NEWS ANALYSIS, APRIL 7, 2001.

Trinh Cong Son, an anti-war musician in the pre-1975 Republic of (South) Vietnam died on Sunday, April 1, 2001 at the age of 62. He was dubbed the "Bob Daylan of Vietnam" by American singer Joan Baez.

He has been author of more than 600 songs which are popular with Vietnamese youth, even those in North Vietnam. Many songs are about love, but the majority of his works were written with anti-war theme, in the late half of the 1960's when the Vietnam War came to its peak.

Born in the Central Highland province of Darlac in 1939, Son spent many years in the ancient imperial capital of Hue. Graduated from a Teacher's School of South Vietnam, Son served as a teacher for a short time then quit his job to begin composing love songs in the late 1950s. His has had a great love of music since his early childhood. His first song, "Uot Mi" (Tearful Eyelashes) was composed in 1957.

He attained a reputation for a number of his songs with melody and lyrics that some critics appreciate as the most popular songs.

He was somewhat a draft dodger who would have been trained in ROTC School if he hadn't found some loopholes in the conscription procedures to stay away from the South Vietnamese military service.

After the Communists defeated South Vietnam, most of his close relatives fled Vietnam, while he chose to stay with a hope that the new rulers would accept him and would rebuild a better unified nation.

A typical song of Trinh Cong Son would describe things such as "the sound of artillery reaches the city every night," or "whenever the war ends, the old mother would climb the mountain to search for her son's remains," or anything ranging from blood to tears of the innocent peasants shed by the civil war. Many of the songs implicate the destruction of lives and houses and crops done by bombs and shells of the South Vietnamese military and American forces. Only a few of his compositions lay blame on the Communists for their internecine killing and for instilling false animosity into the innocents to promote Communism.

His love songs' melody and lyric are so attractive as musical value is concerned. Their words sound like that in the sweetest poems written for a lover. But his one-sided anti-war songs earned him disdain and hatred from the anti-Communist Vietnamese, even today after 26 years the country is under the Communist regime.

Trinh Cong Son's songs were not banned in the pre-75 South Vietnam, although his anti-war musical works obviously parallel with the Communist propaganda themes were not allowed on state-controlled TV and radio broadcast. It's worth mentioning that his songs were not welcomed by the North Vietnam Communist rulers either.

His pacifist songs about the futility of war were even praised overseas. One of his most famous songs, ``Lullaby'' (Ngu Di Con), about the pain of a mother mourning her soldier son, became a hit in Japan in 1972.

The talented composer was not a true Communist party member or activist despite the allegation that he might have had some covert relations with Communist activities in the South. However much he might have appeared to be a pro-Communist artist, South Vietnamese authorities had not imposed any prison sentence on him while other overt Communist supporters were court-martialed and given a term of imprisonment.

The Saigon government did not exert any harsh suppressive action on him only because it had to prove itself a democratic regime. And Trinh Cong Son's case does strongly justify that during the Vietnam War, the South Vietnamese were living under a true democracy though a certain limit was enforced due to the life or death struggle against the most brutal and wily enemy from the North.

If Trinh Cong Son peace advocating attitude were endorsed by a large portion of South Vietnam population before 1975, he has damaged his reputation a lot afterward.

On April 30, 1975, right after the Communist army overran Saigon, Trinh Cong Son's voice was heard on Saigon Radio, calling the youth to welcome the Communist soldiers with his song "Noi Vong Tay Lon" (Join Hands in a Greater Ring) praising unification of Vietnam (under Hanoi control). His quick and complete devotion to the conquerors hurt the feeling of many people who had appreciated him as an attractive heart's songs writer.

After just a few months in favor of Communist authorities after April 1975, Trinh Cong Son was given unfriendly treatment by the new regime. He was sent to serve as a common laborer in some "new economic areas" along with others who had been serving the former RVN regime at low ranks. His pre-1975 songs were not permitted. He was under security surveillance for many years.

He was composing many new songs but only a few were passed by Communist censors although he did nothing wrong against the Communist regime. Meanwhile, his songs even the anti-war, are still widely performed and recorded in commercial CD's in the overseas Vietnamese communities.

Only since early 1990's have his songs been performed in musical events and entertainment's in Vietnam as the Communist regime accepted market economy reform. He had told AFP recently that Communist government surveillance had stopped a long time ago. However, he was never given any decent position as a popular songs writer. He also told AFP last year that he had written "nothing beautiful" in the decade after 1975 and had not published a single song.

On Sunday, April 1, Trinh Cong Son passed out at Cho Ray hospital. He had suffered a long time from diabetes that might be aggravated by his way of life. He was a heavy drinker and smoker - 5 packs a day. Medical authorities said that he died of liver and lung complications from diabetes.

His funeral drew a large gathering of many ten of thousands of his fans and other common people. But the news was not immediately reported in major party-controlled newspapers until 3 days later, probably the media had to wait for decision from the top party leaders.

Then the party-controlled media published a series of articles praising the late songs writer of his patriotism and musical talent. Local authorities sent representatives and flowers to his funeral. Two of Ho Chi Minh City's top officials, Saigon Communist Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Minh Triet and Deputy Chairman of Saigon People's Committee Le Thanh Hai, visited the mortuary Tuesday where the singer's body had lain in state. Only two among the party top leaders, former prime minister Vo Van Kiet and his successor Phan Van Khai sent wreaths to his funeral, on behalf or their own families. The two are known as reformers.

Though Communist government allowed a large funeral service with tens of thousands of attendants, Trinh Cong Son was not interred at the Saigon's Communist martyr cemetery where composers and singers faithful to the Communist Party are laid to rest. He was buried at a common graveyard in Binh Duong province, about 20 km northwest of Saigon.

The honor granted to Trinh Cong Son by the Communist leaders, higher than to some other more faithful Communist Party members who had contributed better achievements to the party in the cultural front is unexpected and unprecedented. The honor, while burial in martyr cemetery was denied, could be an act of "psychological warfare."

After 26 years under Communism, people in South Vietnam (south of the 17th Parallel) are still acting and thinking as if they were living in a separate country. Prevailing in business management, in science and technology, South Vietnam are attracting more foreign investment than the North. Production and growth in Saigon reach higher rate.

Trinh Cong Son, whether he was a Communist or not, is still a symbol of the advanced South Vietnam, a musical talent having had no relations or services with the nationalist regimes. His funeral might have been taken as the lawful occasion to vent South Vietnamese dissatisfaction on the incapable but arrogant Northern leaders.

The Communist top leaders' decision to honor Trinh Cong Son might aim at taking advantages of his popularity of the people to calm down the disaffection that is burning in people's hearts especially when religious protests have been going on in the Central Highlands and other places, Hue and An Giang.