Interviewer: What I'd like to ask the lady is what was life like before August 1965? What was life like in the village? Were the NLF people here and what were they doing?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: In 1965, I was staying at home.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: My husband was working in Danang.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: When I stayed at home, I did not see any NLF people.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I only saw a truck coming into the village and arrested me and my child.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I was carrying my son then.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: The interpreters told me to get out there so that they could lob smoke grenades and shells into the village.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Then they came in to burn down the houses.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They then herded us down to the railroad and took us away until they released us.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: This was the situation in 1965.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I just tell you what I saw.
Interviewer: What was your life and the life of other villagers like before 1965? And were there NLF forces here?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I was busy working then and so I did not see any NLF soldier in 1965.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I was only a rice farmer.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And so when the soldiers came, I saw the things which I described.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I never saw any NLF soldier at all.
Interviewer: Could you please tell me about the day in August 1965 and could you tell fully and honestly as you can what happened?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They shelled the village around 10 a.m., burnt the houses down around 11 a.m.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: and the cars came around 10 o'clock.
Interviewer: What did they ask you to do that day? Where were you forced to go?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I stayed at home and they forced me out of the house, and that was all.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I just did not want to go anywhere at all.
Interviewer: Did you hear gunfire?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They only shelled the village and lobbed smoke grenades in here.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: It was all dark because of the smoke.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: The interpreters came in and ordered us out so that they could burn down our houses.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And so when I carried my son out of the house, they burnt down my house.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: After that they took us to the concentration camp.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I did not have a house left and so I had to live in the concentration camp.
Interviewer: First of all, did they burn down your house? And if they burnt down your house, then what did you have in the house? And then when they told you to go away, were you angry?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: At that time my brick house was just completed.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: So we had rice cakes, potatoes, rice, pigs and a lot of furniture in the front part of the house and the back section.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Both parts of the house had been completed.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And so they came it and burnt it down.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: It was not a thatch house.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They just drove me out and so I had to obey them.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I did not get angry then.
Interviewer: Did you see the American soldiers burn your house that day? After that, where did the Americans take you to and where were you actually?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Yes, I saw them burn my house.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They threw smoke grenades into my house to force me out and so I had to come out.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: The trucks were parked there.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They did not come on foot.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They chased me into the paddy fields and I was made to stand there.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I was carrying my son then.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: After they burnt down the houses, they boarded their trucks and began to go away around 5 p.m.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: After they left, I came back into the village but there was nothing left.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And so I built a roof under that bamboo grove there and stayed there for a short while.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: After that, the puppet soldiers in the fort came and drove us into a concentration camp where we had to stay for a long time.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: The houses were burnt down.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And that was a fact.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I am not telling you anything which I didn't see with my own eyes.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: There were many trucks converging on the village on that day.
Interviewer: When you came back to the village you saw that your house had been burnt down.
Interviewer: After that, were the Americans still in the village and did you see them burn other houses?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Yes, they were still around.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They burnt one house after another.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They burnt the houses down until 5 p.m.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: before they left.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They didn't just burn down one house.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They burnt over 100 houses.
Interviewer: Did you actually see the Americans burn down the houses? With your own eyes?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Yes, I saw them burn the houses with my own eyes.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They burnt down all the houses.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: After they set fire on one house, they went to the next and set fire on it.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: They had the interpreters drive people away as they burnt down the houses.
Interviewer: Please repeat again.
Interviewer: That day you saw a film crew taking your pictures.
Interviewer: What were your feelings then?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I really don't remember much about how they were taking pictures of us.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I only remember that they hung a board around my neck and then pressed the camera like that.
Interviewer: When you were relocated, where did you go and how long did you stay there?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: I remained in my village for six more months before they relocated me.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: The Americans took us to that area in the forest there.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: And we just stayed put there, going nowhere else after that.
Interviewer: Did the Americans get many people wounded that day?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Yes, there were many people wounded.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: On the very spot I am sitting now a person who came back from harvesting the rice was shot and wounded.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: When she was taken to the hospital, she died.
Interviewer: Were there many people wounded?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: There were many.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: Getting wounded was an ordinary thing.
Interviewer: Do you want to say anything more about the event of August 2?
Nguyen Thi Thiep: As for August 2, I have already told you about the burning of the house, the shelling and so on.
Nguyen Thi Thiep: This was what I saw and this is what I am telling you.