Le Van Vien
Encyclopedia
Major General Lê Văn Viễn (Bảy Viễn; or, “Viễn the Seventh”) (1904–1970) was the leader of the Bình Xuyên
, a powerful Vietnamese
criminal organization decreed by Head of State Bảo Đại
as an independent army within the Vietnamese National Army
(VNA) (Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam). He was the only man from a crime-filled background who had become a non-communist
leader in the Việt Minh
’s Zone 7, a general in charge of an auxiliary military force within the French Union
, and a general in the VNA
. From 1951 to 1955, he made arrangements with Bảo Đại, by which the Bình Xuyên was given control of their own affairs in return for their financial support of the government. In 1955, Bảy Viễn flew to Paris
with the help of Savani and the Deuxieme Bureau
/SDECE after his unsuccessful attempt to oust the American-backed Premier, Ngô Đình Diệm.
) and a Vietnamese
mother. Vien's father, Lê Văn Dậu joined the Vietnamese branch of the Tiandihui
when he migrated to Vietnam. Viễn was head of the Bình Xuyên
and was hunted by the French in the 1930s and 1940s until he and a number of his cohorts were eventually captured and sentenced to confinement in the penal colony
on Côn Sơn Island
. Ba Dương, meanwhile, had become a labor broker for the Japanese and entered into a relationship with the Japanese secret service’s southern Vietnamese resident, Matsushita Mitsuhiro, a pivotal clandestine operator who was undercover as the director of Dainan Koosi, and was controlled by the Japan
ese Consul General in Hanoi
, Yoshio Minoda.
Matsushita arranged for the kempeitai
to free disparate Bình Xuyên personalities and component gangs from Côn Sơn in 1941. Thereafter, under Japanese patronage, the Bình Xuyên grew rapidly, both in organization and influence.
Bảy Viễn escaped Côn Sơn in early 1945 and returned to Saigon, where he engaged in insurgent politics in collusion with Ba Dương and the Japanese. On March 9, 1945, the Japanese staged a coup d’état
against the Vichy French
administration, jailing all French police. The Bình Xuyên were given amnesty and Bảy Viễn was installed as a police official by the newly established government.
, Trần Văn Giàu, formed an alliance with Bảy Viễn and Ba Dương against the French. When the Việt Minh called a mass demonstration on August 25, 1945:
“… fifteen well armed, bare chested bandits carrying a large banner declaring 'Binh Xuyen Assassination Committee' joined the tens of thousands of demonstrators who marched jubilantly through downtown Saigon for over nine hours.”
Following the British-supported French counter-coup in September 1945, the Việt Minh withdrew from Saigon, leaving Bảy Viễn as military commander of Cholon with a force of 100 men. Bảy Viễn promptly formed an alliance with Lai Van Sang’s two-thousand-man student group, the Avant-Garde Youth. Together with a number of Japanese deserters, they engaged the French. By the end of October, they were pushed back to the Rung Sat in a waterborne retrograde action which displayed as a key element the deployment of some 250 stay-behind agents.
The Bình Xuyên stay-behind agents promptly engaged in a ruthless campaign of terror and extortion. A constant influx of men, money and materiel quickly established the Bình Xuyên as a well-armed, disciplined force of approximately 10,000 men.
A dispute arose between Ba Dương and the Việt Minh in January 1946 and in February 1946 Ba Dương was killed in a strafing raid by French aircraft.
for exclusive rights to territory in Saigon, ultimately leading to a March 1948, agreement with Savani which was formalized on June 16, 1948. The French government announced that it “… had decided to confide the police and maintenance of order to the Bình Xuyên troops in a zone where they are used to operating.” Thereafter, the French turned over Saigon, block-by-block, and by April 1954, Lai Van Sang was director-general of police and the Bình Xuyên controlled not only the Saigon-Cholon capital region but a sixty-mile strip between Saigon and Vũng Tàu
, exercising full political and economic control. United States observers of the process laconically refer to the Bình Xuyên in this era as a:
“...political and racketeering organization which had agreed to carry out police functions [for the Government of Viet-Nam] in return for a monopoly on gambling, opium traffic and prostitution in the metropolitan areas.”
Thus did the fox guard the hen-house and thus did Vietnam’s prototypical criminal syndicate gain control of the southern Vietnamese underworld in its entirety.
and the organization fragmented, again resuming its clandestine form.
Binh Xuyen
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...
, a powerful Vietnamese
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
criminal organization decreed by Head of State Bảo Đại
Bảo Đài
Bảo Đài is a commune and village in Lục Nam District, Bac Giang Province, in northeastern Vietnam.-References:...
as an independent army within 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...
(VNA) (Quân đội Quốc gia Việt Nam). He was the only man from a crime-filled background who had become a non-communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
leader in the Việt 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...
’s Zone 7, a general in charge of an auxiliary military force within the French Union
French Union
The French Union was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial system, the "French Empire" and to abolish its "indigenous" status.-History:...
, and a general in the VNA
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...
. From 1951 to 1955, he made arrangements with Bảo Đại, by which the Bình Xuyên was given control of their own affairs in return for their financial support of the government. In 1955, Bảy Viễn flew to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
with the help of Savani and 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 after his unsuccessful attempt to oust the American-backed Premier, Ngô Đình Diệm.
Early life
Vien was born in Cholon in 1904 to a Chinese father from (ChaozhouTeochew people
The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...
) and a Vietnamese
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
mother. Vien's father, Lê Văn Dậu joined the Vietnamese branch of the Tiandihui
Tiandihui
The Tiandihui is a fraternal organization that originated in China. The Hongmen grouping is today more or less synonymous with the whole Tiandihui concept, although the title "Hongmen" is also claimed by some criminal groups.As the Tiandihui spread through different counties and provinces, it...
when he migrated to Vietnam. Viễn was head of the Bình Xuyên
Binh Xuyen
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...
and was hunted by the French in the 1930s and 1940s until he and a number of his cohorts were eventually captured and sentenced to confinement in the penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
on Côn Sơn Island
Con Son Island
Côn Sơn Island is the largest island of the Côn Đảo archipelago, off the coast of southern Vietnam. The island is also known after its Malay name as Pulo Condore , while its French variant Poulo Condor was well-known during the times of French Indochina.-Early modern era:In 1702, the British...
. Ba Dương, meanwhile, had become a labor broker for the Japanese and entered into a relationship with the Japanese secret service’s southern Vietnamese resident, Matsushita Mitsuhiro, a pivotal clandestine operator who was undercover as the director of Dainan Koosi, and was controlled by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Consul General in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, Yoshio Minoda.
Matsushita arranged for the kempeitai
Kempeitai
The was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but a French-style gendarmerie...
to free disparate Bình Xuyên personalities and component gangs from Côn Sơn in 1941. Thereafter, under Japanese patronage, the Bình Xuyên grew rapidly, both in organization and influence.
Bảy Viễn escaped Côn Sơn in early 1945 and returned to Saigon, where he engaged in insurgent politics in collusion with Ba Dương and the Japanese. On March 9, 1945, the Japanese staged a coup d’état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
against the Vichy French
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
administration, jailing all French police. The Bình Xuyên were given amnesty and Bảy Viễn was installed as a police official by the newly established government.
From brigand to revolutionary
In August 1945, the Việt Minh’s chief of CochinchinaCochinchina
Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1954. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region is called Nam Bộ...
, Trần Văn Giàu, formed an alliance with Bảy Viễn and Ba Dương against the French. When the Việt Minh called a mass demonstration on August 25, 1945:
“… fifteen well armed, bare chested bandits carrying a large banner declaring 'Binh Xuyen Assassination Committee' joined the tens of thousands of demonstrators who marched jubilantly through downtown Saigon for over nine hours.”
Following the British-supported French counter-coup in September 1945, the Việt Minh withdrew from Saigon, leaving Bảy Viễn as military commander of Cholon with a force of 100 men. Bảy Viễn promptly formed an alliance with Lai Van Sang’s two-thousand-man student group, the Avant-Garde Youth. Together with a number of Japanese deserters, they engaged the French. By the end of October, they were pushed back to the Rung Sat in a waterborne retrograde action which displayed as a key element the deployment of some 250 stay-behind agents.
The Bình Xuyên stay-behind agents promptly engaged in a ruthless campaign of terror and extortion. A constant influx of men, money and materiel quickly established the Bình Xuyên as a well-armed, disciplined force of approximately 10,000 men.
A dispute arose between Ba Dương and the Việt Minh in January 1946 and in February 1946 Ba Dương was killed in a strafing raid by French aircraft.
Revolutionary turned collaborator
Sensing a shift in the political tide, Bảy Viễn seized the opportunity to consolidate his hold on the Bình Xuyên and achieve dominance. Thus, in the wake of Ba Dương’s death, Bảy Viễn began secret negotiations with the French Deuxième BureauDeuxième 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...
for exclusive rights to territory in Saigon, ultimately leading to a March 1948, agreement with Savani which was formalized on June 16, 1948. The French government announced that it “… had decided to confide the police and maintenance of order to the Bình Xuyên troops in a zone where they are used to operating.” Thereafter, the French turned over Saigon, block-by-block, and by April 1954, Lai Van Sang was director-general of police and the Bình Xuyên controlled not only the Saigon-Cholon capital region but a sixty-mile strip between Saigon and Vũng Tàu
Vung Tàu
Vũng Tàu is a city in southern Vietnam. Its population in 2005 was 240,000. The city area is including 13 urban wards and one village. It is the capital of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, and is the crude oil extraction center of Vietnam. It is also known as one of the most beautiful cities of tourism...
, exercising full political and economic control. United States observers of the process laconically refer to the Bình Xuyên in this era as a:
“...political and racketeering organization which had agreed to carry out police functions [for the Government of Viet-Nam] in return for a monopoly on gambling, opium traffic and prostitution in the metropolitan areas.”
Thus did the fox guard the hen-house and thus did Vietnam’s prototypical criminal syndicate gain control of the southern Vietnamese underworld in its entirety.
General Viễn and the defeat of the Bình Xuyên
The United States backed Premier Ngô Đình Diệm in his fight to control South Vietnam. In the Battle of Saigon from April 28 to May 3, 1955, Bay Vien and his loyal troops were forced back to the Rung Sat jungle where they were defeated by the regular army. Bay Vien fled to exile in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the organization fragmented, again resuming its clandestine form.