Retired Insurgents

[Steve Blair]

I thought those re-education camps where from the south Vietnamese army traitors. And some of those where killed for sure.

You're quite mistaken here. Reeducation camps were used for a variety of purposes, including the consolidation of power for the northern leadership. That included a "weeding" of VC cadre who might have ideas that were different than the direction given by Hanoi (and there were many of them). And before you tar the SVN as traitors, I suggest you take a look at the history of Vietnam. The north did not have a deadlock on nationalism.

Now maybe we should get back on topic for the thread....

[Sargent]

You're quite mistaken here. Reeducation camps were used for a variety of purposes, including the consolidation of power for the northern leadership. That included a "weeding" of VC cadre who might have ideas that were different than the direction given by Hanoi (and there were many of them). And before you tar the SVN as traitors, I suggest you take a look at the history of Vietnam. The north did not have a deadlock on nationalism.

I think Truong Nhu Tang's memoir captures this point really well. Here was a committed nationalist, big in the NLF, fought long and hard against the Americans and the Southern regime, and then (along with a lot of his fellow nationalists) was absolutely crushed when the North marched in, ended up in a reeducation camp, and eventually fled. Turns out the Americans were not the biggest problem facing the Southern nationalists. As well, a good lesson in "be careful what you wish for."