{"id":54193,"date":"1995-06-06T00:00:20","date_gmt":"1995-06-06T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queme.org\/?p=54193"},"modified":"2025-06-09T15:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:33:42","slug":"do-trung-hieu-render-unto-caesar-the-things-which-are-caesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/do-trung-hieu-render-unto-caesar-the-things-which-are-caesars\/","title":{"rendered":"“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” :<\/em> A High ranking Communist official denounces the CPV’s policy to neutralise the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam – Thich Tri Quang’s position on Buddhist reunification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

  PARIS, 6th<\/sup>\nJune 1995 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights has just received an\nimportant document written by a veteran communist official in charge of\nreligious affairs which sheds new light on the Communist Party of Viet Nam\n(CPV)’s policy towards the Buddhist Church. The document, written one year ago,\nwas sent to the Vietnam Committee with the plain inscription: “In\noffering for the 1995 Vesak Anniversary <\/em>(the 2539th Anniversary of the\nBirth of Buddha). There was no indication as to whether it was sent by the\nauthor himself, Mr Do Trung H<\/strong>ieu, <\/strong>or by another source. The\nauthor’s address – 7D Phung Khac Khoan Street, Ist Ward, Ho Chi Minh City – is\nmentioned in the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Trung Hieu, code-name Muoi Anh, was born in\nKhanh Hoa, Central Viet Nam. Before 1975, he was head of the Tri Tre Department\n(Mobilisation of Intellectuals, Students and Youth) for the Saigon-Gia Dinh\narea, under the direct orders of Tran Bach Dang. After 1975, he was appointed\nby Xuan Thuy[1]<\/sup><\/a> to head the “Mission to Unify Buddhism”. Maintained at this\npost by Xuan Thuy’s successors Nguyen Van Linh, then Tran Quoc Hoan, Do Trung\nHieu became the principal architect of the Party’s policy to neutralise\nVietnamese Buddhism, a policy which culminated in the creation of the\nState-sponsored Viet Nam Buddhist Church in Hanoi on November 4th 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document, entitled “The Unification\nof Vietnamese Buddhism”<\/strong>, comprises 50 type-written pages of comments\nand analysis on the CPV’s strategy to neutralise – and finally to suppress\n–  the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet\nNam (UBCV), and reveals valuable inside information such as the names,\nfunctions and influence of all those involved with this affair on both the\nBuddhist and Communist sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hieu reveals that the CPV’s main objective in forcing Buddhists to unify into one State-Church was to neutralise the UBCV, perceived as a major threat to Party authority.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document describes the CVP’s long-standing\nhostility towards Buddhism, and the consequences of this policy in North Viet\nNam. Xuan Thuy t old the author that, as a result of Directive No 20 drawn up\nby Tran Xuan Bach and signed by Party Secretary Le Duan in 1960: “in\nthe north, Buddhist followers have all joined mass organisations, only old\npeople (…) go to Pagodas to worship nowadays<\/em>” and “bona-fide\nmonks are few and far between”<\/em>. In short, said Xuan Thuy, even the\nmost prominent communist figures of Buddhism such as the “inevitable<\/em>”\nVenerable  Pham The Long, or Venerables\nThien Hao and Minh Nguyet (all members of the CPV, according to Mr Hieu), have\nan “extremely limited” <\/em>understanding of  Buddhism and “are unable to respond\nto followers’ needs”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Mr Hieu quotes Xuan Thuy’s\nappraisal of the Unified Buddhist Church head-quartered at An Quang Pagoda : “[the\nUBCV] is not only a religious organisation of national proportions, but it is\nalso a socio-political organisation with a wide-based popular following,\nsignificant international renown and a leadership of remarkably talented\nmonks”. <\/em>Xuan Thuy warnedthat “if the unification\nprocess follows the proposal of Venerable Thich Don Hau, i.e. that the Buddhist\nPatriots’ Liaison Committee (BPLC)<\/em> is disbanded, and the Unified\nBuddhist Association (UBA)<\/em>[2]<\/sup><\/a> is incorporated into the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam and comes\nunder UBCV leadership, the UBCV’s influence will spread all over the country,\nand not just be contained in South Viet Nam as before 1975″.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xuan Thuy feared that if the UBCV was allowed\nto develop along these lines, “the Party would never be able to control\nthe UBCV. On the contrary, the UBCV would become an enormous, popular,\nreligious organisation which, with its mass following of Buddhists, would\nconstitute a permanent challenge for the Party and the government”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, as Do Trung Hieu explains, the real\nobjective behind the policy of Buddhist “unification” advanced by the\nCPV and its Mass Mobilisation Department was to “transform Vietnamese\nBuddhism into a people’s association. Its structure should be inferior to that\nof an ordinary association, restricted exclusively to monks and nuns without\nany participation of lay-followers – a top-level structure without any popular\nstructural base. We shall call it the “Vietnamese Buddhist Association\n[VBA]”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By restricting it within the limits of this\nassociation, the CPV’s intent was to prohibit Buddhism – and thence the UBCV –\nfrom playing any social role: “Its [the VBA’s] activities should be\nconfined exclusively to the celebration of religious ceremonies and worship in\nPagodas. It must on no account be allowed any activities related to society or\nto the people (…) Only Pagodas will be allowed to serve as the Association’s\nbases or headquarters. Thus, the mass following of Buddhist laity will never be\nallowed to structure its forces into organic units of  the Church”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hieu denounces the consequences of the Party’s religious policy after 1975:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Xuan Thuy’s admission – implicitly\nthat of communist authorities – that “the only thing the monks of the <\/em>[communist]\nUnified Buddhist Association and the Buddhist Patriots’ Liaison Committee will\nbe able to do will be to “carry the briefcases” of the UBCV”, <\/em>and\nthat “Venerable Thich Tri Quang will scoop them all up in a sweep of\nhis sleeve”<\/em>, the CPV’s only way of maintaining control was to set up a\nState-sponsored body, the Viet Nam Buddhist Church on November 4th 1981.\nOstensibly an umbrella for the “unification” of Vietnamese Buddhism,\nthe VBC was conceived to supplant the UBCV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Trung Hieu affirms that the establishment of\nthe VBC was the work of the CVP alone : “Out of the nine organisations\nand Buddhist schools attending the Congress<\/em>[3]<\/sup><\/a>, one belonged to the UBCV, whereas the eight others were all under the\ndirect control of the Party (…). To preserve appearances, the task of\nunification was handled by Buddhist monks, but the Party’s control and its\ndetermination to transform Vietnamese Buddhism into a puppet of the CPV was\nobvious throughout the whole reunification process”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Mr Hieu’s revelations, the\nmotivations behind the systematic campaign of repression launched by the\ncommunist authorities against the UBCV after 1975 become clear. This repression\nreached such a height that on November 2nd 1975, twelve monks and nuns burned\nthemselves alive in protest at Duoc Su Pagoda in Can Tho. Repression and\nprotests continue today, with a sharp escalation of tensions over the past\nthree years (continued arrests of nuns, monks and Buddhist lay-followers;\nrepression against the demonstration of 40,000 Buddhists in Hue on May 24 1993;\nclamp-down on the UBCV rescue mission for flood victims in the Mekong Delta in\nNovember 1994; arrests of Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang in December 1994 and\nSecretary General Thich Quang Do in January 1995).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable Thich Tri Quang’s four point proposal for Buddhist unification and the position of the late Patriarch Thich Don Hau.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UBCV’s former Patriarch Thich Don Hau was\ntaken into the maquis by the communists after the 1968 Tet Offensive, then\ntransferred to Hanoi, where he was made Adviser to the Provisional\nRevolutionary Government of South Viet Nam. In 1976 he became a Member of the\nNational Assembly and Member of the Executive in the Central Committee of the\nFatherland Front. However, he resigned from all these functions in protest\nagainst the Government’s repression of the UBCV. According to Mr Hieu, the\nPatriarch “maintained this position until the day of his death” <\/em>on\n23 April 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His “position” was, in Mr Hieu’s\nwords, an open and energetic opposition to the Government’s policy of\ntransforming Buddhism into a tool of the CPV. Mr Hieu recalls that “immediately\nafter the liberation [of South Viet Nam]” <\/em>in 1975 Thich Don Hau sent a\nPetition along these lines to Le Duan, Ton Duc Thang, Truong Chinh and Pham Van\nDong. In response, “the Party [turned down] Thich Don Hau’s proposals\nfor Buddhist reunification and [accused] the Patriarch of harbouring evil\nintentions against the Party and the Vietnamese Government”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hieu’s document also sheds light on the\nposition of one of the UBCV’s most enigmatic figures, the Very Venerable Thich\nTri Quang. Giving an insight into Thich Tri Quang’s 20-year long silence,\nduring which he has refused all cooperation with the communist authorities and\ntaken no part in the Party’s “Buddhist Unification” <\/em>operation,\nMr Hieu reveals the four basic conditions set down by Thich Tri Quang for the\nunification of Buddhism in Viet Nam:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/strong>. “On the\nreligious level, unifying Buddhism means developing the fundamental essence of\nBuddhism, i.e. Knowledge, Liberation of Being, and the respect for the monastic\npractices of the different schools” s<\/em>uch as Hinayana (Small Vehicle)\nand Mahayana (Great Vehicle) Buddhism, both of which are practiced in Viet Nam\n;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.<\/strong> “On the<\/em> organisational\nlevel, unifying Buddhism means establishing one religious body which has moral\nand legal authority both inside and outside the country”<\/em>.Local\nstructures and “different schools should retain their own monastic\npractices” <\/em>whilst respecting the directives of the central religious\ninstitution;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/strong> “On the\nsocial level, unifying Buddhism means conducting all Buddhist social activities\nunder the directives of one central Church. This Church must be independent,\nand its doctrines must faithfully adhere to teachings and precepts of Buddha;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. <\/strong>“On\nthe executive level, unifying Buddhism means giving the Church freedom to\nappoint its leadership in a just and equitable manner, without compliancy, free\nfrom any political pressure (…). Leaders of the Sangha [community of monks\nand nuns] must be selected on the basis of \ntheir spiritual and moral authority alone, and their appointment should\nbe approved by the entire Buddhist Sangha as well as by followers all over the\ncountry”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These proposals were flatly rejected by the\nParty’s leaders, who remained hostile to the UBCV and wary of Thich Tri Quang’s\nconsiderable influence. Indeed, the CPV perceived Thich Tri Quang as a\nformidable adversary, as Mr Hieu reveals in a comment made by Muoi Ut (Nguyen\nVan Linh’s code- name) to Tu Anh (Tran Bach Dang’s code-name) : “The\nNational Liberation Front (NLF) has never been defeated by anyone, but Thich\nTri Quang outwitted them three times running. Each time, in the subtlest\npossible way, Thich Tri Quang rescued the Americans and their puppets <\/em>(sic)”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nguyen Van Linh was referring to three\ncampaigns launched by Thich Tri Quang in 1964 and 1965, which the communists\nbelieved were deliberately directed against them. He recounts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In 1964, there was severe flooding in\nCentral Viet Nam. NLF fighters were about to take over the puppet army’s\noutposts, when Thich Tri Quang launched the slogan “Unified Buddhist\nChurch of Viet Nam Rescue Mission”. With the five-coloured [Buddhist] flag\nfloating on the dinghies, boats and helicopters, [the NLF soldiers could not\nattack] and the soldiers of the puppet army were saved.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, “in the same year, 1964, popular\nprotests broke out against the puppet regime. The NLF sought to step up this\nmovement in the cities by launching anti-government slogans. Thich Tri Quang\nchose that very moment to create the ” People’s Council for National\nSalvation” in Central [Viet Nam]” and demand a civilian government.\nThis attracted the whole population’s attention to him, and our slogans were\ntotally eclipsed”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, “in 1965, [after] the American army had cynically invaded South Viet Nam, the NLF stepped up revolutionary warfare against the American imperialist agressors. Thereupon, Thich Tri Quang launched the “Prayer for Peace” operation, which totally compromised [the NLF’s]<\/em> anti-american war efforts.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hieu reveals widespread discontent within Communist ranks, and calls on the Party Secretariat to take the interests of the Nation into account.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Trung Hieu gives his own view on the CPV : “The\nPolitburo is a collectivity which operates as “every-man-for-himself”\nunder the directives of the Secretary General. The Party Secretariat is another\ncollectivity which operates as “every-man-is-king-of-his-own-castle”\nunder the orders of the Secretary General. As for the Secretary General, he\nincarnates democratic centralism. This makes for the worst possible kind of\ndictatorial, feudal regime”. <\/em>He also gives the views of other Party\nmembers, such as Mr Nguyen Huy Quang, a cadre in charge of mass mobilisation\nand religious affairs in the North, who bitterly commented: “This is\nnot our Party, it’s theirs, and theirs alone, even though we are members of it.\nFor all that we are [Party] members, we are nothing but pawns in their\ngame”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do Trung Hieu concludes with the analysis that\nthe CPV’s failure in economic management, which has lead the nation to\nbankrupcy, is nothing in comparison with the irreparable damage it is wreaking\nin the religious domain. He calls on the CVP to cease all interference in\nreligious affairs: “When a company manager loses millions of dongs\nthrough mismanagement, he causes worry and hardship, but he can always find a\nway to earn back the loss. But in the [religious] domain, the slightest mistake\ncan cause irreparable suffering for millions of people, especially all those\nwho are in jail, who die in prison or in deportation. Nothing can replace such\nlosses or repair such mistakes. I urge you to give this question serious\nthought and elaborate a project that fits the people’s aspirations, working on\nthe principle that one must “render unto Ceasar the things which are\nCeasar’s”. <\/strong> (…) You cannot\ncontinue with policies that bring such harm the Nation and engender so much\nsuffering to the mass of [religious] followers. For if you do, you will bear\nfull responsibility and must take whatever consequences are to come”.<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Head of the North Vietnamese delegation to the\nParis Peace talks in the late 60s, Secretary of the CPV Central Committee, Head\nof the Mass Mobilisation Department and of the Fatherland Front, Party\nSecretary and Secretary of Mass Organisations in the Fatherland Front’s Central\nCommittee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a>The UBA was the Buddhist organisation for North\nViet Nam, the BPLC for the South. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a>The Congress in Hanoi in 1981 at which the Viet\nNam Buddhist Church was founded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  PARIS, 6th June 1995 (VCHR) – The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights has just received an important document written by a veteran communist official in charge of religious affairs which sheds new light on the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV)’s policy towards the Buddhist Church. The document, written one year ago, was sent …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,113,98,64],"tags":[1049,1370,1804,287,1805,288],"class_list":["post-54193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-forb","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-buddhism-2","tag-cpv-2","tag-do-trung-hieu-3","tag-religious-freedom-2","tag-thich-tri-quang-3","tag-ubcv-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}