Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans

Chapter 6: No Final Victory, No Family Life

Chapter 6 No Final Victory, No Family Life They are still friends. Ngoc and Tran worked in the same office in 1975–1976 at Ty Xay Dung, the largest construction corporation in An Giang Province. Ngoc’s father was the CEO, a retired NVA lieutenant general; and Tran was from a small business family and soon fled the country as one of the “boat people.” I was surprised to see their reunion after thirty years: emotional hug with tears, instant recall of some old-day gossip, and garrulous brags of their kids and families. Even though they went separate ways, there was no animosity , no regret, and no hard feelings. They seemed happy with the ending. Lt. Gen. Huynh Thu Truong was happy, too, having seen it all: the end of the French Indochina War in 1954, the end of the American War in 1973, and the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.1 As a senior artillery expert, Major General Truong’s war experience both in the North and in the South reflects the technological aspects of the NVA and PLAF by showing how the Viet Cong adopted new technology and trained its officers. During the early years of the 1960s, Hanoi sent many of the NVA officers with Southern roots back to the South to participate in the NLF and PLAF’s struggle against the ROV government. Some of these officers had been recalled to north of the 17th parallel according to the Geneva Indochina Agreement signed in July 1954.2 Some had fled to the North during Diem’s suppressions against the Communists in 1958–1961. While in North Vietnam, they received further training in guerrilla warfare, mass mobilization , political propaganda, and military technology. After they were sent back to the South, these officers played an important role in upgrading the PLAF’s weapons and equipment and improving their combat effectiveness. The NVA high command began to pay more attention to military technology in the late 1950s in order to win large-scale, decisive battles against 56 A Country Divided the ARVN forces, establishing artillery and engineering divisions and opening artillery and engineering schools to train their officers and commanders. When the first antiaircraft artillery brigade began its air defense of the capital city, Ho Chi Minh wrote to the commander that “Without antiaircraft artillery , Hanoi is like a house without a roof.”3 In the summer of 1965, the NVA established its antiaircraft missile regiments in the North. Meanwhile, the PLAF continued to improve its weaponry by introducing up-to-date military technology. In the late 1960s, the NVA transformed from a peasant guerrilla army into a modern professional army.4 Lt. Gen. Huynh Thu Truong Rector, Artillery Training Center, PLAF (Viet Cong, South Vietnam) I was born into a well-off family in 1923 in South Vietnam. After high school, I enrolled in a French Catholic College at Saigon [present Ho Chi Minh City] in 1944. I studied engineering, mathematics, mechanics, physics , and chemistry. The Pacific war was over in August 1945, and the Viet Minh established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam [DRV] in Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh as president in early September. The Viet Minh had been active in the South. The First Indochina War broke out in 1946 when the Viet Minh troops clashed with the French forces in the North. Even though we were French college students, we didn’t like the French colonial government’s return after World War II, with their old-fashioned, out-of-date colonial policy. We liked national independence and wanted to take Vietnam back from France. I joined the student protests against French domination of our country. The Viet Minh members were actively involved in these student movements in Saigon and rapidly developed their party branches all over the college campuses. I was approached by one of the party branch members in our college, and I became a Southern Vietnamese Communist Party member in 1946.5 After my graduation in 1948, I got married and had an engineering job to cover my secret mission as an undercover Communist engineering researcher. I had accomplished several important artillery tests and research projects for the People’s Army of Vietnam [PAVN, also known as Viet Minh] in the North in my company lab in Saigon. The results of my research were sent all the way from the South to the North. No Final Victory, No...