Black April

Thảo Nguyên

'Hương tàn lịch sử
âm ỉ trong lòng
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tồn tại nghìn năm!
cảm ơn +Thao Nguyen chia sẻ the article!

                                                                         Nhat Thuy Vi

Black April (Tháng Tư Ðen) had brought dark clouds over Vietnam where evils started to control the whole country absolutely and ruthlessly. Since then, the brutal oppression towards the South Vietnamese people has been carried out callously and systematically.

A South Vietnamese father carries his son and a bag of household possessions as he leaves his village near Trang Bom on Route 1 northwest of Saigon April 23, 1975. (AP Photo/KY Mhan)

South Vietnamese in Da Nang, Vietnam, after the fall of Saigon in 1975, struggle to climb aboard ships that will evacuate them to Cam Ranh Bay.

The fateful day on April 30, 1975

A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of the Republic of Vietnam (30/4/197575)

After taking over Saigon, the official Communist Party newspaper “Sài Gòn Giải Phóng” (Liberated Saigon) declared on 2/6/1975 that the Southerners must pay their “blood debt” to the so called “revolution”. And the blood of Vietnamese has been shed since the Fall of Saigon. In the name of “liberation”, the Republic of Vietnam was destroyed and the killings have been carried out all over South Vietnam.

In Communist hard labour prisons (Re-education camps)

Research from Jacqueline Desbarats, a UC Berkeley demographer, shows that at least 65,000 Vietnamese perished as victims of political executions in the eight years after the Fall of Saigon. She only counted eye-witnessed executions and discarded about two-thirds of the political death reports received. The death count also did not include those who died in “Re-Education Camps” which actually were notorious Communist hard labour prisons, and victims of starvation, disease, exhaustion, suicide or "accident" (caused by clearing minefields, for instance) as a result of hostile policies in the postwar economy and politics in South Vietnam. Amongst victims of these executions were many soldiers of the Military Forces of the Republic of Vietnam:

Col. Hồ Ngọc Cẩn

• Colonel Hồ Ngọc Cẩn was executed at the Cần Thơ Oval on 14/8/1975. He was captured when the VC attacked his provincial compound at the very end of the Vietnam War. He was then executed. After the killing, the revenge was continued in an unimaginable way. The VC tied a rope around his neck then used a military four wheel drive vehicle (the Vietnamese called it a “jeep”) pulling his body around the town. There would not be any reprisal that could match the cruelty of this vengeance. Col. Cẩn died twice. They shot him at the execution and then tore up his still-warm-dead-body on the rugged surface of the town’s roads. 

At the execution of Col. Ho Ngoc Can

At the execution, the VC asked him if he pleaded guilty to the crime with which they had charged him. He answered boldly “If I won this war, I wouldn’t take revenge and condemn you of any offense against me as you’re doing to me now. I wouldn’t humiliate you as you’re crushing me. I also wouldn’t ask you the question you’ve just asked me. I have fought for the freedom of the people! I have served my country. I did not commit any crime as you’ve condemned me. You have no right to convict me. History will judge and decide if you are red aggressors or I am a puppet (as the VC labelled the Government, People and Military Forces of RVN). If you want to kill me, just do it. Do not bind my eyes. Down with Communism. Long live Vietnam.”

(Nếu tôi thắng trong cuộc chiến, tôi sẽ không kết án các anh như các anh kết án tôi. Tôi cũng không làm nhục các anh như các anh làm nhục tôi. Tôi cũng không hỏi các anh câu mà các anh hỏi tôi. Tôi chiến đấu cho tự do của người dân. Tôi có công mà không có tội. Không ai có quyền kết tội tôi. Lịch sử sẽ phê phán xét đoán các anh là giặc đỏ hay tôi là ngụy. Các anh muốn giết tôi, cứ giết đi. Xin đừng bịt mắt. Đả đảo cộng sản. Việt Nam muôn năm").

• Major Phan Văn Triệu was executed at the Ba Xuyên prison in June 1975.
• Lieutenant Ngô Ðình Tùng died in the Song Mao prison in 1975
• Captain Nguyễn Quang Tuyến was executed in Bến Tre in 1977
• Captain Lê Văn Trang died in the Nam Hà prison in 1978
• Officer Trần Quang Trân, an electronic engineer was executed in the Tiên Lãnh prison
• And so on…

From the 30th of April 1975, the Communists have totally controlled all Vietnam with absolute power over the Vietnamese people. With a centralised government and planning system, they have created massive poverty throughout Vietnam. They have also destroyed intellectual property by burning books and musical compositions and have wiped out cultural heritage through waves of “Cultural Revolutions”. Right after the Fall of Saigon, the life of the South Vietnamese was brought back thousands of years right back to the Stone Age.

Raising a RVN flag on the Quảng Trị Citadel
after retaking it from the occupation of the
Communist armed force from the North.

I am proud to have been a soldier who took part in the fight to defend the Republic of Vietnam from the invasion of Communism. We had no choice in this War. When a country is invaded by strong military forces, can you take a peaceful means to protect the country? I think we can use different ways, but taking arms is a “must”. We fought to defend our newly established freedom in the South. We stood up for the basic human rights we had just gained back after the colonisation of the French. I am regretful that we lost the war to those who served International communism not for the sake of the country. They saw their own absolute power as being more important than the country. Therefore we lost our freedom and human rights and most crucially, we lost our beautiful culture that had been passed down for thousands of years, i.e. Honesty, Humanity, Respect, Righteousness and Intellectualism. (We will need many generations to re-build Vietnamese traditional culture in the post-Communist era. But, Communists must first give up their power and return it to the Vietnamese people before we can properly rebuild the country.) We were not strong enough to stop the enormous red waves from the North which came down with two mighty forces: the military force of the North with a vast support from China, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block and the massive political force from the Leftists and Media of 60’s and 70’s of the West.

The statue "Thương Tiếc" 
(Mourning for sacrificing RVN soldiers)
at the entrance of the National Cemetery 
of the RVN Armed Forced and it was destroyed
right after the Fall of Saigon

I grieve for the sacrifice of soldiers who laid down their life for the country but their duty of defending the freedom and independence of South Vietnam was not realised. Their gallant actions are remembered. I will never forget the time I was in a Communist prison. I remember all my friends and all the soldiers who suffered and/or died in Communist prisons.

We were soldiers. I am proud of the past and all the heroic soldiers who courageously fought for the Vietnamese people and the country. Please give one minute to remember those who sacrificed their life for Vietnam in battles, or in Communist prisons, those who were executed after the Fall of Saigon, and those who lost their life after Black April because of the vengeance and oppression of the ruling Communists. We are soldiers. We still are duty bound to fight for freedom and human rights for Vietnam. We now fight with peaceful means but will be more effective if we are unified. The Power of One will help us to achieve what we could not fulfill in the past: FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE and HUMAN RIGHTS for VIETNAM

Thảo Nguyên

References

Desbarats, Jacqueline “Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and                          Population Relocation.” In The Vietnam Debate, edited by John Norton Moore,                      pp 193-202. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1990.

Phạm, Phong Dinh Vinh Danh Cố Đại Tá Hồ Ngọc Cẩn 
               http://hon-viet.co.uk/PhamPhongDinh_VinhDanhDaiTaHoNgocCan.htm 
               viewed on 12/4/2015

Thụy Vi     "Chúng Xử Tử Các Anh - Những Người Lính VNCH & CSQG Can Trường Tại Tỉnh                      Chương Thiện" in Vợ Người Tù Cải Tạo

   http://www.vietlandnews.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5802 viewed on 12-4-2015