Dương Văn Dương (1900 – February 20, 1946) was a Vietnamese military officer and leader of the

Bình Xuyên Bình Xuyên Force (, ), often linked to its infamous leader, General Lê Văn Viễn (nicknamed "Bảy Viễn"), was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided wi ...

army. His nickname was Ba Dương (Dương the Third). He was born in 1900 to a family of poor peasants in

Bến Tre Bến Tre () is the provincial capital of Bến Tre Province, in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. Located southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the city covers an area of 65.75 km2 (25.39 sq mi) and has a population of 124,499 at ...

Province. During the 1920s, Ba Dương became the leader of the Bình Xuyên, then a coalition of river pirates who extorted protection money from the sampans that traveled the canals on their way to the Cholon docks. Known for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, the Bình Xuyên became popular heroes among the inhabitants in the jungle. In 1936, Dương started his criminal activities by providing protection services to the Tây Ninh-Phnom Penh bus station in Saigon. By 1940, he had become a kingpin of South Vietnam. When the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

invaded Vietnam in 1940, Ba Dương organized a dare-to-die group of youth to organize resistance to their occupation with his younger brother Năm Hà along with some "inferiors" Bảy Viễn, , ... When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, he cooperated with the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

against the Anglo-French reoccupation of the country.

Death

In 1946, Dương lead a section of Bình Xuyên troops crossing the Soài Rạp River from Sát Forest to Bến Tre to help the An Hóa - Giao Hòa front. Unfortunately, he was fatally wounded at 8:30 a.m. by a French air strike in Hồ Sen hamlet, Bình Thành commune, Giồng Trôm district, on February 20, 1946 (some documents said that Ba Dương was killed on February 7, 1946). In 1948, Dương Văn Dương was posthumously promoted to Major General.

Legacy

A street and high school in

Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

have been named after Dương. The biggest canal in

Tân Thạnh district Tan or TAN may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Tan'', an album by the Polish rock band Kult * TAN (group), South Korean boy band * ''Tan'' (newspaper), a newspaper in Turkey * ''Tan'' (weekly newspaper), a newspaper in Kosovo Businesses ...

, Long An was named after Dương Văn Dương.

References

External links

Vietnamese generals People from Bến Tre province 1900 births 1946 deaths Viet Minh members Generals of the People's Army of Vietnam Deaths by French airstrikes {{Vietnam-mil-bio-stub