How often did you see the French soldiers? And if you did not see the French soldiers then how did you know that the French ruled over Vietnam?

By the time I was eighteen, I already knew of the French rule. I often went to the provincial town of Son-tay and saw the French there. In this village, however, we did not meet with the French frequently. Here we had the village official like the village chief and the head of the village council who lorded over us and who oppressed us. The French themselves were not physically present in village often to oppress the people. They did this through their district officials and village officials. We did not get to see the French here often. Only once every couple of months.

How did the French recruit soldiers for their colonial army from the village?

How did the French recruit soldiers in the village, and how was it that you were not taken away as a soldier?

In order to recruit soldiers for the colonial army, the French first of all sent orders down to the district headquarters. There were the blue-sash soldiers stationed at the district headquarters. The district headquarters then contacted the village officials who led them in a round up of the village, arresting everyone whom they wanted to draft into the army. These people who got captured would then be taken immediately up to the district headquarters. Now, why did I not get taken away as a soldier? This was because I went into hiding. There you see! I either went up into the attic and stayed there or just ran any from the village when they came.

During the French colonial period, what was the life of a peasant like you like?

In general, life of the people was full of hardship. This was because taxes were high and corvée labor was harsh. So the majority or the population had to suffer starvation frequently. In 1945, in our village alone 250 persons died of starvation. These people just dropped dead everywhere. As far as my family was concerned, during that famine we still had enough rice. But we had to help those less fortunate than us. We cooked our rice into thin gruel and we and the poor neighbors ate together. We had to eat gruel mixed with a lot of greens, though. It's just like the kind people feed pigs with now. To tell you the truth, we were also hungry.

When the Japanese troops came, did the situation change? How was it different? What did the Japanese do that the French did not do?

The Japanese came here in droves. When they came, they made the village officials force us to grow hemp for them. And then they collected the hemp.

Under the French, the majority of the population suffered terrible hardship. Only a very small minority enjoyed a comfortable life. Most of the people suffered a lot because of the high taxes and the heavy corvée labor. Furthermore, they abused us physically. The majority of the inhabitants here hired themselves out as laborers. And although they worked from dawn till dusk they did not have enough to eat. Only a few rich families enjoyed their life.

How come we suffered so terribly in 1945? This was because of the arrival of the Japanese. The French were already exploiting us. And now on top of the French the Japanese were exploiting us. Worse still, they forced us to use our paddy fields to plant hemp for them.

We had to take care of these hemp fields and had to harvest the hemp for the Japanese, but we were never paid for our work. For that reason, we suffered a famine. In 1945, so many people died of hunger here in this village. I myself had to bury four persons. So any people died at the time so we did not have enough wood to make coffins for them. I had to wrap the four corpses I buried with hemp cloth.

I buried four persons in that graveyard over there. In this village more than 250 persons died of hunger. I witnessed families in which every member died. There were absolutely no survivors. In my immediate neighborhood here seven families disappeared completely. They were dying of hunger and so they left the village in search of food. And then all dropped dead. I saw all this with my own eyes. I saw terrible suffering.

And so, even though my family did not suffer as much as the other families, we decided that we had to struggle. This was because the imperialists had oppressed us so badly and caused us to suffer too much. Now, the French had exploited us. But when the Japanese came, they exploited us even more.

They exploited us to such a degree that we simply died in droves because of starvation. Many people just dried up and died, not having any blood left in their bodies. Simply dried up and died. Nothing left to eat. I just could not stand there and watch all this happening to my fellow Vietnamese. So I joined the struggle beginning in 1944 and 1945 and never minded any kind of suffering and hardship at all. I vowed to fight until the end. Now, that was my story.

When did you hear about the Viet Minh? When and why did you join the Viet Minh?

By the end of 1944, I heard about Uncle Ho who fought for the right of the peasants and the workers. So as a peasant who had to suffer a lot, I realized that the only correct thing for me to do was to follow the same path. We were ready to support any effort in defending the rights of the majority of the population. We knew then that we had to follow Uncle Ho and the Party in order to struggle successfully.

We had been told about the Viet Minh. By the beginning of 1945 I was introduced into the Viet Minh in order to fight, to take back governmental power and to regain the fundamental rights for the peasants and the workers. So I was ready to stand up to defend the people. I joined the self defense force to defend the people and to do whatever I could to help bring about enough food and enough clothes for the people. So I joined the self defense force in the beginning of 1945.

Mr. Do Nham became the commander of the all village self defense force. And I was a squad leader. In 1946 the self defense force was turned into a guerrilla force. And I was made the commander of a platoon of the guerrilla force by recommendation of the village and appointment from the central government. We were trained by various army units, which came to the village for that purpose.

In 1946, the French attacked us. But by that time we had already organized a whole company of guerrilla soldiers. When the French reached Le Phung, we sent a platoon of guerrillas to Phung and engaged the French there. We fought with them at the bridge for three days. All we had in terms of weapon were machetes, several hand grenades and three muskets.

But the French chased us away with their gunfire. We ran back to the village and the villagers supported us. They gave us bamboo and food. We organized a company of guerrilla soldiers, installed bamboo stakes around the village and turned it into a combat village, and waited for the enemy to come to us. After we finished building our village into a combat village, the French came and attacked us in 1948.

They attacked us forty-nine times in 1948. We fought them whenever and wherever they arrived. In one of the biggest battles we managed to kill about a platoon of their Negro soldiers. These Negro soldiers had scars on their faces. During those 49 battles, they burnt our village three or four times. This neighborhood here was completely burnt down. All the houses you see here have been newly built. The French burnt down our village four times, and the village inhabitants had to evacuate. Only the guerrillas remained behind to fight the French.

Early in 1949 the French succeeded in occupying our village and built a post not far from hare where they stationed a company of black soldiers. After the French occupied our village, we split our company into three sections. One platoon went and stayed with the population and operated clandestinely. The other two companies evacuated to Vinh Phu.

Now this was what happened under the French. The most painful thing that happened was that the French lobbed artillery shells into this village. One shell hit us right smack in the middle of the house and killed 5 members of my own family. I was not home at the time. While the French occupied this village, I operated clandestinely. I came back here quite often and stayed in a tunnel.

Our village only had two rifles. In 1948 the French came and attacked us forty-nine times, but we were never occupied then. We built a very high watchtower. When the French arrived, our watchman up there would fire three times and our village inhabitants would then evacuate, leaving only us guerrilla fighters behind to fight with the French.

We had built moats and planted bamboo stakes around the village. We also dug a trench line around the village, and would run along this trench to engage the French whenever and wherever they happened to arrive. We lobbed grenades at then from our trench. On the 27th of June 1948 the French attacked us from three directions, having come up from Phung as I told you, and surrounded our village. We tricked the French and booby-trapped them.

We opened the gates and let them come in, and fought with them as they came in. But we had already dug holes in the ground and camouflaged these holes very carefully. In the holes we placed mines and stakes. In that battle about a platoon of French and Vietnamese soldiers, twenty-five to be exact, were killed on the western side of this village. That was the biggest battle of that year. Another thing was our effort in blowing up the Phung Bridge. We coordinated our attack with army company 254 and with only two mines we managed to destroy the bridge. There were 6 of us guerrilla fighters and three army men when we destroyed the Phung Bridge.

The six of us and the three army men went to the bridge at about 8 p.m. When we got there, the guerrilla fighters guarded both sides of the bridge. The three army men and two of us climbed the bridge and attached the mines to it and then blew it up from about 400 meters away. By 10 pm we got home. The next day the French came and retaliated.

After the battle of Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Agreement, how did you feel?

After the Agreement was signed, we still could not believe that there was really a cease-fire. I was not explained fully to about the Agreement, and so I still had my doubts. But I was persuaded that we must have won because the French had run away and the Japanese had been defeated. So I was persuaded that we must have won. This was because we had suffered so much. Our soldiers had undergone so much hardship. And so when the Agreement was signed, we were certain that we must have won and that we would never again be colonized.