Trần VÃÂn Soái (1889âÂÂ1961), also known as NÃÂm Lá»Âa (), was a Vietnamese general and warlord, he served as commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Hòa Hảo.
Born in Southern Vietnam into peasantry, he initially worked as a bus driver and became a gang leader. He converted to Hòa Hảo during World War II, and then quickly rose to prominence as the sect's leading military leader. He fought against the Japanese and Viet Minh during World War II and the First Indochina War. His forces then struggled against the South Vietnamese leader Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm in the 1950s, during the Vietnam War.
Trần VÃÂn Soái was born in Long Xuyên in 1889. He then settled in Cái Vá»Ân of Cần Thá, a province in Southern Vietnam. He began his career as an uneducated peasant, working as a mechanic on ships that sailed the Bassac River, then as a ticket collector for a bus company, and finally as a bus driver. He eventually moved up to become the owner of a bus service that operated between TràÃÂn and Cần Thá. During this period, Soai was the leader of his own gang of bus drivers. In a struggle with a rival gang boss in 1940, he was seriously injured and had to give up his job.
Around this time, he converted to Hòa Hảo, founded by Huỳnh Phú Sá»Â, and devoted his significant energies to advancing through the ranks of the sect. His third wife, Le thi Gam, took over his financial interests as well as management of his bus firm. He became the sect's leading military leader during World War II.
On 7âÂÂ9 September 1945, a band of 15,000 Hoahaoists armed with hand-to-hand weapons, and aided by the Trotskyists, attacked the Viá»Ât Minh garrison at the port city of Cần Thá, which the Hòa Hảo considered the rightful capital of their domain. They were led by Soái, his eldest son, Lâm Thành Nguyên, and Sá»Â's younger brother, but with their antiquated weapons, the Hòa Hảo were defeated and Sá»Â's men were massacred by the Viá»Ât Minh-controlled Advanced Guard Youth, who were reportedly aided by a nearby Japanese garrison. The slaughter was characterized by its savagery. After Sá»Â's death, Soái assumed the title of commander in chief of the Hòa Hảo armed forces.
During the 1950s, the new authority in Saigon, led by Ngô ÃÂình Diá»Âm, desired to relinquish the Hòa Hảo autonomy. Diá»Âm demanded that Soái hand over control of his administrative region to the Saigon government. Soái refused this, and Diá»Âm dispatched the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) to the region and threatened to level Soái's headquarters if the Hòa Hảo forces resisted. Nevertheless, the Diá»Âm government paid $3 million for Soái's loyalty.
As the VNA wiped out most of Bình Xuyên's forces, an independent military force within the army, Soái, along with other Hòa Hảo generals, declared war on Saigonàgovernment in late May 1955, furious that they were not granted enough privileges. Theyàknew that a direct confrontation with the VNA would be catastrophic, so they burned down to their bases and dispersed their army of 16,000 men into the jungle to operate as guerrillas. The Americans did not discourage Diá»Âm from fighting back this time. The VNA, led by the General Dðáng VÃÂn Minh, went on an offensive onà5àJune and byàmid-June, the army crushed Soái's forces near the Cambodian border, forcing him to retreat into Cambodia. Two other generals surrendered and another general, Ba Cụt, was arrested and beheaded in front of the public after being convicted of a series of murders in court.
He resigned in 1956, and died in Saigon on 9 February 1961.