NEWS ANALYSIS, AUGUST 11, 2001

On Thursday, August 7, former General Duong Van Minh, or Big Minh, the last president of South Vietnam, died from a stroke in his home at Pasadena, California at 86 years old.

Gen. Minh, nickname "Big" Minh because of his height unusual for a Vietnamese - 6 feet and 200 lbs. - was appointed as president of the Republic of Vietnam by its National Assembly, not by a popular election as stated in its Constitution.

As the Communist forces were advancing towards Saigon after the RVN forces withdrew from the Highlands and the Military Region I, right below the 17^th Parallel (Demilitarized Zone), President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned to facilitate the negotiation between the RVN government and the Communist side. Vice President Tran Van Huong replaced him. Only a few days later, the Communist side demanded that Tran Van Huong be replaced by Gen. Duong Van Minh, only with whom would they open talks with.

Gen. Minh assumed power on April 28 when South Vietnam was in a state of chaos. Every one was looking for ways to flee the country before the imminent Communist occupation. The last hope for military aids from the U.S. died down as the Capitol Hill rejected the $300-milion additional bill for South Vietnam. That dealt the last fatal blow to the 20-year-old republic established by the nationalist Vietnamese to defend themselves against the aggressive Communist regime in North Vietnam.

Gen. Minh was graduated from a French officer candidates school in 1936. His class of 50 cadets was the first under the colonialist regime. When the nationalist government was created after the French recognized the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai, Minh and many others of his class joined the National Army. In 1955 when the Republic of (South) Vietnam was born after recovering full sovereignty from the French, Minh was Commander of the Military Region I (around Saigon) at the rank of full Colonel. In 1956, he was promoted to Brigadier General, commanding the large scale campaign conquering the sectarian armies that had controlled parts of the Mekong Delta.

On November 1, 1963, Gen. Minh was leading the Revolutionary Military Council in the coup d'etat to overthrow President Diem on November 1, 1963. He became head of state for three months before Gen. Nguyen Khanh brought him down and replaced him on Jan. 30, 1964.

During 3 months as the top leader of South Vietnam, Gen. Minh missed one of the best opportunities to defeat the Communists and to become a national hero who leads the country to a bright future. Before the coup, he had never been a politician, nor interested to be one.

In the years that followed, Gen. Minh was living in exile most of the time and only returned to Vietnam in 1970. He then formed an opposition with most of its members were war protesters, pro-Communist politicians and - as some are saying - even Communist moles. In the 1971 presidential election, he withdrew his candidacy in the last weeks when he realized that he would not be able to defeat President Nguyen Van Thieu.

Many Vietnamese accuse Gen. Minh of his unconditional surrender to the Communists. But others said he had no options. The morale of the troops had broken down after Washington had overtly indicated that it would hand off South Vietnam. Neither the nationalist South Vietnam nor the communist North Vietnam could have continued fighting the war if foreign military aids had been cut off.

Enemy messages intercepted by RVN intelligence agencies monitoring Communist forces military radio waves revealed that Hanoi had ordered its divisions to take over Saigon as soon as possible at any cost, even if they had to reduce the city to bloody piles of rubble. And they had guts to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians to reach that objective.

In such situation, anyone must do the same way as Gen. Minh to save innocent civilians when a total defeat was certain. Like General Pétain of France, who capitulated to the Nazis in World War II, Gen. Duong Van Minh deserves extenuating circumstances, many Vietnamese are saying.

According to many former RVN military officers, if Gen. Minh had taken his own life after surrendering to the Communist force, his name would be inscribed with golden letters in the Vietnam history. On April 30, 1975, five ARVN generals, many hundreds of officers and NCO, even Enlisted-men committed suicide. But no one expected Gen. Minh would do the same.

Many other Vietnamese blame Gen. Minh on his submissiveness towards the Communist regime. In an article, the state-owned Nhan Dan Newspaper reported that Gen. Duong Van Minh went to vote in the general election held by the Communist authorities in 1976. According to the report, Gen. Minh stated that he was very happy to cast his ballot as a citizen of the unified and independent Vietnam.

If he did say so, his statement is unforgivable. His predecessor Tran Van Huong, who chose to stay in Vietnam, categorically refused to appear in public and to do anything requested by the Communists until his death in 1983. The Communists would certainly let Gen. Minh alone if he had acted the same ways. Until Gen. Minh left Vietnam for France in 1983, the Communist regime was treating him with smooth hands, not because he was any good to it, but only as an act of propaganda.

However many Vietnamese are still suspicious about whether the report is accurate. There have been thousands of quotations published in the Hanoi newspapers that turned out to be pure fabrications during the last 4 decades.

In Hanoi, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said after announcing Minh's death that by making an unconditional surrender to the Communist forces, "he helped to reduce wartime losses."

Other Communist middle ranking officials expressed their similar opinions. "I'm very saddened that Duong Van Minh has passed away," said Bui Van Tung, the former political commissar of the NVA 203rd Tank Battalion which crushed the front gate of the presidential palace on April 30, 1975. He added, "I would like to extend my condolences to his family."

Those statements are nothing special. Communist leaders always take hold of every opportunity to show their appearance as generous and merciful winners, that they are not.