Vietnam's concentration camps after April 30, 1975_Part # 1 of 2

Vietnam's Concentration Camps after April 30, 1975_Part # 1 of 2 :

-VIEW : RE-EDUCATION IN UNLIBERATED VIETNAM:                LONELINESS, SUFFERING AND DEATH _by Ginetta Sagan and Stephen Denney_(1982).

Reeducation camp (Vietnamese: trại học tập cải tạo) is the official title given to the prison camps operated by the government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In such "reeducation camps", the government imprisoned several hundred thousand former military officers and government workers from the former government of South Vietnam. Reeducation as it was implemented in Vietnam was seen as both a means of revenge and a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination, which developed for several years in the North and was extended to the South following the 1975 Fall of Saigon.An estimated 1-2.5 million people were imprisoned with no formal charges or trials. According to published academic studies in the United States and Europe, 165,000 people died in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's re-education camps. Thousands were tortured or abused. Prisoners were incarcerated for as long as 17 years, with most terms ranging from three to 10 years.

Deaths from starvation and disease occurred frequently and bodies were often buried in graves on site which were later abandoned. The work was done in the hot tropical sun, by prisoners who were poorly nourished and received little or no medical care. The poor health, combined with hard work, mandatory confessions and political indoctrination, made life very difficult for prisoners in Vietnam, and contributed to a high death rate in the camps. Former prisoners describe the constant hunger that resulted from a lack of food while they were in the camps. The government deliberately kept the prisoners on low rations. The lack of food caused severe malnutrition for many prisoners and weakened their resistance to various diseases. Most common among the diseases weremalaria, beriberi and dysentery. Tuberculosis was also widespread in some of the camps. Medical supplies were generally nonexistent in the camps and medical care was very inadequate, usually limited to a poorly trained medic and perhaps a few prisoners who had formerly been medical doctors. The result was a high death rate from diseases.
The U.S. government considers reeducation camp inmates to be political prisoners. In 1989, the Reagan administration entered into an agreement with the Vietnamese government, pursuant to which Vietnam would free all former RVN soldiers and officials held in reeducation camps and allow them to emigrate to the United States. Thus began the third large influx of Vietnamese immigrants into the country.

- Re-education Camp_Z-30-D (1984)_In Ham Tan District, Binh Thuan
Province,South Vietnam. 
-Excerpt from"Vietnam: Talking to the People" by Jon Alpert (an American journalist).He was the only reporter to gain entry into the “re-education” camps
for former South Vietnamese officials. 
- Vietnam Re-education Camp Z-30-D (1984)_In Ham Tan District, Binh Thuan Province, South Vietnam : 
-A Video clip recorded In 1984 by Jon Alpert, An American Journalist who visited  A Vietnamese Communist Concentration Camp : Camp_Z30-D_In Ham Tan District, Binh Thuan Province,South Vietnam :When foreign delegations visited the camps, the prisoners would be taken out to the fields or jungles to hide until the delegates departed.

The Major interviewed by the American Journalist in the above video clip was Major Cuong Huu Le, who graduated from the Dalat Military Academy (16th Class),chief of the Cu Chi District in South Vietnam. Major Cuong and his family were immigrated to the US on JUL.04,1991, under Humanitarian Operation . He suffered so many health problems as a result of being abused and mistreated in Communist prisons that he committed suicide on Sept. 06, 2004.

 -Cố Thiếu Tá Lê Hữu Cương, (Khóa 16 Võ Bị Quốc Gia Đà Lạt, Quận Trửơng Quận Cử Chi)  Khi anh còn ở trại cải tạo CSVN.











-VIEW : THIẾU TÁ ÐỘC CƯỚC LÊ HỮU CƯƠNG



-VIDEO : "Vietnam: Talking to the People"1984_(Full) by Jon Alpert 





-VIEW :NHỮNG CON SỐ LỊCH SỬ TÙ NHÂN VNCH TRONG TÙ VC _pdf

-VIDEO :TRẠI TÙ CẢI TẠO Hàm Tân VIETNAM'S GULAG Z30 - D.



-The Front Gate Of Camp Z30 D_A Vietnamese Communist Concentration Camp In Ham Tan District,Thuan Hai Province,South Vietnam (1988_ Philip Jones Griffiths )
Bên ngoài Trại Thủ Đức Z30D, Rừng Lá ,Xuân Lộc, huyện Hàm Tân, tỉnh Thuận Hải (nay là tỉnh Bình Thuận). Sau 1975, khoảng 2.000 cựu viên chức, quân nhân của chế độ cũ được giam tại đây. Đến năm 1988, phần lớn trong số đó đã ra khỏi trại. Philip Jones Griffiths chụp ở miền Nam Việt Nam năm 1988 .







Photo by Philip Jones Griffiths - VIETNAM. 1988. The main hall at Thu Duc re-education camp where inmates watch television. This photo was taken duirng a weekend when families were allowed to make conjugal visits.


1988 - Thăm nuôi người học tập cải tạo vào ngày cuối tuần tại trại Thủ Đức (Trại Z30D, Q. Hàm Tân, tỉnh Thuận Hải) 

- 1988_Một bức hình lịch sử duy nhất về hình ảnh người tù cải tạo(Trại Z30D):

 

Picture captured of prisoners laboured in Z30D – Ham Tan in 1988 by an international journalist 
 after the communists agreed to let the prisoners to resettle in America. 
 Standing fourth from the left was General Lê Minh Đảo.



1992_Trại Z30-D_Hình chụp trong trại tù Hàm Tân (những Sĩ quan cải tạo còn lại tù trên 17 năm). Trong hình từ trái qua phải :
1-Thiếu Tá Nguyễn Công Hầu (ANQĐ) ,
2-Đại Tá Phạm Duy Khang, 
3-Đại Tá Bùi Quang Khương(Không Quân), 
4-Đại Tá Nguyễn Kim Tây(LĐT/LĐ7BĐQ)mặc áo xanh đậm.
5-Trung Tá Huỳnh Kim Hiếu, 
6-Chuẩn Tướng Phạm Duy Tất(khoanh tay), 
7-Đại Tá CSQG Nguyễn Xuân Lộc
(CHT/CSQG khu 1) ,
8-Thiếu Tướng Lê Minh Đảo (bìa phải chống nạnh).

- 1992_Z30-D Camp_Photo taken in Ham Tan prison  ( High ranking
officers were in the re-education prison for more than 17 years). 
In the picture from left to right:
1-Major Nguyen Cong Hau (Military Security),
2-Colonel Pham Duy Khang,
3-Colonel Bui Quang Khuong (South Vietnam Air Force).
4-Colonel Nguyen Kim Tay (ARVN Rangers), wearing a dark blue shirt.
5-Lieutenant Colonel Huynh Kim Hieu,
6-Brigadier General Pham Duy Tat (arms crossed),
7-Colonel Nguyen Xuan Loc (National Police chief of Zone 1) ,
8-Major General Le Minh Dao (18th Division Commander),on the far right, hands on his hips.


-Vietnam's GULAG : RE-EDUCATION Camp Z30-D:The Survivors 



-VIEW :Camp Z30-D: The Survivors._March 1, 2002 by Anh Do, Tran Phan, Eugene Garcia from Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

  
 




-VIEW : Camp Z30-D: the survivors, 1975-2001.pdf.April 29, 2001_from the Orange County Register .








-VIEW :In Vietnam's Gulag, The Captives Die A Slow Death


-VIEW :QUÂN Y QUÂN LỰC VIỆT NAM CỘNG HÒA ( Song ngữ PHÁP VIỆT. Đầy đủ hình ảnh)_540 pages by Dr. Trần Xuân Dũng.
















Map of Z30A re-education camp in Xuan Loc – southern Vietnam.

The gate at Z30A re-education camp in Xuan Loc – southern Vietnam.

Z30A re-education camp in Xuan Loc,Long Khanh,Vietnam



-VIEW :Vietnamese Re-education Camps.From the Vietnam  War.



-VIEW :SURVIVING COMMUNIST 'REEDUCATION CAMP'.From The Washington Post.


-VIEW :Forced 'Reeducation' Camps Continue in Vietnam, Laos.From The Washington Post.


-VIEW :Vietnam_Re-education Camps





-VIEW :Lost Years
 My 1,632 Days in. Vietnamese Reeducation Camps_381 pages - 1988_pdf_TRAN TRI VU


Lost Years



digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ieas/IRM_003.pdf



















My 1,632 Days in. Vietnamese Reeducation Camps. TRAN ... InLost Yearsthe inspirational ... Unlike other reporters about reeducation camps, Tran Tri Vu's skil











-Mời nghe lại giọng đọc Việt Cộng chính gốc khi vào Sàigon 1975 tại video dứơi đây :

-VIDEO :Quân cán chính VNCH - trình diện quân giải phóng -Saigon 5/1975._Former  Government officials and military personnel of the Republic of Vietnam _ reporting to the Liberation Army, Saigon, May 1975. 




VIDEO CỦA VIỆT CỘNG : Ngày 30 tháng 4 -1975 tại Dinh Độc Lập Sài Gòn.
-Video tuyên truyền của Việt Cộng: 1975_Sĩ Quan QLVNCH Từ Cấp Thiếu Tá trở lên đăng ký trình diện  tại số 90 Trần Hoàng Quân, Sài Gòn,
                                                             đây là thủ đoạn thâm độc của Việt Cộng, thực sự Sĩ Quan cấp tá trở lên bị tù khổ sai cải tạo Từ 10 đến 17 năm ! 
- Thông báo ngày 19 tháng 8 năm 1975 :



-(20 Dec 1975) Former South Vietnamese officers released after re-education in Thu Duc, South Vietnam.

-SYND 3 5 76 FORMER GENERALS AND OFFICERS OF THE SAIGON GOVERNMENT ARE REEDUCATED:
(29 Apr 1976) One year after the fall of South Vietnam, the unified country's communist regime is busy "re-educating" former Generals and officers of the Saigon government. The men are housed in reeducation camps, many of them scattered near the Cambodian border. At first, the Generals underwent a one-month reeducation programme. but now, many of them are being held for an indefinite period of time. The former officers claim that no "brain-washing" methods are used in the camps. They work in blacksmith and carpentry shops, while others take their turn in the kitchen. In their spare time, the men read revolutionary books, play music and hold discussions

-VIDEO : 💥1976 May 6th_BÁO CHÍ VÀO THĂM TRẠI CẢI TẠO GIAM HƠN 25 SĨ QUAN CẤP TƯỚNG THUỘC QUÂN LỰC VNCH_1976 MAY 6th_SOUTH VIETNAM: FORMER SOUTH VIETNAMESE ARMY GENERAL TAKE PART IN PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL COURSES IN COMMUNIST REEDUCATION CAMP.

Foreign journalist were recently taken on a tour of a "re-education camp" for senior officers of the former South Vietnamese Army near Saigon, in South Vietnam.

More than 25 former generals are being detained in the camp, 10 miles outside the city. They appeared slightly bewildered when they first met the newsmen but soon overcame their initial shyness and spoke freely through interpreters.

-Vietnam rééducation ex cadres armée du sud (13 avril 1977) : 

-1985 Vietnam: Hanoi shows off military and "reeducation" camp:

Journalist are taken to a 'model' re-education camp near Hanoi. Note the surreal briefing given by the Vietnamese propaganda cadre. Journalists identified thus far in this clip - Lewis Simons of the Washington Post and the late Art Lord, Neil Davis and Bill Latch of NBC. Other idents requested.

The final video shows reporters taken to a "MODEL" 're-education camp.' The reporters are not permitted by Communist authorities to interview prisoners. A spokesman makes the unbelievable claim that up to 3000 "inmates" chose to stay in the region after incarceration in the camp. At this point in history 1985, more than 300,000 (mostly) men had been kept in camps under harsh conditions for ten years. Not until United States normalization with Vietnam in 1995 were most prisoners released. Several hundred thousand with families were allowed to emigrate to America. Both the re-education system and the 'boat people" exodus were the saddest legacies of the Vietnam War.

After the fall of Saigon, where we witnessed North Vietnamese tanks roll into the city, Communist authorities began first to interview and then to round up soldiers and civilian officials of the old Saigon government. More than 300,000 were interned in "re-education" camps. Some higher ranking officers remained imprisoned for up to 17 years. Hanoi propaganda officials provided visiting foreign reporters in April 1985 a tour of an area near Hue Vietnam where one camp was located. This short video captures the sur-real scene provided to a hundred or so journalists.

- VIETNAM WAR U.S. PRISONERS OF WAR RETURN WITH HONOR:  

The film focuses on first hand accounts by POWs who describe their methods of resistance, maintaining mental toughness,  and most incredibly the innovative communication techniques they developed and used while held captive. 


 
-VIDEO :Vietnam: Picking up the Pieces (1977)_“Việt Nam: Làm Lại Cuộc Đời”.
 Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno made headlines with a 1977 journalistic coup when they became the first American television crew allowed back into Vietnam after the U.S. withdrawal and were given unprecedented access to the ruined countryside and its people. The resulting "up-close" study of Vietnam's grim post war reality relies on the voices of the common people to tell their stories.
VIETNAM: PICKING UP THE PIECES is a DCTV production co-produced and co-directed by Keiko Tsuno and Jon Alpert.


-VIDEO :Hơn 150 quan chức VNCH được thả khỏi trại cải tạo ở trại Nam Hà năm 1988_More than 150 officials of the overthrown South Vietnamese Government were released from detention in the Nam Ha camp, south of Hanoi, on February 13. Vietnam's official government news agency said that those released included ex-cabinet minister, a deputy minister, ten generals, 115 field grade officers and 25 chaplains. They had been in detention since the collapse of the United States (U.S.)-backed regime in 1975. They we re released as part of an amnesty marking Tet, the start of the lunar year.



-VIDEO :1988_Sĩ quan cấp cao VNCH "tốt nghiệp" khóa học tập cải tạo đợt cuối cùng, Vietnamese Re-education camp










-VIEW : Chính sách cải tạo của CSVN sau năm 1975_02-05-2009.

-VIEW :Report of An Amnesty International Mission to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam_10_21 December 1979._pdf.

-VIDEO : Trại Tập Trung 

-Mời xem :Đường vào thiên thu!




-VIEW :Thiên hồi ký Trại Kiên Giam của Nguyễn Chí Thiệp


-VIEW :Tòa án Mỹ đã xử xong vụ Bùi Đình Thi_BBC_Lần đầu tiên, Hoa Kỳ trục xuất một cựu quân nhân Việt Nam Cộng Hòa vì các cáo buộc phạm tội tra tấn và giết tù nhân chính trị trong trại cải tạo ở Việt Nam sau 1975.
-VIEW :Bùi Đình Thi - người làm "ăn ten" trong tù CS - đã chết 

-VIEW :THE REEDUCATION CAMP STORY_DIEM VAN NGO_PDF.

Vietnam’s Reeducation Camps

At the end of the Vietnam War, the Southern Vietnamese people who’d fought with the US had two choices—flee the country and become boat people or stay and risk punishment by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Despite being told that they only needed to attend a 10-day reeducation camp, the South Vietnamese who stayed behind were shoved into horrifying concentration camps where the average stay was actually three to 10 years.

Although the camps were specifically for former military and government workers of South Vietnam, essentially anyone suspected of having anti-socialist tendencies was thrown, without trial, into the penitentiary. In the end, as many as 2.5 million people were assigned to reeducation.



The Vietnamese presented the camps as humane places where treasonous people could repent and reintegrate into society. Unfortunately, the government’s idea of reeducation more closely resembled torturous brainwashing. Among other things, prisoners were beaten, shackled, constantly forced to confess their “crimes,” and continually indoctrinated about the evils of America and the superiority of Vietnam. Above all, hard labor was viewed as the key to reeducation. Thus the inmates toiled away for years and decades in back-breaking and dangerous work, such as digging wells, clearing the jungle, and sweeping minefields.


Like so many other camps we’ve mentioned, the death rate was high, as disease and starvation were unavoidable. There are few records of the inmates, but it’s estimated that 165,000 people died in the camps.











































































-Source : http://listverse.com/2013/08/27/9-obscure-concentration-camps/


-VIDEO : Sài Gòn những ngày cuối cùng 1975 :






































Lt Colonel Nguyen Van Long, Vietnamese National Police.

-Saigon on April 30,1975 _As soon as the Communists entered Saigon, Lt Colonel Long dressed up with his Police Uniform and went to the Marine Corps Memorial in front of the Vietnamese Congress. There he saluted the last time the statue of 2 marine soldiers and killed himself with a pistol

There were many more true heroes ranked from  private to high ranking officers that  will never be forgotten.




 30-4-1975: Sĩ quan VNCH ‘tuẫn tiết’ khi Sài Gòn thất thủ: 







VIDEO :30 tháng 4: Chuyện những sĩ quan VNCH ‘tuẫn tiết’ khi Sài Gòn thất thủ










- April 30,1975_ARVN officers committed suicide when Saigon fell.














The Fall of Saigon in April, 1975 - PRG Carries Out Execution In Saigon
-Photo:The Fall of Saigon in April, 1975 - PRG Carries Out Execution In Saigon



 30 April 1975 _ a line of captured  South Vietnamese Army soldiers, escorted by Vietnamese communist soldiers, as they walk on a Saigon street after the city fell into the hands of the communist troops on the same day, marking the end of the Vietnam War.










Captured U.S.-backed South Vietnamese Army soldiers are escorted by Vietnamese communist soldiers in Saigon, April 30, 1975,





-Images of re-education camps in Vietnam (1975-2000) :
- Re-education session for 26 generals of former South Vietnamese army in 1975. Second from left is one time Defense Minister, General Nguyễn Hữu Có. Có was imprisoned for 12 years, decided not to emigrate after being released and lived in Vietnam until his death in 2012. (Note : all color, war photos are from TIME and Newsweek magazines, issues April and May 1975)





- Lower-ranking officers at another re-education camp:


















1976 Một lớp học tập cải tạo tại Tây Ninh






Photo by Marc Riboud - South Vietnam.January 1976.


A reeducation camp, class for about 1000 former Saigon regime low ranking officers near the Cambodian border at Tay Ninh in a workcamp. They spent 3 hours per week in political classes, and the rest of the time in manual labour tasks. The North Vietnamese officer is brandishing a document and speaking to them through a loudspeaker that if they learn off by heart his declarations, that they will be given safe conduct for re-insertion in the new society. But in fact, many of them only obtained their freedom years later.







ARVN commandos in captivity in North Vietnam.




Học tập cải tạo _ Tội ác chống nhân loại của CS Việt Nam
BIỆT KÍCH DÙ VNCH - Những nguời lính bất khuất



I acquired this photo under unique circumstances while on a return trip to Vietnam in August 1994. God only knows what happened to these men.

~ We Joined their Dreams ~ We Fought Side by Side ~ We Deserted Them ~







-VIEW:Thousands upon thousands of our Allies were tortured and died in communist "Re-education Camps" after the fall of the South on April 30, 1975. 










~ "We Joined their Dreams ~ We Fought Side by Side ~ We Deserted Them "~Michael A.Harris.






















-BETRAYED . . .


~ "WE JOINED THEIR DREAMS - WE FOUGHT SIDE BY SIDE - WE DESERTED THEM " ~Michael A.Harris.


-Michael A. Harris is a VN vet who acquired this photo in 1994
while he was returning to Vietnam for a missionary mission, the red texts are his remarks.



            NHỮNG NGỪƠI BỊ PHẢN BỘI . . .


~" CHÚNG TÔI CÙNG CHUNG GIẤC MƠ VỚi HỌ - CHÚNG TÔI CHIẾN ĐẤU BÊN NHAU - CHÚNG TÔI ĐÃ BỎ RƠI HỌ "~Michael A.Harris.

~Michael A.Harris là một cựu Chiến Binh Mỹ từng tham chiến tại Việt Nam đã mua bức ảnh này vào năm 1994 khi anh trở về Việt Nam trong một công tác truyền giáo, chữ viết màu đỏ là nhận xét của anh.

Thousands upon thousands of our Allies were tortured and died in communist "Re-education Camps" after the fall of the South on April 30, 1975. _(The American veteran)


-VIEW :UNFORTUNATE SOLDIERS: VIETNAM WAR: Men Of ARVN: The South Vietnamese Soldiers .

THE FATE OF THE UNFORTUNATE SOLDIERS OF SOUTH VIETNAM
Once proud soldiers, they lived in utter poverty and disgrace under the new dispensation. They were soldiers. They were our allies against communism. They deserved better. They deserve the same respect as a American Vietnam Veteran.

-Số phận hẩm hiu của Những ngừơi lính VNCH
Từng tự hào là những người lính, họ sống trong cảnh nghèo khổ và ô nhục dưới hoàn cảnh mới. Họ là những người lính. Họ là đồng minh của chúng ta chống lại chủ nghĩa cộng sản. Họ xứng đáng đối xử tốt hơn. Họ xứng đáng được tôn trọng như một cựu Chiến Binh Mỹ từng tham chiến tại Việt Nam.
















Nhân Lễ Kỷ Niệm Ngày Quân Lực Việt Nam Cộng Hòa tại New Orleans, Louisiana vào năm 1987; đứng trước một cử tọa gồm hàng ngàn cựu quân nhân Hoa Kỳ và Việt Nam Cộng Hòa, Đại Tướng Westmoreland đã tuyên bố nguyên văn, "Thay mặt cho quân đội Hoa Kỳ, tôi xin lỗi các bạn cựu quân nhân của Quân Lực Miền Nam Việt Nam vì chúng tôi đã bỏ rơi các bạn." (On behalf of the United States Armed Forces, I would like to apologize to the veterans of the South Vietnamese Armed Forces for abandoning you guys.)   Cả hội trường New Orleans Convention Center gồm hàng ngàn cựu quân nhân Việt-Mỹ và gia đình đã ôm choàng lấy nhau mắt lệ nghẹn ngào vì lời xin lỗi đầy tình huynh đệ chi binh của Đại Tướng Westmoreland. 




-VIEW :Chào Vĩnh Biệt Đại Tướng Westmoreland.pdf by Jimmy Tòng Nguyễn




-VIDEO :1987_ Kỷ niệm " NGÀY QUÂN LỰC VNCH "_Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Day In New Orleans, LA, USA.




















































 -VIEW :Điểm Sách: Chuyện Hai Người Lính _Nguyễn Kỳ Phong 
Ðọc Vietnam’s Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN 
Vietnam’s Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN By Andrew Wiest. New York University Press, 2007, 368 pages
-VIEW :Anh Hùng và Kẻ Bội Phản trong Quân Lực VNCH,” Một Tiếng Nói Mới về Chiến Tranh VN _Thiện Giao, Phóng Viên Đài RFA.
Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN
 
 
-VIEW :Một Quân đội bị Lãng quên:Anh hùng và Bội phản trong QLVNCH_Andrew Wiest












































“VIETNAM’S FORGOTTEN ARMY” By Andrew Wiest


























































"Re-Education Camps"











    June of 1975, the Communist Northern Vietnamese forces ordered hundreds of thousands of Southern Vietnamese to forcibly participate in “re-education”. There were over 1 million people forced into the re-education camps, 165,000 of which resulted in their death (Trueman 1). There were about 150 re-education camps built after the Fall of Saigon (Butler). The Northern Vietnamese captured former regime, doctors, clergy, artists, poets, teachers, political leaders, and government workers and placed them into re-education camps (Denney). Many of these people are still in those camps. The Northern regime sought to integrate and indoctrinate their conquered Southern Vietnamese enemies into the newly established Communist society. They viewed it as an act of mercy, and alternative option for death or life imprisonment. The re-education camps were an act of revenge that greatly oppressed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese individuals. The three types of re-education camps included: short term, long term and permanent incarceration (Mongabay). The process consisted of eight hours of manual labor a day, two half days per week for political study, and cultural classes nightly (Denney). Most camps were located in the jungle or secluded areas. Some of the conditions of these camps included dangerous labor, wide spread disease, lack of food, lack of medical care, physical abuse, and sometimes individuals were placed in airtight boxes left by the United States, put in underground cellars, added hours of labor, and reduced food rations as punishment. Many placed in the “conex” boxes passed out or died from the heat and lack of oxygen (Denney). In addition to this, all prisoners we forced to write confessions of their crimes and their lives. The intense pressure of this act drove many to mental insanity. Other forms of torture included being bound in different positions for long periods of time while being beaten such as the “Auto” in which the prisoner is tied by hands and feet and made to swing while being beaten(Denney). 
    Families were allowed to visit prisoners and bring food. Children often were brought along to visit their father and saw these cruelties first hand (Denney). The children whose parents were imprisoned in these re-education camps or chose not to flee were often left in the care of a single and struggling parent, or were orphaned by the death of their parents. Many of these children felt the heavy weight of these camps in ways that most people will never fully understand. Hung Huy Nguyen, a re-education camp prisoner tells his story and the impact it had on his wife and children (Butler). Nguyen made the decision to not flee out of respect to a sense of honor and duty. After being summoned for re-education, he urges his wife that if he has not returned within a month, for her to take up another husband in order to provide for their children. His orders his eldest daughter to act as a second mother to her siblings while he is away (Butler). These children undoubtedly had many obstacles during the absence of their father.











-Source:THE VIETNAM CONFLICT



What happened after the Vietnam war?


 Alan Rohn  November 26, 2012


After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, Vietnam became an unified country under control of North Vietnam’s communist government with Hanoi as its new capital. First of all, they decided to rename the country from Democratic Republic of Vietnam to Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), explicitly indicating their desire to follow socialism and then communism. Besides, the People’s Revolutionary Party of South Vietnam was merged with Labour Party in North Vietnam and became Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), the only one party in Vietnam. The VCP leader’s title was also changed from First Secretary, a term used by Chinese Communist, to Secretary General, used by Soviet Communist.

The VCP also implemented a so-called “Re-education” program which captured and imprisoned former military officers and government workers from the former regime of South Vietnam and even its supporters, civil servants, capitalists, priests as well. This program was seen as both a means of revenge as well as political repression and indoctrination. Between 1 to 2.5 million South Vietnamese were captured and moved to the so-called “re-education camps”. These “Re-education camps” were described like prison camps where people had to do hard physical work, some of it were very dangerous such as minefield sweeping, in spite of the shortage of food and medication. Without any technical knowledge and equipment, many prisoners were killed and wounded in minefield explosions. Although a lot of people died while working, starvation and disease were the major causes that take away prisoners’ lives. An estimated 165,000 prisoners died in those re-education camps.



“New Economic Zones” was another program implemented by the communist government in the aftermath of the war. More than 1 million Northern Vietnamese migrated to the south and central regions formerly under the Republic of Vietnam during 1975-80. This program, in turn, displaced around 750,000 to over 1 million Southern Vietnamese and forcibly relocated them to uninhabited mountainous forested areas whose conditions were described by French journalist Jean Lacouture as “a prefabricated hell and a place one comes to only if the alternative to it would be death.” It is estimated that between 20,000 and 155,000 Vietnamese died performing hard labor in these “New Economic Zones”.

Under poverty, lack of economic freedom as well as harsh political policies and treatment of the new communist government, many South Vietnamese people tried to flee their fatherland. “Boat people” is a popular term referring to those refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship after the war. They were willing to risk their lives on some small, old and crudely built boats seeking for a better life away from their hopeless hometown. On the open sea, boat people had to encounter deadly storms, starvation, diseases and pirates as well. After long journeys up to 6 months, those who were lucky might succeed in landing on refugee camps set up by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) around neighbouring countries. Unfortunately, a lot of them did not have that luck. An estimated of 200,000-400,000 boat people out of around 2 millions that fled died at sea. There were also a lot of untold miseries, maltreatment, murders and rapes committed by pirates at sea as well as the guards inside the camps.



Vietnam remained poor and politically isolated until its economic and political reforms in 1986.




VIEW :POST-WAR VIETNAM


Vài ngôi mộ của những người tù cải tạo
 
-K4 re-education camp in Long Khanh – southern Vietnam – built by prisoners into a park.
-Source : Trại giam K4 ở Long Khánh.

K4 prisoners _At the K4 re-education camp in Long Khanh – southern Vietnam

K4 prisoners led by the communists to work.


K4 prisoners _At the K4 re-education camp in Long Khanh – southern Vietnam

 THE VIETNAMESE GULAGS – RE EDUCATION CAMPS.  






-VIEW :THOSE SCARY MOMENTS’ RELATED INFORMATION_The Vietnamese gulags – Re-education camps.














-VIEW:THE VIETNAMESE GULAGS – RE EDUCATION CAMPS_pdf.









-VIEW :Trung úy phi công Nguyễn Văn Lộc va bạn vượt ngục









-VIDEO :NHỚ MẸ_ LêMinhĐảo&ĐỗTrọngHuề ĐanNguyên&QuốcKhanh
















 















-VIDEO :    Anh ở đây_


















LK ANH Ở ĐÂY (TV&VĐN) - HÃY THA THỨ CHO EM (TH) - thienthuntth 04-2013


















































-Vietnam war_Jan 22, 1968 - Members of the 21st Task Tactical Control Party (Air Force), 
attached to the 1st Cav Div (Airmobile), load a Conex container onto a 2½-ton cargo truck 
at An Khe as the unit prepares for movement to Camp Evans, 22 kms north of Hue. Photographer: SP6 Samuel L. Swain.
-Chiến tranh Việt Nam Ngày 22 tháng 1 năm 1968 - Binh sĩ thuộc Đội Kiểm soát Chiến thuật Đặc nhiệm 21 ( Không quân),
 trực thuộc Sư đoàn 1 Kỵ binh (Không vận), chất một thùng hàng Conex lên một xe tải chở hàng nặng 2,5 tấn 
tại An Khê khi đơn vị chuẩn bị di chuyển đến Trại. Evans, cách Huế 22 km về phía bắc. 
Nhiếp ảnh gia: SP6 Samuel L. Swain.





























 



- After the War, Vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong) using Conex container 
to lock up some re-education prisoners who were former ARVN officers.
- Sau chiến tranh Việt Cộng sử dụng thùng Conex nhốt một số tù cải tạo 
là cựu Sĩ Quan Quân Lực VNCH.

- Dimensions of CONEX Container (Kích thước Conex):
6 ft 10 in X 6 ft 3 in  X 8 ft 6 in.
( 1m 85 X 1 m 92 X  2 m 62).









-VIDEO :TRẠI TẬP TRUNG CẢI TẠO: MỘT KIỂU NHÀ TÙ MAN RỢ NHẤT CỦA CHẾ ĐỘ CỘNG SẢN MÀ NHÂN LOẠI TỪNG BIẾT ĐẾN



-VIEW :RE-EDUCATION IN UNLIBERATED VIETNAM:               LONELINESS, SUFFERING AND DEATH 

Note: The following article was published in _The Indochina
Newsletter_, a newsletter I edited at the time, October-November
1982. Much has changed in the 16 years since this article was
written. So far as is known all of the former South Vietnam
government officials and officers have been released from the
re-education camps and many have been allowed to emigrate to the
U.S. under a special program, called Humanitarian Operation. But
many of former prisoners have experienced various problems
resulting from their long term incarceration under difficult
conditions.  I hope this article might be of historical interest
in understanding what these prisoners have experienced; and also
in understanding conditions of imprisonment endured by those
dissidents and others still detained in Vietnam.
  - Steve Denney



- THE INDOCHINA NEWSLETTER


October-November 1982





RE-EDUCATION IN UNLIBERATED VIETNAM:

LONELINESS, SUFFERING AND DEATH 


             by Ginetta Sagan and Stephen Denney 


-Source : OCF Berkeley

-VIEW:RE-EDUCATION IN UNLIBERATED VIETNAM:LONELINESS, 
SUFFERING AND DEATH .pdf_October-November 1982 by
 Ginetta Sagan and Stephen Denney .










"Where liberty dwells, there is my country."- Benjamin Franklin -"Nơi nào có TỰ DO, nơi đó là đất nước tôi."

































-VIDEO :U.S. ARMY TREATMENT OF NORTH VIETNAMESE & VIET CONG _ENEMY PRISONERS OFWAR_(1973









-VIDEO : PBS Frontline: Vietnam Under Communism (1985)





















 -Kỷ Niệm 25 năm Chương Trình HO (1990-2015) :






VIETNAM, U.S. ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT TO SEND EX-POLITICAL PRISONERS TO U.S.

PETER ENG, Associated Press

Jul. 30, 1989 3:16 PM ET




BANGKOK, THAILAND BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ The United States and Vietnam on Sunday announced an agreement for former political prisoners and their relatives to be resettled in the United States, with the first group of 3,000 expected to leave this year.



A joint statement said the two sides hoped to begin by October ''a program for the resettlement in the United states of released re-education center detainees and their close family members who wish to emigrate to the United States.''



The communists toppled the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government in April 1975, and hundreds of thousands of people were put into the camps of manual labor and political study because of their ties with the old regime. Vietnam has said all but about 120 have been freed.



The U.S. government has sought a formal program for their resettlement since 1982, but political bickering and other problems barred progress.



The agreement was reached in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, in talks last week between teams led by Vu Khoan, Vietnamese assistant foreign minister, and Robert L. Funseth, U.S. senior deputy assistant secretary of state.



Funseth said the agreement ''starts healing the last big wound remaining from the war, which is that these people who were clearly associated with the United States have not been allowed to leave Vietnam and be united with their relatives in the United States.''



Funseth, speaking to reports in Bangkok on Sunday, said he also requested that Vietnam free the remaining prisoners as soon as possible.



In the joint statement, the U.S. government said it will not encourage resettled prisoners to engage in activities hostile to Vietnam and said it opposed such activities.



Vietnam says exiles have engaged in anti-communist agitation and even organized armed forays into Vietnam to try to overthrow the government.



The statement said the program would be in addition to existing programs for resettling Amerasians - children of American fathers and Vietnamese mothers - and of other refugees and migrants under the Orderly Departure Program.



It said the two sides ''expressed hope that the first group of 3,000 persons for resettlement in the United States under this agreement will depart Vietnam before the end of the year after processing is completed.''



The statement did not say how many people in all may eventually leave Vietnam under the program.



A U.S. source in Bangkok, speaking anonymously, said Washington estimates about 100,000 Vietnamese sent to re-education camps are among the 600,000 who have applied to emigrate to the United States.



The Vietnamese estimate former inmates and their families number 550,000, he said.



Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach said in June that 94,000 re- education prisoners had been freed in the past decade.



In August 1988, Hanoi suspended talks on resettlement to protest U.S. refusal to consider diplomatic ties until Vietnam ends its occupation of Cambodia. Hanoi agreed to resume talks during last month's international conference on Indochinese refugees held in Geneva.




Cooperation on humanitarian issues is expected to improve further after Vietnam withdraws from Cambodia. It has promised to do so by the end of September.













Hanoi OKs Exodus to U.S. of Freed Political Prisoners




July 31, 1989|From Associated Press

























A joint statement, released in Bangkok, said the two sides hope to begin by October "a program for the resettlement in the United States of released re-education center detainees and their close family members who wish to emigrate to the United States."

The Communists toppled the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government in April, 1975, and hundreds of thousands of people were put into the camps of manual labor and political re-education because of their ties to the old regime.

The U.S. government has sought a formal program for their resettlement since 1982, but political bickering barred progress.

The agreement was reached in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, in talks last week between teams led by Vu Khoan, Vietnamese assistant foreign minister, and Robert L. Funseth, U.S. senior deputy assistant secretary of state.

Funseth said the pact "starts healing the last big wound remaining from the war, which is that these people who were clearly associated with the United States have not been allowed to leave Vietnam and be united with their relatives. . . . "





















































 Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association (FVPPA) Collection




















 TT Ronald Reagan là người đã nhận ra trách nhiệm của nước Mỹ với những chiến sĩ đồng minh tại chiến trường Việt Nam, đang bị đày đoạ tại các trại tù cải tạo ghê rợn của cộng sản Việt Nam nơi rừng sâu, núi thẳm. Nhờ nhận thức này mà chương trình H.O. được xúc tiến. Năm 1984, TT Reagan phái vị Tướng hồi hưu Vessy sang gặp chính quyền Hà Nội để bàn thảo cách giải quyết vụ này. Sau nhiều màn kỳ kèo do phía cộng sản Việt Nam tạo ra, năm 1986, chương trình H.O. thành hình. Nguyễn Văn Linh với chức vụ Tổng Bí Thư Đảng, theo chân sư phụ Gorbachev, lãnh tụ Liên Sô, cũng bắt chước “Đổi mới, cải tổ” một tí cho “quả bom nhân dân” khỏi nổ tung. Nhờ vậy,  tù cải tạo  từ năm 1987 trở về sau mới được thả về . Năm 1988 chuyện tù cải tạo trên 3 năm có thể lập hồ sơ H.O. mới chính thức được loan báo trên đài phát thanh Hà Nội cũng như các đài VOA, BBC, vv…



John Vessey, the President's Special Emissary to Hanoi on ...Release of all re-education camp political prisoners has also been a consistent US goal. ... now also includes former re-education center detainees :

VIEW :-Dispatch, Vol 2, No 18, May 6, 1991_Gen. John Vessey, the President's Special Emissary to Hanoi pdf.

-VIEW : Dispatch, Vol 2, No 18, May 6, 1991 - Ambassador Kenneth pdf ...









John William Vessey, Jr. (born June 29, 1922) is a retired United States Army general. He served as the tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from June 18, 1982 to September 30, 1985.







When he retired in 1985 at the age of 63, General Vessey was the longest serving active duty member in the United States Army. He began his 46-year military career in the Minnesota National Guard in 1939 when he was still 16. He received a battlefield commission during the Battle of Anzio in World War II. General Vessey also served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he graduated from college in 1963 at the age of 41. As a Colonel, he was a student at the Army helicopter school at the age of 48.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position he would hold for over three years, a comparatively short term. He was the last four star combat veteran of World War II on active service.

After retiring from the Army, General Vessey became involved in efforts to account for military personnel listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War. He made several trips to Vietnam to search for remains as part of resolving the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. General Vessey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992.

Vietnamese emissary


Vessey retired on September 30, 1985, several months before the expiration of his second term as Chairman. He was the last four-star World War II combat veteran on active duty and, with forty-six years of service, had served the longest of anyone then in the Army. President Reagan praised Vessey and gave a moving speech on his behalf. The President pointed out that Vessey had served in many leadership positions in his career but the greatest praise given to him was by General Creighton Abrams who simply said "I want Vessey for this job he is a Soldier . In retirement, he served President Reagan and his successors, Presidents George Bush and William J. Clinton, as a special emissary to Vietnam on the question of American service personnel missing from the Vietnam War. For his work in Vietnam, General Vessey was awarded the prestigious United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award in 1996. He was also awarded the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1992.










-Appreciation  Lunch

From: John W. Vessey  





To: tom42tran@yahoo. com


Dear Mr. Tran:





Thank you, very much, for the kind invitation to the Appreciation Lunch on November 27,2015. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend. It would have been pleasure to be with you and perhaps greet some old comrades


from the Vietnam War.






In my more than sixty years of service to the United States, the one accomplishment that gave me the most satisfaction was negotiating an agreement with the Hanoi government to release the former South Vietnamese military officers and political officials from the prison camps, or ''re-education camps", as they were called by the Vietnamese government.






When President Reagan gave me the assignment of Presidential Emissary to Hanoi, he gave me a number of goals to achieve, and he said the three most important are: 1. Accounting for all the missing American servicemen, 2. Gaining the release of all the former South Vietnamese military officers and political officials then in prison camps, and 3. Setting up a system to permit the peaceful reunification of separated Vietnamese families. When I reported to him that we had reached agreement with Hanoi on goals 1 and 3, he was very pleased. I then explained to him that, concerning the former South Vietnamese officials, the Deputy Prime Minister had told me they could not be released because they would create dissension in Vietnam. I then told the Deputy Prime Minister that we, the United States would happily take all of them and their families into the USA as long as they agreed to come. He then agreed to the release. President Reagan said, "Fine, our country will be the richer for their presence here. The Vietnamese American Community has certainly borne out the President's prediction, and I am pleased to have had some small part in that success story.





Again, I am sorry that I am not able to be with you on November 27. With Very best wishes,

John W. Vessey General, USA (Ret.)





















-VIEW :Vietnam's concentration camps after April 30, 1975_Part  # 2 of 2