After the Paris Agreement was signed, the entire Vietnamese population in general and the men and women who fought for peace in particular realized that there was an opportunity to end the war and to end the bloodshed inflicted by Vietnamese upon Vietnamese. The other thing was that the sovereignty of the nation would be regained completely. This was the biggest happiness of the Vietnamese people. But at that time the Nguyen Van Thieu regime refused to implement the Paris Agreement. There were facts such as Thieu's statement on the radio and on TV criticizing the Paris Agreement. After that, there were military activities which showed that he was not carrying out the Paris Agreement.

Please give us more detail and please talk about the peace movement.

All those who had formerly worked for peace was now facing even worse problems. Many were arrested and imprisoned. Mrs. Ngo Ba Thanh, for example, was detained for a long time. Then there were others who were constantly, one by one, brought to the secret police headquarters for questioning or for permanent imprisonment. This situation happened to a lot of people who worked in the peace movement.

When the Paris Agreement was signed, it could be stated that the entire population of Vietnam and all the peace movements in Vietnam were overjoyed. They regarded this as the only opportunity to end the war and the killing of Vietnamese by Vietnamese. The other thing is that the Paris Agreement would provide the opportunity to regain the independence and sovereignty of the country completely. But at that time the Nguyen Van Thieu regime was not satisfied with the Paris Agreement.

Through radio and TV programs it criticized the Agreement, making it clear that it did not want the Agreement to be implemented. After that, there were military activities such as invasion and occupation of areas which it had wanted to take over formerly. And subsequently, all persons who worked for peace were hassled in many ways. Many persons were arrested and imprisoned for a long time. This was what happened to Mrs. Ngo Ba Thanh and all the other brothers and sisters in our movement.

In April of 1975, after Thieu resigned as a result of much popular pressure and probably of American arm twisting, the regime was handed over to Mr. Tran Van Huong. But there were many people, including members of the National Assembly, wanted Mr. Duong Van Minh to take over power in order to allow peace to return. And so Mr. Duong Van Minh assumed his duty as president on April 28th, 1975. After the inauguration ceremony, the Independence Palace was bombed.

On the afternoon of April 29th, I was working in a private office in the home of General Duong Van Minh. At 2:30 p.m. Father Chan Tin came to look for me urgently. Father Chan Tin told me that he had been informed that around Saigon there were four batteries of 130mm artillery pieces which were aimed at Saigon and which will pour at least 20,000 shells into the city, When I got this news, I came to see General Duong Van Minh and told him that we had to do something immediately to stop the killing of innocent people in Saigon.

The other thing was to maintain intact the homes of the city inhabitants. I suggested that I should be sent to Tan Son Nhut to meet with the Joint Military Delegation to ask for a halt to the intended shelling of Saigon. After General Duong Van Minh consented, I asked Father Chan Tin to look for another person so that the three of us could go to Tan Son Nhut together. The reason why I wanted many people to come along with me was to have witnesses who could listen to and remember the conversation between the two sides.

We decided on Professor Chau Tam Luan. And when we started, I decided to use my private car to go to Tan Son Nhut. I entered the gate of the military base there at about 4 p.m. The Saigon army still stationed its troops at the military base there. But when I came in, nobody asked for my papers. I went to Camp David and met the guard, telling him that I wanted to meet with Colonel Vo Dong Giang. After the guard went in for a while, he emerged again and asked us to come in. We met with Major Bui Thien and explained the purpose of our presence, saying that we wanted to meet with Colonel Vo Dong Giang to discuss a few things which related to the battlefield.

Major Bui Thien told us that a few delegations had already come that day with instructions from Vice President Nguyen Van Huyen and Colonel Vo Dong Giang had refused to meet with them. I told Mr. Thien that I really wanted to meet with Colonel Vo Dong Giang and that our delegation was composed of me, Lawyer Tran Ngoc Lieng, Father Chan Tin and Professor Chau Tam Luan. I said I did not care how Colonel wanted to meet with me. I came, first of all, as Chairman of the Progressive National Force, which was a part of the Third Force. Second, I came as an envoy from President Duong Van Minh. And third, I came as a lawyer who had been working for peace in order to have a talk with Colonel Vo Dong Giang. After about half an hour, we were received by Colonel Vo Dong Giang. But it was getting dark by that time and we went down into a shelter. In my opinion, that shelter had just been dug because the soil was still damp. This shelter was in Colonel Vo Dong Giang's private quarter. We descended the shelter...

Colonel Vo Dong Giang received us in a shelter which had probably been dug only recently because the soil was still damp. It was getting dark. And Colonel Vo Bong Giang said that he met with me because we were Tran Ngoc Lieng, Chan Tin and Chau Tam Luan. So I told him that it was all right with me for him to receive me in any capacity. I told him that I wanted to meet with him because I had heard that there were many artillery pieces which were poised to rain shells into Saigon that night and so I urgently and earnestly asked him to do whatever he could to convey the message to the military authorities of the Saigon area to scuttle the plan to shell Saigon.

I said that as far as I knew, the Duong Van Minh administration at that time would not use military force to stop the advance of the liberation army. And so, if at all possible, the lives and property of the Saigon inhabitants should be spared. Mr. Vo Dong Giang told me that it might have been too late and that he did not have any authority on military matters. But he said that he would relay my request to his superiors. We talked for a while, asking each other news about Saigon.

Then he went away for about fifteen minutes and then came back to tell me that as he had suspected, it was already too late. The only chance, he said, was for the Duong Van Minh administration to surrender to avert the danger of a military attack on Saigon. After that, there was nothing else I could say to Mr. Vo Dong Giang. All I could say was that all I wanted was to avoid the bombing and shelling which would kill people and destroy their homes and that I considered my mission to be terminated at that point. We said that we wanted to leave. And Mr. Vo Dong Giang said that he was asking for instruction from his superiors. Subsequently, he conveyed the suggestion from his superiors that we remain there for the night because they were afraid that we could get killed by strayed bullets along the way.

So we had to remain because it was already dark and we did not have the means to communicate with our side. That night we split into two groups. Chau Tam Luan and I stayed in one shelter. And Vo Dong Giang and Father Chan Tin sat in the other shelter nearby. But we stayed up all night, talking. During this time, Mr. Vo Dong Giang brought out dry food and water to feed us all. By around 10:30 p.m. we tuned in to the NLF radio and heard an announcement calling the Duong Van Minh administration "the Duong Van Minh clique." Upon hearing this, Mr. Vo Dong Giang told me that it was already too late. So we sat up and waited. And by around 11 or 12 p.m. shells began to fall in great numbers around the Camp David and the airport. We sat there both afraid and happy, happy because we did not hear any shell exploded in Saigon.

We then knew for sure that there was going to be no shelling of Saigon. By early morning we were still waiting for the news and by around 10:30 we heard the news on the radio that General Duong Van Minh, President Duong Van Minh, had announced the unconditional surrender. Mr. Vo Dong Giang looked very happy and we were all very happy, seeing that the war had come to an end and that there was no more fear of killing. We climbed out of our shelters and met a Major General and a General and all the other people in that area which in the previous night I did not see. But in the morning I saw many members of the Liberation Army all around us. Mr. Vo Dong Giang had chickens killed and gruel cooked to treat all the members of the Joint Military Delegation and all the Army people who were present.

By about 11:00 a.m. I asked to leave for home and Mr. Vo Dong Giang consented. We got into our car, which already had one of the windows shattered the previous night by a shell fragment, and drove to the gate of the Tan Son Nhut airbase when we were stopped by some soldiers. They pointed their guns at us and told us to go back to the camp. Mr. Chau Tam Luan took out his white handkerchief and waved, saying that we belonged to the Third Force. The soldiers said that they did not know what the Third Force was at all. They ordered us to turn back or they would open fire on us. We turned back and met with Mr. Vo Dong Giang who laughed and said that he had told us to wait and not to be in such a hurry. So we waited for a while longer.

By around 1:00 p.m. Mr. Vo Dong Giang drew up a letter, complete with a stamp, vouching for us. Only then were we able to get out of Tan Son Nhut and left for home. On the way we saw helmets, uniforms, and other paraphernalia of the Saigon soldiers scattered all over the streets. The streets were filled with city inhabitants and many went to the bigger villas and buildings to loot. At that time there was no order. But order came back only two days later.