Binh Xuyen Bình Xuyên , often linked to its infamous leader , General Lê Văn Viễn ( aka " Bảy Viễn " ) was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Việt Minh . During its heyday , Bình Xuyên funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces . Formation . Bình Xuyên groups first emerged in the early 1920s as a loosely organized coalition of gangs and contract laborers about two hundred to three hundred strong . Bình Xuyên ' s early history consisted of cycles of kidnapping , piracy , pursuit , and occasionally imprisonment . One of the gang leaders was Ba Dương , a kingpin in the Saigon – Cholon area . His lieutenants included Huỳnh Văn Trọng ( aka Mười Trí ) , Dương Văn Hà ( aka Năm Hà ) , Võ Văn Môn ( aka Bảy Môn ) , and Lê Văn Viễn ( aka Bảy Viễn ) . Bình Xuyên ' s history is largely that of two separate groups : Ba Dương ' s troops ( the Bộ Đội Bình Xuyên ) and Bảy Viễn ' s Bình Xuyên . 1920s - 1930s . From the 1920s to the mid - 1930s , Nhà Bè was a haven for hundreds of armed gangs led by several leaders . Some were groups of gangsters picking on the helpless , while others robbed the rich , reportedly , to help the poor . Some of the well - known gangsters at the time included : Ba Dương ' s Bình Xuyên ( 1940 - 1946 ) . Dương Văn Dương ( " Ba Dương " ) was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants from Bến Tre . His mother remarried after his father ' s death and the family moved to Nhà Bè in the late 1920s , where Dương grew up to be a respected martial arts teacher . In 1936 , Dương started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tây Ninh - Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon . By 1940 , he had become a kingpin of South Vietnam . In 1943 , Dương joined the Communist party . In 1945 , he stole weapons from the Japanese to arm his troops in order to fight the returning French forces . Bộ Đội Ba Dương was reportedly one of the groups most feared by local French - trained militia . In 1945 , the 2 , 000 armed men under different leaders in the Nhà Bè area elected Dương their commander . Together they chose to name the newly formed unit , " Bình Xuyên Troops " ( the " Bộ Đội Bình Xuyên " ) . From Outlaws to Revolutionaries . In late 1929 , after the formation of the southern Communist committee , Ngô Gia Tự ordered Châu Văn Ký to infiltrate the ranks of workers and manual laborers in Nhà Bè . By 1940 , Ký , with Nguyễn Văn Trân ( aka Bảy Trân ) enlisted gang leaders and their members , one of the most prominent was Tam Manh . After the botched " Southern Uprising " ( " Khởi nghĩa Nam Kỳ " ) , the French colonial authorities brutally suppressed all opposition groups . On 24 September 1945 , Lê Văn Khôi ( aka " Bà Nho " ) , one of Ba Dương ' s lieutenants allegedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian civilians , including children , in Saigon without order from its leader . While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam , where the Communist - dominated Việt Minh was strong enough to stand alone , in Cochin China , where the Bình Xuyên support was crucial , Ba Nho ' s action led to suppression from the returning French troops . The Cochin division of the Indochina Communist party ( Đông Dương Cộng sản Năm Bộ ) was weakened by mass arrests and executions . A decision was made by the southern communist committee to put Bà Nho on trial . Bà Nho was tricked by Nguyễn Binh into returning to Phuoc An where he was found guilty and sentenced to death . Bà Nho requested to be allowed to take his own life , which was granted . In September 1945 , Southern Communist party leaders ( Trần Văn Giàu , Nguyễn Văn Trân , " et al . " ) put Ba Dương in charge of the armed forces attacking southern Saigon , more commonly referred as Front number 4 . For two months , Bình Xuyên troops relentlessly attacked and overran several French military facilities and posts . Dương ' s group eventually lost to the more disciplined and better - trained French Union troops . On 20 November 1945 , to avoid being decimated by French counter - attacks , Bình Xuyên troops withdrew to Rung Sac to regroup for future military operations . In the next few months , Bình Xuyên troops expanded their operations toward the west of South Vietnam ( zone 8 ) . During these few months , they successfully took control of Gò Công , Mỹ Tho and Bến Tre , the last province being where they established their new base . Dương , newly promoted by General Nguyễn Binh in September to Deputy Commander of Zone 7 , died in an air attack on 16 February 1946 . Without Dương , his lieutenants began to disagree with each other on who would be the troops ' new commander . Nguyễn Binh , who had unsuccessfully tried to kill Bình Xuyên ' s new strongman , Lê Văn Viễn ( aka Bảy Viễn ) , would later step in to disband the Bình Xuyên in 1948 . First Indochina War ( Bình Xuyên divided ) . After Ba Dương ' s death , his lieutenants split into three groups : In April 1946 , Military Zone 7 appointed Năm Hà as the Bình Xuyên ' s new commander . Bảy Viễn , upset with the decision , formed the Bình Xuyên Interzone with leaders and troops from 7 units . Despite the schism , Bình Xuyên remained united in the fight against the French . As Bảy Viễn ' s reputation grew , Nguyễn Binh gave the order to kill Viễn and suppressed his supporters . With two trusted companies , Viễn fought his way out of an assassination setup and surrendered to Savani , head of the Deuxieme Bureau / SDECE in Cochinchina . In June 1948 , Bảy Viễn became Colonel in charge of the Bình Xuyên Auxiliary Forces , temporarily reporting to Trần Văn Hữu , Deputy Premier in the provisional government of Vietnam and Governor of Nam Phan . French officials in South Vietnam gave Viễn full control of Sài Gòn – Chợ Lớn under stipulation that he wipe out the city ' s Communist infrastructure . Bảy Viễn ' s knowledge of the Việt Minh and his desire to destroy Nguyễn Binh ' s troops in Saigon enabled him to destroy Communist forces in a very short time . The French colonial government rewarded Bình Xuyên ' s success by allowing Bảy Viễn to monopolize the trucking industry in South Vietnam and allowing the kingpin to operate as a warlord . Bảy Viễn was promoted to Major General after the operation to clear Route 15 . Partition of Vietnam ( from Rise to Power to Demise ) . General Lê Văn Viễn and the National Army of Vietnam . In 1949 , Emperor Bảo Đại became the Head of State of the newly formed State of Vietnam . To solve the problem of having to spread the Vietnamese National Army too thin in the war against the Việt Minh , he decreed all non - communist military forces in the country as independent armies within the conventional army . Bảy Viễn was given the rank of Major General of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the QDQG Bình Xuyên , which was a self - funded army with revenues from legally - run brothels and casinos ; Bảy Viễn forcibly took control of the casinos from Macanese organized crime groups . General Viễn made arrangements with Bảo Đại giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime , just as he had done so with the French colonial government . In March 1955 the group joined the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo in forming a " United Front of the National Forces . " At the time of the short war in 1955 between the VNA Bình Xuyên and the regular VNA , Viễn had five regular battalions and 2 battalions of public security shock troops ( Công an xung phong ) . Bình Xuyên ' s paramilitary forces were mostly wiped out by the Vietnamese National Army under the command of Dương Văn Minh in Operation Rung Sat in 1955 . Bảy Viễn , the leader of the organization , was exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in May 1955 . Major Lê Paul , Bảy Viễn ' s son , was brutally killed after Dương Văn Minh ( aka " Big Minh " ) failed to demand a ransom from Bảy Viễn .