Lê Xuân Nhuận
Lê Xuân Nhuận (Westernised arrangement: Nhuan Xuan Le or Nhuan X. Le or Nhuan Le), born on January 2, 1930, in Huế (Vietnam), is a Vietnamese-American poet/writer. He has been an honored participant in "Who's Who in New Poets", inducted as a member of the "Poets' Guild", certified a "famous poet" and elected by The International Society of Poets into the International Poetry Hall of Fame under the pen name "Thanh-Thanh" (listed in "Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias"). He created and leads the "Xây-Dựng" literary society and publishing house that was recognized at  the unique pre-1975 National Cultural Festival (on 11-1-1957) "Đại Hội Văn Hóa Toàn Quốc" as one branch of the ancient Vietnam Culture Tree. He was among the rare Vietnamese who have, since 1947, opposed all the political regimes in Vietnam: France's colonialism, Emperor Bảo Đại's feudalism,President Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy, and communism. He had consequently been, at times fired, arrested, imprisoned, demoted, put under house arrest, exiled, and persecuted. But, although he did not agree with and was ill-treated by the French, Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm , and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, he had zealously served under them, against communism above all, and, as a Human Rights defender, effectively contributed to glorifying "the "True", the "Good", and the "Beautiful"." He was finally admitted to the United States as a political refugee in 1992. As a poet, he composed his own poems in English and translated other authors' works into English verse. After "Poems by Selected Vietnamese", and "Vietnamese Choice Poems," he recently published "Dragon & Fairy in Poetry" introducing 102 pieces by 70 poets living in America, Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Vietnam. Nhuan X. Le is  a member of International PEN (PEN Center America). Early life. Lê Xuân Nhuận's father was a native of Hà Nội (Northern Vietnam) who came to Huế, the then imperial capital (Central Vietnam) to be a mandarin under Emperor Bảo Đại who had been at school in France. His mother, a native of Huế, was daughter of a royal physician under Emperor Khải Định (Bảo Đại's father). He went to school in Huế, and was many years chosen as one of the best schoolboys to receive awards presented by Empress Nam Phương (Bảo Đại's wife). He had, at  the age of 13, his first poems and short stories published in various famous magazines in Hà Nội, the then literary capital of the country. He also was politically influenced by his teacher, Tráng Cử, son of Prince Cường Để, who had been in Japan, operating against the French colonialists in Vietnam. His first years of high school was at the well-known Quốc Học – Huế High School for the Gifted. French occupation & Bảo Đại's puppet administration. The French rulers were ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1945; then Emperor Bảo Đại was dethroned by the Vietnamese  Communist Party (Việt Minh) in August that year. When World War II ended, the French expeditionary forces re-occupied most parts of Vietnam. From 1947 to 1954, Lê Xuân Nhuận co-operated with the various newspapers in Hué City, especially the two opposition bi-weeklies "Công Lý" ("Justice") and "Dân Đen" ("The Pariah") issued throughout the Central Vietnam. He was permanently threatened by both the French Federal Security (Liêm Phóng Liên Bang=Sûreté Fédérale) and the Vietnamese Nationalist Security (Công An Quốc Gia) Services. When he wrote the fictitious novel "Trai Thời Loạn" ("Wartime Youths"), implying resistance to the  French who wanted to re-establish their domination over Vietnam, and ex-Emperor Bảo Đại who wanted to restore his reign, Nhuận was consequently arrested and imprisoned, in 1949. In 1954, he was mobilized, as a professional (writer/journalist), into the French-supported Vietnamese National Army. He served at the Second Military Region Headquarters, as war correspondent, military press editor, Psychological Warfare lecturer, and Chief of the radio broadcasting bureau "Voice of the Army, Central Vietnam." During that period, Nhuận succeeded in creating the "Xây-Dựng" literary group composed of dozens of well-known poets/writers, and its publishing section  which produced tens of valued works. Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship. When Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed Prime Minister by Bảo Đại, the then Chief of the State of Vietnam, he was resisted by many people, especially the State of Vietnam's Army headed by General Nguyễn Văn Hinh, son of ex-Premier Nguyễn Văn Tâm, who both were pro-French. The Geneva Conference resulted in dividing the country into two, putting North Vietnam under the Vietnamese communists. Lê Xuân Nhuận realized that Diem was supported by the United States, and the US wanted to help South Vietnam get rid  of the French colonists and fight against the Communists. He refused to obey orders by Nguyễn Văn Hinh and Trương Văn Xương, the Second Military Region Commander, who tried to step up the campaign against Ngô Đình Diệm. Nhuận separated himself from the Headquarters and used the "Voice of the Army from Central Vietnam" to support Diệm in Saigon, the new capital of South Vietnam, so that the Hinh and Xuong's efforts were ineffective in the Central Region, and this encouraged and helped pro-Diem elements succeed in the Southern Region. Nhuận taught, with the USIS (USIA known abroad  as USIS) and American Consulate General's help, the first ever English-by-Radio course for Vietnamese listeners. Ngô Đình Diệm deposed Bảo Đại (by a referendum in which Nhuận played an active role), became president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam ("Việt Nam Cộng Hòa") in 1955. In 1957, Nhuận's "Xây-Dựng" group was recognized at the unique pre-1975 National Cultural Festival as one of the main branches of Vietnam Cultural Tree, for its achievements. But Diệm and his government grew gradually arbitrary and lost the support of the people. Nhuan, chief of administrative police in Huế , having contacted the MSUG as the main lecturer for a political and civic course at the Police Department, denounced the evils of Ngo Dinh Diem and his faction, the Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party. This happened even before the historic "Caravelle" event. He was therefore degraded, put under house arrest, and then banished from Huế to "Cao Nguyên" (now called Tây Nguyên), the officially categorized "malarian and dangerous" region. Diệm and his brother, Advisor Ngô Đình Nhu, launched an offensive against the main Buddhist leaders and temples Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam, contrary to US President John F. Kennedy's advice , and then secretly contacted the enemy. Ngo Dinh Diem was considered "A Communist Tool" so "Diem must go!" At that time Nhuận served in the CIO Central Intelligence Organization or SOC "Đoàn Công-Tác Đặc-Biệt" and taught English at the "Duy Tân" High School in Buôn Ma Thuột. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy. After the 1963 November coup in which Ngô Đình Diệm was killed, the R-VN was ruled by the generals, including Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ. Nhuận was made Chief of National Police, Trưởng Ty Cảnh Sát Quốc Gia, for Province. In the 1967 Presidential  Election, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ schemed to overthrow Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Realizing that Thiệu was better than Kỳ, Nhuận, as Director of Police Special Branch (Public Safety & Counter-Intelligence), Giám Đốc Cảnh Sát Đặc Biệt, for Region II, seated in Pleiku, disclosed the conspiracy to his CIA advisers and asked them to stop the plot, which they did; and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was elected president. But Nhuận soon saw signs of Thiệu's stratocracy and officially voiced his opinion, for which he lost his position, at the beginning of the 1970s. He cooperated with the U.S. "Phượng Hoàng" (Phoenix Program) Advisors  in Military Region II in Nha Trang to create a training center where he was a lecturer. After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War, Nhuận was appointed Director of Police Special Branch for Region I (while General Ngô Quang Trưởng was Commanding General of Military Region I), stationed in Đà Nẵng, in order not only to neutralize the VC infrastructure but also to fix the internal affairs already uncontrollable there. Nhuận succeeded in ending all Vietnamese Communist activities, and stabilizing the then-chaotic political and religious situation, in all those six northern cities of the country , during his one-and-a-half-year assignment, prior to the RVN total fall in 1975. He cooperated with the CIA in 1973–75 in infiltrating Polish and Hungarian secret agents into their communist parties and governments, which led to the collapse of the Eastern Europe Communist systems in the late 1980s. Vietnamese communist regime. North Vietnam and the communist Viet Cong's Army took over Saigon, capital of South Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon, which resulted in the nationalist Republic of Vietnam being dissolved on April 30, 1975. Prior to that Black April ("Tháng Tư Đen"), which actually ended  the Vietnam War, Lê Xuân Nhuận was captured on April 17, 1975, after the fall of Da Nang on March 29. He was imprisoned in a re-education camp until April 20, 1987. While enduring hard labour, starvation, illnesses, exhaustion, moral persecution, despair, during over a dozen years, he tried to create in his mind numerous poems, a lot of them were forgotten through time in jail and many more years under surveillance afterwards. The remaining pieces were later printed in the Free World, under the title ""Cơn Ác Mộng"" (The Nightmare). Eventually, he received asylum in the United States , as a former political prisoner, a political refugee. New life in the United States. Owing to the Orderly Departure Program, "Chương Trình H.O.," Lê Xuân Nhuận came to the United States, together with his wife and two unmarried daughters (he has six children) on January 17, 1992. He started his new life by going to US schools, writing memoirs, composing poetry in English, translating Vietnamese poems into English verse, contributing his writings to US and UK magazines and anthologies, and publishing books. While researching political and religious matters, he found out that the Marian Apparitions in La Vang, Quảng Trị , Vietnam, was a mere fabrication (based on various writings by well-known Vietnamese priests, bishops, and Catholic scholars, some of which he had happened to read tens of years ago). This was later confirmed by Catholic writer Nguyễn Lý Tưởng, and ultimately Pope John Paul II on the "Bicentenary of Our Lady's Apparitions in La Vang in 1998." He also revealed the truth about the fabricated documents claiming that President Ngô Đình Diệm had donated the Dalai Dama some US$10,000.00 or US$15,000.00 out of a Raymond Magsaysay Prize awarded the South Vietnamese leader in 1959 or 1962 . The president of the Raymond Magsaysay Award Foundation has confirmed that "the former President Diem is not a Magsaysay awardee." He became an American citizen in 1997, was a member of International PEN (PEN Center USA), and is currently a member of (PEN America). His other pseudonyms include "Kiều Ngọc" (prose), "Nguyệt Cầm" (drama), "Người Thơ" (critique), "Tú Ngông" (satire), "Đức Cố Lê" (research). In the US, his has contributed poems to more than 40 anthologies of English poetry, and various English magazines and poetry societies His new works have been published in America: Those four books of memoirs provide  more untold causes of the US-backed Republic of Vietnam's so quick and easy collapse in 1975.