Re-education camps (Vietnamese: Trại cải tạo) were prison camps operated by the Communist government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In these camps, the government imprisoned at least 200,000-300,000 former military officers, government workers and supporters of the former regime of South Vietnam. Other estimates put the number of inmates who passed through "re-education" as high as 500,000 to 1 million. The high end estimate of 1 million is often attributed to a mistranslated statement by Pham Van Dong, and is considered excessive by many scholars. "Re-education" as it was implemented in Vietnam was seen as a means to allow the Vietnamese in the southern part of the country to be reintegrated into society and as a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination.