Bình Xuyên Force (, ), often linked to its infamous leader, General Lê VÃÂn Viá» n (nicknamed "Bảy Viá» n"), was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viá»Ât Minh. During its heyday, Bình Xuyên funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces.
Bình Xuyên groups first emerged in the early 1920s as a loosely organized coalition of gangs and contract laborers about two hundred to three hundred strong, it was named after the eponymous hamlet of Chánh Hðng, Saigon (now is part of Rạch ÃÂng Ward, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City). Bình Xuyên's early history consisted of cycles of kidnapping, piracy, pursuit, and occasionally imprisonment. One of the gang leaders was Ba Dðáng, a kingpin in the Saigon–Cholon area. His lieutenants included Huỳnh VÃÂn Trà(a.k.a. Mðá»Âi TrÃÂ), Dðáng VÃÂn Hà(a.k.a. NÃÂm Hà), Võ VÃÂn Môn (a.k.a. Bảy Môn), and Lê VÃÂn Viá» n (a.k.a. Bảy Viá» n). Bình Xuyên's history is largely that of two separate groups: Ba Dðáng's troops (the Bá» ÃÂá»Âi Bình Xuyên) and Bảy Viá» n's Bình Xuyên.
From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, NhàBè was a haven for hundreds of armed gangs led by several leaders. Some were groups of gangsters picking on the helpless, while others robbed the rich, reportedly, to help the poor. Some of the well-known gangsters at the time included:
Dðáng VÃÂn Dðáng (a.k.a. "Ba Dðáng") was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants from Bến Tre. His mother remarried after his father's death and the family moved to NhàBè in the late 1920s, where Dðáng grew up to be a respected martial arts teacher. In 1936, Dðáng started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tây Ninh-Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon. By 1940, he had become a kingpin of Cochinchina. In 1943, Dðáng joined the Communist party. In 1945, he stole weapons from the Japanese to arm his troops in order to fight the returning French forces. His Bá» ÃÂá»Âi Ba Dðáng was reportedly one of the groups most feared by local French-trained militia. In 1945, the 2,000 armed men under different leaders in the NhàBè area elected Dðáng their commander. Together they chose to name the newly formed unit, the "Bình Xuyên Troops" (Vietnamese: Bá» ÃÂá»Âi Bình Xuyên).
In late 1929, after the formation of the southern Communist committee, Ngô Gia Tá»± ordered Châu VÃÂn Ký to infiltrate the ranks of workers and manual laborers in NhàBè. By 1940, Ký, with Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trân (a.k.a. Bảy Trân) enlisted gang leaders and their members, one of the most prominent was Tam Manh. After the botched southern uprising (Vietnamese: Khá»Âi nghéa Nam Kỳ or Nam Kỳ khá»Âi nghéa), the French colonial authorities brutally suppressed all opposition groups.
On 24 September 1945, Lê VÃÂn Khôi (a.k.a. "Ba Nhá»Â"), one of Ba Dðáng's lieutenants allegedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children, in Saigon without order from its leader. While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam, where the Communist-dominated Viá»Ât Minh was strong enough to stand alone, in Cochin China, where the Bình Xuyên support was crucial, Ba Nho's action led to suppression from the returning French troops. The Cochin division of the Indochina Communist party (Vietnamese: ÃÂông Dðáng Cá»Âng sản NÃÂm Bá»Â) was weakened by mass arrests and executions. A decision was made by the southern communist committee to put Ba Nhá» on trial. Ba Nhá» was tricked by Nguyá» n Binh into returning to Phðá»Âc Lai, Long Thành district (now is Hiá»Âp Phðá»Âc, Nhán Trạch district, ÃÂá»Âng Nai) where he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Ba Nhá» requested to be allowed to take his own life, which was granted.
In September 1945, Southern Communist party leaders (Trần VÃÂn Giàu, Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trân, et al.) put Ba Dðáng in charge of the guerrilla forces attacking southern Saigon, more commonly referred as Front number 4. For two months, Bình Xuyên troops relentlessly attacked and overran several French military facilities and posts. Dðáng's group eventually lost to the more disciplined and better-trained French Union troops.
On 20 November 1945, to avoid being decimated by French counter-attacks, Bình Xuyên troops withdrew to Rừng Sác to regroup for future military operations. In the next few months, Bình Xuyên troops expanded their operations toward the west of South Vietnam (Zone 8). During these few months, they successfully took control of Gò Công, Mỹ Tho and Bến Tre, the last province being where they established their new base. Ba Dðáng, newly promoted by General Nguyá» n Binh in September to Deputy Commander of Zone 7, died in an air attack on 16 February 1946. Without Dðáng, his lieutenants began to disagree with each other on who would be the troops' new commander. Nguyá» n Bình, who had unsuccessfully tried to kill Bình Xuyên's new strongman, Lê VÃÂn Viá» n (a.k.a. Bảy Viá» n), would later step in to disband the Bình Xuyên in 1948.
After Ba Dðáng's death, his lieutenants split into three groups:
In April 1946, Military Zone 7 appointed NÃÂm Hàas the Bình Xuyên's new commander. Bảy Viá» n, upset with the decision, formed the Bình Xuyên Interzone with leaders and troops from 7 units. Despite the schism, Bình Xuyên remained united in the fight against the French. As Bảy Viá» n's reputation grew, Nguyá» n Binh gave the order to kill Viá» n and suppressed his supporters. With two trusted companies, Viá» n fought his way out of an assassination setup and surrendered to Savani, head of the Deuxième Bureau/SDECE in Cochinchina. In June 1948, Bảy Viá» n became colonel in charge of the Bình Xuyên Auxiliary Forces, temporarily reporting to Trần VÃÂn Hữu, Deputy Premier in the provisional government of Vietnam and Governor of Nam Phan.
French officials in South Vietnam gave Viá» n full control of Sài GònâÂÂChợ Lá»Ân under stipulation that he wipe out the city's Communist infrastructure. Bảy Viá» n's knowledge of the Viá»Ât Minh and his desire to destroy Nguyá» n Binh's troops in Saigon enabled him to destroy Communist forces in a very short time. The French colonial government rewarded Bình Xuyên's success by allowing Bảy Viá» n to monopolize the trucking industry in South Vietnam and allowing the kingpin to operate as a warlord. Bảy Viá» n was promoted to major general after the operation to clear Route 15.
In 1949, Emperor Bảo ÃÂại became the head of state of the newly formed State of Vietnam. To solve the problem of having to spread the Vietnamese National Army too thin in the war against the Viet Minh, he decreed all non-communist military forces in the country as independent armies within the conventional army. Bảy Viá» n was given the rank of major general of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the QDQG Bình Xuyên, which was a self-funded army with revenues from legally-run brothels and casinos; Bảy Viá» n forcibly took control of the casinos from Macanese organized crime groups.
General Viá» n made arrangements with Bảo ÃÂại giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime, just as he had done so with the French colonial government. In March 1955, the group joined the Cao ÃÂài and Hòa Hảo in forming a "United Front of the National Forces."
At the time of the short war in 1955 between the VNA Bình Xuyên and the regular VNA, Viá» n had five regular infantry battalions and two battalions of Public Security Shock Troops (Vietnamese: Công an xung phong). Bình Xuyên's paramilitary forces were mostly wiped out by the VNA under the command of Dðáng VÃÂn Minh in Operation Rung Sat in 1955. Bảy Viá» n, the leader of the organization, was exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm in May 1955. Major Lê Paul, Bảy Viá» n's son, was brutally killed after Dðáng VÃÂn Minh (a.k.a. "Big Minh") failed to demand a ransom from Bảy Viá» n.