged Bao Dai to appoint him as the State of Vietnam’s secretary of state for foreign affairs. He retained this position and helped argue the case of the new Republic of Vietnam with the Americans. He held the position of foreign minister until 1963, working under Ngo Dinh Diem. When Diem launched a crackdown on the Buddhist protestors in August 1963, Vu Van Mau was shocked. He shaved his head and became a Buddhist monk for a short period. A prominent Buddhist scholar, he had written on non-violence, law and Vietnamese culture. In 1964 he was appointed the South Vietnamese ambassador to the Court of St James (United Kingdom), Belgium and the Netherlands. However, he resigned from that position in protest to the actions of Nguyen Cao Ky. Under the presidency of Nguyen Van Thieu, Vu Van Mau was the leader of the pacificist forces for the National Reconciliation Party, and was a member of the South Vietnamese Senate from 1970. His ‘Lotus Flower’ list topped the poll, with Vu Van Mau campaigning for negotiations with the communists. He proclaimed himself to be ‘anti-war, anti-corruption, anti-ignorance and anti-poverty’. As the Vietnamese communists closed in on Saigon, Nguyen Van Thieu left, and prime minister Nguyen Ba Can also fled. This led to Vu Van Mau being the last prime minister of South Vietnam, from 28 April 1975 until 30 April 1975. Remaining in Vietnam until 1988, he moved to France and died on 20 August 1998. His name is used by a character in the stories by Garret Godwin, published in Chasing Quetzacoatl to the American Dream. References: Asia Who’s Who 1957, Hong Kong: Pan-Asia Newspaper Alliance, 1957, p. 549; Garret Godwin, Chasing Quetzacoatl to the American Dream, Baltimore: PublishAmerica, 2006, pp. 60–61; Nguyen Phu Duc, The Viet Nam Peace Negotiations: Saigon’s Side of the Story, Christiansburg, Virginia: Dalley Book Service, 2005; Eric Pace, ‘Vu Van Mau, Last Premier of South Vietnam, dies at 84’, The New York Times (14 September 1998); Who’s Who in Vietnam 1974, pp. 509–11.

VU HONG KHANH [Vī Hஅng Khanh; ℺匏॓] (1898–1993). The leader of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang: VNQDD), he was born in Tho Tang village, in Vinh Yen Province in Tonkin as Vi Van Giang. He studied at the School of Pedagogy in Hanoi and taught in Kien An province, joining the VNQDD and taking part in the attacks on the French in 1930. He then fled to China, where he had the support of Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government. Returning to Hanoi in 1945, he served with the Viet Minh, but as the communists came to take over the movement, he rallied to

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Bao Dai’s State of Vietnam and was appointed as minister of youth under Nguyen Van Tam. After the partition of Vietnam, he moved to Saigon and remained the leader of the VNQDD. In 1967 he contested the elections for the president of the Republic of Vietnam, coming seventh with 149,276 votes (3.2 per cent). He remained in Saigon after the communists took the city and was sent to prison. Released in 1979, he was taken back to Tho Tang and held under house arrest until his death on 14 November 1993. References: David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Nguyen Cong Luan, ‘Vu Hong Khanh’, in Spencer C. Tucker (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, New York: ABC-Clio, 2011, p. 1306; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

W WALSH, HENRY FRANCIS CHESTER (1891–1977). The British consul general in Saigon from 26 September 1938 until 10 December 1939, he was born on 10 May 1891, the son of Richard Walter Walsh and Ismay (née Chester) of Williamstown House, Castlebellingham, County Louth, Ireland. He was educated at Stonyhurst and Exeter College, Oxford, becoming a student interpreter in Siam (Thailand) in 1915. On 30 April 1923 he was appointed as local vice consul in Saigon, but five months later was transferred to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). He then held a range of positions in the Netherlands East Indies and Siam, and returned to Saigon as consul general in 1938, holding that position until almost the end of the following year, when he was transferred to Batavia, and then to Houston, Texas. The political adviser to the commander-in-chief of Allied Forces in the Netherlands East Indies in 1945–46, he retired and died on 16 September 1977. References: The Foreign Office List and Diplomatic and Consular Year Book for 1944, pp. 327–28; Thomas A. Hill-Aiello, Dallas: Cotton and the Transatlantic Economy 1885–1956, PhD thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 2006, p. 167; Who’s Who; Who’s Who, What’s What and Where in Ireland, 1973.

WAR CORRESPONDENTS. During the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War there were many war correspondents in Vietnam. During the First Indochina War there were a number who were already famous in their own right. These included Graham Greene, whose novel The Quiet American (1955) painted an interesting portrait of the country as the United States involvement was starting. Others, such as Lucien Bodard, went on to write major histories of the fighting. During the Vietnam War, many of the correspondents stayed at the Caravelle Hotel – as did Graham Greene, who set some of The Quiet American in the hotel. Others stayed at the Hôtel Continental, which became known as ‘Radio Catinat’ on account of the news which was exchanged there. The Givral Coffee Shop also became famous during this time as a place for journalists to meet. There were others who used the Binh Soup Shop, which was actually a communist coordination headquarters for their activities in Saigon. Most of the war correspondents used Saigon as their base and then went out to assignments in the countryside, where they met, filmed and/or photographed soldiers on patrol, or in action. An exception was during the Tet Offensive, when there was extensive fighting in Saigon itself, with action at 327

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the United States Embassy and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting dead a captured communist prisoner, an incident caught in a famous photograph by Eddie Adams. Other important war correspondents included Malcolm Browne, David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan. During and after the war, many war correspondents wrote their accounts of Vietnam, including descriptions of Saigon in a myriad of books to be published. A significant number of correspondents returned after the war and reflected on their previous experiences. There were also a number of Vietnamese communist reporters, the most famous being Bui Tin. He was the one who famously ‘took’ the surrender of President Duong Van Minh on 30 April 1975 at the Presidential Palace in Saigon. References: Virginia Elwood-Akers, Women War Correspondents in the Vietnam War 1961–1975, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988; Philip Knightley, The First Casualty: From the Crimea to the Falklands – the War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker, London: Pan Books, 1975; Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of War Journalism, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997; Prue Torney-Parlicki, Somewhere in Asia: War, Journalism, and Australia’s Neighbours, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2000; Richard Tregaskis, Vietnam Diary, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM [B୕o tàng ch஛ng tích chiୱn tranh]. This museum in Ho Chi Minh City used to be called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes and remains one of the most popular places visited by tourists to Ho Chi Minh City. Prior to 1975, the building had been used by the United States Information Service. The museum shows the atrocities committed in the Vietnam War, highlighting incidents such as the My Lai Massacre, and also the ‘tiger cages’ used to hold Vietnamese communist prisoners. In addition, there are displays devoted to birth defects caused by the use of Agent Orange and other chemicals, and burns caused by napalm. There are also exhibits at the museum devoted to the anti-war movement in the United States, and there is also a guillotine used in the 1950s for capital punishment. In addition to the main museum, there is also a Requiem Exhibition, which was compiled by the British war photographer Tim Page. This brings together photographs taken of the war and accounts of many of the journalists and photographers who died in the war. The concept comes from his book Requiem, which was published in 1997. References: Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 70–71, 74; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 281; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, p. 82; Horst Faas and Tim Page (eds), Requiem, by the Photographers who died in Vietnam and Indochina, New York: Random House, 1997; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 56; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, pp. 354–55.

WATERMAN, HENRY SAMUEL (1882–1968). The US consul in Saigon from 1929 until 1932, he was born on 20 March 1882 in Port Townsend,

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Washington, USA, the son of Sigmund Waterman and Sara (née Kalisher). After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California in 1902, he also studied at the Michigan College of Mines. Becoming a mining and civil engineer in the state of Washington 1902–9, he was a building contractor in Seattle 1910–14, and then joined the US consular service. His first posting was to Moscow in 1916–17, and he then served in Norway, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Shanghai, China, before spending five years in Cochinchina. While in Saigon, he wrote about Indochina in his article, ‘The Romance of Economics along the Mandarin Road’, which appeared in The Mid-Pacific Magazine in 1933. Privately, he was critical of the tariff policy in French Indochina. However, what was far more important was a report he wrote for the US government in 1930, in which he said that the anti-French attacks in Vietnam were ‘the influence of revolutionary ideas imported from communistic China’. He stated that the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD) was ‘communistic’, taking note of French claims that the uprisings were the work of agitators. Indeed, he felt that the people in Cochinchina were ‘happy to let other people run the affairs of government since they have better living conditions than they ever had before the coming of the French.’ He also felt that some outbreaks of discontent were caused by the corruption of Vietnamese mandarins. The 1930 US Census – which covers foreign embassies – shows him and his wife Elsie H. Waterman, living at the US Consulate with the vice consul Walter F. Dement living the Grand Hotel. After leaving Saigon, he was US consul in the northern English city of Sheffield, and then was posted to Bombay, being in Bordeaux, France, when the Germans invaded France and the French government had to flee to that city. He had taken the opportunity to rent an extra floor in a building near the consulate, expecting that the US Embassy might have to be evacuated there from Paris. His last posting was in Mexico. Returning to the United States, he lived in San Francisco and died on 15 February 1968. References: US Foreign Service Journal 1966, p. 12; Mark Philip Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919–1950, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000, p. 69; Ronald H. Spector, Advice and Support: The Early Years 1941–1960 – The US Army in Vietnam, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1983. His date of death comes from the Social Security Death Index. The California state records note his death on 23 February 1968.

WESTMORELAND, WILLIAM CHILDS (1914–2005). The commander of US military operations in Vietnam from 1964 until 1968, he was born on 26 March 1914 at Saxon, South Carolina, his father James Ripley Westmoreland being a manager of a mill. Educated at The Citadel and the US Military Academy, he served in World War II in Tunisia, Sicily and then in France and Germany. Remaining in the military, in June 1964 he was posted to Vietnam as

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the deputy commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. With the massive increase in US forces, he was initially in command of 16,000 troops, but by the time he left, there were 530,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. On arrival in Saigon, he took over just ahead of the escalation that followed the overthrow and killing of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Essentially Westmoreland’s plan was to wear down the communists in a war of attrition. Under his command, until the Tet Offensive, there were incidents in Saigon, but most of the fighting was well away from the South Vietnamese capital. In November 1967, Westmoreland thought that his strategy was working, stating that in his opinion, the ‘end begins to come into view’. The Tet Offensive, however, changed everything, and although it was a military defeat for the communists, it changed public opinion in the United States. After serving as chief of staff of the US Army from 1968 until 1972, he lost in his bid for the governorship of South Carolina in 1974. In 1982 he was involved in a major legal battle with CBS with Westmoreland settling for an apology whilst the case was being heard. He died on 18 July 2005 at Charleston, South Carolina. References: Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker, Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, p. 424; William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976; Samuel Zaffiri, Westmoreland: A Biography of General William C. Westmoreland, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1994.

WHITE, JOHN. A US sea captain from Salem, Massachusetts, he reached Saigon on 10 October 1819 to try to negotiate the purchase of sugar. During his time in the city, White met with the local governor and ‘found him in a large apartment, which contained a small library, a couch, near this a small raised platform, on which he was seated, and some furniture of Chinese manufacture. He had on his occasion, no retinue but two boys in attendance, one of whom was fanning him. He received us graciously, requesting us to sit down, when we were presented, as usual, with tea, areka, and sweetmeats. After gratifying his curiosity in regard to several questions he asked about Europe, associating America with it, we introduced the subject of sagouètes etc.’ This attempt to establish trade failed, with Emperor Minh Mang offering to purchase firearms, artillery pieces, uniforms and military manuals. Just before White left, he noted ‘our host brought us an empty mustard-bottle with the arms of the King of England upon a label attached to it, and “Best Durham Mustard,” in large letters underneath.’ As well as the bottle, White did manage to get some Vietnamese spears, which are now held by the Peabody Museum in Salem. He also left an important description of the Citadel of Saigon. References: Edward Doyle and Samuel Lipsman, Setting the Stage, Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1981, p. 94; Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 19–23. Books disagree on the year of White’s arrival but his own account notes it is Sunday 10 October – 10 October being a Saturday in 1818 and Tuesday in 1820.

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WHITING, JASPER (1868–1941). A US writer, Jasper Whiting was born on 15 January 1868 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, the son of John S. Whiting, a physician, and his wife Lucy Loring (née Barker). Successful in real estate, he married Marion McBurney Schlesinger, from Germany, and in 1930 he was living in Dublin, New Hampshire. Jasper Whiting left a journal which included an account of his time in Saigon: ‘When the French start to colonize in a country they do not proceed like the English to apply to the development of the new land only such of their home customs as seem suited to the new conditions, but they transplant in toto the ways and means and manners of the Mother Country to the new locality, rip up everything native by the roots, and begin immediately to make a Colonial France, with a capital laid out on the lines of what is in their eyes the only perfect city: Paris. ‘Saigon, the capital of French Indo-China, is no exception to this rule. It is Paris on a small scale. The streets and boulevards are broad and immaculate. The public buildings are handsome, dignified structures, standing well back from the thoroughfare, and surrounded by gardens laid out with great taste. There is a miniature Champ Elysées, a miniature Bois de Boulogne, and a miniature Avenue de l’Opera, and each is adorned with statuary such as only French artists can produce. There is, too, a twin-spired cathedral, the Notre Dame of the city, and a beautiful Opera House, of which every resident is justly proud. As in Paris, this latter building stands at the head of a grand boulevard in the very heart of the city. On the right is the Grand Hotel – less grand, of course, than its namesake, but still, very good – while vis-à-vis are the two most popular cafes of the place – the Café de l’Opera, and the Café de la Musique.’ Jasper Whiting died on 18 August 1941 in Dublin, New Hampshire. His widow died in 1965. References: Anastasia Edwards, Saigon: Mistress of the Mekong, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 90–94; Jasper Whiting, The Journal of Jasper Whiting, Boston: Napoleon Tennyson Hobbs Jr, 1902.

WILKINSON, PETER ALLIX (1914–2000). The British ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, he was born on 15 April 1914 in India, the son of Captain Osborn Cecil Wilkinson, who was killed at Ypres in 1915. Educated at Rugby School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, he joined the War Office and was in Poland when World War II broke out. Escaping from there, and then from France in the following year, he was one of the first officers to join Special Operations Executive. Helping coordinate part of the operation that led to the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, he later operated from Bosnia. After World War II, Peter Wilkinson served in the British Foreign Office at Vienna, Austria; Bonn, West Germany; and was a senior civilian instructor at the Imperial Defence College from 1964–66. He was then posted to Vietnam at a

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time of great instability there. Under-secretary at the Foreign Office, he returned to Vienna as ambassador to Austria in 1970–71. He died on 16 June 2000. References: Dumbrell, John Dumbrell and Sylvia Ellis, ‘British Involvement in Vietnam Peace Initiatives, 1966–1967: Marigolds, Sunflowers, and Kosygin Week’, Diplomatic History, vol. 27, no. 1 (January 2003): pp. 113–49; Callum Macdonald, The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2007, pp. 85, 90; Peter Wilkinson, Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative, London: I.B. Tauris, 2002; ‘Sir Peter Wilkinson’, The Daily Telegraph (28 June 2000); ‘Sir Peter Wilkinson’, The Independent (5 July 2000); Who’s Who.

WORKERS’ PARTY OF VIETNAM. Created in February 1951, this was one of the successor parties of the Communist Party of Indochina. After the Geneva Agreement of 1954, the party was relocated to Hanoi and became the ruling party of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).

Annamese soldiers at Salonica, in World War I. From a contemporary postcard.

WORLD WAR I. With the approach of war in Europe, France started mobilising her forces on 1 August 1914, and these included the French and also the Vietnamese in Indochina. It was not long before a large number of French and Vietnamese soldiers – the latter described in the contemporary literature as Annamese – were serving in France, and in other parts of the French Empire. It has been estimated that altogether some 100,000 Vietnamese went to France, and also the Balkans, to serve as soldiers and labourers during World War I. It is assumed that many of these came from Saigon, or travelled through a Saigon port. There were also a number of Vietnamese from Saigon, such as Ton Duc Thang, who served in the French Navy. After the war, a war

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The War Memorial in Saigon.

memorial was erected in the Mac Dinh Chi Cemetery, but it was destroyed when the cemetery was ‘cleared’ in 1993. References: Kimloan Thi Vu Hill, A Westward Journey and Enlightened Path: Vietnamese Linh Tho, 1915–1930, PhD thesis, University of Oregon, 2001.

WORLD WAR II. With the outbreak of World War II on 3 September 1939, with the French declaration of war on Germany, French Indochina was also involved in the conflict. Some soldiers from Indochina, including many from Saigon (Vietnamese as well as French), were rushed to France to defend the

Annamese soldiers in the French Colonial Forces in 1939.

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‘Mother Country’. However, with the Fall of France in June 1940, the colonial government in Indochina came to support the pro-German Vichy government in France. The Japanese quickly took advantage of the situation and managed to get the local government of Admiral Jean Decoux to allow their armed forces to be based in Indochina, especially in Saigon, where Japanese planes started using the Tan Son Nhut Airport. The plan was for the Japanese to use Indochina as a launching point for an attack on British Malaya. On 15 November 1941, many of the Japanese commanders for the Pacific met in Saigon, and although their meeting was secret, it would have impossible for the French not to have some inkling of what was happening. Indeed, the acting British consul general in Saigon, William Meiklereid, warned the British that the Japanese were using a Saigon printer to produce not only maps of Malaya with place-names in Japanese, but also Japanese-Malay dictionaries. When Japan launched the Pacific War on 7–8 December 1941, planes from Saigon were used in attacking the Allied bases at Kota Bharu and, more importantly, a major bombing raid on Singapore. This latter attack by 17 Japanese naval bombers from Saigon, led to the deaths of 61 people, mainly Chinese, and also 133 being injured. This attack caused major consternation in Singapore, with the British holding back some of their planes to protect the city, which meant that they could not be involved in attacking Japanese troops in the north of Malaya. Two days later, on 10 December, again Japanese planes from Saigon were involved in the successful attacks on the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, sinking both ships and thereby destroying the only British capital ships in the region. Winston Churchill famously wrote after the attack, ‘As I turned over and twisted in bed, the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbour, who were hastening back to California. Over all this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.’ The Japanese continued to use Saigon as a base for their planes throughout the war, and on 5 May 1944 the Allies launched a number of bombing raids on the city. This saw American B-24 bombers attack the Saigon docks. Some 200 Vietnamese civilians were killed and 350 injured. The next raid saw planes from the US Third Fleet bomb Tan Son Nhut Airfield and Bian Hoa Airport, as well as the oil tanks at Nha Be, on the Saigon River. The next raid was on 27 January 1945, with 130 civilians killed and probably the same number wounded. Then there was a raid on 7 February 1945, which destroyed a hospital and some 150 Vietnamese were killed. During these raids, some of the bombs damaged the Opera House (Municipal Theatre) and also Notre Dame Cathedral. Although these bombing raids were not as devastating as raids elsewhere in

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the world during the war, they did affect the French colonial administration, which was seen as increasingly impotent, militarily and politically. With the Liberation of Paris in August 1944, there was a real possibility that the colonial administration, which had supported Vichy France, might move towards supporting the Free French. This was a major worry for the Japanese who, up until then, had been happy that the French colonial administration remained in control, meaning that they did not have to deploy many soldiers in Indochina. As a result of the Japanese being worried about the French, on 9 March 1945 they launched their coup de force, taking power from the French and forcing Emperor Bao Dai to abrogate the 1884 treaty between Vietnam and France, and then issue a formal declaration of independence for Vietnamese. All the French were interned, although some were left at liberty for several weeks. The official Japanese announcement of their coup de force was broadcast on Radio Tokyo on the morning of 10 March. It issued an order for all civil servants, including the French, to continue working as normal. There was some fighting in Hanoi, as some of the French decided to fight their way through to the Chinese border. The Bao Dai government under Prime Minister Tran Trong Kim, which controlled Vietnam from March until August 1945, proved unable to cope with the situation in the country. They not only lacked the administrative skills and experience, but were also undermined by the Japanese, who seized vast amounts of food, leading to extensive starvation throughout Vietnam and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The communists rallied their forces, and when the Japanese emperor read out the surrender of the Japanese on 15 August 1945, the Vietnamese communists seized power in the August Revolution. References: Louis Allen, The End of the War in Asia, London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1976; Justin Corfield, The History of Vietnam, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008; Justin Corfield and Robin Corfield, The Fall of Singapore: 90 Days: November 1941 – February 1942, Singapore: Talisman Books, 2012, pp. 90–92; William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2000, chapters 9–10; Eric T. Jennings, Vichy in the Tropics: Petain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940–1944. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1987; Le Manh Hung, The Impact of World War II on the Economy of Vietnam, 1939–1945, Singapore: Eastern Universities Press / Marshall Cavendish International, 2004; David G. Marr, ‘World War II and the Vietnamese Revolution’, in Alfred W. McCoy (ed.), Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980, pp. 125–58; David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995; Shiraishi Masaya, ‘Vietnam under the Japanese Presence and the August Revolution’, in 1945 in Southeast Asia, London: Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1985; Archimedes L. A. Patti, Why Viet Nam? Prelude to America’s Albatross, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980; Tobias F. Rettig, Contested Loyalties: Vietnamese Soldiers in the Service of France, 1927–1939, PhD thesis, University of London, 2005; Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 111–16.

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Xa Loi Pagoda. Author’s photograph. 336

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XA LOI PAGODA [Chùa Xá Lகi; 㟡߽ᇎ]. This pagoda was built in 1956 and houses a sacred relic of Lord Buddha. Designed by the architects Tran Van Duong and Do Ba Vinh, with engineers Du Ngoc Anh and Ha To Thuan, the building was completed on 5 August 1956 and formally opened on 2–4 May 1958. In the centre of the pagoda is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha, which is 31 metres long and 15 metres wide. Carved from pink stone by students from the School of Fine Arts at Bien Hoa, it was installed in 1958, with scenes around being painted by Nguyen Van Long from 1959 until 1960. The seven-storey tower was completed on 15 December 1960, with a large bell installed there on 17 October 1961, under the supervision of Thich Tinh Khiet. It was formally opened on 23 December 1961. The plan was for the Xa Loi Pogoda to be the official headquarters for the South Vietnam Association of Buddhist Studies, but it soon became controversial because some of the militant Buddhists there decided to use it as a base for planning a protest movement against the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. As a result, on 21 August 1963, Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu sent his special forces to raid the pagoda. This involved much brutality, with the arrest of some 400 monks and nuns including the 80-year-old Buddhist Patriarch, who was also thrown in prison. This raid increased tensions in Saigon, and led to further protests against the Diem government. The raid is described in Morris West’s novel The Ambassador (1965). From 30 December 1963 until 1 January 1964, the Xa Loi Pagoda was the location of the Congress of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. There was a ceremony there on 31 August 1991, during which the first two volumes of the Vietnam Tripitaka were taken there. Because of its involvement in the protests against Ngo Dinh Diem, there were a number of self-immolations of monks near it, and the pagoda is still visited by tourists as well as worshippers. References: John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, pp. 281–82; Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide, London: The Rough Guides, 1996, pp. 82–83; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, pp. 55–56; Le Quang Ninh and Stéphane Dovert, Saigon: Architectures, 1698–1998, Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, 1998, pp. 222–23; Nick Ray, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and Iain Stewart, Vietnam, London: Lonely Planet Publications, 2009, p. 358; Vo Van Tung, Vietnam’s Famous Ancient Pagodas, Hanoi: Khoa hoc xa hoi, 1992, pp. 243–44.

XUAN LOC, BATTLE OF [Trୟn Xuân L஋c]. This was the last major battle of the Vietnam War and was fought from 9–21 April 1975, with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam defending the town of Xuan Loc in Dong Nai province. It was essentially a last-ditch effort by the South Vietnamese military – the 18th Infantry Division, known as the ‘Super Men’ to hold the town at all costs in order to delay the communist advance on Saigon. The hope was that this delay would be long enough for the rainy season to start, and this would slow down any further communist advances for months.

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General Le Minh Dao had 12,000 soldiers to hold Xuan Loc and he relentlessly defended the town for twelve days against an estimated 40,000 communist soldiers under Hoang Cam. The Republic of Vietnam had 2,036 dead and wounded, with 2,731 captured; while the communists had 5,000 dead and wounded (although some books place the number of communists killed and wounded as high as 12,000 and Cao Van Vien cites 50,000 communist casualties). The South Vietnamese soldiers were finally forced to withdraw, leaving no major troop units to protect Saigon. Nguyen Van Thieu then resigned as president, handing power to Tran Van Huong in the hope that there might be some form of political settlement. References: Alan Dawson, 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977; Dinh Van Thien, Battles on the Doorstep of Saigon, Hanoi: People’s Army Publishing House, 2005; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, London: Penguin Books, 1987, pp. 668–69; Merle L. Pribbenow II and George J. Veith, ‘‘Fighting Is an Art’: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam’s Defense of Xuan Loc, 9–21 April 1975’, Journal of Military History, vol. 68, no. 1 (January 2004): pp. 163–213; Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2011, p. 181f.

Y Y BRIDGE. Also known as the Chu Y Bridge, this connects Saigon with Cholon, and it has been an important transit route for several centuries. During the Battle for Saigon in April–May 1955, it was the focus of much fighting, with the Binh Xuyen trying desperately to prevent the Vietnamese National Army under the control of Ngo Dinh Diem from advancing into Cholon to try to take École Petrus Ky, where Bay Vien, the head of the Binh Xuyen, had one of his command bases.

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The Zoological Gardens in about 1926.

ZOO. The French decided to establish a zoo at Saigon soon after they took control of the city, with work starting in 1864. The original plan was to model it on the successful Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and the zoo would be situated within a botanical gardens. Louis Adolphe Germain, a French Army veterinarian who was with the French soldiers in Saigon, was appointed to take control of the zoo, and it gradually started accumulating animals. The Japanese took over the running of the zoo in 1945 and it returned to French hands later in 1945. After independence, the zoo and botanical gardens were reorganised and put under the one body, the Thao Cam Vien Saigon (Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens) – this remains its current name. In 1963 the site was expanded from 30 acres to 83 acres, and there were later plans to move it to the outskirts of the city onto a 750-acre site and it would then become a safari park. Reports of the zoo from 1968 note that the place was very popular with locals, and signs for the animals were in English, French and Vietnamese, as well as having Latin scientific names. The director of the zoo from 1962 until 1972, and again in 340

Zoo

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1974, was Dr Vu Ngoc Tan, who had studied veterinary medicine at Alfort in France during World War II, and then had held a number of senior political positions. The zoo survived the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, and Nguyen Quoc Thang was appointed the director in 1988, and remained in that position into the 2000s. In 1990 there was another plan to move the zoo, and in 1996 a master plan was drawn up with the hope of improving the conservation programme in the zoo. In the following year, the zoo lost some five acres of land with the construction of a new highway crossing the Thi Nghe Canal. This reduced the size of the zoo to 42 acres (17 hectares) by 1999. The current general director is Phan Viet Lam, with Nguyen Ba Dung being chairman of the board. There has always been a wide variety of animals in the zoo. There have long been elephants there and currently there is one elephant bull called Bo, born in 1988; and five elephant cows, Chuong, born in 1959 in Cambodia; Kham and Tom, born in 1987; Chanh, born in 1989; and Ny (age unknown). Elephants from the zoo have also been sent to the Leipzig Zoo, the Prague Zoo, the Rotterdam Zoo, and a few other places. There are also many other animals, including horses, giraffes, bears, tigers, lions, deer and a large range of primates, birds and reptiles. The breeding programme has been successful in regards to the golden-cheeked gibbons, and there have also been major breeding programmes for the Rheinart’s crested Argus pheasant and the Indochinese green peafowl. In 1999, the zoo was the first zoo anywhere in the world to successfully breed the crested Argus pheasant in captivity. One of the guidebooks to the city notes that recently some Vietnamese-speaking model dinosaurs have appeared there. References: Govindsamy Agoramoorthy and Minna J. Hsu, ‘Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens’, in Catherine E. Bell (ed.), Encyclopedia of the World’s Zoos, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001, pp. 1105–6; C. B. Banks, ‘Hanoi and Saigon Zoos, Vietnam’, International Zoo News, no. 41 (1994): p. 51; Klaus H. Carl, Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City, New York: Parkstone Press, 2003, pp. 60–61; John Colet, Footprint Vietnam Handbook, London: Footprint Handbooks, 2002, p. 281; Xavier Guillaume, La Terre de Dragon, Paris: Editions Publibook, 2004, p. 50; M. L. Jones, ‘Tham Cao Vien, the Saigon Zoological Gardens’, International Zoo News, vol. 16 (1969): p. 13; V. D. Son, ‘Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’, International Zoo News, no. 40 (1993): p. 56; H. Q. Than and P. V. Lam, ‘The zoo-botanical park of Ho Chi Minh City and the duty of protecting and conserving natural resources of south Vietnam’, in Proceedings of the Third Conference of SEAZA and Meeting on the Establishment of South East Asian Zoological Parks Association (1990), p. 93; Saigon Zoo, www.saigonzoo.net/lang/en; G. T. Van Dam, ‘The zoo at Saigon’, International Zoo News, no. 10 (1963): p. 152; Sally Walker, Zoological Gardens of Asia’, in Vernon N. Kisling Jr (ed.), Zoo and Aquarium History: Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological Gardens, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2002, pp. 215–50.

Appendix 1 FRENCH OFFICIALS

Governors General of French Indochina

Governors General 16 November 1887 – April 1888 April 1888 – 31 May 1889 31 May 1889 – April 1891 April 1891 – June 1891 June 1891 – 29 December 1894 March 1894 – October 1894 December 1894 – February 1895 February 1895 – 10 December 1896 December 1896 – 13 February 1897 13 February 1897 – October 1902 October 1902 – February 1907 February 1907 – September 1908 September 1908 – January 1910 January 1910 – February 1911 February 1911 – November 1911 November 1911 – January 1914 January 1914 – March 1915 March 1915 – May 1916 May 1916 – January 1917 January 1917 – May 1919 May 1919 – February 1920 February 1920 – April 1922 April 1922 – August 1922 August 1922 – April 1925 342

Ernest Constans Étienne Richaud Jules Georges Piquet Bideau (acting) Antoine de Lanessan Léon Jean Laurent Chavassieux François Pierre Rodier (acting) Armand Rousseau Augustin Julien Fourès (acting) Paul Doumer Paul Beau Louis Alphonse Bonhoure (acting) Antony Klobukowski Albert Picquié (acting) Paul Louis Luce Albert Sarraut (1st time) Joost van Vollenhoven (acting) Ernest Roume Jean Charles (acting) Albert Sarraut (2nd time) Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (1st time) (acting) Maurice Long François Marius Baudouin (acting) Martial Merlin

Appendix 1

April 1925 – November 1925 18 November 1925 – January 1928 January 1928 – August 1928 22 August 1928 – 15 January 1934 27 February 1934 – September 1936 September 1936 – 20 August 1939 20 August 1939 – 25 June 1940 25 June 1940 – 9 March 1945

343

Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (2nd time) Alexandre Varenne Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (3rd time) Pierre Pasquier René Robin Jules Brévié Georges Catroux (acting) Jean Decoux

High Commissioners (from 27 April 1953, Commissioners General) 31 October 1945 – 1 April 1947 1 April 1947 – 11 October 1948 20 October 1948 – 17 December 1950 17 December 1950 – 11 January 1952 1 April 1952 – 28 July 1953 28 July 1953 – 10 April 1954 10 April 1954 – April 1955 April 1955 – 21 July 1956

Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu Émile Bollaert Léon Pignon Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Jean Letourneau Maurice Dejean Paul Ély Henri Hoppenot

Governors of Cochinchina Based in Tourane (Danang) 1 September 1858 – 18 February 1859 19 October 1859 – 23 March 1860

Charles Rigault de Genouilly Théogène François Page

Based in Saigon 18 February 1859 – 1859 March 1859 – 23 March 1860 23 March 1860 – 6 February 1861 1 April 1860 – 6 February 1861 6 February 1861 – 28 November 1861 28 November 1861 – 16 October 1863 16 October 1863 – 5 April 1868

29 March 1865 – 26 November 1865 5 April 1868 – 10 December 1869 10 December 1869 – 8 January 1870 8 January 1870 – 1 April 1871 1 April 1871 – 16 March 1874

Charles Rigault de Genouilly (2) Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry Théogène François Page (2) Joseph Hyacinthe Louis Jules d’Ariès (acting) Léonard Victor Joseph Charner Louis Adolphe Bonard Pierre Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière (acting until 28 November 1863 Pierre-Gustave Roze (acting) Marie Gustave Hector Ohier Joseph Faron (acting) Alphonse de Cornulier-Lucinière Marie Jules Dupré

344 Appendix 1

7 March 1872 – 16 December 1872 16 March 1874 – 1 December 1874 1 December 1874 – 16 October 1877 31 January 1876 – 7 July 1876 16 October 1877 – 7 July 1879 7 July 1879 – 7 November 1882 4 March 1881 – 4 November 1881 7 November 1882 – 27 July 1885 27 July 1885 – 19 June 1886 19 June 1886 – 22 October 1887 23 October 1887 – 2 November 1887 3 November 1887 – 15 November 1887

Charles Joseph Basher d'Arbaud (acting) Jules François Émile Krantz (acting) Victor Auguste, Baron Duperré Henri Gaëtan Ernest Bossant (acting) Louis Charles Georges Jules Lafont Charles Le Myre de Vilers Louis Edgard de Trentinian (acting) Charles Antoine François Thomson Charles Auguste Frédéric Begin Ange Michel Filippini Noël Pardon (acting) Jules Georges Piquet (acting)

Directors of Local Service 3 November 1887 – 15 January 1888 3 August 1888 – 25 August 1888 25 August 1888 – 16 May 1889

(Jean Antoine) Ernest Constans Auguste Eugène Navelle (acting) Paul Louis Maxime Céloron de Blainville

Lieutenant Governors of Cochinchina 21 May 1889 – 9 August 1889 9 August 1889 – 11 September 1892 11 September 1892 – 25 March 1894 25 March 1894 – 5 August 1895 5 August 1895 – 14 May 1897 22 March 1896 – 20 November 1896 14 May 1897 – 22 January 1898 22 January 1898 – 2 August 1901 2 August 1901 – 5 September 1901 5 September 1901 – 21 October 1902 22 October 1902 – 9 March 1906 10 March 1906 – 1907 29 June 1907 – 1 January 1909 1909 – 1911

Augustin Julien Fourès (acting) Henri Danel Augustin Julien Fourès (2nd time) Auguste Eugène Navelle (acting) Alexandre Antoine Étienne Gustave Ducos Gustave Guillaume Sandret (acting) Ange Eugène Nicolai Édouard Picanon Louis Paul Luce (acting) Henri Félix de Lamothe François Pierre Rodier Olivier Charles Arthur de Lalande de Calan (acting) Louis Alphonse Bonhoure (Jules) Maurice Gourbeil

Appendix 1

345

Governors of Cochinchina 1911 – 1916 1916 – 1918 June 1918 – February 1920 February 1920 – November 1920 18 November 1920 – 14 February 1922

(Jules) Maurice Gourbeil Joseph Maurice La Gallen Georges Maspéro (acting) Maurice Joseph La Gallen Achille Paul Michel Quesnel (acting) 1921 – 1926 Maurice Cognacq 19 April 1926 – 30 December 1926 Aristide Eugène Le Fol (acting) 1926 – 1929 Paul Marie Alexis Joseph Blanchard de la Brosse 1 January 1929 – 6 March 1929 Auguste Eugène Ludovic Tholance (acting) 1929 – 1934 Jean-Félix Krautheimer 21 November 1931 – 11 November 1932 Eugéne Henri Eutrope (acting) 1934 – 1939 Pierre André Michel Pagès 1 March 1936 – 12 October 1936 Henri Georges Rivoal (acting) 1939 – 1940 René Veber 16 November 1940 – 16 March 1943 André Georges Rivoal 16 March 1943 – 9 March 1945 Ernest Thimothée Hoeffel

Appendix 1 FRENCH OFFICIALS

Governors General of French Indochina

Governors General 16 November 1887 – April 1888 April 1888 – 31 May 1889 31 May 1889 – April 1891 April 1891 – June 1891 June 1891 – 29 December 1894 March 1894 – October 1894 December 1894 – February 1895 February 1895 – 10 December 1896 December 1896 – 13 February 1897 13 February 1897 – October 1902 October 1902 – February 1907 February 1907 – September 1908 September 1908 – January 1910 January 1910 – February 1911 February 1911 – November 1911 November 1911 – January 1914 January 1914 – March 1915 March 1915 – May 1916 May 1916 – January 1917 January 1917 – May 1919 May 1919 – February 1920 February 1920 – April 1922 April 1922 – August 1922 August 1922 – April 1925 342

Ernest Constans Étienne Richaud Jules Georges Piquet Bideau (acting) Antoine de Lanessan Léon Jean Laurent Chavassieux François Pierre Rodier (acting) Armand Rousseau Augustin Julien Fourès (acting) Paul Doumer Paul Beau Louis Alphonse Bonhoure (acting) Antony Klobukowski Albert Picquié (acting) Paul Louis Luce Albert Sarraut (1st time) Joost van Vollenhoven (acting) Ernest Roume Jean Charles (acting) Albert Sarraut (2nd time) Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (1st time) (acting) Maurice Long François Marius Baudouin (acting) Martial Merlin

Appendix 1

April 1925 – November 1925 18 November 1925 – January 1928 January 1928 – August 1928 22 August 1928 – 15 January 1934 27 February 1934 – September 1936 September 1936 – 20 August 1939 20 August 1939 – 25 June 1940 25 June 1940 – 9 March 1945

343

Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (2nd time) Alexandre Varenne Maurice Antoine François Monguillot (3rd time) Pierre Pasquier René Robin Jules Brévié Georges Catroux (acting) Jean Decoux

High Commissioners (from 27 April 1953, Commissioners General) 31 October 1945 – 1 April 1947 1 April 1947 – 11 October 1948 20 October 1948 – 17 December 1950 17 December 1950 – 11 January 1952 1 April 1952 – 28 July 1953 28 July 1953 – 10 April 1954 10 April 1954 – April 1955 April 1955 – 21 July 1956

Georges Thierry d’Argenlieu Émile Bollaert Léon Pignon Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Jean Letourneau Maurice Dejean Paul Ély Henri Hoppenot

Governors of Cochinchina Based in Tourane (Danang) 1 September 1858 – 18 February 1859 19 October 1859 – 23 March 1860

Charles Rigault de Genouilly Théogène François Page

Based in Saigon 18 February 1859 – 1859 March 1859 – 23 March 1860 23 March 1860 – 6 February 1861 1 April 1860 – 6 February 1861 6 February 1861 – 28 November 1861 28 November 1861 – 16 October 1863 16 October 1863 – 5 April 1868

29 March 1865 – 26 November 1865 5 April 1868 – 10 December 1869 10 December 1869 – 8 January 1870 8 January 1870 – 1 April 1871 1 April 1871 – 16 March 1874

Charles Rigault de Genouilly (2) Jean Bernard Jauréguiberry Théogène François Page (2) Joseph Hyacinthe Louis Jules d’Ariès (acting) Léonard Victor Joseph Charner Louis Adolphe Bonard Pierre Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière (acting until 28 November 1863 Pierre-Gustave Roze (acting) Marie Gustave Hector Ohier Joseph Faron (acting) Alphonse de Cornulier-Lucinière Marie Jules Dupré

344 Appendix 1

7 March 1872 – 16 December 1872 16 March 1874 – 1 December 1874 1 December 1874 – 16 October 1877 31 January 1876 – 7 July 1876 16 October 1877 – 7 July 1879 7 July 1879 – 7 November 1882 4 March 1881 – 4 November 1881 7 November 1882 – 27 July 1885 27 July 1885 – 19 June 1886 19 June 1886 – 22 October 1887 23 October 1887 – 2 November 1887 3 November 1887 – 15 November 1887

Charles Joseph Basher d'Arbaud (acting) Jules François Émile Krantz (acting) Victor Auguste, Baron Duperré Henri Gaëtan Ernest Bossant (acting) Louis Charles Georges Jules Lafont Charles Le Myre de Vilers Louis Edgard de Trentinian (acting) Charles Antoine François Thomson Charles Auguste Frédéric Begin Ange Michel Filippini Noël Pardon (acting) Jules Georges Piquet (acting)

Directors of Local Service 3 November 1887 – 15 January 1888 3 August 1888 – 25 August 1888 25 August 1888 – 16 May 1889

(Jean Antoine) Ernest Constans Auguste Eugène Navelle (acting) Paul Louis Maxime Céloron de Blainville

Lieutenant Governors of Cochinchina 21 May 1889 – 9 August 1889 9 August 1889 – 11 September 1892 11 September 1892 – 25 March 1894 25 March 1894 – 5 August 1895 5 August 1895 – 14 May 1897 22 March 1896 – 20 November 1896 14 May 1897 – 22 January 1898 22 January 1898 – 2 August 1901 2 August 1901 – 5 September 1901 5 September 1901 – 21 October 1902 22 October 1902 – 9 March 1906 10 March 1906 – 1907 29 June 1907 – 1 January 1909 1909 – 1911

Augustin Julien Fourès (acting) Henri Danel Augustin Julien Fourès (2nd time) Auguste Eugène Navelle (acting) Alexandre Antoine Étienne Gustave Ducos Gustave Guillaume Sandret (acting) Ange Eugène Nicolai Édouard Picanon Louis Paul Luce (acting) Henri Félix de Lamothe François Pierre Rodier Olivier Charles Arthur de Lalande de Calan (acting) Louis Alphonse Bonhoure (Jules) Maurice Gourbeil

Appendix 1

345

Governors of Cochinchina 1911 – 1916 1916 – 1918 June 1918 – February 1920 February 1920 – November 1920 18 November 1920 – 14 February 1922

(Jules) Maurice Gourbeil Joseph Maurice La Gallen Georges Maspéro (acting) Maurice Joseph La Gallen Achille Paul Michel Quesnel (acting) 1921 – 1926 Maurice Cognacq 19 April 1926 – 30 December 1926 Aristide Eugène Le Fol (acting) 1926 – 1929 Paul Marie Alexis Joseph Blanchard de la Brosse 1 January 1929 – 6 March 1929 Auguste Eugène Ludovic Tholance (acting) 1929 – 1934 Jean-Félix Krautheimer 21 November 1931 – 11 November 1932 Eugéne Henri Eutrope (acting) 1934 – 1939 Pierre André Michel Pagès 1 March 1936 – 12 October 1936 Henri Georges Rivoal (acting) 1939 – 1940 René Veber 16 November 1940 – 16 March 1943 André Georges Rivoal 16 March 1943 – 9 March 1945 Ernest Thimothée Hoeffel

Appendix 2 VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT

Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina

Presidents of the Provisional Government 1 June 1946 – 10 November 1946 15 November 1946 – 7 December 1946 7 December 1946 – 8 October 1947

Nguyen Van Thinh Nguyen Van Xuan (1st time) Le Van Hoach

South Vietnam

President of the Provisional Government 8 October 1947 – 27 May 1948

Nguyen Van Xuan (2nd time)

Vietnam; State of Vietnam

President of the Central Government of Vietnam 27 May 1948 – 14 June 1949

Nguyen Van Xuan

Chiefs of State 14 June 1949 – 30 April 1955 30 April 1955 – 26 October 1955

Bao Dai Ngo Dinh Diem (acting)

Prime Ministers 13 June 1949 – 21 January 1950 21 January 1950 – 26 April 1950 27 April 1950 – 6 June 1952 6 June 1952 – 17 December 1953 12 January 1954 – 16 June 1954 16 June 1954 – 26 June 1954 26 June 1954 – 26 October 1955 346

Bao Dai Nguyen Phan Long Tran Van Huu Nguyen Van Tam Pham Buu Loc Phan Huy Quat (1st time) (acting) Ngo Dinh Diem

Appendix 2

347

Republic of Vietnam

Presidents 26 October 1955 – 2 November 1963 2 November 1963 – 30 January 1964

30 January 1964 – 8 February 1964 8 February 1964 – 16 August 1964 16 August 1964 – 27 August 1964 27 August 1964 – 8 September 1964

8 September 1964 – 26 October 1964

26 October 1964 – 14 June 1965 14 June 1965 – 21 April 1975

21 April 1975 – 28 April 1975 28 April 1975 – 30 April 1975

Ngo Dinh Diem Duong Van Minh (1st time) (chairman Revolutionary Military Committee) Nguyen Khanh (1st time) Duong Van Minh (2nd time) Nguyen Khanh (2nd time) Provisional Leadership Committee: Duong Van Minh; Nguyen Khanh; Tran Thien Khiem Duong Van Minh (3rd time) (chairman Provisional Leadership Committee) Phan Khac Suu Nguyen Van Thieu (Chairman of the National Leadership Committee to 31 October 1967) Tran Van Huong Duong Van Minh (4th time) (acting)

Prime Ministers 4 November 1963 – 30 January 1964 8 February 1964 – 29 August 1964 29 August 1964 – 3 September 1964 3 September 1964 – 4 November 1964 4 November 1964 – 28 January 1965 28 January 1965 – 15 February 1965 16 February 1965 – 8 June 1965 19 June 1965 – 31 October 1967 31 October 1967 – 17 May 1968 28 May 1968 – 1 September 1969 1 September 1969 – 4 April 1975 4 April 1975 – 24 April 1975 28 April 1975 – 30 April 1975

Nguyen Ngoc Tho Nguyen Khanh (1st time) Nguyen Xuan Oanh (1st time) (acting) Nguyen Khanh (2nd time) Tran Van Huong (1st time) Nguyen Xuan Oanh (2nd time) (acting) Phan Huy Quat (2nd time) Nguyen Cao Ky Nguyen Van Loc Tran Van Huong (2nd time) Tran Thien Khiem Nguyen Ba Can Vu Van Mau

348 Appendix 2

Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam

President 30 April 1975 – 2 July 1976

Huynh Tan Phat

Prime Minister 30 April 1975 – 2 July 1976

Nguyen Huu Tho

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

General Secretaries of the Communist Party 20 December 1976 – 10 July 1986 14 July 1986 – 18 December 1986 18 December 1986 – 27 June 1991 27 June 1991 – 29 December 1997 29 December 1997 – 22 April 2001 22 April 2001 – 19 January 2011 19 January 2011 –

Le Duan Truong Chinh Nguyen Van Linh Do Muoi Le Kha Phieu Nong Duc Manh Nguyen Phu Trong

Presidents 2 July 1976 – 30 March 1980 30 March 1980 – 4 July 1981

Ton Duc Thang Nguyen Huu Tho (acting)

Chairmen of the State Council 4 July 1981 – 18 June 1987 18 June 1987 – 22 September 1992

Truong Chinh Vo Chi Cong

Presidents 23 September 1992 – 24 September 1997 24 September 1997 – 27 June 2006 27 June 2006 – 25 July 2011 25 July 2011 –

Le Duc Anh Tran Duc Luong Nguyen Minh Triet Truong Tan Sang

Chairmen of the Council of Ministers 2 July 1976 – 18 June 1987 18 June 1987 – 10 March 1988 10 March 1988 – 22 June 1988 22 June 1988 – 8 August 1991 8 August 1991 – 24 September 1992

Pham Van Dong Pham Hung Vo Van Kiet (1st time) (acting) Do Muoi Vo Van Kiet (2nd time)

Appendix 2

Prime Ministers 24 September 1992 – 25 September 1997 Vo Van Kiet 25 September 1997 – 27 June 1006 Phan Van Khai 27 June 2006 – Nguyen Tan Dung

349

Appendix 3 LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Mayor / Préfect

1860s 1874 – 1876 1879 – 1880 c. 1912 c. 1938 – 1939 Nov. 1954 – Apr. 1955 Nov. 1963 – Jan. 1964 Sept. 1964 1964 – 1965 1968 1968 – at least 1974 – Apr. 1975

Ba Tuong Jules Blancsubé (acting) Jules Blancsubé Eugène Cuniac Paul Blanchy Tran Van Huong Mai Huu Xuan Tran Van Huong La Thanh Nghe Nguyen Van Cua (brother-in-law of Loan) Do Kien Nhieu Nguyen Hop Doan

Military Governor

30 Apr. 1975 –

Tran Van Tra

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Central Committee 1979

350

Vo Van Kiet

Appendix 4 US GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION IN SAIGON

1906 1907 – 1909 1909 – 1914 26 Feb. 1913 – Jan. 1914 27 Apr. 1914 – 1917 1917 1917 – 1919 1918 – 1920 1919 – 1924 1920 1922 – 1929 1922 – 1924 1926 1926 15 Feb. 1927 – Apr. 1929 1929 – 1932 1931 – 1932 23 July 1937 – 1938 1938 1948 – 1950 29 June 1950 – 25 June 1952

Lauritz Leganger Stang (Commercial Agent) Jacob Elon Conner (Consul) Miller Joblin (Vice and Deputy Consul) Hubert Gordon Baugh (Vice and Deputy Consul; briefly Consul beforehand) Lawrence Palmer Briggs (Consul) Miller Joblin (Vice Consul) Harry Hathaway Pethick (Vice Consul) Horace Remillard (Consul) Augustus Montillmon Kirby (Vice Consul) Karl MacVitty (Consul) Acton Poulet (Vice Consul) Leland Leslie Smith (Consul) Koyne V. Gram (Vice Consul) Harris Nicks Cookingham (Consul) Raymond Lanctot (Vice Consul) Henry Samuel Waterman (Consul) William Everett Scotten (Vice Consul) John Peabody Palmer (Vice Consul) Quincy Franklin Roberts (Consul) George Manlove Abbott (Consul General) Donald Read Heath (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary; 22 October 1950)

352 Appendix 4

25 June 1952 – 14 Nov. 1954

20 Apr. 1955 – 10 Feb. 1957

14 Mar. 1957 – 3 May 1961

15 Mar. 1961 – 15 Aug. 1963

1 Aug. 1963 – 28 June 1964

1 July 1964 – 30 July 1965

31 July 1965 – 25 Apr 1967

5 Apr. 1967 – 11 May 1973

21 June 1973 – 29 Apr. 1975

Donald Read Heath (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 22 July 1952) G Frederick Reinhardt (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 28 May 1955) Elbridge Durbrow (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 16 April 1957) Frederick Nolting (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 10 May 1961) Henry Cabot Lodge jr (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 26 Aug 1963) Maxwell D. Taylor (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 14 July 1964) Henry Cabot Lodge jr (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 25 August 1965) Ellsworth Bunker (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 28 April 1967) Graham A Martin (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; 20 July 1973)

The third date cited is when the individual presented their credentials in Vietnam.

Appendix 5 BRITISH GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION IN SAIGON

British Representatives

1871 – 11 Apr. 1903 1 Mar. 1904 – 1916 28 Nov. 1916 – 1917 20 Sept. 1917 – 1 Jan. 1921 1 Jan. 1921 – 1934 3 Dec. 1934 – 26 Oct. 1937 27 Oct. 1937 – 26 Sept. 1938 26 Sept. 1938 – 10 Dec. 1939 10 Dec. 1939 – 1941 15 May 1941 – Dec. 1941 16 Nov. 1950 – 4 May 1951

4 May 1950 – 26 Oct. 1954

Charles Francis Tremlett (Consul) Tom Ffennell Carlisle (Consul) William Norman Dunn (Consul) Josiah Crosby (Consul 1917–20, Consul General, 1920–21) Frederick Grosvenor Gorton (Consul General) John Drummond Hogg (Consul General) William Whitham Coultas (Consul General) Henry Francis Chester Walsh (Consul General) Hector Bruce Henderson (Consul General) Ernest William Frederick Meiklereid (Acting Consul General) Frank Stannard Gibbs (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary) Hubert Ashton Graves (Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary)

British Ambassadors

26 Oct. 1954 – 30 Oct. 1954 30 Oct. 1954 – 5 Apr. 1957

Sir Hubert Ashton Graves Sir Hugh Southern Stephenson 353

354 Appendix 5

5 Apr. 1957 – 1 Mar. 1960 1 Mar. 1960 – 20 Aug. 1963 20 Aug. 1963 – 7 Sept. 1966 7 Sept. 1966 – 3 Dec. 1967 3 Dec. 1967 – 3 Oct. 1969 3 Oct. 1969 – 24 Jan. 1972 23 Jan. 1972 – 20 Mar. 1974 20 Mar. 1974 – 30 Apr. 1975

Sir Roderick Parkes Henry Arthur Frederick Hohler Raymond Gordon Anthony EtheringtonSmith Peter Wilkinson Murray MacLehose John Moreton Francis Brooks Richards John Christopher Wyndowe Bushell

Subsequently British ambassadors were accredited to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in Hanoi.

Appendix 6 STREET NAMES

Prior to 1956

1956–1975

After 1975

2012

Trn Phú Hưng Phú Phan Đình Phùng (T Cu Ki u Đn Nguyn Ki m= Ngã Tư Phú Nhun) d’Adran à Võ Di Nguy Sài Hai Bà Trưng (T Saigon (Georges Gòn Cu Ki u đn Bn Guynemer) Bch Đng) Albert 1er Đinh Tiên Hoàng Đinh Tiên Hoàng Đinh Tiên Hoàng Alexandres De L c Tĩnh Luc Tinh Alexandres De Rhodes Rhodes Alexandres Frostin Bà Lê Chân Bà Lê Chân Bà Lê Chân Alsace Lorraine Phó đc Chính Pho Duc Chinh Phó Đc Chính Amiral Dupré Thái lp Thành Lý T" Trong Lý T" Trng Amiral Roze Truong Công Trương Đ#nh Trương Đ#nh Dinh d’Arfeuille Nguyn đình Trân Quôc Toan Trn Qu c Ton Chiu Armand Rousseau Hùng Vương Hùng Vương Hùng Vương d’Arras Cong Quynh Công Quỳnh C ng Quỳnh d’Arries Huynh khuong Huynh khuong Huỳnh Khương Ninh Ninh Ninh rue 11e ric Abattoir d’Adran à phu nhuan

Nguyn Hoàng Trn Phú Hung phu Hưng Phú Võ Di Nguy, Phú Nhun

(Continued) 355

356 Appendix 6

Prior to 1956 Arroyo De l’Avalanche Auduit Aviateur Garros d’Ayot

1956–1975 Rach Thi Nghè

After 1975 Kênh Thi Nghè

2012 Kênh Th# Nghè

Bd Bonard Bourdais Carabelli Catinat Chaigneau Champagne Bd Chanson

Cao Th$ng Cao Thang Thu Khoa Huân Thu Khoa Huân Nguyn Văn Sâm Nguyên Thái Bình Nguyên khac Nhu Nguyn Kh$c Nhu Lý Trn Quán Lý Trân Quán Lê Quí Đôn Lê Quí Đôn Bên Chuong Bên Chuóng Duong Duóng Duy Tân Pham Ngoc Thach Lê Loi Lê Loi Calmette Calmette Nguyn Thi p Nguyn Thi p T" Do Đ ng Khi Tôn That Đm Tôn Tht Đm Yên Đ% Lý Chính Th$ng Lê Van Duyet Cách Mng Thg 8

Charles De Coppe Charles Thomson Bd Charner Chasseloup Laubat

Hoàng Di u H ng Bàng Nguyên Huê H ng Thp T"

Chemin Des Dames Colombier Colonel Boudonnet

Nguyên Phi

Nguyn Kh$c Nhu Lý Trn Quán Lê Quí Đôn Đi l Võ Văn Ki t Pham Ngc Thch Lê Li Calmette Nguyn Thi p Đ ng Khi Tôn Tht Đm Lý Chính Th$ng Cách Mng Thg 8 (Bn Thành đn Ngã Tư B&y Hin) Cách Mng Thg 8 Trưng Chinh (Ngã Tư B&y Hin đn An Sương Hoàng Di u Hoàng Di u H ng Bàng H ng Bàng Nguyên Huê Nguyn Hu

Nguyên Thi Minh Nguyn Th# Minh Khai Khai Lê Anh Xuân Lê Anh Xuân

Hô Xuân Hương Lê Lai

H Xuân Hương Lê Lai

Ballande Barbier Barbé Quai de Belgique Blancsubé

Cao Th$ng Thu Khoa Huân Nguyn Thái Bình

H Xuân Hương Lê Lai (Continued)

Appendix 6

Prior to 1956

1956–1975

After 1975

357

2012

Colonel Grimaud

Phm ngũ Lão

Pham ngũ Lão

Phm Ngũ Lão

Cornulier Danel Denis Freres Dixmude Dr Angier

Thi Sách Pham Đình H% Ngô Đc K Dê Thám Nguyên b(nh Khiêm Ký Con Hùynh Thúc Kháng Cô Giang Triêu Dà Cô Bác Bùi Thi Xuân Trân bình Trong Nguyn Thông Lê Thánh Tôn C Truong Quach Thi Trang Trúong Minh Giang

Thi Sách Phm Đình H% Ngô Đc K Đ Thám Nguyên b(nh Khiêm Ký Con Huynh Thúc Kháng Cô Giang Ngô Quyên Cô Bác Bui Thi Xuân Trân bình Trong Nguyên Thông Lê Thánh Tôn C Truong Quach Thi Trang Lê Văn S)

Nguyên phi Khanh Húng Vuong Võ Tánh Bùi Chu Nguyên Trung Tr"c Doan Nhu Hài Bên Trang Tu

Nguyên phi Khanh Hùng Vùòng Nguyn Trãi

Thi Sách Phm Đình H% Ngô Đc K Đ Thám Nguyn B(nh Khiêm Ký Con Huỳnh Thúc Kháng Cô Giang Ngô Quyên Cô B$c Bùi Th# Xuân Trn Bình Trng Nguyn Thông Lê Thánh Tôn C Truong Quach Thi Trang Lê Văn S) (T Cu Tôi Gin đn Lăng Cha C cũ) Trn Qu c Tho (T cu Tôi đn Võ Văn Tn = Trn Quí Cáp Cũ) Nguyn Phi Khanh Hùng Vương Nguyên Trãi Tôn Tht Tùng Nguyn Trung Tr"c Đoàn Như Hi Đi l Võ Văn Ki t

Dr Yersin Dô Huu Vi Douaumont Ducos Dumortier Duranton L’Eglise (de) Eparges (des) d’Espagne Pl Eugène Cuniac Eyriaud Des Vergnes

Faucault Fréderic Drouhet Frère Louis Frère Guilleraut Filippini Fonck Quai de Fou kiên

Nguyên Trung Truc Doan Nhu Hài Trn Văn Kiu

(Continued)

358 Appendix 6

Prior to 1956

1956–1975

After 1975

2012

Bd Gallieni Gallimard Garcerie

Trân Hung Dao Nguyên Huy Tu Duy Tân

Trân Hung Dao Nguyên Huy Tu Pham Ngoc Thach

Trn Hưng Đo Nguyn Huy T" Phm Ngc Thch

Gaudot

Không Tu

Kh%ng T*

Kh%ng T*

Nam ky khòi Nghia

Nam Kỳ Khi Nghĩa (T Cu Công Lý Đén Đ L Võ Văn Ki t) Đi n Biên Ph

Général De Gaulle Công ly

Général Lizé Georges Guynemer (see d’Adran à Saigon) Guillaume Martin Hamelin Heurtaux

Phan Thanh Gian Đi n Biên Ph

Đ+ Thành Nhân H Văn Ngà

Nguyên Truong Tô Hui bon Hoa Ly Thái Tô Huynh Quan Tiên Ho Hao Hon Jaccario Tan Dà Jauréguibérry Ngô Thoi Nhiêm Jean Eudel Tr#nh Minh Th

Lacote Lacault Lafont Larclause

Nguyên Truong Tô Ly Thái Tô Ho Hao Hon Tan Dà Ngô Thi Nhiêm Nguyên Tât Thành Nguyên Thai Hoc Nguyên Thai Hoc Gia Long Ly Tu Trong Nguyên Tri Nguyên Tri Phuong Phuong Pham Hông Thái Pham Hông Thái Truong Minh Ky Lê Van Sy Chu Manh Trinh Trân cao Vân Trân cao

Larégnière

Doàn Thi Diêm

Doàn Thi Diêm

Le Man

Cao bá Nha

Cao bá Nha

Bd Kitchener De La Grandière Lacaze

Lê Qu c Hưng Lê Th# Hông Gâm Nguyn Trưng T (Q4) Lý Thái T% Ho Hao Hon Tn Đà Ngô Thi Nhi m Nguyn Tt Thành (Q4) Nguyn Thái Hc Lý T" Trng Nguyn Tri Phương Phm H ng Thái Lê Văn S) Chu Mnh Trinh Vân Trn Cao Vân Đoàn Th# Đim (Phú Nhun) Cao Bá Nh (Continued)

Appendix 6

Prior to 1956

1956–1975

Quai Le Myre De Vilers Lefebvre Legrand De la Liraye

Bên Bach Dang

Léon Combes

Suong nguyêt Anh Ly Van Phuc Luong Huu Khanh Luong

Lesèble Lucien Lacouture Louvain Lucien Mossard Luro MacMahon Marchaise Marchand Marcel Richard Maréchal Foch

Miss Cavell Monceau Nancy

Tôn Duc Thang

2012 Bn Bch Đng

Nguyên công Tru Nguyên công Tr Nguyn Công Tr Phan Tha’enh Diên Biên Phu Đi n Biên Ph Gian

Cưng Đ Công Lý Nam Ky Con

Nguyên Van Thoai Pl Maréchal Joffre Cong Truong Quoc Te Maréchal Pétain Thành Thái des Marins Đ ng Khánh Quai de la Marne Bên Hàm Tu Martin Des Pallières Massiges Mayer Miche

After 1975

359

Suong nguyêt Anh Ly Van Phuc Huu Khanh Lương Đê Thám Nguyn Du Tôn Duc Tháng ky khoi Nghia Nam Ky Con Bui Viên Nguyên Van Thu Ly Thuong Kiêt

Sương Nguy t Ánh Lý Văn Phúc H,u Khanh

Ho Con Rua

Ho Con Rua

Đ Thám Nguyn Du Tôn Đc Th$ng Kỳ Khi Nghĩa

Ký Con Bùi Vi n Nguyn Văn Th Lý Thương Ki t

Trn Phú An Bình Đi l Võ Văn Ki t Nguyên Van Giai Nguyên Van Giai Nguyn Văn Giai

Mac Dinh Chi Hin Vương Phung khac Khoan Huyên Trân công Chúa Huynh Tinh Cua Cng Hoà

Trân Phú An Binh Bên Vân Dôn

Mac Dinh Chi Vo Thi Sau Phung khac Khoan Huyên Trân Công Chua Huỳnh Tinh Cua Nguyên Van Cu

Mc Đĩnh Chi Võ Th# Sáu Phùng Kh$c Khoan Huyn Trân Công Chúa Huỳnh T#nh Ca Nguyn Văn C (Continued)

360 Appendix 6

Prior to 1956

1956–1975

After 1975

2012

Nguyên Tân Nghiem Nguyên Van Đurom Noël Bd Norodom

Phát Diêm

Phan xich Long

Phan xích Long

Nguyên Van Đurom Truong Hán Siêu Thông nhut

Nguyên Van Nghia Truong Hán Siêu Lê Duân

Nguyên Van Nghia Trương Hán Siêu Lê Du&n

Ohier d’Ormay

Tôn Thât Thiêp Nguyên Van Thinh

Tôn Thât Thiêp Mac Thi Buoi

Tôn Tht Thi p Mc Th# Bưi

Palanca

Nguyên Trung Ngan Paracels Alexandres De Alexandre De Rhodes Rhodes Paris Phung Hung Phung Hung Bd Paul Bert Tran Quang Khai Trân Quang Khai Paul Blanchy Hai Bà Trưng Hai Bà Trung Paulin Vial Phan Liêm Phan Liêm Pavie; Hui Bon Trân Quôc Ton / Hoa Ly Thai To Pellerin Pasteur Pasteur Phan Thanh Gian Ngo Tung Chau Le Thi Rieng Pierre Flandin Bà Huyên Thanh Bà Huyên Thanh Quan Quan Pierre Pasquier Minh Mng Ngô Gia Tú Renault Hâu Giang Hâu Giang Av René Maraud Trân khac Chân René Vigerie Phan kê Binh Phan kê Bính Résistance Nguyên biêu Nguyên Biêu Richaud Phan Dinh Phùng Nguyên Dinh Chiêu Roland Garros Thu khoa Huân Thu khoa Huân Sabourin Ta Thu Thâu Ta Thu Thâu Sohier T" Đc Bd De la Somme Hàm Nghi Hàm Nghi Taberd Nguyên Du Nguyên Du Testard Trân Qui Cáp Vo Van Tân

Nguyn Trung Ngn Alexandre De Rhodes Phùng Hưng Trn Quang Khi Hai Bà Trưng Phan Liêm Đương 3 Tháng 2 Pasteur Le Thi Rieng Bà Huy n Thanh Quan Ngô Gia Tú Hu Giang Trn Kh$c Chân Phan K Bính Nguyn Biu Nguyn Đình Chiu Th Khoa Huân T Thu Thâu Nguyn Văn Th Hàm Nghi Nguyn Du Võ Văn Tn (Continued)

Appendix 6

Prior to 1956

361

1956–1975

After 1975

2012

Thévenet Tông Dôc Phuong Tong Kéou Truong Minh Ky / Lacant Turc

Tú Xuong Tông Doc Phuong Thuân kieu Truong Minh Ky

Tu Xuong Châu Van Liêm Thuân Kiêu Nguyên Thi Diêu

Tú Xương Châu Van Liêm Thun Kiu Nguyên Thi Diêu

Vo Tánh

Hô Huân Nghiêp Hô Huân Nghiêp

Verdun

Lê Văn Duy t

Vassoigne Yunnan Ypres

Trân Van Thach Van Tuong Nguyên Van Trang

Cách Mang Thang Tám Nguyên Huu Câu Van Tuong Nguyên Van Tráng

Cách Mng Tháng Tám Nguyn H,u Cu Vn Tương Nguyên Van Tráng