Binh Xuyen
Encyclopedia
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van "Bay" Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army
whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh. During its heyday, Binh Xuyen funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces.
The history of Binh Xuyen then should be described as that of two separate groups that at one time were under the command of Duong van Duong: Ba Duong's Troops (Bo Doi Binh Xuyen) and Bay Vien's Binh Xuyen.
On September 24, 1945, Le van Khoi "Ba Nho", one of Ba Duong's lieutenants supposedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian
civilians, including children, in Saigon without order from its leader. While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam, where the Communist-dominated Viet Minh
was strong enough to stand alone, in Cochin China, where the Binh Xuyen support was crucial, Ba Nho's action led to suppression from the returning French troops. The Cochin division of the Indochina Communist party (Dong Duong Cong San Nam Bo)were weakened by mass arrests and executions. A decision was made by the southern communist committee to put Ba Nho on trial. Ba Nho was tricked by Nguyen Binh into coming back to Phuoc An where he was given the guilty verdict and sentenced to death. Ba Nho requested to take his own life, to which he was granted.
In September 1945, Southern Communist party leaders (Tran van Giau, Nguyen van Tran, etc.) put Ba Duong in charge of the armed forces attacking southern Saigon, more commonly referred as Front number 4. For 2 months, Binh Xuyen troops relentlessly attacked and overran several French military facilities and posts. Despite their bravery, Duong's group eventually lost to the more disciplined and better-trained French Union troops. On November 20, 1945 to avoid being decimated by French counter-attacks, the Binh Xuyen troops withdrew to Rung Sac to regroup for future military operations.
In the next few months, Binh Xuyen troops expanded their operations toward the west of South Vietnam (zone 8). During these few months, they successfully took control of Go Cong, My tho and Ben Tre, the last province being where they established their new base. Duong, newly promoted by General Nguyen Binh in September to Deputy Commander of Zone 7, died in an air attack on February 16, 1946. Without its strong and capable leader, Duong's lieutenants started to disagree with each other on who would be the troops' new commander. Nguyen Binh, who had unsuccessfully tried to kill Binh Xuyen's new strong man Le van "Bay" Vien, would later stepped in to disband the Binh Xuyen in 1948.
In April 1946, Military Zone 7 appointed Nam Ha the Binh Xuyen's new commander. Bay Vien, upset with the decision, formed the Binh Xuyen Interzone (Lien Khu Binh Xuyen) with leaders and troops from 7 units. Despite the split, the Binh Xuyen remained quite united in the fight against the French. As Bay Vien's reputation grew, Nguyen Binh gave the order to kill Vien and suppressed his supporters. With 2 trusted companies, Bay Vien fought his way out of an assassination set up and surrendered to Savani, head of the Deuxieme Bureau
/SDECE
in Cochinchina. In June 1948, Bay Vien became Colonel in charge of the Binh Xuyen Auxiliary Forces, temporarily reporting to Tran van Huu, Deputy Premier in the provisional government of Vietnam and Governor of Nam Phan.
French officials in South Vietnam gave Vien full control of Saigon-Cho Lon with the stipulation that he wiped out the Communist infrastructure in the city. Bay Vien's knowledge of the Vietminh and his desire to destroy Nguyen Binh's troops in Saigon enabled him to destroy Communist forces in a very short time. The French colonial government rewarded Binh Xuyen's success by letting Bay Vien monopolize the trucking industry in South Vietnam and allowing the kingpin to operate as a warlord. Bay Vien himself was promoted to Major General after the operation to clear Route 15.
became the Head of State of the newly formed State of Vietnam
. To solve the problem of having to spread the Vietnamese National Army too thin in the war against the Vietminh, he decreed all non-communist military forces in the country as independent armies within the conventional army. Bay Vien, a former brigand and a revolutionary-turned-rallier, was given the rank of major general of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the QDQG Binh Xuyen. It was a good move because the Binh Xuyen was a self-funded army with revenues from legally-run brothels and casinos; Bay Vien used force to take the casinos from Macao
organized crime groups.
General Vien made arrangements with Bảo Đại
giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime, just as he had done so with the French colonial government. At the time of the short war in 1955 between the VNA Binh Xuyen and the regular VNA, Bay Vien had 5 regular battalions and 2 battalions of public security shock troops (Cong An Xung Phong).
The Binh Xuyen's military forces were mostly wiped out by the Vietnamese National Army
under Big Minh
's command in Operation Rung Sat in 1955. Bay Vien, the leader of the organization, exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
in May 1955. Major Le Paul, Bay Vien's son, was brutally killed after Big Minh had failed to demand a ransom from Bay Vien.
Vietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh. During its heyday, Binh Xuyen funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces.
Binh Xuyen, the land
Binh Xuyen was located in Nha Be, in the marshes and canals along the southern fringes of Saigon-Cholon. The harsh land, a "dog eats dog world", caused its population to do anything to survive. It was from this environment that gangs thrived.Formation
The Binh Xuyen groups first emerged in the early 1920s as a loosely organized coalition of gangs and contract laborers about two hundred to three hundred strong. Binh Xuyen's early history was an interminable cycle of kidnapping, piracy, pursuit, and occasionally imprisonment. One of the gang leaders was Duong van "Ba" Duong (Duong the 3rd), a kingpin in the Saigon-Cholon area with the reputation of being patriotic. Some of his lieutenants were Huynh van Tro (Muoi Tri), Duong van Ha (Nam Ha), Vo van Mon (Bay Mon) and Le van Vien (Bay Vien).The history of Binh Xuyen then should be described as that of two separate groups that at one time were under the command of Duong van Duong: Ba Duong's Troops (Bo Doi Binh Xuyen) and Bay Vien's Binh Xuyen.
Armed gangs from Binh Xuyen
From the 1920's to the mid 1930's, Nha Be was a haven for hundreds of armed gangs led by several leaders. Some were groups of gangsters picking on the helpless, while others robbed the rich, reportedly, to help the poor. Some of the well-known gangs at the time were:- Tran van "Ba" Hoang's gang was known for armed robbery of merchandise from all the docks in Saigon.
- Tran van "Sau" Doi was notorious for his protection services. In 1940, Sau Doi bribed port officials for sole protection of a lumberyard used by a pro-Japanese shipbuilding company in South Vietnam.
- Tran van "Sau" Tho's gang concentrated on kidnapping and extortion of rich families. Tho gained a reputation as the "Robin Hood" of Nha Be, one who often helped the oppressed and distributed some of his loot to the needy.
- Doan van "Ba" Ngoc and his brother "Bay" Gin operated brothels and provided protection to independent prostitutes in the Tan Thuan area.
- Nguyen van "Tam" Manh, a martial arts teacher, started the first organized crime unit in Saigon. In 1940, after joining the Communist Party, Tam Manh ordered his gang to cease all criminal activities and concentrate on helping the party in an upcoming uprising. Manh later brought his gang to join Ba Duong's Binh Xuyen Troops.
Ba Duong's Binh Xuyen (1940-1946)
Duong van "Ba" Duong was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants from Bến Tre. His mother remarried after his father's death and the family moved to Nha Be in the late 1920s, where Duong grew up to be a respected martial arts teacher. In 1936, Duong started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tay Ninh-Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon. By 1940, he had become a kingpin of South Vietnam. In 1943, Duong joined the Communist party. Always known by Saigonese as a patriot, in 1945 Duong stole weapons from the Japanese to arm his troops in order to fight the returning French forces. Bo Doi Ba Duong was one of the groups most feared by local French-trained militia. Mid-1945, the 2,000 armed men under different leaders in the Nha Be area elected Duong their commander. Together, they chose to name the newly formed unit, "Binh Xuyen Troops" (Bo Doi Binh Xuyen).Pacific War or From Outlaws to Revolutionaries
Fall 1929, after the formation of the southern Communist committee, Ngo Gia Tu ordered Chau van Ky to infiltrate the ranks of workers and manual laborers in Nha Be. By 1940, Ky with Nguyen van "Bay" Tran enlisted many gang leaders and their members, one of the most prominent was "Tam" Manh. After the botched Southern Uprising (Nam Ky Khoi Nghia), French authority brutally suppressed all opposition groups, including gangs suspected of supporting the Communists.On September 24, 1945, Le van Khoi "Ba Nho", one of Ba Duong's lieutenants supposedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
civilians, including children, in Saigon without order from its leader. While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam, where the Communist-dominated Viet Minh
Viet Minh
Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pac Bo on May 19, 1941. The Việt Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from the French Empire. When the Japanese occupation began, the Việt Minh opposed Japan with support from the United States and the Republic of China...
was strong enough to stand alone, in Cochin China, where the Binh Xuyen support was crucial, Ba Nho's action led to suppression from the returning French troops. The Cochin division of the Indochina Communist party (Dong Duong Cong San Nam Bo)were weakened by mass arrests and executions. A decision was made by the southern communist committee to put Ba Nho on trial. Ba Nho was tricked by Nguyen Binh into coming back to Phuoc An where he was given the guilty verdict and sentenced to death. Ba Nho requested to take his own life, to which he was granted.
In September 1945, Southern Communist party leaders (Tran van Giau, Nguyen van Tran, etc.) put Ba Duong in charge of the armed forces attacking southern Saigon, more commonly referred as Front number 4. For 2 months, Binh Xuyen troops relentlessly attacked and overran several French military facilities and posts. Despite their bravery, Duong's group eventually lost to the more disciplined and better-trained French Union troops. On November 20, 1945 to avoid being decimated by French counter-attacks, the Binh Xuyen troops withdrew to Rung Sac to regroup for future military operations.
In the next few months, Binh Xuyen troops expanded their operations toward the west of South Vietnam (zone 8). During these few months, they successfully took control of Go Cong, My tho and Ben Tre, the last province being where they established their new base. Duong, newly promoted by General Nguyen Binh in September to Deputy Commander of Zone 7, died in an air attack on February 16, 1946. Without its strong and capable leader, Duong's lieutenants started to disagree with each other on who would be the troops' new commander. Nguyen Binh, who had unsuccessfully tried to kill Binh Xuyen's new strong man Le van "Bay" Vien, would later stepped in to disband the Binh Xuyen in 1948.
First Indochina War (Binh Xuyen divided)
After Ba Duong's death, his lieutenants split into three groups:- Supporters of Ba Duong's half-brother, Duong van "Nam" Ha.
- Backers for Le van "Bay" Vien in his bid as the new commander.
- Those who remained neutral in the power struggle.
In April 1946, Military Zone 7 appointed Nam Ha the Binh Xuyen's new commander. Bay Vien, upset with the decision, formed the Binh Xuyen Interzone (Lien Khu Binh Xuyen) with leaders and troops from 7 units. Despite the split, the Binh Xuyen remained quite united in the fight against the French. As Bay Vien's reputation grew, Nguyen Binh gave the order to kill Vien and suppressed his supporters. With 2 trusted companies, Bay Vien fought his way out of an assassination set up and surrendered to Savani, head of the Deuxieme Bureau
Deuxième Bureau
The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany...
/SDECE
Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage
The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage was France's external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure...
in Cochinchina. In June 1948, Bay Vien became Colonel in charge of the Binh Xuyen Auxiliary Forces, temporarily reporting to Tran van Huu, Deputy Premier in the provisional government of Vietnam and Governor of Nam Phan.
French officials in South Vietnam gave Vien full control of Saigon-Cho Lon with the stipulation that he wiped out the Communist infrastructure in the city. Bay Vien's knowledge of the Vietminh and his desire to destroy Nguyen Binh's troops in Saigon enabled him to destroy Communist forces in a very short time. The French colonial government rewarded Binh Xuyen's success by letting Bay Vien monopolize the trucking industry in South Vietnam and allowing the kingpin to operate as a warlord. Bay Vien himself was promoted to Major General after the operation to clear Route 15.
General Le van Vien and the National Army of Vietnam
In 1949, Emperor Bảo ĐạiBảo Đài
Bảo Đài is a commune and village in Lục Nam District, Bac Giang Province, in northeastern Vietnam.-References:...
became the Head of State of the newly formed State of Vietnam
State of Vietnam
The State of Vietnam was a state that claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, and replaced the Provisional Central Government of Vietnam . The provisional government was a brief transitional administration between colonial Cochinchina and an independent state...
. To solve the problem of having to spread the Vietnamese National Army too thin in the war against the Vietminh, he decreed all non-communist military forces in the country as independent armies within the conventional army. Bay Vien, a former brigand and a revolutionary-turned-rallier, was given the rank of major general of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the QDQG Binh Xuyen. It was a good move because the Binh Xuyen was a self-funded army with revenues from legally-run brothels and casinos; Bay Vien used force to take the casinos from Macao
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
organized crime groups.
General Vien made arrangements with Bảo Đại
Bảo Đài
Bảo Đài is a commune and village in Lục Nam District, Bac Giang Province, in northeastern Vietnam.-References:...
giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime, just as he had done so with the French colonial government. At the time of the short war in 1955 between the VNA Binh Xuyen and the regular VNA, Bay Vien had 5 regular battalions and 2 battalions of public security shock troops (Cong An Xung Phong).
The Binh Xuyen's military forces were mostly wiped out by the Vietnamese National Army
Vietnamese National Army
On March 8, 1949, after the Elysee accords, the State of Vietnam was recognized by France as an independent country ruled by Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại. The Vietnamese National Army or Vietnam National Army was the State of Vietnam's military force created shortly after that. It was commanded by...
under Big Minh
Duong Van Minh
Minh was born on 16 February 1916 in Mỹ Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, the son of a wealthy landowner who served in a prominent position in the Finance Ministry of the French colonial administration...
's command in Operation Rung Sat in 1955. Bay Vien, the leader of the organization, exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
in May 1955. Major Le Paul, Bay Vien's son, was brutally killed after Big Minh had failed to demand a ransom from Bay Vien.
Vietnam War (Aftermath)
Many of the defeated fighters of the Binh Xuyen followed their leaders (Bay Mon, Hai Vinh, Bay Ro, etc.) to join the Vietcong. From the ranks of the surrendered: some joined South Vietnam's regular armed forces, such as Tu Ben (Bay Vien's son-in-law) while others returned to a normal civilian life.Newsreel
- Indochina: Saigon after the combats (rushes) French news archives, ORTF, May 10, 1955
External links
- Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960 The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Boston: Beacon Press, 1971
- Ben Tre Province's website: Biography of General Duong van Duong
- Sects, Drugs and Warrior Monks: Auxiliary Forces of the French in Vietnam: 1945-1954
- Bộ Đội Bình Xuyên Brief History of Binh Xuyen
- The Binh Xuyen: Order and Opium in Saigon