I. THE CPV AND THE PEOPLE OF VIETNAM

As everybody is well aware, the Communist doctrine was devised by Karl Marx to destroy Capitalism around the world. After World War I in 1917, V.I. Lenin succeeded in establishing Communism in Russia. From that time, especially from the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, the world was divided into two uncompromisingly antagonistic groups of nations. The Communist Bloc was determined to "bury" the Capitalist Bloc and, because of its international character, sought to establish itself all over the world.

The Communists wanted to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat, led by the working class. They created class hatred and struggle, especially between the poor and the rich and they promised to create a world of plenty by taking what belonged to the rich and distributing it to the poor. In addition, they operated as if political power came only from the barrel of a gun, and called for the elimination of all religions. Indeed, as atheists and materialists, they adopted the Karl Marx’s definition that religion is an "opiate" used by Capitalists to deceive the working masses. In the case of the Russian people, who had for so long lived in dire poverty and suffered cruel oppression under the Czarist regime, Communist pronouncements were immediately welcomed, which explains the success of the Communist Revolution in that country.

That historical fact does not imply, however, that what was good for Russia would be equally good for Vietnam. Each country is usually confronted with specific problems of its own and these must be solved with due consideration to its historical and cultural traditions. The misfortune for Vietnam is that the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has not realised that.

While the world was divided into two camps, both Communists and Capitalists took advantage of the small and underdeveloped countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. After World War II, whenever the former colonies there regained their independence, a situation similar between these countries would arise. If the local leadership chose Communism, the Capitalists would interfere in the domestic affairs of those newly independent countries in the name of the "Free World". On the other hand, if they chose Capitalism, the Communists would launch a "national liberation struggle" and seek to impose their ideology on that country. Vietnam is one such case.

I.1 Tying the Fortune of Vietnam to the Struggle for International Communism

After World War II, most Asian colonies recovered their independence and refused to join with either of the competing two blocs. That is why, most Asian nations were left alone and they used that time of peace to rebuild their countries and to consolidate their national independence. Vietnam was the only exception to that rule. The Vietnamese suffered 29 years of war and destruction (1946-75) simply because the CPV tied the nation's fortune to that of International Communism. If the nation's leadership had not been international Communists in the years immediately following World War II, but really sought to serve the people like India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesia's Ahmed Sukarno, or Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Vietnamese people would have been spared 29 years of ideological warfare and foreign intervention.

The truth of the matter is that in 1946, the French returned to Vietnam, hoping to reconquer this former colony of theirs, but as many might still remember today, France had been greatly weakened and was not strong enough for that dream. A few years later, Capitalist countries gave France a lot of money and arms to "defend the Free World and prevent Communism from over-running Southeast Asia" because they had less justification to intervene directly in Vietnam than France which had Vietnam as a former colony. On the other hand, the CPV called upon the entire nation to resist foreign aggression and "protect this outpost of International Socialism". That is how Vietnam became an arena for the fight between Communism and Capitalism.

To provide themselves with a reason to return to Indochina, the French talked the former monarch, Emperor Bao Dai, into coming home and helped him to set up a royal government, the principal mission of which was to counter the Communist threat and to protect Vietnam's independence. In so doing, however, the French only used the Vietnamese to kill the Vietnamese. That was the beginning of the internecine war which was to last until 1975 and which I will deal with later on. The trouble with the Bao Dai solution was that these Vietnamese royalists were seen fighting alongside soldiers with long noses and blue eyes and others with frizzy hair and black skin; and such a sight could hardly convince the people, especially patriotic elements, that their alliance was formed for the purpose of protecting "the nation's independence".

On this particular point, the Communists were much more clever than the Capitalists, they used only the indigenous people. Of course, the leaders of International Communism gave the CPV a lot of money and weapons but they did everything else from behind the scenes. They did not send any troops from other Communist countries to fight on the frontlines. That is why the local Communists could still pretend to "fight against foreign aggression" and a great majority of the people could support them out of patriotism. In a way, that is understandable, for the people of Vietnam had lived 80 years under French colonial rule and few would object to fighting the French to recover the nation's sovereignty. No wonder, in the end, the CPV was to achieve victory!

After being defeated at Dien-bien-phu, the French realised they could not go on fighting for much longer. Some were even of the view that if they went on waging war on Vietnam, France might sink in a sea of debt. That was why they reached an accommodation with the CPV at the Geneva Conference (1954). Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th Parallel and the Northern half was given to the Communists. In return, France was allowed to withdraw from Indochina.

I.2 Implementing an alien, inhuman and immoral doctrine in Vietnam

After the French’s withdrawal, the CPV took over Hanoi and as they ruled over the entire territory of North Vietnam, they started implementing their Communist doctrine (which they were careful enough to refrain from doing during the resistance war years for fear of antagonising the people) and then launched their class struggle. In other words, after eliminating the enemy from without, they now tackled elements called enemies within. But who were these enemies within? In CPV parlance, these were "intellectuals, rich merchants, landlords, village bullies, priests, and hoodlums" who had to be "totally uprooted". In fact, most intellectuals, especially members of the Vietnam Quoc-dan-dang (VNQDD), merchants and tradesmen, land-owning individuals, village elders, priests and monks, and other undesirable elements had to be totally eliminated. In 1956, this so-called class struggle took the form of an "agrarian reform" that continued for six months with ever greater barbarity.

Indeed, it all began with the dispatch to every village of a "land reform squad" (LRS) made up of people from faraway provinces. In the Northern provinces, these squad members would be natives of the Central provinces and in the Central provinces, they would be people born in the North. With that kind of division of labour, LRS members could have no sympathy for local residents and dealt with them in the most evil manner. The LRS proclaimed them to be "Squad first, second Jade Emperor". A similar situation was to arise in the Southern provinces in 1975, when drunk with victory, communist-led irrigation workers often exhibited slogans such as: "Hey Heaven Bastard! Step aside so that we irrigation workers can take your place!" or "We will squeeze the earth so hard that it will release water and we will replace Heaven and make the rain fall from the sky!" What foolish arrogance! In feudal times, at the most, kings and emperors only called themselves ‘the sons of Heaven’! LRS members sometimes proclaimed themselves to be "Heaven's fathers" and ordered their victims to begin any request they might have with the formula: "I humbly beg the ones with a heavenly light to consider my case". What irony! A political party, the Communist Party of Vietnam, which called for the overthrow of feudalism and colonialism to bring "independence, liberty and happiness" to the people should suddenly consider itself Heaven's father! Power and privileges have indeed proved corrupting!

Whenever an LRS arrived at a village, its members would choose to stay at the houses of the poorest villagers, especially those with no means to support themselves other than working for other people, such as buffalo herdsmen and public criers. These were called (the Land Reform's) "core elements" and were assigned the task of "studying and investigating" who should be classified as landlords, bullies, rich farmers, and intellectuals (i.e. members of the VNQDD). All those classified as such would be imprisoned separately to wait for the time when they would be denounced and struggled against... and given the death penalty. While being detained, these poor souls were denied all contact with relatives and friends. Whoever sought to help them would be charged with the same crimes. It was only natural that the LRS would assign such an important task to the poorest people in each village, for these often resented the better off than themselves and could be easily incited to turn their resentment into hatred. And only with hatred could the Land Reform Campaign be made to succeed.

After the "core elements" completed their "study and investigation", the local LRS would decide upon a time and date for a struggle. On that day, the victims would be taken to an open field grandly called a People's Court to be judged. More often than not, at the centre of this "court" there would be erected a platform for the seating of LRS, People's Court judges and people's jurors, naturally composed of the poorest and most illiterate villagers. All prisoners with their arms tied behind their backs would be forced to kneel, whereupon a member of the LRS would read the charges. If a prisoner wanted to protest his/her innocence, he or she had to start with the formula: "I most humbly beg the ones with a heavenly light to ..." On that day, with the exception of one person per family (usually an old person, to keep an eye on the family home) everybody was required to be present at the "court" session. And, of course, everybody had been told to do what was required of him/her.

As a rule, the denouncer would say something like the following: "In the past, you bums exploited us, lent us money but charged us a cut-throat rate of interest. On certain days, including anniversaries and official holidays, we had to make you offerings of chickens, eggs, pork, sticky rice. We must have given you tens of thousands of eggs and thousands of chickens. And when we worked for you, not only did you not give us enough to eat but you also beated us..."

There were countless cases of sons denouncing fathers, wives informing against husbands, disciples accusing teachers, cousins bad-mouthing cousins; most could be traced to past family rows. However, after the denunciation session, when the People's Court would indict the prisoners and sentence them to death, everybody present would have to shout: "Death to the accused!" and while repeating that call three times, they had to raise their fists. That was the signal for LRS members to drag the prisoners away, blindfold them, tie each of them to a previously erected post, and shoot them. Each time, after a five-man firing squad did its "duty", the prisoner's head would drop down and so went another person from this world. But I have heard of prisoners who refused to die at once and had to be shot many times. Whatever the case might be, after witnessing the killings, the crowd would drop their arms, shout a few slogans and then disperse... to get ready for another struggle session the following day in another village. In the meantime, the possessions of those condemned to death were divided among the "core elements", who, all of a sudden, found themselves owning a house, a bed, a table, a chair, a trunk, a mill, a mortar, a plough, a rake, a few bowls and plates, a number of pots and pans, half a dozen baskets, or even a couple of old brooms... In other words, everything that belonged to the victims was distributed to the "core elements" of the village.

This systematic demonstration of class struggle went on for six months in the Northern provinces, causing the death of up to 700 000 persons; according to the words of a cadre, "including, a number of Communists beheaded by the Communists themselves; that’s really hurting!".

It was so terrifying that the CPV, ultimately, had to order a rectification campaign. According to the same cadre, "Chairman Ho had to personally apologise to the people". But is it possible that the CPV which always prides itself on being an infallible organisation (I still remember the words of a song we prisoners had to endure when I was incarcerated at the Phan Dang Luu prison in Gia-dinh province in 1977, calling the Party "the sole custodian of the truth" and praising it as "the Sun") have to rectify its errors? The unfortunate thing is that even if it had rectified its mistakes, even if Ho Chi Minh had apologised, the lives of 700 000 persons had been lost and their possessions confiscated and scattered.

However, that was not the end of this story of death and destruction. Following the Rectification Campaign, there was another wave of killing. The reason was that during the Land Reform period, many people had taken advantage of the Denunciation Campaign to take revenge on their personal enemies who had made false accusations to get even with those they disliked. After the CPV ordered the Rectification Campaign, family members of those killed on the grounds of those false charges returned and killed their tormentors. As an example, I can tell you the story of one of those "core elements" who had lost his index finger when a child. When the Land Reform was launched, he used that lost finger to denounce a dozen persons. He would say to his victims: "I spent years of my life taking care of your buffaloes, but instead of paying me a decent wage, not only did you not give me enough to eat but you also cut off my index finger!" He lost his own life during the Rectification Campaign. The number of people killed in this period was quite large too, creating an atmosphere of hatred never experienced in four thousand years of the nation's history.

The superior monk of Long Khanh pagoda in Vu Doai village - where I have been kept under house arrest for over ten years (1982-92) - was accused of being a member of the VNQDD and incarcerated. Fortunately for him, he had only been in gaol for two months when the Rectification Campaign was ordered, otherwise he would have been killed too. There were even more memorable cases, though...

A poor man had to sell his labour for a living but he was so honest and good-hearted that his employer took pity on him and whenever he wanted a loan, his employer would readily give it to him interest-free. During the Land Reform Campaign, the man was forced to take part in the denunciation of his benefactor. He complied, of course, but said: "I only worked for you, bum, because I was poor but not only did you give me enough to eat, you always paid me something extra. And whenever I asked you to loan me some rice, you never charged me any interest..." The LRS had to have someone drag him away!

There was also the case of a Catholic priest, who was denounced by one Mrs Duc, a woman reputed to have the sharpest tongue in the village. When the priest was made to kneel, Mrs Duc insulted the priest with the harshest words, then concluded: "How can you claim to be a priest? All you do is eat the best dishes and then join the Communists and work against the nation!" At once, the LRS had somebody drag her out but in the heat of the moment, Mrs Duc refused to go. She shouted: "I have not finished. This priest has committed many other crimes. I have not finished denouncing him." But the LRS underling covered her mouth and dragged her away. Apparently the woman had been instructed to say that the priest had "joined the French and the Nationalists and worked against the nation". Could it be that in the heat of the moment, she forgot the instruction and denounced the priest for "joining the Communists". Whatever the explanation might be, the victimised priest was taken away and even now (1992) has yet to be freed.

After the Land Reform Campaign was launched the sons and daughters - even, the relatives - of landlords, former village officials, intellectuals, monks and priests were all referred to as bums or jerks and whenever they came across any farmer, including the oldest and youngest, they were required to kowtow to them and say : "My respect to you, sir" or "my respect to you, ma'am". Once a six-year-old girl took a younger tot on a stroll in the village road and was met by an old woman, whose only crime was to be the relative of a landlord. The old woman had to say to the little girl : "My respect to you, ma'am peasant and sir peasant". A tragi-comical story but the farcical side of these stories did not end there.

The superior monk of Long Khanh pagoda in Vu Doai village, upon being released from prison - it was on a full moon night - busied himself with cooking some sticky rice to use as an offering to Lord Buddha. The old monk was putting the rice on a plate when a number of old women, just arriving from the village, saw him and said to him : "You dirty reactionary! You have no right to do that. Your duty is in the garden. Go there and cut the grass!" O tempora, o mores! The poet Tan Da might have foreseen that situation when he wrote in the 1920s:

Alas! Heaven has ordered the end of Eastern civilisation
For morally, at this moment, everything is upside down!

I.3 Wasting the labour, properties and resources of the people of Vietnam

I have just given you a sketch of denunciation techniques used during the Land Reform Campaign but find it impossible to describe in any detail the modus operandi, the terrorising techniques employed during that campaign and the treatment of those classified as "enemies of the people" before they were dragged to People's Courts and condemned to death. All I can say is that these were reminiscent of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution in 1793-96.

After killing most of "those owing the people a debt of blood", the CPV made the solemn promise of building a just society in which everyone would share the same rights and privileges and nobody would suffer from lack of food and clothing. That society would also be one in which nobody would be too rich or too poor, nobody would exploit anybody, no one would have to work for others, and those over a certain age would be cared for. That society would be one with no beggars, robbers, bandits, prostitutes, drug addicts. In that paradise on earth, everybody would have a job. And in the future, if the earth became overpopulated, the population surplus would be sent to the moon!

The CPV did keep its promise of giving land to the landless farmers. And each of these was given not only a small plot of land but also a title to it. In certain parts of the country, that title was even glued to a pole placed on the relevant plot of proper land. Then to prevent the practice of hiring labour from staging a comeback, the CPV urged farmers to organise themselves in mutual aid teams - a kind of small cooperative. In this arrangement, four or more households were encouraged to set up a mutual aid team and all able-bodied people in the participating households would work the land of each family until all of the work was done. It should also be known that at that juncture, the land tax was still rather light.

That is why most people were rather happy with their lot. Indeed, it was only "thanks to Uncle Ho and the CPV" that the peasants of Northern Vietnam had some land. It is to be regretted that the happy situation did not last very long. In 1960, all farmers were ordered to join cooperatives and become the "collective masters" of their land. There was no longer any private ownership of land. All of a farmer's possessions, including oxen and buffaloes, ploughs and rakes, rice mills and mortars, became the property of the local cooperative. All of a sudden, farmers discovered that they no longer owned anything and that they were condemned to work for the cooperative in exchange for a few workpoints. In other words, the lot of the landless peasant in the 1960s did not differ much from that of his counterpart in feudal times, except for one thing: While in the olden days, a hired hand - one working for a "wicked landlord" - was given two big meals and a quantity of rice each day, modern days’ cooperative members were not fed anything but they are merely given 500-1000 grams of paddy daily. Since a kilo of paddy gives only 600 grams of rice, and a farmhand usually eats more than that at each meal, Northern farmers started to say:

As the cooperative grows bigger
Farmers use pods to hold their rice

But when a not so subtle soul rephrased the second verse of the distich into ‘doi het roi’ , he was called to the Village People's Committee and required to explain his behaviour. The man said: "How dare I say anything bad about the Revolution? What I meant is that as the cooperative grows bigger, hunger will be a thing of the past and everyone will have enough to eat". He was allowed to go home.

There was also the case of a "poet", the author of the following distich:

In the morning, I already feel my belly ache
That feeling persists into the afternoon and the evening

But in wartime, that is not important
After the US is defeated everything will be okay!

It took the CPV until 1980 to figure out that cooperatives constituted the most inefficient mode of agricultural production. Indeed, since cooperative members were not allowed to enjoy the benefits of their labour in accordance with the slogan "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need", few of them would work hard and many would even sabotage the common endeavour. Most would do what they were told without much enthusiasm and only wait for the time to go home where they would devote their energy to raising a pig or a few chickens. That was why agricultural production kept falling. The CPV had to adopt another policy, the contract system, but as the cooperative continued to take the lion's share of the harvest, farmers were left with very little and the threat of famine was always present in the countryside of Vietnam.

Old people, those over the age of 60-70 and no longer able to work in the field, were required to join tree-planting teams in accordance with Uncle Ho's recommendation that "one should prepare for the coming decades by planting trees and one should prepare for the next century by educating man". It should also be said that trees planted on both sides of the road were sandalwood, ironwood and casuarinas. But as soon as they were a few metres high, the cooperative would fell them and use the wood to build depots and to fuel brick-firing kilns.

One day, a group of seven or eight such old people took some seedlings to plant along the road leading to Vu Doai village pagoda and then took a rest there. "Where are you going?" I asked them, and they said they were on a tree-planting task that would give them a few workpoints. Being curious as I was, I asked them how many points they were entitled to; and they replied that for each five seedlings planted, they would be awarded one point and that point would entitle them to 100 grams of unhusked rice. I went on: "I heard that here, most people over a certain age live in houses for the aged, where they are cared for in every respect. Why is it, then, that you have to go around planting trees?" The reply came back instantly: "We don't know what will happen in the future but still count ourselves among the eating-on-the-road people". It is quite strange that these old people twisted the word an-duong-duong (hostels for the aged) into an dung duong (eating-on-the-road).

But a few days later, most of these trees would be uprooted at night and that prompted buffalo boys to come up with the following congratulatory verses:

Congratulations to the tree-planting oldsters!
Of the ten you've planted, nine have died
And the tenth is moribund!

Grandchildren, you're practically blind:
Of the trees we've planted, none is left standing
How can you say otherwise!

Corruption in the countryside was also quite widespread. Farmers working under the contract system were required to pay the cooperative so much that they did not have enough to live on and if the harvest was bad they even had to dig into their own pockets to buy the difference at the market. That is why they had to beseech tractor drivers to do their work thoroughly, otherwise the land would not yield enough food. But tractor drivers were known for their dishonesty. For example, although they were bound by contract to harrow the fields three times, they would only do it twice and sell the unused gasoline on the blackmarket. That is why the peasants had no alternative but to beg these "Misters" to do their work more thoroughly and, in return, repay the favour by feeding them like kings. "Black buffaloes eat grass, red buffaloes eat chicken", according to a modern-day saying. Black buffaloes, of course, are real buffaloes and red buffaloes are tractors, for all tractors in Vietnam were painted red, the colour of the Revolution. What an irony! In the pre-Revolution days, tenant farmers were said to present gifts of chickens to their landlords, nowadays they are required to do the same to..."tractors"! It's really a case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire". But some time later, these "tractors" did not want to eat chickens alone anymore and they demanded money and rice so that they could share them with their wives and children!

The same can be said of electricity. In the countryside, electricity was only used to pump water into the ricefields to prepare them for ploughing and harrowing. When that time came, cooperatives wishing to have enough water to work the land had to grease the palms of cadres in charge of the local substation, otherwise there would not be any electricity for the pumping phase. But what cooperative officers feared most was that without water at the right time, the land might not produce enough rice and they themselves would not be able to pay all kinds of government taxes. That is why they readily supplied electricity workers with rice and meat. "No oink no watts", according to another saying ... In the countryside, whoever wanted electricity supply at home during the Lunar New Year Festival or on such important occasions as weddings or funerals, had to seek the approval of electricity workers and this had to be paid for with pork, chicken and rice. Indeed, as an anonymous author put it:

To have electric light to enjoy in one's home
Pig's and chicken's "intestines" must be wired from the substation to the home!

Everybody must do the work of two
So that the cadre may buy a car and a radio
Everybody must do the work of three
So that the cadre may have his house for free...

In the end, the partial contract system proved a total failure and by 1985, the CPV had to adopt a new system. Still called the contract system, it allowed individual farmers to lease land and, then, pay rent to the State. In other words, the present-day system of land ownership is exactly like the old "feudal" system, except for the fact that in the bad old days, landlords were private citizens and nowadays they are the State and the ruling party. Soon afterwards, farming cooperatives were dismantled, their storage buildings, drying courtyards, pigsties, silkworm-raising facilities, medicinal herb gardens, nurseries, retailing facilities, Uncle Ho fish ponds, Uncle Ho orchards..., everything broken up and auctioned off.

One day, a villager came and talked me into going "to see a place just visited by American B-52 bombers". I was utterly surprised and asked the man when the bombing took place. He said in reply: "Only a few days ago". As I continued to look surprised, he explained that after the pigsty of the cooperative was sold to the people, the buyers immediately proceeded to pull down the building and it looked like it had just been bombed. Only then did I understand the man completely.

A few days before, I had a visitor from the neighbouring city of Nam-dinh who gave me a gift. It was a box made in the (former) Soviet Union and therefore had the initials CCCP printed on it. As I did not understand what these letters stood for, I asked him for an explanation. "They stand for", he said, "cac cha cu pha (the fathers continue to sabotage), cac chu cu pha (the uncles continue to sabotage), cac co cu pha (the aunts continue to sabotage), cac cau cu pha (the younger brothers continue to sabotage), cac con cu pha (the children continue to sabotage), cac chau cu pha (the grandchildren continue to sabotage), cac chat cu pha (the great grandchildren continue to sabotage), cac chut cu pha (the great great grandchildren continue to sabotage), cac chit cu pha (the great great great grandchildren continue to sabotage)..." After saying so, the visitor exploded laughing. I told myself: "What cruel words! Is this the nation's destiny?" No wonder they have destroyed countless temples and pagodas. If this were to continue generation after generation, what would become of the country? And all of a sudden, I remembered the scorched-earth policy period.

The incredible amount of work the entire nation had to do and the sweat and tears millions of people shed for a quarter of a century, mainly by channeling all of their energy into the establishment of thousands of cooperatives, suddenly vanished into the thin air. What is worse is that nobody knew where the proceeds of the sales of the cooperatives went!

Since time immemorial, our forefathers have drawn on their own life experience to come up with innumerable short, sharp adages to remind their descendants of certain facts of life. For example, to remind the young of the law of cause and effect (or karma), old people often say: "If the parents eat too much salt, the children are bound to be thirsty.". In other words, if one lives a life of crime, sooner or later one will have to pay the punishment. Speaking of one's destiny, our forefathers would say: "If one is destined to be rich, opulence will come even if one does not want it. If one is destined to be poor, poverty will trap one even if one constantly looks for a way out.".

How true, indeed. During the LRC, the so-called landlords and village bullies had all of their properties confiscated. All they were left with was a corner of the stable, where their children had to sleep on the dirt floor. Without any means of support, these poor children had to keep themselves alive by looking for tiny crabs and snails to eat. Strangely enough, the latter days nouveaux riches comprise mainly these crab- and snail-eaters, who, in the meantime, have acquired brand new houses and seem to have rice and money in profusion. On the other hand, those who took over the houses and money of the nouveaux riches's parents are now living in dire poverty. After selling whatever they were given, the poor have remained poor. You might remember that during the LRC, the children of landlords had to debase themselves by kowtowing to everybody, calling even the most humble peasant "Mister" or "Madam". Nowadays, the same peasants can often be found at the home of the nouveaux riches, begging for a loan or some other favour.

But it is in the field of collectivism - as understood by the Communists, of course - that our forefathers were most prolific. Let me mention only three sayings: "If something belongs to everybody, nobody will take care of it", "if a pagoda has too many caretakers, nobody will lock the gate", and "too many cooks spoil the broth/a girl with too many fathers will find it hard to get a husband".

Unfortunately, CPV leaders discarded the advice of their ancestors and went to learn from Mr Marx, Mr Lenin instead. Because of their belief in the superiority of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the CPV forced the peasantry into collectivisation and as a result had wasted the nation's wealth for practically nothing.

The same can be said of politics. Vietnamese history is full of incidents illustrating good policies. Under King Ly Thanh Ton, for example, one day the King held a meeting with his ministers at the Palace of Thien Khanh and on this occasion brought along Princess Dong Thien. At one point, the King pointed to his daughter and said to the ministers: "In our heart, we feel there is no difference between our daughter and our subjects. It is a pity that too many of our subjects are so foolish that they commit crimes and end up being punished. We still feel so sorry for them, however, that from now on we wish to instruct you to forgive them all for their petty crimes and to reduce the penalty for those who commit serious ones." Nguyen Trai put this political philosophy even more eloquently. In ‘Binh Ngo Dai Cao’ (Grand Proclamation on Pacifying the Wu (Chinese)), he wrote on behalf of Emperor Le Loi: "It is our wish that we should use the weapons of the Righteous Cause to defeat the Cruel Enemy and rely on Extreme Humanity to conquer Brute Force." The question might be asked why CPV leaders did not make use of these humane values which we have inherited, but instead, copied the politics of hatred and class struggle to deal with the people, and, in the process, caused the unjust death of hundreds of thousands of their innocent kith and kin!

Let me now return to the contract policy which was announced after the total failure of the cooperative movement. By that, I mean the policy that was being implemented in 1985, when ricefields were contracted out to individual farmers. The trouble was that buffaloes, oxen, and other means of production had been collectivised and when these collectives were disbanded, their means of production auctioned off. Nothing was returned to those working the land, who then had to buy everything they needed. Of these means of production, the most difficult to purchase were draught animals, each of which costed hundreds of thousands of piastres and was truly beyond the peasants' means. Of course, most peasants could not hire tractors to do the ploughing and harrowing.

In addition, when they joined the local cooperative, all the dykes that had served to partition the fields and as reservoirs were leveled to make the ricefields fit for ploughing by tractors. Now that the land contracted out to individual farmers was once again limited to a couple of acres, the need for the former irrigation system was felt most acutely, and the use of tractors was most impractical. That was why most farmers were reduced to using picks and shovels to work their land. As reported from many a region, every time a farmer would raise his pick or shovel he would sigh: "Mechanising the whole nation". The farmers related that ‘our Party’ had said that "agriculture would be mechanised over the whole nation". Even seven and eight-year-old children were mechanised. After the first stage of picking the land, the harrowing would still pose a tough challenge and families with many well-muscled youths would resort to using them to pull the harrow across the field. More than once, the sight of people pulling a harrow has caused passers-by to make the observation: "Wow! How strong these buffaloes are!" and to smile knowingly at one another.

I, too, have witnessed such a sight more than once. And every time I was confronted with it, it reminded me of a TV film that was shown in Saigon in 1975, relating the life story of President Ho Chi Minh (called Brother Three in this production). When President Ho left the country to find a way "to save the country" - he was pictured boarding a ship at the Nha Rong pier - it was told in that one of the reasons that prompted him to go abroad was the sight of peasants pulling a plough. Nowadays, nearly half a century after the success of the August Revolution and the imposition of the Communist doctrine, things have remained more or less the same. At Vu Doai, I must add, I have only seen people pulling harrows - not ploughs - for ploughs are very heavy. Life in Vietnam is like a revolving picture lantern, it keeps turning round and round. The same can be said of social ills such as theft, highway robbery, beggary, corruption, drug addiction..., which now can be seen practically everywhere!

Even if one should measure the time span between the start of the Land Reform - which caused the death of 700 000 people and when the CPV promised to build a paradise on earth - and now, one would count 36 years (1956-92) but so little has been achieved that one might be excused for believing the cake the people of Vietnam were promised a slice of was nothing but a cardboard cake!

What about the Southern provinces? After the Battle of Dien-Bien-Phu, the French reached an agreement with the CPV, partitioning Vietnam along the 17th Parallel and putting the Northern half of the country under Communist rule while keeping the South under French rule. But the Capitalist alliance, under the aegis of the USA, having seen how weak France had become after nine years of a most expensive but useless war effort, discarded the French and chose direct intervention. It brought Mr Ngo Dinh Diem home to lead an anti-Communist government and "to protect the Free World". After the formation of this government, the Communists used it as an excuse to set up the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF/SVN) to resist US intervention and to liberate the nation. That was the start of the second war between the Nationalists and the Communists in South Vietnam.

The Ngo Dinh Diem administration was never really popular. Its tendency to rule arbitrarily, its nepotism, and its religious discrimination were to make it even less so. After eliminating religious sects such as the Cao-Dai and the Hoa Hao, Mr Ngo Dinh Diem ordered in 1963 the repression of the Buddhist Church, causing a protest movement involving not only monks and nuns but also the Buddhist laity. In November 1963, the Ngo Dinh Diem regime was overthrown.

In 1965, following the so-called "Gulf of Tonkin affair", the US government ordered a number of air raids on North Vietnam. The following year, it brought 500 000 GIs and tens of thousands of soldiers from allied countries - including Thailand, the Republic of (South) Korea, Australia - to take part in the fighting. In the years following, the war grew more intense, causing death and destruction on an unimaginable scale.

With over half a million soldiers, the Capitalist side failed to defeat their Communist foe and although that can be attributed to many reasons, the main explanation is the presence of so many foreign soldiers on Vietnamese soil. That particular reality gave the CPV a degree of superficial "legitimacy" which, in turn, permitted the Communists to "sell" their slogan - "to fight the US to save the country and liberate the nation" - and to mobilise the North Vietnamese masses and a considerable number of patriotic elements in the South to take part in their struggle and finally help the CPV to achieve victory. On this particular point, the Communists were more clever than the Capitalists. Indeed, top Communist leaders only sought local elements to fight on the battlefields. While no soldiers from China, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia were seen fighting in Vietnam, these countries gave the CPV a lot of ammunition and weapons and whatever advice they proffered was behind the scenes. The result was that the CPV could say in their propaganda that Vietnam was being invaded and everyone had a duty to fight the aggressor's forces. As in other such struggles, the side with "the just cause" would prevail, however difficult the struggle might be. What is more remarkable is that the CPV succeeded in convincing a number of Capitalist countries to support them. In the meantime, the American people soon realised that the war in Vietnam had very little to do with the USA's vital interests and demanded that Washington put an end to the killing of their sons by withdrawing from the conflict. Realising the emotional character of that point, the CPV did their best to exploit it. They did this particularly well by comparing themselves to a midget being bullied by a giant.

America found herself in a similar position to that of France in 1954 - unable to achieve victory - and had to withdraw. The problem was how to do so without a loss of face. That explains why Washington ordered a series of B-52 raids on Hanoi, forcing the CPV back to the conference table. In January 1973, the two belligerents agreed to end the war and Washington withdrew its forces from Vietnam. Following the US withdrawal, the Republic of (South) Vietnam was left to cope with the Communist threat all by itself. On 30 April 1975, however, the Southern republic government surrendered and the Communists took over the entire country. The CPV could say they had fought until the "Americans had were kicked home and the ‘puppet’ administration felled".

I.4 Bringing tragedies, calamities to the country, threatening security and happiness of the people

Starting from the days just before the Southern republic's collapse (30-4-75), a wave of people left the country but the exodus did not stop after the Communist victory, and when the CPV started a new class struggle against the property owning class and confiscated its possessions, the people of Vietnam left their country in millions. Even now (1992), people are still leaving the nation's shores by the thousands.

The question must be asked, of those who went out to sea, how many have served as food for the fish or are lying at the bottom of the sea? How many of those who reached some foreign shore were pushed out to sea again? And what has happened to them? How many have been attacked by pirates, robbed, raped and then thrown into the sea? How many who were accepted for resettlement in a free land, have not been able to forget these terrible experiences and are now living in a state of mental disturbance? How many, even now, are living like two-legged animals in refugee camps scattered all over Southeast Asia? How many of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civil servants of the former South Vietnamese regime, have perished in the system of re-education camps the communists forced them to enter? And then, right in this country, how many intellectuals, teachers, artists and writers, priests and monks are being detained or under house arrest simply because they had spoken out the Conscience, wanting the people to be allowed to live in genuine freedom and democracy? The answer to the above questions remains most elusive.

Throughout four thousand years of Vietnam's history, the life of the people has never been so miserable. Even when they were victimised by feudalism and colonialism, at no time have the common people felt the need to leave their country. Now that Vietnam is "an independent and free country where everyone is free to pursue happiness", why is it that millions of people are ready to leave their ancestral land with total disregard for their personal safety? Could it be that they have left simply because of poverty and the wish for a better material life? That is not true! Over the past two decades, countless people have left their possessions - which, in many cases, could have sustained them for generations - simply to be free, and when asked about the chance of death at sea, they would gladly reply that that would be more refreshing than life in Vietnam!

Even now (1992), when citizens of Capitalist countries have arrived to Vietnam to do business, when the economy keeps expanding, and when living conditions are getting better, I firmly believe that half or more than half of the population would leave Vietnam without any regret if some country would decide to open its doors to Vietnamese refugees, or if the international community would put an island at their disposal, and if the Hanoi authorities would let the people go without putting up any barriers! Why is that so?

It is so because in present-day Vietnam, there is a statutory offence of "disturbing the stability and social order". This offence is so vague that it has no limitations and is difficult to avoid, therefore the people live in a state of constant fear. The life of most Vietnamese citizens is comparable to that of "a fish lying on a chopping block". Indeed, in present-day Vietnam, any citizen can be arrested at any time. A misplaced word, a comment deemed improper by the CPV can land anybody in gaol. What's more terrifying is that the speaker can be charged with "disturbing the stability and social order", and taken away in the dead of the night without even the knowledge of his or her neighbours. That is why before any Vietnamese citizen can say anything political, he or she must look left and right, even under the bed and the table - to make sure no one is listening. But even then, he or she must still lower the voice like burglars for fear of being heard by somebody who eavesdrops.

Not long ago, a Vu Doai village man came to my pagoda and asked me for some writing to hang in front of his ancestral altar on the occasion of the coming Lunar New Year. Upon hearing this request, I told myself that nothing would be more fitting and proper than the age-old four-character phrase Am Thuy Tu Nguyen (lit. when one drinks water, one should think of its source). Still, the police were curious and wanted to know about this well-known phrase. They had somebody visit the Vu Doai man and inquire about the four Chinese characters. Upon being given the only possible explanation, the policeman still said: "You'd better be careful. The fellow (meaning me) might be hinting at something political!"

Living in a society where anybody can turn out to be a spy informing on his/her own neighbours is certainly no fun. In my own case, I have been under house arrest for ten years (1982-92) simply because "doing religious work is tantamount to being politically active" and I dare say that even "if one sits on a mountain of gold, one will not feel happy". That is why whenever the occasion arises, most Vietnamese try to leave the country. That attitude has nothing to do with poverty or living conditions.

Let me now tell you an old story to illustrate the point just made. One day Confucius and his followers were traveling to the country of Qi. While crossing the Taishan Range, the Master saw a woman weeping in the open in the most tragic manner. Confucius stopped and told his followers: "Looking at that woman, one must form the impression that she is mourning two persons." After making that remark, he ordered Zi Kung to go and inquire. The woman told Zi Kung: "This place is full of tigers. My father-in-law and my husband both died because of these beasts. And just now, my only son was attacked and killed by one of them. It's all so very tragic!" When Zi Kung asked why she did not move elsewhere, the woman explained: "Notwithstanding the tigers, this county is still preferable to others because here, the policy of the mandarins has proven not so bad as elsewhere." After Zi Kung related this exchange to Confucius, the Master commented to his disciples: "You should always remember that bad politics is worse than a cruel tiger."

That is what is happening in Vietnam these days. Millions of Vietnamese are now leaving the country not so much because of poverty but because they fear the wickedness of the Communist regime. Among those who opted to go away, many had enough money to support themselves and their descendants for many generations and many were willing to die at sea; that should be enough to prove that bad politics is worse than a cruel tiger. That also illustrates the comment Confucius made to his disciple.

Indeed, during the 21 years between 1954 and 1975, the CPV took full advantage of the human and material resources of the people of North Vietnam and a considerable segment of the South Vietnamese population to push their war effort to fruition. In 1973, the US was forced to withdraw - although Washington had expended millions of tons of bombs and chemicals on the Vietnamese territory - and in 1975, the "puppet" administration and army disintegrated, presenting the Communists with a glorious victory. But 18 years later, especially following the collapse of the Soviet Union and other Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the CPV found itself without a support base. To rescue an economic system about to sink, and which nobody wanted to help keep afloat, they had to swallow their pride and unashamedly beg the Americans to come back, hoping that Washington would end its embargo against Vietnam. Unfortunately for the CPV, the Americans played hard to get and demanded precondition after precondition. Of these, the most important was the search for the remains of some 2 000 US soldiers killed or missing in action during the war years. Since then, the Communist Vietnamese had to endure countless hardships to locate every tiny American bones and every time they dug up a few skeletons, the Americans would "reward" them with something specified in Washington's so-called road map. I am wondering how the big shots in the CPV apparatus are feeling at the present time!

To the gentlemen currently running the US administration, I should like to avail myself of this opportunity to tell them something: "If you want to reward the CPV, please say so in no uncertain terms. Please don't mention the name of Vietnam. Indeed, being the bearers of traditions that can be traced back to Ly Thai To, Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Nhan Ton, Tran Hung Dao, Le Loi, Nguyen Trai... we are certainly no grave-diggers to be rewarded by you."

It is so ironic that after being on the receiving end of millions of tons of bombs and Agent Orange that killed and maimed millions of people and is still likely to cause birth defects in unborn children for many generations to come, the CPV now thinks it has to do everything to please Washington. The reason is easy to explain, though. Americans have a lot of greenbacks, which only a few years ago the CPV still described as "blood money". On the other hand, the people of Vietnam are being treated by the CPV as animals, which explains why the people of the Northern provinces often describe themselves in the following terms: "(We) eat like pigs, live like rats, work like buffaloes, and are treated like dogs."

The CPV's contempt for the Vietnamese citizenry is nowhere more vividly illustrated than in the treatment it reserved for the Most Venerable Huyen Quang and myself. We only protested after the CPV and its men did the most sacrilegious things, including the destruction of Buddha statues and pagodas, the conversion of pagodas into maternity hospitals and cinemas, and the arrest of countless monks and nuns. We had to protest against such impudent and illegal actions. We never had the intention of wresting political power from them, but they made life hard for us, exiled and put us under house arrest for more than a decade!

I have drawn your attention to the fact that the remains of some 3 000 American MIAs are now being actively sought, but who is searching for the 300 000 or so North Vietnamese MIAs? What about the "puppet" gentlemen who saved themselves by getting away before 30 April 1975 and those who fled the country in the ensuing years and have been called "traitors" by the CPV? Why is it that they have now become foreigners of Vietnamese ethnicity and are welcomed back as "patriotic sojourners", especially if their pockets are full of dollars?

There is another truly absurd story. In 1954 in Northern Vietnam - and then in 1975 in Southern Vietnam - the CPV imprisoned and killed all local businessman, such that now they have to give VIP treatment to every foreigner wishing to do business with Vietnam. Why didn't they invite foreign businessmen in 1945, or 1954, or 1975 at the latest? Why did they have to spend 41 years trying to "bury the Capitalist clique" causing untold suffering to the local people, before inviting the same Capitalists to be back in 1986?

The CPV often asks the question: "Socialism or Capitalism, which one will prevail?" and then answers that Socialism is the wave of the future. But all over the world, Capitalism has obviously won the contest and in present-day Vietnam, it can be said that Capitalism is in the courtyard, the bed, even the pockets of CPV leaders. It can also be said that Socialism is only a label, now completely devoid of meaning. Why not throw it away altogether to be in step with the times? As our forefathers used to say, danh chinh ngon thuan, unless the name is right, words will not come easily. In the case of Vietnam, the ruling party is called the Communist Party of Vietnam, the country is officially called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) but the economy is based on market forces. How can one explain this incongruity? If the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were still in existence, the initials SRV might still make sense, but as things are now, SRV does sound very much like an abandoned, lost word.

After killing countless so-called wicked landlords, the CPV resurrected their land-renting practice. After "burying" the local Capitalist class, they now invite foreign capitalists to Vietnam to do business with them. What a strange circle of life! Still, the CPV continue to claim they are revolutionary fighters. Unfortunately, with their kind of revolution, all of the nation's natural resources are likely to end up in the hands of foreigners!

Had we Vietnamese staged, half a century ago, a revolution similar to that launched by the Japanese Emperor Meiji to reform the country, instead of killing one another in the name of the proletarian revolution and the notion of class struggle filled with hatred, the Vietnamese nation would now have more than enough talents, wealth and technology to own and exploit her own resources. Had we done so we would not have fallen so far behind neighbouring countries and would not need another 30-40 years to reach their present-day level of development. But in those 30-40 years, our neighbours will have taken further enormous strides and we will still lag behind. It should be remembered that not long ago, countries such as Singapore and Thailand were still referred to by CPV leaders as lackeys of US imperialism. Those "puppet" regimes are now regarded as models to emulate. What is even more remarkable is that the SRV has applied to join this group of "puppets" and has asked them for economic advice.

I should like to avail myself of this opportunity to issue a warning to those foreign capitalists who are about to invest in Vietnam. You have often said that my country is an attractive market with 72 million consumers. You are mistaken, though. For the Vietnamese market is not as attractive as you seem to think it is. The reason is as follows : As things are now, 80% of the Vietnamese population is still living in the countryside and in the countryside people only dare nurture the hope of having enough to eat. Very few of us even dream of buying your expensive products. You should remember that Vietnam is among the poorest, least developed countries in the world with an annual per capita income of some 200 US dollars. By contrast, Japan's per capita income is 7 000 US dollars. On the basis of these figures, it will take Vietnam many centuries to catch up with the Land of the Rising Sun. Therefore, where do you find these 72 million consumers to say that Vietnam is a lucrative market? Of course, it is lucrative only with members of the Red Mafia, corrupt officials and smugglers. It is certainly not with the absolute majority of Vietnamese people who could not afford to touch even a bottle of Coca-Cola, let alone other goods. If your calculations are based on the number of people living in Vietnam, you could be bankrupt soon!

In summary, the CPV has committed the following grave errors, thereby inflicting the following serious harms to the Vietnamese people:

1. The tying of the Vietnamese nation's fortune to the international Communist ideology and used the people of Vietnam as a tool in the attempt to destroy Capitalism. The CPV have abused their people's blood, toil, sweat and tears by using taunts such as "Socialism or Capitalism, which one will prevail?" and slogans such as "(to fight France and the US) simply to defend an outpost of the Socialist camp". In the process, the CPV caused the people of Vietnam to shoulder most of the consequences of the 29-year war of conflict of interest between the Communist and Capitalist Blocs on the Vietnamese territory resulting in 3 million dead, 4 million wounded and half a million children with birth defects. The millions of tons of bombs and defoliants that rained on Vietnam have not only destroyed the land but will continue to have an adverse effect for many generations to come.

2. The establishment of a totalitarian one-party system of government that has a monopoly on political power and tolerates no political opposition of any kind. Considering this country as their personal fiefdom, CPV leaders grab every position of power, use state power as they see fit, thus setting the scene for corruption on an unprecedented scale, imprison and murder people at whims and crush all the seeds of free thought. Under these conditions, intelligent people with ideas and initiatives which can be useful for the country but may not be in tune with the Party’s line do not dare to present them. Those people behave as if they hear nothing and see nothing to preserve their own lives. No wonder the nation's many talented brains have become rusted and dulled, and the country has now fallen to be among the world's poorest and most underdeveloped countries.

Let us not mention anymore of the nation's past achievements, but of the present when there are among the Vietnamese expatriates quite a few very talented people in each and every field of human endeavour. These people, of course, can help develop the nation very quickly. But how many have dared to go home and help with that development effort? Worse still, among the few still remaining in Vietnam, most have sought to flee abroad and thus help their country of adoption grow wealthier. Such is the bad consequence of a ruthless dictatorship.

Meanwhile, the CPV has stooped to invite Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew, the leader of a small island state not long ago dismissed by CPV leaders as a "lackey of US imperialism", to serve as their economic adviser (translator’s note: Their invitation was turned down.). Only 18 years ago, the Vietnamese Communists still boasted that in their country, "heroes can be found anywhere" and that "Hanoi is the heart of mankind." In 1975, the CPV Secretary General, Mr Le Duan, declared in Saigon: "From now on, no foreign power would dare to poke its nose in Vietnam!". That Mr Duan's heirs and successors should have descended themselves to seek the help of such a "lackey of US imperialism" and been turned down is really bitter irony. What more could be hurting? What more could be shameful?

3. The class struggle and denunciation campaign launched in the Northern provinces in 1956, causing the deaths of some 700 000 people. These people also lost everything they had owned.

4. The creation and maintenance of agricultural cooperatives over 26 years that resulted in a complete loss wasting the nation so much toil, resources and so many tears. After confiscating the ricefields of landlords and "wicked" (former) officials and then killing them, the CPV distributed these to landless peasants, but not long thereafter forced every farmer to join the local cooperative in accordance with the notion of a planned economy as envisaged by Communist theoreticians. In the end the system proved so disastrous that it brought famine to the people. In 1986, the CPV had to declare the system bankrupt, dismantle cooperatives, revert to the land tenure system of yesteryear in the countryside and privatise state companies in towns and cities, thus going down the unregulated path of free for all market economics.

5. Hatred class struggle campaigns against the so-called property owning class, launched in 1954 in the North and in 1975 in the South, which resulted in the departure of millions of people for foreign shores, but at present the same CPV has invited foreign Capitalists to come and set up businesses in Vietnam.

6. The adoption of Marxism-Leninism as the guiding principles for all forms of social activity. The CPV instilled in the citizenry the notion of class struggle to fight for and grab their food. In so doing, the CPV encouraged the people to discard all age-old moral notions, all humanistic traditions - including filial piety and righteousness, and to destroy most of the nation's spiritual and physical heritage which the Communists looked upon as the remnants of a feudal era.

The Communists, being materialists and atheists, have always wanted the destruction of religions. Karl Marx even called religion an "opiate" used by Capitalists to hoodwink the labouring masses, turn them into slaves ready to accept any sacrifice and suffering required of them in this world and to place their hope in the afterlife. Since Marxists seemed to be trying to create a paradise on earth, they also tried to eradicate of all forms of religion.

As everybody knows, the Vietnamese religious panorama is dominated by two main faiths: Catholicism and Buddhism. Among CPV members a couple of slang terms are used to refer to these two religions: Cut ga (or "fresh poultry excreta") for Catholicism and Phan ga (or "dry poultry excreta") for Buddhism. Why is that so? They make that distinction because in their reckoning, Catholicism is more difficult to eliminate than Buddhism. Of course, the CPV's view of Vietnam's two main religions is quite extraordinary and based on many considerations.

Not all can be enumerated here but it can be outlined as follows: Although attracting only a minority, the Catholic Church should be viewed as a pride of lions and, therefore, most difficult to kill off. That explains why they refer to Catholicism as cut ga, for, as everybody knows, "fresh poultry droppings" are more difficult to wash away. On the other hand, although commanding the allegiance of most Vietnamese, the Buddhist Church is much easier to destroy. In the CPV's reckoning, Buddhists behave like sheep and because of that, they refer to them as phan ga: As everybody knows, "dry poultry droppings" are no problem. All one has to do is to scrape them with a twig and they will drop off.

Whatever the case, religions must be eliminated. But the method used by the CPV for that end varies from one phase of history to another, from one region to another. The Communists have a policy called ‘dialectics’, that is once they have decided upon an objective, they will do everything to realise it. And realise it, they will - at any cost. If the task turns out to be easy, they will try to realise it at once, but if it proves to be too hard, they will temporarily retreat - perhaps even take a few steps back or take a lateral road - but ultimately they will always have to achieve their goal. This "one step backwards, three steps forward" strategy is exactly what the CPV have followed in their attempt to eliminate all religions in general and the Buddhist Church in particular. Whenever they do not meet with too much resistance, they immediately proceed with elimination, but in those regions where they meet with some resistance, they would refrain from doing anything too radical. In some cases, if they think that religions can be of use to them, they would play "the religious card" to the full. In their attempt to destroy the Buddhist faith, the CPV has followed the above pattern to the letter.

As an illustration, I can say that during the anti-French resistance years, the CPV knew that national unity was a prerequisite for success. Therefore, not only did they not attempt to eliminate Buddhism, they even set up an organisation called "Buddhists for National Salvation" and made that organisation part of the Lien Viet League. Soon afterwards, a senior monk by the name of Pham The Long - the Abbot of Co Le Pagoda, Xuan Truong District, Nam Dinh province - put out a proclamation urging novices and young monks "to temporarily discard the robe and wear the army uniform". In other words, the old man wanted young monks to take off their religious accoutrements and get involved in the war effort against the French. It was reported that many young monks had to leave their pagodas to embark on the "country-loving" road.

What the CPV did has often been described as "killing two birds with a single arrow". Indeed, Venerable Pham The Long's statement not only turned a number of young monks into soldiers, it also deprived the Church of quite a few potential leaders in the years ahead. That the CPV had been able to achieve the second (most important) objective - with a monk's proclamation - is even more telling about their modus operandi. Nobody can reproach them for "drafting monks". As our forefathers would say: "To catch herons, one has to put a heron in the trap. To catch doves, one has to put a dove in the trap." , nobody can hope to catch a heron by putting a dove in the trap.

II.1 Destruction of Buddhist and national heritage

The destruction of a number of ancient pagodas of great historic value - especially Thien tru or Chua Huong pagoda in My Duc district, Ha Dong province, and Quynh Lam pagoda in Quang Ninh province - was even more significant. Convinced that once national sovereignty was recovered, they could not order the destruction of these famous structures, the Vietnamese Communists borrowed a hand from the French to destroy these national treasures. How did they do it? It was simple enough. All they had to do was to station a unit of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) at Quynh Lam pagoda, then have the DRV flag hoisted on its roof. After a French reconnaissance flight over the area detected the flag, the bombers were called in (meantime, the PAVN unit had already withdrawn elsewhere of course). There went the pagoda, totally destroyed! It was another case of killing two birds with a single arrow. By doing what they did, the Communists, on the one hand, incited the people's hatred of the French and, on the other hand, had the French bomb an historic building to save the Communists from being blamed for its destruction if they had to do it themselves after victory.

I felt deep anguish when, towards the end of 1991, I visited the site of the what was once the pagoda of Quynh Lam, the home of a statue called one of "Vietnam's Four Religious Objects". The statue reportedly had been sculpted upon the personal instructions of Zen Master Khong Lo, a Principal Master to a Ly dynasty's Monarch.

During my visit, I heard that after the French raid, it took the complex a full month to burn down. At present, left are only a few big stones which must have served as the foundation stones for enormous ironwood columns. A few stone stupas had also been spared by the fire but when the denunciation phase of the Land Reform Campaign was launched, the bricks and tiles of these stupas were used to build the local cooperative's piggery, right at the gate of the old pagoda. After the Renovation policy was consecrated, the cooperative was dismantled and its piggery auctioned off. In my wanderings around this sacred plot, I saw a few stone tablets lying upside down here and there. After having them upturned with some help, I could still read the names of a number of patriarchal monks who had lived under the Tran dynasty (13th-15th centuries). When I visited this area, the Renovation period had entered its sixth year and the local people had pooled enough money to build three simple brick houses on the foundations of the old pagoda. It was in these simple structures that they paid their respects to Lord Buddha.

It should be added here that the new pagoda had a resident monk, but this one monk was also the only one serving the whole of Quang Ninh province at the time, and he had come from Ha Nam Ninh province. There were no monks left in Quang Ninh province.

On this occasion, I was also told that there were no pagodas and monks left in most of the highland provinces of Northern Vietnam. Even in Thai Binh province, where I reside at present, the entire province can count only eight monks, all in their seventies, and a few dozen nuns and female novices of all ages. A few weeks after arriving at Vu Doai, I heard the news that the Minister of Culture of the Communist Government of Vietnam had decreed the Quynh Lam pagoda an historic site, and to mark that occasion, had ostensibly issued a diploma and organised a ceremony for the presentation of that piece of paper. Alas! Is there anything left on the site to be called historic? There was practically no trace, even of the local cooperative's piggery - once built on this old pagoda site -!

But let me give you some additional information on other famous pagodas. The Hoa Yen pagoda on top of Mount Yen Tu, the Phat Tich in Bac Ninh province, two of the most famous buildings dating back to the Ly dynasty (translator’s note: 11th to 13th centuries), were also respectively burned down and destroyed. The Thay pagoda in Thach That district, Son Tay province, a structure also traceable to the Ly dynasty, where Zen Master Tu Dao Hanh is still being prayed to, is in near collapse. Its ancestral home is being supported by quite a few bamboo poles but can fall down at any time. The case of Phap Vu pagoda (also called Dau pagoda) in Thuong Tin prefecture, Ha Dong province, where the mummified bodies of two Le Dynasty Zen masters - one of them has its cranium sawed open for science investigation - are still being preserved, is even more serious condition. The main Buddha shrine has been destroyed, while the prayer hall and Patriarch shrine home have suffered serious degradation. Only the pagodas of Thien Tru and Quynh Lam have a resident monk. All other pagodas have no one to take care of them. Those classified as historic sites are being managed by the provincial Cultural Department. Tourists visiting these pagodas or Buddhist followers on pilgrimage there must buy tickets and pay parking fees. When our group visited one of these pagodas, we were there barely half an hour but had to pay 5 000 dong (Vietnamese unit of currency) in parking fees. Destroying Buddhism, while putting it on sale!

What I have just told you come from my personal observation of things I witnessed when I visited these pagodas. Moreover, I have limited my observations to the most striking details. Others are so heart-rending that I prefer to leave them to the pens of future historians of Vietnamese Buddhism.

Let me go back to the year 1954, when the Communists took over Hanoi and were incontestably the masters of all of North Vietnam, i.e. the territory of Vietnam north of the Seventeenth Parallel, they were bent on implementing Communism. Especially after the class struggle, the denunciation of landlords and land reform campaigns in the countryside, they had no more reservations about wholesale destruction of religious buildings, including pagodas, temples, altars, village ancestral memorial courts and others. Countless temples and pagodas were requisitioned and converted into granaries, storages, piggeries... Columns supporting the roofs of religious buildings, mainly made of ironwood, were used as monkey bridges over small streams, mostly for the benefit of carriers of rice and excrement (for fertilisation). Wood panels bearing parallel verses taken from temples and pagodas were made into school benches.

That was what happened in the countryside. In the cities and townships, most pagodas were converted into factories, seats of this or that committee, meeting places, and in some cases, poultry farms. And to secularise religious establishments, squatters were encouraged to occupy outbuildings, leaving only the main shrines and the ancestral shrine to the resident monk(s). What was worse was that they cooked, ate, hung their wet clothes and blankets everywhere. It was really sacrilegious!

II.2 Sabotaging the clergy - policy and measures

I still remember the story the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau told me in 1975 when he returned to the An Quang pagoda. He told us about the dire situation in the Quan Su pagoda in Hanoi, where squatters could be found everywhere, making this famous pagoda look more like a cheap block of flats than a religious centre. The Most Venerable Don Hau asked the resident monk, Venerable Tri Do: "Being the resident monk, how could you let this situation go on?" Still according to the Most Venerable Don Hau, while taking part in a seminar of the Alliance of Democratic, National and Peace Forces (ADNPF) under the chairmanship of Mr Trinh Dinh Thao, he heard Tri Do declare: "Only since I was enlightened by the light of Marxism-Leninism did I really see the path I was walking along." If the statement was true, the old monk did not see where he was going all of those decades he was following the path of the Lord Buddha. It must be added that at that time and until his death, Tri Do was more Communist than Buddhist but he continued to live in a pagoda and eat the food of the Lord Buddha.

Upon hearing this statement by Tri Do, a Buddhist follower who had served as Headmistress of the Dong Khanh High School in Hue and who went to the "maquis" during the Tet Offensive in 1968, could not hide her disgust. When dinner time came, she went to the Most Venerable Don Hau's table and asked for some vegetarian food, saying that she was on a vegetarian diet ten days a month and that day was the 15th of the lunar month. A Communist cadre told her: "You've joined the Revolution...What's the use of a vegetarian diet? As you see over there, even Most Venerable Tri Do is no longer on a vegetarian diet." The woman immediately retorted: "When I took the vow to follow the Lord Buddha a long time ago, I also made the promise of refraining from eating meat and fish ten days a month. I did so without any specific order from Our Lord. Once a person has taken that kind of vow and then does not keep it, he or she can be said to have betrayed himself or herself. To do so I would be a bad Buddhist...And being a bad Buddhist, how could I hope to become a good revolutionary?" The Communist cadre immediately apologised to her.

In short, most pagodas in the Northern provinces have been confiscated and used for this or that purpose. Those that have not been confiscated, have been opened for occupation by the lay people and, thus, have lost their sacredness. Those were the kinds of destruction to the physical properties of Buddhist Church.

With regard to the organisation of the Church, the CPV destroyed it by using the familiar principle of "divide and rule", that is to use the clergy to sow divisions in the clergy and destroy the Church. Let me illustrate this with an example. Prior to 1954, the Most Venerable Thich To Lien was the Chairman of the Buddhist Church in Northern Vietnam, one of the six components of the Vietnamese Buddhist Confederation - which included all main clergy councils and lay Buddhist groups in North, Central and South Vietnam. The Vietnamese Buddhist Confederation was also one of the founding organisations of the World Fellowship of Buddhists. In 1957, on the occasion of a meeting at the Quan Su pagoda, the CPV succeeded - either through threats, spoken or unspoken, or promises of reward - in pushing a number of monks and nuns to denounce the Most Venerable Thich To Lien and to offer the famous Quan Su pagoda to the Committee of Patriotic Buddhists. The latter immediately asked the Venerable Tri Do to take possession of the Pagoda and form the so-called United Buddhist Association of Vietnam (UBAV) headed by who else but Tri Do. That is how the traditional Buddhist organisation in Northern Vietnam came to its demise. Twenty-four years later (1981), the CPV was to employ exactly the same tactics to try to dismantle the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBC-V) (but I will deal with this later on).

In the spiritual domain, the CPV attempted to sabotage the Buddhist Church by imposing an obligation on every pagoda to raise certain number of pigs, which the resident monk(s) had the responsibility of delivering on a certain date as raw meat. In those circumstances, some monks had no way to avoid killing animals. Of course, by ordering monks and nuns to raise pigs, the CPV sought to pollute the religious atmosphere of pagodas and by forcing them to kill these poor animals they sought to destroy the clergy's vows of compassion and respect for life. In the CPV's reckoning, that was the quickest way to destroy Buddhism.

It should also be said that prior to 1954, the Quan Su pagoda in Hanoi was not only the seat of the Buddhist Church in North Vietnam, but also a seminary for young nuns and monks. It was also the seat of the Khuong Viet High School, a major publishing house called Duoc Tue which specialised in the publication of religious books and monthlies such as Phuong Tien, as well as a major library. Following the Communist takeover of Hanoi in 1954, the seminary was closed down because all nuns and monks had to return to their native villages and take part in the production of food staples. The Khuong Viet High School was soon to follow suit and the library also closed its doors. Phuong Tien was ordered to stop publication and Duoc Tue passed into the hands of the government. In other words, all Church activities were prohibited: It was something Buddhists in the Southern provinces were to experience in 1975.

But a question must be asked: "Since the UBAV took over the Quan Su pagoda, has it been able to do anything for the Northern Church?" I have to answer in the negative. Why? Because the CPV has always sought the destruction of Buddhism, whether in the short or long term, it will never allow any Buddhist association to operate (i.e. in proper way). Moreover, as I have related a moment ago, since the head of that association, Tri Do, only found his way after being enlightened by Marxism-Leninism, it was natural that he followed that path and served as a propagator of the Marxist doctrine. Nobody could even imagine he would be of any use to Buddhism. As for his UBAV, that organisation can be said to serve the political objectives of the CPV, especially by attending, now and then, a so-called peace conference held in such places as Mongolia and the USSR. Of course, the peace conferences were only held to denounce US aggression and to show to people living in the South and the rest of the world that religions were alive and well in the North. That's all! Tri Do's UBAV has done nothing for the cause of real Buddhism. To be more accurate, it has only served as a tool used by Hanoi to rubber stamp its destruction of the Buddhist Church. History will prove that I am not exaggerating!

With the intention of destroying Buddhism, using short-term as well as long-term measures, the Communist Government decreed as early as 1954 that each and every pagoda should have only one resident monk and that he must be old. All young monks, if there were any left, were required to return to their native villages and take part in the production effort. After the death of the resident monk, and with nobody to take over, his pagoda would be left unattended. If it were in a township, it would be confiscated and used as a factory, and if it were in the countryside, it would be razed and its site converted into a paddy field.

If somebody was intent on becoming a monk - and that was very rare indeed - he was required to make an application to the police and in that application disclose every detail of his curriculum vitae. That is because it was said that the State selects good citizens for the clergy, that only these would be beneficial to the religious and temporal worlds. However, many have waited all their lives and have yet to receive permission to join the clergy. It should be known that the State's constitutions have always included a clause proclaiming the citizen's "freedom to believe or not to believe"; this of course is only a word game. If a person wanted to join the clergy, would the State tell him or her point blank, that he or she was not allowed to devote his life to the Lord Buddha? It would be better that the State relied instead on the pretext of "selection of good citizens that would be beneficial for the religious and temporal worlds". That would be perfectly legal and constitutional.

I have heard a number of stories about people wishing to become monks in Thai Binh province and waiting in vain for permission to do so. Unable to wait any longer, these people would organise an "underground" ordination ceremony only to be nabbed all. In a Communist country, everything, great or small, is administered by the government. If any private citizen wants to do anything of a private nature, he or she must do it illegally. Those activities are called "underground" ("chui"). Thus, to escape abroad is called "to go underground", to sell noodle soup is called "to make underground noodle soup". To be ordained as a monk/nun is "to submit to the underground ordination". That is the situation facing adults wishing to become nuns and monks. Concerning the youths, most youths are required to join a government-sponsored organisation of some kind; if anyone of them is found frequenting a monk or a pagoda, he or she would be formally criticised by his/her mates or comrades in the organisation. Therefore, no youngsters dare visit any religious establishment. "Youngsters like it at home, old people find consolation at the pagoda", goes a popular saying, which seems to be implemented to the letter. Since only the very old are allowed to go to the pagoda, Lord Buddha will be left with no followers after they pass away.

There was the case of a l2-year-old boy in Thai Binh provincial town who wanted to become a novice at a pagoda and often came to Ky Ba pagoda to say his prayers. It was also said that the boy often stayed at the pagoda many days and, at night, when security police came to look for him he would hide under a bed or in the foliage of a tree. The local police were not amused. The boy's parents were summoned and told to go and bring him home. The resident monk was warned that if he still let the boy come to the pagoda, he would be "dealt" with accordingly. That case, in essence, illustrates typically the CPV’s plot of nipping the buds of Buddhism and the CPV’s hope of destroying Buddhism in Vietnam within 50 years or so. But our ancestors have a saying equivalent to the Western: "man proposes, god disposes.". A few years ago, the Berlin Wall suddenly collapsed, the Eastern European Bloc disintegrated and even the Soviet Union imploded; thus, the CPV will not have enough time to realise its hope. The era when Communist LRS could proclaim themselves to be "Squad first, second the Jade Emperor", is definitely over. The kind of voluntarism represented by such slogans as "Hey Heaven, Bastard! Step aside so that we irrigation workers can take your place", has proven totally worthless. The Soviet Bloc's demise could be traced to that type of senseless arrogance and impudence. Herodotus, the Greek historian of the fifth century BC, has been proven right when he wrote: "Every political regime goes through three phases: The first is one of success, the second is one of arrogance, and the third is one of disintegration."

II.3 Continuing the CPV's Anti-Buddhist Drive - In South Vietnam

The Communists achieved total victory and took over Saigon in April 1975. Vis-a-vis the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBC-V) they had in mind more or less the same thing they had done in the North: They confiscated and occupied most pagodas, schools - including (the system of hundreds of) Bo De primary and secondary schools and the University of Van Hanh - and Buddhist cultural, charity and social institutions in Saigon and in the provinces. Buddhist seminaries were also disbanded so that aspiring nuns and monks had to return to their native villages and do production work. In every pagoda, only a few old monks were allowed to stay. Younger monks had to do their military service or return to their birthplace and work the land. Taken together, these measures represented an exact replica of the policy the CPV had implemented in the North. In respect of organisation structure, it soon became obvious that the UBC-V was the main target of Hanoi's anti-religion policy. In the CPV's reckoning, the UBC-V had to be destroyed at any cost and naturally enough, the CPV's approach to this task was to pit certain church elements against others. It should be said here that they only used this approach against the Buddhist Church and not against the Catholic Church, which they referred to as "fresh poultry excreta".

Beginning its plot of destroying Buddhism, the CPV ordered the formation of the so-called Liaison Committee of Patriotic Buddhists at the Vinh Nghiem pagoda on Cong-Ly Street in Saigon and had it chaired by an old monk by the name of Minh Nguyet. Logically speaking, if certain Buddhists could be described as "patriotic", others must be "unpatriotic" - or to use CPV terminology - "reactionary". Thus, the question must be asked, which Buddhist Church is reactionary? Obviously, it is the UBC-V, what else is there? And in the framework of their policy of class struggle, the "patriotic" Buddhists must struggle to eliminate the "reactionary" Church. It's only tragi-comical that a political party like the CPV, one that had always called for unity and greater unity, should also call for class struggle, for a struggle between classes implies no unity at all. What a contradiction!

Buddhism has been present in Vietnam for over 2000 years, that is, for most of the nation's history. Buddhism has shared with this nation every one of its glorious and inglorious moments. Throughout the ages, has Buddhism ever betrayed the nation? Has Buddhism ever done anything so wrong that a patriotic and socialism-loving branch must now be set up to struggle against the "reactionary" branch? After the creation of the Liaison Committee, however, the CPV was to use "patriotic and socialism-loving" elements to urge and threaten UBC-V members to join ranks with them on that committee. In this endeavour, the two most enthusiastic proselytising agents were the "moles" monks Phap Lan and Tu Hanh. But whatever the threats, pressures and terror tactics they were subjected to, only a very small minority of monks and nuns agreed to "buy peace" by joining the Liaison Committee. From Quang Tri to Ca Mau province, an overwhelming majority of the clergy remain steadfastly loyal to the UBC-V and have suffered the consequences.

II.4 The Collective Self-Immolation in Can Tho

The first major act of protest against religious persecution was recorded in Can Tho in November 1975, when all 12 monks and nuns living at the Thien Vien Duoc-Su (Duoc Su Zen Centre) staged a collective act of self-immolation. Whatever the cause of the delay might be, the UBC-V headquarters only came to know about this affair in December 1976. But immediately afterwards, the UBC-V National Executive Council (NEC) sent a protest note to the Communist Government and requested an official investigation. Mr Mai Chi Tho, then Saigon Police Director, came to the An Quang pagoda and proposed that the Church appoint a representative to join the official Board of Inquiry.

It should be pointed out here that from 30 April 1975 to that date, the NEC had sent a total of 62 letters to the government, protesting against, and seeking a solution for, such problems as the arrest and imprisonment of nuns and monks, the destruction of statues and pagodas, the conversion of religious establishments into maternity hospitals..., but never got a reply. The letter protesting the Can Tho tragedy was the first to trigger a government reaction and this remarkable development caused many UBC-V leaders to think that the CPV had prepared an answer favouring their interpretation of events.

It should also be said here that at the time, the Most Venerable Tri Tinh suggested that the Church should forget about this affair for the reason that it had happened one full year before. But the (late) Most Venerable Thien Minh, the Most Venerable Huyen Quang and myself rejected the suggestion and requested the appointment of a representative to join the Board of Inquiry. The NEC followed suit by appointing Venerable Ho Giac and myself as representatives. But when the time came to go, Venerable Ho Giac could not and I was the only UBC-V representative in this undertaking.

As I have ventured to speculate a moment ago, everything had been planned by the government and the proposed inquiry was only meant to formalise and legalise a number of predetermined "findings".

About the composition of the Board of Inquiry, mention must be made of Mr Huynh Chau So, Deputy Inspector of Police Department, who came all the way from Hanoi to chair the Board's meetings. There were also many local officials but among these, I could not help noticing a large, muscular man, whose face always wore a killer look. As the man always looked at me as if he wanted to "eat me alive", I had the impression he was there only to terrorise me into subjugation. There were also a number of senior monks like Thien Hao and Hue Thanh, the teacher of Thich Hue Hien (the resident monk of Duoc Su Zen Centre). A number of "witnesses" were also chosen and brought from the area surrounding the immolation site, ready to be spoken to. After the first working session, which took place in Can Tho, I requested to be taken to Thien-Vien Duoc-Su, which is some 50 kilometres from Can Tho, to inspect the immolation site; but my request was turned down for security reasons. I protested saying that since the Revolutionary Government was in full control of the whole nation, how could there be a security problem! But, of course, that reason was only a standard communist excuse; the truth was that the entire area of Duoc Su Zen Centre had been razed and turned into a banana plantation. I also learned that after the mass self-immolation of the 12 monks and nuns, the local authorities had dragged their bodies out of the smouldering pyre and exhibited them on the pavement for two days for the benefit of passers-by. After that, the authorities sprayed their remains with gasoline, cremated them and then buried them with only two coffins at a place nobody knew about.

After a three-day "inquiry", Mr Huynh Chau So compiled a report that included the following points :

1. Hue Hien (the resident monk and leader of the 12-clergy group of self-immolators) had worked for the CIA and the South Vietnamese intelligence service. After liberation of the South, fearing punishment by the Revolution, he killed himself and forced the others to commit suicide with him.

2. Hue Hien, in pre-liberation days, had been supplied with everything by the US and "puppet" governments. Now, with no means to support themselves, Hue Hien and his group chose mass suicide.

3. Having had decadent sexual intercourse with some of the nuns, Hue Hien was afraid that the matter would become public and therefore chose death by burning his pagoda and the other eleven persons who had been living there with him.

Twenty-ninth day of the Ninth Month of the Year of the Cat
Under the blessing of Lord Buddha of the Healing (Duoc Su) in Eastern Paradise
We, the undersigned monks and nuns, presently residing at Duoc Su Zen Centre, wish to inform Our Lord Buddha and the many Bodhisattvas and enlightened Bikkhus that wishing to make the supreme sacrifice, we will immolate ourselves on the 29th day of the Ninth Month of the Year of the Cat (i.e. 2 November 1975) to:

* protect the future of Buddhism and the eternal Teachings of Our Lord Buddha;
* protect the dignity and virtues of the Sangha (community of monks and nuns);
* protect the eternal Three Refuges of the Duoc Su Zen Centre;
* call with all our hearts upon the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam to respect the freedom of religion of the various churches;
* call with all our hearts upon the entire Buddhist clergy and laity to show complete determination in the protection of the nation's unity as recommended by Our Great President Ho. This nation having only one heart, whoever breaks it must be condemned for betraying Our Great Uncle Ho's testament. Whether that person is our declared enemy or somebody close to us, he or she must be condemned for abetting the enemy and betraying the nation and the Revolution;
* pray that the International Buddhist Flag endorsed by the UBC-V representing the six coloured Aureola and six unsurpassable abilities of all Buddhas, be indestructible and eternal;
* pray (until our death) for independence, freedom, and peace forever (for the nation).

* A glorious death is better than a shameful life.
* We have chosen death to protect our religious belief.
* We have chosen death to protect our conscience.
* We have chosen death to protect The Truth.
For the resident nuns and monks
(Seal and signature)
Thich Hue Hien

In the course of this trip, I discovered a few small details that were most meaningful. One morning, I had just finished my breakfast when a cadre came for a chat - before we were scheduled to meet for the inquiry. Speaking about the country's development effort and the construction of socialism, he said: "We are not really experts in the construction of socialism. We are only in the apprenticeship stage, but we believe that by doing things again and again, we'll be able to make them well." Then pointing to the table, he continued: "Socialism is like this table. We just make it. If we fail, we simply make another one. After a number of failures, we'll be able to make one that's good enough!"

The remark jolted me, I wondered how simple the Communists thought government is. Only until February 1982, when I was exiled to Vu Doai village, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province, did I realise how correct that remark was. Indeed, in the field of agriculture, for example, after the murderous class struggle and land reform of 1956, the CPV gave landless peasants some land and then grouped them into production teams...that was the first "table" in the cadre's story. In 1960, when implementing the principle of collective ownership of the land, the CPV forced each and every farmer into a local cooperative: that was the second "table". Twenty years later, in 1980, after discovering that collectivisation was a big failure, the CPV adopted the so-called production contract system: that was the third "table". Then, in 1985, as the production contract system also proved good for nothing, the CPV decreed that all stages of agricultural production should be contracted out to individual farmers: that was the fourth "table". But the fourth "table" looked even less like a table, for the contract system was collectivisation with a 180-degree turn, and only another name for the land tenancy system of yesteryear, which the CPV had denounced and, in the process, had killed so many people.

Only then did I understand that the Communists did not know what they were doing: They were only feeling their way in total darkness and experimenting with whatever they laid their hands on, without any consideration of success or failure. Pity for the poor people of Vietnam who were used as laboratory mice in the Communists’ experiment with a senseless, arrogant and limited vision doctrine. Indeed, throughout a quarter of a century (1960-85), the Vietnamese peasantry had to toil and shed so much blood, sweat and tears to form agricultural cooperatives and call themselves the collective masters of the land, but all of these efforts have amounted to nothing.

I have only mentioned agricultural production because I have lived in the countryside for over a decade and know little about other sectors of the communist centrally controlled and planned economy. But I am sure the results there would be merely all the same - for the last "table" made by the Communists is called the free market "table"!

Let me now get back to the inquiry into the death of 12 monks and nuns, who burned themselves to protest against religious persecution. The Communist authorities were intent on explaining it by calling Thich Hue Hien an informer in the pay of the US and South Vietnamese intelligence agencies and accusing him of the most immoral conduct. That attempt failed because I refused to put my signature on a document, which, otherwise would have given some credibility to their dirty trick.

II.5 Formation of the State-sponsored Church

From then on, relations between the UBC-V and the Communist authorities grew more and more tense. On 3 March 1977, tension reached a climax when the police attacked and occupied the Quach Thi Trang Orphanage on Tran Quoc Toan Boulevard. It should be noted here that the orphanage stood behind the National Pagoda, which the Communists had previously occupied and turned into a movie house. In their assault on the orphanage, the Communists tore down the big sign identifying the institution as belonging to the UBC-V and threw it onto the kerb. At 11 am that day, in the name of the NEC Secretary General, I signed a communique calling on all clergy members to be ready to sacrifice themselves for the protection of the Church and its good name.

On 6 April 1977, a number of Church leaders, including Venerable Huyen Quang and myself, were arrested and taken to the Phan Dang Luu prison in Ba Chieu, Gia Dinh province. Some time later, I was informed that the Most Venerable Thien Minh had also been arrested on this occasion and had died rather mysteriously at police headquarters on Tran Hung Dao Boulevard. It was heart-rending news. On 10 December 1978, our group was tried in court. Venerable Huyen Quang and I were released but the others were detained for a few more months.

Following our release, Venerable Huyen Quang and I continued to carry on our duties as before. By the beginning of 1980, the Most Venerable Thich Tri Thu, NEC Chairman; Venerable Tri Tinh, Head of the Clerical Affair Commission; and Venerable Minh Chau, Head of the Education Commission, were invited on an individual basis to attend the "New Year gathering" hosted by Mr Nguyen Van Linh, then Secretary of the Saigon-Cholon Party Committee. Upon their return the three told us that the meeting had been attended by the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau and leaders of most Buddhist organisations all over the country and that its purpose had been to discuss the unification of all Buddhists in Vietnam. I found the idea rather odd, for I told myself, what has the Saigon-Cholon Party Committee Secretary got to do with Buddhism, to host such a meeting? Could it be that the CPV saw itself assuming the functions of the Buddhist Church? How could people be so greedy? To speak the truth, while listening to the Venerables, I did not express any opinion, for they had gone to the meeting as private individuals and not as holders of Church positions of any kind.

From that day, the three Venerables sometimes would go to meetings and, on their return, report to the NEC leadership committee on the various ideas presented there and request the NEC to express its views on these matters. But Venerable Huyen Quang and I would answer that only if the NEC had been formally invited to join these discussions, would we make our contributions, and openly at the meeting venue. Since the three Venerables went there as private citizens, the NEC would refrain from making any comments. Moreover, the unification of Buddhism being a matter of concern only to the clergies of the two regions of Vietnam, the question should be asked why the State did not leave it in the hands of the two clerical organisations but chose to interfere in Church affairs. We also thought that after the country's reunification, it was only natural that Vietnamese Buddhists also would want reunification; but in our opinion, it should only concern the two Churches - and not the State.

Some time later, the Most Venerable Thich Tri Thu was "voted" Chairman of the Committee to Campaign for the Reunification of the Buddhist Church (CCRBC), Venerable Tri Tinh, Vice Chairman, and Venerable Minh Chau, Secretary General. Following this development, the three Venerables were often summoned to attend meetings of all kinds, some of them held in Hanoi and, upon their return, would raise the matter at NEC meetings and request our recommendations. However, Venerable Huyen Quang and I continued to keep silent and the reason we gave was that the NEC had not been officially invited to any meeting on the proposed reunification of the Church. We also said that since we were completely ignorant of such simple matters as the composition of the CCRBC we could not make any real contribution.

Then, by the end of 1980, the NEC received an official letter signed by the Most Venerable Tri Thu in his capacity as CCRBC Chairman, requesting he make a courtesy call on the NEC and UBC-V officers on a certain date. I sent back an official reply, saying how happy we were to welcome the delegation at the predetermined date and requested a list of delegation members so that all arrangements might be made. The following day, I received another letter, originating from the Xa Loi pagoda, indicating that the delegation would be headed by Venerable Pham The Long, the senior monk who 30 years before had called on young North Vietnamese monks to shed their robes and join the army, and who currently serves as one of the many Deputy Speakers of the SRV National Assembly. The delegation would also include the Most Venerable Tri Thu, Deputy Head; Venerable Tri Tinh, member; Venerable Minh Chau, member; and Thich Tu Hanh, a former UBC-V Head of Gia dinh provincial congregation, member.

As I read the list of CCRBC delegates, I could not help smiling to myself, thinking of the opening couplet from the poem "Talking to One's Photo" by Tan Da. Indeed in that sonnet, Tan Da wrote:

What a romantic type like me you are.
Thought you were someone else; but the same one You and I are...

At the appointed time, the delegation arrived at the NEC guest quarter. Venerables Huyen Quang, Phap Tri and I went to greet them. After the introduction, Venerable Pham The Long stood up and said:

"Distinguished hosts! We of the CCRBC have come here today, first to pay our respects to the founder of the An Quang pagoda and to An Quang nuns and monks and wish all of you good health and ever greater success. In the second place, we should like to inform you that the Party (Communist Party of Vietnam) is of the view that since the country is reunified, the time has come that the Buddhist Church must be reunified, too. That is why we have come here today - as mentioned a moment ago - to pay our respects to the founder of the An Quang pagoda and also to seek your view on the matter of Buddhist reunification, the matter of building a common house for all Buddhist followers in the country."

"Distinguished members of the CCRBC delegation! In the spirit of the CCRBC letter as I have just read, your visit here today is only a courtesy call on the NEC and its offices. But as the distinguished delegation head has just declared, you are here to pay your respects to the founder of the An Quang pagoda and to An Quang nuns and monks and to seek their opinion on the matter of Buddhist reunification. You did not say anything about paying a courtesy call on the NEC. I wish to advise you that the office of the An Quang pagoda is out there and there you should be, near the entrance - and not here, for here is the head office of the UBC-V National Executive Council."

Realising that all was not smooth sailing, monk Pham The Long sought to take "one step backwards" so that he might take "three steps forward" later on. He stood up, joined hands and begged for pardon. He then confirmed that the delegation was there to pay a courtesy call on the NEC and its offices in accordance with his letter. I therefore invited Venerables Huyen Quang and Phap Tri to stay on.

Venerable Huyen Quang said:

"Distinguished Guests! Being the proponents of the Buddhist Church's reunification along the CPV line, you must play the role of an architect drawing a blueprint for the national house of Vietnamese Buddhism. Let me ask you whether you have drawn up any plan and what does the house look like. However, let me also tell you that according to the Most Venerable Don Hau, our church organisation is not likely to be allowed to reside in that national home. Indeed, the Most Venerable Don Hau once met with Mr Nguyen Van Hieu, then Minister of Culture in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, and when he sought permission to start the reunification process for Buddhists, Mr Hieu declared: 'Reunification is good, of course, but this process should only involve patriotic Buddhist organisations, not reactionary Buddhist organisations.' The Most Venerable Don Hau retorted: 'Which Buddhist organisations are reactionary?' Minister Hieu did not answer the question, which prompted us to think the government had our Church in mind and would not allow it to take part in the reunification effort. That is also why we have not dared to have any contributory ideas."

"Over the past many years, you and people living in the Northern provinces have had the fortune of living in independence, liberty, peace and happiness... I'm sure that you have achieved a great deal for Buddhism. Meantime, we Southerners have had to live in a situation of war, oppression, and repression. That did not permit us to achieve much in the Church services. Anyway, the little we achieved has been confiscated now by the State. As the distinguished guests know, all of our primary and secondary schools, the University of Van Hanh, cultural centres and social and charity institutions in Saigon and in the provinces... we have been forced to hand over to the State. You must also have known that all seminaries have been disbanded so that the young nuns and monks had to return to their native villages and take part in production work. That explains why the UBC-V really does not own anything anymore. But if we have the honour to join you in a really unified church, we have nothing but our hands to contribute to the common cause. Who, then, wants reunification with whom?"

But from then on, the Most Venerable Tri Thu and Venerables Tri Tinh and Minh Chau, all of whom were now CCRBC members, continued to attend meetings and campaign for the reunification of Buddhist sects. Every time they came back from one such meeting, they did their best to convince Venerable Huyen Quang and me to join the CCRBC. But the two of us were determined that unless the UBC-V was formally invited to the reunification talks, unless we knew with whom we were to meet, who had the responsibility for organising the proposed conference, how and along which lines reunification could be achieved, what structures the new church would have, and whether after reunification the current structures and organisations would be dissolved or would be allowed to continue for a time - to take care of their internal affairs - we would not give our agreement to anything. Indeed, the questions I have just sketched were real questions that had to be thoroughly discussed and resolved satisfactorily before any move towards reunification. The reunification process of various Buddhist churches cannot be tackled lightly, without any preparation.

Comparing the UBC-V to a house built in common and owned by every nun and monk living in the Southern provinces, Venerable Huyen Quang and I presented them with an idea, which is roughly as follows:

"The UBC-V house has been built by the collective effort of monks and nuns living in the Southern provinces - from Quang Tri to Ca Mau. Since they cannot all come to Saigon and take care of it, they have entrusted you and us with the task of keeping an eye on it. If for any reason you now think you cannot fulfill your obligations any longer, you have to summon them here and hand over the keys to them. Only they can decide what to do with that house. If they want to keep it, they can ask somebody else to take care of it. If they want to sell or let it, it is their right to do as they wish. Like us, you do not have the right to make any decision on this matter...

In other words, the UBC-V Charter has specifically required the organisation of a biennial congress, but in the event the Church encounters problems of vital importance which might threaten its ongoing existence, a special congress must be convened. The NEC Executive Committee is not empowered to make such decisions. That critical moment has come. We beg the NEC Chairman to act in the name of the Supreme Patriarch and call a special congress to solve this problem."

In reply, I said that Venerable Pham The Long had said more or less the same thing at the An Quang pagoda and then, producing a copy of the UBC-V Charter, I explained that such a decision must be approved by a congress and that no individual or group of individuals could make that decision. I also requested Mr Quang Minh's permission to call a special congress and, then, explained to him that in normal circumstances, each provincial branch of the UBC-V must send 3-5 representatives, but in the present circumstances I would agree to the presence of one delegate - who should be the Head of the UBC-V in that province, his or her deputy, or anyone on the provincial Congregation committee. I also told Mr Quang Minh that I could not do otherwise, for I had to respect the principles behind the UBC-V Charter, and that being a member of the Civil Service, he would understand my standpoint. But Mr Quang Minh declared that it was too late to do so. Thereupon, I retorted that the matter of Buddhist reunification was most important and had to be tackled slowly and it was not a military operation.

The meeting ended with the following exchange:

Quang Minh: "You want to become a hero, don't you?"
Quang Do: "Being only a monk, how can I ever seek hero status? A 'straw' hero, maybe?"
Quang Minh: "Oh no! You're quite a monk. Not an ordinary one."

II.6 Formalisation of the Smash-the-Church Policy

It was circa September 1981 when the Most Venerable Tri Thu, in his capacity as CCRBC Chairman, suggested the UBC-V National Executive Council appoint a delegation to the Congress for Buddhist Reunification to be held in Hanoi by the end of that year. In reply, I suggested that since the government had rejected my idea of a special UBC-V congress, the full NEC must meet and, then, with the participation of Buddhist representatives from all of the city's eleven districts, inform them of this development. The Most Venerable Tri Thu agreed.

The following day, I sent an official note inviting all of these representatives to attend a meeting at the An Quang pagoda. These UBC-V representatives must have guessed the importance of the occasion, for all of them came and brought along quite a few other nuns and monks. These "observers" were so numerous that the main hall was not large enough and they had to sit along passages and corridors. As NEC Chairman, the Most Venerable Tri Thu presided over the meeting. Let me add here a detail: At the previous meeting here, the Most Venerable was wearing his CCRBC Chairman hat and therefore played the role of a guest but today he was wearing his NEC Chairman hat... and, therefore, played the role of host... and chaired the meeting.

As NEC Secretary-General, I opened the meeting saying a few words about its raison d’être Then I read the many letters and submissions the NEC had sent to the Prime Minister's office in Hanoi, disclosing in detail the long process of establishment of the Church, its various components and their activities in the South prior to the nation's reunification. I also disclosed that I had sent the UBC-V Charter and By-laws to the Prime Minister's office. Then I told the delegates:

"Although the Chairman of the UBC-V's NEC has agreed to head the CCRBC, we still do not know who is behind it, when it was launched, and who voted for him. Not only has the NEC been kept in the dark, the UBC-V has not been officially invited to any meeting to discuss the matter of Buddhist reunification. That is why the UBC-V does not know on what basis the reunification effort will be attempted, what form the new church will take; and following reunification, what the legal status of the UBC-V will be. This of course is a matter of life and death for our church and any decision on this matter must, according to its Charter, be reached at a national congress of the UBC-V. A few days ago, I was summoned to police headquarters and told to approve the reunification matter, but I told Mr Quang Minh, the official who saw me, that the NEC Leadership Committee did not have the authority to take any decision on this matter and that it could only be resolved by a vote by a UBC-V national congress. I also asked Mr Quang Minh to grant us the permission to call a special congress with the participation of one representative for each province - the chief provincial representative or his deputy - but Mr Quang Minh declined, explaining that there was not enough time.

Now that the Most Venerable NEC Chairman has suggested that we should appoint a delegation to the Hanoi congress, now that my request for a special UBC-V congress has been turned down by the authorities, I can only invite you to this meeting and seek your decision on this matter."

"Most Venerable Chairman of today's meeting, members of the Church, I am sure that you are aware of what kind of danger our UBC-V boat is facing. It can be said to be sailing the open sea and facing innumerable perils, each of which can send it to the bottom of the sea. That is why... to any of you present here, who is fearing for his or her life and want to save his or her life by boarding another boat, I will say, please feel free to do so, no one will prevent you from leaving this boat. But I have a request to make of you: Before leaving this boat for another, please leave this boat and those on board alone. Through the vagaries of life and thanks to the efforts of those who have chosen to stay behind, the UBC-V boat may find its way to safety and those on board may be saved. On the other hand, if it were to sink, those on board will drown and they are ready for that. But I beg you to do nothing to sink a boat that, not long ago, has taken some of you to shores of glory and privileges. That's my only request of you. Thank you very much."

Three days later, the NEC received a CCRBC communique dated 17 September 1981 bearing Venerable Minh Chau's signature. Of that very long document, I can only remember a short paragraph as follows: "Venerable Quang Do, NEC Secretary-General, has destroyed the good name of each and every CCRBC member, and openly challenged the SRV Government and the Fatherland Front, two of the main forces behind the cause of Vietnamese Buddhist Unity."

Soon afterwards, this CCRBC communique was sent to every Buddhist institution in the Southern provinces. It was made the object of countless "study" sessions involving monks and nuns, who, then, had to sign petitions demanding that the UBC-V sack me and order me out of the An Quang pagoda forever. I did not know who helped the CCRBC in this undertaking but whoever that might have been, I felt that I had to give him a hand. I did so by having a copy of the communique displayed at the NEC office and having thousands of additional copies duplicated and distributed to Buddhist followers. One of these told me: "These people want you out of the Church and you still want to help with their propaganda effort." This was my reply: "Until they evicted me, I would not worry about it. As things are now, I'm still working here, and it does not matter to me if I give them a helping hand... If you have some old papers to spare, could you give me a bundle?"

I should like to avail myself of this opportunity to clarify in an unequivocal manner here that I did not maintain "sabotaging the reunification of Buddhism". I only wanted that reunification process to be carried out in the spirit of concord and conciliation according to the Lord Buddha's own instructions of harmonious solutions for all Buddhist affairs. Having always maintained that Buddhist reunification is the task of the clergy of the two regions of Vietnam, I believe that measures to bring it about must be reached by them in a spirit of concord and conciliation. I did not want the State to be involved in this process, for, by doing so, the State would certainly force us to unite according to its own formula and, later on, take advantage of it to make the Church a political tool and legitimise its attempt at destroying Buddhism.

As for the charge that I issued an open challenge to the SRV government and the Fatherland Front, Oh heavens! Who would dare to do such a thing! Everybody knows that the SRV government and the Fatherland Front were created by the CPV and are the most powerful institutions in the land. Moreover, they have countless aeroplanes, tanks, armoured cars, missiles, cannons, guns of all kinds, prisons everywhere and swarms of police and security agents... A defenceless monk like myself would have to be crazy or would like to meet his deceased ancestors to want to issue a challenge to these institutions.

Venerable Minh Chau was really mechant, for what he did is like using a sledgehammer to crush a tiny pea! How intimidating for a monk trained to be compassionate! We are no strangers, Venerable Minh Chau and I. We went to study together in Sri Lanka (translator’s note: in the late 50s and early 60s), then to India but at different institutions. When the UBC-V set up the University of Van Hanh (translator’s note: since 1965), we were good colleagues at the Church NEC and the University. Whenever the Venerable went abroad, he would make me Acting Chancellor of the University. Now I know how self-interest and the search for fame corrupt people and that Communism destroys human feelings as nothing else can.

Only a few months later, Venerable Huyen Quang and I were sent into exile (translator’s note: Feb. 1982), mainly on the strength of that communique. I know that to be true, because after being taken to the North, some of the people there could not understand why we had been dealt with in that manner. They told me that when they asked the police about me, they were told that when I was in the South, I did my best to create all kinds of difficulties for the Church and that was why Venerables Tri Thu, Tri Tinh and Minh Chau asked the government to send this "trouble-maker" - i.e. me - to some far away place so that they could work in peace. The police also said that it was not correct to say the State arrested me. That's the benefit the CPV will derive from a process of Buddhist reunification directed by the State.

Perhaps Venerable Minh Chau wanted to be the only one to live in the "paradise on earth". Indeed, after returning from a trip to the Soviet Union, which he visited along with the Most Venerable Tri Thu, Venerable Minh Chau declared that Moscow, the capital of the USSR, was the paradise on earth. The Venerable had visited the US and had been to Washington, DC. The ambrosia he tasted in the American capital must have been rather bland compared to what he was served in the Soviet Union paradise.

There is another story about Venerable Minh Chau. After he became a novice, the first meal he ate was a Mahayana tradition meal, for his teacher was none other than the First Supreme Patriarch of the UBC-V. Later on, when the Venerable studied abroad - in Sri Lanka and India - he converted himself to the Theravada tradition and after changing the colour of his robe, declared that all Mahayana sacred texts had not come from Lord Buddha himself (by implication, from spirits?) Minh Chau also said that all of Our Lord Buddha's teachings were contained in the books (Digha Nikaya, etc.) he himself had translated into Vietnamese. It can thus be concluded that from his viewpoint, all Mahayana Buddhist monks - like myself - were pagans and as such would not be allowed to live in paradise. Since Saigon was to become a paradise too, people like me had to be sent to hades.

By the end of 1981, the Congress for the Unification of Buddhism was officially held in Hanoi. On this occasion, I heard that Most Venerable Thien Sieu headed a ten-man delegation representing the NEC and that the delegation had not only had all proper credentials but those credentials had been duly signed and sealed. I found that report most puzzling because Venerable Thien Sieu had had no official function within the NEC and so could not be sent anywhere as its representative. Moreover, there was also the matter of the NEC seal, which I have always kept in my briefcase, in my office when there or back in my room after work. Where did they find the seal, I kept asking myself. At first, I was quite dubious because Venerable Thien Sieu is a most educated and virtuous monk, respected by me and most of the clergy and the laity in the Southern provinces. That is why I could not believe he had acted so shamefully. It was to take some months before I knew the story was true.

At the 1981 Congress, the Late Most Venerable Tri Thu was made Chair of the CPV-managed Vietnamese Buddhist Church (VBC); Tri Tinh, First Deputy Chair; Minh Chau, Secretary of the VBC Southern Office based at Xa Loi pagoda. Venerable Thien Sieu and all other delegates were also rewarded. Depending on the importance of their contribution, all received more or less important appointments.

II.7 "The Two Great Sages"

I still remember that circa December 1978, after my release from the Phan Dang Luu prison, a disciple of Venerable Tri Tinh, who was a student of mine at Van Hanh University, came to see me. This monk from Thu Duc told me: "My master - i.e. Venerable Tri Tinh - once declared that he was a sage and that only sages could escape misfortunes."

As I ponder developments of the recent past, I have to acknowledge Venerables Tri Tinh and Minh Chau as great sages. Indeed, in 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Diem ordered the repression of the Buddhist Church, all monks and nuns felt obliged to resist. In the dark of the night of 20 August 1963, Mr Diem's police attacked all the main pagodas in South Vietnam and arrested all male and female clergy. The following day, upon learning of this development, Buddhist followers in Thu Duc came to Van Duc pagoda and shared the information with Venerable Tri Tinh. Many cried and cried while describing the event. But Venerable Tri Tinh cut them short: "Monks are not meant to be political. If they play politics, it's only natural that they would be arrested. Your crying serves no purpose!"

But following the overthrow of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, Venerable Tri Tinh became head of the UBC-V Clerical Affairs Commission. From April 1975 on, however, the Venerable failed to attend any NEC meetings. As everybody knows, the Communists achieved total victory on 30 April 1975 and they celebrated this victory on 15 May 1975 with a military parade in front of Independence Palace (in Saigon). When I watched this celebration on television, I saw Venerable Tri Tinh imposingly seated in the VIP stand! What a great sage!

The case of Venerable Minh Chau is equally interesting. The Venerable only returned to Saigon in 1964 and was immediately appointed as head of the NEC Commission for Education and Chancellor of Van Hanh University. In 1972, the Vietnam War entered its most devastating phase - with such developments as the Summer of Fire in Quang Tri battlefield. At that juncture, the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP) was campaigning for peace in Vietnam. At a time when battlefield developments grew more and more intense with each passing day, the UBC-V was invited to attend the WCRP but by March 1975, Venerable Minh Chau refused to attend any NEC meetings and declared himself separated from the UBC-V's peace effort. On that occasion, Venerable Minh Chau also declared that he would restrict himself to the fields of education and culture. However, in 1976, the Venerable ran for the reunified State's first Communist National Assembly and even now, 1992, is still sitting there as a member of that institution. It turns out that Venerable Minh Chau is quite fond of playing Communist politics but did not like to work for Church peace campaigns. What an exceptionally wise man, indeed!

Since the Most Venerable Tri Thu been made Chair of the State-controlled VBC, the NEC was without a Head. In such a case, the UBC-V Charter calls for the First Deputy Chairman to be elevated to the position of Acting Chairman until a new chairman can be elected by Congress. That is why Venerable Huyen Quang, NEC First Deputy Chairman, became Acting Chairman and the administration of Church affairs continued as before. It is possible that in the CPV's reckoning, if Venerable Huyen Quang and I were allowed to continue with our work, the State-sponsored VBC would find it impossible to take over our Church NEC Headquarters. And if that should be the case, it would be impossible to force the provincial Church committees to accept the VBC's authority. And what had to happen did happen. On the basis of Venerable Minh Chau's communique, which accused me of "openly challenging the SRV Government and the Fatherland Front", the CPV ordered Venerable Huyen Quang's and my arrest.

II.8 The Gods will not be Fooled

At 4:00pm on the 24th of February 1982, I received a letter from the (Saigon) City Police Office with the word "Hoa-toc" ("Express") stamped on its envelope. I opened the envelope and learned that I had been "invited" to Police headquarters at exactly 08:00 hours the following day. The summons also said that the reason for my being called to the office of Mr Quang Minh (Yes, it's him again!) would be disclosed to me later. I do not know why I was so blessed to see this gentleman so very often but this could have been my destiny determined many lifetimes before. I really did not know his real functions but suspected that he must be quite high-ranking. During my time at the Phan Dang Luu prison, I was "received" by him quite regularly. Once every week and, then, once every month, I had to "work with" him, in other words, I was interrogated by him. After being released from prison, I was also often "received" by him but I suspected that this time was the last. Let me also tell you that the second police officer with whom I seemed "to have close liaison with" was Mr Mai Chi Tho, City Police and Security Bureau chief, who was to become Minister of the Interior Department some time later. Mr Mai Chi Tho quite often "inquired about my health" and every time that happened, my hair would stand on end!

At exactly 08.00 hours of the 25 February 1982, I arrived at Police headquarters and was taken to a waiting room - to be guarded by two pistol-brandishing uniformed policemen. To speak the truth, I was scared. Would they send me on a "holiday trip" again? After an hour-long wait, in the course of which they thought was sufficient to unsettle me, I was taken to Mr Quang Minh's office. It was here that he told me: "Doing religious work being tantamount to playing politics, we will notify you of the Revolution's attitude vis-a-vis you." About five minutes later, Mr Quang Minh stood up and read the text of a decision signed by one Mr Le Quang Chanh, Deputy Chairman of the City People's Committee, to expel me from the city. Soon afterwards, a so-called escort team commander came to receive his orders and four policemen, armed to the teeth, took me to a car. I had the impression of watching a film about ransom kidnapping! That was about 9.30am. When our ten-car convoy arrived at Dau Day District in Long Khanh province and stopped for lunch at a rubber plantation, I saw Venerable Huyen Quang, who was sitting some ten metres from where I was. Only then did I know the Venerable had also been sponsored for a long sightseeing tour of the country.

From that day, all UBC-V activities came to a halt. The Most Venerable Tri Thu, Chair of the State-sponsored Church, took over the NEC Headquarters at the An Quang pagoda and used them as the VBC's city office. The Most Venerable Don Hau, Secretary-General and Acting Supreme Patriarch Chairman of the UBC-V (i.e. Head of the Church Ecclesiastical - or Elder's - Council), is known to have sent a number of letters protesting Venerable Tri Thu's actions, but in vain. From then on, every UBC-V agency and branch throughout the Southern provinces had to take down the sign showing its affiliation with the UBC-V and had to put up a new sign, showing its allegiance to the State-sponsored Church. All of a sudden, UBC-V organisation and personnel became VBC buildings organisation and personnel. It was another case of "a gentleman's cane hitting the gentleman's back".

That was only the short term goal, to use UBC-V personnel to bring the UBC-V down, but in the long run, they will use the State-sponsored Church to annihilate Buddhism in the most legal manner. That has already been seen with regard to the Most Venerable Tri Do's United Buddhist Association of Vietnam (UBAV) in the North. Little did UBAV members suspect that after the CPV realised its communist "paradise on earth", it was going to wipe out of existence their State-sponsored Church.

But that vision of a Communist "paradise on earth" still looks pretty far-fetched, especially since the knocking down of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Eastern European Communist Bloc and the implosion of the Soviet Union, shaking the CPV to its foundations. That is why the CPV, once again, seems intent on using Buddhism as a means of support, linking the fate of Vietnamese Buddhism to their brand of Socialism - in the same way they had some half a century ago, when they tied the fortune of the Vietnamese nation to that of International Communism.

In the same vein, over the past many decades, the CPV never mentioned the National Ancestors' Memorial Day ("Ngay Gio To"), but recently the Hanoi leadership has resorted to go through the motion of paying respect to the National Ancestors on the Tenth Day of the Third Month of the Lunar Calendar. In addition, I have heard that in the Southern provinces, they have recently allowed people to become monks and nuns and permitted the reopening of a few seminaries. I have also heard that on such days as Buddha's Birthday and Lunar New Year's Day, Party and State officials have even visited local pagodas. How nice of you, gentlemen of the CPV! An exalted group of atheists kowtowing to the Lord Buddha hoping He will certify your merits! But it would have been so much better if you gentlemen had behaved in that way since 1945, 1954 or 1975 at the latest! The gods are all seeing and will not be fooled by thinly veiled subterfuges of that kind. You know very well that you are now in a weak position and cannot destroy Buddhism and, therefore, want to take advantage of that religion. Again, it is a case of taking "one step backwards and three steps forward". Isn't it true that "dry poultry excrement" is readily removed?

Heavens forbid that the Berlin Wall should be rebuilt! If the Eastern European Bloc and the Soviet Union were some day resurrected, putting the CPV back in the "invincible" position it found itself in 1975, you would certainly not visit any pagoda to pay your respects to the Lord Buddha! I still recall with horror some of the hanging slogans people were confronted with everywhere in Saigon after 30 April 1975, such as "Long Live the Invincible Marxist-Leninist Doctrine" and "Marxism-Leninism Forever". I still remember quite vividly the yellow star on a red background that the CPV had painted everywhere, hurting the eyes of the people. And then, every October, celebrations marking the Russian Revolution went on for a whole month. The question should be asked whether, at that time, any one of you communist people had mentioned the Ancestor's Day - Tenth Day of the Third Month of the Lunar Calendar - or had expressed the wish to visit a pagoda and kowtow before a statue of the Buddha! The question should also be asked whether, had Communism been able to "bury" Capitalism, would you be inviting foreigners to do business with you and applying to join ASEAN, an organisation you described not long ago as a "creation of US imperialism". After destroying so many statues of Buddha, you now visit pagodas! After moving to "bury" Capitalism, you have now embarked on the Capitalist road! That’s quite an achievement!

II.9 Buddhism and the Vietnamese people and culture

In brief, Buddhism has been in Vietnam for two millennia and has shared with the Vietnamese nation the shames and the glories history has recorded for this national community over these years. What has Buddhism contributed to the nation's history? This having been recorded in the annals of history, I do not want to say anything here that might be described as subjective. Let me simply give you a small quote from the book "General Ly Thuong Kiet" by Professor Hoang Xuan Han. In the third part of Chapter XIV, page 429, which deals with Buddhism under the Ly dynasty, the author concluded:

"In summary, following the violent reigns of most kings of the Dinh and Le dynasties, we see rulers full of compassion and magnanimity, royal assistants less inclined to greed and treason. The Ly dynasty can be characterised as the most gentle and harmonious era in our history and that characteristic can be attributed to the influence of Buddhism. Indeed, every time the Confucianists criticised Buddhism, we know it marked the coming of a deadly struggle for power. After Dam Di Mong expelled the monks, Tran Thu Do massacred the entire Ly family. In the closing stage of the Tran dynasty, Confucianism prospered, but some years after Truong Han Sieu and Le Quat criticised Buddhism, Ho Quy Ly killed the Tran family. Tran Thu Do and Ho Quy Ly did what they did simply because they wanted to make a name for themselves - in total alienation from Lord Buddha's call for compassion and loving-kindness."

Many, many centuries ago, after defeating Xiang Wu and reunifying China, Liu Pang behaved most arrogantly and often made fun of or abused the scholars. More often than not, whenever the scholars had the misfortune of being seen by the Emperor, he would make them take off their hats and he would urinate in them. After witnessing such incidents, an intellectual of the time, Chia I, advised the monarch to read books but Liu Pang retorted: "I have conquered the world on horseback! What use is book reading?" Finding that the royal answer indicated nothing but a "small man" in ascendancy, Chia I continued: "Your Imperial Highness may conquer the world on horseback but you cannot rule over the world on horseback!" How perspicacious! Vietnamese kings, especially the Lys and the Trans, were much more intelligent and modest than China's Liu Pang. They knew their limitations. They knew they could not simply rely on their prison system, their army, their security forces to achieve everything, including forcing their subjects to be honest and good people. That is why they built countless pagodas and encouraged their subjects to build even more pagodas everywhere, thereby relying on the Buddha and the Buddhist clergy to convince their people of the necessity to accept The Three Sublime Ones and The Five Precepts. Thanks to that approach, they succeeded in creating a society deeply imbued with morality, full of compassion and driven by righteousness, piety and tolerance. That is why life was so pleasant and peaceful!

Man's psychology is really something ponder about. Since my house arrest at Vu Doai, I have noticed that most Northern youths are not afraid of being gaoled. They go to gaol as regularly as we go... on holiday! Some of them even say that a youngster deserving of his name must go to prison at least two or three times. But when they visited the pagoda at Vu Doai and heard my discourse on Buddhism, on the Law of Karma, the Lower Realms of Existence... they must have had misgivings about what they had done and gave up their inappropriate occupations, especially butchery.

Thus, it can be said that when the CPV, in implementing its atheist, materialist and internationalist doctrine, sought to destroy Buddhism and its places of worship, it also sought the dissolution of the nation's morality, the demolition of its architectural heritage, in total disrespect for the traditions of humanity and the spirit of harmonious living we have inherited from our forefathers. Worse still, it sought to replace all these moral values with the notions of class struggle and its by-products. The practice of children denouncing parents, wives denouncing husbands, cousins denouncing cousins, and disciples and teachers accusing one another during the Land Reform Campaign in the North in 1956, and the campaign against all property owners elements in the Southern provinces in 1975, has resulted in the disintegration of the old social order and the collapse of the nation's age-old moral system, which was based on humanity and righteousness. The result of all of this is that nowadays, when the family pig dies, people cry, but when their parents pass away, people feel relieved. When the pig falls ill, people do their utmost to have it treated, but when the parents are sick, they are left to die.

I have heard the story of a city-dweller who raised German Shepherds to sell. He would have the dogs sleep in a bed covered with a mosquito net and every day would buy beefsteak and eggs for the dogs' meals. At the sight of what the dogs had for dinner, his sick mother felt so envious that she told her son: "As I lie hungry in my sickbed, I can't help but notice that you are feeding your dogs meat and eggs. I can't tell you how much I want that food!" To that reproach, the son answered: "You should know that the dogs cost me a lot of money, but they also make me a millionaire. As for you, have you ever made one single dong to demand a meal of meat and eggs? The quicker you die, the more fortunate I'll feel."

How awful, sons and daughters of the Dragon King and the Fairy Queen! Little attention is now given to the cases of children insulting their parents because now many sons and daughters even kill their parents. The situation has become most worrying. Indeed, material damages can be repaired with more or less difficulty but this moral depravity is not likely to be redressed soon. It might take generations to expunge this kind of moral turpitude. This constitutes the CPV's most seriously damaging error towards not only the Buddhist Church of Vietnam in particular, but also the nation's traditional culture and values in general.

II.10 No Regrets About Dying for the Truth

In conclusion, I am certain that when CPV leaders read this "identification", they will say that I am against the Party. In opposing the CPV, I militate also against the fatherland, nay, against Heaven - and, thus, deserve to be struggled against until death. I am conscious of that but I am ready to welcome death because every word I have written in this "identification" is nothing but the truth. Should one die for the truth, one would have no regrets.

Moreover, really nothing more can hold me on this earth. My father died a long time ago. My mother died a tragic death at Vu Doai Village in 1985 - after being sent into exile along with me by the CPV. My master, the Most Venerable Thich Duc Hai, who had studied in France, was arrested by Viet Minh agents at 08:00 hours on 19 August 1945 (the 12th Day of the Seventh Month of the Year of the Rooster), i.e. the day of triumph of the Revolution; he was then taken to the courtyard of the communal hall of Bat Village, Ung Hoa prefecture, Ha Dong province, condemned to death for being a "country-selling traitor", and executed on the green in front of the dinh. As the executioner’s three bullets pierced my master's temple, a spurt of red blood gushed out straight into the air, imprinting in an ever lucid, distressing image in my mind. I was then only 18 years of age but today, I still remember that sight most vividly.

I also should like to take advantage of this opportunity to clear the name of my master. My master's story is as follows:

In the Year of the Monkey (1944), the Japanese forced the people of many regions (of Vietnam) to plant hemp instead of rice. Because that year's Tenth Month harvest also proved a failure, famine was quite widespread in the Year of the Rooster (1945), especially in the provinces of Thai Binh and Nam Dinh, where people died in great numbers in the streets. Those who had some strength left, trooped to Hanoi and Ha Dong cities to beg for food but many dropped dead on arrival. At that time, my master was practising at the pagoda of Thanh Sam village, Ung Hoa prefecture, Ha Dong province.

When my master learned about this distressing situation, he was deeply moved and went to the provincial capital where he set up a hunger-relief charity. In March 1945, my master set up a relief camp, where he ensured emaciated people about to die were given shelter, food and care. My master also asked the then provincial governor of Ha Dong, Mr Ho Dac Diem, to make representations to the Japanese into contributing an amount of rice for the hunger-relief campaign. My master's association succeeded in saving a great many people. By June 1945, these people were no longer in danger of starvation. They returned to their villages to prepare for the next rice-planting season, and my master and his disciples returned to our pagoda...

Then came the turn of my master's religious elder brother, the Most Venerable Thich Dai Hai, Abbot of Phap Van pagoda (also called Dau pagoda), Bac Ninh province. Thich Dai Hai was also arrested in 1946 and he was to die soon afterwards, after being accused of being a member of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD).

(At this point, I would like to say something about the VNQDD, in parenthesis. Who were these VNQDD members? They, too, were patriots who fought for the nation's independence. The tombs of the VNQDD martyrs are still there, in Yen Bai, to prove who they were and what they had done. What "blood debt" could they possibly have owed the CPV to make the Communists kill them? During the Land Reform Campaign of 1956, VNQDD members, most of them being intellectuals, also topped the list of (the CPV's) enemies and once identified were murdered en masse.

The Vietnamese Communists treated the VNQDD so very badly simply because they aped the Chinese Communists, who had had to cope with the Guomindang (VNQDD’s China’s namesake) of Chiang Kaishek. Chiang had held political power in China and his anti-Communist campaigns had forced Mao Zedong to stage the Long March: In December 1949, Mao's soldiers completed the occupation of mainland China, forcing Chiang to take refuge on Formosa. Following his victory, the vengeful Mao ordered the elimination of every Guomindang member who had not fled.

But Mao remained unsatisfied and suspected many of the old regime of having ties with the Guomindang. Intent on identifying each and every one of these, Mao launched the so-called "Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom" campaign in 1956. In this campaign, Mao urged everyone to speak openly on anything at all, so that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could learn of its mistakes and correct them. Everybody thought that Mao was sincere and many Chinese spoke their minds. Mao took advantage of all these complaints, which had come mainly from former Guomindang members, and had them all killed. But in Vietnam, the VNQDD had never been in power and had never fought against the CPV, so how can the CPV explain its mass murder of the VNQDD members?)

Then came the turn of my religious Grand Master, Abbot of Tra Lu Trung pagoda, Xuan Truong prefecture, Nam Dinh province. In 1954, Communist cadres came to his pagoda and after accusing him of using the "opiate" of religion to hoodwink the people, threatened him with classification as "an enemy of the people" and with subjection to a denunciation and struggle campaign. My Grand Master was so afraid of being struggled against that he hanged himself.

Now it is my turn to be detained, persecuted and exiled for over ten years. But what "crimes" have I committed besides that of being faithful to the ideals of Buddhism, and that of being determined to protect the cultural traditions of the Vietnamese nation, as well as its spiritual and architectural heritage. Indeed, nobody can accuse me of seeking power and privilege. I only have always considered our cultural traditions and spiritual heritage to be of great importance. It was thanks to these factors that the Vietnamese avoided being assimilated by their enemies - including feudal powers of yore, and imperialism and colonialism of later years - which together had reigned over the country for over 1,000 years.

Of course our cultural traditions, having been with us for thousands of years, must have carried certain obsolete elements that should be discarded and we should also try to learn from the world and adopt some of its better features. However, certainly we should not say that all of our cultural traditions are now outmoded and must be replaced by something entirely new, entirely foreign, for by so doing, we will fall into a situation that I have tried to describe in the following poem :

They are neither from the East nor the West!
Born of the Devil, these ignorant and arrogant pests
Have ploughed the burial ground of our forefathers
And razed each and every temple, altar and pagoda.
What's more, they treat their parents as cheap pinewood
and consider their grandparents unfit for pig-food!
O! Lac Viet souls still wandering here and there,
Aren’t you ashamed of your history of 4 000 years?

Written at Vu Doai village, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province
January 1992 (14th Day of the Twelfth Month of the Year of the Goat)
In commemoration of my tenth year of house arrest

Thich Quang Do
Secretary-General of the National Executive Council
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam