Nguyễn Lạc Hoá

Augustinus Nguyễn Lạc Hóa (; –) was a refugee Chinese Catholic priest, who arrived in South Vietnam in 1959 and led a militia called the Sea Swallows resisting the Viet Cong in the Ca Mau Peninsula. The "fighting priest" and his "village that refused to die" attracted admiring media stories in the United States, and in 1964 he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Public Service category.

Biography

Nguyễn Lạc Hoá was born on 28 August 1908 in Móng Cái, Hải Ninh in a Chinese Nùng family.

Hoá fled from Guangxi Province in Communist China in 1950–51 with over 2,000 parishioners and ex-KMT soldiers, and spent eight years in Cambodia. In 1959, Hoá with 450 of the refugees were expelled by Norodom Sihanouk, then settled in Binh Hung on the Ca Mau Peninsula. They created a village and Hoá established a militia force – the Sea Swallows () – against the Viet Cong, who were active in the area.

Hoá's success inspired others to join his Sea Swallows, including a company of "Nung tribesmen." Declassified documents would reveal that the Nung fighters were actually a contingent of Nationalist soldiers from the Republic of China.George MacTurnan Kahin, Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam, Knopf, 1986

As the political situation in Saigon deteriorated, Hoá saw the battle turning and little chance of winning. Discouraged, he left Binh Hung, and retired to a parish in Taipei in 1973.Stan Atkinson, "Stan Remembers: Father Hoa and his little army". SuperCast Online, Sinclair Broadcast Group. July 23, 1999.

Recognition in U.S. In January 1961, Edward Lansdale visited Hoá and Binh Hung. Back in Washington, he was surprised to find that President John F. Kennedy had taken a personal interest in his report on Hoá, and wanted it published in the Saturday Evening Post.Al Santoli, To Bear Any Burden, Dutton, 1985, pp. 78-81 It was attributed to "an American officer."An American Officer, "The Report the President Wanted Published," Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961 The town of Newburyport, Massachusetts adopted Binh Hung as a sister community,Don Schanche, "Last Chance for Vietnam", Saturday Evening Post, January 6, 1962 and the Post followed up with another story on Hoá.Don Schanche, "Father Hoa's Little War," Saturday Evening Post, February 17, 1962 Other correspondents who took up the story of the Sea Swallows included Dickey ChapelleDickey Chapelle, "The Fighting Priest of South Vietnam," Reader's Digest, July 1963 and Stan Atkinson,"The Village That Refused to Die" who remembered Hoá decades later as the "most unforgettable character" he met in his travels.

Nguyễn Lạc Hoá

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