Who Killed Father Diệp — and Who Gets to Decide?

How modern institutions manage unresolved history

By: Khanh Vu Duc

The grave of Fr. Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep at Tac Say Pilgrimage Center

For more than 80 years, the killing of Father Francis Xavier Trương Bửu Diệp on 12 March 1946 at Tắc Sậy has been contested. In southern Vietnam, one narrative long dominated collective memory: that he was killed by Việt Minh forces amid the chaotic early postwar…