The Catholic Question in North Vietnam: From Polish Sources, 1954–56

Abstract

The Geneva Agreements (July 1954) which terminated hostilities in Viet Nam provided that "persons on either side of the dividing line at the 17th parallel of latitude, would be free to move to places of their own choice". Hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese, mostly Catholics, were clamouring to leave the North soon to be under Communist rule to South Vietnam in 1954 and 1955. Anxious to solve the "Catholic question", the Lao Dong Party asked Polish comrades for advice. Indeed, because of the importance of the Catholic Church in Poland, they were the best qualified among the fraternal countries to help them to manage the Catholic integration in a socialist country. Based on Polish Foreign Affairs Archives and on International Commission of Control Archives (with Canadians and Indians, Poles were called on to supervise the application of the Geneva Agreements), this paper intends to show the Polish view on the Catholic Question in North Viet Nam in the first years of the partition. It proposes to examine to what extent the Poles influenced the Lao Dong Party on Church-state relations question and to what extent the DRV diverged from Chinese policy towards the Catholic Church.

Notes

 [1] Archiwum Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych (AMSZ) Archives of Foreign Affairs, Department V, Zespol (Unit) 12, Teczka (box) 613, Wiazka (file) 26: Report on the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam between 13 April and 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski.

 [2] Pax was an association of Catholic priests and laymen who supported the new Polish communist regime policy, created just after the Second World War. Its founder Boleslaw Piasecki (1915–79) thought the collaboration with the communists would permit them to transform the system from the inside.

 [3] Most of these reports are based on those of the Polish representatives in the International Committee for Supervision and Control (ICSC). Indeed, Poland had been designated during the Geneva meeting as a member of the ICSC. The aim of this commission was to ensure the application of the military agreements, in particular the gathering together of the military forces on either side of the dividing line at the 17th parallel. It also was commissioned to supervise the political settlement planned in the Final Declaration, which foresaw free elections in July 1956 with a future reunification in mind. This commission reflected the balance of power of that time, since it was composed of three countries: Poland representing the communist bloc, Canada the capitalist block, and India the new emerging power and leader of neutralism. Then, the work in the field of Polish representatives was an invaluable source of information for the Polish embassy. In March 1955, there were 160 employed in the Polish delegation. On the ICSC see Thakur, ‘Peacekeeping and Foreign Policy’, but because of a lack of sources, the author dealt very little with Poland.

 [4] In parallel with this policy of national union, the VM did not hesitate to use more expeditious methods to get rid of the rival nationalist parties. See the paper by Guillemot, ‘Au cœur de la fracture vietnamienne’.

 [5] Concerning relations between Catholic personalities and VM leaders see Trân, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens et la RDVN (1945–1954)’.

 [6] ASHAT INDO 10 H 4191: Circular banning using places of worship for war purposes, Nguyen Binh, no. 413/TS, 14 July 1947.

 [7] ASHAT INDO 10 H 4191: SDECE BR n° 15699/8, 9 September 1949, leaflet signed by Ung Van Khiem, Commissioner of the Interior of the Nam Bo.

 [8] Lebourdais, ‘Missions of Tonkin’, 208–209.

 [9] Sharing the same religion as the colonizers, the Catholics were accused of being the reason for the French conquest. Nevertheless, Christianity in Vietnam did not arrive with the French occupation, but appeared in the sixteenth century, thanks to the Portuguese Jesuits. From the seventeenth century, Christianity spread over Vietnam, thanks to the action of the Avignonese Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes, and thanks to the Spanish Dominicans. Faced with the hostility of the Vietnamese imperial power with regard to a religion considered as foreign, the Vatican's concern was to avoid any compromising deals on the part of the missionaries with the great colonial powers of that time (Spain and Portugal). On Jesuit advice, the Vatican entrusted to a French order, the Missions Etrangères de Paris, the task of evangelizing Vietnam. It was the French missionaries one century later who would appeal to French troops to put an end to the persecution of the Catholics. With that intervention, the Vietnamese Catholics were compromised. See Tran, ‘De la notion loyauté/déloyauté à la notion d'engagement politique’.

[10] Tran, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens pendant la guerre d'indépendance (1945–1954)’.

[11] It must be added that the Catholic community was far from monolithic. In 1945, Vietnamese Catholics involved themselves in a great diversity of political parties, from the nationalist to the Communist Party. In 1949, three trends could be distinguished: a dominant trend around Ngo Dinh Diem and the northern bishoprics, a minority supporting Bao Dai, and another minority supporting the VM (particularly in the South) For further information, see Tran, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens pendant la guerre d'indépendance (1945–1954)’.

[12] During the 1947–54 period, the Vietnamese communists controlled areas of the North and implemented revolutionary policies there, in particular the Land Reform from 1953.

[13] See Smith, An International History of the Vietnam War, Vol. I, 55–69, Chapter 4, Hanoi and Reunification.

[14] ASHAT Fonds Gambiez, 1 K 540 Carton 16, Report on the situation of the North Vietnam refugees, written by Bishop Pham Ngoc Chi, Apostolic Curate of Bui Chu in charge of North Vietnamese refugees, October 1955, sent to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, Rome. Of 860,206 refugees, 676,348 were Catholics.

[15] The PPR had recognized the DRV in 1950, as did most of the countries of the communist bloc, but it was only after the signature of the Geneva agreements, that an ambassador was sent in Hanoi. AMSZ, Department V, Z11,T675, W47, Bangkok; 30 January 1950, No. PV/511-NG, Representative of the DRV in Thailand Nguyen Duc Quy to the Foreign Office of the PRP – Letter of Hoang Minh Giam, 23 January 1950.

[16] AMSZ, Department V, Z12,T612, W26, AH 36 14 W55, Report of R Cielewicz, captain of the boat Jan Kilinski, 7 April 1955. See also Jurdzinski, Transport zolnierzy Wietcongu. In all, the Polish boat transported nearly 85,000 people, and 3,500 tonnes of military equipment and 250 of ammunition.

[17] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25: AH/242/1/W/55 Hanoi, 14 January 1955, Ambassador Pietka: report from 20 December 1954 to 10 January 1955.

[18] In their report, the delegation of the Polish mission visiting Vietnam in April–May 1955 made the same analysis: ‘The material situation, and above all the critical food situation is one of the reasons for the exodus (even if the efficient propaganda Americano-French is the most important).’ AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activities of the Delegation of Polish Catholics in Vietnam (13 to 19 April 1955), Hanoi, 19 April 1955, signed P. J. Keller, P. Suwala and W. Ketrzynski.

[19] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25 Ambassador Pietka, Hanoi, 10 April 1955, March report: ‘Among the most important difficulties with which our comrades are confronted is the threat of famine. … At the moment, aid from the PRC arriving, but it doesn't cover all the needs. The harvest of May looks unpromising because of the drought that reigns.’

[20] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T606, W25 Tel no. 101050, Hanoi, 20 April 1955 signed Ogrodzinski.

[21] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25 Ambassador Pietka, Hanoi, 2 May 1955, April report: ‘At the end of April, the situation improved a bit thanks to the arrival of rice, chickens and potatoes from the PRC.’

[22] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T1235, W63: Ambassador Jerzy Grudzinski, New Delhi, 27 April 1955, Report no. 243/10/55 to the Foreign Office in Warsaw. Moreover, the ambassador reported some demands of Catholics, refugees in the South who ‘disappointed not to find fields and buffaloes promised by the Bao Dai power, demanded to come back to the North’.

[23] ASHAT Fonds Gambiez, 1 K 540 Carton 16, Report not signed, Haiphong, 25 February 1955: The Refugees of North Viet Nam, 5: The report speaks about a bloody fight which left 50 Catholic dead or injured.

[24] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25, AH/242/4/W/55 Ambassador Pietka, Political report, February 1955.

[25] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam, between 13 April and 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski: ‘One should cut the Catholics from the South, and keep them forever in the democratic camp; that could have a great importance in the fight beginning for the unification of the country.’

[26] About the Geneva agreements and the international context concerning the partition of Vietnam, see Smith, An International History of the Vietnam War, Vol. I, 19–33: Chapter 2, The Geneva Partition.

[27] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activities of the delegation of the Polish Catholics in Vietnam (13 to 19 April 1955), Hanoi, 19 April 1955, signed P. J. Keller, P. Suwala and W. Ketrzynski.

[28] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activities of the delegation of the Polish Catholics in Vietnam (13 to 19 April 1955), Hanoi, 19 April 1955, signed P. J. Keller, P. Suwala and W. Ketrzynski

[29] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam between 13 April and 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski.

[30] Gheddo, Catholiques et bouddhistes au Vietnam, 108. Ho Chi Minh spoke on this issue in July, October and then December. He sent a letter to the Catholics for Christmas, promising them religious freedom and he lifted the curfew on the occasion of the midnight mass.

[31] In his first report, the Polish ambassador writes that he suggested to the Vietnamese officials, who asked for assistance about Catholic ?questions, ‘to create an association of Patriotic Catholics in order to sharpen the patriotic feelings among the Vietnamese priests’.AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25: AH/242/1/W/55 Hanoi, 14 January 1955, Ambassador Pietka: Political report, 20 December 1954 to 10 January 1955

[32] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25: AH/242/5/W/55 Hanoi, 10 April 1955, Ambassador Tomasz Pietka, March political report.

[33] The steering committee was composed of eight priests and 21 laymen. A newspaper, Chinh Nghia (The Righteous Cause) was also created.

[34] Denney, ‘The Catholic Church in Vietnam’, 273.

[35] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activities of the delegation of Polish Catholics in Vietnam (13 to 19 April 1955), Hanoi, 19 April 1955, signed Father J. Keller, Father Suwala and W. Ketrzynski.

[36] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam between 13 April and 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski.

[37] See the incidents in November 1956 in Quynh Luu, in Ho Chi Minh's Nghe An Province in the following pages.

[38] From 1949 to 1981, Cardinal Wyszynski led the church as the primate of Poland and the chairman of the conference of the polish episcopate. See Chrypinski, ‘The Catholic Church in Poland 1944–1989’, 121–122.

[39] See Wyszynski, Zapiski wiezienne, 23.

[40] Chrypinski, The Catholic Church in Poland, 22–23.

[41] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam between 13 April and the 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski. About the bishop of Vinh: ‘He's a rather old priest with a committed, reactionary political past. Today, he seems to be a reasonable and cautious man. … He has firmly declared his will to stay at the head of his bishopric, and his hostile position with regard to the migration movement» in particular to the seminarists of the High Seminary of Vinh, the only one to remain open.’

[42] Interview with Nguyen Manh Ha and Pham Han Quynh, Ivry, 15 May 1989.

[43] In 1945, he was working as factory inspector in the colonial administration in Haiphong. But in the Catholic circles, he was above all well known as the founder of the Youth Christian Workers (Jeunesses Ouvrières Chrétiennes). His concerns in social questions can be explained by his experience in the ‘Action Catholique’ in France when he was a student during the 1920s and 1930s. Back from France as a graduate of Law in 1937, he was very concerned to develop the ‘social thinking of the church’ in the Vietnamese church, and the Catholic presence among the workers' milieus in the harbour of Haiphong in particular. See ‘Trân Thi Liên, Nguyen Manh Ha: A Voice for a Neutral Solution in South Vietnam (1954–1957)’.

[44] The choice of the communist leaders can be explained by different reasons. Because they wanted to rally Catholics, they chose a ‘progressive figure’ from the Vietnamese church. Because their priority was to get independence by negotiation with French authorities, Ha was seen as the right man to approach the French officials, especially the prime minister, Georges Bidault, Christian democratic leader of the MRP (Mouvement Républicain Populaire). He was sent to the Fontainebleau conference in 1946 as a mediator, because of his links with the French Catholic circles as well as the fact that was married to a French woman, who was the daughter of Georges Marrane, of the French Communist Party (senator and health secretary in 1946). See Trân, ‘Les catholiques vietnamiens et la RDVN (1945–1954)’, 258–260.

[45] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activities of the delegation of Polish Catholics in Vietnam (13 to 19 April 1955), Hanoi, 19 April 1955, signed Father J. Keller, Father Suwala and W. Ketrzynski.

[46] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Report about the activity of the Catholic delegation in Vietnam between 13 April and 30 May 1955, Hanoi, signed Wojciech Ketrzynski.

[47] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T608, W25: AH/242/7/W/55 Hanoi, 15 August 1955, Ambassador Tomasz Pietka, Political report for March. See Le Minh Duc, Les catholiques en République Démocratique du Viet Nam , 19 and 32.

[48] Gheddo, Catholiques et bouddhistes au Vietnam, 108–112.

[49] Chrypinski, ‘The Catholic Church in Poland 1944–1989’, 119.

[50] Constitution of USSR, 1936 article 124: ‘In order to assure citizens the freedom of consciousness, the church in USSR is separated from the state, and school from the church. The freedom to practise religious cults and the freedom of antireligious propaganda are admitted to all the citizens’; see Vaisse, Le prix de la survie, 121.

[51] Michel, La Société retrouvée, 38.

[52] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T613, W26: Warszawa, 6/9/1955, Note of the vice director of the Department V. E. Sluczanski to comrade minister M. Naszkowski.

[53] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T617, W26 DV Indoch 086/13/56, Note about the conversation with the secretary of the DRV Embassy in Warsaw, comrade Hoang Luong, 26 July 1956.

[54] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T617, W26 DV Indoch 086/24/56, Note about the conversation with the secretary of the DRV Embassy in Warsaw, comrade Hoang Luong, 24 September 1956.

[55] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T617, W26 DV Indoch 086/25/56, Note about the conversation with the secretary of the DRV Embassy in Warsaw, comrade Hoang Luong, 22 November 1956.

[56] Chaffard, Indochine, dix ans d'indépendance, 138–140.

[57] About the relative liberalization during the period of One Hundred Flowers, see Gheddo, Catholiques et bouddhistes au Vietnam, 121–122.

[58] AMSZ, Department V, Z12, T619, W26 domestic situation – Meeting of the Central Committee about the Land reform 1956: report 14/242/1/11/57, Florian Ratajczak to Comrade Sluczanski, Hanoi, 10 December 1956 Note about the conference of Central Committee on 30 November 1956, organized by the DRV Foreign Affairs Ministry.

[59] Michel, La Société retrouvée, 37–39.

[60] See Bays, ‘A Tradition of State Dominance’, 13 and 25–39. Thus, the Board of Rites under dynastic governments, as the Religious Affairs Bureau under communist ones, was a specific institutional apparatus in charge of registration and licensing of religious groups and assumed the right to monitor and intervene in religious affairs, in order to avoid any religious movement that could evolve into a dangerous political force for the central government.

[61] See Madsen, ‘Catholic Conflict and Cooperation in the People's Republic of China’, 93–106.

[62] Hanson, ‘The Catholic Church in China’, 256–257.

[63] The Catholic Nguyen Manh Ha had always been impressed by their open-minded attitude during its collaboration in 1945. That is the reason why he agreed to return to Hanoi in 1955 in order to try to improve the relations between church and state.

[64] Concerning church–state relations in China, and in particular the delicate question of the appointment of bishops, the Vatican is willing today ‘to adopt the “Vietnam model” in which the Vatican appoints bishops from a list approved by the government’! See Madsen, ‘Catholic Conflict and Cooperation in the People's Republic of China’, 103–104.

[65] The request to consult these documents in the Centre no. 3 of the National Archives in Hanoi was unsuccessful.

[66] Indeed from modern times, the Catholic Church was one of the pillars of the Polish identity and nationalism, in the face of Protestant German and Orthodox Russian invaders.

[67] See Hershberg, with Gluchowski, ‘Who Murdered “Marigold”?’, and Gnoinska, ‘Poland and Vietnam, 1963’.