There is death turned into immortality

Memories of a time not long ago

For our generation, those were very memorable early years - the sixties of the twentieth century.

The South was seething with hatred for the crimes of the Americans, Diem and Khanh. And, they were rising up with the will to "Fight to make the Americans leave, fight to make the puppets fall", liberating the South and unifying the country. The heroic spirit of "Rise up, the heroic people of the South/ Rise up and fight through the storm/ Swear to save the country, swear to sacrifice to the end/ Hold swords, hug guns and charge forward"... Victory after victory. The uprisings in Ben Tre; in Binh Gia; The great victory defeating the Special War made the people of the two regions of the South and North excited. Defeated on the battlefield in the South, on August 5, 1964, the US imperialists staged the Gulf of Tonkin incident, sending their air force to crazily attack the North in an attempt to stop our will to unify the two regions.

Then a shocking event occurred in the fall of that year. The US turned around and executed Saigon commando Nguyen Van Troi at 9:30 a.m. on October 15, 1964. At that time, it was very difficult to get news. Everyone relied on information from the Voice of Vietnam radio station that we, the common people of the Northern Delta, listened to through our transistor radios… But through that, we saw a wave of anger and hatred for the enemy rise up, unprecedented among our people, among progressive people in the world. Through the radio, many times it was in the local dialect, so there was a news bulletin mentioning Nguyen Van Troi, a poem calling Nguyen Van Troi… and then it was all Nguyen Van Troi…

My memory still remembers: Electrician Nguyen Van Troi was born and raised in Thanh Quyt village, Dien Thang commune, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam. He was the third child in a poor farming family. The French killed his mother when he was only three years old, he lived with his uncle and cousins. At the age of 15, 16, he went to Saigon to work for a living. At the age of 15, 16, he went to Saigon to work for a living. He used to drive a cyclo, then applied to learn the electrician profession and quickly became a good electrician. He worked at Ngoc Anh workshop, with a deep patriotism and hatred for the enemy, he was enlightened by the Party and organized into the Youth Union, he became a special force soldier 65, belonging to the Saigon Southwest Wing Suicide Company, Saigon - Gia Dinh military region.

Mr. Nguyen Van Troi and his wife after their wedding day. Photo: Archive.

In 1964, he was trained in urban commando combat at Rung Thom base, Duc Hoa (Long An). He met Ms. Phan Thi Quyen through a friend of hers who worked at the Bach Tuyet Cotton Company. They loved each other for more than a year and then got married on April 21, 1964. On May 2, 1964, he was assigned to place mines at Cong Ly bridge (now Nguyen Van Troi bridge) to assassinate the high-ranking military and political delegation of the US Government led by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

While carrying out his mission, he was unfortunately captured by the enemy at 10:00 p.m. on May 9, 1964. In prison, despite enduring many brutal tortures and cruel punishments along with the enemy's sweet temptations, Nguyen Van Troi still refused to confess, remaining loyal to the Party, the organization and the ideals he had chosen. To save him, a guerrilla organization in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, demanded to exchange him for US Air Force Colonel Michael Smolen, who had just been kidnapped by the guerrilla organization, and declared, "If Nguyen Van Troi is executed in Vietnam, then in Venezuela, one hour later, they will execute Colonel Smolen."

However, when Michael Smolen was just released, the Military Court of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam executed Nguyen Van Troi at 9:45 a.m. on October 15, 1964 in the vegetable garden of Chi Hoa prison - Saigon. When he went to the execution ground, he was very calm, in front of many domestic and foreign journalists, he exposed the crimes of the American imperialists. When the enemy blindfolded him, he immediately pulled it away and said: "No, let me see this land, my beloved land". Before dying, he shouted "Remember my words! Down with the American imperialists! Down with Nguyen Khanh! Long live Vietnam! Long live Ho Chi Minh!".

The phrase "Long live Ho Chi Minh!" was shouted three times. Troi's fighting spirit and heroic sacrifice at the execution ground became a symbol of the Vietnamese youth generation during the anti-American period. Uncle Ho, our beloved leader, wrote on Troi's photo: "For the Fatherland, for the people, martyr Nguyen Van Troi fought bravely against American imperialism until his last breath. The heroic spirit of Troi is a shining revolutionary example for all patriots, especially for young people to learn from."

“There are minutes that make history

There is death turned into immortality

There are words above all songs

There are people like truth born…”

To Huu

The heroic sacrifice of Mr. Troi is still known to the people of the world and has become a widespread effect. 60 years later, I still remember the heroic spirit of those years...

The story of writer Tran Dinh Van about the book "Living like him"

During my journalism career, I have met journalist Thai Duy - Tran Dinh Van, the author of the once famous "Living like him" - a touching story about revolutionary heroism - several times (twice visiting his house at 8 Ly Thuong Kiet Street and once attending a discussion at the Vietnam Journalism Museum), but I rarely had the chance to talk with this veteran journalist...

… On July 5, 2019, Ms. Phan Thi Quyen, the wife of Heroic Martyr Nguyen Van Troi, passed away, exactly 55 years after his death. I visited journalist Thai Duy - Tran Dinh Van (real name Tran Duy Tan), who helped us understand more about the example of sacrifice and the noble qualities of youth through literature and journalism. The work "Living like him" is a bedside handbook. Like "The country stands up", "Hon Dat", "A story copied at the hospital", "Gia dinh ma Bay", "Nguoi me cam gun" ... "Living like him" is like the voice of the country urging generations of people to go to battle, fight off the enemy, and liberate the homeland.

He confided: In 1964, he was a reporter for Giai Phong Newspaper, the agency of the National Liberation Front Committee of the South, with its editorial office located in Tay Ninh. After Troi died, the Saigon regime's press reported extensively on this event. At that time, Tran Dinh Van was working in Long An, only 30 kilometers from Saigon. Through that, we learned more about the unsuccessful battle at Cong Ly Bridge. As war journalists, when hearing the story, he and his colleagues all thought they had to do something to honor Troi's bravery. Next, Tran Dinh Van learned that Ms. Phan Thi Quyen, the wife of Martyr Nguyen Van Troi, had been brought by Saigon commandos to the base of the National Liberation Front of the South and attended the Congress of Heroes and Emulation Fighters of the South. I approached her and initially wrote an article titled: "The Last Meetings of Ms. Quyen and Mr. Troi", published in Giai Phong Newspaper. But then, journalist Thai Duy received instructions to write a book about Troi, so he decided to go to Cu Chi to meet his comrades who worked together and were in prison with Troi to get more information... After finishing the book called "The Last Meetings", the agency asked a Soviet reporter to send it to Hanoi via the Cambodian air route...

Journalist Thai Duy recalled: Later, I learned that comrades in the Politburo and the Secretariat were very interested in the book. Prime Minister Pham Van Dong renamed the book “Living like him”. Uncle Ho wrote the preface to the book. Only about 1 month after sending it, our brothers in the battlefield heard “Living like him” read through the waves of Voice of Vietnam Radio… In 1966, journalist Thai Duy was assigned to work in the North. The journalist met Ms. Quyen a few times. One day after liberation, on May 1, 1975, journalist and writer Thai Duy visited and paid his respects to Mr. Troi’s grave in his maternal hometown…

According to the law, at nearly a hundred years old, writer Thai Duy-Tran Dinh Van has also become a person of the past. But he is the one who exalted the moral example and the devoted style of a journalist and a revolutionary artist. As for the heroic martyr Nguyen Van Troi, 60 years have passed and forever been incarnated into his homeland and country through the names of streets, schools and the example of "Living like him"...

Huu Minh

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/co-cai-chet-hoa-thanh-bat-tu-post316511.html