Bình Xuyên
| Binh Xuyen Force Bộ đội Bình Xuyên |
|
|---|---|
War standard.
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| Active | 1945 – 1960 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} Democratic Republic of Vietnam Cochinchina South Vietnam
|
| Type | Military |
| Nickname(s) |
Binh Xuyen Group Binh Xuyen Force Binh Xuyen Volunteer Police |
| Motto(s) | Honor - Fatherland |
| Colours | Red, blue, yellow |
| Engagements | Battle of Hoang Dieu |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Dương Văn Dương Huỳnh Văn Trọng Dương Văn Hà Võ Văn Môn Lê Văn Viễn Thái Hoàng Minh Nguyễn Văn Hiểu |
Binh Xuyen Force (Vietnamese: Bộ đội Bình Xuyên, IPA: [ɓɨ̂n swiəŋ]), often linked to its infamous leader, General Lê Văn Viễn (a.k.a. "Bảy Viễn") was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Việt Minh. During its heyday, Bình Xuyên funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces.
Bình Xuyên groups first emerged in the early 1920s as a loosely organized coalition of gangs and contract laborers about two hundred to three hundred strong. Bình Xuyên's early history consisted of cycles of kidnapping, piracy, pursuit, and occasionally imprisonment. One of the gang leaders was Ba Dương, a kingpin in the Saigon–Cholon area. His lieutenants included Huỳnh Văn Trí (a.k.a. Mười Trí), Dương Văn Hà (a.k.a. Năm Hà), Võ Văn Môn (a.k.a. Bảy Môn), and Lê Văn Viễn (a.k.a. Bảy Viễn). Bình Xuyên's history is largely that of two separate groups: Ba Dương's troops (the Bộ Đội Bình Xuyên) and Bảy Viễn's Bình Xuyên.
From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, Nhà Bè was a haven for hundreds of armed gangs led by several leaders. Some were groups of gangsters picking on the helpless, while others robbed the rich, reportedly, to help the poor. Some of the well-known gangsters at the time included:
Dương Văn Dương ("Ba Dương") was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants from Bến Tre. His mother remarried after his father's death and the family moved to Nhà Bè in the late 1920s, where Dương grew up to be a respected martial arts teacher. In 1936, Dương started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tây Ninh-Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon. By 1940, he had become a kingpin of South Vietnam. In 1943, Dương joined the Communist party. In 1945, he stole weapons from the Japanese to arm his troops in order to fight the returning French forces. Bộ Đội Ba Dương was reportedly one of the groups most feared by local French-trained militia. In 1945, the 2,000 armed men under different leaders in the Nhà Bè area elected Dương their commander. Together they chose to name the newly formed unit, "Bình Xuyên Troops" (the "Bộ Đội Bình Xuyên").
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Wikipedia