VIET NAM QUOC DAN ĐANG

A Contemporary History of a National Struggle

1927-1954      

by HOANG VAN ĐAO    

Translated: HUYNH KHUE   

This is an English translation of

Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng. Lịch Sử Đấu Tranh Cận Đại, 1927-1954 by Hoàng, Đào Văn. 1970. . Reprinted in the USA by the VNQDĐ

 http://www.rosedogbookstore.com/vinamqudanda.html    

Jean's review:  Very informative and interesting about the Nationalist Party in Vietnam, which formed in 1927 and still is alive among the Vietnamese Diaspora as well as --most surely-- within Vietnam today.

The political premise is that of changing alliances among France, Russia, the United States in relation to the Viet Minh Communists in Vietnam headed by Ho Chi Minh, which allowed them to take over North Vietnam in 1954.  The groundwork, or grass roots, of the revolution was created by the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang, or Nationalist Party. 

The Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi is always of interest, and this book delivers content about the cadres of the Nationalist Party who were jailed there in the 1930s and even publicly guillotined by the French in front of the gates. 

Finding the Party members arrested at every turn, the founder Nguyễn Thái Học organizes women to head the communications:  Ms. Đỗ Thị Tâm, Nguyễn Thị Tình, Nguyễn Thị Thành,  Nguyễn Thị Bắc, and Nguyễn Thị Giang.  Three of these women are sisters, and actually organize the popular uprisings against the French at Yen Bay in 1930.

Most revealing to me is the depth of exploitation of the Vietnamese people by the French.  It is the story of slavery through kidnapping of men and boys to work in the rubber plantations under such severe conditions that most of them died, or became chronically ill.  The Nationalists assassinated the prime slaveholder, Rene Bazin, in 1929. 

The duplicity of the French is seen in 1954, after losing the battle of Dien Bien Phu, making a secret agreement with Ho Chi Minh and Russia to give the Communists control of North Vietnam.  

This is done for the purpose of limiting influence of the United States in the region.  The French and the Russians assume that the U.S. wants to colonize and exploit the people just like they did.

Ho Chi Minh and the Communists are able to gain control at the Geneva Accords by playing one superpower off against another.  Then they prevent two or three million people from the countryside from migrating to South Vietnam during the period of open migration.

********************************************************************

AmerAsian Independent Voice of America 

Gia Đình Lai Mỹ Việt

Tiếng Nói Độc Lập tại Hoa Kỳ  Volume 1, No. 1  Fall 2008

Publisher/Editor in Chief

Chủ Nhiệm/Chủ Bút

Nguyệt Lâm, DC

Assistant Editor in Chief

Phụ Tá Chủ Nhiệm/Chủ Bút

Jimmy Miller, WA

News Editor

Trưởng Ban Biên Tập

Kathyna Nguyễn, TX

English Section Editor

Trúc Trần, UT

Địa chỉ liên lạc:

AmerAsian Voice

P.O. Box 43147

WASHINGTON DC 20010

Email:

AmerAsianvoice@gmail.com

Jean's Review:  this new magazine has a lot of life, bilingual content and unmistakable Vietnamese American style.

Thank you, Jimmy Miller, for sending it.