From a history book:
Vietnamese Communists who adhered to the Communism of Leon Trotsky, the Soviet luminary who a few years earlier had been murdered with an ice-pick on orders from his archrival Joseph Stalin, were shown no more mercy than the others. For Ho [Chi Minh] and the other Viet Minh leaders, Stalin was the supreme leader of the world revolution, while Trotsky was a dangerous heretic. The Viet Minh killed some Trotskyites right away, often by tying several people together and throwing them into a river to drown slowly. In 1946, the Viet Minh apprehended Nguyen Ta Thu Thau, the most gifted Trotskyite leader and writer, at the train station in Quang Ngai, then took him to a sandy beach, gave him a mock trial,and put a bullet through his head.
Source:
Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, (Cambridge University Press, 2006) p.18.
From the memoirs of a leading Trotskyist:
22 October 1967
It was a nice Sunday. No rain and not too cold. We had expected a few thousand people at most, given that none of the established groups such as CND or various front organizations of the Communist Party had supported our call. When I arrived in Trafalgar Square for the rally, I saw a much larger crowd which had virtually filled the square. A number of us spoke and then, carrying NLF [ National Liberation Front, also known as the Viet Cong] flags and placards proclaiming ‘Victory for Vietnam’, ‘Victory to the NLF’, we began the march to Grosvenor Square.
Source:
Tariq Ali, Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties, (Verso, 2005), p.233.
