Vietnamese Bureau of Investigation
From: Edward Miller
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 2:57 PM
A tangent inspired by Melissa Anderson's recent post regarding her research
on the Surete in Indochina: Melissa made reference to the post-1954
incarnation of the Surete in South Vietnam as the VBI, or the "Vietnamese
Bureau of Investigation." In my own research on the Diem era, I have seen
this term used many times in American documents from the 1950s, especially
in the records of the Michigan State Group, which advised Diem on the
reorganization of the Surete during 1955-1959. However, I have never come
across anything that appears to be a rendering of this term into Vietnamese,
either in RVN documents or in any other source. As best I can tell, the
organization that was once known as the Surete was referred to in Vietnamese
as the "National Police" (Cong An Quoc Gia, or sometimes Canh Sat Cong An
Quoc Gia). My suspicion is that the "VBI" monniker was something coined by
the Michigan Staters (or perhaps by other American advisors) who thought
that the Surete should be modeled on the American FBI, and that it did not
in fact correspond to any Vietnamese name change instituted by the Diem
government. Can Melissa or anyone else shed light on this?
Thanks,
Ed Miller
Dartmouth College
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From: Melissa Louise Anderson
Date: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Many thanks to Edward Miller for this question, I would be interested to hear other answers.
I recently did my M.A. on the Michigan State University Group's (MSUG) experience with reforming the Surete/VBI (or frustrations with it) and I would say they were definitely trying to turn the organization into an American-style FBI, complete with a scientific crime lab and organizational restructuring (reforms which Diem mostly ignored). So absolutely, MSUG coined the term "VBI" and rather unilaterally tried to make it into an FBI, so it wouldn't be too surprising if the new name did not catch on for Vietnamese personnel. Other than supplying guns and weapons training, MSUG's aid/reforms were mostly rejected or neglected and it seems the surete kept on doing what it had been doing (political policing). Or at least that is what it looks like from the MSUG documents. On a related note, has anyone come across VBI documents (in Vietnamese) from this same period? I was hoping, rather optimistically, that they'd still be around in Saigon (or Da Lat or Hanoi).
I'm also not sure what the Surete/VBI would have been called in Vietnamese at this point. Or, alternatively, if the Cong An/Canh Sat referred to in, for example, Jeffery Race's study of Long An were surete or other rural/municipal police. I did get the impression from the MSUG documents that in practice the municipal police and surete often overlapped in personnel, etc., particularly outside of Saigon. So these distinctions MSUG was trying to make between policing bodies may not have been so clear in reality, and this may be reflected in the confusing terminology. Diem finally unified all the police (civil guard, municipal, and surete) into the National Police in July 1962, basically on the eve of MSUG's dismissal (the team had been against this sort of merger, wanting a U.S.-style division between civil policing forces). But I wonder if the earlier overlap between the surete and the other police was recent or something that went back to the First Indochina War, or the Binh Xuyen episode, or perhaps before. Does anyone have other ideas? Hopefully the archive will clear up some of my confusion.
Thanks!
Melissa
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From: Tai, Hue-Tam Ho <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 10:37 AM
The cong an/canh sat distinction echoes the French police/gendarmerie one. Cong An would be translated into Public Security.
Could the VBI be a new incarnation of the Deuxieme Bureau?
From: vsg-bounces@mailman2.u.washington.edu [vsg-bounces@mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Melissa Louise Anderson [mlanderson6@wisc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 12:27 PM
To: Edward.G.Miller@Dartmouth.edu
Cc: 'Vietnam Studies Group'
Subject: [Vsg] VBI/Surete terms
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From: Chung Nguyen
Date: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 5:10 PM
Here are some of the nomenclatures & their dates of origin:
1. Nghi Dinh 60-APP on 29 Nov 1951:
Nha Tong Giam Doc Canh Sat Va Cong An
Nha Giam Doc Bac Viet/Trung Viet/Nam Viet
2. Sac Lenh 120/CV on 25 Oct 1954 under president Ngo Dinh Diem:
Tong Nha Canh Sat va Cong An
Cac Phan (Regions): Nha CS & CA Trung Phan/Nam Phan
Nha CS Do Thanh Cho Lon (for the Sai Gon capital & Cho Lon)
3. Sac Lenh 146/NV on 27 June 1962:
The names CS & CA were replaced by "Canh Sat Quoc Gia" (National Police)
Tong Nha Canh Sat Quoc Gia
7 Nha CSQG at Do Thanh Sai Gon, Hue, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Bien Hoa,
Tien Giang, Hau Giang.
Each province: Ty CSQG
Quan, Phuong: Chi CSQG
4. In 1970 Nganh Canh Sat Dac Biet (Police Special Brand) was established,
a descendant of Cong An, specializing in Espionage and Counter-Espionage.
5. Sac Lenh 17A/TT/SL on 1 Mar 1971:
The names Tong Nha/Nha were replace by Bo Tu Lenh/Bo Chi Huy
Bo Chi Huy CSQG Khu 1, 2, 3, 4 & Thu Do (the Capital)
Bo Chi Huy CSQG Tinh/Thi Xa/Quan (of Sai Gon)
Cuoc CSQG Xa/Phuong
Both of you are right in suspecting that there ain't any VBI! The US was interested in pushing for a professional FBI-type organization, but what Saigon leader in his right mind would think that he could remain long in power without the able assistance of his police force? There have been 3 memoirs by two former members of the National Police about some of its inner workings:
Le Xuan Nhuan (Ve Vung Chien Tuyen, Canh Sat Ho'a) and Nguyen Mau (N.D.B. (Nganh Dac Biet)) [ Cf. http://lexuannhuan.tripod.com/ <http://lexuannhuan.tripod.com/> ]
CN
Umass Boston