Intelligence and Security Operations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ministry of National Defense

“SEER-G-L
In many respects, the above declaration outdid the work carried out by
PRC and DPRK propagandists during the Korean War. It made the
repatriation of African prisoners an extremely complicated problem.
'
Captured French pilots were subjected to a thorough “convincing
explanation" and were used to broadcast appeals to their fellow pilots in the
French Far Eastern Air Force: -
. . For 17 months I had fought against these people which I did not
even know. If people asked me the reason why I came to Indochina, and
why France has been waging war in this country, I would feel . . . ashamed
of my ignorance. . . . As for us, what are we fighting for? We are fighting for
a handful of French capitalists and for American imperialists who, forced to
sign an armistice in Korea, are compelling the French ‘rulers to drag on this
war . . . with the blood of French soldiers. . . . Comrade pilots, we should no
longer fight against the Vietnamese people . . . we must fight for the
cessation of this dirty war through repatriation of the French Expeditionary
Corps and immediate negotiations withthe Vietnamese People’s Govern-
ment headed by President Ho Chi Minh.”
The indoctrination of prisoners did not cease with their release and
repatriation to France. The French Communist Party (PCF) irregularly
published a newspaper, Voix du Rapatrie, written allegedly by former
prisoners, which kept other repatriates informed on developments inthe DRV
even though they had returned to civilian life. The families of prisoners who
died in captivity received letters of condolence from the DRV posted in
Czechoslovakia by the PCF’s Franco-Vietnam Friendship Association front.
Such a thorough follow up of each individual case constit-uted' a rather unique
example of the potential of unlimited psychological warfare conducted by the
DRV and its PDV. ‘
The PDV had considerable success in inducing the defection and
desertion of African Foreign Legionnaires with the active assistance of the
French, Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian Communist Parties. An estimated
500 African personnel defected or deserted to the DRV. In 1950, the
Communist Parties of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia on behalf of the Soviets
and the PCF sent at Moroccan Communist Party Central Committee member,
alias Major Marufo Khoan, to Vietnam where he played a key role in inducing
the defection and desertion of several hundred African Foreign Legionnaires.
Major Marufo Khoan prepared leaflets printed in Arabic for North African
Foreign‘ Legionnaires. One such leaflet read in part:
“Moroccan soldiers, you fight for an unjust cause at the service of your
oppressors. . .. The Americans and the French carve up your country.
Moroccan soldiers, the Vietnamese are your brothers . . . the soldiers of the
Vietnamese Army fight against your oppressors for the liberty and
independence of your country... ." u
'
In 1951, Major Marufo Khoan established and commanded a training
camp for North African deserters in Tung Thien District, Son Tay Province,
which was known as the Ba Vi Afro-Asian Agricultural W0fl<$il6- If W85 M&iOr
Khoan's intention to train North African deserters for later return to North
6*
‘SEGR-EL ~
... _—_1r: r"rv1 » H - -,1 ...- —.. . . .—-_.~... . rm .',-.~, ._-_.;n:z;a=.=;=~i-_; _ .
l
'
_-
_-wn
_._..-.._._
_.-“.4
fl"l""