The Châu Đốc massacre was the July 11, 1957 killing of 17 people in the small town of Châu Đốc in

An Giang Province An Giang is a Provinces of Vietnam, province of Vietnam. It is located in the Mekong Delta, in the country's southwestern part. Geography An Giang is located in the upper reaches of the Mekong Delta. The Bassac River, Hậu Giang and Tiền R ...

, near the border with

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, in what was then known as

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

. The killings were part of a low-level campaign targeting South Vietnamese officials.

Background

Thousands of

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

cadres had stayed behind after the country was split into North and South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government maintained that a referendum on unification in line with the Geneva Accords would go ahead. As such, they forbade the southern Viet Minh cadres from anything but low-level insurgency actions, like the assassination of South Vietnamese Diệm officials instead of large scale military engagements. They were joined by other anti-government elements who escaped Diệm's crackdown on opposition groups like the

Hòa Hảo Hòa Hảo is a Vietnamese new religious movement. It is described either as a Syncretism, syncretistic Vietnamese folk religion, folk religion or as a sect of Buddhism. It was founded in French Cochinchina, Cochinchina in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú S ...

and Cao Đài sects.

Bar killings

As part of the violence against the

Ngo Dinh Diem Ngô Đình Diệm ( , or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of V ...

government, on July 11, 1957 anti-Diem insurgents stormed a bar in Châu Đốc and killed 17 people who were drinking inside. The victims were tied up and then machine gunned. American papers reported that the killings were a result of propaganda spread by communist forces and that the killing of 20 people would allow the person to fly and that anyone who killed 100 would "become an angel". The killings were blamed on communist insurgents and fighters of the banned

sect. While urban Vietnamese did not take these claims seriously, the more rural a person was the more superstitious they were and the more likely they would believe that the murders would grant special powers.

Notes

References

* * - Total pages: 199 * - Total pages: 413 * * 1957 in South Vietnam Collective punishment Massacres in the Vietnam War Massacres in 1957 Vietnam War crimes committed by North Vietnam July 1957 in Asia History of An Giang province Attacks on bars in Asia Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1950s Attacks on buildings and structures in Vietnam {{Vietnam-stub

Background

Bar killings

See also

Notes

References