During the French Indochina War, the French recruited and employed 13 battalions of montagnards or degars, as they were also called. The French battalions consist of anywhere from 500 to 600 men, so in all, the French had about 7,000 montagnard/degar troops during the war. Ho Chi Minh also used ethnic minorities, but not in as large numbers as the French. Both the communists and the French promised the montagnards a better life, autonomy, ability to self govern and be left alone in their lands. The communists especially stressed the fact that under their system, everyone was completely equal!
The French also, as they did in all their colonies, allowed some of the "natives" to go to France and receive higher education. So, there were montagnards who were educated in universities in France and were not your typical montagnard villagers in loincloths. These "educated" montagnards became leaders of various groups and tried to unite all of the tribes.
When the French Indochina War ended, Vietnam was split in half and the montagnards never received their promised autonomy or any other thing that was promised by either side. The leaders of various groups of montagnards were very upset and formed a united front that was initially called BAJARAKA, a name made up of the first letters of all the tribes such as Bahar, Jarai, Rhade, etc. A revolt against the oppressive and unfair South Vietnamese regime took place in 1958 and failed. There just weren't enough armed montagnards to make any difference. When the war ended, the montagnards were disarmed, even their crossbows and spears were declared illegal even though they needed those weapons to hunt, to feed themselves! All the leaders were jailed for a six year term and the rest of the rebels were either jailed or sent back into the hills, unarmed!
The U.S. began to recruit and train the montagnards in earnest in the early 1960s, a couple of years after the failed revolt. U.S. also promised the montagnards autonomy, at the very least, credible representation in the Vietnamese Assembly and key government appointments in their home territory. As explained in the previous blogs, the relationship between the Americans and the montagnards became very close, thanks to those who lived among them and showed them that Americans were not like French or the Vietnamese. By the mid 1960s, just in the central part of the highlands alone, in Rhade country, we had trained and equipped close to 20,000 montagnards that were organized in the elite Mobile Strike Forces and Mobile Guerrilla Forces, not to mention the irregular CIDGs. The Mobile Strike Forces and Mobile Guerrilla Forces were by far the best indigenous fighting units in Vietnam, better than any South Vietnamese (ARVN) units, even their elite paratroop and Ranger units could not hold a candle to these U.S. trained and led units.
Six years after the BAJARAKA leaders were jailed, they were released by the South Vietnamese government. The determined leaders once again formed an organization, this time they called it FULRO (Front Unifie de Lutte de Races Opprimee), which basically meant that it was a "united front for struggle of oppressed races." In September of 1964 FULRO launched a revolt against the South Vietnamese government in the Central Highlands led by Rhade tribe. Some Vietnamese troops were killed and the Rhade marched on the capital of the province, Ban Me Thout. There is no doubt that they would have taken the capital without much problem, but there would have been more bloodshed. It was due to the brave efforts of the U.S. Special Forces officers who risked their own lives and intervened. They convinced the Rhade to give up the revolt before any more violence took place. The Rhade, trusting their American friends, lay down their arms and stopped the revolt.
The South Vietnamese insisted in "punishing" the responsible parties, but the U.S. intervened on their behalf and a compromise of sorts was struck. Although some of the leaders of the revolt paid for their actions by getting jailed, there was no bloodbath. The war in Vietnam continued and the montagnards continued to serve the Americans bravely and loyally. The montagnards had almost a childish trust in Americans! By the time America began to pull out and the so-called "vietnamization" took place, we were fielding 40,000 montagnards as Mike Forces, Strike Forces, Mobile Guerrillas, etc. The Vietnamese tried to take over command of these units but it did not work, so they decided to disarm them. But that didn't work either. The montagnards held on to their arms and began to simply disappear, fade into the bush, so-to-speak. Mostly, complete units would just disappear, intact with arms. In April of 1975, the ARVN (Army of Republic of South Vietnam) disgracefully took to their heels, abandoning their weapons and running helter-skelter as the NVA advanced on Saigon. The montagnards just simply went into the hills.
What the American public doesn't know is that the montagnards continued their fight against the communists! Word began to reach the outside world through Thailand that the montagnards were seeking support. They were desperately trying to contact their American friends, they needed ammunition and more arms to fight the communists! Obviously the US Special Forces trained them well. The former Mike Forces and Mobile Guerrillas fought on until they completely ran out of ammunition and supplies! They fought on by stealing and taking arms and ammunition from the Vietnamese soldiers that they killed, but that couldn't last forever. The last known montagnard resistance group lay down its arms and gave up to the communists in 1992! Seventeen years after the fall of Saigon! It was a former Rhade Mike Force unit! They were a tired and hungry bunch in tattered uniforms and worn out weapons and completely out of ammunition! Some of them still proudly wore the old Mike Force shoulder patches on their tattered uniforms! Talk about fighting to the last bullet!
Very simply put, the sad truth is that we abandoned them. We promised them freedom, autonomy, something that we constantly say that we treasure so much. Yet, after all the words and promises, we simply left them in a country whose majority population was hostile to them for thousands of years! Even after we abandoned them, they tried to fight on, and when they could, sent word out that they needed help. We simply turned a blind eye to what was going on. After all, how many of us had heard of their struggles on the evening news? How many had even heard about the montagnards fighting the Vietnamese back in the 1980s and 1990s? The media that professes to be so fair and impartial, simply refused to cover any of those stories. They just weren't "sexy" or newsworthy by their account. They chose to believe the Vietnamese government party line that these "rebel" montagnards were nothing but bandits. They were more interested in endangered gorillas in Uganda or chimpanzees in Kenya, the plight of the chimps made for a much better story.
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