Please tell us what armed struggles were like, When did you receive the order for armed struggles? And what kind of preparation did you have to make?

Before armed struggles began, I was a political cadre whose immediate superiors were Sister Nguyen Thi Dinh and Comrade Le Minh Dao. It was they who ordered me to begin preparations for armed struggles.

Beginning on January 1, 1960 we began gathering a number of young people who knew something about military affairs to put together a military force. We also rallied a number of young men who had been drafted into the enemy military forces. We prepared crude weapons which included bayonets, sharpened bamboo stakes, clubs and machetes in anticipation of the armed struggles.

By January 15, 1960, in the area which I was responsible for which was the central area of the General Uprising in the center of the three villages of Binh Khanh, An Dinh, Phuoc Hiep and a portion of Dinh Thuy village we had organized a force of about twenty men armed with weapons. And we coordinated our activities with the soldiers in the forts to stage the uprisings.

We carved a stamp with the word “Dong Khoi" (General Uprising) on it and also sewed our "Dong Khoi" banner. At that time we did not know what flag to use. It was impossible for us to make use of the red flag with the yellow star. Hence, we used a blue flag which represented peace.

But we called our forces the "Liberation Armed Forces." On January 17, we coordinated our attack on the first military post at exactly 3:00 p.m

Please tell us again what the fighting on January 17 was like.

Before January 17, a soldier named Gion who had been drafted into the army by the Americans and the Diem regime shot his military post commander, captured some guns and came out to us. After that, to prepare for the January 17 uprising we made our own weapons such as machetes, bayonets and, with the support of the people inside the forts, captured guns.

The spot where the first gunshot was fired was at the military post in Dinh Thuy at exactly 3:00 p.m. on January 17. This was a military post which had a platoon of civilian guards in Dinh Thuy. In this post there was another man named Dinh, who is now a major in the People's Army of Vietnam and a deputy military commander in the province, who was a man like Brother Gion who organized the effort to get rid of Sergeant Ty in order to capture the guns.

So exactly at 3:00 p.m. we captured fifteen guns from this platoon. With these guns and with home-made weapons, on the evening of January 17, in the central area of this General Uprising in the district of Mo cay in Bon tre province, we took over four more military posts. These were Huong My Cam son, Phuoc Hieu and Dinh Thuy military posts. These were our military activities.

Hand in hand with our attacks, the village inhabitants on the outside of the forts built up fires and sounded the drums and the gongs and staged demonstrations around the military posts. This was a coordination between the military attacks and the uprisings of the villagers. While we surrounded the military posts we used gongs and also pipes stuffed with hydrogen sulfide. This is to say we burned these pipes filled with hydrogen sulfide and they exploded like big firecrackers or grenades.

By January 18, in the four village area, we got rid of all the strategic hamlet directors, the local despots and the reactionaries who had carried out repression against the population. We now had a territory of our own. And our leaders and commanders in the province ordered the organization of the first military company called the Company 264. I was the person who was appointed as commander of this company.

Was it the decision by the province or by someone else to have armed uprisings? And after that did the Central Government have anything to say about armed struggles?

Before we had armed forces, the first armed unit which we had and which we pitched against the enemy was named after Major Tran Thiet Hung. Major Tran Thiet Hung was the commander of the armed forces in Ben Tre province.

As far as the decision to build up an armed force, after the General Uprising we had already created a unit with the arms captured from the enemy. We had rallied a number of young men who know something about military affairs and then we used all kinds of tricks to capture enemy guns in order to build up our military units.

We organized a guerrilla force for every village which participated in the General Uprisings. In each village the guerrilla unit averaged from seven to ten fighters. But our provincial leaders decided that besides these guerrilla forces, we had to have mobile forces. This is to say that those were provincial forces armed with guns captured from the enemy and organized like a regular army.

This was in order to coordinate with the guerrilla forces in each village and the political struggles of the population in the continued attacks and general uprisings against the enemy. That was what the order from my superiors was all about. And the first company which I commanded was called the Mobile Company 264.

When you started your armed struggle and general uprisings did you know that these uprisings were not limited to Ben Tre alone or did you think that the struggles were limited to Ben Tre only?

We were confident at the time that if Ben Tre started an uprising which included armed struggle then the entire South, having been oppressed and repressed by the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, would rise up with us and would resort to armed struggles like us in order to help liberate the South and our country. We were quite confident that the entire South, having been oppressed by the Ngo Dinh Diem regime, would have armed units which would rise up like we did. We believed that in starting the General Uprising we would not become isolated.

In the West people knew that your armed struggle was headed by a woman. What did you and others think of Sister Dinh as your commander? It has been difficult for people in the West to imagine a woman leading an armed struggle.

With regard to a commander like our Sister Nguyen Thi Dinh who had successfully directed the General Uprisings in the district of Mo Cay and who also directed the struggles in all the other districts in the province such as the districts of Chau Thanh, Giong Trom, Ba Tri and Thanh Phu the entire province, under her direction and command, started the kind of armed struggles and uprisings like the one I took part in we could only have respect for her.

You must know that after the first waves of uprisings, it was Sister Dinh who personally organized the first military company and, together with us, engaged in combat in order to defend a territory which we had liberated as a result of the General Uprisings. Sister Dinh took personal command of all the siege of the military forts, the uprisings which also included soldiers inside the forts and the participation of the inhabitants on the outside.

There were times when Sister Dinh pointed out to us on a map how to attack a certain fort, how to attack and how to carry out the political struggles in order to gain victory at a time when our forces were still few and weak.

Sister Dinh, in terms of age, was an older sister to us. And in terms of patriotism, she was the person who loved the country long before all of us. And during the period of the General Uprising, she was the highest leader and commander in our province.

Sister Dinh, as a commander, was loving and protective towards all those who were under her. She also had the special talent of organizing and providing leadership for the entire province. Because of her talent, she was able to bring together a group of people like me and to lead us. Sister Dinh did not have actual combat experience, but she was the one who invented all the tactics and strategies. And we were the people who carried out her instructions.

(Garbled)

After the General Uprisings in January 1960, the Americans and the Diem regime sent the Marines to Ben Tre in order to counter attack and to deal with the General Uprising Movement in Ben Tre. At that time, because of the Uprising in Ben Tre, there was uprising in every district and in every village.

Therefore, they were determined to concentrate their troops against the three villages of Binh Khanh, Phuoc Hiep and Dinh Thuy which represented the central area of the General Uprising in order to wipe out the revolutionary forces there. In March, Ngo Dinh Diem deployed a force of 15,000 troops against these three villages. At that time Sister Dinh was my personal commander as well as the general commander for all of Ben Tre. And I was the commander in charge of this area which was under siege by the enemy's force of 15,000 troops.

Pitched against this huge force of 15,000 soldiers was a company or scantily armed guerrilla fighters under my command. We did not have automatic weapons. We only had machetes, cement bombs and rifles.

At the same time we brought people to their district town to struggle against the artillery shelling and against rape. Hence there was a Coordination of military and political struggles.

At that time, Ngo Dinh Diem sent a man by the name of Pham Ngoc Thao here to become the provincial chief. Pham Ngoc Thao had formerly been with the revolution. He had been the battalion commander of the People's Army of Vietnam in the South. He did not regroup but went over to the enemy.

But because of his background, although he was the provincial chief of Ben Tre he was always supportive of the revolution. He had some connection with the Central Government. But as far as Ben Tre was concerned, he always showed that he was very angry and very vindictive against the revolutionary movement and was trying his best to smash the Uprising in Ben Tre.

But, on the contrary, he was supportive of the popular struggles and when anyone got arrested and tortured, Pham Ngoc Thao found ways to getting them released. This was our relationship with Pham Ngoc Thao.

For that reason, although Pham Ngoc Thao was in the belly of the enemy and an officer for the enemy, he was really a patriotic person who helped the General Uprising in Ben Tre during that period.

Did you have frequent contacts with Pham Ngoc Thao?

No, not here. We did not get into contact with him. But Pham Ngoc Thao had contacts with the Central Government.