[3] An aura of mystery surrounded Ba Cụt during his life, and foreign journalists incorrectly reported that he had severed his finger as part of a vow to defeat the French.

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.

[16] Ba Cụt was famous for inventing a torture contraption that drilled a steel nail through the victim's ear,[17] a device he used to extort villagers and wealthy landlords to fund his forces.

[14] Ba Cụt raised a large amount of funds for the Hòa Hảo and himself personally by charging traders and landlords high prices to stop pirates in the local area.

At the time, France was in a ruinous financial state following World War II and was experiencing great difficulty in its attempts to re-establish control over its colonies.

[21] The French saw the disagreements as an opportunity to divide the Hòa Hảo and gain an anti-Việt Minh ally, and offered material aid, which Ba Cụt accepted.

[22] Ba Cụt repeatedly made treaties with the French colonial forces to fight the Việt Minh in return for arms and money, but he broke his end of the bargain and sometimes fought the Cao Đài instead of the communists.

At that time, his forces had been helping to defend the regional Mekong Delta town of Mỹ Tho, but the French decided to transfer more of the military power to their more mainstream allies, the Vietnamese National Army (VNA).

[29] In mid-1954, General Nguyễn Văn Hinh, the head of the State of Vietnam's VNA, announced that he did not respect the leadership of Prime Minister Diệm, and vowed to overthrow him.

The coup never materialised and Hinh was forced into exile,[30] but not before appointing Ba Cụt to the rank of colonel in the VNA in an attempt to undermine Diệm, as the Hòa Hảo warlord was openly contemptuous of the prime minister.

[32][33] Operation Ecaille,[34] the initial military offensive by the VNA against Ba Cụt was a failure, possibly because the details of the planned attack on his forces were leaked to him by Soái, a Hòa Hảo member of the National Defense Committee.

[36] Another account claims the two military leaders had been on good terms and exchanging diplomatic missions, but that the skirmish was caused by one of Ba Cụt's aides addressing the envoy in an abrasive and rude manner, and that the injuries were minor.

[42] At one stage, the Cao Đài, Hòa Hảo and Bình Xuyên formed an alliance called the United Front, in an attempt to pressure Diệm into handing over power;[43] Ba Cụt was named senior military commander.

Ba Cụt's men, who had also been angered by the recent arrest of some colleagues, blockaded the Mekong and Bassac rivers and laid siege to various towns, including Sa Đéc, Long Xuyên and Châu Đốc, stifling the regional economy.

[39] During this period, the United Front publicly accused Diệm of trying to bribe Ba Cụt with 100 million piasters,[51] to which the Hòa Hảo responded with a series of attack on outposts and blasts to destroy bridges.

[35][39] Having surrendered his forces, Ngo excoriated Soai and Ba Cụt, claiming that their activities were not consistent with Hòa Hảo religious practices and accused them of fighting with communists.

Diệm responded by replacing the officers of Bảo Đại's personal regiments with his own men and used the royal units to attack Ba Cụt's rebels near Hà Tiên and Rạch Giá, outnumbering the Hòa Hảo by at least a factor of five.

[39][54] Knowing that they could not defeat the government in open conventional warfare, Ba Cụt's forces destroyed their own bases so that the VNA could not use their abandoned resources, and retreated into the jungle.

[57] Despite his weak military situation, Ba Cụt sought to disrupt the staging of a fraudulent referendum that Diệm had scheduled to depose Bảo Đại as head of state.

[58] Ba Cụt distributed a pamphlet condemning Diệm as an American puppet, asserting that the prime minister was going to "Catholicize" the country;[59] the referendum was partly funded by the U.S. government and various Roman Catholic organisations.

[60] Diệm had strong support from American Roman Catholic politicians and the powerful Cardinal Francis Spellman and his elder brother, Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, was Archbishop of Huế.

Ba Cụt sent a message to Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ, the public official who oversaw the civilian side of the campaign against the Hòa Hảo, asking for negotiations so that his men could be integrated into mainstream society and the nation's armed forces.

[67] Initially, American commentators and observers thought that Diệm might try a reconciliatory approach and integrate Ba Cụt into the mainstream to increase the appeal of his government, rather than punish the Hòa Hảo leader.

They felt that Ba Cụt had a high level of military skill and popular appeal that could be used in favor of the government, citing his colorful "Robin Hood" image as an attraction with the rural populace.

[68] The government prosecutor sought the death penalty and tendered petitions signed by residents of the Mekong Delta and southwestern Vietnam calling for the military destruction of Ba Cụt's militants.

Ba Cụt's defense counsel said the trial set a bad precedent for South Vietnam's fledgling legal system and questioned the integrity of the process.

He claimed that VNA troops had engaged in mass rape and plunder of local civilians in their final push against Ba Cụt, and accused the Diệm regime of double standards in not investigating and prosecuting these alleged incidents.

[68] He claimed that South Vietnam had "no democracy and no freedom" and "only shamelessness and foolishness" and said that members of the Hòa Hảo would continue to resist the Saigon administration politically and militarily.

Anderson believed the use of the guillotine, instead of a firing squad, as was normal for military executions, was used to emphasize that Ba Cụt's actions were being portrayed as common crimes rather than as political opposition.

[57] Some followers, led by a hardcore deputy named Bảy Đớm, retreated to a small area beside the Cambodian border, where they vowed not to rest until Ba Cụt was avenged.