Henri Dauber

Le Van Vien the Tiger of Saigon Henri Dauber

Indochina, after the second world war, because of the ambitions of the independence, experienced great upheavals that would highlight players who would battle for the control of areas in their possession. If Ho Chi Minh kept hold of Tonkin, in North of the country, the South was the scene of clashes between the nationalist Vietnamese, often Christians, politico-religious movements and the Binh Xuyen, a criminal group that languished in the Cholon area, in West of Saigon. Le Van Vien, nicknamed Bay Vien, was their leader and led the fight against all those who opposed him. The French soldiers, first, then the communists of the Vietminh, financing its struggle with the money he earned brothels, casinos and opium trafficking that he organized with the French secret service and some representatives of the Union Corse. He then joined the new national army with the rank of colonel, before being appointed general by the Emperor Bao Dai. When this latter was pushed out by the new Republican authorities, he opposed them and did not hesitate to make them the war. The American support for the Vietnamese president Ngo Ginh Diem played against him and he managed to escape only with the support of his Corsican associates who had the hand put on the circuits of the opium traffic circuits to France. Arrived in France, he spent his days in the company of the deposed Emperor, Bao Dai, leading the high life in Paris and on the French Riviera. Heavy smoker, he was overtaken by the Cancer who carried him in a few months after he was installed in the Paris region.