Nhuan Xuan Le

Lê Xuân Nhuận (1930-20xx)

Lê Xuân Nhuận (aka Nhuan Xuan Le or Nhuan X Le or Nhuan Le), born on January 2, 1930 in Huế (Vietnam), is a Vietnamese-American poet/writer under the pen name Thanh-Thanh.^[1]

He was among the rare Vietnamese who have, since 1947, opposed all the political regimes in Vietnam: France's colonialism, Emperor Bảo Đại's feudalism, President Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship,^[2] President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy, and of course, communism. He had consequently been at times fired, arrested, imprisoned, demoted, put under house arrest, exiled, persecuted... But, although he did not agree with and was ill-treated by the French, Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm, and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, he had zealously served under them, against communism above all, and, as a Human Rights defender, effectively contributed to glorifying the True, the Good and the Beautiful. He was finally admitted to the United States as a political refugee in 1992. As a poet, he composes his own poems in English and translates other authors' works into English verse.^[3] He recently published Poems by Selected Vietnamese, introducing over 100 pieces by 55 poets living in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Vietnam.^[4] He is a member of International PEN (Center USA).

Early life

Lê Xuân Nhuận's father was a native of Hà Nội (Northern Vietnam) who came to Huế, the then imperial capital (Central Vietnam) to be a mandarin^[5] under Emperor Bao Dai who had been at school in France. His mother, a native of Huế, was daughter of a royal physician under Emperor Khải Định (Bảo Đại's father). He went to school in Huế and was many years chosen as one of the best schoolboys to receive awards presented by Empress Nam Phuong (Bảo Đại's wife). He had, at the age of 13, his first poems and short stories published in various famous magazines in Ha Noi, the then literary capital of the country. He also was politically influenced by his teacher, Tráng Cử, son of Prince Cường Để, who had been in Japan, operating against the French colonialists in Vietnam.

French Occupation & Bảo Đại's Puppet Administration

The French rulers were ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1945; then Emperor Bảo Đại was dethroned by the Vietnamese Communist Party (Việt Minh) in August that year. When World War II ended, the French expeditionary forces re-occupied most parts of Vietnam. From 1947 to 1954, Lê Xuân Nhuận co-operated with the various newspapers in Hué City, especially the two bi-weekly oppositive "Công Lý" (Justice) and "Dân Đen" (The Pariah) issued throughout the Central Vietnam Region. He was permanently threatened by both the French Federal Security (Liêm Phóng Liên Bang) and the Vietnamese Nationalist Security (Công An Quốc Gia) Services. When he wrote the fictitious novel "Trai Thời Loạn" (Wartime Youths), implying resistance to the French who wanted to re-establish their domination over Vietnam, and ex-Emperor Bảo Đại who wanted to restore his reign, Nhuận was consequently arrested and imprisoned, in 1949. In 1954, he was mobilized, as a professional (writer/journalist), into the French-supported Vietnamese National Army. He served at the Second Military Region Headquarters, as war correspondent, military press editor, Psychological Warfare lecturer, and Chief of the radio broadcasting bureau "Voice of the Army, Central Vietnam." During that period, Nhuận succeeded in creating the "Xây-Dựng"^[6] literary group composed of dozens of well-known poets/writers, and its publishing section which produced tens of valued works.

Ngo Dinh Diem's Dictatorship

When Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed Prime Minister by Bảo Đại, the then Chief of State of Vietnam vi:Quoc gia Viet nam, he was resisted by many people, especially the State of Vietnam's Army headed by General Nguyen Van Hinh, son of Ex-Premier Nguyễn Văn Tâm, who both were pro-French. The Geneva Conference (1954) resulted in dividing the country into two, putting North Vietnam under the Vietnamese communists. Lê Xuân Nhuận realized that Diem was supported by the United States, and the US wanted to help South Vietnam get rid of the French colonists and fight against the Communists. He refused to obey orders by Nguyen Van Hinh and Truong Van Xuong, the Second Military Region Commander, who tried to step up the campaign against Ngo Dinh Diem. Nhuận separated himself from the Headquarters and used the "Voice of the Army from Central Vietnam" to support Diem in Saigon, the new capital of South Vietnam, so that the Hinh and Xuong's efforts were effectless in the Central Region, and this encouraged and helped pro-Diem elements to succeed in the Southern Region. Nhuận taught, with the USIS and American Consulate General's help, the first ever English by-Radio course for Vietnamese listeners. Ngo Dinh Diem deposed Bảo Đại (by a referendum in which Nhuan played an active role), became president of the newly-created Republic of Vietnam (Việt Nam Cộng Hòa) in 1955. Nhuận's Xây-Dựng group^[7] was recognized in the National Cultural Festival as one of the main branches of Vietnam Cultural Tree, for its achievements.^[8] But Diem and his government grew gradually arbitrary and lost the support of the people [1]. Nhuan, chief of administrative police in Huế,^[9] as the main lecturer for a political and civic course at the Police Department, denounced the evils of Diem's faction vi:Cần lao Nhân vị. He was therefore degraded, put under house arrest, and then banished from Huế to Cao Nguyên (now called Tây Nguyên), the officially categorized "malarian and dangerous" region, in 1960. Diem and his brother, Advisor Ngô Đình Nhu, launched an offensive against the main Buddhist Buddhism temples and leaders vi:Giáo hội Phật giáo Việt Nam Thống nhất, contrary to US President John F. Kennedy's advice, and then secretly contacted the enemy [2] in 1963.^[10] At that time Nhuận taught English at the Duy Tân School in Buôn Ma Thuột.

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's Stratocracy

After the 1963 November coup in which Ngo Dinh Diem was killed, the R-VN was ruled by the generals, including Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ. Nhuận was made Chief of National Police^[11] Trưởng Ty Cảnh Sát Quốc Gia for Quảng Đức Province.^[12] In the 1967 Presidential Election, Nguyen Cao Ky schemed to overthrow Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Realizing that Thieu was better than Ky, Nhuan, as Director of Police Special Branch (Public Safety & Counter-Intelligence) Giám Đốc Cảnh Sát Đặc Biệt for Region II, seated in Pleiku, disclosed the conspiracy to his CIA Advisors and asked them to stop the plot, which they did; and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was elected president.^[13] But Nhuan soon saw signs of Thieu's stratocracy and officially voiced his opinion, for which he lost his position, at the beginning of the 1970s. He cooperated with the US Phượng Hoàng^[14] (Phoenix Program) Advisors in Military Region II^[15] in Nha Trang to create a training center where he was a lecturer.

After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War, Nhuan was appointed Director of Police Special Branch for Region I (while General Ngô Quang Trưởng was CG of Military Region I), stationed in Đà Nẵng, in order not only to neutralize the VC infrastructure but also to fix the internal affairs already uncontrollable there. Nhuận succeeded in ending all Vietnamese Communist activities, and stabilizing the then-chaotic political [3] and religious^[16] situation, in all those six northern cities of the country, during his one-and-a-half-year assignment, prior to the RVN total fall in 1975.^[17]

He cooperated with the CIA in 1973-75 in infiltrating Polish and Hungarian secret agents into their communist parties and governments, which lead to the collapse of the Eastern European Communist systems in the late 1980s.^[18]

Vietnamese Communist Regime

North Vietnam as communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam's Army took over Saigon, capital of South Vietnam, and nationalist Republic of Vietnam dissolved on April 30, 1975 vi:Sự kiện 30 tháng 4, 1975. Prior to that Tháng Tư Đen Black April, which actually ended the VietNam War, Lê Xuân Nhuận was captured by the enemy on 4-17-1975, after the fall of Da Nang on March 29. He was imprisoned vi:Học tập cải tạo at many so-called reeducation camps, until 4-20-1987.
While enduring hard labor, starvation, illnesses, exhaustion, moral persecution [4], despair,^[19] during over a dozen years, he tried to create in his mind numerous poems, a lot of them were forgotten through time in jail and many more years under surveillance afterwards. The remaining pieces were later printed in the Free World, under the title "Cơn Ác Mộng" (The Nightmare). Eventually, he received asylum in the United States, as a former political prisoner, a political refugee.

New Life in the United States

Owing to the "Orderly Departure Program", (Chương Trình H.O.), Lê Xuân Nhuận came to the United States, together with his wife and two unmarried daughters (he has six children) on January 17, 1992. He started his new life by going to US schools, writing memoirs, composing poetry in English, translating Vietnamese poems into English verse, contributing his writings to some 30 US and UK magazines and anthologies, and publishing books.^[8] While researching political and religious matters, he found out that the Marian Apparitions in La Vang, Quảng Trị, Vietnam, was a mere fabrication (based on various writings by well-known Vietnamese priests, bishops, and Catholic scholars); this was later confirmed by Pope John Paul II^[20] on the "Bicentenary of Our Lady's Apparitions in La Vang in 1998" (It is worth noting that Mr. Le seemed to derive a particular satisfaction out of his claim that the Marian Apparitions in LaVang were mere fabrications. And this based solely on his skewed reading of an article in the L'Osservatore Romano, wherein it was stated that no written documents survived regarding the apparitions). He became an American citizen in 1997 and is a member of International PEN (PEN Center USA).^[21] His other pseudonyms include Kiều Ngọc (prose), Nguyệt Cầm (drama), Người Thơ (critique), Tú Ngông (satire), Đức Cố LÊ (research). His new works have recently been published in the US:

• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Về Vùng Chiến-Tuyến. Westminster, California: Văn Nghệ, 1996. (Return to the Front Line) ISBN 1-886566-15-1
• Thanh-Thanh. Cơn Ác-Mộng. Fairfield, California: Xây-Dựng, 1998. (The Nightmare) ISBN 978-0-9665293-0-2
• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Cảnh-Sát-Hoá, Quốc-Sách Yẻu-Tử của Việt-Nam Cộng-Hòa. San Jose, California: Xây-Dựng, 2002. (The Police Plan: An R-VN's Aborted National Policy) ISBN 978-0-9665293-7-1
• Thanh-Thanh Poems by Selected Vietnamese. Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2005. ISBN 978-0-9763498-1-5
• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Việt-Nam Cộng-Hoà - Quốc-Sách Yểu-Tử: Cảnh-Sát-Hoá. Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2006. (The Republic of Vietnam - An Aborted National Policy: The Police Plan) ISBN 978-0-9665293-8-8

References

1. ^ http://www.poetry.com/poets/Thanh-Thanh.html
2. ^ Ngo Dinh Diem: Betrayer
3. ^ Poet: ThanhThanh NhuanLe - All poems of ThanhThanh NhuanLe
4. ^ Poems by Vietnamese
5. ^ mandarin: Definition from Answers.com
6. ^ http://vwa-pen.org/vannhanluc/T/thanhthanh.htm
7. ^ Thanh Thanh
8. ^ ^{a b} http://vietland.net/thovan/showthread.php?p=11070#post11070
9. ^ Carter, James M. (2008). Inventing Vietnam. Cambridge University Press. p. 82. ISBN 9780521888653. 
10. ^ Ngo Dinh Diem: A Communist Tool
11. ^ canh sat
12. ^ Bulletin Board for MACV Advisory Team 32, Quang Duc Province, RVN
13. ^ http://vietland.net/thovan/showthread.php?p=11074#post11074
14. ^ http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary/phung+hoang.aspx
15. ^ History of the I Field Force, Vietnam
16. ^ See vi:Giáo hội Phật giáo Việt Nam Thống nhất
17. ^ bitmieng.com
18. ^ Diễn Ðàn Thời Nay - Tôi Đánh Cộng Sản Đông Âu
19. ^ See vi:Học tập cải tạo
20. ^ http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/statements/lavang_statement_01.html - No Mary in La Vang
21. ^ PEN Center USA

External links

1. http://www.poetry.com/poets/Thanh-Thanh.html
2. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/POETfromVIETNAM/index.html&date=2009-10-25+09:21:04
3. http://LeXuanNhuan.tripod.com/Betrayer.html
4. http://motgoctroi.com/HoiKy/LXNhuan/VVCTuyen_hk.htm
5. http://www.vantuyen.net/index.php?view=story&subjectid=10368
6. http://LeXuanNhuan.tripod.com/NgoDinhDiem.html
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027105025/http://geocities.com/ThiNhanVietNam/index.html
8. http://www.freewebs.com/lexuannhuan/index.html
9. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/DucCoLE/index.html&date=2009-10-25+07:23:32

Persondata
Name	Le, Nhuan Xuan
Alternative names
Short description	Vietnamese poet
Date of birth	1930
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death