Côn Sơn ( ), also known as Côn Lôn is the largest island of the
Côn Đảo archipelago, off the coast of southern
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
.
[Kelley, p 116]
Other names
Its former
French name, Grande-Condore was popularly used during the times of
French Indochina.
Marco Polo mentioned the island in the description of his 1292 voyage from China to India under the name ''Sondur'' and ''Condur''. In
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...
's ''
Geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
'', they are referred to as the ''Isles of the Satyrs''. The medieval Arabic/Persian name for Pulo Condor was Sundar Fulat (, ).
History
Chenla period
In , the
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
(Daba) fleets from
Shailendra dynasty were laid a military attacks. The Cambodian inscriptions were generally said the fleets was ''Malayan'', ''Sumatran'', ''Javanese'', or all of them, quickly seized the island. At that time, the island was used by Javanese pirates to conducting numerous military raids on
Champa and Chiaou-Chou.
English East India Company period
In 1702, the
English East India Company founded a settlement on this island (the
English called it
'Pulo Condore
' after its
Malay name, Pulau Kundur فولاو كوندور) off the south coast of southern Vietnam, and in 1705 the garrison and settlement were destroyed.
Tay Son period
In 1787, through the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, Nguyễn Ánh (the future Emperor
Gia Long) promised to cede Poulo Condor to the French. In exchange
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
promised to help Nguyễn Ánh to regain the throne, by supplying 1,650 troops (1,200
Kaffir troops, 200 artillery men and 250 black soldiers) on four
frigates.
[Chapuis, p 175][Kamm, p 86]
French colonial period
In 1861, the French colonial government established
Côn Đảo Prison on the island to house
political prisoners. In 1954, it was turned over to the
South Vietnamese government, who continued to use it for the same purpose. Notable prisoners held at Côn Sơn in the 1930s included
Phạm Văn Đồng,
Nguyễn An Ninh and
Lê Đức Thọ.
[
Not far from the prison is Hàng Dương Cemetery, where some of the prisoners were buried.
]
Republic of Vietnam
Prison
During the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
the prison was used to hold political prisoners and captured Vietcong and People's Army of Vietnam soldiers.
The prison on Côn Sơn Island was closed in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon. The facilities were reopened with improved conditions some years later however, to temporarily incarcerate boat people captured by local coast guards until the late 1980s.
Loran-C Station Con Son
At the request of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...
, the U.S. Coast Guard started pre-construction plans for a chain of Loran-C radio stations to serve Southeast Asia 15 January 1966 in support of Operation Tight Reign during the Vietnam War.[Larzelere, p 193][Scotti, p 91] The actual construction of Station Con Son began during April with the delivery of construction materials by and award of construction contracts to Morrison-Knudsen Corp. and Brown and Root Company.[Larzelere, p 200] Station Con Son was one of five stations in the Southeast Asia chain and was designated SH-3 Yankee. It consisted of a tower, transmitter equipment buildings, fuel tanks, generators and barracks for personnel located on the north end of Con Son Island.[ The personnel complement for the station was two officers and 23 enlisted men. After commissioning on 2 September 1966 the station began the testing phase of operations and the five station chain was fully operational by 04:00 on 28 October,][Scotti, p 94] just nine months after the initial request from the Department of Defense.[Johnson, p 337][Larzelere, p 203] The station provided, along with its sister stations in the chain, signals that allowed aircraft and ships to receive accurate all-weather positioning data for navigation purposes. During January 1973 the operation of the station was turned over to civilian contractors who were responsible to the United States Coast Guard for all functions of the station. The Coast Guard continued to supply logistical and technical support on an as needed basis.[Larzelere, p 270] When the fall of the South Vietnamese government was imminent, Station Con Son was directed to stay on the air until the last possible minute to provide navigation signals to aircraft and ships fleeing South Vietnam. Station Con Son stayed on the air until 1246 local time on 29 April 1975, after which the crew over-sped the generators and damaged critical pieces of electronic gear.[Larzelere, p 278]
Notes
Citations
References cited
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Further reading
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External links
The Con Dao Archipelago
* The Kun Lun Shan islands are shown on sheet 11 of the Mao Kun mapbr>Wu Bei Zhi at the Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Con Son Island
Islands of Vietnam
Vietnam War sites
Landforms of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province
Islands of the South China Sea
1702 establishments in the British Empire
Former British colonies and protectorates in Asia