Could you tell us about the bombing of the mine and the auto incident?

Let me tell you the time when I got injured inside a car when the Americans bombed this mining area. It was 4:30 in the morning of June 28, 1972. The mine workers were then going to work, riding in cars from the bus stop to the mine escalators. While we were just half way to the escalators, the Americans came by and bombed us. At that time, I heard a loud explosion. A bomb had dropped next to our automobile, turned it over, and threw all the workers out onto the road.

It was on the 28th of June, 1972. We workers were then going from our bus stop to the mine escalators. About half way to the escalators, the bombers came by...

Please tell us from the very beginning.

It was on the 28th of June, 1972. We workers were going to work then, riding in automobiles from the bus stop to the mine escalators. When my car reached half way, the American airplanes came and bombed us.

I heard a loud explosion and instantly after that I was thrown out of the vehicle. The car was overturned. As I was sitting there on the ground, I saw that blood was oozing out of my right leg. I realized then that my leg had been broken. After that an ambulance came and took me to the hospital.

Many of my co-workers also got injured. And some were killed. The wounded and the dead were all taken to the hospital. When I got to the hospital the doctors put my leg in a cast. After two and a half months, my leg healed and the cast was taken off. But I was kept in the hospital for ten more months to allow my health to recover. After that, I came back here as a worker again.

Now, as I am sitting here in front of you and recalling the incident of that day, I still feel quite outraged at the American imperialists. This is because we Vietnamese people never did anything to the United States, yet the American imperialists came here with bombs and rockets to destroy our country, our factories and our machine shops as well as kill our people. So as long as I am still alive in this country, I still feel a kind of outrage. And I am still very much alive now, trying to use whatever energy I have left in me to help rebuild the country.