Reeducation camp

Reeducation camp (Vietnamese: trại học tập cải tạo) is the official title given to the prison camps operated by the Communist government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In such "reeducation camps", the government imprisoned up to 300,000 former military officers, government workers and supporters of the former government of South Vietnam. as it was implemented in Vietnam was seen as both a means of revenge and as a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination, which developed following the 1975 Fall of Saigon. Thousands were tortured or abused. Prisoners were incarcerated for as long as 17 years, with most terms ranging from three to 10 years.

The term 'reeducation camp' is also used to refer to prison camps operated by the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, or to the laogai and laojiao camps currently operated by the Chinese government. The theory underlying such camps is the Maoist theory of reforming counter-revolutionaries into socialist citizens by re-education through labor.

The term , with its pedagogical overtones, does not quite convey the -mystical resonance of trại học tập cải tạo in Vietnamese. Cải ("to transform", from Sino-Vietnamese ) and tạo ("to create", from Sino-Vietnamese ) combine to literally mean an attempt at re-creation, and making over sinful or incomplete individuals.

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