School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries in China, early 1950s to early 1970s
From: Sidel, Mark <mark-sidel@uiowa.edu>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 23, 2006 4:45 AM
Subject: [Vsg] School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries in China, early 1950s to early 1970s
Dear colleagues,
While in Hanoi last week I had a long dinner conversation with a senior Vietnamese scientist about his years at the "Duc Thai Hoc Hieu" (Duc=Zuc) in China in the 1950s. He said this was a school for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries founded in Guilin in the early 1950s, later moved to Nanning, closed only in the early to mid 1970s, and described his studies there and the staff in detail. I've long heard that there was such a school, but have never investigated details. Another Vietnamese colleague calls it the "Truong Thieu Sinh Quan" (Young Cadets School). (The other Vietnamese at the table, all science-related, were bemused by my interest, and that part of the conversation took place in Chinese.)
Does anyone on the list know any details about the school or bibliographic references to it? I am also posting this inquiry to C-POL, one of the main China studies lists, and will repost here anything particularly interesting that comes from that query.
My apologies if this is something well-known and that I should already know about in detail!
Best wishes.
Mark
From: Tai VanTa <taivanta@yahoo.com>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 23, 2006 5:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries in China, early 1950s to early 1970s
Dear Mark,
This is not the same tranìing school for also the
Nationalist leaders earlier where the Kuomingdang
trained military men from Vietnam who later struggled
against the French?
Please see attachment enclosed,hope you are already
back in US to open this confidential memo. Don't open
it if you are still in Vietnam.
Tai
From: Vietnam Indochina Tours <info@indochinatours.com>
Date: Jan 23, 2006 6:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries in China, early 1950s to early 1970s
Dear Mark,
FYI there was another similar school established in Hai Duong Town for the children of the marriages between northern women and southern party members who went north during the repatriation of 1954-55. A remarkable number of the graduates of this school are now in influential positions throughout the southern provinces.
Courtney Frobenius
From: Sidel, Mark <mark-sidel@uiowa.edu>
Date: Jan 25, 2006 5:41 AM
Subject: [Vsg] RE: School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries in China, early 1950s to early 1970s
For those interested in my query the other day about the Duc Thai Hoc Hieu (Yucai Xuexiao), the Guangxi, China-based school for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries that opened in the 1950s, here is a reply I received from a China list:
"If memory serves me right, Gen. Wei Guoqing had quite a few short pieces on it. Prof. Zhai Qiang of Auburn U., I think, has also done some work on it. It might be a part of the deal that Mao, Stalin, and Ho worked out while the three were in Moscow together in late December 1949 and January 1950, whereby it was agreed that China would play a more active role in Asia to make communist revolutions. The school started in 1953. It was initially located in Lushan, Jiangxi, but soon moved to Guilin, Guangxi [and then Nanning, Guangxi - MS]. The Chinese Foreign Ministry website has this piece marking the school's 52nd anniversary, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/chn/wjb/zwjg/zwbd/t211364.htm <http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/chn/wjb/zwjg/zwbd/t211364.htm> ."
Further research shows an active alumni association and many references in the Chinese press (which is now heavily web-available), and some in the Vietnamese press (which is much less web-available than the PRC press). In recent years there have been a number of Vietnamese visits to the sites of the former school in Guilin and Nanning, and press reports name an impressive range of senior Vietnamese officials who attended the school, up to and including members of the Political Bureau.
If anyone else knows of anything about this school, or references to it in academic or other writing, I would appreciate hearing on or off list.
Best wishes. Mark
From: Khoa Le <khoa.le2@verizon.net>
Date: Jan 25, 2006 11:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] RE: School for the children of Vietnamese revolutionaries inChina, early 1950s to early 1970s
It is worth noting that General Wei Guoqing was the head of the Team of Chinese military advisors in the early 1950s and a close friend of Vo Nguyen Giap during the battle of Dien Bien Phu. It was also Gen. Wei who, in 1979, allegedly recommended that China "teach Vietnam a lesson".
Le Xuan Khoa