The French colonialists basically
completed the invasion of Indochina at the end of the 19th century, and at the
beginning of the 20th century, they completed the consolidation of the ruling power
here. In 1916, after the failed revolt plan of King Duy Tan, marking the
collapse of the war promoter party in the Nguyen court, the court completely
accepted the French protectorate in Annam. The Thai Nguyen uprising was
defeated in 1917, revolutionary Phan Boi Chau was arrested in 1925 and Phan Chu
Trinh died in 1926, etc. All of the events gradually extinguished the
Vietnamese people's hope of gaining independence.
Organizations established during
this period mainly advocated peaceful struggles such as the Phuc Viet Party and
the Youth Party established in 1925 and 1926. However, during that time, a rare
organization appeared. It had a tendency to violently struggle to complete the
overthrow of the French government in Indochina, which was the Vietnam
Nationalist Party.
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| Flag of the Vietnam Nationalist Party |
Founded in 1927 and led by Nguyen
Thai Hoc, the Vietnam Nationalist Party has a bourgeois-democratic revolution
following the path of Sun Yat-sen (China). In the early stages of its
operation, the Vietnam Nationalist Party had a favorable first step in building
up its influence in the region. However, a major incident in 1929 exposed the
organization's weaknesses. That was the assassination of Bazin in February
1929.
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| Nguyen Thai Hoc |
Today, whenever we talk about the
Vietnam Nationalist Party, we often refer to two topics. The assassination of
Bazin was one of them and the other was the Yen Bai uprising. These two are
closely related because the assassination of Bazin had an impact on the organization that caused the leaders of the VNP to launch the uprising earlier
than expected.
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| The former headquarters of the VNP |
At 20:00 on February 9, 1929, a
daring murder occurred in the central of Hanoi. The victim was Bazin, one of
the most powerful labor recruiters in Tonkin. He is said to often use trickery,
and if the employees wanted to withdraw and cancel the contract, they were
threatened, beaten, sometimes kidnapped, so many people hated him.
Bazin was just at the house of
his mistress at 110 Route de Hue street at that time, then she got out and crossed the street to get into
his car, which was parked across the street. At that time, the driver was
turning on the engine to start the car, when suddenly two young Vietnameses
dressed in western clothes, and without hats, approached Bazin. One of them
gave Bazin a letter. While this man was busy opening the letter, the other man
pulled out a gun and shot Bazin three times. The rest of the people in the car
pressed themselves down on the seats and waited for the two assassins to leave
before shouting. Bazin by this time collapsed and died the following day.
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| Route de Hue street |
When authorities examined the
letter, they realized it was an indictment that put him on a death sentence. The letter
was written in very unrecognizable handwriting so they couldn't tell who
wrote it.
Many theories have been put
forward: it is suspected that this is a bloody payment because of professional
competition, some say it is an activity of the Vietnam Nationalist Party. This
opinion is widely recognized because at this time the VNP also took actions
such as spreading leaflets against the arrest of workers, calling on workers to
rebel against the French government... Eventually, the Secret Service went to a
conclusion: Bazin's assassination was a politically motivated murder advocated
by a secret organization, and that was later identified as the Vietnam
Nationalist Party. The assassination was not approved by Nguyen Thai Hoc at
all but was planned by Nguyen Van Vien, a VNP member.
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| Major members of the VNP |
Bazin died, the recruitment of
labor came to a dead end. The Secret Service was ordered to operate strictly,
and the Indochina government responded very quickly. Bazin's funeral was
formally held with the attendance of Pasquier, Governor of Indochina, and other
high-ranking officials. At the same time, the French government sent many
policemen and detectives to hunt down the people suspected of their
involvement in the assassination, mostly in Hai Phong and Kien An. Important
members of VNP were immediately arrested or wanted. Nguyen Thai Hoc, Nguyen
Khac Nhu, and some others escaped. |
| Nguyen Thi Giang (Co Giang), a VNP member, wife of Nguyen Thai Hoc |
In fact, before that, it was not
that the French government was unaware of the party's activities, but France
was not in a hurry to suppress it because they wanted this organization to
spread and then destroy it at once, and Bazin's assassination was an
opportunity for the French Indochina government to do that. Vietnam
Nationalist Party suffered heavy losses.
On September 17, 1929, a secret
meeting of the party was held in Lac Dao (which was the border of the two
provinces of Bac Ninh and Hung Yen). The meeting made multiple important
decisions, including the preparation of the uprising.
The majority of members agreed
with Nguyen Thai Hoc's idea of putting all activities to the stage of
preparing for the uprising, while some other members agreed with Le Huu Canh's
opinion, saying that their forces were weak and if they make any dynamic move,
it would be easy to fail, and they would be persecuted, and suppressed by the
French government and the organization could be destroyed. In the end, Nguyen
Thai Hoc's side won.
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| Yen Bai station |
On the night of February 9th,
1930, as soon as there was a signal to turn off the lights at Yen Bai barracks,
the rebel forces broke in and combined with the army of soldiers supporting the
uprising inside. The insurgents were divided into several spears and attacked
the officers' quarters and forts, with the goal of killing the French commander
and capturing the barracks. At exactly 1 a.m. February 10th, the
insurgent forces attacked simultaneously. French commanders were killed, others
were seriously injured. After killing the French officers, the rebel forces
took over the armory, the station, and the office in the province.
At 7 a.m. on February 10, the
army led by the French counterattacked and the uprising at Yen Bai was put
down.
In Phu Tho, Nguyen Khac Nhu
commanded insurgents to attack Hung Hoa town and ended up failed. On the
morning of February 10, the French army pulled up from Phu Tho to
counterattack, the insurgents were defeated, Nguyen Khac Nhu was arrested, then
he committed suicide. In Lam Thao, Bui Xuan Mai's army quickly mastered the
town, but the French counterattacked the following day, so it also failed. At
Son Tay, the commander of the spear, Pho Duc Chinh, was also arrested.
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| Pho Duc Chinh |
In Hanoi, Doan Tran Nghiep
led a suicide team, bombing at five locations in Hanoi, including Hoa Lo
prison. Doan Tran Nghiep was later arrested and executed. The other spears also
failed in turn.
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| Execution of the bombers at Hoa Lo prison |
On February 27, 1930, 15 insurgents
were brought to court and four of them were executed, including Nguyen Thai
Hoc. Before being taken to the guillotine, Nguyen Thai Hoc shouted "Long
live Vietnam!".
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| Execution of Nguyen Thai Hoc and others |
The defeat of the Yen Bai
uprising ended the bourgeois revolutionary activities in Vietnam. In 1930, the
Communist Party of Vietnam was established and led the national uprising, and the
most powerful rebel locations were Nghe An and Ha Tinh, the uprising eventually
failed but the organization of the party was still preserved and after many
failures, and learning from experiences, they conducted a successful uprising
in 1945, liberated the country from French colonialism, and defeated the
Japanese fascist government in Indochina.
