Hòa Hảo

[6] Hòa Hảo is an amalgam of Buddhism, ancestor worship, animistic rites, elements of Confucian doctrine, and the White Lotus religion, transformed and adapted to the mores and customs of the peasants of the region.

[10][28][29][30] General Joseph Lawton Collins, who served as a U.S. Special Representative in Vietnam, described Hòa Hảo as a "pseudo-religious sect", adding that it "appealed to the peasants with a veneer of Buddhism and a protective paternalism".

Rooted in earlier Vietnamese anti-colonial religious traditions, the Hòa Hảo philosophy claims to be based on the thoughts of Phật Thầy Tây An (1807–1856), known as Đạo Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương.

[42] There were two major reasons for his success: the prophecies he made about the outbreak of World War II and the conquest of Southeast Asia by Japan, and his work as a mystical healer—his patients claimed to have been miraculously cured of all manner of serious illnesses after seeing him, when Western medicine had failed.

The extent of the Japanese military assistance is unknown, and some historians speculate that the Hòa Hảo benefited from the general availability of weapons during wartime, but nevertheless, the first Hoahaoist armed militias emerged in the Mekong Delta towards the end of 1943.

The Japanese requested from Sổ and his followers more crops, but instead, he advised peasants to stop farming, putting his new alliance with the ICP in jeopardy, as the Communists regarded southern rice as critical to ending the northern famine.

[49][65] On 7–9 September 1945,[49][65] a band of 15,000 Hoahaoists armed with hand-to-hand weapons[60] and aided by the Trotskyists,[65] attacked the Việt Minh garrison at the port city of Cần Thơ, which the Hòa Hảo considered the rightful capital of their domain.

In fact, throughout the First Indochina War (1946–1954), the French government issued support payments for Cao Đài, Hòa Hao, and Bình Xuyên armed forces in exchange for defense of the territories they controlled against the Việt Minh.

In return for aid against the Việt Minh, the new Hòa Hảo leadership was willing to form alliances with the colonialists; they did not see such an agreement as a betrayal of their nationalist ideals because the ultimate goal of religious independence was not jeopardized.

He refused the Communists' demands and made for home, but he was halted while sailing through Long Xuyên on the Đốc Vàng Hạ River, most of his company was slain, and he was arrested[79] by the southern Việt Minh leader Nguyễn Bình.

Haseman argues that Sổ's assassination was a major miscalculation on the part of the Việt Minh, who falsely believed at the time that the Hòa Hảo lacked the strength to fight both the French and the Communists.

[78] During the First Indochina War, because of their shared antipathy towards the Việt Minh and the need to find a source of financial support to replace French wartime subsidies, Hòa Hảo maintained a level of cooperation with Cao Đài and Bình Xuyên.

[97] Furthermore, Hòa Hảo sources claimed that VNA troops were desecrating their sites of worship on Diệm's orders, who was already accused of creating an all-Catholic sectarian army that was seeking to Catholicisize the country.

[98] Văn Viễn retaliated by allying with other Cao Đại and Hòa Hảo leaders, as he offered them money from his vast wealth, to form the United Front of Nationalist Forces (UFNF) in opposition to the Saigon government in early March 1955.

[96] The movement's leaders presented him with an ultimatum, demanding representation in the South Vietnamese government and funding for their military, which were required to maintain control over the regional fiefdoms they ruled; this was refused by Diệm.

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower honored his decision and U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles penned telegrams to Saigon, informing Bảo Đại and other Vietnamese leaders to find a replacement for Diệm.

They formed a committee to deliver the demands to the government, but when they arrived at the palace, they discovered General Nguyễn Văn Vy in Diệm's office, declaring that he was taking over the army as Bảo Đại had instructed.

[107] Communist politician Lê Duẩn met with Soái and Ba Cụt, and, despite their ideological differences, they agreed to form the Southern Committee of the Patriotic Front, which eventually included remnants not only from the Hòa Hảo but also the Cao Đài and Bình Xuyên rebel armies.

According to historian Robert Nathan, there was a shift in Vietnamese politics as a result of America's replacement of France as the primary foreign influence, and a burst of democratic and pseudo-democratic ideas and propaganda by pious people who were previously considered to be power-hungry politicians.

After being convicted of a series of murders in court,[112] he was guillotined in Cần Thơ on 13 July 1956, despite Lansdale's urges, as he worried that the execution would solidify Cụt's followers' hostility to the South Vietnamese government.

[105] By now, Sổ's younger sister Huỳnh Thị Kim Biên was the movement's new religious leader,[80] and the Hòa Hảo were eventually destroyed by Saigon's considerably larger forces.

[clarification needed] Despite their military setbacks, the Hòa Hảo maintained their political and religious control over the western portion of the Bassac River and Cần Thơ, the Mekong Delta's regional capital.

Starting from Nguyễn Cao Kỳ's government in the mid-1960s, the Hòa Hảo were left alone in the Miền Tây and gained tacit permission to establish a form of sovereignty in exchange for acknowledging South Vietnam's authority.

[115] It was the Hòa Hảo's military might, which was organized along religious lines, and capacity to ensure a high level of local security in the provinces it controlled that provided the group with its most powerful influencing lever.

The Hòa Hảo formed a local militia after South Vietnam's armed forces were restructured, securing their heartlands and denying the Việt Cộng access to their agricultural riches.

They arrested Lê Trung Tuấn, the director of the Hòa Hảo Central Institute, and Trần Hữu Bẩy, the commander of the Bảo An military wing, which was later banned by the government.

It has been labelled as an example of Buddhist protestantism;[22] an amalgam of Buddhism, ancestor worship, animistic rites, and elements of Confucian doctrine,[10] transformed and adapted to the mores and customs of the peasants of the Mekong Delta.

Regular Hòa Hảo rites are limited to four prayers a day: the first to Buddha, the second to the "Reign of the Enlightened King", which is influenced by Western Messianic thought, and the third to living and deceased parents and relatives.

[150] Hoahaoists began giving community amenities, such as free food, shelter, clothes, medicinal herbs, and rural transportation infrastructure, when the government recognized the religion, according to Thanh Vo-Duy.

Although human sacrifice was not unknown in Vietnam prior to the Hòa Hảo, historian Hue-Tam Tai argues that Sổ's frightening predictions had a role in the increased frequency of such incidents in the 1940s.