The Vinh Son Incident

For a few days last month, South Vietnam returned to the headlines. The country’s new rulers reported that on the night of February 13, an unarmed security officer approached the Vinh Son Catholic Church in Saigon and was killed by shots fired from inside. Government troops encircled the church, the report continued, and, after a siege of 15 hours, managed to quell the uprising, capturing five of the rebels and killing the other two.

The incident deserves attention not because it was significant in itself, but because of the fanfare given it by the South Vietnamese Communists. They didn’t, for example, hold a press conference or conduct a press tour when there were clashes in the Mekong Delta provinces, home of the anti-Communist Cao Dai and Hao Hoa religious sects, or when the students of the Saigon School of Medicine demonstrated to protest the school’s transfer to Hanoi. These and other incidents became known to overseas Vietnamese through private sources —letters smuggled out of Vietnam or reports from refugees who escaped by sea to Thailand.

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Bang Phi Nguyen

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Religious Persecution

CIA

For a few days last month, South Vietnam returned to the headlines. The country’s new rulers reported that on the night of February 13, an unarmed security officer approached the Vinh Son Catholic Church in Saigon and was killed by shots fired from inside. Government troops encircled the church, the report continued, and, after a siege of 15 hours, managed to quell the uprising, capturing five of the rebels and killing the other two.

The incident deserves attention not because it was significant in itself, but because of the fanfare given it by the South Vietnamese Communists. They didn’t, for example, hold a press conference or conduct a press tour when there were clashes in the Mekong Delta provinces, home of the anti-Communist Cao Dai and Hao Hoa religious sects, or when the students of the Saigon School of Medicine demonstrated to protest the school’s transfer to Hanoi. These and other incidents became known to overseas Vietnamese through private sources —letters smuggled out of Vietnam or reports from refugees who escaped by sea to Thailand.