Hoàng Thọ

Thọ came from a poor family. In his youth, he had to rely on pagodas for sustenance. The head monk of a pagoda took pity on the diligent and quick-witted boy, teaching him martial arts with the hope that he could one day help others. At seventeen, Thọ could be seen carrying water shirtless, and the monk noticed a patch of hair between his breasts. The monk turned away without saying anything. From then on, he stopped teaching him martial arts and focused solely on teaching chants and drumming. Thọ grew tired of his lessons and left. The monk muttered, "That patch of chest hair can only indicate a servant turning against their master."

Relying on his martial prowess for money, Thọ quickly became a dominant gangster at the Hải Phòng Port area due to his excessive brutality. Faced with the overwhelming military might from Imperial Japanese troops, Thọ lost his domain. With his followers scattered in all directions, he immediately enlisted in the Japanese Navy, where he was trained as an electrician. When Japan surrendered to the Allies and withdrew from Hải Phòng, he did not follow them. Thọ gathered his scattered followers and continued to live by his violent ways. During this period, he was nicknamed Thọ "Mạch Lô",^{[note 1]} referring to his time in the Navy. When the Việt Minh rose up to seize government seats, he joined their National Salvation Force. From there, Hoàng Thọ drifted South and became a henchman of Lieutenant General Nguyễn Bình with the task of eliminating Caodaists and French collaborators from his new domain at Lower Gò Dầu and Trảng Bàng. His name terrified the province of Tây Ninh. He slit throats, smashed heads, and set the accused adrift in the river. If he needed to eliminate many people at once, Thọ would tie them together into a raft and finish them off in one go. His victims' bodies filled the West Vàm Cỏ River.^[1]

General Raymond Boisseau proposed a different account of his early life. Per the general, Thọ was a "former Catholic scout leader from Sài Gòn. A strong, dynamic, authoritarian personality, faithful to his ideal, a staunch nationalist, and of uncompromising character."^[2]

Besides being proficient in the arts of killing, Thọ was also especially crafty in battle. Known for his tenacity, he inflicted significant losses on the French army. General Nguyễn Bình appointed Hoàng Thọ as Commander of the 303rd Battalion in Zone 7. To flaunt his strength, Thọ had his troops moved around a village at night. The troops marched all night, making people think the force was larger than a regiment. Thọ's soldiers moved in a continuous, closed circle. One person would pass through a single point ten times. In this way, Thọ's troops were magnified tenfold through the mouths of the public.^[1]

According to general Raymond Boisseau, the 303rd Battalion was not given its number until 1949. The 10th Sub-Detachment^{[note 2]} commanded by Thọ under the 13th Detachment^{[note 3]} (established in Gò Vấp) was the predecessor to this unit. It was during this time that he gained Nguyễn Bình's attention, who incorporated the 10th into his own guards.^[2]

After the Hồ-Sainteny Agreement, Lieutenant General Bình launched a campaign of terror against "traitors" with the aim of controlling the population. He issued an order on 5 October 1946 to Hoàng Thọ, authorizing him to form the "Tây Ninh Mobile Company",^{[note 4]} a guard unit drawn from the 10th and former elements of the 13th. It was disguised under different designations, such as "52nd Company" or "47th Detachment", but it would be known to all as the "1st Mobile Foot"^{[note 5]} or "Hoàng Thọ's Foot". Bình launched Thọ's new armed group against the sectarian forces but was outmaneuvered and assassinated by Bình Xuyên and Cao Đài elements. Alerted, Thọ evacuated the wounded general to a hospital in Tân Uyên within Zone 7.

Nguyễn Bình’s Resistance Committee continued to exhibit great difficulties with their “fellow travelers” in the National Front: Hoà Hảo, Cao Đài and Bình Xuyên. Meanwhile, the French were trying to entice them to defect from the Việt Minh. An agreement was reached with the Caodaists, and general Bình launched an operation against the Tây Ninh Holy See. The attack was directed by Huỳnh Kim Trương, Zone 7's Chief-of-Staff, with the participation of Hoàng Thọ's Foot and Ngô Thất Sơn's 1st Overseas Foot. Although damage was dealt to the Caodaists, the operation ultimately strengthened military cooperation between the sect and the French. Thọ expanded his area of operations east of the Sài Gòn River.^[2]

In late February and early March 1947, Hoàng Thọ's Foot joined up with the Việt Minh's 4th Overseas Detachment, the 11th Detachment and Ngô Thất Sơn's 1st Overseas Foot under the umbrella of "Allied Force B" to resist French forces at Tây Ninh.^[3][4] He continued to expand his unit and engage the French throughout Cochinchina. On the anniversary of the Việt Minh's seizure of power in 1947, Hoàng Thọ massacred the Thới Hòa Self-Defense Post and suppressed a French pursuit the next day. For this action, he was awarded the Military Exploit Order, First-Class, on September 26.

To answer Nguyễn Bình's worries concerning the situation in Bà Rịa, Thọ and his men crossed over to Zone Đ. Unexpectedly, on January 11, 1948, they had to face the airborne operation "Têta". This operation targeted the command post of Zone 7 in the triangle of Tan-Tich [sic], Mỹ Lộc, and Tân Lập, east of Tân Uyên. Whilst counter-attacking a unit, Thọ recovered one Thompson submachine gun and eight rifles. Then, at night, he seized some 200 parachutes abandoned in the rice paddy by the 2nd Colonial Parachute Commando Battalion. Proud of this capture, Thọ's fighters wore these silk parachute scarves for a long time. He then took part in the disarmament of Seventh Viễn's troops. On Independence Day 1948, the 1st Mobile Foot was awarded 1,000 piastres. Thọ's troops now numbered 230, including 120 combatants and 110 support personnel.^[2]

Thọ was fascinated by Chinese tales and admired the character of Xiang Yu. He advocated for a skilled force, not a large one. He emulated Xiang Yu's lightning-fast marches and troop deployments designed for a fight to the death. With enemy troops in front and impassable rivers behind, he generally found himself in a situation where retreat was impossible, forcing his soldiers to charge forward desperately for survival. On the battlefield, Thọ demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. He frequently organized ambushes against French supply convoys, capturing large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment and, as of 1949, had been widely acknowledged for his contributions.^[1]

Not all of Thọ's targets were military in nature. In November 1946, Thọ's 1st Mobile Foot raided a supply convoy for the Cầu Khởi plantation at Truông Mít, a small town 20km north of Lower Gò Dầu. He seized several million piastres in intended payment for the plantation's labor. Some of the money were given away as gifts. In particular was the 6th Detachment, which received 200,000 for the action, as it had taken place in their "territory". Weapons were offered to Hoàng Thọ in return as congratulations.^[2]

In May 1949, Nguyễn Bình, wanting to restructure his units into the battalion - regiment system already in use in Tonkin, decided to raise the new "Hoàng Thọ's Foot" to the regimental level by amalgamating it with the remaining companies from the Cochinchina's Regular Foot^{[note 6]} and the 309th Company from Đồng Tháp Mười. The 1st Mobile Foot was fully reorganized into "Zone 7's Regular Mobile Regiment",^{[note 7]} with a "2719th Company" taking its former place. This new regiment took the number "303", which made its way into official correspondence and into the minds of its combatants.

Later Việt Cộng deputy regimental commander and chief of staff Dương Đình Lôi, then working as a young cryptographer under Lê Đức Anh, described Thọ's tactics as frequently suicidal, stating that it "could work against the French but never the Americans."^[5]

After a devastating loss in a seeming counter-ambush where he miraculously escaped, Thọ suspected a mole. Having just 30 men left under him, Hoàng Thọ kidnapped Nguyễn Bình's envoy Lê Minh Chiếu, a Communist Party member, and executed him for this reason. He then quarrelled with the general at their meeting, where Bình said that Thọ is "no longer worthy of his Party introduction." He allegedly lashed out: "I, Thọ, enlisted in the Resistance for the common people and the state, I don't need no party. The Party is just a bunch of factionalists protecting each other." Bình gave a wry smile and ordered him out.^[1]