What was the protest like? And in 1966 when your house was bombed, how did your husband and children die?

In 1966...

Please tell us how your husband was arrested.

In 1956 in my village there was the headman named Chac who was the most brutal of all. He would not be pleased if he did not see blood during a certain day. He shot and killed the inhabitants. For this reason, the inhabitants really hated him and wanted to kill him in order to regain their rights to life in the village of Phu Tuc. Their hatred made the inhabitants to want to kill Chac, the headman. And there was a policeman named Tiep who was also most brutal.

Therefore, his soldiers agreed to have him killed. In 1960, Mr. Toan, a soldier, shot Policeman Tiep to express his sympathy for the local inhabitants. We were supportive of the soldiers and their action. Because we were so outraged, we had to fight back harder and harder in order to avoid enslavement and death to innocent people, which were the sources of our outrage. By 1961, for all the reasons stated, I participated in the struggle. I fought because of the right to life and for democracy.

Please begin now.

In 1956, village headman Chac arrested my husband and had him taken away. I just gave birth to my child then and did not have anything to eat for two days. The villagers carried my baby up there to show them that my husband had indeed gone to fetch a midwife to help me in my childbirth and so there was no reason for them to arrest him. So village headman Chac said: "I don't care. I’ll choke this baby to death too!" This was the reason for the outrage. He exiled my husband to Chi Hoa prison where he remained for a year and a half.

After that they sent him to the district jail of Chum Ruot for six months before he was finally released. This was the reason for our outrage. I have hot blood. This was because we were just innocent people who had not done anything wrong at all. And yet my husband was arrested and tortured until he became injured. They broke his arms. As a result, he could not do anything to find food to feed his children at all. It was extremely hard for us. We were continually very hungry. Therefore, my children also had to put up with a lot of hardship.

My outrage caused me to stand up. On the day of the uprising I stood up to demand the basic democratic rights of the people. There was a soldier named Con who realized that the inhabitants were doing the right thing and supported the people. Therefore, he stood up, captured guns and fought them. After the fighting was over, the enemy shelled us from Dong Tam, killing one of my children. In May 1966, they dropped bombs and killed another of my children.

By the beginning of 1967 my husband was killed when they bombed the village. They died at different times and not all at once. In 1968 the Americans conducted a search and destroy operation into this area and shot and killed another of my children. For this reason, we were really outraged. Therefore, as we were told by the soldiers, the women all over the world supported us. While we were struggling, we were roughed up.

But there were some soldiers who told them that they should not rough us up. We heard that women in other countries in the world also supported the Vietnamese women and told the regime not to suppress us. This news encouraged us and so we stood up and fought for our rights. Before that, I did not participate in any political activities at all. This was because I had so many children to take care of. And then I had to spend the whole day working and transplanting rice.

Please continue.

In 1956 my husband went to fetch a midwife for me. The soldiers under the command of Village Headman Chac arrested my husband and took him into the military post, beating him up and saying that he was trying to get in touch with the Viet Cong. The villagers went up there and asked for mercy, but to no avail. Finally, two days later, I took my newborn baby to the military post and asked for my husband's release. I said that my husband was really going to fetch a midwife and that it was clear that I had given birth to my baby two days previously.

But Headman Chac said that he didn't care whether I had just given birth to my baby or not. He tortured my husband and then sent him that night to Ben Tre. From there my husband was taken to Chi Hoa prison where he remained for a year and a half. After that they sent my husband to the district jail of Chum Ruot for another half a year. So my husband was imprisoned for two years. During this period life at home was extremely difficult because of the young children. When my husband came back, one of his arms was completely paralyzed.

Because of my love for my husband I had to put up with all this just because he had gone to fetch a midwife for me, my outrage increased. If my children survived and grew up, they would certainly have been arrested and tortured. Ngo Dinh Diem would certainly have them arrested and tortured. And so I was really outraged. I had to stand up and participate in the uprising with the hope that my husband and children would escape enslavement.

Under what circumstances did your husband and children die?

One of my children was killed when they sent in artillery shells from the Quynh Duc firebase. This was in 1968. Two months later, they sent in artillery shells again, and again another child was killed. A month and 10 days later, they dropped the bombs and killed my husband and another child. Then the following year, another child was killed. So four members of my family were killed by American bombs and shells.

What did you think of Diem when he first came to power? And eventually what did you think of him?

When Diem came into power he issued Law Code no. 10/59. According to this law code, if anybody traveled illegally at night – for example, if you went out at night to fish without a lamp or a torch – then they would guillotine you. At that time, whether you participated in revolutionary activities or not, you would get killed anyway. Since it did not matter to them whether you participated in revolutionary activities or not, the population became really outraged. They did not make any distinction between the Viet Cong and the people.

Therefore, there were many innocent people killed at that time. They shot and killed people and herded everybody into the agrovilles. They forced people to dismantle their homes and brought them into the agrovilles. The graves were turned over and houses were newly constructed on these grave sites. Therefore, the people were afraid that, by entering the agrovilles, they were putting themselves under enslavement. You did not know when you would get killed. Ngo Dinh Diem announced at the time that the life and death of the people were in his hands.

Therefore, everybody was really afraid to live in the agroville. They would rather die in the struggle for their rights to life and to democracy. The demand was for peace and independence and not anything excessive. Therefore, if Ngo Dinh Diem did not repress the population, there would never have been the general uprising at that time. But the situation was really out of hand at that time already. Innocent people were arrested and killed.

Anybody who had a relative who had regrouped to the north was blacklisted and had to be taken to the military posts and the village administrative offices at night to sleep. Then, in the middle of the night, they would take these people to the riverside and shot and killed them. This was the reason why innocent people became so outraged and were forced to stand up. It did not matter whether you participated in revolutionary activities or not. They would kill you anyway. Hence, everybody supported the revolution.