Re-education camp (Vietnam)

Re-education camps (Vietnamese: Trại cải tạo) were prison camps operated by the communist Việt Cộng and Socialist Republic of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In these camps, the government imprisoned at least 200,000–300,000 former military officers, government workers and supporters of the former government of South Vietnam. Other estimates put the number of inmates who passed through "re-education" as high as 500,000 to 1 million. The high end estimate of 1 million is often attributed to a mistranslated statement by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, and is considered excessive by many scholars. "Re-education" as it was implemented in Vietnam was seen as both a means of revenge and as a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination. Torture was common in the re-education camps. Prisoners were incarcerated for periods ranging from weeks to 18 years.

Historical background

In South Vietnam, the government of Ngo Dinh Diem countered North Vietnamese subversion (including the assassination of over 450 South Vietnamese officials by Viet Cong in 1956) by detaining tens of thousands of suspected communists in "political re-education centers." Although it was somewhat successful at curtailing communist activity, Diem's re-education centers were a ruthless program that incarcerated many non-communists. The North Vietnamese government claimed that over 65,000 individuals were incarcerated and 2,148 individuals were killed in the process by November 1957

After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese men, from former officers in the armed forces, to religious leaders, to employees of the Americans or the old government, were rounded up in re-education camps to "learn about the ways of the new government." They were never tried, judged or convicted of any crime. Many South Vietnamese men chose to flee on boats, but others did not flee.