operation Passage to Freedom

Around a million Vietnamese refugees left the communist North Vietnam during operation Passage to Freedom after Vietnam was partitioned.

Operation Passage to Freedom was the term used by the United States Navy to describe the mass exodus of Vietnamese who fled the communist North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) for South Vietnam (the State of Vietnam, later to become the Republic of Vietnam). In the wake of the French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords of 1954 decided the fate of French Indochina after eight years of war between French colonial forces and the Vietminh which sought independence for Vietnam. The agreements resulted in the Partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh's communist Vietminh in control of the north and the French backed State of Vietnam in the south. The agreements allowed a 300 day grace period ending on May 18, 1955 in which people could move freely between the two halves of Vietnam before the border was sealed. In all, between 800,000 and one million north Vietnamese fled communist rule in the north, while a much smaller number of Vietminh fighters moved north into the communist zone. The partition was intended to be temporary, pending national elections in 1956 that were intended to result in reunification.

The mass emigration of northerners was facilitated primarily by the French Air Force and Navy. American vessels supplemented the French in evacuating northern Vietnamese to Saigon, the southern capital. The operation was accompanied by a large humanitarian relief effort primarily bankrolled by the United States in an attempt to absorb a large tent city of refugees that had sprung up outside Saigon. Politically, the migration was a public relations coup for the United States, depicting the flight of Vietnamese from the perceived oppression of communism, to the free world in the south under American auspices. From a Vietnamese perspective, the period was marked by a CIA-backed propaganda campaign on behalf of South Vietnam’s Catholic Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. It appealed for Catholics to flee impending religious persecution under communist rule, and around 60% of the north’s 1.5 million Catholics responded. The migration boosted the Catholic power base of Diem; whereas the majority of Vietnam’s Catholics previously lived in the north, they were now in the south. The campaign was intended to strengthen the south in preparation for the reunification elections; Diem cancelled these fearing a communist victory and proceeded to treat his new constituents as a special interest group, believing them to be a bastion of solid anti-communists equipped with a favourable religious outlook.

Background

Main articles: First Indochina War and Geneva Conference (1954)

At the end of the Second World War, Ho Chi Minh and his Vietminh had proclaimed independence for Vietnam as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in September 1945. This occurred after the withdrawal of Imperial Japan, who had seized control of the French colonya during the Second World War. A struggle with the French started in November 1946 when they attempted to reassert control over French Indochina with an attack on the northern port city of Haiphong.^[1] The DRV was diplomatically recognised by the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Western powers recognised the French backed State of Vietnam, nominally led by Emperor Bao Dai but with a French trained Vietnamese National Army which was loyal to and supplemented the French colonial forces. After eight years of fighting, the French were surrounded and defeated in a mountainous northern fortress at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954.^[2] France decided to withdraw from Indochina, which was finalised in the Geneva Accords of July 1954 after two months of negotiations between Ho's DRV, France, China and the Soviet Union. Under the terms of the agreement, Vietnam was the temporarily divided at the 17th parallel until national elections in 1956 to elect a government that would govern a reunified country. The communist Vietminh were left in control of North Vietnam, while the French endorsed State of Vietnam under Bao Dai controlled the South. French forces were to gradually withdraw from Vietnam as the situation stabilised.^[3] Both Vietnamese sides were unsatisfied with the outcome at Geneva; Ngo Dinh Diem, the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, denounced the French for signing the accords and ordered his delegation not to sign, stating, "We cannot recognise the seizure by Soviet China . . of over half of our national territory" and that "We can neither concur with in the brutal enslavement of millions of compatriots." North Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Dong expressed bitterness after his Soviet and Chinese backers threatened to cut off support if he did not agree to the peace terms; Dong had wanted to press home the military advantage of the Vietminh so that the communists could lay claim to more territory.^[4]

Under the accords, there was to be a period of three hundred days in which free movement was allowed between the two zones, and military forces were compelled to relocate to their respective sides; the French Expeditionary Corps and the Vietnamese National Army forces that were in the north were to be evacuated south of the 17th parallel, while any Vietminh fighters in the south had to relocate to the north. The accords stipulated that people on either side of the border were to be given the opportunity to move to the other half of the country if they so desired. Article 14(d) of the accords read

This allowed for a 300 day period of free movement ending on May 18, 1955. At the time, the parties at Geneva had given little thought to the logistics of the population resettlement, assuming that the matter would be minor. Despite his claim that his northern compatriots had been "enslaved", Diem expected no more than ten thousand refugees. General Paul Ely, the French Commissioner General of Indochina expected around thirty thousand landlords and businessmen would move south and proclaimed that he would take responsibility for the transport of any Vietnamese who decided to move to territory controlled by the French Union (such as the SoV). Pierre Mendes-France, the Prime Minister of France and his government had planned to provide for around 50,000 displaced persons. The Americans saw the period as an opportunity to weaken the communist north.^[5]

Evacuation

The predictions made by Diem and Ely were extremely inaccurate. As notice of the possibility of relocation spread through the communist controlled north, thousands of predominantly Catholic northerners descended on the capital Hanoi and the port of Haiphong, both of which were still in French control, seeking evacuation. This lead to anarchy and confusion as they fought over limited shelter, food, medicine and places on the ships and planes that were southbound for Saigon. By early August, there were over 200,000 waiting in Hanoi and Haiphong to be evacuated.^[5]

The French navy and air force, depleted after the Second World War neither anticipated nor were able to deal with so many refugees. France asked Washington for assistance, and the United States Department of Defense ordered the United States Navy to mobilise a task force for evacuation. Accordingly, Task Force 90 (CTF-90) under the command of Rear Admiral Lorenzo Sabin was inaugurated. US servicemen renovated and transformed cargo vessels and tank carriers to house the thousands of Vietnamese who would be packed into them. This was frequently done en route to Haiphong from their bases from Subic Bay in the Philippines.^[5]

The first US vessel to participate in the mass evacuation was the Menard, which left Haiphong on August 17 with 1924 refugees for a 1600 kilometre, three day journey into the southern capital. It was followed on the next day by the Montrose, with 2100 passengers. Both were built originally as attack transport vessels. On August, the US policy extended so that at the discretion of CTF-90 and the Chief Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnamese and French military personnel could also be evacuated on US vessels.^[6] To cope with the swelling amount of sea transport coming into the south, CHMAAG established a refugee debarkation site at Vung Tau, a coastal port at the entrance of the Saigon River. This relieved congestion in the Saigon refugee camps and decreased the navigational problems in travelling up the river to Saigon. A further setback occurred when a typhoon struck in the vicinity of Haiphong, destroying almost half of the refugee staging area. By September 3, after only two weeks, the US Navy had evacuated 47,000 northerners.^[7] Such was the rate of evacuation that the South Vietnamese government ordered that only one shipment of no more than 2,500 passengers were to arrive in Saigon or Vung Tau until September 25. The pressure in the south was eased somewhat as incoming numbers fell due to Vietminh propaganda campaigns or forcible detention, combined with the rice harvesting season, which had prompted some to delay their departure. In October 20, the French authorities who were still in control of the ports decided to waive fees on US vessels engaged in the evacuation.^[8]

According to a report by the Commissariat of Refugees (commonly known by its French initials of COMIGAL), the South Vietnamese government agency charged with overseeing the exodus, French airplanes made 4280 trips, carrying a total of 213,635 refugees. A total of 555,037 people were recorded as having been transported by sea in 505 trips. The French Navy accounted for the vast majority, with 388 while the US Navy made 109. British, Taiwanese and Polish ships made two, two and four journeys respectively. In all, official figures reported 768,672 people who migrated under military supervision. The official figures recorded more than 109,000 people as having journeyed into the south of their own accord, some outside of the 300 day period. These occurred either by crossing the river dividing the zones on makeshift rafts, sailing on improvised craft into a southern port, or trekking through Laos. As of 1957, a total of 928,152 refugees were claimed by the South Vietnamese government, of which 98.3% were ethnic Vietnamese. 85% were engaged in farming or fishing and 85% were Catholics, while the remainder were Buddhists or Protestants. The data excluded approximately 120,000 military related personnel and claimed that only 4,358 people moved north. This was attributed to migrant workers from rubber plantations who returned north for family reasons.^[9]

An independent study by Bernard B. Fall determined that the US Navy carried around 310,000 refugees. The French were credited with around 214,000 airlifted refugees, 270,000 seaborne refugees, 120,000 and 80,000 Vietnamese and French military evacuees respectively. It was believed that a large number of the 109,000 refugees who went south by their own means, hitchhiked on French transport that was going south for other purposes not related to the migration operation. Fall noted that the figures were likely to have been overestimated, since there were cases of fraudulent reporting on the part of the new arrivals. Some refugees would travel south, register themselves, smuggle themselves on vessels returning north for another shipment of humans and return and re-register to claim multiple aid packages. Likewise, with instances of entire villages moving south, the authorities frequently took the word of the village leaders as to how many people were in their delegation. Often the chiefs would inflate the population figures to claim a greater ration of supplies. The mass exodus did not disrupt the north to a great extent since whole villages often left, instead of half a village leaving and leaving the remainder of the community in disarray. Fall estimated that around 120,000 Vietminh troops and their dependents went north. Most of these were attributed to Vietminh orders base upon military reasoning, with some being ordered to stay behind for future guerrilla activities. The northward movement was facilitated by vessels leaving from assembly areas at Ca Mau in the southernmost point of Vietnam and Qui Nhon. The vessels were from communist nations such as Poland, as well as empty French ships heading back north to fetch more southward refugees. The Vietminh were also active in politically converting the Montagnard indigenous people of Vietnam, whose land in the south were settled by incoming northern settlers. The communists spread propaganda with broadcasts in indigenous languages and infiltration of the mountainous areas. According to a study by Michigan State University, some 6,000 tribespeople left with the communist to go north, accompanied by some Vietminh who had adopted the indigenous culture.^[10]

The United States provided emergency food, medical care, clothing and shelter at reception centres in Saigon and elsewhere in the south. American funds through the United States Operations Mission were responsible for 97% of the refugee aid. The United States was followed by France, United Kingdom, Australia, West Germany, New Zealand and The Netherlands.^[11]

With most of the refugees being Catholic, the voluntary agencies which were prominent in helping the US and French governments in their humanitarian efforts were Catholic. The National Catholic Welfare Conference and Catholic Relief Services contributed over USD35m and sent hundreds of aid workers to South Vietnam. US clerics such as Joseph Harnett spent more than a year in Saigon supervising the establishment of humanitarian and religious projects. Harnett’s CRS supervised the establishment and maintenance of orphanages, hospitals, schools and churches. His volunteers fed rice and warm milk to one hundred thousand refugees on a daily basis. Tens of thousands of blankets donated by the American Catholic organisations served as beds, roofs against monsoonal downpours and as temporary walls in mass housing facilities.^[12]

The United Nations Children’s Fund also made contributions, with technical assistance and by distributing merchandise, foodstuffs and various other gifts.^[11]

Propaganda campaign

Colonel Edward Lansdale

The United States also played a large part in a propaganda campaign run by the Central Intelligence Agency to enhance the size of the exodus away from the communist north. The CIA campaign was regarded as one of the most audacious in the history of covert operations. The program was managed and directed by Colonel Edward Lansdale, who masqueraded as the assistant US air attaché in Saigon while leading a covert group that specialised in psychological warfare. Lansdale had advised Diem that it was imperative to have as many people in the south as possible when the time came for the national reunification elections. When Diem noted the limited capabilities of the south to absorb refugees, Lansdale assured him that the US would bear the burden. Diem authorised Lansdale to launch the relocation campaign. According to the historian Seth Jacobs, the campaign “ranked with the most audacious enterprises in the history of covert action.”^[13]

Lansdale employed a variety of stunts in order to compel more northerners to move south. South Vietnamese soldiers in civilian clothing were sent into the north to spread rumours of impending doom. One such story was that the Vietminh had done a deal with Vietnam’s traditional enemies China that had allowed two Chinese divisions to invade the north. The story reported that the Chinese were raping and pillaging at the permission of the Vietminh. Lansdale also hired counterfeiters to produce bogus Vietminh leaflets on how to behave under the communists; explaining to them to create a list of their material possessions so that they would be more easily confiscated, fomenting peasant discontent. Soothsayers were hired to predict disaster under communism, and prosperity in the south for those who went there.^[13] The most inflammatory rumour was that Washington intended to launch an attack to liberate the north as soon as all anti-communists had fled to the south. It claimed that the Americans would use atomic bombs against the north and that the only way of avoiding death in a nuclear holocaust was to move south. Lansdale had pamphlets printed which depicted Hanoi with three circles of nuclear destruction superimposed on it.^[14]

Lansdale in particular targeted the northern Catholics, who were known for their strongly anti-communist tendencies. His staff printed tens of thousands of pamphlets with slogans such as “Christ has gone south” and “the Virgin Mary has departed from the North” and alleging anti-Catholic persecution under Ho Chi Minh. Posters depicting communists closing a cathedral and forcing the congregation to pray in front Ho, adorned with a caption ”make your choice” were pasted around Hanoi and Haiphong. Diem himself went to Hanoi while the French were still garrisoned there to encourage Catholics to move. The campaign resonated with northern Catholic priests, who told their disciples that a communist government would end freedom of worship, that sacraments would no longer be given and that anyone who stayed behind would endanger their souls.^[14] The migration helped to strengthen Diem’s support base. Before the partition, the majority of Vietnam’s Catholic population lived in the north. After the borders were sealed, the majority was now under Diem’s rule. The Catholics implicitly trusted Diem due to a common religion and were a source of loyal political support. One of Diem’s main objections to the Geneva Accords, which the State of Vietnam refused to sign, was that it deprived him of the Catholic regions of North Vietnam. With entire Catholic provinces moving south en masse, in 1956 Saigon had more Catholics in its Diocese than Paris or Rome. Of Vietnam’s 1.45m Catholics, over a million lived in the south, 55% of which were northern refugees.^[12]

The Vietminh also engaged in counter-propaganda in an attempt to deter the exodus from the north. Evacuees reported being ridiculed by the Vietminh, who claimed that they would he sadistically tortured before being killed by the French and American authorities in Haiphong. They depicted the American sailors of Task Force 90 as cannibals who would eat their babies and predicted disaster in the jungles, beaches and mountains of South Vietnam. The Vietminh contended that it was too great a risk and would be futile, asserting that they would win the 1956 reunification elections.^[15]

Media and public relations

The United States reaped public relations benefits from the mass exodus in South Vietnam, which was used to depict the allure of the “free world”. This was enhanced by the relatively minuscule number of people who voluntarily moved north into the communist zone. The event put the spotlight on Vietnam to an extent which it had not been before. Many prominent news agencies sent highly decorated reporters to cover the event. The New York Times dispatched Tillman and Peggy Durdin, while the New York Herald Tribune sent the Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporters Marguerite Higgins and Homer Bigart. Future US embassy official John Mecklin covered the event for Time Life. The press reports presented highly laudatory and emotional accounts of the mass exodus of Vietnamese away from communist north into the south. ‘’Life’’ called the mass migration “a tragedy of almost nightmarish proportions . . .Many [refugees] went without food or water or medicine for days, sustained only by the faith in their heart.” The Americans revelled in what was a mass migration of unprecedented levels of success.^[12]

The hyperbole by the mainstream press paled in comparison to that meted out by the American Catholic press. The event was given front page coverage in America’s diocesan newspapers. The accounts were invariably sensationalist and demonised the communist Vietminh as religious persecutors who committed barbaric atrocities on Catholics. San Francisco’s ‘’Monitor’’ told of a priest whom the Vietminh “beat with guns until insensible and then buried alive in a ditch”. Milwaukee’s ‘’Catholic Herald Citizen’’ described two priests who had been chained together and “suffered atrocious and endless agony”. ‘’Our Sunday Visitor’’ called the “persecution” in Vietnam “the worst in history”, alleging that the Vietminh engaged in “child murder and cannibalism”. Newark’s ‘’Advocate’’ posted an editorial cartoon titled “Let Our People Go!”, depicting mobs of Vietnamese refugees attempting to break through as blood-laced fence of barbed wire. Other papers depicted the Vietminh blowing up churches, torturing children and machine gunning elderly Catholics. One paper proclaimed that “the people of Vietnam became a crucified people and their homeland a national Golgotha.”^[16]

Social integration

The arrival of the refugees presented various social issues for South Vietnam. The refugees needed to be integrated into society with jobs and homes, otherwise long periods in tents and temporary housing would sap morale and possibly foster pro-Communist sympathy. Diem had to devise programs to ease the new citizens into the economic system.^[17]

Diem established the Commissariat for Refugees, commonly referred to by its French initials COMIGAL. Bui Van Luong, a family friend and devout Catholic, was appointed as the head of the resettlement agency. It worked in cooperation with the United States Operations Mission, the non military wing of the American presence and the Military Assistance Advisory Group. These were supplemented with American Catholic aid agencies and an advisory group from Michigan State University where Diem had stayed while in exile in the early 1950s. With more than four thousand new arrivals per day, the northerners were housed in tents at a hippodrome, before buildings such as schools, hospitals, warehouses, places of worship. Eventually, temporary villages were built and by mid 1955 most of the one million refugees were living in rows of temporary housing along highways leading east and north out of Saigon.^[17]

The next objective was to integrate the refugees into South Vietnamese society. At the time, there was a lack of cultivatable land in secure area. In early 1955, much of the Mekong Delta was in Vietminh hands, while other parts were held by the private armies of the Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious sects. Saigon was controlled by the organised crime gang Binh Xuyen, who had been given control of the police after purchasing a license from Emperor Bao Dai. It was not until later when the Vietminh had moved north and Diem had dispersed the sects and gangs that the new arrivals could be sent to the countryside. The urban areas were secured when the Binh Xuyen were defeated in the Battle for Saigon in late April and early May by the Diem’s forces. Lansdale had managed to bribe many of the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai military commanders to integrate into Diem’s Vietnamese National Army, but some commanders fought on. It was not until early 1956 that the last Hoa Hao commander Ba Cut, was captured in an Army of the Republic of Vietnam campaign by General Duong Van Minh to allow peace in the countryside. This allowed COMIGAL to send expeditions to survey the rural land for settlement.^[17]

COMIGAL sent inspection teams around South Vietnam to find areas that were able to accommodate the new arrivals according to their professional skills; land suitable for farmers, favourable coastal areas for fishing and areas near population centres for industrially oriented arrivals. COMIGAL would then set up plans for settlement subprojects to the USOM or to the French Technical and Economic Cooperation Bureau to gain approval and funding for the subproject. The bureaucracy was relatively low, with most applications taking less than a fortnight to finalise paperwork and receive approval. Each subproject was given a nine month deadline for completion.^[18]

When suitable areas were found, refugees, usually in groups of between one and three thousand (based on an assumption of five people per family), were trucked to the site and began creating the new settlement: digging wells, building roads and bridges, clearing forests, bushes and swamps and constructing fishing vessels. Village elections were held to form committees that would liaise with COMIGAL on behalf of the new settlement.^[18]

COMIGAL provided them with farm implements, fertilisers and farm animals. In all 97% of the refugee relief was American. By mid 1957, 319 villages had been built. Of these, 288 were for farmers and 26 for fishermen. The refugees were settled predominantly in the Mekong Delta, with 207 villages. 50 were created further north, while 62 were built in the central highlands. In total 92,443 housing units were constructed, supplemented by 317 and 18 elementary and secondary schools respectively. 38,192 hectares of land were cleared and some 2.4 million tons of potassium sulfate fertiliser were distributed.^[19] At the end of the year, Diem dissolved COMIGAL, declaring that its mission had been accomplished.^[20]

Difficulties and criticism

See also: Hue Vesak shootings, Xa Loi Pagoda raids, and Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem

President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam saw the predominantly Catholic refugees as his most reliable constituency.

The program still had some loose ends which manifested themselves later. Many refugees had not been integrated economically and were living from government handouts. Critics noted that the refugees were not integrated but became a special-interest group that fostered resentment. The COMIGAL officials had decided not to split up refugees belonging to the same village, hoping to maintain social continuity. Many of the Catholic villages were effectively transplanted into southern territory. This was efficient in the short run but meant that they would never assimilate into southern society. They had little contact with the Buddhist majority and often held them in contempt, often flying the Vatican flag instead of the national flag. Diem, who had a reputation for heavily favouring Catholics, granted his new constituents a disproportionately high number of government and military posts on religious grounds not merit. He continued the French practice of defining Catholicism as a “religion” and Buddhism as an “association”, which restricted their activities. This fostered a social divide between the new arrivals and their fellow countrymen and women. While on a visit to Saigon in 1955, the British journalist and novelist Graham Greene reported that Diem’s religious favouritism “may well leave his tolerant country a legacy of anti-Catholicism.”^[21] In 1963, simmering discontent over Diem’s religious bias exploded into mass discontent during the Buddhist crisis. After the Buddhist flag was prohibited from public display for the Vesak celebrations commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha, his forces killed nine protestors after opening fire.^[22] As demonstrations continued through the summer, ARVN special forces ransacked pagodas across the country, killing hundreds and jailing thousands of Buddhists.^[23] The tension culminated in Diem being overthrown and assassinated in a 1963 coup.^[24]

The indigenous population in the central highlands complained bitterly about the intrusion of ethnic Vietnamese onto their land, and resulted in a greater audience for communist propaganda in the frontier regions.^[25]

Notes

References

• Jacobs, Seth (2006). Cold War Mandarin : Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam, 1950-1963. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0742544478. 
• Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam:A history. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-84218-4. 
• Lindholm, Richard (1959). Viet-nam, the first five years: an international symposium. Michigan State University Press. 

See also

• USS Caliente (AO-53)

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