Look at me.

Ah, yes.

You’re going to talk to me.

Yes.

Not to them...We’re rolling?

Okay?

Yeah, speak to me.

Could you tell me about your experiences in the South as a doctor during the war?

During the war I working in the forest but we have to overcome many [incomprehensible]. For example, insufficient medicines, insufficient drugs, insufficient chemical products and anything. But because of the needs of the people in the South we had to overcome all these difficulties.

For example, we had to create some appropriate place for rebuild the hospital or to product some traditional medicines for patient care, for the patients in the hospital, or we have to do some kind of home equipment to use in the hospital. But most of them had to be brought down from the North because you see during the war you have many difficult in any field.

What were some of the difficulties, particular difficulties that you had treating soldiers in the South?

For example, the operation theatre has been located in the underground. We had no light, no power. We had to use oil lamps or some batteries or some some kind of traditional lamps. Only enough a little light to perform the operations underground.

What would you say that your record was? Were you successful in saving lives? How successful were you in saving lives?

Yes. Of course you cannot have many success operations like in the North or like in the peaceful time. But you can get some successful operation because in that time you have to pay too much attention with the consensus of the doctor to find any way to cure for patients. So some difficult operations on some very severe patients has been killed, even though in leaving in the very difficult material.

Uh, could you describe the bombing of the hospital? Was the hospital bombed?

Ah, many times, you have...

Excuse me, you have to repeat to say that the hospital was bombed many times.

The hospital has been bombed many times. At least four times our hospital has been raided.

Could you describe what happened?

Ah. Most of them are B-52. At this time, I never forget it. In 1970, in ‘69. More fifty B-52s coming and roaring from the sky, from the dawn. And some departments in the hospital has been destroyed and some patients and personnel has been killed. And some colleagues has been wounded. Fortunately for me, I still live the bombings and resumed our work up to now.

Could you recall one very dramatic incident during your period as a doctor in the South? Could you, what was the most dramatic incident, experience you had?

Ah. In the hospital at that time we have some nurses or some villagers coming from ah the original village and from which are located our hospital have to become to hospital to help the American officers to perform the operation or to have anything that the patient wants to do.

Okay, let’s cut it there.

I’d like to, could we just go...

Start over.

Could you tell us about your experience as a doctor in the South during the war?

I start? During the war we met with a lot of difficulties, especially in the South.

Could you tell us about your personal experiences as a doctor in the South during the war?

During the war against the United States we had a lot of difficulties, especially for me as a doctor who had to take care of the wounded and who had to live in the jungle.

Could you tell us about your personal experiences as a doctor in the South during the war?

As a doctor working in the South during the war, my problem was how to save as many wounded soldiers as possible. We had to use all of our abilities to find medicines, equipment and ways of uniting our comrades in order to solve our difficulties so as to be able to save as many wounded soldiers as possible. Because you know that we are in a country which is still not quite developed economically and hence it required us to exert ourselves in order to fight a powerful country like the United States.

What were the special difficulties, some of the difficulties you had working as a doctor in the South?

We had a number of difficulties. For example, shortage of medicine and equipment. But, as a result of the support of the population in the areas we stationed our troops and especially of the equipment we brought down with us from the North, our job in treating the wounded was relatively successful.

Can you make some estimate of the rate of of success that you had in treating the patients? The soldiers particularly who were wounded.

We treated many wounded soldiers. Of course we did not expect as much success as in the North or in peace time. But because of our common efforts, we were able to save the majority of the severely wounded soldiers. The percentage of loss was not as high as many people thought.

Could you describe the bombing that took place against the hospital? What happened? How did you feel yourself when the bombing took place?

Our hospital was a field hospital. Therefore it was frequently bombed. It was bombed at least five times. A couple of times we were attacked by waves of 50 to 60 B-52s which came at the crack of dawn.

But because we were struggling against the United States with a full understanding of the situation, we were never afraid. During these few times when we were attacked, we managed to save our patients by evacuating them along with our equipment. So in the end we suffered very little loss.

What was the moment that you found most dramatic? Can you think of one very specially dramatic moment?

All kinds of bombs were dropped on us: 500 pound bombs, the huge one ton bombs, the pellet bombs and the so called butterfly anti-personnel bombs. But we were able to rally the armed forces, the village inhabitants and the corps of engineers to defuse the bombs and help our hospital function effectively in the jungle.

I’d like to ask another question in English and again in Vietnamese.

How did you feel living those conditions in the South? Were you afraid or do you become accustomed to it? What kind of inside psychological feelings do you have?

As you see, we struggled with the French colonialist and then with the American imperialist. We have experience. Ah with revolutionary spirit and with my own experience during that time, I never don’t afraid. Ah but with my consciousness and my revolutionary spirit, I still do whatever I want underground event though we had to live under the very difficult conditions of war time.

Could you repeat that in Vietnamese very briefly?

As you know, we had fought against the French. And so we already had some experience when we encountered the United States. Although I had to work under extremely difficult conditions the love for my country and my responsibility as a doctor helped make me immune to fear. And we developed all the capabilities of a people's war in our work and hence we were usually successful.

Thank you.

Okay?