Lê Xuân Nhuận

Lê Xuân Nhuận (1930-20xx)

Lê Xuân Nhuận (Westernised arrangement: Nhuan Xuan Le^[1] or Nhuan X. Le or Nhuan Le), born on January 2, 1930 in Huế (Vietnam), is a Vietnamese-American poet/writer^[2] under the pen name Thanh-Thanh.^[3][4]

He created and leads the "Xây-Dựng" literary society and publishing house^[5][5] that was recognized at the unique pre-1975 "Đại Hội Văn Hóa Quốc Gia 11-1-1957" National Cultural Festival^[6] as one branch of the ancient Vietnam Culture Tree.

He was among the rare Vietnamese who have, since 1947, opposed all the political regimes in Vietnam: France's colonialism, Emperor Bảo Đại's feudalism,^[7][8] President Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship,^[9][10] President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy,^[11][12] and communism. He had consequently been at times fired, arrested, imprisoned, demoted, put under house arrest, exiled, persecuted...^[13] But, although he did not agree with and was ill-treated by the French, Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm, and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, he had zealously served under them, against communism above all, and, as a Human Rights defender, effectively contributed to glorifying "the True, the Good, and the Beautiful."^[14] He was finally admitted to the United States as a political refugee in 1992.

As a poet, he composes his own poems in English and translates other authors' works into English verse.^[15] After Poems by Selected Vietnamese,^[16] he recently published Vietnamese Choice Poems introducing 146 pieces by 81 poets living in the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway and Vietnam.^[17] He is a member of International PEN (Center USA).

Early life

Lê Xuân Nhuận's father was a native of Hà Nội (Northern Vietnam) who came to Huế, the then imperial capital (Central Vietnam) to be a mandarin^[18] under Emperor Bảo Đại who had been at school in France. His mother, a native of Huế, was daughter of a royal physician under Emperor Khải Định (Bảo Đại's father). He went to school in Huế, and was many years chosen as one of the best schoolboys to receive awards presented by Empress Nam Phương (Bảo Đại's wife).^[19] He had, at the age of 13, his first poems and short stories published in various famous magazines in Ha Noi, the then literary capital of the country. He also was politically influenced by his teacher, Tráng Cử, son of Prince Cường Để, who had been in Japan, operating against the French colonialists in Vietnam. His first years of high school was at the well-known Quốc Học – Huế High School for the Gifted.

French occupation & Bảo Đại's puppet administration

The French rulers were ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1945; then Emperor Bảo Đại was dethroned by the Vietnamese Communist Party (Việt Minh) in August that year. When World War II ended, the French expeditionary forces re-occupied most parts of Vietnam. From 1947 to 1954, Lê Xuân Nhuận co-operated with the various newspapers in Hué City, especially the two opposition bi-weeklies Công Lý (Justice) and Dân Đen (The Pariah) issued throughout the Central Vietnam Region. He was permanently threatened by both the French Federal Security (Liêm Phóng Liên Bang) and the Vietnamese Nationalist Security (Công An Quốc Gia) Services. When he wrote the fictitious novel Trai Thời Loạn (Wartime Youths), implying resistance to the French who wanted to re-establish their domination over Vietnam, and ex-Emperor Bảo Đại who wanted to restore his reign, Nhuận was consequently arrested and imprisoned, in 1949. In 1954, he was mobilized, as a professional (writer/journalist), into the French-supported Vietnamese National Army. He served at the Second Military Region Headquarters, as war correspondent, military press editor, Psychological Warfare lecturer, and Chief of the radio broadcasting bureau "Voice of the Army, Central Vietnam." During that period, Nhuận succeeded in creating the "Xây-Dựng"^[20] literary group composed of dozens of well-known poets/writers, and its publishing section which produced tens of valued works.

Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship

When Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed Prime Minister by Bảo Đại, the then Chief of State of Vietnam vi:Quoc gia Viet nam, he was resisted by many people, especially the State of Vietnam's Army headed by General Nguyễn Văn Hinh, son of ex-Premier Nguyễn Văn Tâm, who both were pro-French. The Geneva Conference (1954) resulted in dividing the country into two, putting North Vietnam under the Vietnamese communists. Lê Xuân Nhuận realized that Diem was supported by the United States, and the US wanted to help South Vietnam get rid of the French colonists and fight against the Communists. He refused to obey orders by Nguyễn Văn Hinh and Trương Văn Xương, the Second Military Region Commander, who tried to step up the campaign against Ngo Đinh Diem. Nhuận separated himself from the Headquarters and used the "Voice of the Army from Central Vietnam" to support Diem in Saigon, the new capital of South Vietnam, so that the Hinh and Xuong's efforts were ineffective in the Central Region, and this encouraged and helped pro-Diem elements to succeed in the Southern Region. Nhuận taught, with the USIS (USIA known abroad as USIS)^[21][22] and American Consulate General's help, the first ever English-by-Radio course for Vietnamese listeners. Ngô Đình Diệm deposed Bảo Đại^[7] (by a referendum in which Nhuan played an active role), became president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam (Việt Nam Cộng Hòa) in 1955. Nhuận's Xây-Dựng^[23] group was recognized in the National Cultural Festival as one of the main branches of Vietnam Cultural Tree, for its achievements.^[24] But Diệm and his government grew gradually arbitrary and lost the support of the people.^[9][25] Nhuan, chief of administrative police in Huế,^[26][27] as the main lecturer for a political and civic course at the Police Department, denounced the evils of Ngo Dinh Diem^[9][28]'s faction vi:Cần lao Nhân vị.^[29] This happened even before the historic "Caravelle"^[30] event. He was therefore degraded, put under house arrest, and then banished from Huế to Cao Nguyên (now called Tây Nguyên), the officially categorized "malarian and dangerous" region,^[31] in 1960. Diem and his brother, Advisor Ngô Đình Nhu, launched an offensive against the main Buddhist Buddhism temples and leaders vi:Giáo hội Phật giáo Việt Nam Thống nhất, contrary to US President John F. Kennedy's advice, and then secretly contacted the enemy.^[32][33][34] At that time Nhuận served in the CIO Central Intelligence Organization or vi:Phủ Đặc ủy Trung ương Tình báo's SOC Đoàn Công-Tác Đặc-Biệt and taught English at the Duy Tân High School in Buôn Ma Thuột.

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy

After the 1963 November coup in which Ngo Đinh Diem was killed, the R-VN was ruled by the generals, including Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ. Nhuận was made Chief of National Police,^[35] Trưởng Ty Cảnh Sát Quốc Gia, for Quảng Đức Province.^[36] In the 1967 Presidential Election, Nguyễn Cao Kỳ schemed to overthrow Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Realizing that Thiệu was better than Kỳ, Nhuan, as Director of Police Special Branch (Public Safety & Counter-Intelligence), Giám Đốc Cảnh Sát Đặc Biệt, for Region II, seated in Pleiku, disclosed the conspiracy to his CIA advisers and asked them to stop the plot, which they did; and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was elected president.^[37] But Nhuan soon saw signs of Thiệu's stratocracy and officially voiced his opinion, for which he lost his position, at the beginning of the 1970s. He cooperated with the U.S. "Phượng Hoàng"^[38] (Phoenix Program) Advisors in Military Region II^[39] in Nha Trang to create a training center where he was a lecturer.

After the 1973 Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War, Nhuan was appointed Director of Police Special Branch for Region I (while General Ngô Quang Trưởng was Commanding General of Military Region I), stationed in Đà Nẵng, in order not only to neutralize the VC infrastructure but also to fix the internal affairs already uncontrollable there. Nhuận succeeded in ending all Vietnamese Communist activities, and stabilizing the then-chaotic political^[40] and religious^[41] situation, in all those six northern cities of the country, during his one-and-a-half-year assignment, prior to the RVN total fall in 1975.^[42]

He cooperated with the CIA in 1973-75 in infiltrating Polish and Hungarian secret agents into their communist parties and governments, which lead to the collapse of the Eastern European Communist systems in the late 1980s.^[43]

Vietnamese communist regime

North Vietnam as communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam's Army took over Saigon, capital of South Vietnam, and nationalist Republic of Vietnam dissolved on April 30, 1975 vi:Sự kiện 30 tháng 4, 1975. Prior to that Tháng Tư Đen Black April, which actually ended the Vietnam War, Lê Xuân Nhuận was captured by the enemy on 4-17-1975, after the fall of Da Nang on March 29. He was imprisoned vi:Học tập cải tạo at many so-called reeducation camps, until 4-20-1987.
While enduring hard labor, starvation, illnesses, exhaustion, moral persecution,^[44] despair,^[45] during over a dozen years, he tried to create in his mind numerous poems, a lot of them were forgotten through time in jail and many more years under surveillance afterwards. The remaining pieces were later printed in the Free World, under the title "Cơn Ác Mộng" (The Nightmare). Eventually, he received asylum in the United States, as a former political prisoner, a political refugee.

New life in the United States

Owing to the Orderly Departure Program, "Chương Trình H.O.", Lê Xuân Nhuận came to the United States, together with his wife and two unmarried daughters (he has six children) on January 17, 1992. He started his new life by going to US schools, writing memoirs, composing poetry in English, translating Vietnamese poems into English verse, contributing his writings to US and UK magazines and anthologies, and publishing books. While researching political and religious matters, he found out that the Marian Apparitions in La Vang, Quảng Trị, Vietnam, was a mere fabrication (based on various writings by well-known Vietnamese priests, bishops, and Catholic scholars, some of which he had happened to read tens of years ago).^[46][47] This was later confirmed by Catholic writer Nguyễn Lý Tưởng, and ultimately Pope John Paul II^[48] on the "Bicentenary of Our Lady's Apparitions in La Vang in 1998." He also revealed the truth about the fabricated documents claiming that President Ngô Đình Diệm had donated the Dalai Dama some US$10,000.00 or US$15,000.00 out of a Raymond Magsaysay Prize awarded the South Vietnamese leader in 1959 or 1962. The president of the Raymond Magsaysay Award Foundation has confirmed that "the former President Diem is not a Magsaysay awardee."^[49] He became an American citizen in 1997 and is a member of International PEN (PEN Center USA).^[50] His other pseudonyms include Kiều Ngọc (prose), Nguyệt Cầm (drama), Người Thơ (critique), Tú Ngông (satire), Đức Cố Lê (research). In the US, his has contributed poems to more than 30 anthologies of English poetry, and some English magazines^[51] His new works have been published in the States:

• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Về Vùng Chiến-Tuyến. Westminster, California: Văn Nghệ, 1996. (Memoirs: Return to the Front Line.) ISBN 1-886566-15-1^[52]
• Thanh-Thanh. Cơn Ác-Mộng. Fairfield, California: Xây-Dựng, 1998. (Poetry: The Nightmare.) ISBN 978-0-9665293-0-2 - LCCN: 98-90684
• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Cảnh-Sát-Hoá, Quốc-Sách Yểu-Tử của Việt-Nam Cộng-Hòa. San Jose, California: Xây-Dựng, 2002. (Memoirs: The Police Plan: An R-VN's Aborted National Policy.) ISBN 978-0-9665293-7-1 - LCCN: 2001097126^[53][54][55]
• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Việt-Nam Cộng-Hoà - Quốc-Sách Yểu-Tử: Cảnh-Sát-Hoá.^[56] Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2006. (Memoirs: The Republic of Vietnam - An Aborted National Policy: The Police Plan.) ISBN 978-0-9665293-8-8 - LCCN: 2003106623
• Lê Xuân Nhuận. Biến-Loạn Miền Trung.^[57][58] Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2012. (Memoirs: Disturbances in Central Vietnam.) ISBN 978-0-9763498-5-3 - LCCN: 2012900099

These books provide more untold causes of the US-backed Republic of Vietnam's so quick and easy collapse in 1975.

• Thanh-Thanh Poems by Selected Vietnamese. Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2005. (Poetry: 100+ verse translations by Thanh-Thanh from originals by 55 authors living in USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, and Vietnam.) ISBN 978-0-9763498-1-5 - LCCN: 2005906908^[59][60][61]
• Thanh-Thanh. Thơ & Người Thơ.^[62] Alameda, California: Xây-Dựng, 2012. (Poetry: Bảy Mươi Năm Làm Thơ: Seventy Years Writing Poetry.) ISBN 978-0-9763498-6-0 - LCCN: 2012908820
• Nhuan Xuan Le. Vietnamese Choice Poems.^[63] Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris, 2013. (Poetry: 146 poems by 81 Vietnamese authors living in the States and other countries in the world. The greatest ever number of Vietnamese poets whose works are translated into English verse by a single pen.) Amazon editors recognized it among their Favorite Books of the Year, Best Books of 2014 ^[64] ISBN 978-1-4931-2196-0

References