LTS: Lieutenant General Pham Hong Son is a full-time martial arts general, a master of military arts. In 1971, he was Colonel, Deputy Commander – Chief of Staff of the 9th Street Front Command – South Laos. Victory over Road 9 – Southern Laos greatly contributed to the great victory of completely liberating the South and reunifying the country four years later, on April 30, 1975.
The Economic & Urban Newspaper would like to send readers a series of articles about a different perspective, a new perspective, through the memories of Lieutenant General Pham Hong Son’s son about the Road 9 – South Laos campaign.
Lesson 1: Memorable summer In the summer of 1970, my father and many other soldiers and uncles that I worked with my father at the General Staff Department such as Uncle Vuong Thua Vu – Deputy Chief of Staff; Mr. Vu Lang – Director of the C51 Operations Department; Mr. Phan Binh – Director of C52 Intelligence Department; uncle Phan Hao – Chief of Staff of the High Command of Artillery; Uncle Nguyen Huu An – Senior Master 308 … and his “natural” family also went to work in Sam Son at the same time and were arranged in the same multi-storey motel area of the army that remained after the war. ruin! The summer of 1970 was brilliant and memorable, after 4 years of evacuation from the end of 1965 to the end of 1969 by the US bombarding in the North, for the first time we were happily free on the streets and back to school. Hanoi inside. 
Headquarters of Road 9 – South Laos B702 during a meeting with General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1971 (document photo) The first time I studied with friends in the South crossed the Truong Son road for thousands of miles to the North was when I was in grade 6 at Xuan Dinh school. Little girls and boys who were about 9-12 years old, or even younger, were children of soldiers and soldiers secretly operating in the enemy area, after the Mau Than General Attack was revealed and was shot and killed and arrested by the enemy. , fierce repression should be brought to the North. They had to walk through the streets of “Liberation”, always being ambushed by the enemy, bombarded from all over the southern provinces to the Socialist Palace (near the North) to get a car, usually it took nearly 2 – 3 months, “bring a backpack with all kinds of things like clothes, hammocks (with curtains and covers), dry food, drinking water, etc … and put on the shoulder about 3 – 5 kg of rice on the shoulder , most of which serve themselves. In total, from 1954 – 1955 to 1975, about 32,000 children in the South were sent to the North, studied at dozens of schools dedicated to Southern students or studied with us like at Xuan Dinh school … In Grade 7 I studied at Trung Vuong school, Ms. Binh was the head teacher. Due to my poor score and bad behavior in 6th grade because I used to fight and was diligent in practicing soccer without doing my homework, I almost got double classes, luckily thanks to my mother also teaching Van and dad to fight. So far, the homeroom teacher sympathized with me to grade 7! For this reason, I was seated by Ms. Binh at the last table, behind the wall and with up to 5 girlfriends sitting in front and around, of which I remember three “Jade rocks” sitting at either end of the table and blocking right in front of the table. face so I can’t play with and get close to any boyfriend during class! I was just at the school of cadet Nguyen Van Troi when I returned to the beginning of 6th grade, so I still wore the uniform even though my pants were too low because I grew too fast for my age, my head wore a border guard and pulled the front cover and two earplugs. dropped down without a rope, covering his face, looking very pitiful! At that time, my father came out of the Central Highlands after more than 2 years of fighting on B3 Field from the 1968 General Attack on Mau Than as Deputy Chief of Staff. The Military Region returned to the position of Director of the C55 Military Training Department as before he left B. My father was very interested in teaching his children, especially because I was the first son, growing up early during the war, so he paid special attention to teaching. I shoot guns, learn martial arts and exercise … At the end of the summer of 1970, my father sent the whole family to work in Sam Son! It is impossible to imagine our happiness because at that time, although the US had stopped bombing the North, the fighting was still raging in the South and across the Indochina battlefields. At the age of 15, Sam Son was beautiful before the war with casuarina forests stretching on the coastal white sand, large fishing rafts grafted with bamboo trees on the shore and chains of fishermen pulling nets every day. tomorrow, the little souvenir rafts with red and blue sails and the small shells that we still scavenge for early in the morning on the sandy shore as we go out to watch the sun rising slowly. golden streaks of light and glittering on the top of the night waves rushing to the shore. That year, the whole family was allowed to ride a round-legged caravan, a bit cramped for a family of 5 but compared to the Sam trip. Son was by train for almost a day from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa via Ham Rong Bridge just before the war, and my younger brothers and I were allowed to go with the Japanese, Huy “batch” and fish i Lan “black” the son of Uncle Hong Cu and Aunt Hanh, who had just got rid of the measles, the person still covered with red itchy pimples was great, much cooler and faster because at that time the train seemed to only run every 10 – 15km / hours! The scene of the North after 5 years of bombing by the US widened before the eager eyes of the teenagers and bold in the memory with the words “Victory” in white stone, standing in the middle of the pine forest on the top of Dragon Mountain. American bomb craters were as big as ponds filled with water on both sides of the road, along with landmarks such as Do Len, Vong Phu rock and Doc Doc temple, the Drowning Woman mountain range … This summer, my father and many other soldiers and uncles that I worked with my father at the General Staff Department like Uncle Vuong Thua Vu – Deputy Chief of Staff; Mr. Vu Lang – Director of the C51 Operations Department; Mr. Phan Binh – Director of C52 Intelligence Department; uncle Phan Hao – Chief of Staff of the High Command of Artillery; Uncle Nguyen Huu An – Senior Master 308 … and his “natural” family also went to work in Sam Son at the same time, arranged in the same multi-storey motel area of the army that remained after the war. ruin! Many rows of buildings and main buildings at the gate of this guest house were completely destroyed by US bombs, green coconut flower beds mixed in sea spinach and casuarina leaves filled the aisles … My family at two gables was also destroyed by American bombs, however the middle staircase and the upper floors were intact, but there were soldiers with guns guarding them. Once, I sneaked over the broken concrete boulders to reach the 2nd floor and immediately encountered Uncle Vu practicing Tai Chi, so I got down, just in time to see a few big rooms where Dad and my uncle, They still meet every day with many large maps on the wall and it seems to be the whole table, but due to the hurry and the room is dark, they cannot see clearly inside. Uncle Vu was very serious, sometimes we chased each other and shouted too loud and he was reminded by him and we were scared of him. Once I saw a few Volga cars with firearms guarding them. At that time, all we knew was that vehicle of Mr. Le Trong Tan – Deputy Chief of Staff; Uncle Vo Chi Cong – Secretary of Zone 5 and Uncle Chu Huy Man-Commander of Military Zone 5 meeting, we also did not pay much attention because we were busy shooting birds, soccer and swimming, we only knew that the father and the Your uncle is discussing military matters only. Sam Son Summer noon at that time was very special, full of sunshine but clear, quiet and distinctly the smell of the sea, like the sound of the wind surfing between the casuarina forest and the roaring waves, sometimes adding a few more crows of crows. melt away forever. It was so special that, decades later, when I returned to Thanh Hoa town, one summer afternoon, standing by the window on the second floor of the Provincial People’s Committee Office Building, I again seemed to see the cool air filled with the flavor of that childhood. flashed by the breeze brought in by the sea and the nostalgia was so strong that I had to visit Sam Son right away with my wish even if only for a minute to be immersed in the childhood space. (There’s more)
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