Where the Domino Fell - America And Vietnam 1945-1995 by James S. Olson, Randy W. Roberts Page B
Authors: James S. Olson, Randy W. Roberts
Tags: United States, Asia, History, European, Ebook, Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences, Military, 20th Century, Europe, Political Science, Vietnam War, Southeast Asia, International Relations, World, Asian, Politics & Government, Americas, International & World Politics, Modern (16th-21st Centuries), Humanities
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1.5 million followers in South Vietnam. Most of them were anticommunists.
Another powerful Buddhist sect in South Vietnam was the Cao Dai. Ngo Van Chieu, born in Cholon in 1878, was deeply involved with spiritualism and seances. He was also infatuated with movies, which he watched in the theaters of Saigon. Claiming to have received a visit from the supreme power, the Cao Dai, Ngo Van Chieu established a religion fusing Buddhism, Christianity, and the movies. Cao Daists prayed to Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and a host of other religious, historical, and pop culture figures. Their pagodas were plastered with posters of the Cao Dai symbol, the huge, all-seeing eye. The Cao Dai faith spread rapidly in the Mekong Delta and frightened the French, who harassed its leaders. Centered around Tay Ninh, about sixty miles northwest of Saigon, the Cao Dai evolved into a semiautonomous state, eventually maintaining its own army. Van Chieu died in 1932. By the early 1950s, the Cao Dai under their new leader Pham Cong Tac had two million adherents and an army of 25,000 troops.
Regular Buddhist monks were another political force. Buddhist monks lived in nearly every village, maintaining pagodas, working in the fields, living side by side with peasants. Most of them were well educated, and they knew a great deal about philosophy, medicine, and astrology. Buddhist political activity functioned on a local level, trying to maintain balance and peace in the villages. The monks took little interest in Hanoi or Saigon unless either disrupted village life. They turned against the French for just that reason. In promoting Roman Catholicism and harassing Buddhist priests, the French committed the unforgivable sin: They brought dissonance to the villages. With the French gone, the monks returned to local concerns, but they were still capable of causing trouble.
No less important were the Binh Xuyen. Led by a ruthless cutthroat, Bay Vien, the Binh Xuyen were the Vietnamese Mafia. They were centered in Cholon, the Chinese suburb of Saigon. By the early 1950s they were a powerful political faction, complete with an army of 25,000 soldiers. Bay Vien’s complex in Saigon was legendary. The Grande Monde was a huge gambling complex capable of taking two piasters from a Vietnamese drunk or a million francs from a wealthy French businessman. Down the block was the world’s largest brothel, the infamous Hall of Mirrors, where a thousand “tricks” could be performed at once. Further down the block, an opium factory refined a high-grade product for distribution throughout Indochina. Bay Vien’s opulent home was separated from his complex by a moat occupied by dozens of alligators. Outside his bedroom, on a very long chain, a full-grown leopard paced. Pythons slithered up the two posts on the front porch. A huge Siberian tiger lived in a cage; its door could be tripped open from inside the house. It was not uncommon to find bits of cloth and human bones inside the cage. Bao Dai accepted payoffs from the Binh Xuyen, and in return, with French consent, the emperor made Bay Vien a general in the South Vietnamese army and head of the national police, with authority over casinos, prostitution, opium traffic, gold smuggling, and currency manipulation. Bay Vien had little use for the communists.
The most troublesome political group were the Vietminh. At the time of the French surrender at Dienbienphu, there were more than 100,000 Vietminh soldiers in South Vietnam, most of them native southerners. They controlled a third of the country and were especially powerful in the Ca Mau Peninsula and along the Cambodian border. When the Geneva Accords were signed, Ho ordered most Vietminh to move to North Vietnam until after the 1956 elections. About 10,000 stayed behind with orders to return to their villages, work in the fields, and organize the peasants for the elections. The Vietminh had
Another powerful Buddhist sect in South Vietnam was the Cao Dai. Ngo Van Chieu, born in Cholon in 1878, was deeply involved with spiritualism and seances. He was also infatuated with movies, which he watched in the theaters of Saigon. Claiming to have received a visit from the supreme power, the Cao Dai, Ngo Van Chieu established a religion fusing Buddhism, Christianity, and the movies. Cao Daists prayed to Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Victor Hugo, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and a host of other religious, historical, and pop culture figures. Their pagodas were plastered with posters of the Cao Dai symbol, the huge, all-seeing eye. The Cao Dai faith spread rapidly in the Mekong Delta and frightened the French, who harassed its leaders. Centered around Tay Ninh, about sixty miles northwest of Saigon, the Cao Dai evolved into a semiautonomous state, eventually maintaining its own army. Van Chieu died in 1932. By the early 1950s, the Cao Dai under their new leader Pham Cong Tac had two million adherents and an army of 25,000 troops.
Regular Buddhist monks were another political force. Buddhist monks lived in nearly every village, maintaining pagodas, working in the fields, living side by side with peasants. Most of them were well educated, and they knew a great deal about philosophy, medicine, and astrology. Buddhist political activity functioned on a local level, trying to maintain balance and peace in the villages. The monks took little interest in Hanoi or Saigon unless either disrupted village life. They turned against the French for just that reason. In promoting Roman Catholicism and harassing Buddhist priests, the French committed the unforgivable sin: They brought dissonance to the villages. With the French gone, the monks returned to local concerns, but they were still capable of causing trouble.
No less important were the Binh Xuyen. Led by a ruthless cutthroat, Bay Vien, the Binh Xuyen were the Vietnamese Mafia. They were centered in Cholon, the Chinese suburb of Saigon. By the early 1950s they were a powerful political faction, complete with an army of 25,000 soldiers. Bay Vien’s complex in Saigon was legendary. The Grande Monde was a huge gambling complex capable of taking two piasters from a Vietnamese drunk or a million francs from a wealthy French businessman. Down the block was the world’s largest brothel, the infamous Hall of Mirrors, where a thousand “tricks” could be performed at once. Further down the block, an opium factory refined a high-grade product for distribution throughout Indochina. Bay Vien’s opulent home was separated from his complex by a moat occupied by dozens of alligators. Outside his bedroom, on a very long chain, a full-grown leopard paced. Pythons slithered up the two posts on the front porch. A huge Siberian tiger lived in a cage; its door could be tripped open from inside the house. It was not uncommon to find bits of cloth and human bones inside the cage. Bao Dai accepted payoffs from the Binh Xuyen, and in return, with French consent, the emperor made Bay Vien a general in the South Vietnamese army and head of the national police, with authority over casinos, prostitution, opium traffic, gold smuggling, and currency manipulation. Bay Vien had little use for the communists.
The most troublesome political group were the Vietminh. At the time of the French surrender at Dienbienphu, there were more than 100,000 Vietminh soldiers in South Vietnam, most of them native southerners. They controlled a third of the country and were especially powerful in the Ca Mau Peninsula and along the Cambodian border. When the Geneva Accords were signed, Ho ordered most Vietminh to move to North Vietnam until after the 1956 elections. About 10,000 stayed behind with orders to return to their villages, work in the fields, and organize the peasants for the elections. The Vietminh had
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