American Military University Class

June 5, 2013 at 5:00pm

Good evening ladies & gentlemen. First of, Id like to thank Dr. Catino for giving me this invaluable opportunity to speak about the War in VN, a subject so dear to my heart and soul and, also to thank him for his kind introduction. Yes, my name is Hoi B.Tran and I was born in Ha Noi, North VN in 1935. In June 1953, I was drafted in Ha Noi at the age of 18 and I chose to serve in the newly formed Nationalist VNAF. I spent 22 of the best years of my life in the Air Force fighting the North Vietnamese communists led by Ho Chi Minh from the North to the South of Viet Nam in various capacities. On April 30th 1975, South VN fell into the hands of the North Vietnamese communist invaders and I took my family to the US as political refugees. And today, being an old American of Vietnamese descent, I am happy to relate to you my own experience about the VN war as a living witness, as a direct participant and also a victim of that war. At this stage of my life, I do not have any hidden political agenda to pursue. In fact, I may be cleared for take off for my last flight West anytime so my only ambition is to voice the honest truth in hope to clarify, to debunk as much as possible all the misreporting, distortions or even lies about the war in Viet Nam created by the liberal newsmedia in the sixties and seventies. As you have known, the War in VN was the most controversial and misunderstood war that our country, the US of A was involved in. It was a war that deeply & bitterly divided our country. It was also a war that our veterans were denigrated and mistreated when returning home after their tour of duty. To some people, its been forty years and it is no fun thinking or talking about this dark chapter of our nation and we should put a closure on this past event. But as an American, I strongly believe that we Americans have a duty to undo the shameless propaganda disseminated worldwide by the North Vietnamese communists claiming that the American Imperialist forces invaded South VN and were defeated by them in their Big Spring Victory of 1975. As a Vietnamese soldier who had fought in that war from the beginning, I am compelled to tell the truth about this war and now, as an American, I feel obligated to try my utmost best to erase this unjust stain smeared upon the US military annals by the bold-faced Vietnamese communist leaders in North Viet Nam. Now, Id like to address the following 5 issues: 1 Was Ho C Minh a true patriot who ousted the French & restored independence for VN as portrayed by some Western writers and historians? 2 Who started the war in VN & was it immoral that the United States should not have gotten involved? 3 How did the United States and the RVN fight the communist invaders in VN? 4 Were the US Armed Forces defeated by the N. Vietnamese Communists in VN and what were the causes that led to the demise of the Republic of South VN?
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5 Were people in South VN happy with the North Vietnamese liberators after the socalled liberation of the South in April 1975? Let me begin with the first one: Was Ho C Minh a nationalist patriot who ousted the French & restored independence for VN as portrayed by some Western writers and historians? As I said previously, was born and grew up in Ha Noi, North VN. Three months prior to my 10th birthday the Japanese forces in Indochina staged a surprise attack & overthrew the French Colonists, not Ho Chi Minh. The following day the Japanese envoy granted Viet Nam her independence within Japans Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. By and large, most Vietnamese were excited and happy although it was not exactly the kind of independence they had hoped for but at least the French colonists were ousted. For in the past, many patriotic groups had struggled to expel the French but all failed. While the Vietnamese were enjoying their superficial independence, the US dropped two atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945 forcing Japan to surrender unconditionally on August 14, 1945. The capitulation of Japan created an anarchy state in Viet Nam. Ho Chi Minh promptly exploited the situation and used his armed propaganda units embedded in Ha Noi and seized power. On August 28, 1945, Ho formally declared the country to be the Democratic Republic of VN, an independent nation and proclaimed himself President and Minister of Foreign Affairs concurrently. The following week, Ho had his cadres convened a meeting at the Ba Dinh Square to introduce his government and cite the Declaration of Independence. I was a 10 yearold Vanguard Youth Troop and I was present with my group to sing patriotic songs in this historic event. Shortly after becoming President of the Democratic Republic of VN, Ho showed his true color as a vicious communist and a traitor. Ho overzealously followed communists doctrine. Between 1953 to 1956, Ho launched the inhumane Land Reform Campaign that viciously slaughtered at least from 60,000 to 150,000 landowners that they labeled as wicked landlords and about 50,000 to 100,000 were imprisoned. With his death squads, Ho viciously liquidated his compatriot political opponents if these people were nationalists or non-communist patriots. On March 6,1946, Ho compromised & signed an agreement allowing French forces to return to Viet Nam for five years and, in return, France would recognize his government. Hos devious move angered all nationalist Vietnamese patriots and they viewed Ho as a traitor to the cause of the revolution. And the honeymoon between Ho Chi Minh and the French did not last long. In Nov of 1946, a French ship bombarded Hai Phong, a coastal city in North VN. This incident and many subsequent clashes between French and Hos forces led to the Dien Bien Phu battle in the Northwest of Ha Noi in 1953. Dien Bien Phu garrison was set up by French Gen. Navarre, to lure Hos forces into a set piece battle so they could destroy them with air power and artillery. But Navarre did not know that Ho Chi Minh received
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substantial logistical supplies from communist China including technicians and military advisors. It was later revealed that Hos forces had more artillery than the French and they even had the deadly Stalin Organs rocket launchers from the Soviet Union. Hos forces outgunned the French and numerically outnumbered the French defenders by five to one. By May 7, 1954, DBP fell into the hands of the communist attackers. The fall of Dien Bien Phu forced the French to sign an agreement in Geneva on July 21, 1954 dividing Viet Nam into two countries at the 17th parallel. North VN remained under Ho Chi Minh as the Democratic Republic of VN and south of the 17th parallel was a separate non-communist country under Bao Dai & Ngo Dinh Diem. Now the second issue: Who started the war in VN & was it immoral that the U.S. should not have gotten involved? If Ho had been a true patriot, he should have contented with the independence that VN inherited bloodlessly at the departure of the Japanese after they were defeated by the US. He must have known that he was very lucky to be at the right place at the right time to, all of a sudden, have become president of the Democratic Republic of VN. Under the circumstances, Ho should have concentrated all his efforts and committed all available resources into rebuilding the war-ravaged country and reviving the dying economy in North VN. He should have fulfilled the attractive slogan Independence Freedom Happiness that he had used to mobilize millions young Vietnamese patriots who were willing to fight and die for. In principle, the Geneva Accords of July 1954 had afforded VN her independence with two political regimes similar to Germany or Korea. What most Vietnamese had been longing for had been achieved, not having to live under French colonial rule. If Ho had not been too greedy wanting to gobble up the RVN by force, both countries, the DRV and the RVN would have been peaceful and prosperous. There would have been no war. But it was unfortunate for the Vietnamese people on both sides to have such an evil man like Ho Chi Minh. And with military supports from communist China and the Soviet Union, Ho started to attack and invade South Viet Nam. To stop communist expansion in Indochina at the time, not only the US but the free world also jumped in to help South VN. Apparently, the US did not invade South VN as propagated by the N. Vietnamese communist propaganda machine. And clearly, it was Ho Chi Minh and the communists from the North that caused both wars in Viet Nam. In my opinion, the US and the freeworld involvement in Viet Nam to help a small country in their legitimate self-defense was not only Just but also Noble. The 3rd issue: How did the US and the RVN fight the communist invaders in VN? Based on my own experience coupled with the benefit of hindsight substantiated by declassified secret documents Im certain that we did not fight the communist invaders from North Viet Nam the way it should have been fought, both militarily & politically!
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On the military front, President Johnson's limited war policy, his desultory strategy and his micromanagement of the war detrimentally affected the outcome of the war and the destiny of South VN. While our cunning enemy could use every dirty trick to destroy us and to kill us, we had to abide by the Rules of Engagement. In March 1967, South VN Premier Nguyen Cao Ky had a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in Guam. In this meeting Premier Ky asked President Johnson to equip the Vietnamese Armed Forces properly, provide adequate logistical support and he would lead a counter attack in North VN with 100% South Vietnamese forces. This would most likely compel North Viet Nam leaders to retreat their regular forces from the South to defend their territory or they would face the risk of losing the war. But Premier Kys proposal was flatly denied. President Johnsons limited war policy truly tied the hands of the Armed Forces of the RVN. When the NVA was equipped with AK 47 and AK 50, the ARVN were still using WW2 Garand M1, Carbine and Thompson automatic rifle. The South Vietnamese Air Force was equipped with WW2 prop-jobs like A1-H Skyraider, North American made trainer like T-28 Trojan converted into light fighter/bomber when the North Vietnamese communist Air Force were flying Mig 15, Mig 17, Mig 19 and Mig 21. Not until mid-1967 that the VNAF were given jet aircraft, the Northrop F-5A which was the T-38 Talon, a trainer converted into fighter & in 1969 the VNAF received the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, a small jet trainer T-37, to replace the A1-H Skyraider. The ARVN had no authority to conduct air or ground operations north of the DMZ. After the Gulf of Tonkin crisis in August 1964, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strike in North Viet Nam and the VNAF was not allowed to participate. When the communist attacked Bien Hoa Air Base in South VN in November 1964, President Johnson allowed the VNAF to partake in the air strike against North Viet Nam for the first time on February 8, 1965. However, the target was selected by the US and assigned to the VNAF. Additionally, the VNAF was restricted to fly only up to the 19th parallel. In the following year, the VNAF was completely banned from flying strike missions above the DMZ. When President Richard M. Nixon sworn in as the 37th President of the United States and the 5th US President handling the VN War, his inauguration speech appeared to offer the communist politburo in Ha Noi a tacit proposal that he wanted to end the war through negotiation. This is what he said in the middle of his speech and I quote: After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation. Let all nations know that during this administration our lines of communication will be open. End of quote. In June 1969, Pres. Nixon unilaterally decided to begin the first troop withdrawal from VN as part of the Vietnamization plan. All these suggested to Ha Noi that the US no longer wanted to pursue a military victory. On the political warfare front, the U.S., in my opinion, was in disadvantaged position. The freedom and democracy that we treasure was also a double-edged sword that really hurt our cause. For example; the tyrannical regime of NVN aligned well with the PRC and the Soviet Union. They did not have an influential TV news anchor like uncle
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Walter Cronkite who distorted the truth and publicly announced on Feb 27, 1968, and I quote: It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. End of quote. They did not have a horde of hostile war reporters to sully & denounce their military. They had no freedom of assembly allowing their citizens to gather in large number to organize antiwar or to protest against their government. They did not have celebrity like Jane Fonda or former high ranking government official like former US Atty General Ramsey Clark to smear them while praising the enemy. They had no antiwar movements in Hanoi, in Peking or in the Soviet Union. Under the public eyes, they appeared to have a very stable & united rear base. Because of increasing political turmoil & antiwar movements in the US, the politburo in Ha Noi believed they would win the war, not in the battlefield, but from Washington D.C. On the diplomatic front, the Peoples RC and the Soviet Union, two major allies who generously provided military and economic support to HCM in North VN dealt with Ho, at least publicly, very cleverly and diplomatically while the U.S treated their SVN ally like their pawn. It was no secret that from U.S officials in Washington DC to the U.S Embassy in Saigon, more than often, treated their Vietnamese ally with an imperious and arrogant attitude. When President Nixon eagerly wanted to achieve his Peace with Honor plan, he forcefully coerced the RVN to sign the Paris Peace Accords even though it was flawed and favored the communist. The undiplomatic behavior of the U.S coupled with the presence of over half a million combat troops in SVN strengthened HCMs propaganda claiming that the American Imperialists were invading our country and we must liberate the South to save our fatherland. Evidently, the U.S offered the just cause to HCM, the cruel invader. The 4th issue: Were the US Armed Forces defeated by the N.Vietnamese Communists in VN and what were the causes that led to the demise of the Republic of South VN? Regardless of how the communist propaganda machine in Ha Noi shamelessly and unconvincingly propagated, my answer is a resounding NO!!! These indisputable facts are very difficult to deny or dispute: 1- Anyone with a minimum understanding of the war in Viet Nam would acknowledge that US politicians forced the RVN to sign a deadly Peace Accords along with the US on Jan 27, 1973 in Paris to end the conflict politically. To get the Republic of SVN to sign the Peace Accords, Pres. Nixon promised President Thieu of South Viet Nam in his Jan 5, 1973 letter as follows, and I quote: you have my assurance of continued assistance in the post-settlement period and that we will respond with full force should the settlement be violated by North Viet Nam. But his promises were nullified after his resignation on August 4, 1974, and Gerald R. Ford became the 38th President of the US and the sixth US President handling the war in Viet Nam.
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2- And two months following the signing of this Paris Peace Accords, Mar 29,1973 to be exact, the last U.S combat troop left South Viet Nam. 3- After the U.S troops had completely left the theater, South Viet Nam Armed Forces continued to fight the well-supplied, better-equipped North Vietnamese invaders for a little over two years after the Paris Peace Accords and finally collapsed on April 30, 1975. How could the bold-faced communists of North Viet Nam brag about defeating the U.S militarily when there was not a single U.S troop on the battlefield in Viet Nam? 4- The main reason leading to the fall of South VN was the balance of power was too lopsided in favor of North VN. Less than five months after the signing of the flawed Paris Peace Accords, U.S Congress passed the Case-Church Amendment forbidding any further US military involvement in SEA effective August 15, 1973. In Sept 1974, U.S Congress cut military aid to the RVN to the bone while NVN received increased logistical supports from the PRC and the Soviet Union. On Dec 13, 1974, North Viet Nam tested Americas intent toward Viet Nam by attacking Phuoc Long City in South VN. President Ford only protested diplomatically against this blatant violation of the Accords. In a press conference on January 21, 1975, President Ford said: the U.S is unwilling to re-enter the war. Clearly the US gave Ha Noi a green light to invade and take over South VN. 38 years have gone by since the collapse of the Republic of SVN. I believe it is only fair to ask: Would other Armed Forces do any better under the conditions that faced the South Vietnamese in 1975? Would any military unit fight well with broken vehicles and communications, a crippled medical system, shortage of fuel and ammunition, and little or no air support against a powerful, well-supplied and confident enemy? Ladies and gentlemen, you are the judge. And now the last one: Were people in South VN happy with the North Vietnamese liberators after the so-called liberation of the South in April 1975? At long last, the whole world has come to know that the North Vietnamese communist invaders were very cunning and clever. They knew how to shield the brutal bloodbath from the curiosity and scrutiny of the world. A network of hard-labor death camps were established and camouflaged under a nice and civilized name: Re-education Camps. These camps were places where the communist victors could exact their most fiendish revenge against those of the former regime they labeled lackeys of the US Imperialists owing a blood debt to the Vietnamese people. Another inhumane invention the victors from North Viet Nam created following their invasion of the South was nicely called: New Economic Zone. These New Economic Zones were set up in the wilderness, virgin jungles barely tolerable living conditions with serious threat of malaria disease. I have met many former officers of the ARVN who were incarcerated by the communist conquerors in these re-education camps. One of them was my classmate in OCS flight training with the USAF in 1958 in Texas & Florida. According to various reports on
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human rights corroborated by these former re-education camps inmates, the North Vietnamese conquerors inhumanely forced inmates to perform hard labor but provided them minimum amount of food and no medical care. Many inmates starved to death and others were left to die slowly and painfully from diseases. Discipline in the camp was so brutal and inhumane. My Air Force friend was locked up in a metal connex under the sun where the temperature could easily reach 110 degrees only because he refused to sign a confession prepared by the prison wardens describing the war crimes my friend committed with the American imperialists against the people of Viet Nam. While military officers, bureaucrats, politicians, religious and labor leaders, intellectuals and lawyers or critics of the new regime were imprisoned in re-education camps, their family members were denied food ration card, education and job opportunity and were forced to move to New Economic Zones. There they were subjected to harsh physical labor, including land reclamation and agriculture work, because all the New Economic Zones were supposed to be self-sufficient. In reality the New Economic Zones were not prepared for the huge influx of urbanites & the living conditions were exceptionally harsh. The camps had woefully poor infrastructure, no tools, no seeds for crops or farm equipment and no health services. The internees were also forced to undergo political indoctrination classes. Unprepared and unskilled at making a living in the harsh rural interior, a large number of urbanites fled VN in what became known as the exodus of the boat people. There are two living stories that truly reveal the kind of freedom & democracy in South VN under the regime of the North Vietnamese liberators and their cleverly camouflaged bloodbath after the fall of SVN. The first one is from Truong Nhu Tang, the founder of the NLF in South VN. The NLF was a military and political arm created by Ha Noi in the early sixties as a faade to deceive the world that the war in South Viet Nam was a liberation war between political dissidents of the South against their government. After the war Mr. Truong became Minister of Justice of the Provisional Revolutionary Government. In his memoir published in the U.S in 1985 titled A Viet Cong Memoir An Inside Account of the Viet Nam War and its Aftermath, he dedicated the book as follows: Quote: To my mother and father. And to my betrayed comrades, who believed they were sacrificing themselves for a humane liberation of their people. End quote. According to the author, two of his brothers were victims of the communist reeducation system. His elder brother, a MD, was Director of Saigon General Hospital and Advisor on Health Policies to the Nationalist Party. His younger brother was Head of the Foreign Exchange Division of the National Bank. On June 16, 1975, Mr. Truong personally drove his two brothers to the re-education reporting point with everything they would need for a 30-day stay including their own food as stipulated by the directive. Through connection and persistent efforts, he was able to get his younger brother out after four months but his elder brother was still being incarcerated somewhere in a more secure camp in North VN at the time he wrote his memoir in
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1985. In the last paragraph of the foreword of his book, the disillusioned high-ranking member of the NLF has this to say. Quote: The West knows, I think, extraordinarily little about the Viet Cong, its plan, its difficulties, especially its inner conflicts. The circumstances of war and the great care taken to conceal its workings combined to mask the revolution in secrecy. But the Viet Cong was no monolith, the motives of its members often clashed, violently. And many of us who composed its political core have felt that its goals were, in the end, subverted. The human motives, the internal struggle, the bitter resolution, these are the things I have attempted to record here. End quote. The second story is from Bui Tin, a more familiar and popular name in America in the early 1990s. Bui Tin joined the communist party since 1945 when he was 18 probably because his father was a close friend with Ho Chi Minh. He was an Army officer in the Dien Bien Phu battle in 1954 and in the subsequent years he became a war reporter and then Deputy Editor of the official party daily newspaper Nhan Dan which is The People in English. When South VN fell, Col Bui Tin was the highest-ranking NVA officer who was present and met Gen. Big Minh at the Independence Palace on April 30, 1975. After the illegal invasion of the South under the deceptive patriotic slogan Liberation of the South, Bui Tin had the opportunity to see and witness the real living condition of the people in South VN with his own eyes and he became disillusioned. According to various sources Bui Tin defected in 1989 and lived in France. Since his defection he debunked some of the myths about the great Uncle Ho and critically denounced the communist regime he once naively, blindly and conscientiously served. This is what he said about Ho Chi Minh in Lubbock, Texas and I quote: The tale about Ho Chi Minh being a great thinker with a simple life, full of virtues, taking pains to improve himself through continuous learning and practice, casting away all his personal pleasures of life in the interests of the nation, has recently reached a comic level, for the Hanoi authorities have tried to convince their own State-controlled Buddhist Association to canonize Ho Chi Minh as a `Buddha`. But the truth is coming out more and more every day with the passing of time. In complete contradiction with the image of Ho Chi Minh as a man dedicated to the welfare of his people, accepting the sacrifice of a lifetime of celibacy, it is now well-known that Ho Chi Minh got married in Hong Kong, lived together for some time with Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, had numerous mistresses at various places where he passed through, had offspring out of wedlock, and, worse still, he completely ignored his former wedded wife, Tang Tuyet Minh, who went to great pains and tried in vain to contact her husband after he had become President of the country. In Bui Tins book titled From Enemy to Friend this is what Col. Bui has to say about South VN after the so-called liberation by the North: I was a witness to what happened in the South after April 1975. I lived in Saigon for 4 consecutive years, going to Hanoi only occasionally. My mission was to organize the Southern Edition of Quan Doi Nhan Dan and to gather information for this newspaper while based in the South. The Southern population had just had time to reassure itself that there would be no bloodbath or peoples courts set up at every street corner when a series of chilling
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measures was suddenly launched. The officers and government workers of the old regime, members of old political parties, and many others were ordered to report for rehabilitation or reeducation, which turned out to be imprisonment for an indefinite period! On the 33rd anniversary of the fall of South VN known as Black April Bui Tin openly said, quote: Today I am ready to raise my voice and let all of the people hear clearly: Our nation Vietnam was not liberated after 4-30-75, nor was it unified. On April 30th the Communist Party won, but all of the people lost, to be ruled from that point on by a one-party dictatorship. The Communist Party then implemented a policy of dominant occupation in the South, arresting millions of people and seizing property, discarding the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation, and brought about the tragic scene of millions of boat people fleeing the country. Is this liberation? Is this unification? After 4-30-1975, the Communist Party monopolized authority, not allowing freedom of assembly, the press, or elections. Is this what is called national liberation? Is this freedom? End of quote. In conclusion, I am sure the legacy of the VN war will be indelible in the mind of many Americans, especially the VN Vets. And the pros and cons, right or wrong of that war will always be debatable depending on whom you talk to. However, if you talk to this old Vietnamese veteran, you can rest assured I have no hidden agenda or personal ambition to stretch the truth. In fact, my only dream is to honestly voice the truth to set the records straight. And ladies & gentlemen, the honest truth has always been: - Unlike some Western scholars, historians & writers who were either nave or ignorant to portray Ho Chi Minh as a nationalist, a patriot, a Vietnamese George Washington, an Asian Tito when in reality Ho was a vicious, wicked communist, a dishonest and adulterous individual. And it was Ho who dragged Viet Nam into the long 30-year war from the North to the South. - The United State of America never invaded South Viet Nam. American Armed Forces were in Viet Nam to help the South Vietnamese in their legitimate self-defense against the Vietnamese communist invaders from the North. The war in VN was not immoral as the liberal mainstream news media, the draft dodger cowards and the left-leaning elements of the sixties in America tried to smear. - The shameless lie widely bragged by the propaganda machine from Ha Noi, North VN that they had defeated the US Armed Forces in the Viet Nam War to liberate South Viet Nam was nothing but a lie. Ladies & gentlemen, thank you very much for your time and your attention.