Ba Cut Lê Quang Vinh ( 1923 – 13 July 1956 ) , popularly known as Ba Cụt ( Short Third in Vietnamese , referring to the finger he himself had partially severed ) , was a military commander of the Hòa Hảo religious sect , which operated from the Mekong Delta and controlled various parts of southern Vietnam during the 1940s and early 1950s . Ba Cụt and his forces fought the Vietnamese National Army ( VNA ) , the Việt Minh , and the Cao Đài religious movement from 1943 until his capture in 1956 . Known for his idiosyncrasies , he was regarded as an erratic and cruel leader who fought with little ideological purpose . His sobriquet came from the self - amputation of a finger as part of a vow during his teenage years to defeat the French colonial forces ; he later swore not to cut his hair until the communist Việt Minh were defeated . Ba Cụt frequently made alliances with various Vietnamese factions and the French . He invariably accepted the material support offered in return for his cooperation , and then broke the agreement — nevertheless , the French made deals with him on five occasions . The French position was weak because their military forces had been depleted by World War II , and they had great difficulty in re - establishing control over French Indochina , which had been left with a power vacuum after the defeat of Japan . In mid - 1955 , the tide turned against the various sects , as Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm of the State of Vietnam and his VNA began to consolidate their grip on the south . Ba Cụt and his allies were driven into the jungle , and their position was threatened by government offensives . After almost a year of fighting , Ba Cụt was captured . He was sentenced to death and publicly beheaded in Cần Thơ . Early life and background . Ba Cụt was born circa 1923 in Long Xuyên , a regional town in the Mekong Delta , in the far south of Vietnam . He was orphaned at an early age and adopted by a local peasant family . Ba Cụt was illiterate and was known from childhood as a temperamental and fiery person . The family ' s rice paddies were confiscated by a prominent landlord , the father of Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ . Ba Cụt ' s bitter personal experience imbued him with a permanent and fanatical hatred towards landowners . Thơ rose to become a leading politician in the 1950s and played a key role in Ba Cụt ' s eventual capture and execution . Vietnam was a tumultuous place during Ba Cụt ' s youth , particularly in the Mekong Delta . In 1939 , Huỳnh Phú Sổ founded the Hòa Hảo religious movement , and within a year had gained more than 100 , 000 followers . He drew adherents for two reasons : the prophecies he made about the outbreak of World War II and the conquest of South - East Asia by Japan , which proved to be correct ; and his work as a mystical healer — his patients claimed to have been miraculously cured from all manner of serious illnesses after seeing him , when Western medicine had failed . Sổ ' s cult - like appeal greatly alarmed the French colonial authorities . During World War II , Imperial Japan invaded and seized control of Vietnam from France ; its defeat and withdrawal at the end of the war in 1945 left a power vacuum in the country . The Hòa Hảo formed their own army and administration during the war , and started a " de facto " state in their Mekong Delta stronghold . They came into conflict with the Cao Đài , another new religious movement , which also boasted a private army and controlled a nearby region of southern Vietnam centred around Tây Ninh . Meanwhile in Saigon , the Bình Xuyên organised crime syndicate ruled much of the city through its gangster militia . These three southern forces vied for control of southern Vietnam with the main protagonists : the French , who were attempting to re - establish colonial control across the entire nation ; and the communist - dominated Việt Minh , who sought Vietnamese independence . At the time , the many groups vying for power — including their respective factions — engaged in alliances of convenience that were frequently broken . Historian David Elliott wrote : " " [ T ] he most important eventual cause of the French decline was the inherently unstable nature of the political alliances they had devised . . . [ T ] he history of the French relations with the Hoa Hao sect is a telling illustration of the pitfalls of short - term political deals between forces whose long - term interests conflict . " " The Hòa Hảo initially engaged in large - scale clashes with the Việt Minh in 1945 , but by mid - 1946 the two groups had agreed to stop fighting each other and fight the French instead . However , in June 1946 , Sổ became estranged from his military leaders and started the " Dan Xa " ( " Social Democratic Party " ) . Because of his charisma , the Việt Minh saw Sổ as a threat and assassinated him , leaving the Hòa Hảo leaderless and causing Sổ ' s military leaders to go their separate ways . The split caused an increase in violence as the various Hòa Hảo factions engaged in conflicts among themselves . Career . Ba Cụt joined the Hòa Hảo militia when it was formed in 1943 – 44 , and became a commander within a year . He was feared by his enemies , and was described as " " a sort of lean Rasputin " " who claimed to be immortal . According to historian and writer Bernard Fall , " " The hapless farmers who were under the rule of the maniacal Ba Cut fared worse [ than those under other military leaders ] , for the latter [ Ba Cụt ] was given to fits of incredible cruelty and had no sense of public duty . " " American journalist Joseph Alsop described Ba Cụt as " war - drunk " . Ba Cụt was famous for inventing a torture contraption that drilled a steel nail through the victim ' s ear , a device he used to extort villagers and wealthy landlords to fund his forces . He was said to have " " arranged temporary marriages between his troops and village girls " " . He raised a large amount of funds for the Hòa Hảo and himself personally by charging traders and landlords high prices to stop pirates in the local area . The severed heads of the pirates were subsequently impaled on stakes and put on public display . In 1947 , he led his own faction of the sect after its various military leaders pursued their own policies towards the French and Hồ Chí Minh ' s Việt Minh in the wake of Sổ ' s death . At the time , France was in a ruinous financial state following World War II and was experiencing great difficulty in its attempts to re - establish control over its colonies . Ba Cụt had only 1 , 000 men in five battalions at the time , fewer than 5 % of Hòa Hảo forces , whereas Trần Văn Soái had 15 , 000 men . The French tried to maintain their hold with a divide and conquer strategy towards the Hòa Hảo . They coaxed Soái into joining with them and recognised him as the leader of the Hòa Hảo . In 1948 , Ba Cụt rallied to the French and Soái , but broke away again soon after , relocating to Đồng Tháp Province and resuming his military activities against the French . In 1950 , Ba Cụt was involved in a battle with another Hòa Hảo leader , Nguyen Giac Ngo . He was defeated and driven from the district of Chợ Mới in February , provoking Soái to attack Ngo . Ba Cut then moved to Thốt Nốt and began attacking the civilians and the French forces there . The French saw the disagreements as an opportunity to divide the Hòa Hảo and gain an anti - Việt Minh ally , and offered material aid , which Ba Cụt accepted . Ba Cụt repeatedly made treaties with the French colonial forces to fight the Việt Minh in return for arms and money , but he broke his end of the bargain and sometimes fought the Cao Đài instead of the communists . He made five such deals with the French , but he abandoned his military responsibilities each time . It was said that Ba Cụt sometimes broke away with the encouragement of Soái , who was still allied to the French , but nevertheless is believed to have given Ba Cụt weapons to fight the French . The French continued to furnish him with supplies despite his disloyalty and unreliability because they lacked the personnel to patrol all of Vietnam but had spare equipment . Some historians have claimed Ba Cụt ' s anti - French activities were not taken seriously as he was able to pass through French checkpoints without incident . There are also reports that he was accompanied by French intelligence agents during periods when he was nominally opposed to the French . The other Hòa Hảo commanders generally had the same general outlook as Ba Cụt ; they were stridently opposed to the Việt Minh due to Sổ ' s assassination , and sometimes fought alongside and received supplies from the French , but at times they lapsed into apathy and refused to attack . The most notable instance of Ba Cụt ' s abandoning the fight against the Việt Minh came in mid - 1953 . At that time , his forces had been helping to defend the regional Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho , but the French decided to transfer more of the military power to their more mainstream allies , the Vietnamese National Army ( VNA ) . As the French tried to undermine his position , tensions with Ba Cụt increased . On 25 June , the Hòa Hảo leader ordered his men to evacuate their French - supplied bases ; they took their weapons with them and razed the camps . Ba Cụt then withdrew his forces from a string of military posts in the Plain of Reeds and retreated to Châu Đốc in the extreme south of the country . As a result , the French - aligned presence in the Mekong Delta was severely dented and the Việt Minh made substantial gains in the area . Eventually , the French defeat at Điện Biên Phủ in May 1954 signalled the end of French Indochina . When the Geneva Conference in July 1954 ended the First Indochina War , it handed North Vietnam to Hồ Chí Minh ' s Việt Minh , and the south to the State of Vietnam . To reunify the country , national elections were scheduled for 1956 , following which the French would withdraw from Indochina . The partition of Vietnam angered Ba Cụt and he vowed not to cut his hair until the nation was reunified . Having fought against the Việt Minh since 1947 , Ba Cụt ' s principal criticism of Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm ' s State of Vietnam government stemmed from his belief that Diệm had been too passive in rejecting the partition , and that half of the country should not have been yielded to the communists . In mid - 1954 , General Nguyễn Văn Hinh , the head of the State of Vietnam ' s VNA , announced that he did not respect the leadership of Prime Minister Diệm , and vowed to overthrow him . The " coup " never materialised and Hinh was forced into exile , but not before appointing Ba Cụt to the rank of colonel in the VNA in an attempt to undermine Diệm , as the Hòa Hảo warlord was openly contemptuous of the prime minister . In August , Ba Cụt and his 3 , 000 men broke from the VNA and left their Thot Not base for the jungle , and fought against those who had briefly been their comrades ; this put him at odds with most Hòa Hảo leaders , who accepted government payments to integrate their forces into the VNA . Operation Ecaille , the initial military offensive by the VNA against Ba Cụt was a failure , possibly because the details of the planned attack on his forces were leaked to him by Soai , a Hòa Hảo member of the National Defence Committee . During the transition period between the signing of the Geneva Accords and the planned reunification elections , South Vietnam remained in chaos as the VNA tried to subdue the remaining autonomous factions of the Hòa Hảo , Cao Đài , and Bình Xuyên militias . In early 1955 , during a battle with the Cao Đài forces of Trình Minh Thế , after a dispute over control of the That Son region , Ba Cụt was wounded in a disputed incident . The claimed to have tried initiating peace talks with Ba Cụt , but received no reply , so he decided to try to capture his rival . He sent some of his militant disciples to infiltrate Ba Cụt ' s forces and try to capture the Hòa Hảo leader . When they located Ba Cụt and surrounded him , he refused to surrender but instead tried to shoot his way out . Ba Cụt was severely wounded by a bullet that penetrated his chest . It seemed that he would die , but a French Air Force helicopter flew in and airlifted him to a colonial hospital . He recovered but in the interim the fighting stopped . Another account claims the two military leaders had been on good terms and exchanging diplomatic missions , but that the skirmish was caused by one of Ba Cụt ' s aides addressing a The envoy in an abrasive and rude manner , and that the injuries were minor . Yet another account holds that the reaction by Thế ' s envoy was premeditated and that the claim the firing was in response to rudeness was merely a cover for an assassination attempt . According to this theory , Thế , whose units were then being integrated into Diệm ' s VNA , had given orders to target Ba Cụt . This was allegedly done on the orders of CIA agent Edward Lansdale , who was trying to help secure Diệm in power at the time . Lansdale has been accused of failing in an earlier attempt to bribe Ba Cụt to cease his activities . By this time , with France preparing to withdraw from Indochina , senior French officers had begun to undermine Diệm ' s leadership and his attempts to stabilise South Vietnam . The VNA later implicated the French in the organisation of weapons air drops to Ba Cụt , prompting a protest from Diệm ' s government . Diệm complained to a French general , alleging that Ba Cụt ' s men were using French equipment that was of higher quality than that given to the VNA . The Hòa Hảo accused Diệm of treachery in his negotiations with various groups . They charged the prime minister with integrating The ' s forces into the VNA in return for them being allowed to attack Ba Cụt with the aid of the VNA , and that this part of the deal had been kept secret . They warned that other Hòa Hảo leaders who had stopped fighting could join Ba Cụt , and appealed to Diệm ' s U . S . sponsors . In response , Ba Cụt ambushed a VNA unit in Long My , killing three officers and injuring some thirty men . Last stand against Diệm . In 1955 , Diệm tried to integrate the remaining Hòa Hảo armies into the VNA . Ba Cụt was one of four Hòa Hảo military leaders who refused the government offer on 23 April , and continued to operate autonomously . At one stage , the Cao Đài , Hòa Hảo and Bình Xuyên formed an alliance called the United Front , in an attempt to pressure Diệm into handing over power ; Ba Cụt was named senior military commander . However , this had little meaning as the various units were still autonomous of each other , and the United Front was more a showpiece than a means of facilitating coordinated action , and did not in any way strengthen any military threat to Diệm . The leaders were suspicious of one another and often sent subordinates to meetings . Initially , American and French representatives in Vietnam hoped that Diệm would take up a ceremonial role and allow the sect leaders — including Ba Cụt — to hold government positions . However , Diệm refused to share power and launched a sudden offensive against Ba Cụt in Thốt Nốt on 12 March , shelling the area heavily . The battle was inconclusive and both sides blamed the other for causing instability and disrupting the situation . Diệm then attacked the Bình Xuyên ' s Saigon headquarters in late April , quickly crushing them . During the fighting , the Hòa Hảo attempted to help the Bình Xuyên by attacking towns and government forces in their Mekong Delta heartland . Ba Cụt ' s men , who had also been angered by the recent arrest of some colleagues , blockaded the Mekong and Bassac rivers and laid siege to various towns , including Sa Đéc , Long Xuyên and Châu Đốc , stifling the regional economy . The Hòa Hảo shut down several important regional roads and stopped the flow of agricultural produce from the nation ' s most fertile region into the capital , causing food prices to rise by 50 % , as meat and vegetables became scarce . Ba Cụt then attacked a battalion of VNA troops south of Sa Dec . Soon after , they retreated to a Hòa Hảo citadel on the banks of the Bassac . After reinforcing their base , the Hòa Hảo proceeded to fire mortars across the water into the city of Cần Thơ , which stood on the opposite side of the river . During this period , the United Front publicly accused Diệm of trying to bribe Ba Cụt with 100 million piasters . With the Bình Xuyên vanquished , Diệm turned his attention to conquering the Hòa Hảo . As a result , a battle between government troops led by General Dương Văn Minh and Ba Cụt ' s men commenced in Cần Thơ on 5 June . Five Hòa Hảo battalions surrendered immediately ; Ba Cụt and three remaining leaders had fled to the Cambodia n border by the end of the month . The soldiers of the three other leaders eventually surrendered , but Ba Cụt ' s men continued to the end , claiming loyalty to the Emperor Bảo Đại . Diệm responded by replacing the officers of Bảo Đại ' s personal regiments with his own men and used the royal units to attack Ba Cụt ' s rebels near Hà Tiên and Rạch Giá , outnumbering the Hòa Hảo by at least a factor of five . Knowing that they could not defeat the government in open conventional warfare , Ba Cụt ' s forces destroyed their own bases so that the VNA could not use their abandoned resources , and retreated into the jungle . Ba Cụt ' s 3 , 000 men spent the rest of 1955 evading 20 , 000 VNA troops who had been deployed to quell them . A bounty of one million piaster s was put on the head of Ba Cụt , who scattered trails of money in the jungle , hoping to distract his pursuers , but to no avail . The communists claimed in a history written decades later that Ba Cụt had tried to forge an alliance with them , but that talks broke down a few months later . Despite his weak military situation , Ba Cụt sought to disrupt the staging of a fraudulent referendum that Diệm had scheduled to depose Bảo Đại as head of state . Ba Cụt distributed a pamphlet condemning Diệm as an American puppet , asserting that the prime minister was going to " Catholicize " the country ; the referendum was partly funded by the U . S . government and various Roman Catholic organisations . Diệm had strong support from American Roman Catholic politicians and the powerful Cardinal Francis Spellman and his elder brother , Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục , was Archbishop of Huế . Ba Cụt presciently noted that the referendum was a means " " for Diem to gather the people from all towns and force them to demonstrate one goal : to depose Bao Dai and proclaim the puppet Diem as the chief - of - state of Vietnam . " " On the day of the poll , Ba Cụt ' s men prevented voting in the border regions which they controlled , and ventured out of the jungles to attack polling stations in Cần Thơ . Despite that disruption , Diệm was fraudulently credited with more than 90 % of support in Hòa Hảo - controlled territory , and a near unanimous turnout was recorded in the area . These results were replicated across the nation , and Diệm deposed Bảo Đại . Eventually , Ba Cụt was surrounded , and sought to make a peace deal with the Diệm government to avoid being taken prisoner . Ba Cụt sent a message to Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ , the public official who oversaw the civilian side of the campaign against the Hòa Hảo , asking for negotiations so that his men could be integrated into mainstream society and the nation ' s armed forces . Thơ agreed to meet Ba Cụt alone in the jungle , and despite fears that the meeting was a Hòa Hảo trap , he was not ambushed . However , Ba Cụt began asking for additional concessions and the meeting ended in a stalemate . According to historian Hue - Tam Ho Tai , Ba Cụt ' s lifelong antipathy towards Thơ ' s family influenced his behaviour during his last stand . Ba Cụt was arrested by a patrol on 13 April 1956 , and his remaining forces were defeated in battle . Trial and execution . Diệm ' s government put Ba Cụt on trial . During the proceedings , Ba Cụt theatrically removed his shirt so that the public gallery could see how many scars he had suffered while fighting the communists . This , according to him , demonstrated his devotion to Vietnamese nationalism . He challenged any other man to show as many scars . However , the Diệmist judge was unimpressed . Ba Cụt was found guilty of multiple murders and sentenced to death . Diệm ' s adviser , Colonel Edward Lansdale from the CIA , was one of many who protested against the decision . Lansdale felt that the execution would tarnish Diệm — who had proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam ( commonly known as South Vietnam ) and declared himself President — and antagonise Ba Cụt ' s followers . Ngô Đình Nhu , Diệm ' s younger brother and chief adviser , denied a reprieve as the army , particularly Minh , opposed any clemency . Some sections of the southern public , however , were sympathetic to Ba Cụt . Ba Cụt was publicly guillotined on 13 July 1956 , in Cần Thơ . His body was later diced into small pieces , which were then buried separately . Some followers , led by a hardcore deputy named Bay Dom , retreated to a small area beside the Cambodian border , where they vowed not to rest until Ba Cụt was avenged . Many of his followers later joined the Viet Cong — the movement that succeeded the Việt Minh their leader had fought — and took up arms against Diệm .