On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army (December 22, 1944 - December 22, 2024) and the 35th anniversary of the National Defense Day (December 22, 1989 - December 22, 2024), VietNamNet newspaper respectfully sends to readers articles, stories, memories, commemorations... depicting the image of the Vietnam People's Army soldiers "born from the people, fighting for the people" and the 80-year journey of building, fighting, and growing of the heroic Army.
The Hoang Dieu, Ly Nam De, Phan Dinh Phung areas... surrounding Hanoi citadel, during the period from after the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954 to the great victory in the spring of 1975, were the residences of many families of officers and senior generals of Uncle Ho's Army working in the area of the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense, the General Staff, the General Political Department..., belonging to the Thang Long Imperial Citadel relic site today and also known as the "headquarters" of our army during the years of "fighting to drive out the Americans, fighting to overthrow the puppet regime".
There are “strange” stories that made the history of the nation in the Ho Chi Minh era…
From Yuanping to the ten thousand miles of the East Sea…
The meeting of generations of children and grandchildren of generals and senior officers of Uncle Ho's Army at the General Headquarters to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Vietnam People's Army took place at a special location, on the morning of December 18, 2024, at the Vietnam Military History Museum.
The third generation grandchild of Uncle Ho’s soldiers chose a name for this intimate meeting. That is Ms. Truong Ngoc Anh, granddaughter of General Vo Nguyen Giap. “From Nguyen Binh district to thousands of miles of the East Sea”. Brief but it is the heroic and powerful history of our army from its founding to today.
On December 22, 1944, in Nguyen Binh district (now Nguyen Binh district, Cao Bang province), following the directive of President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army was born. After 80 years of hardship, sacrifice, fighting, building and growing, to this day, our army has mastered the airspace, sea, islands, and borders of the Fatherland and mastered and protected the sovereignty of the Fatherland in Vietnam's cyberspace.
Uncle Ho's soldiers are worthy of the prophetic verses of Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem: "The East Sea stretches out its arms to protect it for thousands of miles. The Vietnamese land will forever be stable and peaceful"...
The name "From Nguyen Binh Chau to thousands of miles of the East Sea" was born with such meaning.
The meeting from "From Yuanping to the East Sea".
The general gave his horse to the soldier.
Colonel Hoang Anh Tuan, grandson of the late General Hoang Van Thai, former Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, stood silently in front of the model of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. In that battlefield in the past, when journalists and writers from socialist brother countries followed our troops to the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, they were very surprised to see an action of comrade Hoang Van Thai, who was then Chief of Staff of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign.
The Czech journalist told General Vo Nguyen Giap: “Your army is so strange! I don’t see any difference between the general and the soldier.” It turned out that the journalist that morning saw the image of comrade Hoang Van Thai, the chief of staff of the campaign, giving up his horse to a soldier with a sore leg and wading through the stream with his boots.
General and Commander-in-Chief Vo Nguyen Giap then answered a Czech journalist: “Our army is like that. The relationship between us is first and foremost that of comrades, comrades in arms.”
That strange story is the source of the strength of our Army.
The captain's letter to his daughter before his death
When Major General Hoang Sam, the first captain of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army (later became Commander of the Tri Thien Military Region), died at the end of 1968 on the Tri Thien battlefield after fierce carpet bombings from B52 aircraft of the American empire, Mr. Hoang Sung, son of Major General Hoang Sam, was only 10 years old.
Today, standing in front of his father's photo at the founding ceremony of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army at the Vietnam Military History Museum, he sadly remembered the last letter his father sent to his sister Lan, dated November 11, 1968, just one month before Major General Hoang Sam died at the age of 53.
“Dad is away on a business trip, it is hard but Dad is very excited, only worried about the children who are still young, none of them are independent, now that Mom and you are home alone it is even sadder, so you have to try your best to study hard, to make Mom and you happy, my children. Dad is always healthy, you can rest assured to study well”. “Dad is away on a business trip, it is hard… Dad is always healthy, you can rest assured to study well”…
The luggage of Uncle Ho's soldiers at that time, from officers, generals to soldiers, was just that simple. Hardship and sacrifice, but hoping that the home front could rest assured about the soldiers on the front line.
Mr. Hoang Sung next to a photo of his father - Captain of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army Hoang Sam on December 22, 1944.
On the day of the memorial service and funeral of Major General Hoang Sam, President Ho Chi Minh came to express his condolences to the family and bid farewell to the first captain of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army, his excellent student, to his teammates and comrades. Before the liberation of the South on April 30, 1975, our Army had less than 40 generals.
The highest ranking martyr of the Truong Son army
Among the more than 20,000 martyrs on the Truong Son road that day, Colonel and martyr Dang Tinh, Political Commissar of the Truong Son Army, was the one with the highest rank, military rank and perhaps the oldest age. He died at the age of 53.
In the memory of Mrs. Dang Mai Phuong, that “cleaver” was the nickname that General Van Tien Dung and his comrades and teammates used to refer to her deceased father – an officer who was always assigned by the Party and Uncle Ho to undertake extremely difficult tasks in important areas. And he – Commander of the Air Defense – Air Force; Political Commissar of Group 559, Truong Son Troops – always completed his tasks excellently.
On October 21, 1971, Ms. Mai Phuong, then a signal soldier of Company 11, Regiment 26, Air Defense - Air Force, wrote these lines of poetry to her father:
…Hello Dad
Hello comrade
Hello "poet"
Have a good trip
When is America over?
Dad back home!
The female information soldier could not reunite with her father on the day of victory. Colonel Dang Tinh sacrificed himself in April 1973 during a business trip. He sacrificed himself in the arms of Truong Son soldiers, just two years before the complete liberation of the South. The last business trip of the political commissar before going to the North to take on a new mission that was later revealed to be more important than the mission he was undertaking at that time.
Those were the daily stories in the families of the “headquarters” during those years. In the morning, they still went to work as usual. In the afternoon, they hurriedly returned home, packed their belongings, said goodbye to their wives and children, and received orders to go to war. “I’m going to B”, “I will write a letter to you and the children”, “Stay home, take care of your health, take care of the children”, “Remember to write a letter to your mother, saying that I’m going on a business trip”…
Martyr Dang Tinh (front row, 7th from right) with his comrades before his death.
The farewells to the battlefields of high-ranking officers at the “headquarters” are similar to the farewells to the battlefields of countless other soldiers and their families in the rear. There is anticipation, anxiety, pride, hope, and even sacrifice.
A story whose narrator asked to remain anonymous was told by her father, also a high-ranking officer at the “headquarters”. He confided in his daughter when he heard the news of his close comrade, Colonel Dang Tinh, being sacrificed. “Uncle Dang Tinh should have been the one to see me off, but I didn’t expect to be the one to see him off.”
In those days, like any other Uncle Ho soldiers, they often volunteered to take on difficult and arduous tasks on behalf of their comrades… When they heard the news of their comrades’ sacrifice, they all understood that if it wasn’t their comrades, it would be them. Because that was the mission of every Uncle Ho soldier to the nation and country.
The son of a general but not a general
Without introduction, perhaps no one would be able to distinguish the children and grandchildren of the former “headquarters” of Uncle Ho’s Army from the crowds of people visiting the Vietnam Military History Museum these days. They are the families of General Vo Nguyen Giap, General Van Tien Dung, General Hoang Van Thai, General Le Trong Tan, Senior Lieutenant General Song Hao, Senior Lieutenant General Phung The Tai, the late Minister of National Defense Ta Quang Buu, Major General Hoang Sam… Each name is a story, a part of history in the Ho Chi Minh era.
Folklore often says “the king’s son will become king”. But in the group of families at the “headquarters” visiting the Vietnam Military History Museum today, I only met a major general. And in the hundreds of families of high-ranking officers at the “headquarters” at that time, although many of their children and grandchildren followed their parents’ footsteps and became Uncle Ho’s soldiers, the number of general-ranking officers could be counted on the fingers of one hand… During the difficult war years and later, when the country was unified, the generals at the “headquarters” did not give any special privileges to their children and grandchildren.
Third generation descendants of the “headquarters” at the meeting.
A grandson's confession at the meeting will probably make many people think: "When he was alive, my grandfather often said that, in those days, there were many soldier families, husbands and wives, children far away from each other to go to war. And many soldiers, his teammates and comrades could not return to reunite with their families on the day of victory.
I understand that what you have today, such as your house, military rank, position, etc., are all the blood and bones of your comrades who sacrificed their lives. You and your comrades who are still alive consider what you are enjoying as the comrades who sacrificed their lives to entrust you with so that you can continue to live, live well, and be worthy. To live worthy of that sacrifice and entrustment is very difficult. We just try to live more decently…”.
And the most difficult thing to write, the most difficult to say, and the one that leaves the most feelings on this occasion of December 22nd, is this 4th strange story, the story that will continue to be "commissioned" to be preserved through the next generations of Uncle Ho's Army at the "Determined Victory Headquarters".
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nhung-chuyen-la-o-tong-hanh-dinh-bo-doi-cu-ho-2354524.html
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