took aggressive steps to prevent an epidemic. Then, during the mosquito breeding season, he supervised an intensive spraying program to keep malaria under control. When the decreasing number of Fleet ships reduced his usual source of medicine, Dooley wrote to the Charles Pfizer Company in the United States, explaining his work and asking for a "small contribution of say, 25,000 capsules of terramycin." The company responded with double that amount and later sent penicillin, streptomycin, and magnamycin as well. The Meade-Johnson Company shipped gallons of liquid vitamins; Pan American Airways sent 10,000 bars of soap; and other companies made additional contributions. President Diem recognized Dooley's work by personnally decorating him with the Officier de L' Ordre National de Viet Nam at a ceremony on 12 May 1955. Through the end of 1954, several unexpected throngs of people streamed into the Haiphong camps. The first major influx came from the Catholic parishes around Phat Diem south of Haiphong, where in mid-November the International Control Commission worked out arrangements with the Viet Minh allowing their departure. By December, over 10,000 refugees had fled Phat Diem.46 About 20 November, local Catholics in Vinh discussed with French naval officers possible coastal pickups similar to those off Bui Chu. Hoping to rescue as many as 6,000 refugees, the French scheduled the operations for 30 November. The rough weather of the northeast monsoon delayed the operation for a time, but on 19 December the French picked up 525 wet and tired souls representing the first refugees from Vinh. On the 23rd French ships transported about 2,400 more people to Haiphong for the trip south. French ships then swept the coast off Vinh several more times during the next two weeks but no other refugees appeared. A third group of refugees, many of whom were Chinese, comprised permanent residents within the Haiphong perimeter. Before 1 December, few inhabitants of the city were counted among the refugees. On that date, however, Jacques Compaign, who headed the French civilian government in North Vietnam, relinquished his power to General Cogny in order to centralize authority for possible emergency action. General Cogny immediately announced that he would not guarantee the security of the residents of the city after 1 February. Conservative French estimates of the Lindholm, Viet-Nam: The First Five Years, pp. 63–72; COMPHIBGRU1, report, ser 055 of 15 June 1955, encl. 1; Dooley, Deliver Us From Evil, pp. 70–71, 83, 119, 144–48. number planning to leave the city ran to 100,000. Added to the steady stream of refugees coming from the interior of the country, these estimates led to the assignment of an additional transport to the Passage to Freedom in January 1955.** Despite such demands, the emphasis after mid-November 1954 had shifted from passengers to cargo. Long-range planning called for the evacuation of 1,500 long tons of cargo per day during November, 2,000 during December, and 1,000 in January. The goal for November was exceeded, thus reducing the amount of material available for lift in December. On 22 November 1954, the French decided to retain only 2,000 vehicles and 18,000 troops in the North. Starting on 14 December, four MSTS LSTS were made available in response to a French request for sealift in evacuating the 1,500 vehicles now excess to their needs in the North. By the end of January, all military cargo, other than that required to support the dwindl ing French garrison in Haiphong, had been evacuated.18 As the backlog of military cargo decreased, the pressure to move civilian cargo correspondingly increased. The French largely abandoned the industrial capacity of Hanoi and Nam Dinh, partly because of a lack of time and partly because Vietnamese businessmen staying behind hoped to maintain a business-as-usual attitude even after the Communists came to power. On 30 November, Admiral Stump clarified his policy on civilian cargo by stating that none was to be accepted unless the French specifically declared it beyond their capacity to carry. Thirty-six barges fell into this category. Charging the commercial French rate, Gunston Hall (LSD-5) hauled the barges south in five trips between 10 January and 28 February 1955. A request from Chinese fishermen in the Along Bay region to transport their 100 fishing boats to Tourane was turned down when the French offered to transport the smaller ones and to provide escorts for the larger boats in April, normally the end of the monsoon, when the weather was expected to turn favorable for the proposed voyage south." The Final Phase Commander Amphibious Squadron 1, Captain Augustus R. St. Angelo, "COMPHIBGRU1, report, ser 055 of 15 June, encl. 1; Lindholm, Viet-Nam: The First Five Years, pp. 69–72. 48 CTF 90, report, ser 0252 of 8 Nov. 1954; COMPHIBGRU1, report, ser 055 of 15 June 1955, encl. 1. 40 Ibid.; Lindholm, Viet-Nam: The First Five Years, pp. 69-71. had relieved Captain Frank as Commander Task Group 90.8 on 23 January 1955, during the slowdown in operations accompanying the Chinese New Year. At the end of the month, USNS General R. L. Howze departed Haiphong on her final trip, with 4,253 passengers. She had carried more than 50,000 refugees during her four and a half month tour in Indochina. On 18 February, the Vietnamese Refugee Committee officially suspended registration for the evacuation by sea until 1 March. The Committee's president gave two reasons; he hoped to induce more registration later and he felt the camps needed a respite to process the 17,256 refugees who had already registered. Gradually, the backlog declined, the tent camps were closed, and the remaining refugees moved into vacant public buildings in downtown Haiphong. By 20 March, only Camp Lach Tray remained open with a population of 2,165. In April, USNS Marine Adder (AP-193) and Marine Serpent (AP-202) sailed on an eight-day cycle. General A. W. Brewster (AP-155), arriving to take care of any last-minute influx of refugees, joined the group on 22 April and kept the same schedule. Late in the month four MSTS LSTS joined the force to evacuate the remaining French security troops and their equipment. By the first of May, the camps sheltered only 1,300 people and less than 10,000 others were registered for future transportation. Captain Winn (now designated Commander Task Group 50.1) had been ordered by Admiral Stump to proceed to Indochina at the beginning of May to supervise the final days of the evacuation. On 6 May, Winn hoisted his pennant in Cook (APD-130) at Sangley Point and set sail for Haiphong. Then, on the 13th, the last American ships departed Along Bay and operations shifted to Do Son Peninsula, the final zone to be turned over to the Viet Minh. The next day Captain Winn arrived off the Do Son beaches to observe the final loading. During the embarkation of French troops, ten refugees, among them Nguyen Van Lang, carrying his infant daughter, arrived at the beach and asked to be evacuated. Mr. Lang had chosen freedom for himself and his daughter at the last possible moment, despite the decision of his wife to remain in the North. They boarded General A. W. Brewster for the trip south, the last official refugees of the Passage to Freedom. The French planned to give the Vietnamese one last chance to flee the North. Captain Winn ordered his remaining ships-Cook, Diachenko (APD-123), and Marine Adder-to join the French Fleet rendezvousing in Lan Ha Bay just south of Henriette Pass. The next day, 16 May, all ships took station in international waters off the coast to rescue any refugees who could reach them. But General Ély had delayed the decision on the rescue operation until too late, and agents had no chance to alert potential refugees to the presence of the rescue ships offshore. As a result, none appeared. According to the Geneva agreement, the movement of civilians between the North and South was scheduled to cease on 19 May 1955. At the last moment, on the morning of 18 May, all United States ships departed Indochinese waters. Captain Winn sailed for Sangley Point in the Philippines, where on the 20th the Passage to Freedom task force was disestablished.50 Since the preceding August, 74 United States Navy and 39 MSTS ships had evacuated 310,848 passengers from North Vietnam, all but 17,846 of them civilians. In addition, the United States Navy and MSTS saved 68,757 tons of cargo and 8,135 vehicles from the Viet Minh. The performance was particularly notable since most of this was accomplished on short notice over the initial three-month period. In combination with the effective ten-month operations of the French, about 800,000 people had been carried to freedom.51 In addition to humanitarian considerations, the decision to transport refugees to South Vietnam had economic, political, and security implications. Many of the refugees were settled on fallow fields to grow rice for domestic consumption and export. Their presence, and the realization that they had left their homes for an uncertain future in their search for freedom from Communist dictatorship, represented a potential element of strength in the emerging state of Vietnam. 5 COMPHIBGRU1, report, ser 055 of 15 June, encl. 1: ltr, Winn to Sabin, of 19 May 1955. 61 COMPHIBGRU1, report, ser 055 of 15 June 1955, encl. 1; Fall, Two Viet-Nams, pp. 153-54; SECNAV, “Semiannual Report," Jan.-June 1955 in U.S., Defense Department, Semiannual Report of the Secretary of Defense, Jan.-June 1955 (Washington: GPO, 1955), p. 146; Lindholm, Viet-Nam: The First Five Years, pp. 49, 56, 60. The figures on the total number of refugees fleeing the North conflict. Bui Van Luong, General Director of the Refugee Committee of the Government of Vietnam, explains that the records of the refugees were destroyed by fire in 1955. He claims that the figure 888,503 is the most reliable. Viet Minh relocations from the South to the North consisted of 90,000 troops but only 40,000 non-active military, including dependents. U.S.-V.N. Relations, bk 2, pt. IVA.5, tab 1, pp. 16-17. The Changing Role Of As the United States Navy helped the French and the State of Vietnam carry out the resettlement provisions of the 20 July 1954 Vietnam agreement, Washington grappled with the more fundamental problem of the security of Southeast Asian states against external and internal threats. The Communists had gained control of China and northern Korea. Now they had been accorded the right to rule northern Vietnam down to the provisional demarkation line along the 17th parallel, halfway between the northern boundary earlier claimed by the Kingdom of Champa and the southern limits of China's zone of occupation after World War II. The future role of the French with regard to the security of South Vietnam was uncertain. Lacking the organization, support, and means of providing for its own defense, the survival of the South Vietnamese government was in doubt. Ho Chi Minh had characterized the Geneva Conference as "a great victory for our diplomacy," but he and his comrades had much to do before they would be in a position to launch a military offensive or until North Vietnam could act as an effective base for operations in the South. Giap would describe the months that followed as the time when "the north entered the socialist revolutionary phase." First of all, the Viet Minh would consolidate their rule over areas they already occupied and gain control of the "neutral zones" and those areas from which the French were withdrawing. Secondly, they would eliminate opposition and create "an independent and socialist state with a complete national administrative structure.” "1 This would give South Vietnam some time, but it had a long way to go |