The showdown began at siesta time on a warm, summery day in April, 1955. Premier Ngo Dinh Diem was sitting down to a late lunch at Freedom Palace when nine 81-mm. mortar shells thumped down around the grounds, killing a civilian and wounding a couple of soldiers. The Premier rushed to the phone. “The palace is being shelled,” he told French Commissioner-General Paul Ely, his voice disrupted on the line by adjacent explosions.
“I can’t understand you,” said the Frenchman. “The palace is being shelled?”
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The Battle for Saigon was a month-long battle between the Vietnamese National Army of the State of Vietnam (later to become the Army of the Republic of Vietnam of the Republic of Vietnam) and the private army of the Binh Xuyen organised crime syndicate. At the time, the Binh Xuyen was licensed with controlling the national police by Emperor Bảo Đại, and Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem issued an ultimatum for them to surrender and come under state control. The battle started on April 27, 1955 and the VNA had largely crushed the Binh Xuyen within a week. Fighting was mostly concentrated in the inner city Chinese business district of Cholon. The densely crowded area saw some 500-1000 deaths and up to 20,000 civilians made homeless in the cross-fire. In the end, the Binh Xuyen were decisively defeated, their army disbanded and their vice operations collapsed.
South Vietnamese soldier takes cover
On the midnight of 29–30 March, explosions rocked Saigon as the Binh Xuyen responded to Diem’s removal of its police chief. 200 Binh Xuyen troops launched an attack on VNA headquarters. The clashes were inconclusive, with the VNA suffering six deaths to their opponents’ 10, but by sunrise, the bodies of civilians littered the sidewalk.
Soldiers congratulated by civilians
The final battle between Diem’s VNA and the Binh Xuyen began on April 27 at mid-day. After initial small arms fire and mortar exchanges, the VNA resorted to the heaviest artillery in its arsenal. This coincided with growing calls from within the Eisenhower administration to oust him, who believed that he was unable to subdue the Binh Xuyen and unify the country. By evening, a large part of the inner city was engulfed with street to street fighting. By the morning of April 28, multiple explosions and house to house combat had driven thousands of civilians onto the streets. A square mile of the city, around the densely populated inner city Chinese district of Cholon where the Binh Xuyen had a stronghold, became a free fire zone. Artillery and mortars levelled the poor districts of the city, killing five hundred civilians and leaving twenty thousand homeless. Observers described that fighting from both sides as lacking strategy and relying on brute force attrition tactics. One of the few manoeuvres that were considered tactical was an attempt by the VNA to cut off Binh Xuyen reinforcements by demolishing the bridge across the Saigon-Cholon canal. This was made moot when the Binh Xuyen threw pontoon bridges across the canal. It appeared that the conflict would be determined by the side which was able to absorb the greater number of losses. Approximately 300 combatants were killed in the first day of fighting.
On the morning of April 28, John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State phoned J. Lawton Collins to suspend moves aimed at replacing Diem. Eisenhower had determined that these were to be put on hold pending the outcome of the VNA operation. Collins and Dulles clashed in the National Security Council meeting, with Collins vehemently calling for Diem to be removed. Collins continued to argue that the attempt to destroy the Binh Xuyen by force would produce a civil war. The NSC endorsed Dulles’ position.
Victory Parade. The Gangsters are defeated.
After 48 hours of combat, the VNA began to gain the upper hand. Le Grande Monde, previously Bay Vien‘s largest gambling establishment, and temporarily serving as a Binh Xuyen citadel, was overrun by Diem’s paratroopers after a struggle which caused heavy losses on both sides. The VNA then stormed one of the Binh Xuyen’s most heavily fortified strongholds, the Petrus Ky High School in Cholon. By the time Collins had arrived back in South Vietnam on May 2, the battle was almost won. The Binh Xuyen forces were broken and in retreat and their command posts were levelled. Bay Vien’s headquarters was battered and his tigers, pythons and crocodiles inside had been killed by mortar attacks and shelling.
Bay Vien escaped to Paris to live out his life on the profits of his criminal ventures, and the VNA pursued the Binh Xuyen remnants into the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border.
Jubilant crowds gathered outside Diem’s residence shouting “Da Dao Bao Dai” (meaning “Down with Bao Dai”).
Sources:
Wikipedia & Time Magazine
localarts, and 1 other are discussing. 
James DelCol, 
Jeff Joseph, 
Joe McLane, and 11 others are discussing. 
localarts 10:12 am on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
That explains a lot. Did Schillers dad know John Holmes was screwing his 15 yo daughter?
John 11:30 am on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
Yes. And when she needed cash to go to Thailand, she worked at an exotic gentlemen’s club. Her dad didn’t have enough to buy her a plane ticket. In The Other Hollywood, she did her audition dance at the club for the manager, and her dad was at the bar with a friend watching. I’m serious.
“I’ve got to audition.”
My dad’s like, “Okay.”
I was scared to death. I did three straight shots of whiskey and just bit
the bullet. I had this purple dress on—and that comes off—and I think a
G-string.
So I go up there and dance to “Start Me Up” and “Another One Bites
the Dust.”
As Shirley Q. Liquor would say, “dats jus nastyy”. Tom Lange STILL had to track her down, Lange was non too happy about casing a strip joint and hanging out in the parking lot for 12 hours to find Dawn. This book is awesome!….
“When I finished dancing, I put my clothes on and went and talked to the owner. He goes, “You can start tomorrow. . . .” I wanted to leave but my dad says, “Come here a minute. I’ve got to shake your hand. There’s no fucking way in hell I would ever take my clothes off in front of a bunch of people. You’ve got balls.” “
localarts 1:13 pm on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
Thats sick. Vietman likley destroyed her dad’s mind but there is still a rational side as a parent that should kick in at some point.
Jill C. Nelson 1:29 pm on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
“Tom Lange STILL had to track her down, Lange was non too happy about casing a strip joint and hanging out in the parking lot for 12 hours to find Dawn. This book is awesome!….”
Dawn neglected to mention any of this story in her own book, but as you’ve read, it’s out there. In her own book Dawn claimed she babysat for “Louise” the stripper — no mention of stripping herself. She also neglected to mention how she supported herself for the large part of seven years while in Thailand which is also detailed in Leg’s McNeil’s book by Dawn.
Tom Lange and Frank Tomlinson waited in the parking lot together and then Tomlinson went into the club to identify Dawn. He doesn’t drink alcohol so he ordered a soda at the bar. Once they were positive it was her, they followed her after she left the club.
John W 3:55 pm on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
Thanks Jill. I was hoping you would chime in and help with this. I was getting the same conflicts in my head since I read her book. I had read parts of Other Hollywood but now I have the book. Enlightening!
Jill C. Nelson 4:15 pm on July 26, 2013 Permalink |
Very. 🙂
John W 1:07 pm on July 27, 2013 Permalink |
And I knew Frank was there… From court tesimony. It’s great that he was there, at that moment. He and Det. Lange are old school gum shoes. I have your book Jill, but it’s size intimidates me… And I will read it soon… Have only looked at the photos. Its like 800 pages! LOL
Jill C. Nelson 11:26 am on July 28, 2013 Permalink |
Yes, it was very good Frank was there. (One of the reasons it’s important that Frank is mentioned with respect to the Florida arrest is because in her book, Dawn wrote that Tom Lange and Tom Blake were the arresting officers in Florida which wasn’t the case. Blake was a vice cop, not a homicide detective.) As you’ll read, Frank was very instrumental in tracking Holmes down in Florida. Tomlinson hadn’t been involved in the L.A. part of the Wonderland investigation, but received permission to hunt John down after the case got cold and he was no where to be found. He started making a few phone calls and got the ball rolling and was able to track him in Florida. Indeed, Lange and Tomlinson made a very effective team.
I’ll admit, “Inches” is a big book but it was tough to tell the Holmes story in anything less while allowing all of the participants to have a voice. 😉