Phạm Văn Đổng (; October 25, 1919 – November 26, 2008) was a South Vietnamese general. A staunch nationalist and anti-communist, he was considered an ally to several Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (Việt Quốc) factions, multiple Đại Việt groups, Việt Nam Cách Mạng Đồng Minh Hội (Việt Cách) high-ranking members, Duy Dân and Hòa Hảo leaders.
Early life and education
Phạm Văn Đổng was born October 25, 1919, in Quốc Oai district, Sơn Tây, Tonkin (now North Vietnam), when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. He grew up in his father's village of Xuân Đỗ, Gia Lâm district (then part of Bắc Ninh Province) and went to school in Hà Nội where he earned the "Thành Chung" (Diplôme d'Etudes Primaires Superieures Indochinoises (DEPSI)) upon his graduation from Đỗ Hữu Vị School.
Generations of Đổng's family had taught at the Imperial Court. Phạm Văn Đổng himself had planned to become a teacher, so he enrolled at the École Normale d'Instituteurs. In 1939, he had to withdraw, as he did not have the money to bribe a court official, even though he had passed the required examinations. He then joined the French colonial army at the persuasion of his father's friend. It was a good decision as Đồng would later become one of the first Vietnamese officers to command French soldiers at the light division level (Groupement Mobile). Đổng was also one of the few ARVN officers to have been officers in the French Army and the only general officer who had begun his military career as a private.
Career summary
World War II
Five years after joining the army as an enlisted man, he was promoted to Officer of Materials for the 2nd Battalion of the 19th Colonial Infantry Regiment (Officier du Matériel, II/19e RMIC) stationed in Móng Cái. Here, he earned the trust of young Nùng, many of whom he later trained to be competent officers of the ARVN.
On March 9, 1945, as part of their coup d'état in French Indochina, Imperial Japanese Army forces in Tonkin attacked two battalions of the 19ème RMIC at Hà Cối. Two days later, the regiment commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles LeCocq, was killed in action while leading a counter-attack. His body would have been left behind were it not for the sharp-shooter Hoang Duc Phung who recovered it with Đổng's mortar support.
Two weeks later, Đổng and remnants of the 1er Territoire Militaire fought their way to Quảng Tây in South China where they joined General Marcel Alessandri who had been cooperating with the Chinese National Kuomintang Army (國民革命軍) in the fight against Japanese armies. There, Đổng attended a special officer class. During this period, he secretly made contacts with several Việt Quốc revolutionaries-in-exile most of whom would become his good friends and ardent supporters throughout his career in South Vietnam. At the end of 1945, Sous Lieutenant Đổng returned to Vietnam where he was assigned to Vạn Hoa.
The First Indochina War
In 1946, Đổng was transferred to the south where he participated in several major operations in Gò Công, Long Thành, and Thành Tuy Hạ. A year later, his successes against communist troops earned him a promotion to lieutenant. His abilities in organizing intelligence networks eventually landed him a position working for the Governor of North Vietnam, Nghiêm Xuân Thiện as Sous-Directeur des Etudes (Phó Sở Nghiên Cứu) where he reported to Captain Sylvain Trần Văn Minh.
In 1949, Lieutenant Đổng went back to the army as Chief of S-2 for the 2e BVN (Trưởng Phòng 2 của Bộ chỉ huy TĐ2 VN). In 1950, the State of Vietnam's Minister of Defense Phan Huy Quát, a Đại Việt leader, asked Đổng to join the Vietnamese National Army. A year later, after participating in the battle of Vĩnh Yên, he was appointed Commandant of the South Zone based in Nam Định.
Early 1952, Captain Đổng was appointed Commander of the 55th Vietnamese Battalion (55e BVN) stationed at the Nà Sản fire-base. In late November, using 3 battle-hardened divisions (308th, 316th and 320th) General Giap attacked Nà Sản with the intention of defeating the French Union forces to take control of northwest Tonkin. The 55e BVN fought valiantly against the enemy's relentless assaults. To put an end to the "human wave", Đổng ordered his artillery-support to level and to fire howitzers loaded with fragmentation shells directly at the enemy troops. His decision saved the battalion and earned him a promotion to Major.
By the end of the year, he took command of the 2e Groupe Mobile that participated in some of the hardest-fought battles to pacify the Red River Delta, especially in the Ninh Bình area during Operation Hautes Alpes in March 1953. In September 1953, he was appointed Commander of the Bùi Chu Secteur and concurrently Commander of the Forces of North Vietnam Light Battalions and Artillery. The latter position was very important, for he was in command of nineteen light infantry battalions (TĐKQ) and three artillery companies with the mission to pacify a military zone comprising seven provinces.
Prior to taking command of Bùi Chu, Đổng participated in Operation Tarentaise to take back areas under the Việt Minh's control. In October 1953, he commanded Operation Lê Lợi to attack enemy's strongholds in the area. The operation was successful, though the cost was high: one of Đổng light battalions at Quần Phương Hạ was completely destroyed by the Việt Minh's more seasoned independent regiments.
It was in Bùi Chu that Đổng, a Buddhist, would become an ally of Bishop Phạm Ngọc Chi, his diocese and Father Hoàng Quỳnh. In return, these Roman Catholics would become his staunch supporters in both North and South Vietnam.
In mid-1954, he was sent to South Korea to attend a special military training. Coming back to Vietnam shortly after the Geneva Convention that had partitioned the country into two, Đổng as Commander of the Quảng Yên Military Academy redeployed the academy resources and its personnel southward during Operation Passage to Freedom.
Vietnam War
From 1954 to the end of the 1st Republic Đổng had done well as a military man. He had been recognized as a capable tactician by his superiors who continuously promoted him in the first 14 years of his military career. From a humble beginning as a plain soldier in 1939, he had steadily climbed the military ladder to the position of Lieutenant Colonel at the end of the First Indochina War.
After the partition of Vietnam into two countries, Head-of-State Bảo Đại brought his government south where power struggles among different groups would lead to a change in the country's political future. Early 1955, Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm consolidated his power over South Vietnam by forcing General Hinh to leave the country then by using the armed forces to defeat the Bình Xuyên, Hòa Hảo and Cao Đài forces. Then, in a rigged referendum on October 23, 1955, Diệm ousted Bảo Đại and founded the Republic. During this time, Đổng was the Coastal Zone Commander (Liên Khu Duyên Hải). After the referendum, Diệm celebrated his rise to power by promoting all senior officers. Even though he supported General Hinh, Đổng was promoted to colonel. He would remain in charge of the coastal zone until October 25, 1956, when President Diệm transferred him to Sông Mao (Bình Thuận) to command the 3rd Field Division, a unit made up entirely of Nùng soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Đỗ Mậu, Đổng second-in-command who was Diệm's protégé and a Cần Lao party member, was promoted to replace him. Ironically, Mậu later would betray Diệm in 1963.
Colonel Đổng attracted Diệm's attention by refusing to let Cần Lao's cadres conduct political training sessions for his troops. Moreover, he also befriended and sheltered remnants of the Bình Xuyên and Hòa Hảo's defeated forces.
In March 1958, President Diệm seeing that the 3rd Field Division was loyal to none but Colonel Đổng, transferred Nùng soldiers to other units within the Army. In 1959, some of the Nùng soldiers left the army to join Father Nguyễn Lạc Hoá, a good friend of Đổng and a fervent anti-communist priest at the newly formed Sea Swallows enclave in Cà Mau. Đổng, who was self-taught in English, was sent to training at the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
When Đổng returned to Vietnam in 1959, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the III Corps. In this position, he was in charge of conducting campaigns against NVA and Viet Cong units within the Corps's territory. In December 1962, after an American general had advised Diệm to promote Đổng to general and after hearing other American advisers praised the colonel for his commanding skills, the president demoted Đổng to III Corps's Inspector General of Strategic Hamlets.
In August 1963, Buddhist monks caused a political disturbance, commonly known as the Buddhist crisis. This turmoil led to the November 1st coup d'état that toppled Diệm's government. Shortly before the coup, President Diệm had the colonel held at Camp Lê Văn Duyệt out of suspicion that the latter was preparing to launch a coup to topple the government. Đổng was indeed one of the conspirators and his detention shifted the President's suspicion away from other senior officers, primarily General Đôn, head of a CIA-backed and funded group of plotters (CIA liaison officer Lucien Conein gave this group US$42,000). On November 2, General Dương Văn "Big" Minh, a Diệm's protégé, ordered his bodyguard Captain Nguyễn Văn Nhung and Major Dương Hiếu Nghĩa to torture and to kill the brothers Ngô Đình. Most Vietnamese senior officers suspected that general Minh took US Ambassador Lodge's suggestion of eliminating the brothers "to prevent any colonel from bring them back to power".
Several ARVN generals then assumed leadership of South Vietnam. Power struggles, some of which influenced by the monk Trí Quang, would lead to a period of instability in the whole country. Political stability only came in 1967 when Lieutenant General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ were elected leaders of the 2nd Republic.
The turbulent years (1964–1967) With the escalation of the Vietnam War and with the increased United States involvement, the role of the ARVN became more significant but was seen by the media in the West as insignificant. After the coup, Colonel Đổng served briefly as 7th Infantry Division Commander, during which time he earned the alias "Tiger of the Delta" for his twelve successful operations against Viet Cong and NVA troops. Late December 1963, he was abruptly relieved command of the division and was sent to Taiwan as military attaché.
Returning from Taiwan in May 1964, he was promoted to brigadier general by General Nguyễn Khánh. Late October 1964, he was promoted to major general. A month later on November 27, he was appointed military governor of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and concurrently as Special Capital Military District Commander (Tư Lệnh Biệt Khu Thủ đô). During this time, Đổng formed and funded his own armed group made up almost entirely of Nùng soldiers.