Đô Lương and Con Cuông

From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Martin Rathie

Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2020 7:35 PM

To: Vsg@u.washington.edu

Subject: [Vsg] QE: Đô Lương and Con Cuông

Dear VSG list members,

David's earlier post about the Nghệ-Tĩnh Soviets caught my attention. I'm researching about Vietnamese experts assigned to help the Pathet Lao (Actually I am focusing on a core of about six Ông who were described to me by Lao veterans as the Godfathers of the Pathet Lao). As you would be aware there is a long historical connection between northern-central Vietnam with Laos and northern Thailand. On previous trips to Hanoi I met with veterans from Thai Binh province and the children of senior advisors from Nghe An and Ha Tinh. Hence David's mention of the Con Cuông area got my attention. I have not read the texts he referred to. I know there is a nhà thờ họ (ancestral shrine) in Đô Lương which is closely linked to the Pathet Lao and its serves as a repository for some revolutionary memoirs. I have spent a lot of time trawling through Lao, Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese texts to trace the movements of Vietnamese revolutionaries who came to Laos and Siam (Thailand) in the French colonial period (I have read the work of Chris Goscha and several Vietnamese scholars. Merle Pribbenow has also kindly shared mentions of these cadres from his translations). They had lots of different roles including propaganda, recruitment, fundraising, gun running and building up cells and bases. If David or others in the VSG list know of more local histories from this Annam-Mekong interzone I would be most grateful for suggestions.

Getting back to the original question about Hmong revolts in northern Vietnam in the 1960s, I don't think Vang Pao's forces had much of a connection. The Hmong shaman Shong Lue Yang, who invented modern Hmong script, had a wide zone of influence. Vang Pao ordered his execution because he feared the messianic leader's influence was distracting the Hmong community from the armed struggle. In my opinion, the Hmong in Houaphan and Phong Saly provinces might have had some meaningful links with northern Vietnam, but Vang Pao's forces on the Xieng Khouang plateau were just a bit too far out of the picture. The Hmong living close to the frontier with Son La and Thanh Hoa were largely aligned with the Pathet Lao. Some of Kaysone's first recruits into the Lao revolutionary movement were Black Hmong from Xiang Kho district, Houaphan. Oliver Tappe is someone else you could contact for information on this subject, but he was focusing mostly on the French colonial period. In the early 1970s a group of senior Pathet Lao in what is modern day Bolikhamxai revolted and defected to the Royal Lao Government in Paksane. This region abuts onto Nghe An rather than Ha Tinh. The ethnic groups living here are diverse, but I think the Hmong presence was very small back then.

Best regards,

Martin Rathie

Vientiane, LAOS