Mac C. Shin
October 29, 1923 - June 4, 2012
Obituary
Memories of an Allied radio operator about Ho Chi Minh: Living 128 days with Mr. Ho
By Professor Christoph Giebel (University of Washington)
On May 10, 2008, in Seattle, USA, Mr. Mac Shin, an 84-year old Chinese-American of Hong Kong origin, received a high honor. On behalf of the Vietnamese Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), Deputy Ambassador Nguyen Tien Minh of the Vietnamese embassy in Washington DC had come to confer on Mac Shin VUFO’s Medal “For Peace and Friendship Among Nations.”
But who is Mac Shin? Not many people in Viet Nam or the United States know his name. And why did he receive this rare award? Simply put, Mac Shin has a special connection to the legendary Ho Chi Minh dating back more than 60 years. And he is one of the few still alive who played an important part in the historic months of spring and summer of 1945. Here is his story.
During World War II, Germany’s ally Japan, after occupying eastern and coastal China, stationed troops in French Indochina, which at that time was governed by pro-Nazi Vichy French administrators. Yet, after France’s liberation in the summer of 1944, a number of Free French in the Vietnamese parts of Indochina began covertly supplying Allied Headquarters in Kunming with intelligence.
Kunming, a city in southwestern China, was the base of the famed 14th US Air Force (“Flying Tigers”) under General Claire Chennault that had begun harassing Japanese shipping and supply lines in Indochina. The success of these bombing raids depended on accurate weather reports from within Indochina, as well as on up-to-date intelligence on Japanese troop movements, bases, and storage facilities. In addition, a network of agents within Indochina was necessary to rescue shot-down or crashed US pilots, hide them from the Japanese and, if possible, smuggle them out of Indochina back to Kunming.
The OSS, the forerunner to the CIA, was involved in these information gathering activities from Kunming. But it was in fact a private group of Anglo-Americans, the so-called GBT Group, working from southern China near the Chinese-Vietnamese border regions and utilizing their extended network of French business contacts in Indochina, who were more centrally important to these covert operations. Mac Shin, then a 21-year old British subject from Hong Kong, who had fled the Japanese war-time occupation of Hong Kong, was a radio operator for the GBT group.
In March 1945, the Japanese, by now deeply distrustful of the French, staged a surprise coup against the French colonial administration in Indochina. With most Frenchmen imprisoned, the valuable intelligence from within Indochina to the Allies in Kunming dried up. Both OSS and GBT were now looking for reliable intelligence sources among anti-Japanese Vietnamese.
They had already met a Vietnamese nationalist leader by the name of “Hoo” – none other than Ho Chi Minh – who had already once personally escorted a rescued US pilot from the rugged terrain of northern Viet Nam (then called “Tonkin” within Indochina) through Japanese lines and back to Kunming. Ho Chi Minh, a communist, led a revolutionary-nationalist organization, the Viet Minh, that sought liberation and independence for Viet Nam from both French colonialism and Japanese occupation.
The Viet Minh was the largest of several Vietnamese nationalist groups in the Chinese-Vietnamese border areas and the only one that had, thanks to considerable popular support, been able to maintain guerrilla bases inside the northern Vietnamese regions of Indochina. Ho Chi Minh had been seeking Allied recognition of the Viet Minh and their cause, but only after the Japanese coup against the French did OSS and GBT personnel give him serious consideration.
It was decided in Kunming to send two GBT operatives into northern Viet Nam/Tonkin with Ho Chi Minh, in order to verify Ho’s claims about the Viet Minh, their strength, popular support, and secret bases. If the Viet Minh turned out to be “for real” and trustworthy, these two agents were to begin training and working with the Viet Minh to re-establish anti-Japanese intelligence operations in Indochina in support of the 14th Air Force.
One of the two agents was the Chinese-American businessman Frankie Tan (the “T” in “GBT”). The other was Mac Shin, entrusted with the mission’s indispensable radio communications set.
In April 1945, Ho Chi Minh, Mac Shin, and Frankie Tan flew in a couple of small planes from Kunming to the Chinese-Vietnamese border north of Cao Bang. With Viet Minh members chosen for intelligence training and a security guard detail, they snuck across the border and stayed for a while in the caves of Pac Bo, a Viet Minh base a mile inside Vietnamese territory. Then they set out on an arduous, dangerous trek through the jungle-covered, mountainous regions of northern Viet Nam/Tonkin, eluding Japanese patrols and reaching the main Viet Minh guerrilla base in Tan Trao, a remote ethnic minority village some fifty miles north of Ha Noi, about three weeks later in May 1945.
Mac Shin describes this perilous trek of several weeks, mostly on foot, sometimes on horseback, in vivid detail. Both he and Frankie Tan, lightly armed, were clad in regional ethnic minority garb, taught some rudimentary Vietnamese and otherwise told to remain silent upon contact with locals to prevent detection. Avoiding the main roads and open terrain, the group moved slowly and often at night. At times, rains turned the ground to slippery mud, yet Ho Chi Minh, already in his mid-fifties, insisted that the much younger agents ride on horseback in his stead. Mac Shin frequently worried that his radio set, used intermittently to contact Kunming, would not survive these challenging conditions of terrain and climate.
Northern Viet Nam/Tonkin was also suffering a terrible famine at that time, and Mac Shin remembers that food supplies were always low. On occasion, however, villagers loyal to the Viet Minh would greet them happily and supply the group with rice and even a chicken. Sometimes potable water could only be found in bamboo stems.
Mac Shin was drawn to the warmth and caring personality of Ho Chi Minh, whom he only knew as “Ah Kung” (Chinese for “grandfather”). Ho Chi Minh spoke quite a few languages, and they communicated easily in English and Chinese, sometimes singing songs like “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” Ho tolerated Mac Shin’s youthful exuberance with good humor, but could also enforce operational principles. Once, upon crossing a river, Mac Shin encountered a crocodile-like animal swimming towards him. He emptied his pistol into the beast, and Viet Minh guards had to finish it off with rifle shots from the riverbanks, whereupon Ho Chi Minh scolded Mac Shin for wasting precious ammunition and creating a ruckus.
Once in Tan Trao, Mac Shin resumed daily or even twice daily radio transmissions to Kunming. His liaison work with his Kunming counterpart, Charles Fenn, ensured regular air drops of supplies and materials. He reported on weather conditions, relayed intelligence on Japanese troop movements provided by scouts, and helped set up a system for the region’s population to aid, if necessary, downed US pilots.
Additionally, he began training young Viet Minh members in simple and then advanced radio operations in the base’s vicinity. One of his closest students was Nguyen Kim Hung, and Mac Shin also forged friendships with his body guard, Nong Quoc Tuan, as well as Viet Minh members attached to General Vo Nguyen Giap’s staff. Meanwhile, Frankie Tan began training Viet Minh members in intelligence techniques.
Being the radio operator, Mac Shin was regarded so crucial to the mission that he was allowed to reside in Ho Chi Minh’s special security zone set up about a mile or so from Tan Trao in a secluded bamboo grove. He occupied a simple thatched hut on stilts very close to Ho Chi Minh’s. None of the other Allied agents ever gained that immediate access to the future leader of independent, revolutionary Viet Nam. For Mac Shin, the “128 days with Ah Kung” remain unforgettable.
For several weeks, Frankie Tan and Mac Shin remained the only Allied agents with the Viet Minh, preparing in crucial ways the groundwork for a much larger Allied-Viet Minh war-time collaboration against the Japanese envisioned for the future. Beside their training and communications work, they also supervised local people in building a rudimentary air strip in the valley of Tan Trao.
Mac C. Shin passed away 4 June 2012 in Seattle, age 88. Born 29 October 1923, he is survived by his loving wife Rose, family and friends.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances can be made to PeaceTreeVietnam.org.
Services will be held on 16 June 2012 @11:00 am at Calvary Cemetery,5041 35th NE, Seattle WA.
May god be with him.
To a true and devoted gentleman with strong Christian virtues.A true friend and colleague.forever faithful
Warm, wonderful memories of Mac who was an incredible mentor for generations of Radiologic Technologists at Providence Hospital.
I remember waiting on Mr. Shin when my husband & I worked for Bartell’s in University Village. He was such a nice man with really interesting stories about Ho Chi Minh. Mr. Shin, may you rest in peace.
On behalf of the family of the late Neal Wilson, we pass along all of our prayers and best wishes to Mac’s family on his passing. Mac Shin was a household name for our family. He was a wonderful friend and colleague of Neal’s for many many years. I hope they are upstairs celebrating together. They are certainly in good company together at Calvary Cemetary. Much love to the family.
Mac was a very humble man with a great many talents. He is certainly a common name among the x ray community as he was a mentor to many. I had the pleasure of traveling to China with Mac and a group of medical people he had organized from Seattle and San Francisco. He certainly made a difference in many peoples lives.
Much love to you Rose.
Mac we will miss you. I remember all the reunion dinners he organized for tbe Providence Radiology Students. Our condolences to Rose and family.
I have many fond memories of Mac. He was a workaholic and ready to do anything you asked of him at Providence when I was Chief of Radiology. He was the one that made the Polytome work and was preemint in temporal bone laminography for many years.
Mac was indefatigable. You could always count on him to give his utmost.
I miss him.