|
The Buddhist Uprising of 1966 ((ベトナム語:Phật giáo nổi dậy)) was a period of civil and military unrest in South Vietnam, largely focused in the I Corps area in the north of the country in central Vietnam. The area is a heartland of Vietnamese Buddhism and at the time, activist Buddhist monks and civilians were at the forefront of opposition to a series of military juntas that had been ruling the nation, as well as prominently questioning the escalation of the Vietnam War. During the rule of the Catholic Ngô Đình Diệm, the discrimination against the majority Buddhist population generated the growth of Buddhist institutions as they sought to participate in national politics and gain better treatment. In 1965, after a series of military coups that followed the fall of the Diệm regime in 1963, Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu finally established a stable junta, holding the positions of Prime Minister and figurehead Chief of State respectively. During that time, there were still much suspicion and tension between the Buddhist and Catholic factions in Vietnamese society. The religious factor combined with a power struggle between Kỳ and General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, the commander of I Corps, a Buddhist local to the region and popular in the area. Thi was a strong-willed officer regarded as a capable commander, and Kỳ saw him as a threat, as did others within the junta. In March 1966, Kỳ fired Thi and ordered him into exile in the United States under the false pretense of medical treatment. This prompted both civilians and some I Corps units to launch widespread civil protests against Kỳ's regime and halt military operations against Viet Cong. Kỳ gambled by allowing Thi to return to I Corps before departing for the US, but the arrival of the general to his native area only fuelled anti-Kỳ sentiment. The Buddhist activists, students and Thi loyalists in the military coalesced into the "Struggle Movement", calling for a return to civilian rule and elections. Meanwhile, Thi stayed in I Corps and did not leave; strikes and protests stopped civilian activity in the area, government radio stations were taken over and used for anti-Kỳ campaigning, and military operations ceased. Riots also spread to the capital Saigon and other cities further south. At the start of April, Kỳ decided to move. He declared that Da Nang, the main centre in I Corps, to be under communist control and publicly vowed to kill the mayor, who had expressed support for the Struggle Movement. He moved military forces into the city and travelled there to prepare for an assault, but had to withdraw and then start discussions with Buddhist leaders regarding when it was obvious that he was not strong enough to crush the opposition. In the meantime, he fired Thi's successor Nguyễn Văn Chuân because he wanted a firmer attempt to regain control, and appointed Tôn Thất Đính to replace him. Đính claimed to have calmed the situation, but Kỳ viewed the situation as appeasement and on May 15, his forces drove off Đính and took over. During the past month, the American forces had also become involved in the stand-off and the Struggle Movement viewed their participation as biased towards Kỳ, tending to some tense confrontations. In the second half of May, Kỳ's forces began to force the issue and gradually wore down the Struggle Movement as the rebel I Corps forces were worn down, despite some American objections that his aggressive attacks had the potential to cause too much collateral damage. At one stage, Kỳ's forces ended up in a skirmish with American forces, and later, the Americans were in the middle of a stand-off between the Vietnamese factions regarding a mined bridge. As Kỳ's forces took back Da Nang and Huế in street fighting, Struggle Movement supporters saw American intervention as being pro-Kỳ and anti-US riots resulted in some American buildings being burnt down. Kỳ's triumph ended the Buddhist movement's influence on politics and he confined their leader Thích Trí Quang to house arrest thereafter, while Thi left for the US. == Background == The Buddhist activist movement in South Vietnam came about as a result of the administration of President Ngô Đình Diệm, who ruled the country from 1955 to 1963.〔Tucker, pp. 288–290.〕 In a country where the Buddhist majority was estimated to be between 70 and 90 percent,〔Moyar (2006), pp. 215–216.〕〔Tucker, pp. 49, 291, 293.〕〔Maclear, p. 63.〕 Diệm ruled with a strong religious bias. As a member of the Catholic Vietnamese minority, he pursued pro-Catholic policies that antagonized many Buddhists. The government as being biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, as well as in the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions.〔Tucker, p. 291.〕 Many military officers converted in the belief that their military prospects depended on it.〔Gettleman, pp. 280–282.〕 Forgetting that he was talking to a Buddhist, Diệm once told a high-ranking officer, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted."〔 In addition, the distribution of firearms to village self-defence militias intended to repel Vietcong guerrillas resulted in weapons only being given to Catholics. Some Catholic priests ran their own private armies,〔Warner, p. 210.〕 and in some areas, forced conversions, looting, shelling and demolition of Buddhist pagodas occurred.〔Fall, p. 199.〕 Some Buddhist villages converted ''en masse'' in order to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diệm's regime.〔Buttinger, p. 993.〕 The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country, and the "private" status that was imposed on Buddhism by the French colonial authorities, which required official permission to conduct public Buddhist activities and restricted the construction of Buddhist temples, was not repealed by Diệm.〔Karnow, p. 294.〕 Furthermore, the land owned by the Catholic Church was exempt from redistribution under land reform programs.〔Buttinger p. 933.〕 Catholics were also ''de facto'' exempt from the corvée labor that the government obliged all citizens to perform and the government disproportionately allocated funding to Catholic majority villages. Under Diệm, the Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions in property acquisition, and in 1959, he dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary.〔Jacobs, p. 91.〕 The Vatican flag was regularly flown at major public events in South Vietnam. On May 8, 1963, Diệm's officials invoked a rarely enforced law to prohibit the display of religious flags, forbidding Buddhists from flying their flag on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. This caused Buddhist indignation, as Vatican flags had been flown a week earlier at a celebration for Diệm's brother, Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.〔Hammer, pp. 103–105.〕〔Jacobs, p. 142.〕 On May 8, in Huế, a crowd of Buddhists protested against the ban on the Buddhist flag. The police and army opened fire and threw grenades at the demonstrators, leaving nine dead.〔Jacobs, p. 143.〕〔Hammer, pp. 113–114.〕 Diệm's denial of responsibility for the incident—he blamed it on the communist Viet Cong—led to more discontent among the Buddhist majority. The incident spurred a protest movement against the religious discrimination of Diệm's Roman Catholic-dominated regime. The dispute came to be known as the Buddhist crisis, and it provoked widespread and large-scale civil disobedience. The objective of the protests was to have Decree Number 10 repealed, and to gain religious equality.〔Jacobs, pp. 144–147.〕〔Jones, pp. 252–260.〕 However, the standoff persisted, and in August, the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung, loyal to Diệm's brother and chief adviser Ngô Đình Nhu, raided temples across the country, killing an estimated hundreds and arresting thousands of Buddhist laypeople and monks. After this, the American government began to turn against Diệm and secretly encouraged a coup. On November 1, Diệm was deposed and he and Nhu were assassinated the next day.〔Tucker, pp. 288–292.〕 After Diệm, South Vietnam went through a period of persistent and serious instability, as multiple coups, as well as other failed uprisings, occurred for 18 months.〔 Apart from personal rivalries between the senior officers, the infighting was also stoked by conflict between religious pressure movements. The Buddhists lobbied for the removal of Diệm's pro-Catholic policies, as well as the those officers who had risen up the ranks quickly because they converted to Catholicism and vigorously enacted Diệm's policies. On the other hand, Catholics, whose privileges were rolled back post-Diệm, accused the regime of General Nguyễn Khánh of persecuting them on behalf of the Buddhists. At times, religious riots broke out during this period.〔Karnow, p. 395.〕〔Karnow, pp. 348–352.〕 In September 1964, the Catholic Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Dương Văn Đức tried to overthrow Khanh after he had removed them under Buddhist pressure. This failed,〔Kahin, pp. 230–232.〕〔Moyar (2006), p. 327.〕 but in February 1965, Phat tried again with the help of fellow Catholic, Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, publicly invoking the memory of Diệm in launching their coup. Phát's second attempt also failed, and the pair went on the run, but the inability of Khánh to secure a decisive victory forced him into exile.〔Kahin, pp. 297–302.〕 In mid-1965, Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu took charge as prime minister and figurehead president, respectively, and continuity began to arise.〔 Because of the fractious nature of Vietnamese politics in the period after Diệm's overthrow, no officer could rule decisively without regard for the opinions of his peers without being deposed.〔 The generals who commanded South Vietnam's four corps oversaw separate geographical regions, and were given wide-ranging powers. In the absence of civilian government, they were virtual warlords in their regions. The corps commanders were happy with this federated arrangement; Kỳ was acceptable to the US, and he would pass American military aid to them while allowing them substantial regional autonomy.〔 Despite, the steady control of Kỳ and Thiệu, the religious tension remained. After one month, Thích Trí Quang began to call for the removal of Thiệu because he was a member of Diệm's Catholic Cần Lao Party, decrying his “fascistic tendencies”,〔Moyar (2004), p. 779.〕 and claiming that Cần Lao members were undermining Kỳ.〔 For Thích Trí Quang, Thiệu was a symbol of the Diệm era of Catholic domination, when advancement was based on religion. He had desired that General Thi, known for his pro-Buddhist position would lead the country, and denounced Thiệu for his alleged past crimes against Buddhists.〔McAllister, p. 777.〕 The Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang said that “Thi is nominally a Buddhist, but does not really care about religion”.〔Moyar (2004), p. 781.〕 The Buddhist activists wanted to end the war through a negotiated settlement with the communists and the departure of the Americans,〔 putting them at odds with the pro-war, pro-American generals. It was clear that the Buddhists would stage some kind of protest against Kỳ and Thiệu, and the prime minister regarded the Buddhist activists as traitors, so he welcomed confrontation as an opportunity to break their influence.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buddhist Uprising」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|