Some of them have been seduced and deceived by Viet Tan, according to the General Department of Security under the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security during a briefing with leaders of press agencies in Hanoi on March 28.   

Viet Tan - a product of dark schemes

What is Viet Tan and who does it act for? Viet Tan is the name of a reactionary organisation founded by a group of betrayers of the Vietnamese nation living in exile. On April 3, 1980, Hoang Co Minh, the former Vice Admiral of the Saigon Army who fled to the US in 1975, and several others resentful towards the Vietnamese regime established an anti-revolutionary organisation overseas called the National Unified Front for Vietnamese Liberation based in South California, USA.  

In 1981, with assistance from several extreme right-wing elements in the US and the intelligence force of the Thai ground troops, Hoang Co Minh and his aids established a resistance base in Thailand’s Udon jungle from which they instructed armed groups to penetrate Vietnamese territory attempting to sabotage the nation.  

On September 10, 1982, from this base, Hoang Co Minh presided over a congress to establish the so-called Vietnam Reform Party (or Viet Tan in short) serving as a nerve centre to lead all the activities of the liberation front. Members of the party central committee were also members of the front’s leadership.

In its political programme, Viet Tan set a clear goal of overthrowing the people’s democratic administration and the socialist regime in Vietnam. Since its establishment, it has carried out a number of activities to sabotage the Vietnamese state, going against the interests of the nation and people.

Smashing Viet Tan’s blind intention

Between 1982 and 1989, under instructions of the party led by Hoang Co Minh, the front sent dozens of its members to southern provinces to build organisations in Vietnam. It later directed armed groups named Dong Tien 1, Dong Tien 2 and Dong Tien 3 to penetrate Vietnam from Laos and Cambodia to establish secret bases and carry out terrorist acts in an attempt to overthrow the administration in the country’s strategic locations.

Vietnam’s armed forces, in collaboration with their Lao counterparts, launched attacks on these bases, killed and arrested hundreds of followers and seized all kinds of weapons and reactionary material. On July 7, 1987, Hoang Co Minh began to carry out his scheme by directly leading Dong Tien 2 troop group to penetrate the Central Highlands region. Having set their first footsteps in Laos, they were stopped by Laos’ armed forces and Vietnamese soldiers who arrested 67 and shot down 60 others including Hoang Co Minh.

Meanwhile, Tran Quang Do, who led Dong Tien 3 group to penetrate areas in central Vietnam on August 22, 1989, was also arrested and later brought to court.

Its successive defeats, particularly the defeat on the diplomatic front regarding the fight against terrorism as well as western countries’ disapproval of its previous terrorist acts, forced Viet Tien to change its tactics.

However, the party did not abandon its scheme of sabotaging the Vietnamese revolution. Between 1989 and 2000, Viet Tan established additional satellite organisations such as Free Vietnam Alliance, Overseas Vietnamese Specialist Association focusing on Vietnamese students and workers in East European countries, and then established the freedom committee in the central and eastern regions of the former Czech and Slovakia.

Through these organisations, it carried out the Nancy Plan, according to which it contacted several opposition elements in the country and established a reactionary organisation named the Alliance of Renovated National Forces attempting to overthrow the Vietnamese Government.  

Since 2000, the party has constantly carried out activities against Vietnam, both inside and outside the country. It launched the Yellow Flag campaign to invoke anti-Vietnam spirit among the Vietnamese community overseas. It made use of the Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee (VPAC) to spread propaganda against Vietnam regarding democracy and human rights issues, and encouraged extreme right-wing figures in the US political circles to put forward bills against Vietnam.  

Viet Tan announced public operations at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany on September 19, 2004 and then did the same in many other countries around the world including the US, Australia, Norway, France and Belgium with the aim of rallying forces, building up a reputation and carrying out schemes against Vietnam.

In October 2005, Viet Tan, together with Nguyen Sy Binh’s Action People’s Party and Nguyen Huu Chanh’s Nationality Party, established the so-called The National Salvation Revolutionary Council led by Nguyen Khanh.

Inside Vietnam, Viet Tan developed its forces by seducing several Vietnamese citizens who were studying and working overseas, then sending them to Vietnam to cause social disorder and rally forces in preparation for a ‘revolution of colours’ in the country. It assisted opposition elements in the country in establishing reactionary organisations such as the Vietnam Human Rights and Democracy Alliance, the Advancement Party, the Democratic Party XXI and the Bloc 8406, and aided and abetted and encouraged them to carry out activities aimed at stirring up social disorders in the country.

Given the low nature of miscreants, Viet Tan leaders persisted in terrorist acts within the Vietnamese territory. In late 2002 the police found that Viet Tan had instructed several elements in the country to establish secret armed forces, hired criminals to assassinate officials and then killed these assassins to cover any trace.

Following the Vietnamese Party and State’s open-door policy and promotion of democratic practice, Viet Tan recently strengthened activities against Vietnam by making use of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to label their activities and send forces to Vietnam, and by inciting Vietnamese student and workers abroad.

In addition, it selected some of opposition elements in the country to train as leaders of its established organisations in the country and used them as mayflies by instructing them to carry out public activities against the administration, build law offices, micro-credit programmes and trading companies to mobilise financial sources and cover up their activities in the country. It instructed its secret organisations in Vietnam to stir up people’s confrontation with the State in order to spark a wave of public anger and petitions across the country. It also directed them to establish organisations struggling for the right to freedom of speech such as the free journalists association, the journalists’ protection association, the Vietnamese workers’ association, and the independent trade union.

It sent or planned to send these selected elements for training abroad as the core for the establishment of the above-mentioned organisations, collected material and sent it to NGOs and global media to accuse Vietnam of human rights and democracy violations. In addition, it is preparing for the announcement of its public operations in Vietnam either on May 20, which coincides with the national election of deputies to the National Assembly, or on August 28 which marks Hoang Co Minh’s death.

Currently, Viet Tan is launching anti-Vietnam campaigns abroad, including a campaign to encourage overseas Vietnamese and foreigners to boycott Vietnam’s commodities and aviation services. The party is lobbying several extreme right-wing figures in the US political circles and other organisations to raise voice for several activists detained in Vietnam. .