We took over Saigon - Gia Dinh

30/4 Park and Le Duan Street, right in the center of Ho Chi Minh City today. Photo: Hong Dat/VNA

After the victory of Buon Ma Thuot in early March 1975, at the base of the Education Subcommittee under the Central Propaganda Department in Tay Ninh War Zone C, there was an unusually excited atmosphere. On the war bulletin hanging in hall 1, an enlarged map of the South was displayed, the arrow of victory changed daily. Day or night, no matter what work they were doing, everyone passed on the news of victory to each other. By early April, I still remember clearly that on April 10, Uncle Muoi Chi (Deputy Minister Le Van Chi) on behalf of the leadership of the B3 Education Subcommittee and Mr. Bay Huong (teacher Thieu Thanh Huong) were invited by Uncle Tu Anh (Tran Bach Dang) to the base of the Central Office Standing Committee in Sa Mat to receive the Central's policy to prepare a plan to take over Saigon - Gia Dinh city. Immediately after attending the meeting at the Standing Committee, Uncle Muoi Chi and Brother Bay Huong, along with the leaders of the Subcommittee, immediately developed a specific plan to prepare to take over all educational facilities in Saigon - Gia Dinh. The Central Propaganda Department assigned the Education Subcommittee to mobilize at least 200 cadres, divided into 2 batches. The first batch included all the comrades in the General Department, the Popular Education Department, the Urban Department, the General Propaganda Department, and the teachers and students of the Regional Pedagogical School, a total of 116 people. This group would prepare the conditions so that when Saigon was liberated, they could immediately take over the entire headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Youth and the University. The rest were mostly old comrades, and women with small children would follow later. The educational troop, codenamed Group H6, was led by Uncle Tu Nhat (Tran Hong Nhat), the Party Secretary, and Hong Son as Deputy Head. Dinh Hoi and I were assigned to Yen Du's (Ha Quy) team. In the following days, we studied and discussed specific plans according to the delegation's assignment. In the large basement of the hall, the city map was enlarged on a large board. Someone had drawn two stars, one was the Independence Palace, the other was 70/35 Le Thanh Tong Street. Above was written a brief secret order of General Vo Nguyen Giap "Faster, Faster, Bolder, Bolder", as the spiritual slogan of this General Offensive and Uprising determined to completely liberate the South, unify the country, and we were honored to advance to Saigon - Gia Dinh.

Following the footsteps of Speed

In addition to studying and understanding the organizational structure of the Ministry of Education, we also prepared our luggage and personal dry food, enough for 5-6 days of hiding in the outskirts of the city, waiting for the army to liberate us and then be there immediately. There were two types of food, including dried rice bought at Trai Bi Border Gate and roasted rice, two kilos per person, and food included pork floss made by the agency.

In mid-April, the communal kitchen was bustling with preparations every day. The kitchen had raised more than a few dozen pigs for a long time, and when it was time to eat, they all came back, including sows. Now they were all caught and slaughtered. The first few days were easy, but later it was very difficult to catch them, and they had to be shot with a gun. Making pork floss was not enough, the brothers also caught chickens raised at home for the kitchen to make. I remember Yen Du had a flock of newly hatched chickens, and he said that one day he would release the mother and her babies into the forest because he could not bear to slaughter them.

On the afternoon of the 27th, we received orders to leave. That night, the entire base hardly slept. The house and the bunker that we had built with each branch and handful of leaves from the loyal army had been with us for several years in the forest, the trails from the base and the departments and offices that the brothers and sisters who came before named Hanoi Street, Hue Street, Saigon Street, Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, bore the footprints of many cadres and soldiers from the elderly teachers like Uncle Muoi Chi, Uncle Tu Dung (Nguyen Huu Dung), Uncle Nam Dieu (Duong Van Dieu), to the nurse Thuy Hai, the foster sister who often sang vọng cổ, remembering when the enemy swept, the whole agency had to move base, had to eat cassava, green beans for a whole month, remembering the Tet holidays in the forest of the war zone, sharing each Tam Dao cigarette, each Hai Ha candy sent from the North, those who went first, those who stayed behind.

The old men joined the revolution from the fall of August 1945 for 30 years, then the generation of brothers Yen Du, Bay Huong, Hong Son... went to the South from 1965, among them, their comrades fought in the Mau Than Campaign 1968 and sacrificed heroically like teachers Le Anh Xuan (Ca Le Hien), Le Thi Bach Cat, some just returned from Con Dao prison like teacher Chu Cap... we young people have also been attached to the base area next to Cay stream since the beginning of 1970 until now, with so many happy and sad memories.

Liberation Army tanks occupy the puppet presidential palace, noon April 30, 1975. Photo: Quang Thanh/VNA

But we were more fortunate to be able to enter Saigon first. At midnight we carried our backpacks and set off. At 5 am we arrived at the assembly point in front of the gate of the Regional Pedagogical School. There were already 5 trucks waiting. When we got on the truck, it was already light. The truck passed Lo Go, crossed Can Dang bridge, then reached Cay Cay intersection, about halfway down the main road from Can Dang to Dong Ban. Along the way, we saw not only our group but also many other groups marching towards Cay Cay intersection. Here, we were transferred to another truck, and continued marching. By dusk, we reached a forest, which was later known to be the Ben Cui base northwest of Saigon, and our troops were hiding there. At the end of the 29th, we heard planes whizzing overhead, then bombs exploding in Saigon.

At 9:00 a.m. on April 30, we heard the news of Duong Van Minh's surrender. After 11:00 a.m., Saigon Radio broadcast a special news bulletin... The whole base cheered loudly. We quickly ate lunch and quickly got on the bus. Along the way from Ben Cui to Saigon, we saw burnt vehicles on both sides of the road, piles of clothes the puppet soldiers had taken off before fleeing. And unlike the day before, today, without anyone telling us to, we walked and sang in unison from "Liberating the South", "Marching to Saigon" to "Uncle still marches with us"... everyone sang loudly. At first, we sat and sang, but as we got closer to Saigon, we all stood up and sang revolutionary songs loudly. At 5:30 p.m., our bus passed through the main gate of the Ministry of Education and Youth at 35 Le Thanh Tong. There were 2 soldiers, 1 female commando and a few guards (security guards) who were our base here to welcome us. So we had really arrived in Saigon. Looking at the 3-4 story houses, looking at the peaceful blue sky, it's like a dream.

On the night of April 30, we were assigned to sleep in the offices of the Ministry of Education's two facilities at house numbers 35 and 70 on both sides of Le Thanh Tong Street. There was no place to hang hammocks, so some of us slept on our desks, others spread mats on the floor and used our backpacks as pillows to sleep, but we couldn't sleep, we were restless and excited, everything seemed strange. After sleeping in a hammock for several years in the forest, we were now lying straight on the floor, the street lights shining through the glass windows were as bright as day, so no one could sleep and got up to talk loudly, their throats hoarse from singing at full volume all afternoon. Someone leaned over and whispered.

Happy tears flow

The next day we met to hear about the new policies of the City Military Management Committee and to receive specific tasks. All the brothers and sisters from the Education Subcommittee in the war zone were assigned to the H6 group to take over the Ministry and Saigon University.

Le Anh Tuong, three student teachers and I were assigned to take over the Student Affairs and Foreign Affairs Department, headed by Dinh Hoi. This department consisted of over a hundred employees, working in a three-story building at 35 Le Thanh Tong. Every day we came here to work, the main task was to take over the facilities, manage records, organize former employees to report and summarize the personnel situation of the department, who evacuated and who stayed.

The first few days, we went around the rooms of the three floors of the building that our team managed, and saw that all the rooms were intact. On the desks were still documents that had been written or read, and on many tables there were half-full glasses of water. During the day, we worked at 35 Le Thanh Tong. We ate at the communal kitchen here. At night, we slept at a villa on Hai Ba Trung Street. This was the house of the former Minister, who was said to be Nguyen Van Thieu's real brother, and was currently the Ambassador in Taiwan.

On the afternoon of May 5, all the remaining members of the Liberation Education Subcommittee left in the second batch to 35 Le Thanh Tong. We gathered together to work like we did at the base, but in a different environment and with a new and overwhelming workload.

During the first days of joining the Military Management Committee, we were issued new clothes, new bucket hats, new pith helmets, new rubber sandals and even Phoenix bicycles to go to work. Every time we went out, we dressed properly, with a red armband with the letters DOAN H6 on our left arm. During the first few days, outside of work, we often carried a city map with us to see the streets of Saigon.

One day, Nguyen Dinh Tuong and I were walking on Bach Dang wharf when suddenly a truck full of soldiers stopped right in front of us. From the truck, I saw a young soldier jump out of the truck and run to hug me. He shouted loudly: Hello teacher, do you remember me? I am Thuong, a student in your class in Thanh Van. I hugged him, bursting with joy that teacher and student met each other in the middle of Saigon port on the day of liberation. He was Nguyen Thuong, from Thanh Cao, his house was near the classroom surrounded by trenches in a cool jackfruit garden. He was in class 7A, which I was in charge of. In March 1969, I said goodbye to my students to go to the battlefield in the South. That day, the whole class cried, the teacher cried too, now that teacher and student met in Saigon, we were so happy that we hugged each other and cried.

The flag of the National Liberation Front and the flag of the Republic of South Vietnam fluttered at Tan Son Nhat airport on April 30, 1975. Photo: Quang Thanh/VNA

One Sunday, I went to the zoo for a walk. While standing next to the rare bird cage, a soldier hugged me from behind and exclaimed: Brother Tien, Brother Tien, you're still alive, I've met you. That soldier was my uncle Nguyen Dang Hoa, my aunt's son. Hoa and I met by chance in the forest of the Tay Ninh R war zone. Hoa was on the way to the Southwest with his unit, and met me at the Central Propaganda Bureau base. That day, I thought he was going to join the main force unit of Military Region 9, thinking that "co lai chinh chien ky nhan hoi" (a poem by Vuong Han of the Tang Dynasty in China), so I gave him a piece of blue floral parachute cloth as a farewell gift, thinking that it would be difficult to meet again. However, both of us met each other intact at the zoo, feeling both happy and sad, unable to express our feelings.

That day I took Hoa to a coffee shop near the gate of the zoo. We drank two cups. When it was time to pay, the Saigon girl smiled and said: I invited the liberation soldiers. I won't take any money. I kept asking her but she didn't accept and said: When you guys go to the zoo, please come here. I'll treat you... Joy after joy.

On May 15, the whole city held a rally to celebrate the victory. In the morning we gathered in the Ministry's conference room to listen to the report of the victory rally, in the afternoon we prepared for the party, and in the evening we watched the fireworks display at Bach Dang port. Before that, when the agency had a meeting to discuss the organization of the big festival on May 15, there was a suggestion to slaughter a dog. The story is that the current Minister of Education had a hobby of raising dogs. At the Ministry, he raised a German Shepherd as big as a calf, which was taken care of by a guard. On his days off, he often took this dog out in the car. When we liberated Saigon, the Minister arranged for his wife and children to evacuate to the US embassy, ​​but he stayed in Saigon and abandoned his post before our army took over. This German Shepherd used to eat 2 kilos of fresh beef every day. When we took over, the meat standard was gone, and he was only fed leftover rice mixed with fish water, and he ate very little. It ate little but barked loudly throughout the office. One day, when our army tank passed by, it barked all night long. Neighboring units warned it. The guard went to the Minister's house, but the old owner, the Minister, had gone to Can Tho. The new owners, the military guards, did not accept it because they did not know what to feed it. So the office staff asked the soldiers from the neighboring army unit to reincarnate the Minister's dog.

On the afternoon of May 15, at the Moc Ton festival, there were dog sausages, boiled meat, grilled meat, plum soup... with everyone from young to old, men and women, teachers and students, holding a glass of wine in their hands, Mr. Tran Hong Nhat - Party Secretary and Head of the Military Management Board of Group H6 said a few words of confidence, the gist of which was: Compared to the millions and tens of thousands of soldiers who sacrificed their lives from the 9-year resistance war to the resistance war against the US, 30 years to have today, we are honored to be here to participate in the takeover of Saigon, we are the lucky ones, the happy ones, because we get to see the South liberated, the country is peaceful, independent, and free. Living until today to meet each other and shoulder the military management work in Saigon is a lucky and happy thing.

The whole hall applauded loudly. I was fortunate to witness the happy days of Saigon's liberation by participating in Group H6, the Saigon Military Management Committee. The "happy days with tears flowing again" of 50 years ago will never fade.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/chung-toi-tiep-quan-sai-gon-gia-dinh-10295614.html