Murder, kidnapping, torture and intimidation were a routine part of Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) operations during the Vietnam War. They were intended to liquidate opponents such as officials, leaders, military personnel, civilians who collaborated with the South Vietnamese government, erode the morale of South Vietnamese government employees, cow the populace and boost tax collection and propaganda efforts.
Overview The communist-led Viet Minh started a ‘Red Terror’ following the 1945 August Revolution, sanctioning the killing of rivals and non-compliant groups across Vietnam. Following the 1954 partition of Vietnam, assassinations and similar activity in South Vietnam was organized via "special activity cells" of the VC. As the conflict continued, efforts were centralized under the VC Security Service, estimated to number 25,000 men by 1970. This extensive use of terror received comparatively little attention from Western journalists, who were preoccupied with covering the conventional warfare aspect of the conflict. Notable VC/PAVN incidents of terror include the Đắk Sơn massacre, Massacre at Huế, Sơn Trà massacre and the Thạnh Mỹ massacre.
+ Killings and abductions Year Killed Abducted 1964 1,795 9,554 1965 1,900 n/a 1966 1,732 3,810 1967 3,706 5,369 1968 5,389 8,759 1969 6,202 6,289 1970 5,947 6,931 1971 3,391 4,788 Total 30,062 45,500
Similar results could be achieved by provoking hasty reaction or retaliation attacks by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) or American forces on villagers through sniping, raids, or placing mines and booby traps in and near villages. Such reactions sometimes sparked atrocities that could be used in VC propaganda to help mobilize or radicalize elements of the populace. A 1965 Christian Science Monitor article by Japanese journalist Takashi Oka reported on what seemed to be the use of the method. The VC entered a village and harangued the local populace about supporting the Revolution, before digging in and passing word to the district capital that they were active in the community. The next day, U.S. planes bombed the village and its Catholic church. VC operatives emerged after the destruction to tell survivors about the perfidy of the U.S. imperialists. Such methods could sometimes backfire, with villagers blaming VC forces for the destruction and death brought to their communities.
In December 1960, the South Vietnamese government reported to the International Control Commission (ICC) that during the year the VC destroyed or damaged 284 bridges, burned 60 medical aid stations and, through destruction of schools, deprived some 25,000 children of schooling. In October 1961, a U.S. State Department study estimated that the VC were killing South Vietnamese civilians at a rate of 1,500 per month. In October 1964, U.S. officials in Saigon reported that from January to October 1964 the VC killed 429 Vietnamese local officials and kidnapped 482 others. In June 1965 South Vietnamese officials reported that the rate of assassinations and kidnappings of rural officials had doubled in June compared to May and April, with 224 officials being either killed or kidnapped. On May 11, 1967, State Health Secretary Dr. Tran Van Lu-Y told the World Health Organization in Geneva that more than 200 doctors and medical workers in South Vietnam had been victims of the VC in the previous ten years. He said that 211 members of his staff have been killed or kidnapped; 174 dispensaries, maternity homes and hospitals destroyed; and 40 ambulances mined or machine-gunned. By 1969, nearly 250 civilians were being murdered or kidnapped each week. VC/PAVN terror squads committed over 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972 according to a U.S. Department of Defense estimate in 1973. Statistics for 1968–72 suggested that "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres."
PAVN/VC forces and spokesmen consistently denied using terror tactics. They attributed mass graves found at Huế after their temporary occupation of the city to spontaneous action by aggrieved communities. However, the use of terror was encouraged in official VC documents. A May 17, 1965 memorandum from the COSVN Security office, directed Nguyễn Tài, the chief of security for the Saigon-Gia Định Party Committee, to "exploit every opportunity to kill enemy leaders and vicious thugs, to intensify our political attacks aimed at spreading fear and confusion among the enemy's ranks." COSVN Resolution Number 9, published in July 1969 noted: "Integral to the political struggle would be the liberal use of terrorism to weaken and destroy local government, strengthen the party apparatus, proselyte among the populace, erode the control and influence of the Government of Vietnam, and weaken the RVNAF."
A Rand Corporation report from April 1970 titled Viet Cong Repression and Its Implications for the Future stated that: "repression—through elimination, demoralization and subversion of GVN personnel at all levels—had been a critical component of Viet Cong political and military activities in South Vietnam for over a decade. Under the organization and direction of the Viet Cong Security Service, repression played a vital role in the VC efforts to extend control over the population and to bring about the collapse of the GVN." The report stated that the official estimate of civilians assassinated and abducted was "44,000 for 1966–1969, of whom about 4,000 were government officials or employees", but that this was likely an underestimate as it excluded those killed in military attacks. The report estimated that if the communists took control of South Vietnam at least 100,000 people from all levels of the civilian and military structure would be executed.
R. J. Rummel estimated that PAVN/VC forces killed around 164,000 civilians between 1954 and 1975, with a range of between 106,000 and 227,000. Rummel's mid-level estimate includes 17,000 South Vietnamese civil servants. In addition, at least 36,000 South Vietnamese civilians were executed for various reasons between 1967 and 1972. Thomas Thayer estimated in 1985 that between 1965 and 1972 the VC killed 33,052 South Vietnamese village officials and civil servants. Ami Pedahzur wrote in 2006 that "the overall volume and lethality of Viet Cong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century."
Partial list of attacks and incidents The following is a partial list of VC and PAVN terror attacks and incidents.
1960
February 2: VC sacked and burned the Buddhist temple at Phuoc Thanh, Tây Ninh Province. They stabbed to death 17-year old Phan Van Ngoc, who tried to stop them. April 22: Some 30 VC raid Thoi Long, An Xuyên Province and attempt to abduct a farmer. A 16-year-old boy was shot dead. August 2: The VC executed two men at a school in Rau Ran, Phong Dinh Province. September 24: the VC sacked a school in An Lac, An Giang Province. September 28: the VC stopped a car carrying the Reverend Joseph Hoàng Ngọc Minh, a priest of Kontum parish, killing him and seriously wounding his nephew who was driving September 30: Truong Van Dang, 67, from Long Tri, Long An Province was taken to a "people's tribunal." He was condemned to death for purchasing two hectares of rice land and ignoring VC orders to turn the land over to another farmer. After the "trial" he was shot dead in his rice field. December 6: the VC dynamited the kitchen at the Saigon Golf Club, killing a Vietnamese kitchen helper and injuring two Vietnamese cooks.
1961
March 22: A truck carrying 20 girls was dynamited on the Saigon-Vũng Tàu road. After the explosion, VC opened fire on survivors, killing two and wounding 10. May 15: Twelve Catholic nuns from La Providence order were traveling on Highway One toward Saigon. Their bus was stopped by VC near Tram Van, Tây Ninh Province. One of the nuns was killed after protesting July 26: Two Vietnamese National Assemblymen, Rmah Pok and Yet Nic Bounrit, both Montagnards, were shot and killed by VC near Da Lat. A schoolteacher, travelling with them on their visit to a Montagnard resettlement village, was also killed. September 20: One thousand main force VC soldiers stormed Phước Vĩnh, capital of Phước Thành Province, sacked and burned government buildings and beheaded the administrative staff. They held the capital for 24 hours before withdrawing. December 13: Father Bonnet, a French parish priest from Konkala, Kontum, was killed by a VC while visiting parishioners at Ngok Rongei. December 20: S. Fukai, a Japanese engineer at the Đa Nhim Hydroelectric Power Station, a Japanese government war reparations project to supply electric power to Vietnam, was kidnapped after being stopped at a roadblock and never seen again.
1962
January 1: A South Vietnamese labor leader, Le Van Thieu, 63, was hacked to death by VC wielding machetes near Biên Hòa, in the rubber plantation on which he worked. January 2: Two South Vietnamese technicians working in the government's anti-malaria program, Pham Van Hai and Nguyen Van Thach, were killed by VC with machetes, south of Saigon. February 20: VC threw four hand grenades into a crowded village theater near Can Tho, killing 24 women and children. In all, 108 persons were killed or injured. April 8: the VC executed two wounded American prisoners of war near the village of An Châu. Each, hands tied, was shot in the face because he could not keep up with the retreating captors. May 19: A VC grenade attack on the Aterbea restaurant in Saigon wounded a German circus manager and the cultural attache from the German Embassy. May 20: A bomb exploded in front of the Hung Dao Hotel, Saigon, a billet for American servicemen, injuring eight Vietnamese and three Americans who were in the street at the time. May 30: the VC kidnapped missionaries Dan Gerber, Archie E. Mitchell, Dr. Eleanor Ardel Vietti from the Buôn Ma Thuột Leper colony, they were never seen again June 12: the VC ambushed a civilian passenger bus near Le Tri, An Giang Province, killing five men and women. October 20: a VC threw a grenade into a holiday crowd in downtown Saigon, killing six persons, including two children, and injuring 38 people. November 4: a VC threw a grenade into an alley in Can Tho, killing one American serviceman and two Vietnamese children. A third Vietnamese child was seriously injured.
1963
January 25: The VC dynamited a passenger freight train near Qui Nhơn, killing eight passengers and injuring 15 others. March 4: Two Protestant missionaries Elwood Forreston, an American and Gaspart Makil, a Filipino, were shot dead at a VC road block between Saigon and Da Lat. Makil's twin babies were shot and wounded. March 16: The VC threw a grenade into a Saigon home where an American family was having dinner, killing a French businessman and wounding four other persons. April 3: The VC threw two grenades into a variety show performance at a private school near Long Xuyen, An Giang Province, killing a teacher and two other adults. April 4: The VC threw grenades into an audience attending an outdoor motion picture showing in Cao Lanh village in the Mekong Delta, killing four persons and wounding 11. May 23: the VC mined the main northern rail line, killing five civilian passengers. Twelve other passengers and crew were injured. May 31: Two explosions set off by VC on bicycles killed two Vietnamese and wounded ten others in Saigon. September 12: Vo Thi Lo, 26, a schoolteacher in An Phuoc, Kien Hoa Province, was found near the village with her throat cut. She had been kidnapped three days earlier. October 16: The VC detonated mines under two civilian buses in Kien Hoa and Quảng Tín Provinces, killing 18 civilians and wounding 23.