# Nguyễn Ngọc Bích

Nguyễn Ngọc Bích (1911–1966) was a French-educated engineer, a Vietnamese "resistance hero" against the French colonists$^{:850.}$ and "one of the most popular local heroes",$^{:122}$ a French-educated medical doctor, an intellectual and politician, who proposed an alternative viewpoint to avoid the high-casualty, high-cost war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
Nguyen-Ngoc-Bich street in the city of Cần Thơ, Vietnam, was named after him to honor and commemorate his sabotaging bridges and heroism during the First Indochina War.
Upon graduating from the École polytechnique (engineering military school under the French Ministry of Armed Forces) and then from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées (civil engineering) in France in 1935, Bich returned to Vietnam to work for the French colonial government. After World War II, in 1945, he joined the Viet Minh, became a senior commander in the Vietnamese resistance movement, and insisted on fighting for Vietnam's independence, not for communism.
Suspecting of being betrayed by the Communist faction of the Viet Minh and apprehended by the French forces, he was saved from execution by a campaign for amnesty by his École polytechnique classmates based in Vietnam, mostly high-level officers of the French army,$^{:299}$ and was subsequently exiled to France, where he founded with friends and managed the Vietnamese publishing house Minh Tan (in Paris), which published many important works for the Vietnamese literature. In parallel, he studied medicine and became a medical doctor. He was highly regarded in Vietnamese politics, and was suggested by the French in 1954 as an alternative to Ngo Dinh Diem as the sixth prime minister of the State of Vietnam under the former Emperor Bảo Đại as Head of State,$^{:84}$ who selected Ngo Dinh Diem as prime minister. While Bich 's candidature for the 1961 presidential election in opposition to Diem was, however, declared invalid by the Saigon authorities at the last moment for "technical reasons", he was "regarded by many as a possible successor to President Ngo Dinh Diem".

## First Indochina War

The broader historic events of World War II and the First Indochina War---specifically, the short interwar period between end of the former and the beginning of the later—led to the context in which Nguyen Ngoc Bich fought the French colonists until he was captured. The activities directly or indirectly affected Bich 's life by four historic individuals are summarized. French General de Gaulle, by his desire to reconquer Indochina as a French colony, was a main force that led to the First Indochina War, in which Bich fought. Ho Chi Minh (Ho), founder and leader of the Viet Minh, called for the general uprising---against the French colonists and the Japanese occupiers---to which Bich responded. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ardent anticolonialism could have prevented the two Indochina wars, and changed the course of history. US President Harry Truman was a reason that the First Indochina War is now called the "French-American" War in Vietnamese literature, and through his support for the French war effort supplied napalm bombs, which Bich mentioned in his 1962 paper. The US funded more than 30% of the war cost in 1952 under US President Eisenhower, and "nearly 80%" in 1954 under Truman.

### Ho Chi Minh

For thirty years, from 1912 when Ho Chi Minh first visited Boston and New York City until about 1948–1949, Ho held out his hope that the US would provide military support for his anticolonialist resistance against the French.$^{:xxii}$ Since that visit to the US in his early twenties, Ho---like Bich, a Francophile anticolonialist, who was both a communist and a nationalist ---developed a "lifelong admiration for Americans".$^{:55}$
Seizing on the opportunity of the Japanese entering Tonkin in 1940 September$^{:452}$ to begin occupy Indochina (with French agreement)$^{:452}$ to rid Vietnam of French colonial yoke, Ho (who was in Liuzhou, China) returned to the China-Vietnam border and began a "training program for cadres".$^{:452}$ Then on 1941 February 8,$^{:524}$ Ho crossed the border to enter Vietnam for the first time after 30 years away (from 1911 to 1941), and sheltered in cave Cốc Bó$^{:73}$ near the Pác Bó hamlet, in the Cao Bằng province, less than a mile from the Chinese border.$^{:34}$ There Ho convened a plenum in 1941 May, and founded the Viet Minh, an anticolonialist organization that Bich joined in 1945.
On 1941 September 8, two months after the total integration of Indochina into the Japanese military system, Ho (still known as Nguyen Ai Quoc at that time) in his call to arm to the people of Tonkin, announced the formation of the Viet Minh to "fight the French and Japanese fascism until the total liberation of Vietnam."$^{:97}$ On 1941 October 25, the Viet Minh published its first manifesto: "Unification of all social strata, of all revolutionary organizations, of all ethnic minorities. Alliance with all other oppressed peoples of Indochina. Collaboration with all French anti-fascist groups. One goal: the destruction of colonialism and imperialist fascism".
In 1942 August, Ho (named "Nguyen Ai Quoc" at that time) crossed the border into China with the intention of attracting the interest of the Allies in Chungking$^{:7}$ (now Chongqing) for the Vietnamese resistance movement, arrested by the Chinese on 1942 August 28 for being "French spy",$^{:525}$ but the real reason was Ho's political activities, viewed as "Communistic", instead of "nationalistic", by the Chinese (Chiang Kai-shek) and the Allies at Chungking (now Chongqing).$^{:103}$ Ho was detained for thirteen months, starting at the Tienpao prison,$^{:51}$ moving through eighteen different prisons,$^{:77}$ and ending up at Liuchow$^{:46}$ (now Liuzhou), from where he was released on 1943 September 10, after changing his name from Nguyen Ai Quoc to Ho Chi Minh.$^{:453}$ At that time, the name "Nguyen Ai Quoc" was very popular, while hardly any one heard of the new name "Ho Chi Minh".
Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam in 1944 September, after obtaining the authorization from the Chinese authority, Zhang Fakui, who was under "severe pressure from the Japanese Ichigo offensive" to obtain intelligence in Indochina---and after submitting the "Outline of the Plan for the Activities of Entering Vietnam".$^{:134}$ All three protagonists---the French Vichy colonialists, the Japanese occupiers, and the Viet Minh---were deceived by US war plan, and expected a US invasion of Indochina. Such expectation was the main reason$^{:209}$ that, in 1945 February–March, during an "unusually cold month of February,"$^{:56}$ Ho once again crossed back into China, and walked from the Pác Bó hamlet to Kunming to meet(and to "make friends with"$^{:210}$) American OSS and OWI (Office of War Information) officers to exchange intelligence.$^{:238}$ Ho's report to the OSS mentioned the Japanese coup de force on the evening of 1945 March 9.$^{:238}$
In Kunming, Ho requested OSS Lt. Charles Fenn to arrange for a meeting with Gen. Claire Chennault, commander of the Flying Tigers.$^{:58}$ In the meeting that occurred on 1945 March 29, Ho requested a portrait of Chennault, who signed across the bottom "Yours sincerely, Claire L. Chennault".$^{:58}$ Ho displayed the portrait of Chennault, along with those of Lenin and Mao, in his lodging at Tân Trào as "tangible evidence to convince skeptical Vietnamese nationalists that he had American support".$^{:58}$ As additional evidence, Ho also possessed six brand-new US Colt.45 pistols in original wrappings that he requested and got from Charles Fenn. This "seemingly insignificant quantity" of arms,together with "Chennault's autographed photograph" as evidence, convinced other factions of the primacy of the Viet Minh. Ho's American-backing ruse worked.$^{:58}$
In Cochin China (the south),
where Bich lived and worked, (Trần Văn Giàu in Vietnamese), a Viet Minh leader and "Ho Chi Minh's trusted friend", on 1945 August 22 used Ho's ruse of "American backing for the Viet Minh", to convince other pro-Japanese nationalist groups (Phuc Quoc, Đại Việt, United National Front) and religious sects (Cao Đài, Hòa Hảo) that they would be outlawed by the invading Allies, and thus should accept the leadership of the Viet Minh, which had strong support of "the Allies with arms, equipment and training".
Fearing a US invasion with the French colonialists helping, the Japanese initiated operation Bright Moon (Meigo sakusen), leading to a coup de force on 1945 March 9 to neutralize the French forces and to remove the French colonial administration in Indochina$^{:65}$ (and thus the status of Bich 's job in the French colonial government). The resulting power vacuum$^{:64}$ following this coup de force changed the political situation, and provided a favorable setting for the Viet Minh takeover of the government.$^{:73}$ In 1945 April, Ho walked a perilous journey from Pác Bó to Tân Trào, the Viet Minh headquarters in the Liberated Area. There, on 1945 August 16, Ho called for a general uprising to throw out the Japanese occupiers that ultimately led to the August Revolution.
Even though being a son of a Cao Đài pope, Bich joined the Viet Minh in 1945, instead of the Cao Đài force.
After the August Revolution in 1945, the French began to negotiate their return to Tonkin with both the Viet Minh and the Chinese army coming to disarm the defeated Japanese north of the 16th parallel. Ho Chi Minh was weary of the Chinese, who might stay in Vietnam permanently, signed the March 6 [1946] Accords with Jean Sainteny to agree to let the French army under General Leclerc to enter Tonkin. "With French troops arriving in Hanoi on March 18 [1946], Leclerc quickly established cordial relations with Ho Chi Minh."
CBS reporter David Schoenbrun interviewed Ho Chi Minh on 1946 September 11, the same day that a telegram was dispatched from the High Commissioner d'Argenlieu to the French Indochina Committee on the arrest of Bich on 1946 August 25.

### Resistance

After graduating in 1935 from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, a civil engineering school, Nguyen Ngoc Bich returned home to work as a civil engineer for the colonial government at the Sóc Trăng Irrigation Department until the Japanese coup d'état in Viet Nam (1945 September 3). Bich then joined the Resistance in the Soc-Trang base area and was appointed Deputy Commander of the Military Zone 9 (vi), established on 1945 December 10, and included the provinces of Cần Thơ, Sóc Trăng, Rạch Giá, together with six other provinces. Bich sabotaged many bridges that were notoriously difficult to destroy such as Cai-Rang Bridge in Cần Thơ—where a street was named to honor his feats —Nhu-Gia Bridge in Sóc Trăng, etc., blocking the advance of French forces directed by General Valluy and General Nyo, who were under the general command of General Philippe Leclerc, commander of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient, CEFEO).
Joseph A. Buttinger was an ardent advocate for refugees of persecution, and a "renowned authority on Vietnam and the American war" in that country. In 1940, he helped founded the International Rescue Committee, "a nonprofit organization aiding refugees of political, religious and racial persecution", and while "working with refugees in Vietnam in the 1950s, he became immersed in the history, culture, and politics of that nation". His scholarship was in high demand during the Vietnam War. The New York Times described his his two-volume Vietnam-history book, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled,
as "a monumental work" that "marks a strategic breakthrough in the serious study of Vietnamese politics in America" and as "the most thorough, informative and, over all, the most impressive book on Vietnam yet published in America". Joseph Buttinger wrote in [Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Vol. 2]
That Nguyen Ngoc Bich was being hunted by the French colonists was described in Joseph Buttinger's book:$^{:641}$
   Miss Hammer cites the case of an emissary sent by Nguyen Ngoc Bich. The French took down his name when he came to their headquarters to negotiate a cease-fire, and "it was soon public knowledge that the French had put a price on his head as well as on that of his commander, Nguyen Ngoc Bich " (ibid., p. 158). ---Joseph Buttinger (1967), Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, Vol.1, p. 641.

## Publications

* Nguyen-Ngoc-Bich (March 1962), "Vietnam—An Independent Viewpoint", The China Quarterly, 9, retrieved 18 Feb 2023, pp. 105–111. See also the contents of Volume 9, which included the articles of many experts on Vietnam history and politics such as Bernard B. Fall, Hoang Van Chi, Phillipe Devillers (see, e.g., his classic 1952 book Histoire du Viet-Nam in Section References and French French Cochinchina, Ref. 40), P. J. Honey, Gérard Tongas (see, e.g., J'ai vécu dans l'Enfer Communiste au Nord Viet-Nam, Debresse, Paris, 1961, reviewed by P. J. Honey), among others.