Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier

16 The Year of the (Crippled) Dragon

233 The Year of the (Crippled) Dragon The Buddhists’ Anger My family and I were all Buddhists. When I was thirteen, I lived more than a year in a Catholic household when I boarded with my teacher. Although I was not converted, I often joined in the prayers of the family in the evenings and before dawn. Sometimes I went to church with the children. Many friends and remote relatives of mine were Catholics. So I felt no great difference between followers of the two religions and me. At my young age, I believed in something supernatural that I was unable to explain, but I found nothing fully satisfied my questions. Probably that was why I was tolerant of any religion. I couldn’t stand any kind of discrimination. The Catholic Church had been granted privileges since the colonial era, and it was apparent that the Diệm regime granted favors to the Catholics and discriminated against the non-Catholic faithful. The opposition harshly criticized Diệm for backing the discrimination. But two of my military academy classmates, who were among President Diệm’s confidential aide-de-camps, Đỗ Thọ and Nguyễn Cửu Đắc, and who were devoted Buddhists, did not think so. They assured me that the president did not endorse such discrimination, and I believed them. However, I was sure that Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục, the president ’selderbrother,waspromotinghisfavoriteCatholicsandexertinghisinfluence on the president for the sake of his church. He was behind nearly all of the problems that Diệm had to deal with. Diệm probably didn’t know what was actually going on at lower levels. Or he may not have reacted appropriately to improper acts by some Catholic priests and his subordinates. There were, in fact, cases where conversion to Catholicism was a condition to be granted some favors—a job, a new position, and promotion. And a small sixteen • 234 · The Cogwheel number of priests in each area were powerful. Their requests for some kind of local government and military material such as lumber, metal sheets or cement, and military trucks, were always approved. The Buddhist monks, meanwhile, never dreamed of receiving such favors. In Kontum, a new land development center was built on a large flat high ground. The local government allowed a Catholic church to be built on the best, dominatingplot,whereastheBuddhistpagodawasconstructedonlowerground besideasmallbrook.Suchfavorscreatedunpleasantfeelingsinthenon-Catholic people. Some priests claimed close relations or connections with Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục or with high-ranking government officials in order to pressure local administrative and military authorities, who in turn exerted their political power to curry favor with priests. In 1959, Madam Nhu, as a congressional representative, used her family power to force through Congress the Family Law. Its most important clause imposed a strict ban on divorce, except for a few rare cases (impotence and false identity), and on concubinage. Feminists welcomed the new law, but rumors circulated that her only purpose was to prevent her sister’s husband from getting a divorce. She also had Congress pass the Morality Law, which banned gambling, dancing,beautycontests,martialartscompetition(Kung-fu,wrestling,boxing), andcockfighting.Thelawreinforcedthepeople’sfeelingthatthegovernmentwas buildingaCatholicstate.Meanwhile,thefactthattherewereonlyCatholicchaplains in military units drew complaints by people of other faiths. TheSàiGòngovernmentdidnotrecognizeanyoftheBuddhistfactionsasthe official church representing the majority of Vietnamese Buddhists, but only as groups of Buddhists under the status of nonprofit associations. The strength of the Buddhistcommunitieswasnotinanorganizationbutintheirpopulationandtheir faith.IguessedthattheSàiGòngovernmentunderestimatedtheBuddhists’spiritual powerwhentheyactedinunity.Ifthegovernmentleadershadpaiddueattentionto themasspsychologyofalargesectionofthepopulation,theywouldhaveactedwith anappropriatereligiouspolicytocalmdowntheillfeelingsoftheBuddhists. When the incident in Huế burst out on Buddha’s Birthday, May 8, 1963, I understood the anger of the Buddhists. I was for the Buddhists and hoped that their struggle would bring more equality among religions. But I became more frightened to see the course of events going in an unpredictable direction. There have been over a dozen versions concerning what really happened onthatfatefulday.Manyoftheaccountswerenotimpartial.Thesinglequestion relating to the death of the protesters at the Huế radio station received different answers.Somesaidtanksopenedfireonthecrowd;othersallegedthattheeight victimswereshottodeathbyrifles.Butmanysoldiersassertedthatonlyconcussion grenades were used. I was confused by the conflicting reports. The Year of the (Crippled) Dragon · 235 However, the “grenade” version seemed to be the most reasonable. Major Đặng Sỹ, who ordered the use of the concussion grenades, claimed at the court trial, several months after the regime was overthrown, that without fragmentation the grenade would not kill. Possibly he didn’t know that the grenade explosion created an extremely large expansion of gas. Only a human at a...