Nguyễn Bình
Nguyễn Bình, born Nguyễn Phương Thảo (1906,
History
According to Vietnamese historian Christopher Goscha, Nguyễn Bình was born in
He also became increasingly involved in nationalist politics. It was during this time that he befriended an influential intellectual and journalist, Tran Huy Lieu, who introduced him into the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, VNQDD) in 1928. In 1930, the French sentenced Nguyễn Bình to hard labor in Poulo Condor for his political activities. However, while Trần Huy Liệu crossed over to the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) while doing hard time, Nguyễn Bình did not. He left the island on 12 October 1934, and the nature of his activities during the rest of the 1930s remains a mystery.[1]
During
Nguyễn Bình arrived in the south in November 1945 and began unifying bandit groups, sects, and religious forces as best he could into an organized armed force to fight the French forces of General
In early 1947, as the French began to break off the
In 1949, as the Vietnamese prepared for the “general counter-offensive”, Ho Chi Minh named him commander of the armed forces in the south. Nguyễn Bình began building in earnest a modern army, organized in battalions and briefly as regiments. In 1949 and 1950, apparently on orders from the north, he launched head-on attacks against French posts across southern Vietnam. Thanks to superior artillery and air power, the French handed him one of his worst setbacks in his life while powerful communists began to criticize his tactics. Nonetheless, Nguyễn Bình had demonstrated that not only could southerners fight an urban war, but they could also move towards creating a modern army as in the north, and this without a Chinese rear-guard and large-scale foreign aid.[1]
Personality
Bình was described by one French journalist as "cruel, indefatigable, pitiless, authoritarian." He became a hero to some in the revolutionary movement, and an enemy to many in the Hòa Hảo, Cao Đài, and other organizations that eventually opposed the DRV.[2]
Death
In late 1951, following important changes occurring at the international level and within the ICP, the DRV summoned Nguyễn Bình to the north for further training and consultations in preparation for the wider war against the French, including the creation of a trans-Indochinese supply trail running from the north to the south. While crossing through northeastern Cambodia, Nguyễn Bình perished in an ambush in September 1951 laid by the 4th Bataillon de Chasseurs Cambodgiens under Jacques Hogard. Nguyễn Bình's remains were returned to Vietnam from Cambodia in 2000.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "UQAM | Guerre d'Indochine | NGUYỄN BÌNH (NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG THẢO, LE BORGNE, ANH BA, 1904–1951)".
- ^ Bodard, Lucien (1963). The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 15–16.