Vovinam Viet Vo Dao [p.2]

The popular appeal of Vovinam in the general population reached a peak during this time, as represented in the slogan “khong hoc Vovinam khong phai la nguoi yeu nuoc” (If you don’t study Vovinam, you are not a patriot). However, both Grandmaster Nguyen Loc and current Grandmaster Le Sang didn’t endorse this extreme view. Throughout its history, Vovinam has strived to be a gift and service to mankind, including people outside of Viet Nam’s borders. When he opened the school, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc’s goal was simply to develop capable fighters with patriotism and an honorable code of the warrior. Vovinam was not intended to be a political or social organization. Nevertheless, given the national fight for independence at the time, the Vovinam masters readily cooperated with other patriots to resist the French. This cooperation, however, simply meant that Vovinam students were doing their patriotic duty, not that they supported any specific political parties.

In 1948, when the Communist Party openly took over the Viet Minh resistance movement after it crushed other nationalist factions, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc immediately halted all his involvements with the Viet Minh and urged his disciples to leave as well. Subsequently, the Vieät Minh ordered his arrest. In this dangerous situation of being wanted by both the Viet Minh and the French, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc took some of the disciples back to his home town, Hau Bang village. Here, he helped to organize the young men into militias and trained the new militias in hand to hand combat. He also assigned instructors to the Tran Quoc Tuan Military Academy. Continuing his journey later, he also trained the Militia Officers in the villages of Chue Luu, Am Thuong, Thanh Huong, Dan Ha, and Dan Phu along the way.

When Viet Nam was divided in two by the Geneva Convention in July, 1954, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc and many disciples joined nearly one million North Vietnamese to migrate to South Viet Nam. In Sai Gon, he opened a new martial arts class in Thu Khoa Huan Street while his disciples trained South Vietnamese soldiers in Sai Gon and Thu Duc.

In April 1960, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc passed away in Sai Gon after a long illness. Before his death, Grandmaster Nguyen Loc passed on the mantle of running Vovinam to Grandmaster Le Sang, who had been with him since 1938.

On November 11, 1960, Judo Master Pham Loi participated in the coup d’etat led by General Nguyen Chanh Thi. As a result, the Ngo administration prohibited many martial art disciplines, including Vovinam from functioning. All training centers were banned. All martial masters either dispersed or were drafted into the army. The Vovinam schools were shut down at this time though Vovinam masters secretly continued to train many disciples.

After the 1963 coup when President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated, the ban on martial arts was lifted. Grandmaster Le Sang returned to Sai Gon and reopened Vovinam schools. In 1964, after a meeting of leading Vovinam Masters, the phrase “Viet Vo Dao” (The code of honor of Vietnamese Martial Arts) was added to “Vovinam.” Henceforth, Vovinam would be known as “Vovinam Viet Vo Dao.”

For more than 20 years, Grandmaster Le Sang immersed himself in the work of reinforcing, building, and developing the discipline of Vovinam. Despite living in constrained circumstances, he not only directed the Vovinam movement but also spent his days training students for hours on end. At night, he hunched by a lamp writing books and articles, systemizing the founding Grandmaster’s philosophy of martial arts and enriching the training program with his own techniques. In addition, he was elected to serve as the Director of the South Viet Nam General Office of Martial Arts and was Treasurer for the South Viet Nam Olympic Committee.

From 1964 to 1975, Grandmaster Le Sang led Vovinam into a period of robust growth. In 1966, Vovinam was brought into many of South Viet Nam’s high schools such as Truong Vinh Ky, Cao Thang, Gia Long, Trung Vuong, and Vo Truong Toan. Tens of thousands of students regularly practiced the martial arts in these schools. In 1967, Vovinam was incorporated into the training of police officers throughout South Viet Nam. From 1968 through 1975, Vovinam was brought into many branches of the Army of Republic of Viet Nam, local militias, and governmental agencies. During this time, the number of Vovinam students was well over one million.

In early 1975, fearing that the fall of South Viet Nam was imminent and the 40 plus years achievement of Vovinam would be destroyed, Grandmaster Le Sang proposed a blueprint to bring Vovinam overseas. Vovinam masters who could leave the country were entrusted with keeping the martial arts alive in other countries. Despite having many chances to leave Viet Nam, Grandmaster Le Sang and other senior masters decided to stay and keep the legacy of Vovinam alive. Soon after, Grandmaster Le Sang was put under house arrest and subsequently sent to re-education camps for 13 years. Master Tran Huy Phong was also sent to prison for five years. During this period, Vovinam was almost disbanded. Other Masters either were imprisoned or escaped overseas to the United States, Europe, Africa, and Australia.