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8: Change of Heart (1948)
- Texas Tech University Press
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8: change of heart (1948) asmall, almost bald mountain stuck out as the most noticeable landmark visible from the headquarters of Regiment 83, my new assignment. I arrived here in mid-1948 after leaving the hospital and spending a month on convalescent leave. Nui Chop Chai (or Fish Net Mountain, because it looked like a fish net as it sank into the sea) rose out of a flat plain. This area produced great quantities of betel for sale in and beyond Phu Yen province. Thick bamboo hedges encircled small hamlets scattered like islands in a sea of rice fields. Most houses were built of bamboo and clay, covered with elephant grass; each had its own betel garden. Regiment 83 HQ sat at the foot of Fish Net Mountain, about two kilometers from Tuy Hoa. Capital of Phu Yen province, Tuy Hoa was on the northern bank of the Da Rang River at the junction of Highway 1, the north-south railroad line, and Route 7, which led to the Highlands. Until shortly after the revolution began in August 1945, Tuy Hoa had been a busy market town with tens of thousands of inhabitants. Trains stopped daily at the nearby station to unload goods from the North and load local products. At such times it had looked like a vast open fair. Now it was virtually a wasteland of demolished brick buildings with temporary shelters scattered haphazardly among the ruins. Hundreds of wild monkeys inhabited the city’s highest point, a small hill almost in its center. The French bombarded the city frequently, by air from the Nha Trang air base less than 160 kilometers to the south and from warships operating from the Cam Ranh Bay naval base. Most buildings were in ruins, and the majority of the people were gone. Members of the Resistance “destruction department,” headed by my brother-in-law Le Van Kinh, leveled any buildings left standing by the French. This was part of the “destroy to resist” policy. During one bombardment the headquarters of the Twenty-seventh Dai Doan (Army Corps) of Cao Van Khanh was caught off guard, and my brother, Tran Ngoc Hien, then deputy chief of the intelligence agency of South Central Vietnam, was almost completely buried in a foxhole for hours. Hien remained in the intelligence agency after I volunteered for combat in 1945. He moved quickly up the ranks, becoming head of intelligence and counterintelligence for the entire Central Highland and South Central Vietnam region. He was now a powerful and almost mythical figure as a result of his exploits. He might be seen talking to a Vietnamese mistress of a French officer in a French-controlled city one day, then be back at Military Zone headquarters 100 kilometers away the next 84 vietnam labyrinth day. He succeeded in convincing many to desert the French and join our forces. He compromised Vietnamese who worked with the French by fabricating evidence that they secretly worked for the Resistance. This turned the French against some of their most loyal lackeys, who might be executed as a result. Regiment 83 chose this site because the surrounding area offered natural obstacles to enemy incursions. Bare, sandy terrain and open rice fields made surprise attacks difficult and would slow any enemy advances. Trenches were dug everywhere to provide protection during air attacks or shelling by naval cannon. It was also high enough to serve as a perfect observation post in case of large-scale enemy raids. Headquarters personnel, several hundred in all, lived with local inhabitants. Billeting five to ten men per household was customary in our army. As was also customary, the regiment had two staffs. One was a conventional military organization responsible for operations, intelligence, and logistics. The other was a department of political affairs, which handled propaganda, indoctrination, public relations, troop morale and entertainment, and selection and promotion of cadres (NCOs and officers). Although the regimental command (commander, deputy commander, and political commissar) all had authority over and access to both staffs, the regimental commander worked chiefly with the military chief of staff, while the political commissar worked mostly with the chief of the political department. The concept was the same as I’ve described it at lower levels. The political commissar ’s responsibility was to provide the inspiration, will, and motivation for the troops to fight. The political staff helped him perform those tasks. The commander handled military matters: going after the enemy, fighting the battles, and preparing his troops to...