Huỳnh Phú Sổ

Huỳnh Phú Sổ (; 15 January 1920 – 16 April 1947), popularly known as Đức Thầy or Đức Huỳnh Giáo Chủ , was the founder of the Hòa Hảo religious tradition.

Early years Born in the village of Hòa Hảo, near Châu Đốc, Southern Vietnam, French Indochina, in 1920, Sổ was the son of a moderately wealthy peasant. Plagued in his youth by illness, he was a mediocre student and graduated from high school only because of his father's influence. He was a brave child, so his father sent him to Núi Cấm in the Seven Mountains to learn from a hermit who was both a mystic and a healer. After some training, Sổ made his mark during a stormy night in May 1939, having returned to his village after his master's death. While in an agitated state, Sổ appeared to have suddenly been cured of his illnesses and started to propound his religious teachings, which were based on Buddhism, on that spot. According to observers, he spoke for several hours spontaneously "with eloquence and erudition about the sublime dogmas of Buddhism ... The witnesses to this miracle, deeply impressed by the strange scene, became his first converts."

In 1942, the French could no longer withstand the growing popular reactions generated by Sổ's oracular pronouncements and political instructions. They exiled him to Laos. By that time the Japanese had taken over French Indochina, but had left the French apparatus in place, intervening only when they saw fit. The Japanese intercepted the transfer of Sổ with the help of some Hòa Hảo followers and brought him back to Saigon. The Kempeitai kept him under protection and the Japanese authorities rebuffed French protests and demands for extradition by saying that he was held as a "Chinese spy". He avoided accusations of being a Japanese collaborator by predicting their demise, but his contacts with them allowed his supporters to gain weapons. He was considered a mystic.

Military campaign

In 1945, as the Japanese were defeated and Vietnam fell into a power vacuum, Sổ ordered the creation of armed units for campaigns against the local administration, landowners and French colonial forces. This led to the Hòa Hảo becoming less of a religious and more of a military-political movement, as people such as landowners converted in the hope that they could buy protection.

As the Hòa Hảo began battling the French, they also came into conflict with other military organizations such as the Việt Minh (communists) and Cao Đài who were also fighting the French. The Hòa Hảo were in control of most of the Mekong Delta and was unwilling to toe the Việt Minh line from Hanoi. On 9 September 1945, a confrontation arose when a band of 15,000 Hòa Hảo, armed with hand-to-hand weapons, attacked the Việt Minh garrison at Cần Thơ. With their antiquated weapons, Sổ's men were slaughtered, losing thousands. Sổ's brother and the brother of his commander Soái were captured and executed. The return of French forces helped to keep the Hòa Hảo and the Việt Minh apart, but the Hòa Hảo periodically sought vengeance on the Việt Minh by tying sympathisers of the latter together and throwing them into the river to drown. The Việt Minh were worried by Sổ's nationalist credentials and social structure, and attempted to co-opt him into a National Unified Front. It was dissolved in July 1946 after it was apparent that Sổ would not follow the Việt Minh. Sổ entered politics openly by creating the Viet Nam Democratic Socialist Party, known as the Dân Xã. This defiant move made him a target of the Việt Minh as relations deteriorated. According to Vietnamese police documents, Huỳnh Phú Sổ was arrested and executed on December 22, 1947, by the Viet Minh in Long Xuyen. However, according to historian Shawn McHale, he was most likely killed on 16 April; later dates were simply fabricated by the Viet Minh leadership, along with a fake trial, to justify his murder.

Following his death, the Hòa Hảo's political and military power diminished as its various commanders began infighting in the absence of a centralized leadership structure; it became basically a network of warlords, the most famous being Trần Văn Soái, named a "one-star general" by the French (a rank which does not exist in the French Army, so Văn Soái added a second one on his kepi), and Ba Cụt.