April 30, 1975: The Day of Return - Part 4: From Saigon to Hanoi

In April 1976, candidates for the 6th National Assembly met with 1,000 young voters at the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural House. From right to left: Doctor Duong Quynh Hoa, Architect Huynh Tan Phat, Lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho, Lawyer Trinh Dinh Thao (sitting), Nguyen Mai, Le Van Nuoi (arms crossed) - Photo: LVN collected

Participating in "building a revolutionary government at the grassroots level" directed and launched by the City Party Committee throughout the city, I met with the Committee of Wards 5 and 6, District 4, to ask for a list of young people from 15 to 30 years old, to plan and assign people to contact and learn about each person's circumstances and aspirations.

Most of them are studying or working, so we have to go to their houses to get to know them in the evenings. Every week, we organize meetings and community activities with our own youth and teenage groups in the large yard around the Xom Chieu church.

Engage with teens

Every Sunday morning, we gather young people to collect trash and clean the sewers in the neighborhood.

Through activities, we discovered that some of our friends had good singing voices and were talented at playing the guitar. We formed an art team and chose the most active friend to be the team leader.

Three months later, we had built a core group of friends who gradually replaced us in the role of guiding local youth, and introduced a list of these active youth to the Party Committee - hamlet committee.

Typically, two pretty and smart girls, Nguyen Thi Nho and Hoa, invited each other to meet Team 4 to volunteer and participate in regular activities. About a year later, Nho and Hoa were accepted to work as office staff of the ward committee.

A few years later, Nho worked excellently and was elected vice chairman. Then in 1987, Nguyen Thi Nho became chairman of Ward 16 People's Committee.

When I posted on my personal Facebook page the article "Oh Saigon! Unforgettable" on April 30, 2022, Vo Tuan Linh, a comrade of mine from the City Youth Union (later the Secretary of the Youth Union of Ho Chi Minh City Import-Export Corporation), commented: "I remember in a big campaign of the city that year, the group of brothers and I went with Mr. Nuoi to some clusters in District 1.

During the evening of the campaign preparation activities, the brothers sat in a circle, clapping and singing. After that, Mr. Nuoi brought up a topic of discussion in the form of a confession: "On April 30, 1975, where was I and what did I do?". The brothers responded with many meaningful and interesting real-life stories.

Mr. Nuoi told the story of how he and other political prisoners broke out of the tiger cage prison - Camp 7 Con Dao at midnight on April 30 and early morning on May 1 with so many emotions.

Especially, Mr. Nuoi's conclusion is that we should tell each other stories about where we were and what we did on this historic day of April 30, to encourage each other, so that tomorrow we can enter a new battle together...".

In the last week of August 1975, the City Youth Union transferred me from Team 4 to prepare to join the delegation of people from Saigon and the South to Hanoi to attend the National Day celebration on September 2, 1975. When I announced this news to the entire Team and Uncle Ba Xe's family, everyone congratulated me on being able to go to Hanoi to attend the National Day, but everyone was in tears...

After returning from Hanoi, the City Youth Union transferred me to the Youth Front Committee (ie the Youth Union), headed by Mr. Duong Van Day (1944-1996, later the General Director of Saigon Tourist), and Le Van Nuoi as the permanent deputy head. The committee had about 6 members such as Mr. Do Linh, Mr. Viet, Tuan, Hue, Hong...

The task of this committee is to research the lives, work, aspirations, thoughts... of young people outside the Youth Union and propose methods to mobilize and gather them into cultural and artistic activities, volunteer activities, social work ...

The Presidium and Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Youth Union held a congress at the Thong Nhat Hall in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. The front row from left to right are Le Van Nuoi, ​​an ethnic minority delegate, Vo Thi Thang, Le Quang Vinh, Huynh Tan Mam, military hero Le Ma Luong... - Photo: LVN collected

Served as a delegate to the 6th National Assembly in 1976.

In early 1976, while working at the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union, I was quite surprised when the Youth Union and the City Consultative Conference introduced me as a candidate for the National Assembly.

I understood that I was nominated by the city leaders to run for the National Assembly not because I was any better than hundreds of seniors, nor because I was young (that year I had just turned 24).

Perhaps because I grew up in Saigon, sharing the hardships with my fellow countrymen and youth in the long struggle for peace, independence and freedom.

More than 10 daily newspapers in Saigon from 1970 to 1975 reported daily on the student movement's struggles and street protests, along with the names Huynh Tan Mam, Le Van Nuoi, ​​etc. Therefore, candidates like me and Huynh Tan Mam easily attracted the votes of the people of Saigon.

On the day of the election of the 6th National Assembly in mid-1976, I believe that the vast majority of people who were given ballots voluntarily went to vote for the National Assembly. Because they thought that participating in the election just one year after the unification was to express their support and hope for the new regime, and at the same time, as a confirmation that this individual citizen had integrated into the new society.

On June 24, 1976, in the capital Hanoi, the opening session of the unified National Assembly (term VI) took place in an emotional atmosphere of national reunion.

Although the Ba Dinh Hall was cramped because it was only designed to accommodate the number of National Assembly delegates from the North before 1976, the joy of reuniting the North and South after 21 years of separation made every delegate's face beam with joy.

Everyone jostled to see the faces and shake hands with famous figures such as political leaders Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, Pham Hung, Le Duc Tho, Xuan Thuy, Nguyen Huu Tho, Huynh Tan Phat, Nguyen Thi Binh...

Generals such as General Vo Nguyen Giap, Van Tien Dung, Tran Van Tra, Major General Nguyen Thi Dinh - the commander of the long-haired army in the South... Artists To Huu, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Che Lan Vien, Tra Giang... Many military heroes such as hero Nup, Vo Thi Thang, Le Thanh Dao...

National Assembly Chairman Truong Chinh stated clearly that the tasks of the 6th National Assembly - this first session is to review the general policies, organizational structure and elect the highest leadership bodies of the Vietnamese State when there is no new Constitution, pass resolutions on the country's name, national flag, national anthem; decide to change the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and officially name Saigon - Gia Dinh city as Ho Chi Minh city...

On a weekend in the middle of that first National Assembly session, suddenly my two sisters, Le Thi An and Le Thi Thai, along with their husbands and children, traveled from their hometown in Binh Luc district, Ha Nam province to the National Assembly guesthouse to visit me.

My sister and I choked up and cried, because it was the first time we met after the long war that divided the North and South. Because when the famine broke out in 1945, my father left his wife and children in his hometown, took the train to the South to seek a living.

He wandered to Loc Ninh province to work as a rubber tapper on a rubber plantation, then met and married my mother from Hai Lang district, Quang Tri province who also came here to work as a rubber tapper. In 1948, my parents went to Saigon, bought some water spinach ponds on the outskirts of District 4, filled them in to build a house and gave birth to my sisters and me in Saigon...

After the reunion dinner, my brother and sister told me a story that made me choke up: "Uncle Nuoi being a National Assembly delegate saved his entire family! Because ever since my father left his hometown for the South in 1945, the men in the village kept thinking that my father went to the South to join the enemy!

So when they saw the newspapers in Hanoi publishing the name and picture of Nuoi as a National Assembly delegate, they were so happy that they bought newspapers and pasted the articles on the wall of their house with the aim of explaining to the villagers that if my father had gone to the South to join the enemy, how could he have had a son who became a National Assembly delegate"...

Memories of a heroic youth when we walked together on the road - down the road to dedicate ourselves to peace, independence, and national unification, that fragrance will forever be in my blood, forever spreading enthusiasm and inspiration in my life.

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There was a very special day, April 30, 1975, in faraway Cuba. The people of Cuba also flooded the streets with President Fidel Castro to celebrate the day of peace and unification of Vietnam. Many years have passed, but Vietnamese witnesses in Cuba are still moved by the sentiments of their country.

>> Next: A special day in Cuba

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