Could you describe the Highway of Terror in 1972 when the Third Division retreated from Quang Tri? Give us the details.

Yes. I was at the Command Headquarters. I was a noncom stationed at the Command Headquarters of the Third Division. The headquarters of the Third Division was located in Ai Tu from the very beginning. In April 1972 the Viet Cong began to shell all the bases belonging to the units of the Third Division. The first unit which the Viet Cong shelled was the 56th Regiment. It was commanded by Lt. Colonel Dinh. The Viet Cong lobbed about 1,000 shells every day on the C 2 base where the 56th Regiment was stationed. At that time because the 56th Regiment could not put up with the shelling anymore so it called in air support to destroy enemy artillery...

The Viet Cong shelled continuously. The 56th Regiment which was stationing at the C-2 base could not put up with the shelling anymore and so it called in air support. But it seemed that the airplanes could not destroy the enemy's artillery positions. A friend of mine who graduated in the same year with me came back from the 56th Regiment and told me that the 56th Regiment was... was being shelled. We did not know what was in fact going on... ah...

The 56th Regiment had American advisers. And the helicopters suddenly came and lifted the advisors away, the American advisors to the regiment, leaving behind the regiment commander and his soldiers. And they did not know anything at all. And after they could not stand the shelling anymore, the commander of the 56th regiment announced the surrender. And the Communist took over the C-2 base. This was the first defeat of the Quang Tri battle in 1972. After that the Viet Cong...

I was stationing in the Command headquarters of the Third Division in Ai Tu and the Viet Cong were still shelling into the Command Headquarters in Ai Tu. Every day I had to stay inside the bunker for 18 to 20 hours, not able to go outside because the Viet Cong shelled so much that we could not even raise our heads. They shelled on and on and we hope that there would be air support to destroy their artillery positions. But we kept lying there in our bunkers and did not see any airplane coming by.

Therefore, we were disappointed. This was my observation as an inferior. We lay there in the bunkers waiting for the airplanes to come to destroy the artillery positions, but we did not see any. Because there was so much shelling going on, the Command of the Third Division also could not put up with it and had to move to the ancient citadel of Quang Tri. But after we moved to the citadel, the Viet Cong again shelled into the citadel every day. There were from 2,000 to 3,000 shells a day.

This meant that they shelled continually. The Viet Cong only used their artillery. And at that time the soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam were composed of the Marines of the Third Division were still remaining in Dong Ha and were still fighting with the Communists. There were many soldiers who were able to destroy enemy's tanks. At the command post we received daily reports about enemy's tanks getting burnt. But because we did not know why there was no effective air support, finally the whole division became disintegrated because of enemy shelling.

When we became disintegrated, there was only Highway One which was the main retreat route to Hue. But the Communist forces were already there at the My Chanh bridge to stop us. This was 10 kilometers from Quang Tri. At that time the inhabitants and the soldiers, according to the order of the commanding officer of the First Corps, who was Lt. General Lam...

When we received the order to evacuate we began... I and two or three officers in my office and a few soldiers and a few reporters and cameramen rode in my jeep. I was the driver of the jeep which evacuated to Hue. After we left the city of Quang Tri we... Quang Tri was a very small city and yet we lost our way because the Viet Cong had destroyed the buildings with their shelling and so the streets were blocked.

It took a long time before we got out of the city of Quang Tri. After we left the city of Quang Tri we ran into a lot of inhabitants. All the inhabitants between Quang Tri and the Ben Hai bridge had to use that Highway One to flee to Hue, to evacuate to Hue. The soldiers were almost in the midst of the inhabitants who were fleeing to Hue. Because there was a logjam, also we were riding in the jeep, we were actually crawling along. But about one kilometer from Quang Tri... ah...

That day we fled in the afternoon and that evening we had to stay on the highway. There was so many people. I don't know how many in all were there. I must say that all the inhabitants of the area between Quang Tri and Ben Hai were heading down that highway. And then there were the soldiers from the Third Division, the tank unit and the marine unit. The civilians and the soldiers were fleeing along that highway. We slept on that highway for one night.

And the next day the Viet Cong did not pay any attention to the presence of the civilians and began to shell. On that highway, anyone who was lucky was not hit by the shells. A shell fell about 5 meters in front of my jeep. A reporter from the 3rd Communication Battalion who was riding my jeep was wounded. He was wounded on the leg and because of the fact that he could not run he was eventually killed. The rest of us were lucky. When the shelling came one tire on my jeep was deflated. And so we had to run on foot.

We could not ride in the car anymore. We continued to run. But actually we could not run at all because the Communists were blocking both sides of the My Chanh bridge, which had been destroyed by them. So we had to sit there and the Viet Cong continued to shell us. Finally, about noontime we saw that Viet Cong tanks were beginning to appear. So there was a great panic and confusion. This was because... People said that this was the Highway of Terror because the Viet Cong... because there were many people and so if there came a shell, every fragment would be lodged in the bodies and no fragment would have fallen on the ground. This was because there were people everywhere.

Therefore, a lot of people died on this highway. After that, the Viet Cong tanks came. When we saw the Viet Cong tanks we knew that there was no way for us to resist them and so we had to... I had to run away toward the direction of the sea. I had to run on foot to the sea and then doubled back. I had to run thrice the distance from... If you go from Quang Tri to My Chanh down Highway One, which was where the bridge was...

On the other side of the bridge our troops were stationing there in order to recapture the bridge. But they failed to do this. For this reason, there was a logjam of people. So we had to run down to the sea and then... I ran for the whole day and then I arrived in My Chanh. I ran on foot. And so when I arrived in My Chanh there were blisters all over my feet because I ran for the whole day by foot on the road.

On the last day when the evacuation took place where were you and what were you doing?

On the last day I was in the old city of Quang Tri. I was at the Command Headquarters of the Third Division, at the Psychological Warfare Office. I was working at the Psychological Warfare office. My work was to gather information and to brief reporters on the battlefield situation. That was all.

We're asking about the evacuation.

I already told you about my evacuation earlier.

In 1975 the Command Headquarters of the Third Division was stationed in Hoa Khanh, Da Nang. On the last day, everything disintegrated. So I ran home. The Command Headquarters of the Third Division and everyone received the order to disband. At that time we did not know where the Viet Cong had reached. But when we heard the order to disband, I ran home. When I reached home I found out that my family had fled to the airport in Da Nang to try to get to Saigon.

I then hurried my way to the Da Nang airport. When I reached the airport I found out that my family was still unable to go. This was because there was no airplane. And the end result was that I stayed at the Da Nang airport for one night. The next morning the Viet Cong shelled the Da Nang airport very ferociously. When the people who waited there realized that there was no airplanes coming, they left for home. After we got home, at about 1:00 or 2:00 pm, we heard on the radio that the Communist Liberation Forces had occupied Da Nang.

And the Viet Cong were walking around the streets, calling on the city inhabitants to move about freely and saying that there was nothing to worry about at all because peace had been restored. While we were in Da Nang, I had a brother who was with the Air Force stationing at the Da Nang airport. When the artillery shells came down heavily, my faintly left some belongings at the Da Nang airport. For this reason, after the Communist forces said that the inhabitants could move around freely then I and a nephew drove a jeep belonging to a brother in law of mine to the airport to take back our belongings.

When I was driving to the airport... at that time I had heard that we could move about freely... so I went to the airport. But as I was going to the airport in the jeep, I saw a North Vietnamese Communist in a distant pointing his B-40 at me and said: "Halt!" So I stopped the jeep and stepped down. At that time I was wearing civilian clothes and not military uniform. So this man asked me why I was going in there, saying that the army was still mopping up in the area. So I said: "You guys have said that you have liberated Da Nang and that we are allowed to move around freely, so I am a student who has lost contact with my family and so I want to go in there to look for my family." And so the first soldier who was guarding the places where the airplanes were...