1955 South Vietnam Military Transitional Quan Buu Cancel This provisional QUAN-BUU postal marking is surely one of the most important pieces of South Vietnamese armed forces postal history. The black hand stamp was presumably put into service while awaiting delivery of an official QUAN-BUU postmark after French postmarks were decommissioned for use by Vietnamese units. Based on the dates of other covers from the same correspondence, the provisional marking was in use for no more than 16 days between 11 May 1955 and 26 May 1955. The military postal markings of the mid-1950s reflect the transitions and changes Vietnam was undergoing as the French military forces withdrew and turned control of the Vietnam National Army over to the Vietnamese and to their American advisors. The war against Ho Chi Minh’s Viet-Nam Dan Chu Cong Hoa (VNDCCH) had become more difficult and the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu resulted in the Geneva Accords in July1954, partitioning Vietnam into North and South regions at the 17th parallel. At the insistence of the United States, Ngo Din Diem was installed as Prime Minister under Emperor Bao Dai. The Geneva Accords called for reunifying elections to be held in October 1956. Ho Chi Minh was certain to win, so with the support of the United States, Diem violated the Accords and refused to hold national elections. Elections were staged in 1955 only in the south. On 26 October 1955 Diem declared himself President of the newly proclaimed Republic of Vietnam. The cancels depicted below were taken from a single correspondence sent from a South Vietnamese military transportation unit at KBC 4317/A in Dinh Tuong province. They illustrate the logical progression of military cancels starting with a typical French POSTE AUX ARMEES cancel (10 May 1955), transitioning through the provisional QUAN-BUU 7 marking, and ending with an official Vietnamese QUAN-BUU 7 postmark (27 May 1955). The numeral “7” indicates the Quan Buu Cuc, or military post office that serviced the military region. QUAN-BUU postmarks are reported with numerals 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 (Jack Dykhouse). The practice of including a numeral was fairly short-lived although covers are known through 1959 and even one usage reported as late as 1972. The text is extracted from an article I wrote for the March 2008 issue of the Indo-china Philatelist. Thanks to Richard Aspnes and Jack Dykhouse for sharing material from their collections for this article. < Back < Imnaha Stamps Home Original content ©2008 Andrew Crenshaw - All Rights Reserved.