Nguyen Ton Hoan

Nguyễn Tôn Hoàn was Vietnamese Catholic physician who was a leader of the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam) from the 1940s to the 1960s, and was active in South Vietnamese politics during that time, serving briefly as Deputy Prime Minister in 1964.

Early career

Hoan was born in Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in May 1917. He studied medicine at the University of Hanoi, where he became involved in student politics. In 1939, he helped found the Dai Viet Quoc Dan Dang (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam).^[1]

When the Vietminh gained a foothold over northern Vietnam in 1946, he fled to China,^[1] then under the rule of Chiang Kaishek's nationalist Kuomintang, hiding under the deck of a junk.^[1] Hoan returned to Saigon—where the Vietminh did not exercise the tight control they possessed in the north—in 1947 to continue his political activism.^[1]

In mid-1947, Hoan joined forces with Ngo Dinh Diem, later to become the first President of South Vietnam and a bitter enemy. A fellow Catholic, Diem was a former provincial governor in the 1930s and the younger brother of Ngo Dinh Khoi, another provincial leader slain by the communists. For the rest of the year, the pair tried to organise anti-communists into a new nationalist body known as the Vietnam National Alliance. Both wanted to build a Third Force for Vietnam, that avoided communism on one hand and colonialism on the other. Hoàn's Dai Viet and Diem's power base generated some momentum, and it initially appeared to be a political player of note.^[2]

According to Hoan and Diem, the objective of the purpose of the VNA was to mobilise support for a new political movement under Bảo Đại, who had been forced to abdicate by the Vietminh during the August Revolution and went into overseas exile. Bảo Đại then tried to recruit politicians such as Hoan to provide him with a conduit to power. The French also wanted to work with Bảo Đại so that he would lend more legitimacy to their colonial presence in Vietnam.^[2]

In 1949, the French appointed Bảo Đại as head of state of the State of Vietnam, an associated state in the French Union, which meant limited autonomy under the French umbrella.^[1][3] Hoan's Dai Viet at first cooperated with Bảo Đại, hoping that Vietnam would move towards increased autonomy and eventual independence.^[1][3] Hoan was Minister of Youth and Sports in two early cabinets of Bảo Đại, and he introduced ping pong to Vietnam.^[1] In contrast, Diem angrily denounced the State of Vietnam as a French sham and refused to help Bảo Đại, ending the Vietnam National Alliance.^[3] However, Hoan concluded that State of Vietnam would not lead to lasting change, so he and the Dai Viet withdrew.^[1]

In late 1953, Ngo Dinh Nhu, younger brother and chief adviser to Diem, organised a Unity Congress, a forum of various anti-communist nationalists such as Hoan's Dai Viet, the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang and Diem's followers. Nhu's real objective was to gain publicity for Diem. Hoan agreed to participate, and the conference turned into chaos, but Nhu achieved his objective of gaining publicity for his brother and staging angry denunciations of Bảo Đại.^[4]

Exile

In 1954, Diem was appointed prime minister by Bảo Đại. In the first year, Diem's government was unstable as various groups including the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai religious sects and the Binh Xuyen organised crime syndicated vied for power. After his attempt to take power failed, he fled to France.^[5]

Diem banned the Dai Viet and forced its leaders into exile or into hiding.^[1] In a speech on July 7, 1963, the ninth anniversary of his appointment as Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, Diem made a speech assailing "fascist ideologues disguised as democrats [who] were surreptitiously seeking to revive and rekindle disunity at home while arousing public opinions against us abroad",^[6] widely interpreted as a reference to Hoan's Dai Viet.^[7][8]

In November 1963, General Duong Van Minh led a coup against Diem, resulting in the assassination of the president. However, three months later, General Nguyen Khanh deposed Minh in a bloodless coup.^[1]

Power

Khanh and some of his co-conspirators were regarded as being pro-Dai Viet and they summoned Hoan back to become prime minister, although he only heard of the offer on a radio.^[1] Hoan had remained active while in Paris, publishing a magazine and keeping up to speed with political developments in Vietnam.^[9] He also tried to manipulate politics through subordinates.^[5]

Khanh wanted to use Hoan to harness Dai Viet support for his regime, but it backfired.^[5] Hoan was unable to form a government as prime minister when he returned.^[9] The Dai Viet had broken into so many warring factions that he was unable to enlist enough support, and other political hopefuls resented the return of old guard politicians from exile to take power, and they refused to cooperate.^[5]

Khanh thereupon decided to act as both Prime Minister and Chairman of the reorganised Military Revolutionary Council. Hoan was appointed as the first Deputy Prime Minister in charge of rural pacification. He was given control of five ministries including the Interior, National Defense and Rural Affairs and two special commissions, which were primarily engaged in consolidating the strategic hamlets of Ngo Dinh Nhu into the renamed New Rural Life Hamlets.^[5][9]

Hoan lobbied for an Ethnic Minorities Ministry, anti-corruption drives, land reform, and free elections with a transition to civilian rule. This put him increasingly in conflict with the junta and the Americans, who were more interested in turning Khanh into a strong leader to fight the communists.^[1] Gradually, the generals squeezed Hoan out of control of rural pacification, while the Dai Viet leader still sought an opportunity to become prime minister.^[10] Hoan also lost his weekly Sunday radio slot. The Americans felt that Khanh needed to make regular speeches to establish political support among the populace, and the general agreed, and he took over Hoan's slot.^[11]

Feeling that he was being marginalised, Hoan began to undermine the Khanh regime. He publicly accused Khanh and the Americans of ignoring him, and began to join forces with their critics. In mid-June 1964, Catholic demonstrations broke out, in response to protests by Buddhists. Hoan covertly supported some of the more vigorous Catholic agitators, who accused Khanh and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. of "fomenting religious discrimination" against Catholics, charging that they helped the Buddhist majority.^[12]

Hoan later tried to mobilise support among Dai Viet members and supporters among the officer corps, in an attempt to overthrow Khanh, However, the conspiracy never got off the ground, as the plotters feared that the Americans would support their regime if they managed to take power, thereby making it impossible for them to rule.^[13]

Later life

In September, Khanh forced Hoan to resign. The Dai Viet leader went to Japan and then returned to France.^[1][14] In 1965, Hoan had a dispute with French President Charles de Gaulle over the country's Vietnam policy and immigrated to the US.^[1]

He taught Vietnamese at American military complexes and then opened a Vietnamese restaurant. He also continued his political activism against the Vietnamese communist government.^[1] He died on September 19, 2001, in Mountain View, California, at the age of 84.^[1] Hoan was married to Phan Thi Binh; they had two sons and three daughters, all now living in the US.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q} Lewis, Paul (2001-09-26). "Dr. Nguyen Ton Hoan, Pro-Independence Vietnamese Official, Is Dead". The New York Times. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Miller, p. 439.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Miller, p. 440.
4. ^ Miller, pp. 452–453.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e} Karnow, p. 355.
6. ^ Hammer, p. 78.
7. ^ Jones, p. 285.
8. ^ Hammer, pp. 157–158.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Shaplen, pp. 236–237.
10. ^ Shaplen, p. 245.
11. ^ Blair, p. 132.
12. ^ Shaplen, p. 246.
13. ^ Shaplen, pp. 268–269.
14. ^ Shaplen, p. 282.

References

• Blair, Anne E. (1995). Lodge in Vietnam: A Patriot Abroad. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300062265. 
• Hammer, Ellen J. (1987). A Death in November. New York City, New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-525-24210-4. 
• Jones, Howard (2003). Death of a Generation. New York City, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505286-2. 
• Karnow, Stanley (1997). Vietnam: A history. New York City, New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-84218-4. 
• Miller, Edward (October 2004). "Vision, Power and Agency: The Ascent of Ngo Dinh Diem". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore: Cambridge University Press) 35 (3): 433–458. doi:10.1017/S0022463404000220. 
• Shaplen, Robert (1965). The Lost Revolution: Vietnam 1945–1965. London: André Deutsch. 

Persondata
Name	Hoan, Nguyen Ton
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1917
Place of birth
Date of death	2001
Place of death