Memories of Vietnam - Big Minh.

[Carl Robinson]

Saigon was falling -- and neutralist ex-General Nguyen van "Big" MInh was the last hope of the southern side.   President Nguyen Van Thieu had already fled and Vice President Tran van Huong was the leader as southern politicians dithered over a constitutional formula to hand power over to Big Minh.   My beat was Saigon politics.  I'd known Big Minh & his entourage for years and was personally sympathetic to the Third Force.    Here, he awaits while the more-focused NVA continued their push on to Saigon and had little to say.  But in the end we were just dreaming and naive that the other side would come to a last-minute accommodation.   It was, quite simply, entirely too late in the Greek Tragedy that was the Vietnam War.   Sure, Big Minh was finally inaugurated president in an unseasonal thunderstorm on the afternoon of 28 April but that was merely the signal for the North's final push on Saigon.   Within a couple hours, defected A37 pilots attacked TSN and overnight NVA rocket and artillery closed down the city's fixed-wing lifeline to the outside world.   The chopper evacuation was on.   Big Minh surrended the next day.     

After the war, Big Minh was eventually allowed to migrate to France where he died.   I seem to recall the authorities did allow his body to be buried back in his homeland.   Big Minh was a man in whom so much hope was placed by the southerners, especially the non-communist opposition, but his famous orchid collection was quicker to move than he ever was. A tragic and often forgotten figure from the war.

Best,

Carl
   

           

[Nick Turner]

Big Minh was a man in whom so much hope was placed
> by the southerners, especially the non-communist opposition, but his famous
> orchid collection was quicker to move than he ever was.

Ah, Carl, but did you know him on the tennis court? Not exactly a
sluggard there. In 1970-71 I was fortunate to play regularly in a
Sunday morning group at the Cercle with him, Tran Van Do and a few
others for whom the farthest court at the back was reserved, and even
under Saigon's midday sun it was remarkable how Big Minh could get
from the baseline to pick up a drop-shot at the net! A nice man
indeed, but like Tran van Huong, who was a true gentleman and scholar
in the Vietnamese mandarin tradition, not someone to stand effectively
between the PAVN and their objective.

Nick Turner