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5 Take Up Arms!
- Indiana University Press
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55 Take Up Arms! When a company-sized unit of French soldiers arrived in Nam Định City not long after the March 6 agreement, the city population was nervous but not in a panic. Neither side concealed its hostility. However, there were no organized firefights. Every week, newspapers reported sporadic exchanges of fire by small units in the three largest cities of North Việt Nam (Hà Nội, Hải Phòng, and Nam Định). But the joint control teams quickly halted them. Tension rose. In late November and early December, the French soldiers in my city consolidated their defense in the large concrete building of the former Indochina Bank, situated on the main street, and in the silk factory nearby. Street fights between individual soldiers took place more often. The government once again advised people who had no job in the city to move to the countryside, and ordered the military to be ready to confront any threat by French forces. On the morning of December 19, 1946, French soldiers became more aggressive . They used their half-tracks and armored cars to clear redoubts, breastworks , and barricades that had been erected on most of the streets by the city’s self-defense corps. With little provocation, they opened fire on Vietnamese militiamen and civilians. At noon, my mother, my father, my cousin, my sister, and I left the city for our home village with what we could carry by hand. Later that evening firefights exploded, starting the real war. The bad news spread far and wide in less than an hour. Most villagers were up all night. Many said that battles would be fought in the city until one side won control, but not in the countryside. They would soon realize they were wrong. Early the next morning, thousands of city people were seen walking on the main road with all kinds of portable belongings. Many were heading for their home villages or the villages of relatives, and many were fleeing to any place at five • 56 · The War of Resistance all. About ten of my villagers whose houses were rather large offered to lodge those who had no place to go. Soldiers, militiamen, and public security cadres were busy preparing for war. Everyone worried about what would happen next. Việt Minh authorities set up checkpoints on roads and bridges and in marketplaces; one of them was right at my village’s gate. Men passing by were ordered to show their identification . Those who failed to present such papers were detained for investigation, sometimesforadayortwo.Insomeplaces,manypeoplewhohadbooks,papers, letters, or tags in their clothes, or almost anything with blue-white-red marks, the French national colors, were suspected of being traitors or spies. They got little trouble, and all were freed. But I heard that there was one beaten to death somewhere in my district. The war did not keep the Việt Minh from intensifying its cleansing campaign . A few days after the war broke out, the famous novelist Khái Hưng, a founding member of the Self-Strength Literary Group, was killed and dumped in a river about ten miles from my village. News of his death came to my father in three or four days. Later in the month, my father learned that many more of his comrades had been murdered. The French soldiers were hemmed in by thousands of Vietnamese fighting men. Some were armed with rifles and pistols, others with hand grenades and cold steel. Every week there were attacks on the French positions. The soldiers and militiamen fought hard and suffered heavy casualties. For months, the French weren’t able to break the siege around their two compounds. Everyone, pro- or anticommunist, was eager to do something for the brave fighters on the front line. Every appeal of the Việt Minh government was responded to quickly and enthusiastically. My father devoted all his time to the task of promoting support for the Resistance, especially for the wounded warriors .1 HeurgedhisfriendstocooperatewiththeViệtMinhgovernmenttofight the French, whom they should consider their archenemy. High Morale In January, Việt Minh authorities announced the implementation of scorchedearth tactics. Farmers were to deliver loads of straw or dry wood to fill city housesthatwereawayfromtheFrenchpositions.Thenonenight,thewholecity wassetonfire.Inthemorning,fromthreemilesaway,wecouldseesmokerising high above my beloved city, the third largest and second best-looking city of Tonkin. People said a large number of public buildings and private houses were reduced to rubble. Many large brick houses in the countryside...