Vietnamese reeducation camps

From: Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn <jacqueline.hoang.nguyen@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 9:35 PM
To: Dien Nguyen <nguyendien519@gmail.com>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Hi everyone,

My name is Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyen. I am currently enrolled in a PhD program at Konstfack and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, researching the history of photography in Vietnam from a local perspective during the colonial era.

@John Phan – more related to the history of concentration camps, I came across the book Anam, André Dao's debut novel. This book may be suitable in the context of an undergrad seminar on Vietnamese film & fiction in the 20th and early 21st century. Although I have not had the chance to read it yet, I would greatly appreciate anyone's impressions of the book.

All the best,
Jacqueline

From: Dien Nguyen <nguyendien519@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 3:16 PM
To: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear John Phan,

You may like to add 2 accounts of the "re-education" camps in the DRV:

Vũ Thư Hiên: Đêm giữa ban ngày

Bùi Ngọc Tấn: Chuyện kể năm 2000.

I think both have been translated into English and published in California.

Nguyễn Điền

Canberra

From: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 11:27 AM
To: Stephen Denney <srdenney@gmail.com>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear all,

What a wonderful abundance of excellent suggestions and resources! I am so grateful. Thank you Jack, Hoang, Wynn, Thu-Huong, Lan, Calvin, Francois, Stephen, and everyone else!! And thank you VSG!!

Warmest, John

From: Stephen Denney <srdenney@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 9:59 AM
To: Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

I co-authored a report with the late Ginetta Sagan focusing on the re-education camps in

Violations of Human Rights in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, April 30, 1975-April 30, 1983, published by the Aurora Foundation. It was updated in 1990. Amnesty International published a report in 1981 titled

REPORT OF AN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MISSION TO THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM, 10-21 DECEMBER 1979, INCLUDING MEMORANDA EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.
The collected poems of Nguyen Chi Thien, published in translation (Huynh Sang Thong) by Yale University around 1982 provide insight into life in re-education camps in North Vietnam prior to 1975.
- Steve Denney

From: François Guillemot <francois.guillemot@ens-lyon.fr>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 1:06 AM
To: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear John,

I'd like to point out Duyên Anh's writings:

Thơ tù thơ, Paris, Nam Á, 1984.
Nhà tù hồi ký, Xuân Thu, 1987.
Trại tập trung hồi ký, Xuân Thu, 1987.
Đồi Fanta truyện (La colline de Fanta dịch bản tieng Phap nxb Belfond Paris, 1989) about metis children in camps

And the fiction film:

Journey from the Fall

See Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_from_the_Fall

More Hoi Ky:

Pham Quang Giai, Trai cai tao. Hoi ky lao tu CS, Glendale, Dai Nam, 1986.

Tạ Chí Đại Trường, Mot khoang Viet Nam cong hoa noi dai [hoi ky cai tao], Calif. Thanh Van, 1993.

And the essay:

Nghia M. Vo, The Bamboo Gulag. Political imprisonment in communist Vietnam, McFarland, 2003.

There are also many stories of "re-educated prisoners" on the YouTube channel, among them:

Hồi Ký Miền Nam | Chuyện Tù Cải Tạo Của Phó Tổng Thanh Tra Ngân Hàng Quốc Gia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bw5COv3aUY

Hồi Ký Miền Nam | TRONG TRẠI TÙ CẢI TẠO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zg2ZyH5VeY

See also the channel of Ms. Thiên Hoang:

https://www.youtube.com/@thienhoangk

There are many others to select for their relevance.

Best

From: Cau Thai <cvthai75@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 9:45 PM
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear John,

You may be interested in these books:

"The Vietnamese Gulag", Doan Van Toai & David Chanoff, 1986
"Reeducation in Postwar Vietnam - Personal Postscripts to Peace", Edward P. Metzner (ed) & Huynh Van Chinh & Tran Van Phuc & Le Nguyen Binh, 2001
"To Be Made Over: Tales of Socialist Reeducation in Vietnam", Huynh Sanh Thong, 1988
"Lost Years: My 1,632 days in Vietnamese Reeducation Camps", Tran Tri Vu, 1989
"Prisoner of the Word: A Memoir of the Vietnamese Reeducation Camps" Le Huu Tri, 2010
"A Gift of Barbed Wire: America's Allies Abandoned in South Vietnam", Robert S. McKelvey, 2002
"Tôi phải sống", Nguyễn Hữu Lễ, 2013

Best,

Calvin Thai

Independent

From: Lan PHAMNGOC <lan_phamngoc@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 7:14 PM
To: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>; Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong <nguyenvo@humnet.ucla.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear John, Thu-Huong and all VSGers,

In 1975, I was a young assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Saigon. Having served in the ARVN army as a Captain Pharmacist, I had to be reeducated, and spent 128 days in two camps: Trảng Lớn and Long Khánh. Only 128 days (almost nothing compared to the long years suffered by a large majority of my colleagues).

But these are terrible days for us who discover the sad reality, and for our family (my wife and my children did not know where I was, nor if I am still alive or not).

I was released early following the intervention of the University to bring back some teachers in order to reopen at least the Faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery to show the world that the normalization of the situation in Saigon was happening quickly and GOOD.

I have written three books (in French, Vietnamese and English) all published by L'Harmattan in 2015, 2019 and 2022, autobiographical, of which 11 chapters concern the period when I was interned in the re-education camps. I am only recounting in minute detail what our life was like during these 128 days. And above all, I presented how we were trapped by presenting ourselves to be re-educated, with extracts from the daily Sài Gòn Giải Phóng in support.

I am sending you as an attachment the PDF of these 11 chapters, I hope it will interest you.
Best regards
Phạm Ngọc Lân
PhD student in Paris 7 Denis Diderot in 1994, unfortunately my emigration to the United States in 1996 interrupted my work.

From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong <nguyenvo@humnet.ucla.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 4:53 PM
To: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear John,

Perhaps one of these sources would be of use?

Anh Do, Tran Phan, and Eugene Garcia. “Camp Z30-D: The Survivors.” Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, March 1, 2002. https://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors

Hoa Minh Truong, The Dark Journey: Inside the Reeducation Camps of Viet Cong (Durham, CT: Eloquent Books, 2010)

Hà Thúc Sinh, Đại Học Máu: Chuyện Kể về 1685 Ngày Tù dưới Chế Độ Cộng Sản Việt nam [Blood university: The story of 1685 prison days under the Vietnamese communist regime] (San Jose, CA: Nhân Văn, 1985).

Best,

Thu-huong

From: John Phan <jdp49@cornell.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 11:33 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Vietnamese reeducation camps

Dear all,

Does anyone have any good suggestions for an historical overview and treatment of the Vietnamese reeducation camp system? This is not for a specialist class, but for an undergrad seminar on Vietnamese film & fiction in the 20th and early 21st century, a portion of which touches on these topics.

With many thanks, John

ps sorry to have missed everyone at AAS and hope you all had a fun and productive meeting!

John D. Phan, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures

Columbia University

New York, New York 10027