Leadership of the Ministry of Public Security issues guidance for dealing with reactionaries in South Vietnam

On 5 January 1975 Comrade Tran Quoc Hoan, Minister of Public Security, presided over a meeting that he had convened to study and implement our National guidelines and policies on conducting the struggle against reactionaries in support of the General Offensive and General Uprising in South Vietnam. Participants in the meeting included senior leadership of the Ministry of Public Security, the Directors of the various Departments of the Ministry of Public Security, and Comrades Cao Dang Chiem and Nguyen Van Con representing the COSVN Security Section.

Our policy was to clear the way for puppet soldiers and puppet governmental personnel to enter our liberated zones and join the revolution and to punish stubborn leaders (puppet officers from the rank of captain up and puppet government officials from the district level up).

The forms of punishment to be administered to those guilty of extensive crimes was broken down into the following categories: For leaders, they could be killed immediately or arrested, tried, and sentenced to death, imprisonment, or re-education camps. As for lower ranking personnel, in the main we would try to influence and educate them and then let them move to local areas in the liberated zone where they would be kept under continued observation and parole.

Thanks to the specific and timely policies and measures spelled out in this meeting, the security forces of South Vietnam were able to score many outstanding successes in the struggle to punish the reactionary lackeys.