W.Minh Tuan.

Background

In June 1940, France was invaded by Germany, and France surrendered quickly. The Japanese army took advantage of this opportunity and invaded Indochina. In September 1940, the French army in Indochina had to agree for Japan to share the rule of three Indochina countries, Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos.

In Asia at that time, the Japanese fascist army stormed, invaded China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia,,,.

And on December 7, 1941, the Japanese army suddenly attacked the American Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian-Pacific Islands. But this attack made the Americans determined to destroy the Japanese fascist army.

At that time in China, Chiang Kai-shek was both anti-Japanese and anti-Communist, so he became an ally of the US. The Americans asked Chiang Kai-shek to allow the US to use some places in Chinese territory as an airport base, and from there, American planes would fly into Vietnam, bombing military bases of Japan.

Kunming was used as an airport base for the US 14th Air Corps, commanded by General Chennault.

And then, the need for intelligence on the Japanese situation in Vietnam became very necessary.

The US 14th Airborne Corp desperately needs information on the weather, Japanese military positions, troop movements, weapons, supplies, where to go, when, and how.

The 14th Air Force Command will base on that information to send planes to Vietnam to bomb the Japanese.

And there is another very important task of the US intelligence teams, which is to rescue the American pilots who were shot down by the Japanese.

On June 13, 1942, the US Government set up a strategic intelligence agency, called OSS (Office of Strategic Services) (This is the predecessor agency of the US Central Intelligence Agency CIA, established, replacing OSS).

The OSS branch in China is tasked with establishing an intelligence network in Vietnam to perform the two tasks mentioned above: gathering intelligence, and rescuing American pilots.

The rescue of pilot Rudolph Shaw.

On November 2, 1944, during a reconnaissance flight into Vietnam, pilot Rudolph Shaw’s plane broke down, the pilot was forced to parachute down in Cao Bang. When the parachute hit the ground, fortunately for Lieutenant Shaw, the person who picked him up was not a Japanese soldier, but a Viet Minh cadre.

According to the account that Mr. Shaw later rewrote, that Viet Minh official did not know English, but had a very friendly and smiling attitude. Lieutenant Shaw pulled out 600 dollars, but the Vietnamese did not accept it, and led him to the Viet Minh base.

The Viet Minh cadres and the people of Cao Bang hid Lieutenant Shaw for more than a month, to avoid detection by the Japanese army.

Later, Lieutenant Shaw was led to meet the leader of the Viet Minh, named Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh spoke to Lieutenant Shaw in English, and promised to bring him back to Air Force Base 14 in Kunming-China safely.

According to the book “OSS and Ho Chi Minh, unexpected allies in the war against Japan- OSS and Hochiminh- Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan”, authors Dixee R Bartholomew, and Feis, has been translated into Vietnamese, On the occasion of saving Lieutenant Shaw, Mr. Ho wanted to meet with a representative of the US government to enlist the US’s support for the Viet Minh movement, which was not well known at that time.

After that, Mr. Ho and Mr. Pham Van Dong took Lieutenant Shaw to China. Upon arrival in China, Lieutenant Shaw was flown back to the US by plane, while Mr. Ho and Mr. Pham Van Dong continued on foot to Kunming, with the intention of meeting General Chennault, Commander of the 14th Airborne Wing.

The representative of the US OSS intelligence organization in Kunming learned that there were Viet Minh personnel in Kunming, so he wanted to meet Mr. Ho, to find out what the Viet Minh was, and whether the OSS could cooperate with Viet Minh to set up anti-Japanese intelligence network in Vietnam or not. At that time, the OSS actually had its own intelligence network in Vietnam, but wanted to expand this network further.

Cooperation with OSS

On March 17, 1945, Major Charles Fenn met Mr. Ho Chi Minh and Mr. Pham Van Dong at Con Minh. Mr. Dong doesn’t speak English, so all three use French. This is the first contact between Ho Chi Minh and the US intelligence organization OSS.

(In 1997, historian Duong Trung accompanied the Viet Minh to the US, met the OSS officials still alive, and met Mr. Fenn, then 90 years old).

Subsequent meetings reached an agreement that the Viet Minh would help the OSS gather intelligence against the Japanese. In contrast, the Viet Minh needed the recognition of the US, and the help of weapons to fight against the Japanese.

On April 15, 1945, Uncle Ho returned to Cao Bang, along with two OSS radio staff, Frank Tan and Mac Shin, along with many equipment and weapons to help the Viet Minh.

(In 2005, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visited the US, which was the first US visit of our Vietnamese Prime Minister. Before going to Washington Capital to meet US President Bush, Prime Minister Khai stopped in Seattle city , and the first American to greet the Prime Minister Khai is the old OSS veteran Mac Shin mentioned above).

In mid-June 1945, employee Dan Phelan also parachuted into the Viet Minh area in Tan Trao. Mr. Phelan was brought to see Ho Chi Minh, and the young commander Vo Nguyen Giap (at that time our General Giap was only 34 years old, not yet promoted to full 4 stars General).

And OSS officers began to train the Viet Minh how to use modern American weapons.

On July 16, 1945, Major Allison Thomas and 3 other staff members parachuted into Tan Trao area, with many weapons and ammunition for the Viet Minh, and was warmly received by the Viet Minh.

Uncle Ho instructed Vietnamese chefs to make delicious grilled ribs according to American taste to entertain OSS officers.

Then, on July 29, many more OSS staff members also parachuted into Tan Trao.

On August 19, 1945, when the people of Hanoi and representatives of the Viet Minh carried out the August Revolution, taking over Hanoi’s power from Japan, France and the government of Mr. Tran Trong Kim, two days before that, on the 17th of May, in August 1945, the Viet Minh army in Tan Trao was still engaged in military training by Major Allison Thomas.

On August 22, 1945, Captain Patti of the US led a small army landed at Gia Lam airport, to oversee the disarmament of the Japanese army.

On August 26, Mr. Vo Nguyen Giap on behalf of the Viet Minh held a solemn welcome ceremony for the US military delegation, led by Captain Patti. The red flag with yellow star of Vietnam was raised for the first time, fluttering next to the American, British, Soviet, and Chinese flags (Chiang Kai-shek).

Mr. Vo Nguyen Giap told Mr. Patti:

-“This is the first time in the history of Vietnam, our national flag has appeared in an international ceremony, and our national anthem is played before the respectful attitude of a foreign guest (Patti). I will always remember this moment.”

On August 29, Ho Chi Minh invited Captain Patti to meet him at the house on Hang Dao Street, which was the home of Trinh Van Bo’s family who donated to the Viet Minh at that time, to announce two important things:

1-Tomorrow, August 30, Emperor Bao Dai will abdicate.

2-September 2 will become Vietnam’s Independence Day.

And Mr. Ho Chi Minh wanted to consult Mr. Patti one last time about Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence.

In fact, three months earlier, from May 1945, when Mr. Dan Phelan parachuted into Tan Trao, Ho Chi Minh told to Dan Phelan that he was cherishing writing the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, and had consulted Phelan on the American Declaration of Independence.

According to Mr. Dan Phelan later recalled, actually when asked Mr. Phelan in Tan Trao, Mr. Ho knew very well the content of the US Declaration of Independence in 1776. After that, Mr. Dan passed on to the Viet Minh the whole copy of the Constitution of American, and the American Human Rights Act.

Thus, on August 29, 1945, Captain Patti was the second American to be consulted by Mr. Ho about the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam.

On September 2, 1945, Uncle Ho read the Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

In the photos of that September 2nd, on the stage where Uncle Ho prepare to read the Declaration of Independence, there are pictures of former Emperor Bao Dai, standing behind Ho, and Mr. Patti, tall, wearing a military uniform, gray, wearing a plaid hat, standing next to Uncle Ho.

After Mr. Ho finished reading the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, with simple words that went into people’s hearts “I say, do you hear, compatriots“, Mr. Vo Nguyen Giap delivered a speech on issues of the Provisional Government.

In that speech, there was a passage that Vo Nguyen Giap said about America:

“-America is a democratic country that has no territorial ambitions, but has made a special contribution to defeating our enemy, fascist Japan. Therefore, we consider America as a good friend.”

As he prepared to conclude this speech, Giap said of US President Roosevelt:

“—As Sir Roosevelt once said, oppression and brutality have made us aware of the meaning of freedom.”

At that time, during those hot days of the August Revolution, there were 59 Americans in Hanoi, most of them OSS employees. They were warmly welcomed by the Viet Minh and the Vietnamese people.

Also in September 1945, Uncle Ho established the Vietnam-US Friendship Association.

Vietnam-US relations have never been so good.

Lieutenant Colonel Deway.

But history is not in favor of people.

While Uncle Ho and the Viet Minh Central Committee in Hanoi wanted to have good relations with the US, and also with France, to build an independent Vietnam, and to end the war, long-standing enmity, and hope for long-term business cooperation after the war, but in the South, the seizure of power into the hands of the people was accompanied by many bloody revenge cases.

Viet Minh forces in the South under the command of Mr. Tran Van Giau failed to stop these revenge actions against the French.

Whose fault is it, let history continue to judge later.

In early September 1945, another group of American OSS arrived in Saigon, led by Lieutenant Colonel Peter Deway, to repatriate American prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, and to protect American assets, not a lot, in Saigon.

On September 26, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel Deway went to Tan Son Nhat airport to leave Vietnam back to US.

But a group of Viet Minh guerrillas mistook him for a man of France, they stopped his car, shot him dead, and took his body away.

Uncle Ho, upon hearing this news, was stunned, ordered to find Lieutenant Colonel Deway’s body again, but then no rule of law was respected, the order was not sacred, so they could not find it.

Conservative minds in the US government at the time, which were not supportive of the Viet Minh, seized the opportunity, and decided to withdraw all OSS personnel from Vietnam.

A new chapter in Vietnam-US relations began, the Americans turned to support the French to fight the Viet Minh.

And after the French failed in Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Americans continued to directly intervene in Vietnam, and led to a painful 21-year war that ended in 1975.

However, we should not blame the Americans either.

Let’s frankly look at the mistakes of us Vietnamese.

What do you get by killing a Frenchman?

That Westerner in military uniform was just on his way to the airport, doing nothing dangerous to our Vietnamese people.

When the war was over, a new government was just taking shape, not fully organized.

I don’t know if the guerrillas who killed Lieutenant Colonel Deway, and dumped Lieutenant Colonel’s body somewhere, are still alive today.

Will those guerrillas understand that their reckless actions can lead to incalculable consequences, which the whole nation must endure in the long future, until now, in 2023, and still suffer.

How many merits that Uncle Ho, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong,, had worked hard to cultivate for the Vietnam-US friendship in that 1945, just be poured into the river and sea, just because of his act of treason movements of the guerrillas with sky-horse-guns in Saigon.

Of course, it was not just the killing of Lieutenant Colonel Deway that led to the deterioration of Vietnam-US relations.

But it’s an important reason.

Until now, Lieutenant Colonel Dewa’s family still search for his body in Vietnam, but no traces found.