Early years He was born on 18 May 1897 as Nguyễn Văn Ngượt in the
Chợ Mới district of
Long Xuyên,
French Cochinchina, in a family of a middle-sized landowners. He worked as a warrant officer in the Long Xuyên municipal police. After meeting
Huỳnh Phú Sổ, the founder of the
Hòa Hảo sect, in 1940, he changed his name to Nguyễn Giác Ngộ. He became an ardent and devout preacher for the sect, particularly among law enforcement, where he remained until 1945. Some Hòa Hảo adepts left their fields in early 1943 and rushed to
Thạnh Mỹ Tây to "seek sanctuary." The adepts restored the temple of Linh Lang under the direction of Giác Ngộ, which had been ordered demolished in 1913. However, the presence of tens of thousands of sectarians in Thạnh Mỹ Tây sparked further turmoil. The French ordered the temple's restoration to be halted, and Nguyen Giác Ngộ and other prominent sectaries were taken to
Bà Rá camp or
Côn Sơn Island. Giác Ngộ returned to the
Mekong Delta after being released in 1945 and immediately began forming new armed units.
First Indochina War While war was raging in the
north, the sect renewed its anti-
French and anti-
Việt Minh operations in December 1946. They renamed themselves The Thirtieth Nguyen Trung True Division during the reorganization of the Hòa Hảo military forces, and Giác Ngộ was appointed the general-in-chief. After the death of Sổ in April 1947, the sect began to lose momentum, leading to factionalism,
parochialism, and outside organization influence, which caused an increase in violence as the various internal factions engaged in conflicts among themselves. By 1948, Giác Ngộ had left the military to devote his entire life to religious self-improvement, though he returned to military leadership after being appealed by the
Vietnamese Democratic Socialist Party, as the other Hòa Hảo generals
Trần Văn Soái (1889–1961),
Lâm Thành Nguyên (1904–1977), and
Ba Cụt were fighting with each other. This frustrated Thành Nguyên and provoked his reconciliation with Soái. Meanwhile, Giác Ngộ was attempting to oust Ba Cụt from the Chợ Mới district. He surrendered immediately to the French colonial authorities after he had accomplished this. Soái was drawn into Chợ Mới by this slight. It took the French until 1950 to persuade him to leave the district under Giác Ngộ's control.
Sect crisis During the sect crisis of 1955, 200 people led by Giác Ngộ and
Cao Đài leaders gathered in the
Saigon City Hall to declare the General Assembly of the Democratic and Revolutionary Forces of the Nation. Its members tore down a large photograph of the Emperor
Bảo Đại, hurled it out the window, and stomped on it in the street before the meeting started, and proceeded to condemn the French and their allies. The assembly then drafted a list of demands that included Bảo Đại's abdication, the removal of all French forces, and the formation of a new government headed by President
Ngô Đình Diệm (1901–1963). They formed a committee to deliver the demands to the government, but when they arrived at the palace, they discovered General
Nguyễn Văn Vỹ (1916–1981) sitting in Diệm's office, declaring that he was taking over the army as Bảo Đại had instructed. Vỹ was taken hostage and compelled to cancel his plans by several members of the committee. After a paratroop colonel threatened Diệm, he let Vỹ go, and Vỹ left the next day for
Paris. == References ==