JPRS ID: 10250 VIETNAM REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: JPRS
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00850R000500020019-4
• Release Decision: RIF
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 17
• Document Creation Date: November 1, 2016
• Sequence Number: 19
• Content Type: REPORTS

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JPRS L/10250
11 January 1982
- Vietnar~ Re ort
_ p
CFOUO 1/82~
.
~ Fg~$ FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
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;~i
NOTE
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Unfamiliar aames rendered phonetically or tranalit~rated are
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original but have been supplied ae appropriate in context.
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~ The coatente oP this publication in no way repra~~nt ~hc poii~~
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CO~~~~~ ~lW~ ~~~~,~~~~I~ ~@V~~1~~1@ @W~~~~~~ @F
MA~~~~~,~ ~~~~9~T~~~~ ~~~~~~t ~~~~~M~~i~~~@~V
OF ~H~S ~U~~~~~ON ~b ~~T~~~~~~ ~@~ @~~~~~~ U/~ 0~~.
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JPRS L/10250 ~
~ 11 January 1982
- VIET~lAM REPORT ~
tFOVO ~/s2~
CO~fT~MTS .
, VIETNAM
'Voluntary' Rzhabilitation in Concentration Campe Uescribed
(Rene Le van Duc Ynterview; PARIS MATGH, 20 Nov S1) 1
i
~
x:
- a - [III - ASIA - 110 FOUO]
, . - ~
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VI~aTNAl~t
,
'V6LUNTARY' REHABILITATION IN CONCEIQTRATION CAI~'3 DESCRIBF.~
Paris PARIS MATCH in French 20 Nov 81 pp 3-10
[Report on interview wit:~ .cene Le van Duc bq Jean Larteguy; c~ate and place not given]
[Text] In the concentration campa of North a~d South Vietnam,
250,000 "voluntary" grisone~rs are discoverrag '!rehabil~tation":
Psychological tarture is ~ust as effective ae physical torture.
� ~ne Le van Duc, 61 years old, a form.er French attorney and.a
. colonel in the "puppet army," who admitted.to h;a 3ailers that
- he had be~n invol~;ed in anticommunist activities, has experi-
enced the hell of these camps. He was released because he was ~
"old and sick" and too weak to take part ia any active reaist- ~
ance. The fact that he was in contact with ~o Chi Minh via the
French at the time of the Paris negotiations no doubt facilitated
_ his release. He talks a~out his st~y in camps in the commuaist
North and describes the me"hoda used ta break dowa bodies and souls.
I, Rene Le van Duc, a former colonel in che puppet army, know my biography by heart.
I can recite it. I was forced to write it at leaet 30 times in the vgrious camps
where I was a prisoner. But I never changed its details. For a very simple reason:
I had written it in French, a friend had translated it into Vietnamese for me and
I was forced to always use the same phrases, which had been transcrxbed in a notebook ~
t;iat I always kept with me.
- In the world of the Vietcong, there are two reasons for such perpetual self-criticism.
One is rational and obvious. The Vietnamese do not have photocopies and every agency
- must hav~ a complete file on every individual, whether or not he is suspect.
The other reason is Machiavellian. The can-bo, the cadres, always hope that a
prisouer, who is therefore guilty, wtll charage a date, a sentence or a single word
from one confession to the next. Then he w:tll be caught and forced to confess what~
e~�~er, that he broke the vase nf Soissons or raped one of the Trung sisters (Vietnamese
national heroines, 44 a.d.). I would have gladlq embellished those biographies
with racy stnries, but the can-bo wouldn't have appreciated it.
Their trage~y was that they were so limited and molded by the system that you could
_ not even re.sent them for it. Can you blame insects for stinging you because that's
~1,
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the way they are made? Can you blame a robot *_hat ha.s been programmed to relent-
lessly try to destroy you?
During the month and a half following the fall of Saigon aad the rebirth of Ao Chi
Minh City, the cammuaists did not ask me anything. I managed the Hotel Continental
for my first cousin, Philippe Franchini.
On 16 June, after all ~ournalists had been sent back to their various couatries
of origin and those annoying witnesses were gone, the hotel was tur~ed over to the
people, i.e., to the new goverriment. In any case, the last customers had flad.
WhiLe returning home one evening, I learned that the first decrees on rehabilita-
- ~ion had ~ust been published. For privates in the army, such reha'.~tlitation would
- be limited to 3 days locally; for 3unior officers, to 10 days; for higher and general
officers, to 1 month, but in the camps. I considered myself to be ~ust a civilian
~aho had been discharged long ago. A can-bo from tre chairman's office aut~orized
me to go through the 3oday course, along with my secretaries, stenographers and
orderlies. The course was uninteresting gLbberish.~ For 2 days the can~bo told
us w~y they won the war: thanks to the spontaneous uprieing of the people of Saigon.
- I was in Saigon and I had never heard of this uprising. It was sbsurd. They didn't
ask us to believe it but to pretend to admit what is naw the new truth.
They said the same thing about the 1968 Tet, when the entir~ population of the
_ southern capital had risen up and had been crushed by the Amer.ican.imperialists.
rotally false! There was no uprising: the Vietcong fought alone. ~
I had thus just entered the disconcerting world of lies, where tryi~~ to stick to �
. historical truth can cost you 1(1 years in a concentration camp.
On the rhird day, a can-bo told us that all former officers had to report to Office
No. 7. I had high hopes. The number seven was always my luclcy n~ber when I bet .
at the races.
Actually, I had bet on one hell of a nag th~.t day. At Office No. 7, I was given
a slip of paper telling me that the revolution wsa granting me "the favor of pro-
Songing my rehabilitation by 1 month."
This still wasn't a disaster, I thought, if only 1 m~nth of chatter was all that
was required to put me right with our new masters. Like all my comrades, I let
myself be fooled. Without formally assuring urs tha~ this rehabilitation would last
- exactly 1 month, we were asked to provide, in addition to a mosquito net and a few
personal effects, the sum of 6,750 piastres (which had not yet been changed to the
new dongs) to pay for our food; that would be our share of *_he expenses, which were
250 piastres a day. It was.only necessary to divide the amount: our ~tay had been
planned for only 30 days.
- Reassured of this, I voluntarily went to the camp to which I had been assigned.
It was ironic that it was the former camp for Vietcong prisoners at Tam N~.ep near
Bien Hoa, where there were only soldiers or former soldiers (nearly 6,000), from
second lieutenants to lieutenant colonels. Calonels and generals were sent to
Quang Trung, near Saigon.
, ~2
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The Vietcong said that having worn the uniform of the puppet armX, if only for a
- single day, was enaugh to be guilty of a crime against the masses. And there I
was, a cri.minal, lost in that crowd, guarded bq bodoi. We were counted and assigned
n~bers. We were fed more or less properly: 600 grams of rice, boiled vegetables
and dried fish.
On the ninth day, we were awakened in the middle of the night. We were being moved.
- Naively, I thought that we were being sent back to Saigon, or ra~her, to Ho Chi
Minh City.
We were transferred on foot t~ another camp at Song Mau (River of Blood), dominating
the Bien Hoa airstrip.
At the end of 3 weeks, after readin,g my first confession, they learned that I was
the only high-ranking officer there. I was transferred by truEk to the Long-~Giao
camp; the quarters of the 18th division, the one which performed g].ori.ously at Xuan
Loc under the orders of General Le Minh Dao, who is still rotting in prison in a
camp. If all the other divisions had ~one as much!
I must confess, witri much sadness, that besides the off~.cers who had fought courage-
ously and never talked ~bout the war, as though they had been knoeked sen~eless,
others had become sad cases, embezzlers, cowards, informers who stole fram each
~ other. Myself, an incurable civilian sickened by their attitude, I stated during
; a public session of self-criticism that it wasn't necessary to look very far for
the reasons for our defeat. I said that it was us, the officers, who were to blame
! as much as the Americans or our leaders.
i
One month and then two passed, when we were s~pposed to be released at the end of
30 days. But we understood very quickly that there was no 3.onger any question of
~ that.
~ At Long-Giao, Z finally experienced tha benef its of rehabilitation.
; There were lU0 of us in each hut, divided into groups of 10. We slept on mats laid
j on a low ledge running along the side of the hut.
i
- We rose at 5 am. Exercises, work details (such as chopping wood); most of the time
; we didn't do a dsmn thing. Rations diminished. At 10 am, the first meal: 200
grams of rice, cups of water and the same thing in the evening at 5 pm. From time
~ to time, a liCtle dried or fresh fish: about a mouthful.
I '
Everyone was d3ing of hunger. Having the appetite of a bird, I suffered less than
my comrades.
Things got worse later. Ou the pretext of saving wood, the two meals were taken
closer together: zhe first at 10 am, the second 4 hours later. T'ne result: our
- stomachs stayed empty for 20 hours.at a time. Unbearable!
' This was a tact3.ca1 measure, of course, but let's gat back to the rehabilitation.
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The complete course included 10 lessons, with each lesson lasting 1 week. The same
teacher conducted each lesson; he was a kind of itinerant parrot monk, carrying
the gospel from camp to camp. He alwaqs came from North nietnam. Everything was
- programmed; nothing was left to improvisation or to imagination. ;

~ These were the topics of the 10 lessons: the puppet govsrnment's leaders and their
crimes; military leaders, other criminals; the American imperialists; the Vietnam~se
people's vic~orious struggle; their ancient, heroic traditions; their war against
the imperialists; the stages in the victory of the masses (even if they~weren'ti
there); redemption through work, which is "glorious"; Vietnam is a bEautiful, rich,
powerful, prosperous country (even if people are dyi~~ of hunger there) There
were two 3-hour courses daily, one in the morning and t~e other in the afternoon. ~
' There were 500 of us, assembled in a large hall, writing nearly 20 pages on our
knees in each session. For me, these 20 pages constituted a dual labor because !
, of my poor kn~wledge of the language. ~
Those were my first lessons in Vietnamese. I had forgotten everything; at least ~
I managed to learn my native language.
- But I paid dearly for those lessons; when I was released, I weighed 34 kg and had
lost some of my teeth from malnutrition. My comrades, who wsre often stroag,
athletic young officers, suffered from huager to such an extent that they were no
longer able to sleep. .
We drifted in a world that was as unreal as the description which we were given
of our country's history. -
Thus there were 6 hours of ind~ctr3nation for 3 days. Then diseussion sessions
for 3 more days. The can-bo asked four questions about the lesson given--not a
_ single one more--and every lesson had to be discussed for a half-day, with each
one of us obliged to give ov:r opinion. For example: the crimes of Vietnameae offi-
~ cers against the revolution, the people and the Vietnamese homeland.
Without being concerned about the truth, we had to paraphrase indefinitely, but
in ~ariting. That was called the har.vest, which of course followed t~e planting ~
of the seed of truth.
- Then there was another discussion among ourselves, in groups of 10, whicY was
attended by a can-bo, who was impassive.and silent, always a northerner who con-
stantly took notes with a stiEf face devoid of all expression.
We were supposed to help each other make progress by asking each other questions.
In exceptional cases, the can-bo redirected the course of the discussion when it
- began to digress. Unforr.unately, such assistance sometimes seemed like a de~nunciation.
The can-bo very cleverly let us know that they knew everything about us.
Concerning the "crimes," my comrades often admitted more than was necessary. But
I tried 'nard to dampen their zeal.
Such as the commander of the third military region, who admitted that he had asked
= to head a aecret mission in which six important leaders of the Front had been killed
and othera talcen prisoner.
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The poor guy, stricken with panic, thought that the Vietcong were omniscient. But
- tney undoubtedly did not know about'that. The result: He underw~nt a severe in-
terrogation and gave them the names of ull his comrades. When he regained his wits,
he burst into tears. He had just clased the door to freedom oa himsel~E and on other
officers forever.
No torture, neither physical nor mental, was needed to nbtain such a result; nothing
_ except hungex and fear and a can-bo staring at you with empty eyes.
- The worst torture was still the uncertainty of our fate. Offieiall.y, and this is
true, we had gone to th~se rehabilitation camps voluntarily, but for 1 month, as
- we had been led ta understand. And the months went by. When someone asked a can-bo
how long our detention would last, he invariablq recited the text of a Iaw which
had ~ust been issued: "The legal 3uration of rehabilitation ia 3~years. But the
indulgent and humane revolution may permit those who, despite their past crimes,
are old or weak and those who ha~e made progress to be released b~fore tha.t time."
Implying that others (in good health) lacking enthusiasm would remain confined for
at least 3 years. And if they didn't reform, for an indefinite period.
Progress was evaluated according to two criteria: enthusiasm in learaiMg your lessons
and repenting for your faults. Everyone learned his leasons and ~epented in arder
to get good marks from the can-bo.
For nights on end, I thought about how to get out. To maintain this uncertainty
and the prisoners' zeal, the communists were necessarily obliged to release some
I of them. As an example. I had to be one of those men. My file had to be examined
and noticed; I had to be a special case.
So I mentioned, in one ot my "biographies," my interview with Ha Chi.Minh in 19!?6.
' I was called in twice. I had not lied in my biographies; I had ~ust added to tihem.
-i
_i For example: To the question, "Why did you enter the army?", my comrades replied:
; "We were mobilized" or "We enlisted in order to feed our families." But I wrote,
I despite ~he oppoaition of my translator friend, who maintained that I was putting
~ a rope around my neck: "I was French, reared in France from infancy in a religious
~ institution, the son of rich middle-claea parenta. In the Vietnamese Army, I earn~d
10 times less than if I had remained an attorney in Franae. I enlisted to fight
communism, which ~as logical, in view of my upbringing and social environment. I
I~ wanted to contribute to building an independent, but not oommunist, Vietnam."
- To such candor, I no dot~t~r owe the fact of having been considered special among
the mass of prisoners. My plan turned out to be right, but in the meantime I almost
d.ied.
My chronic bronchitis became worse. Weaker and ~ealier, I had come to think that
_ under those conditions life was no longer worth living. I stopped fighting. My
strength diminished very quickly. I could no longer even stand up and had to crawl
on all fours to my mat when my comrades didn't car~y me. '
It was then, after 4 months of detention, that the "masses" permitted us to write
to our families.
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Thinking that I was going to die and not wi,shing to give false hoges to those who
loved me, I refused to take part in tl~at evil comedy.
The can-bo collected the letters, counted them, and counted them again: 97, 98,
99 one was missin~. They found the culpxit; I was ~t. They tried to lecture
me. I didn't want to listen. I demanded that they leave me tt~ hell alonE and
leave me to die in my corner, among my comrades.
The can-bo were totally bewildered because such a case was unexpected. They re-
- ferred it to their superiors. I was taken against my will to ~he infirmary, where
there were no drugs. I persisted, still refusing t~~~ write the letter, 3amming
, the entire complex mechanism of the camp system. I~isturbed ~them. I became a
special ~ase: the one who had met Ho Chi Minh, who had died and become a god.
~I was that colonel who had never gone to war, that former Freach lawyer, one of
the few who dared to admit that he had engaged in anticommunist activities.
Nevertheless, they managed to find a rare and precious drug with which to treat
- me: 20 cc's of streptomycin, which they in3ected into me immediately in that in-
firmary, where it was impossible to find even a single aspirin tablet.
That's how I regained my strength and, at the same time, the desire to go on with
that experience.
Almost well, I was sent back to the Tam Niep camp in the company of hundr~eds of
lieutenant colonels.
I was unaware that there had been so many in the southern army. There were also two
catholic chaplains am~ng us. About a hundred of us would meet secretly on Sundays
in a hut during rest period to attend a mass that lasted barely 2Q minutes. Th~re
were 2 candles and a mustard ~ar which served as a chalice. We w~ere +~ven able to
take communion with a tiny piece of host. We had returned tQ the age of the cata-
_ combs. As for m~self, who had been a very lukewarm catholic until.then, I learned
again how to pray ~o God in such circumstances. And I continued to do so after
I was released.
While celehrating the holy sacrifice on Holy Thursday,.we were sur~riseil with shouts
and cocked rifles. The bodoi surrounded, threatened and insulted us and arrested
the two priests.
The prieats returned several hours later, looking crestfallen and avoiding conversa-
tion with their comrades. And there were no more masses.
Many prisoners thought of eacapi;~g. But they~ figured out how to make us forget
about that. Loudspeakers were installed throughout the camp one day. Until then,
we had been livin~ in an atmosphere of silence, I should say of reclusion, without
any contact with the outside world: no music or slogans.
The loudspeake~s started to crackle the next day at 7 am. They broadcast the trial,
within the camp, of two comrades who had escaped 5 months earlier and had been caugt~t
immediately. They had reaumed their usual liver~ among us and then suddenl-y, they
were confined in what served as a~ail--a conex, a container which had been used
by the Americans.
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It was a trial without any defense counsel, of courae. The men were accused of
belonging to the CIA and of trying to escape in order to ~oin underground saboteur
forces.
The verdict for the first ma~ was handed down at 11 am: death. There was a bdrst
of gunfire 5 minutes later. He had just been executed.
The second man's trial began at 1330; he had heard his friend's whole trial. He
tried Lo defend himself. He said he had wanted only to rejoin his family. The
verdict was handed down at 1600: death. He,was executed immediately.
At 7 am on that same morning, a work detail had dug the two graves.
I questioned one of their friends. He confirmed to me that they had only wanted
_ to rejoin their families. Volunteers for 1 month, they were not at all willing
to stay indefinitely.
But in North Vietnam I later heard about escapees who, having been eaught after
2 weeks, received sentences of only 1 month in prison.
Were the Tam Niep executions meant to be an example? Or were they a result, which
is also possible, of the im~ense confusion, the absence of laws and precise regula-
tions governing reunified Vietnam, with each camp commander acting according to
his own will or whims? Both theories are possible or perhaps applicable.
As for me, sufficiently rehabilitated, instead of being released I.was transferred
~ on 5 July 197F ta Yen-Bay in North Vietnam, on the Chinese border.~
i
~ Three thousand of u~ were moved to Haiphong in the hold of a large Soviet freighter.
Then we took the train, in terrible conditio-.s. Oae of my friends, xaho had tubercu-
losis, died from heat in one of the cattle cars in which we had been piled.
i We went down the Red River in rowboats at Yen-Bay to our camp, where we numbered
~ 400. It was in the middle of the 3ungle. We moved about only at night and excur-
~ sions were always at imp~ssible times: m3dnight, 1 am--all so we would not be
~ seen by the people.
~ Our entire baggage consisted of 2 satchels containing our personal effects. We
' received military uniforms, Ho Chi Minh sandals made of a piece of tire rubber and
cone-shaped peasant hats, plus 2 red Chinese Army blanketa of fairly good quality,
- dating back to the period o= brotherhood. I remained at Yen-Bay for 11 months.
There I encountered a new breed of can-bo, astonishing indi~~iduals fram anather
universe, both admirable and frightening, hardened by war and hardship and totally
unaware of the outside worlcl. Carefully selected, those lieutena~ts and captains
had been in combat since the age of 15 and they were then 40. They all ware the
same expressionless mask. But it wasn't stuck over their face~; it was incrusted
in their flesh. Sometimes there ~vas a flash of anger in their eyes, but you still
had to catch them unawares to detect it
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There were 90 of us in each hut and this time we had two of these extraterrestrial
beings who, from 0600 to 2100, were simultaneously our instructors, our spiritual
fathers, the directo~s of our consciences, our com~anders. k~e called thPm qu,an-giao:
_ e~iucators.
As the days went by, the fo~d got worse and worse and its amount diminished. The
rice improved, mixed with manioc and corn which I spent my time husking, a~one,
all day long--a light job.
~ We had fish once a week: 7 kg, inclucling the head, bones and guts, for 400 men.
I would give my mouthful of fis'n away; there wera zoo mdny bones and it was r4tten.
Fortunately, my appetite was small! Several comrades, who formerly ate 2 Chinese
soups just for breakfast, became ghosts, floating in uniforms too big for them.
Many others got sick: dysentery, malaria and beri-beri. No drugs. No tobacco,
10 g of thuoe-lao for water pipes for 1 month.
A pack of cigarettes for the Tet. For me, who was used to gray toba~co, it was
like smoking straw. Plus 1 biscuit and 3 bad candiea!
The can-bo had the same food and tobacco ration as ourselves, They would refuse
when one of us would .~ffer them a cigarette to soften them. They were incorruptible.
I couldn't ~et over it. As the blasted keeper of the camp's oxen, and then
its fowl, I was able to go into their quarters: apparently they were tightening I
their belts as much as we were.
And during this whole time rehabilitation through work went on, which did uot excluu~
indoctrination. The work was interru~pted twice.in 1 year for review aesaions which ~
lasted 1 week each and c~uring which,we recited, or rather we sttnnbled through, our
lessons learned at the Long-Giao camp.
But to get back t~ the work, when we arrived the camp did not exist. We had to ;
- build large straw huts, one for each group of 90. Everything was made of wood, ,
bamboo and tha.tch in contrast to the south, where they used what the Americans had '
left behind: sheet metal and barbed wire. without its barbs. Here, there wasn't
even a nail. We had to tie togather the various parts with vines. The frame of
the hut was composed of large tree trunks buried in the ground and walls of bamboo
that was crushe~: and then braided.
The camp was enclosed by a fence, which was purely symbolic, as was the watchtower
with a guard armed with an AK47, the Chinese combat rifle. There was no ~roblem
escaping. it would have been easy! But where was there to go?
T:~e night was total. There were no searchlights because there was n~ e3~ectricity,
only three oil lamps per hut. Since the monthly fuel ration was used up in a week,
we had no light for 20 days and lighted our lamps only for the 20-minute reading ~
- of NNAAT-DAN, the party newspaper; the hut leader had saved a feor drops of "strategic"
oil solely for that purpose.
- We rose at 5 am. It was not yet daylight; it was winCer and it was cold: 2� to 3�.
We were given a bowl of rice or corn: 50 g. Cleaning, exercise. At 6:30 am: work.
The old and the sick stayed in camp. Everyone elr~e left for the mountains to.clear
them. First we brought back the wood and bamboo. Then we planted.
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Everyone was provided with a kind of large knife which had the peculiarity of not
~ cutting at all. It was a piece of iron that was impossible to sharpen. Thus it
did not really have any cutting edge. It was more lilce a hammer than a knife.
With a normal knife, one-fourth of an hour would have been enough to cut down a
sma11 tree: instead, it took 3 to 4 hours. And then there was only one of thoae
pieces of iron for every 3 or 4 workers. But this did not prevent our can-bo from
bending our ears wi`:~ talk of production, qields aad work scheduling.
At first I thought that it was deliberate, that there was a purpose: to fores us,
to train us, tc work with improper tools. No, it was only negligence and diso:der.
Behind the rigid appearance of organizati~n, that was the whole tragedy of Vietnamese
communism: systema~iaed absurdity. xhe wood was crushed rather than cut. ~
When the camp was f inally finished, the Chinese came in 1979 and deatroyed it. But
I had alread~ left.
We returned to camp at 11 am for the second meal: 200 g of rice and herbs, actual
strings that were impossible to chew, and a little fish brine diluted with a great
deal of water. There was another meal at 5 pm. After I left the camp, there was
finally no more rice, only some Soviet sorghum and manioc.
It was forbidden to fish in the river. The local Thai population was in a deplorable
stzte of poverty, even worse than ourselves. In rags, they walked barefoot even
though it was cold. They were not mistreated, but totally ignored by the govern-
ment, which waited for them to disappear. None of them spoke Vietnamese. Of course,
all contact with that "inferior race" was strictly forbidden, even though they sone-
times crossed through the camp.
The winter clothes which we had been authorized to request from our families did
~ not arrive until summer.
I Always absurdity! I also worked in the kitchen. There were 16 of ~s and only 6
i knive3 for peeling th~ vegetables. Those kaives ~?�ere also the same pieces of dull
~ iron which had been sharpened a thousand times and which immediately became dull.
j I msintain that there was really no Machiavellian purpose in this, but only incredible
; disorder prevailing over enormous destitution. The 400 of us, ineluding many strong
- young men, represented a considerable productive force. But nothing came of it,
' for lack of a few sharp tools and the semblance of reason.
Six pickaxes for a 30-man clearing team! We changed shifts every half-hour! We
~ planted vegetables. But they rottied tn the field. For a time, there was too much.
_ During the period of abundance, the rations, although very inadequate, nevertheless
remained the same.
We didn't work to produce; we didn't work to eat, but to reform. Actually, under
such conditions of organized disorganization, we didn't hsve to strain ourselves.
We weren't dying of fatigue, but of hunger and of seeing such "voluntary�1 rehabili-
tation continue indefinitely.
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When one of us got sick, he had to tell the group's nurse, who had no training; he
simnly noted the gick man's name for a medical visit. The patient was then taken
to the camp's nurse, a can-bo this time, but he didn't know anything either. But
he did wear a stethoscope proudly and listened carefully to the ehests of those
suffering from dysentery or stomach ailments, deciding at random that this one was
sick and that one was not. Anyone cc~sidered sick was given a slip of paper
granting him 24 hours of rest, but no drugs; there were never any. The most serious
cases were sent to the infirmary where there weren't ar~y drugs either.
Sometimes a patient was sent to Yen-Bay by br~at and truek. What happened in Yen-Bay?
No one returned to tell us. As a rule, they died in the camp. In m}~ camp there
were 5 deaths in 10 months.
There were informers among us, of course, but if some were quickly discovered and
ostracized, others continued their dirt~y work--to be favored, to get out quicker.
The idiots! When they were no~longer useful, they kept them anyway.
It was impossible to steal a bowl of rice without being denounced. We were a11 very
careful in our conversations. But what could we say to each other?...We were cut
off from the world. Our only source of information was the party newspaper, NHAN-DAN
(The People), which they read to us in the evening after returning from work. The
_ newspaper reported only victories and triumphs in every sector. We ~ouldn't have
~
cared less.
Our sole obsession was our stomachs and saving a little food to eat at midn3,ght,
in order to cheat hunger and sleep. Hunger drove us wild. Afraid of being robbed,
- everyone carried his pitiful wealth around with him: a pineh of tobacco, three
aspirin tablets brought from the south and a p iece of soap.
One of us escaped in an e�fort to reach Laos, whlch wasn't very far away. For ~2 weeks
he ate bamboo shoots and drank the water from ~ ines. Exhausted, he sought refuge
among the mountaineers, who turned hin? over to the militia, who brought him back
to the camp, where he died from dysentery 2 weeks later.
There was no internal clandestine organization, at least not in my camp. Egotism was
pushed to an extreme. In order to survive.
The can-bo kept to themselves and did not mix with us. I struggled to understand
what they wanted from us and wha.t made them tick. I was aware that their sole mission
- was to destroy us morally, mentally, psychologically and spiritually, but not physically.
All of North Vietnam was hungry. Still no news from our families. Nothing to read,
no music; no ligh~: at 11ght. It was impossib le to measure the time. Our watches
ha.d been taken away in the beginning. Nothing but a gong punctuating our ectoplasmic
existence and fear preventing us from speal~ing. And our~release postponed indef initely!
Uncertainty!
There was never any punishment. Four comrades came back from a 15-km rice detail
with a 20-kg sack on their backs. They passed by a corn field and each one picked
two ears. They were denounced the next day. A conference was held. The camp's
- entire staff was gresent, lined up like onions on a platform.
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_ One after the other, every one of our comrades confessed. The camp commander gave
us a long speech. Their crime was very serious. They had stol~en from the people;
the worst kind of offense. It glaringly demonstrated their despicable nature. They
were not cured of "the pernicious influence of Freaeh colonists and t~,merican im-
perialists," who had taught them to exploit the people. They were rotten to tlte
core.
Finally, the sanction: this would be put on their records.
_ Those four men were shattered, infinitely more than if they had been slapped in ~ail
for 6 months. They didn't dare to speak to us. They thaught of themselves as pariahs.
For two ears of corn! They imagined the worst. They would never be able to get out.
All that was left was for them to die. I tried to reassure them, in vain! For twn~
ears of c~rn, the merits acquired during 2 years of detention were w3ped out. They
had not improved!
_ I never saw anyone punished a single time in my ca~p in the Nort~i. But for.each
_ peccadillo, the accusation was terrifying: having tried to sabotage the revolutioa;
the sanction was merciless: that would be put on the record.
= The communists had no intention of releasing their prisoners. But they let some
go as an example, to encourage others and, this may seem surpri~iag, the ones re- .
~ leased were the highest ranking off icers, regardless of the charges against them.
j The ones that they did not want to release, under any circumstanees, were the young
lieutenants and captai~s, especially paratroopers, marines and rangers, who could
; join the underground, reestablish a resi~tance and create networks: all r~eal soldiers
j who had fought and were ready to start over. Whereas old men Zike myself, physically
j weak or no longer aggressive in any way and, 3t must be said, who had also lost all
~ prestige, presented no danger any longer.
~ The can-bo never intervened in our quarreis. Two prisoners would argue.. The caa-bo
~ preferred not to know why. Who was guilty, innocent? Both were considered guilty.
i
' I later learned that my particular case was the sub~ect of a lesson in a neighboring
~ camp! During a study session, the can-bo giving the instruetion referr.ed to that
; ~lieutenant colonel of the puppet army, the one who didn't even speak Vietnamese,
only French, and to whom the Revolution, in its indulgence, had assigned the task
~ of watching over two oxen--the easiest work--because he was old and sick. An ox
had escaped no doubt that colonel had spoken to the ox in French and it
' had not understood!
My release was nevertheless provided for by article 7 of the rehabilitation ordinance,
which permitted the release of the sick and elderly.
Initially, there were 20 of us to be examined by a medical c~mnaittee. There were
10 of us remaining before a second committee. Then there were five. Finally, only
~ four of us were released.
On the second day of the 1977 Tet, 18 or 19 February, one of the two can-bo in charge
of my group, finding me alone, crouched down beside me snd pointed at the ground,
which meant that I was to do t~he same. Without looking at me, he said: "Brother
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Duc, you are an example for the camp! You are old, weak and s~ck, but you have made
_ an effort� at rehabilitation. We have put this in your record. Keep it up." fle
rose and walked away.
I was definitely very surprised. I had not made so ~uch of aa Pffort and that was
the first time that I had seen a can-bo behave that way. Lyiag on my mat tha.t night,
after thinking about it a long time, I thought I understoo~d: that meant that they
were in the process of studying my case and the can-bo was ~rging me not to do any-
thing wrong concerning camp discipline or indoctrination.
Two weeks later while, having become a breeder of raehitic pigs, I was walking through
the camp, the same can-bo sternly ordered me to follow him.
He told me to sit down, offere3 me a cigarette, poured me $ome cold tea in a regul.a-
tion can-bo cup, a soldier's cup with green enamel on the outside. I drank and smoked,
more and more intrigued.
He looked at me, waited until I had finished and then told me to k,eep the cup but
to hide it under my clothes.
He had seriously violated the rules by that token of friendship. Why did he make
me that present? . I learned the next day that he himself had left to be ret~abilitated.
Thus that being who had been trained to have no feelings, Co display no anger ox.
feelings of sympathy, that ma.chine, -:as still a man. There was sti~.l hape for eve~y-
thing. The terrible old men of Hanoi, the engineers who created t~ese robots, had
they lost if man survived?
I then struggled to interpret his gesture from a practical and bureaueratic standpoint.
I concluded that that can-bo, lmowing that he would not see me again, that I was
going to be released, had risked showing me s sign of friendship. Qne month later,
I left the camp.
There was another gesture which would have been sternly condemned: on the day that
I was released, at 11 in the evening, a second can-bo secretly gave me a little
delicacy, some soybean curd. But still with an impassive expression.on his face.
There were still f ive of us up for release and suddenly, the fifth man was scratched
from the list.
A can-bo gave us a speech using the usual terms, as was the rule: "You axe being
released because you have made some progress; this is only a beginning; once you
ha.ve returned to your homes, you must continue in order to again beeome an honest
citizen and also help to rehabilitate your families and those around you in order
to achieve perfection on the glori.ous p$th of Marxism-Leninism."
He continued: "One of your comrades (the fifth) should have been among you, but
unfortunately he demonstrated that his progress was inadequate."
He was the man who slept next to me. His attitude was exemplary for 2 years. That
was his crime.
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One day, he caught cald and ct3me dowa with a bad flu; he had to be confined to bed.
He was excused from work. He mal.ingered a little, prolonging his convalescence.
It was 3� outside! No one told him anything.
At the last minute, without being aware of the reasons himself, for he had to dis-
cover them himself in order to reform he lea~ned that he was not going to be
released.
~ With the can-bo, it waa useless and ~ven dangerous to display too much enthusia.sm.
That appeared.suspicious, 3ust as not displaying enough also appeared suspicious.
To avoid all the traps which were set for us, so that the can-bo did not record them
in his notebook, we were like tightrope walkers in perpetual balanee on a string,
risking a fall to the right or to the leff. ~
Someone might volunteer for a work detail to which he had not been assigned. He
said that he was volunteering, completed his work and thought he was entitled to
the same r.est as his comrades. But he had made a mistake and had toppled from his
string. e~s a volunteer, he should not ask to rest. And the esn-bo opened his note-
book. The man had 3ust taken a step backward on the road to redemption.
Other traps set: our perpetual biographies. One word too much, one new.fact re-
; ported, another one forgott~n, and.you had to start all over. Ia this regard, my
- lack of knowledge of Vietnamese saaed me. ~
~ Such treatment, whieh was both ~ubtle and simple, could not be withstood indefinitely.
Half of my comrades would leave the campa, if they managed to g~::t out one day, more
- nr less broken.
~ I was officially released under Article Seven of the Charter of Concentration Camps
of the People's Democratic Republic of Vietnam. "The merciful and humane Revolution
releases this officer, regardiess of his past erimes, because he is old and sick."
Which should be interpreted as follows: "Because he is not dangerous and unable
to participate in any resistance."
A few individuals definitely had to be releseed so that the charter was not a total
lie. I was a member of the first contingent to come back from the I+iorth and that
~ event was given all the publicity that could be expected. Photographs anc~ recordings
' of the farewell. ceremony were distributed to every camp to encourage other
; prisoners to continue their efforts along the radiant path of repentance and
~ rehabilitation. ~
i
It was a real surprise to my whole neighborhood.
The people's clemency was given out very selectively. Cao G3ao, the 3ournalist,
had also just been released after 6 years of detention. But he was dying.
- In May 1977, our group of prisoners released from camps in the North was composed
of 6S rehabilitated men who were in rather poo~ physical condition.
We were reassembled in another camp, officially to get us back on our.feet. I never
slept as poorly or ate so little. At the end of 2 weeks, we took the train to Hanai
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and then Vinh in a car reserved for us. Ten can-bo and nurses escorted us: can-bo
without weapons, nurs~s without drugs.
At every station, a wild crowd tiried ~o climb into that small local train. The
steps were taken by storm.
We had ample room in our car, ~ut when a poor nha.-que risked entering, a can-bo
calmly told him to leave. And he obeyed without protesting, without the least
murmur, and remained sadly on the platform. Buses Coak"us from Vinh to Saigon in
5 days. I didn't have any money. We had ~ust crossed the former sou~hexn border,
arriving in Huz, the former imperial capital, when a can~-bo gave us permission to
get off the train and, for those with money, to eat~in a restauraat~alongside the
road.
Sudden"ly it was a miracle, the miracle of the South. There were women in groups
on the sidewalks. A can-bo forbade us to commaunicate.with them. There were about
20 of them, rather young vendors of soup and deli.cae~,es. They looked at the can-bo,
came closer, understood who we were and where we w~ere coming from. A rice-cake
vendor spoke to me. She wanted me to buy one of her cakes. "I'm sorry," I said,
"but I don't have any money."
The young woman came closer, took two cakes and offered them to me: "Take them,"
she said simply. And since I refused, smiling, w3.thout caring about the can-bo,
she threw the cakes to me through the open window. Three other.women came up and
each one threw me a piastre. The most beautiful gifts I Mave ever received in my
life !
I tried to give back the piastres! They refused. Then I dared to speak to them,
to violate the very law of the cari-bq to tell them not to lose hope aad that ttieir
husbands would return one day very soon. They smiled at me with tears in their eyes.
~.~ave been told about those widows, those women dressed in black, who indefatiga.bly
walk around a square in Buenos Aires, Argentina, because they have no news of a
husband or son.
What square in Saigon would be large enough far the 250,000 women who are also
waiting for a husband or son?
Finally we reached a camp near Saig4n, supposedly to complete the formalities, which
actually amounted to a medical visit. ~taelve days! Oh, such bureaucratic red tapel
Our families were obliged to come get us, to be given a final speeeh with us.
In order for my wife to survive, in order not to be labeled a parasite or a privileged
middle-class woman, she sold cigar.ettes from ~ smal~ cart iM froi~t of ~ur house.
Out of sympathy, the entire neighborhood bought from her~. '
COPYRIGHT: 1981 par Cogedipresse S.A.
~
11915
CSO: 4200/7 E~
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