Ba Cụt

About Ba Cụt in brief

Lê Quang Vinh was a military commander of the Hòa Hảo religious sect. His sobriquet came from the self-amputation of his left index finger. He fought the Vietnamese National Army, the Việt Minh, and the Cao Đài religious movement from 1943 until his capture in 1956. Known for his idiosyncrasies, he was regarded as an erratic and cruel leader who fought with little ideological purpose. After almost a year of fighting, Ba Cụt was captured. He was sentenced to death and publicly beheaded in Cần Thơ. He drew adherents for two reasons: the prophecies he made about the outbreak of World War II and the conquest of South-East Asia by Japan, which proved to be correct; and his work as a mystical healer. His patients claimed to have been miraculously cured from all manner of serious illnesses after seeing him, when Western medicine had failed. The French made deals with him on five occasions. He invariably accepted the material support offered in return for his cooperation, and then broke the agreement. At the time, many groups vying for power—including respective factions—often broke their alliances in alliances that were frequently broken. He died of a heart attack in Vietnam in 1956, but his body was never recovered. He is buried in a cemetery in Long Xuyên, a regional town in the Mekong Delta, in the far south of Vietnam.

His son, Nguyễn Ngọc Thᡡ, rose to become a leading politician in the 1950s and played a key role in Ba C˙�t’s eventual capture and execution. The family’s rice paddies were confiscated by a prominent landlord, and his father demanded that he work more in the family’s rice fields. A defiant Ba Cťt severed his index finger, which was necessary for work in the rice paddie. He later swore not to cut his hair until the communist Vi Vietnamese were defeated. He had a bitter personal experience imbued him with a permanent and fanatical hatred towards landowners, and was known from childhood as a temperamental and fiery person. In 1939, Huỳnh Phú Sổ founded the H ình religious movement, and within a year had gained more than 100,000 followers. In the 1940s, Imperial Japan invaded and seized control of Vietnam from France; its defeat and withdrawal at the end of the war in 1945 left a power vacuum in the country. In mid-1955, the tide turned against the various sects, as Prime Minister Ngô Đìnnh Diỉm of the State of Vietnam and his VNA began to consolidate their grip on the south. The Hüa Hùi formed their own army and administration during the war, and a de facto de facto stronghold. They came into conflict with another new state, which also boasted a private army.