Family friends and country Nguyen Thi Binh

hospital for several months. He was frail and emaciated. I embraced him.
Between tears, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you were ill?”

My father’s answer touched me: “My illness is minor,” he said. “Your
work now is far more important!”

That was my father’s disposition. He loved his children dearly, but he
was always also thinking about shared work. He was proud that the whole
family participated in the Resistance. I remember that during those cruel
years my father followed closely the situation in the southern battlefields.
He heard news that our relatives were massacred and wept; he heard news
that our soldiers were victorious and wept.

By that time, four of us children were in North Việt Nam, but Hà, the
younger brother closest in age to me, was active organizing undercover in
South Việt Nam. My father was always talking about Hà, about not
knowing how Hà was. In 1968, we heard that Hà had been arrested. This
came as a terrible shock to my father. The sad truth is that Hà never again
met our father, who died in 1969, when the war was still far from over. Hà
was exiled to Côn Đảo Political Prison Island,[6] where he was held
continuously until the liberation of South Việt Nam in 1975. Only then was
Hà able to return home.

On May 1, 1975, our forces liberated Côn Đảo Prison Island. Boats
from the mainland went out to meet our brothers and sisters, who had been
prisoners. We siblings met Hà again after twenty years of separation. We
hugged with endless joy while also repeatedly speaking of our father. If
our father had still been alive, his joy would have been indescribable!

During all those war years, like so many other families with each
person in a different place, we had few chances to meet. Younger brother
Hải, next in line to Hà, went to study in China from 1953 until 1958, when
he returned home, but then he and Hồ left for the Soviet Union as graduate
students. Loan, my younger sister, studied in China from 1961 until 1966.
Only Hào, the youngest, went into the army. He was so thin, but he hiked
the entire Hồ Chí Minh Trail and stayed in the ranks for six or seven years
before returning home.

Hải and Hồ were not present when our father passed away in 1969 and
could not accompany him to his final resting place. Only Khang and my
two children were there. I heard that my son, Thắng, mourned my father
the most. Perhaps this was because Thắng had been living for a long time
with his grandfather and had witnessed first-hand the harsh and exhausting
toll of my father’s old age and illness even as he continued caring for two
grandchildren.

Work usually kept me far from my family, but I felt as if I had them
each and all nearby, closely bound to me as the force driving me during
every task I undertook. It would be true to say that I’ve had a rather
strange life. I can’t separate the influence and love of my family from my
life’s path with its many hard places. The members of my family were and
are the strength and happiness of my life.

[1] “Older Brother”: The Vietnamese language uses dozens of words for forms of address

and for the pronouns “you” and “I” of English. Most of the Vietnamese words are family based,
such as “brother,” “sister,” “aunt,” “uncle,” “grandfather,” etc., with further differentiation for
paternal/maternal and older/younger. This usage has a deep history in the language itself and is

not connected to communism or revolutionary politics. That said, for many years, “comrade” was
a commonly used pronoun, of course with revolutionary connotations.

[2] Việt Minh: See Chapter 2, “Childhood,” 12, p. 51.

[3] Regrouped to the North: In accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement,

revolutionary activists and combatants in South Việt Nam regrouped to North Việt Nam.
Similarly, French-allied activists and combatants in North Việt Nam regrouped to South Việt
Nam. Many Catholics, influenced by American CIA operatives working in the North, left for the
South as part of regrouping.

[4] Nguyễn Văn Tạo (1908-1970) came from what is now Long An Province in the

Southern Region. He worked and studied in France, joined the French Communist Party, and was
a member of the French Party’s delegation to the VIth Comintern Congress in Moscow in 1928.
The French in Paris arrested him in 1930 for organizing a demonstration supporting the Yên Bái
Uprising in Việt Nam. After Nguyễn Văn Tạo served time in prison, the French sent him back to
Việt Nam. He took part in the August 1945 Revolution in Sài Gòn and then went out to the
Northern Region in 1946. He served as minister of labor from 1946 to 1965.

[5] Land Reform Campaign: The National Assembly passed the Land Reform Law on

December 4, 1953. The law began to take effect in 1954 to redistribute land to the peasants. Even
though guidelines were more lenient than the Chinese model, there were excesses. In 1956, the
Party formally admitted to “serious mistakes” in the Land Reform Campaign. Trường Chinh
resigned as Party secretary; Hồ Chí Minh assumed that role.

[6] Côn Đảo Prison Island: Côn Đảo Island (known as Côn Lôn or Poulo Condor during

the French period and as Côn Sơn during the American War) is the largest island in the Côn Đảo
Archipelago, which is now a district of Vũng Tàu - Bà Rịa Province. Côn Đảo Prison Island is
about 140 miles south of Sài Gòn. Marco Polo sought refuge in the archipelago from a storm in
1294. In the early 1700s, British and French trading companies vied for control of the
archipelago.

In 1783, the French secured the Versailles Treaty, whereby the Nguyễn regime ceded Đà
Nẵng and the Côn Lôn Islands in return for four battleships, twelve hundred soldiers, two
hundred gunners, and two hundred African soldiers to fight against the Tây Sơn Uprising.
However, the French took advantage of the treaty only in early 1862, when they turned Côn Lôn
into a prison island by building Prison 1. They built Prison 2 next door in 1916 and Prison 3 a
kilometer away in 1928. In 1940-1941, they added two more prisons (Prisons 4 and 5) as

auxiliaries to Prison 3. Prisons 4 and 5 contained the infamous “tiger cages,” which appear later
Mme. Bình’s account.

4.

Forged during the Resistance War Against France

In July 1945, our whole family was together in Sài Gòn. Any
Vietnamese who lived through that period will recall how everyone wanted
to follow the call of our Homeland.

My father immediately joined Eastern Group #1, since that’s where his
friends were. As for me, I did whatever the leaders asked. One day in late
September, our leaders requested that I go to the Sài Gòn Municipal
Theater to meet Comrade Hà. I expected an imposing revolutionary, but
instead Hà was a rather young man only about thirty years old. Later, I
learned that he was an agricultural engineer, who had joined the Việt
Minh[1] early on.

Comrade Hà had heard that I knew English. The first task he assigned
me was to welcome representatives of the British and Indian forces
arriving in Sài Gòn on behalf of the Allies to disarm the occupying
Japanese.[2] The Allies’ representatives whom I met were mostly British.
The Indians and French Foreign Legion soldiers were only guards.

I had never spoken English with someone from Great Britain. I was
terribly embarrassed. I winced most when the British officers asked me

about dancing and entertainment sites and matters about which I was
completely ignorant. After several days, I requested release from my
assignment. Comrade Hà gave me another task, which I now know to be
intelligence work. I was to follow individuals to see where they went and
what they did. I was equally abysmal at following and investigating. July
and August of 1945 had been an animated time[3] in Sài Gòn. People and
vehicles bustled about night and day. Young vanguard pioneers practiced
marching—one, two, one, two—and singing “To the Streets”[4] by Lưu
Hữu Phước. The atmosphere suggested “imminent uprising.” People were
out in the streets in large numbers, yet everything was orderly. It was as if
we were feeling the steamy breath of something hugely important about to
burst forth.

Everyone was in the streets again on the morning of September 2.[5] I
went with Hà and Hải, the older two of my younger brothers, to the square
at Notre Dame Cathedral. Something tremendous was about to occur—for
the first time, representatives of the Revolution’s administration were
going to appear in public. Across the country, the Việt Minh had seized
political power from France and Japan. The Việt Minh in Sài Gòn had
established the city’s Provisional Administrative Committee, which was
our own city government run by Vietnamese belonging to the Revolution.

That afternoon, we were waiting to hear the speech that was to be
broadcast from Hà Nội by the country’s new president, Hồ Chí Minh, when
guns at the French priests’ house fired into the throng. Masses of people,
who had assembled peacefully, turned into an uprising. A tense
atmosphere surged across the city.

Clearly, the French colonizers could not bear to withdraw. They were
using any method—including war—to re-occupy Việt Nam.

Within three weeks, as soon as the Allies’ troops arrived, we saw that
the British and Indian armies were helping the French army return. British
and Indian troops guarded the city’s access points. They had not come to
disarm the Japanese army. Instead, they were in Sài Gòn to stop our
struggle.

The Việt Minh forces switched to alternative tactics. I received orders
to carry pistols from the inner city to the outskirts. We were all fervently
fulfilling our tasks regardless of danger. Everyone, particularly the youth,
thought of only two words, “Independence” and “Freedom.” Those two
words—“Independence” and “Freedom”—how sacred they were!

On September 23, the French Army publicly provoked hostilities with
the Việt Minh. Gunfire erupted throughout Sài Gòn.

My father left as a liaison with men in Group B, while I stayed with my
younger siblings at Elder Phan’s Temple in Đa Kao Ward. We could hear
gunfire all around. Hà, Hải, and I decided to retrieve the pistol my father
had left at the temple. We agreed that, if need be, we would shoot; we were
determined that the French would not arrest us. Fortunately, the French
only passed by. We did not need to use the pistol. The truth is that none of
us had ever held a gun, let alone fired one. Including all my subsequent
years in the Resistance, I still haven’t learned how to shoot a gun!

Several days later, the local population began evacuating from the
city’s center to its outskirts and the provinces. Our family evacuated to Lái
Thiêu, where a cousin had a farm. My younger siblings remained there,

while my father and we three older children joined the Resistance, each of
us with an assignment. My fourth and youngest brother, Nguyễn Đông
Hào, was very small but brave. My father dispatched him and others to
Cambodia with TNT sticks for the munitions workshop recently set up to
produce grenades and mines. Another brother and I left for Hồng Ngự in
Đồng Tháp Province to haul food to our armed forces preparing to resist in
the Eastern Zone.[6] My cousins in Sài Gòn—Hồng, Cống, Nông, and
others—also joined the Resistance.

*

**

My father’s perfectionist anger would occasionally frighten us, but in
fact, he was very gentle. After my mother passed away, my father paid
much more attention to my life. He encouraged me to study, to take care of
my siblings, and play sports, but he would not allow me to organize at
night. But then the Việt Minh assigned me to work at Hồng Ngự in
logistical supply for our soldiers. My third brother, Hào, had already left
for Hồng Ngự, about 175 kilometers from Sài Gòn. I would have to travel
by night and alone.

My father took me to the Sài Gòn Wharf. There, sampans were filling
with passengers. My father asked around. He told me that my trip’s first
leg would take me to Mỹ Tho, where I would have to find a sampan
leaving for Hồng Ngự. My father worried about my traveling alone, but
assignments for our country took priority. I was also worried. Up until that
moment, nothing had ever required that I be so brave! Yet when I saw that
my father was of mixed minds, I reassured him, saying, “There’s nothing
to worry about, Father. I can do this!”

I climbed aboard the boat, which already had about thirty passengers
ready to depart. They must have been local people from the six delta
provinces on their way back home from Sài Gòn. Since I didn’t know
anyone, I sat huddled in one place and didn’t sleep the whole night.
Everyone disembarked at Mỹ Tho the following morning. I had never been
to Mỹ Tho and didn’t know whom to ask about a boat to Hồng Ngự. I
walked around and around in the streets, searching for the Việt Minh
office. Luckily, I ran into Comrade Hà, and then later I met an old friend
from Cambodia. Before long, I was on my way to Hồng Ngự. I had a
cousin, who had been working in Hồng Ngự for a while. As soon as I
arrived, I learned that local Resistance activists had elected him president
of the Hồng Ngự District Resistance Committee.

I was relieved to have arrived safely. Yet problems arose with my
assignment to carry dried beef to the Eastern Zone. The day after I’d left
Mỹ Tho Provincial Capital, the French occupied the city, and then they
continued on, taking Sa Đéc and Châu Đốc Provinces. By now, the French
had blocked the road to Sài Gòn. I remained in Hồng Ngự, where I worked
as secretary for the local Resistance Administrative Committee. Since I
was in the Hồng Ngự liberated area, I participated in the first general
election in independent Việt Nam.

By January 6, 1946, we had completed all our local preparations for the
nationwide elections.[7] The people flocked to the People’s Committee
Office to join this great event. Then we heard airplanes. People ran about,
yelling, “Airplanes!” “Airplanes!!” Bombs exploded. The French airplanes
had arrived to destroy the elections. A dozen people were killed or
wounded. Nevertheless, our general elections continued that afternoon.

I stayed in Hồng Ngự until May 1946. By then, the French had occupied
most cities and provincial capitals in southern Việt Nam. Our Resistance
Armed Forces had withdrawn to the countryside, leaving only the
undercover units behind in the cities. My father asked friends to guide my
brother and me from Hồng Ngự back to Sài Gòn. My entire family
assembled at Elder Phan’s Temple, but we could no longer organize
openly. Many families, including my father’s friends from Cambodia,
were in the same situation. Friends without houses in Sài Gòn came to live
with us.

During this time, we faced financial difficulties. My father had used his
savings to build the Phnom Penh house, where relatives now lived. We
took on every kind of paid work, even rinsing bottles at factories, to
support everyone living with us in Đa Kao Ward. I decided to take
advantage of the neighborhood near Elder Phan’s Temple. I opened a stall
to sell rice, fish sauce, and miscellaneous goods, such as duck eggs,
tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Several office functionaries and engineers
joined my father as “porters” fetching rice and eggs from the Cầu Ông
Lãnh Market for me to sell.

The atmosphere in Sài Gòn was tense and claustrophobic. People
worried about how to secure food and other necessities for their daily
lives. The city throbbed with anxiety about whatever might happen, for
nothing seemed clear. Perhaps whatever was coming would be dangerous,
yet everyone was impatient with anticipation for whatever change might
soon arrive. By the end of that year, all would be clear.

*

**

Even now, my younger siblings still enjoy telling the story of their
“elder sister selling tomatoes at Tân Định Market.” Indeed, the best place
to sell was Tân Định, which was over a kilometer from our house. My
skills did not include carrying heavy baskets with a bamboo shoulder pole.
After walking several dozen meters, I had to set the baskets down and
switch shoulders. By the time I arrived at the market, I was soaked with
sweat.

A French soldier at the market collected taxes, while a French police
officer following behind him scrutinized prices. One day, the friend who
sold duck eggs next to me was haggling over prices with a half-French,
half-Vietnamese woman. The “State” price was sixteen cents per egg, but
we had bought our eggs for more than twenty cents. We had to sell them
for at least twenty-five.

The police officer managing prices intervened and forced my friend to
sell several dozen eggs at the “State” price. My friend burst into tears. I
could not restrain myself. I snapped in French at the police. This startled
everyone. Even the French police and the half-French, half-Vietnamese
woman were surprised. They looked at each other and left. The sisters in
the market thanked me profusely. However, after that incident, the
brothers and sisters in our Resistance organization would no longer allow
me to sell goods at Tân Định Market. By speaking French, I had blown my
own cover as an underground organizer.

At the end of 1946, many families with their homeland in Việt Nam’s
Northern Region (Bắc Kỳ, Tonkin) sought a way to return to Hà Nội, since
the French had not yet occupied our capital. However, it was not long

before the Nationwide Resistance[8] broke out. The fires of war leapt
across the entire country.

Early in 1947, the French army began using its forces for terror and
suppression to reinforce its control. It ran constant scouring sweeps at
night in Sài Gòn, arresting organizers in the Resistance. French troops
rummaged through Elder Phan Châu Trinh’s Temple at 13 Gallimard Street
(now Nguyễn Huy Tự Street) thirteen times. They arrested and tortured my
father. We children felt deep love for our father. We worried about him.
Each time the police arrested our father, our hatred for the French grew.

By the end of 1947, my father could no longer stay in the city. He
received orders from the Resistance organization to leave for the
mangrove swamps.[9] I received a directive to remain behind, organize for
the Resistance, and tutor for money to feed my siblings. After a while,
friends in the Việt Minh realized I was always at Elder Phan’s Temple.
They pointed out that my presence there could easily expose our network.
I had to slip away to another site.

I made up my mind to ask an older cousin, a patriotic businessman, to
tidy up his affairs, move to the temple, and live with my younger siblings.
I felt such love for my younger brothers and sister, but I had no other
choice. I could only drop by now and then to visit them. One time, I
returned to find my youngest brother with a high fever. He was huddling
under Grandfather’s altar. I felt beset by pity. At times, I felt I should stop
and care for my younger siblings. I had to repress those feelings to
continue my organizing.

*

**

Work as a private tutor covered our expenses during my clandestine
organizing in Sài Gòn. I’d had teaching experience in mathematics with
students at an exam-training center and, for a while, had taught at Colette
School,[10] where the curriculum was in French. The principal was a
friend, Older Sister Nở. Most of the students were the children of wealthy
business owners or officials from the Sài Gòn administration.

At the end of 1946, the Resistance assigned me to organize for the
Association of Women for National Salvation,[11] beginning with
Neighborhood 5, the area where my family lived. Subsequently, I received
an appointment to the city’s Association of Women for National Salvation.
Sisters organizing with me at that time were Nga, Hữu Bích, Đạt, Hạnh,
and Tư Kiều, but I was closest to Duy Liên.[12] She and I were the same
age. Duy Liên was lively, sharp-witted, and looked younger than her years.
The police arrested us both several years later, in April 1951. Duy Liên
gave her age as six years younger, making her a “teenager.” The enemy
fell for her ruse.

In 1946, the two older sisters working with us were Bảy Huệ[13] (my
first mentor in the Resistance and later the wife of Nguyễn Văn Linh)[14]
and Chín Châu. I was very fond of Bảy Huệ, who was gentle, upright, and
caring. She made careful recommendations and went to unnecessary
lengths so that I would understand important points about relating to
ordinary people. She would say to the other women, “Yến (that was the
alias she had given me) is a student. She has just finished school and does
not yet know anything. She needs your help.” It is true that I participated
with all the enthusiasm of youth. I wanted to add my small part to the

common struggle, even though I did not know the least thing about
politics.

The sisters in the Resistance assigned me to live with a farming family
in Tân Phú Đông on the outskirts of Sài Gòn so that I could learn about
organizing among ordinary people. Every day, I swept the fallen leaves in
the huge orchard, cooked the rice, boiled the water, and so on. The
grandmother was head of the household; she belittled me for not knowing
how to cook and tidy up the house. I decided that “working for the
Resistance” was not easy! However, after several months, the family—
even the grandmother—began to treat me with affection.

I received an introduction to Comrade Hoàng Quốc Tân,[15] who was
part of a Marxist cell in Sài Gòn. Several French communists joined the
cell meetings. I borrowed books on Marxism-Leninism and read about
dialectical materialism, but my understanding was fragmented. I gradually
gathered some knowledge about the Revolution through meetings with
brothers and sisters returning to the city from the Resistance Zone and
through my occasional trips out to the mangrove swamps for large
meetings. I tried to transfer whatever I had learned to the brothers and
sisters in my unit. Whenever I spoke with the students for whom I was
responsible, I would bring in new points and ways of teaching, which the
students welcomed.

I also campaigned among my acquaintances. At that time, I would refer
to Bùi Thị Cẩm,[16] a lawyer and the wife of a famous intellectual, as
“Older Sister,”[17] using a somewhat intimate term even though she was
far older. She asked me what she should do for the Resistance. I said, “You
and your husband can look for whatever is useful for the Resistance and

then do it. Don’t do anything that isn’t useful.” Even though my response
was simple, she was effusive in her thanks.

“Younger Sister,” she said, “you’re so right!”

I realized that everyone has at least latent patriotism. Sometimes, a
statement as simple as my response may reveal huge truths and be a
catalyst changing a person’s life. Older Sister Cẩm subsequently joined the
Resistance and later held important positions.

In addition to assignments mobilizing and educating the populace, my
friends and I distributed propaganda leaflets and encouraged strikes to
oppose the enemy’s schemes and cruelty.

*

**

In 1948, Comrade Hồ Bắc from the District Party Steering Committee
came to visit me, saying the district-level comrades had evaluated my
organizing as zealous and had decided to receive me into the Indochinese
Communist Party (now the Vietnamese Communist Party). He briefed me
on the Party and Hồ Chí Minh as president of the State and of the Party. I
found this very interesting but asked for time to consider. To my thinking,
Party membership was for model revolutionaries prepared to sacrifice for
ideals. After some time, I agreed. The two people who formally
introduced[18] me were Hồ Bắc and Comrade Hồ Thị Chí,[19] the wife of
Comrade Hà Huy Giáp.[20]

In 1946, the Fontainebleau Conference[21] failed; our patient efforts to
avoid war had not been successful. President Hồ Chí Minh stayed on in
Paris to negotiate a modus vivendi (a temporary but official, diplomatic
agreement pending settlement of a dispute) in September. Nevertheless,
two months after he returned to Hà Nội, the French attacked Hải Phòng.
President Hồ’s speech to the entire nation on December 19, 1946 at that
crucial point expressed our people’s profound aspirations and
determination:

“We want peace. We must make concessions. But the more concessions
we make, the more the French colonizers invade. They are determined to
steal our country once again! No! We will sacrifice everything! We will
not tolerate the loss of our country. We will not be slaves.”

In Sài Gòn, the Resistance Movement under the People’s Committee
and Party leadership burst forth across all the social strata. The leadership
assigned me to take charge of political training for core student groups in
addition to mobilizing women. Among those students was Bình Thanh,
[22] an excellent activist from the Marie Curie School.[23] We bonded
immediately and became close friends. Later, during my diplomatic
missions, Bình Thanh served as my personal assistant and secretary.

In addition to our organizing among workers and small traders, Duy
Liên and I received assignments to mobilize bourgeois intellectual
women. For me, this was difficult because these women were accustomed
to a casual, free lifestyle; they could not easily adjust to the rigorous life
of an activist. Many times, in the middle of a meeting, we would hear a car
horn. The women would jump up and rush out to dine with their husbands
in Chợ Lớn.

Yet these sisters were patriotic. After participating in our mobilizing
activities, they agreed to join the Association of Progressive Women. I
will always remember Older Sister Hạnh, a doctor, and Older Sister Quỳnh
Hoa,[24] who later became minister of health for the Provisional
Revolutionary Government (PRG) of the Republic of South Việt Nam.
When Quỳnh Hoa left Sài Gòn for the Resistance Base, the Sài Gòn
administration confiscated all her belongings and sentenced her to death in
absentia.

In 1949, Duy Liên and I received an introduction to a cell led by
Nguyễn Hữu Thọ.[25] Students who had just finished school went to the
offices of this very famous lawyer, who was among the twentieth century’s
greatest Vietnamese intellectuals. Duy Liên and I arrived, all aflutter. We
were completely out of our element! The office was elegant and luxurious,
while the lawyer was tall and handsome. He smiled graciously as he
welcomed us. From that point onward, my fate and my life were linked
closely to the life of this man of great intellect, this best of comrades. Our
cell also included Older Sister Tám Lựu[26] as cell secretary. An
experienced revolutionary, she had taken part in the Southern Uprising of
1940.[27] The general secretary of the City Party Committee at that time
was Comrade Nguyễn Văn Linh.

Along with Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, I must also speak of Dr. Phạm Ngọc
Thạch,[28] Huỳnh Tấn Phát,[29] and the many other Southern intellectuals
whom I knew during my years as an activist. For the most part, they were
wealthy people of high social station, but when faced with the Revolution
and our country’s huge needs, they discarded everything and threw
themselves into the shared Resistance struggle, contributing their

extraordinary intelligence to the nation. To my thinking, the dominant
characteristic of the Vietnamese intelligentsia at that time was the
“wealth” of their patriotism. Indeed, the intelligentsia was the
quintessence of patriotism. I have great respect and affection for those
comrades.

We soon saw that our undercover activism would be insufficient unless
we expanded the movement. We needed to bring our people out into open
struggle under many forms, both legal and illegal. Organizers formed
many groups, such as the Association of Progressive Women, the
Association to Assist Victims of the Tân Kiểng Fire, plus organizations of
workers, university students, high school students, etc. Every stratum of
society had its public, legal organization. The body representing these
organizations was the Coordinating Committee of Organizational
Representatives, which was headed by Nguyễn Hữu Thọ.

At the end of 1949, the enemy arrested a number of students at Pétrus
Ký School.[30] A protest erupted at the school, demanding the arrested
students’ release. The enemy responded with a further terror of arrests.
Police rounded up all students who had protested. On January 9, 1950,
several thousand students from across the city marched toward the official
residence of French-backed Governor Trần Văn Hữu[31] in the botanical
gardens on Lagrandière Street (now Lý Tự Trọng Street). They held aloft
banners with the slogan, “Free the Arrested Pétrus Ký Students!” Many,
many supporters joined their march.

The students had selected representatives to meet Governor Trần Văn
Hữu, but he closed his doors and refused to see any of them. At midday,
the police arrived in dozens of vehicles with several hundred soldiers to

repress the demonstration. The students tried to resist but couldn’t. Trần
Văn Ơn,[32] a student leader, blocked the road so that other students could
escape. The police beat Trần Văn Ơn with their cudgels and shot him dead
when he tried to scramble over a hedge. Trần Văn Ơn fell backwards.
News of the demonstration and of Trần Văn Ơn’s martyrdom spread like
flames throughout Sài Gòn. Indignation erupted into anger. Trần Văn Ơn’s
death was the spark igniting a firestorm.

On January 12, 1950, Trần Văn Ơn’s funeral became a colossal
demonstration drawing people from all classes in Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn.
Many people came from Mỹ Tho Province and even from Bạc Liêu and
Cần Thơ Provinces farther south in the Mekong Delta. The Coordinating
Committee of Organizational Representatives with Nguyễn Hữu Thọ as its
head had sent many proposals to the Sài Gòn administration, demanding
that the authorities end their terror and release all the students and
everyone they had arrested in connection with the demonstration. Open
organizations and undercover organizations met frequently to plan their
opposition to the enemy.

*

**

Then we heard that on March 19, 1950 two American ships—the
command ship Stickwell and the destroyer Anderson—would land at Sài
Gòn. Here was public evidence of American intervention to assist the
French colonizers, who were facing difficulties on every front.

The Sài Gòn Party Committee organized a working committee to direct
widespread opposition to the French colonizers’ invasion and the

American imperialists’ intervention. At the same time, we would oppose
the enemy’s repression and terror, which increased daily in the cities. I
was appointed representative for women on the demonstration’s
organizing committee. We mobilized in preparation for a workers’ strike
and a huge demonstration on March 19.

At 8:00 that morning, crowds gathered at Tôn Thọ Tường School.[33]
Just as Nguyễn Hữu Thọ and comrades from the Coordinating Committee
of Organizational Representatives were arriving, the openly organized
groups tossed flyers from the school’s top-floor windows. The flyers,
which demanded that the enemy cease its terror, fell like welcomed rain.

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ had not begun to speak when police vehicles arrived.
People pushed out to fill the street and block the police, with everyone
marching in the direction of the Sài Gòn Market. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ and
many famous Sài Gòn intellectuals led the march, along with a French
woman, who was married to Comrade Phạm Huy Thông.[34] The
comrades heading the trade-union delegation stretched out the red banners
they had prepared beforehand. Wherever the trade union leaders went,
bystanders holding aloft red flags with gold stars[35] surged into the street
and followed like waves of water in a flood. Our flags flew, dignified and
dauntless, right there in the middle of enemy-occupied Sài Gòn. Many
people could not restrain their tears.

According to the organizing committee’s plan, wings of demonstrators
would approach the Municipal Theater from different directions and then
pour out to the wharf, where the two American ships were due to dock. In
fact, the two ships had already arrived but did not dare approach the wharf;
instead, they anchored at a distance. The demonstrators coming from Tôn

Thọ Tường formed the primary wing. I accompanied that group. We had
divided the organizing committee, with each of us following a wing.
However, we were undercover as leaders. Our small group—Năm Sứ, Duy
Liên, and myself—was so engrossed in the momentum that we had a hard
time sticking to discipline.

At this point, we were still on Lê Lợi Street in front of the Municipal
Theater. A huge American flag appeared from the second floor of the US
government’s Sài Gòn office. I had just arrived. I saw several young men
climbing up onto each other’s shoulders to snatch the flag. I looked
around; I knew undercover secret-police agents were nearby.

I shouted, “Protect those brothers!”

The youths yanked the American flag free. The crowd tore it to pieces.

The young men had just jumped down when secret- police agents
arrived to nab them. I did not have time to think. I knew only that if I did
nothing, the French police would arrest the youths. I jumped in and
grabbed the hand of the secret-police unit’s commander, twisting his wrist.
This gave the youths just enough time to escape. The youths kept running
while the police commander shook his wrist, recovering from shock. The
youths ducked into the crowd, darting this way, that way until they
disappeared.

I realized I was also in danger. The crowd was seething. I darted into
the throng where it was thickest. Our crowd pressed toward the Town Hall.
Another clash with the police ensued. I never heard whether the French
commander’s wrist was injured, but the demonstrators did set his vehicle
afire, turning it into a charred frame.

We pushed on to the river, shouting, “Down with the invading French
colonizers!” “Down with the intervening Americans!”

The purpose of the demonstration was to show our flag and instill spirit
for opposing the American imperialists’ aid to the French colonizers.
Faced with the advancing masses of people, the two American ships
hastened to weigh anchor and steam away. Some people estimated that
nearly half a million people had joined that demonstration, yet the
population of Sài Gòn was only one million. However, it did seem to me
as if all the city’s occupants were in the streets.

The enemy administration remained paralyzed for hours.

We said to each other, “If only we’d had weapons, we could have seized
political power!”

There are so many unforgettable anecdotes about that demonstration on
March 19, 1950. As our wing moved from Tôn Thọ Tường out toward Bến
Thành Market, we met the train en route from Sài Gòn to Mỹ Tho. The
railway workers stopped the train, jumped down, and joined our march. In
another wing, the police threw tear-gas grenades. Many demonstrators
fainted. Residents living on both sides of the street brought out pails of
water and ice; they took the injured inside for first aid. Wherever the
French arrested demonstration leaders, the throng would protect other
activists so they could escape.

After the police officers recovered, they began sweeps throughout the
city to pursue us. First, they arrested Nguyễn Hữu Thọ to “answer for his
crimes.” However, the police could not intimidate him and the
Coordinating Committee of Organizational Representatives, which he led.

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ exposed the enemy’s cruelty. He said the people’s
indignation was legitimate and that the administration’s repression and
terror had forced the people to rise up in opposition. A few months later,
the authorities exiled Nguyễn Hữu Thọ[36] to Lai Châu Province in the far
north.

*

**

Other demonstrations burst forth in Sài Gòn. In April 1950, the enemy
burned a hamlet of thatch houses at Tân Kiểng in the Bàn Cờ area of
workers’ housing that served as one of our undercover Resistance bases in
the inner city. The authorities wanted to drive the people into another area.
Several hundred families lost their houses, possessions, and what little
capital they had accumulated; the French repression had forced them to
live on reed mats under the open sky. The Coordinating Committee of
Organizational Representatives strongly condemned the enemy’s scheme
and demanded that the enemy assist the local people. The legally open
trade unions organized drives to raise funds to help the victims. This was
also an occasion to continue encouraging the masses of people to join the
struggle.

On May 12, 1950, the enemy arrested and murdered Trần Bội Cơ,[37] a
female ethnic Chinese student. Comrade Lien and I were responsible for
organizing in the ethnic Chinese community. We received an assignment
to set up a meeting in Chợ Lớn to denounce this cruelty and call on the
ethnic Chinese to join with ethnic Vietnamese in opposing the aggressors
and in protecting our youth.

Once again, I made a mistake: I did not follow strict discipline and
allowed the police to learn my identity.

The brothers and sisters had set a table alongside a crowded Chợ Lớn
street. At precisely the predetermined time, a young ethnic Chinese man
jumped onto the table to speak. I looked around and saw that no one was
guarding him. I called on several people to surround him. He held forth for
about five minutes before the police arrived. The police arrested several
people on site; nevertheless, the meeting created indispensable echoes.

Other echoes from struggles outside the city reached the enemy’s
prisons. In July 1950, brothers and sisters incarcerated at the Sài Gòn
Interrogation Center staged a hunger strike to oppose the prison’s harsh
treatment and to support demands made by compatriots outside the prison.
The Resistance leaders asked me to organize a demonstration by families
of prisoners held at the Center and, particularly, to mobilize the sisters
whose husbands were prisoners.

*

**

The year 1950 was especially notable for the ebullience of the Sài Gòn -
Chợ Lớn movement. I cannot remember all the demonstrations that we
organized. These actions led our revolutionary brothers and sisters to call
us the “demonstration advisors!” Indeed, we were ardent. We threw
ourselves into those demonstrations.

At that time, we heard about preparations for a general, nationwide
counter-offensive. This encouraged us to increase our actions. I was

elected president of the City Women’s Union and Party general secretary
for the Unit of Women for National Salvation. The responsibilities were
exacting, while my family responsibilities also brought increased worries.
Two of my siblings had left for Resistance zones, but I still had three
younger siblings at home as well as my cousins. I had to stop by home
frequently to tend to them.

These demonstrations occurred as battlefields across the country were
generating important changes. The Autumn 1950 Border Campaign of the
People’s Army of Việt Nam (PAVN)[38] liberated three northern-border
provinces—Cao Bằng, Bắc Cạn, and Lạng Sơn. This inspired the
movement of the people’s opposition in Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn.

The French added to their terror in Sài Gòn. We activists received
orders to conceal ourselves and protect our forces. This was the period
when the police arrested the greatest number of activists in the inner city. I
received orders to go out to the work site for our most important comrades
(such as Dr. Phạm Ngọc Thạch and architect Huỳnh Tấn Phát) in the
Administrative Committee for the Resistance.

Previously, I had gone on assignments to the key Resistance Zone and
had worked on the newspaper Chống Xâm Lăng (Oppose Aggression), even
though I had no journalistic skills. Later, I went to another guerrilla zone,
to Area 8, for meetings of the Women’s Union of the South.[39] There, I
met revolutionary women leaders, including Mười Thập[40] (for whom I
later served as secretary), Tư Định, Lê Thị Riêng,[41] Tám Thanh, Mười
Huệ, and others. Each woman influenced me in her own way; each one
enlarged my vision and understanding; each one helped me become even

more determined. None of these women is still alive, but for me, their
images live on in my memory.

While in the guerrilla zone, I visited my father in Đồng Tháp Mười
Province. There, he served as head of the Southern Military Engineers.

The Party Committee for the South called me to its office. For the first
time, I met the high-level comrades who had come to southern Việt Nam
from the Party Central Level in the Northern Liberated Zone.[42] They
included Comrades Lê Duẩn,[43] Lê Đức Thọ,[44] and Phạm Hùng.[45] I
had always thought these comrades would be humorless and even
hardened, but I found them easy-going, friendly, and caring. I was pleased
to meet them and to report on the pulse of the work we had done in the
city.

One of the comrades asked, “What’s most interesting when you’re
organizing in the city?”

Without thinking, I answered, “The demonstrations.”

They all laughed.

I was able learn from the comrades’ discussion and advice, but my
deepest impression came from careful instructions and their confidence in
the path I was taking.

*

**

By the beginning of 1951, we needed to strengthen the opposition in the
city through greater flexibility in our actions to avoid the enemy’s
scrutiny. I no longer worked with the women but had moved over to
responsibility for an intelligence team composed of Aunt Đạt, Older
Brother Định, and myself. At the same time, I served as secretary of the
Party Inner City Committee for Junior Staff. Comrade Nguyễn Kiệm[46]
chaired the committee. The situation was tense, with more arrests of
comrades, such as Nguyễn Kiệm, Đoàn Văn Bơ,[47] and others.

I had been working on my new assignment for three months when, in
April 1951, the secret police arrested me along with Older Brother Nguyễn
Thọ Chân,[48] Aunt Đạt, and Duy Liên. They jailed us in Catinat Police
Station.[49] Đạt had been working in the Town Hall; she’d slipped out
with enemy documents and personnel records. The police suspected Đạt
and arrested her on her way home. The rest of us had been staying with
Đạt, using her as cover. Thus, the police arrested us as well.

We were repeatedly tortured because the enemy viewed us as important
cadres for the City Party Committee. From an informant, they knew that
Comrade Nguyễn Thọ Chân had just returned from the Party Central Level
in the Northern Liberated Zone, and so they were especially ruthless when
torturing him. As for myself, I was cruelly beaten without stopping
because an earlier arrestee had broken under torture and given my name.
First, they tortured with savage beatings, then by submerging me in water,
then with electricity, then—I wanted to die so they would finish.

I was most worried about breaking under torture and giving names,
leading the enemy to arrest others. I decided I would accept whatever the
enemy said about me, but my one purpose was to say nothing else. After a

time, the torturers saw they could not wrest any information from me. The
documents they had collected provided evidence that I had worked as a
spy. In the end, they concluded that I was a spy and should receive a heavy
sentence.

Catinat Detention Center was the heart of the secret police in
Indochina. I witnessed with my own eyes evidence of the fiendish
savagery of the colonized hirelings. Without regret, they beat us to make
us confess. They did not care whether their victims were men or women,
old or young. They would use depraved tricks to humiliate us women. I
had never thought it possible that human beings could be so cruel in so
many ways.

Years later, I met a number of friends, who had been arrested again
during the time of the Americans and their puppets. Those sisters told me
that the cruelty of the Americans and their lackeys was many, many times
worse than our experience under the French. Those who haven’t
experienced the imperialists’ terrible prisons can nevertheless imagine in
their own minds’ eyes the pain we suffered.

While in prison, I witnessed models of bravery by the revolutionary
warriors who died without surrendering. When I was taken to the
interrogation room, I saw several secret police using cudgels and whips to
flog a youth, who was suspended upside down from the ceiling, his body
covered with blood. The youth held to his goal of giving no information.
From others, I learned that he had been assigned special tasks in the city.
This staunch warrior, whose name I never learned, was beaten to death. I
knew many other martyrs.

We know there were countless other heroic martyrs, whose names we
do not know.

Catinat Detention Center was under the direction of Bazin, the
notorious chief of the French secret police. This detention center, famous
for its cruelty, was at the head of Catinat Street (later Tự Do Street), Sài
Gòn’s most luxurious street with many elegant, expensive shops and large
hotels. Immediately in front of the Catinat Detention Center was Notre
Dame Cathedral, the city’s largest and most beautiful church. I do not
understand what the French colonizers—to be more exact, the French
secret police—were thinking when they chose that site for Catinat
Detention Center. Late at night, we would return from the torture chamber
to the special detention room. The ringing in our ears from the enemy’s
horrible whippings, beatings, dunkings, and electricity would be replaced
by the văng vẳng resounding echo of the Notre Dame bells, as if those
bells wanted to lessen our pain! What an irony!

After Catinat, they held me in Chí Hòa Prison for three years. During
that time, our Resistance underwent major changes. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ
returned from exile. He was once again the primary lawyer who would
“argue” on our behalf. After several weeks in Sài Gòn, he once again
secured entry into Chí Hòa Prison to visit “a client.” He let us know about
the political and military situation outside and brought us nutritious food
and even cakes and candy.

The victory at Điện Biên Phủ[50] created a huge embarrassment for the
enemy’s army and simultaneously created favorable conditions for us.
After I had spent three years in prison, the enemy condemned me to four
more years but with a suspended sentence! I learned that people in Paris

had intervened to lighten my sentence. They had been acquainted with my
grandfather in the Human Rights League while Grandfather was an activist
in Paris. I have only recently been able to verify this. One other detail is
certain: Lawyer Nguyễn Hữu Thọ used all his zeal to advocate for me and
other comrades before the French court. Duy Liên, my close friend, also
worked in every possible way for my early release.

I had heard from comrades arrested before me that French prisons were
schools for revolutionaries. This was certainly true for me. Political
prisoners did not allow themselves to waste time. We organized study-
practice sessions in culture and politics. Many of the women were
illiterate, but after a time, they learned to read and write. Most important
of all, we learned from each other and matured in our struggle against the
enemy by sharing our own experiences and those of the comrades who had
gone before us.

We organized “sessions” every day with balanced reports from “Chí
Hòa Prison Radio.” These contained news from inside the prison and from
outside society, news of the struggle, and news of the victories of our army
and people from across the country. We demanded improvements in the
prison system and also organized actions in response to the Resistance
Movement outside the prison walls.

At times, we organized hunger strikes for six consecutive days.
Imprisoned with us were Resistance activists as well as criminals. After
mixing with us, some criminals examined their mistakes and changed. A
few of them later became serious participants in the Resistance.

*

**

I will never forget two events, which occurred while I was in prison.
My fourth younger brother, Đông Hào, had been studying at Nguyễn Văn
Tố[51] School in Region 9. In 1952, the revolutionary leaders chose Hào
to go out to the Northern Region and then on to study outside the country.
Visitors to the prison needed special photo identification papers and could
visit only every two weeks. In truth, I never thought that Hào would
secretly change the photograph on his ID so that he could sneak in and see
me before leaving.

My family is like that. Our family and the Homeland and the
Revolution were one and could not be split. Seeing my brother both
delighted and worried me. We stared at each other for several minutes and
spoke only a few words amidst the noise of the other prisoners and their
visitors. Those few minutes will remain forever in both our memories.
That night, I couldn’t possibly sleep. I was so homesick; I longed for my
father and my siblings!

I heard only recently about the second event. My father was deeply sad
when he learned of my arrest. After this news, his hair quite quickly turned
white. I knew my father loved us deeply. He had always encouraged us to
participate in the Resistance, but my father also always worried about us
children, particularly his two daughters. After my release from prison, I
met my father again when he was preparing to go out to the North to join
the Điện Biên Phủ Campaign. I was so distressed to find him much weaker
than before.

Upon my release from prison in April 1954, the higher level of the
Resistance wanted me to work in the guerrilla zone, but I was better suited

to work in the inner city, where all my friends were active and where my
youngest siblings were living. I asked for some time off and then to return
to work. At the time of my release from prison, the Battle of Điện Biên
Phủ was approaching its climax. The French, nearing defeat, were
increasing their terror in the Southern Region. I had just re-established
contact with comrades in the Resistance organizations when the police
arrested me again because Elder Phan’s Temple remained a site the secret
police scrutinized. This time, the colonial authorities arrested me as well
as a cousin, who was at the house. After two months, they released us,
since they had no evidence.

*

**

The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ ended with our victory on May 7, 1954,
but the French War did not end until after the Geneva Agreement was
signed on July 20, 1954.[52] We celebrated the victory. Immediately
thereafter, we received an order to organize the masses to welcome the
Agreement and demand its strict implementation. Lawyer Nguyễn Hữu
Thọ, lawyer Trịnh Đình Thảo,[53] Professor Phạm Huy Thông, Professor
Nguyễn Văn Dưỡng,[54] and other leaders organized the peace movement
and the struggle to demand the Agreement’s implementation. Older sisters
Tám Lựu, Duy Liên, Hữu Bích, and I took part. We organized many
meetings to explain the Agreement’s points.

On August 1, 1954, the special police savagely repressed a large
meeting, which the Trade Union had organized. The police used not only
beatings, whippings, and electricity but also shot directly into the crowd.

Hữu Bích, my close friend, was wounded. We found a doctor to care for
her. For us, the ill intentions of the French after signing the Agreement
were clear right from the start. The ink on the Agreement was not yet dry
when the French tore up the document and threw away the scraps.

The situation during the following days was chaotic. Our orders from
above were to stay within legal limits in opposing the enemy. Then,
shortly thereafter, the police arrested three key Resistance leaders[55] and
sent them to prison in Hải Phòng in the Northern Region. As for the rest of
us, we were forced to withdraw undercover.

In October 1954, Comrade Phạm Hùng called me to Region 9.[56] The
comrades there asked that I tie up my work and join the United Ceasefire
Delegation, which would be formed in Sài Gòn and travel out to the
Democratic Republic of Việt Nam in the North. The work would be in the
South and involve the ceasefire. They had chosen me because I was
acquainted with the people and localities in Sài Gòn. I requested two
months to organize everything for my siblings’ schooling and to take care
of personal affairs. Comrade Phạm Hùng agreed.

After I regrouped to the North[57] with my three youngest siblings, I
prepared to return to Sài Gòn but then learned that the Ceasefire
Delegation had to drop several people; the delegation would no longer
include a woman. Instead, they assigned me to work at the Central-Level
Women’s Union in Hà Nội. This began a new season in my life as an
activist, and it concluded my nine years in the Resistance against French
colonialism, a time that had tested and strengthened me.

*

**

I would like to say more about the story surrounding “my legal case.”

In 1951, the French police arrested me and accused me of crimes
against national security. Albert Sonnet of the Sûreté in Cochin China, the
Southern Region of Việt Nam, signed a report, which was forwarded to the
Sûreté for all of Indochina. The report noted that I would be sentenced to
death or life imprisonment.

This alarmed our Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn leaders, who assigned lawyer
Nguyễn Hữu Thọ to follow my case, persuade the judges, and defend me in
court. During that period, I also heard that activists in France, who had
been acquainted with Phan Châu Trinh, my maternal grandfather, had
found a way to intervene and reduce my sentence. However, I didn’t know
who was involved or how they had intervened.

Then in 2001, my older cousin, Lê Thị Kinh (a.k.a. Phan Thị Minh)[58]
went to the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer (the Colonial Archives) at
Aix-en-Provence in southern France to research the fourteen years our
grandfather was in Paris and the relationship between Grandfather Phan
and Nguyễn Tất Thành (a.k.a. Nguyễn Ái Quốc - Hồ Chí Minh). In the
process of this research, she found several documents related to my case.

Among these documents was a letter signed by Marius Moutet,[59] the
minister of colonies who had signed the modus vivendi with President Hồ
on September 14, 1946 on the occasion of the official visit to France by
Uncle Hồ as the president of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam.
Marius Moutet wrote his letter regarding my case on May 15, 1952, when
he was no longer a minister in the French government but, instead, a

senator, that is, a member of the higher house in the French Parliament. He
sent the letter to M. Letourneau,[60] minister of Associated States for the
French government. The letter said:

“I have learned that a young woman, age twenty-three, who goes by the
name of SA or SAN, is held at Chí Hòa Detention Center in Sài Gòn. Her
case is about to be settled with the death penalty. This young woman is the
granddaughter of someone whom I knew, M. Phan Châu Trinh. Vietnamese
in both [French-affiliated] Việt Nam and also among the [revolutionary]
Việt Minh regard Phan Châu Trinh as a patriotic scholar, as a hero of their
people.

“I am not clear about the accusations against this woman, but please
allow me to suggest that both moral and political factors may lead to
serious, negative results [if she is executed]. Even though this case is in
the Vietnamese court with a Vietnamese judge rendering judgment, people
will say that this sentence was under French direction. It is my deep wish
and hope that you will give this matter your greatest attention. (Signed:
Marius Moutet).”

In addition to this letter, there were several official dispatches from the
Office of the Minister for Associated States sent to the High
Commissioner for Indochina and the secret police in the Southern Region
of Việt Nam regarding my case.

The routes and results of Mr. Moutet’s intervention are unclear since we
do not have all the relevant documents. Nevertheless, this leads me to
return and speak about several other matters regarding my grandfather.

Elder Phan Châu Trinh was among the scholars who took the initiative
in the Duy Tân Movement, which was a progressive social movement at
the beginning of the twentieth century. He was arrested in 1908 and
accused as a “rebel,” who was “instigating trouble.” The Royal Court
sentenced him to death.

The 1908 arrest of Phan Châu Trinh led to a strong emotional
outpouring and public discussion in Hà Nội among patriotic Vietnamese
and also among progressive French. Ernest Babut,[61] a journalist and
member of the French Human Rights League (Ligue des droits de
l’homme), led the campaign in Hà Nội to “save” Elder Phan. Marius
Moutet and a number of others in the Human Rights League in France
were also dedicated supporters of Elder Phan. With their intervention,
Elder Phan escaped execution. After that, during fourteen years of exile in
France, Elder Phan Châu Trinh continued his activities and was able to
secure support from many Vietnamese living overseas and from
progressive French people. Among them, in particular, was French
Commandant Jules Roux.

Years later, during the four-party talks with the United States in Paris, I
searched for the families of Jules Roux and other friends of my
grandfather, but unfortunately I was never able to find anyone.

Nevertheless, Elder Phan’s reputation as a man with a patriotic spirit, a
modernist will, and a strong moral presence throughout his life created
continuing trust and love among his compatriots inside our country as well
as sympathy and admiration among international friends, particularly in
France. Those feelings were so enduring that perhaps they abrogated the
death sentence against one of Elder Phan’s grandchildren!

Perhaps Elder Phan passed along his “Deeds-Earned Benediction”[62]
to rescue us all!

[1] Việt Minh: See Chapter 2, “Childhood,” footnote 12, p. 51.

[2] The first British, Indian, and French forces landed in Sài Gòn on September 22, 1945,

three weeks after Việt Nam’s Declaration of Independence. They quickly freed the Vichy and
“Free” French who had been imprisoned by the Japanese on March 9, 1945. (Following Japan’s
surrender in mid-August 1945, the Japanese in Sài Gòn freed Allied POWs, except for the
French.)

[3] “Animated time” – the August Revolution: The Việt Minh took political power across

the country during Việt Nam’s largely peaceful August Revolution (August 16-30, 1945),
beginning north of Hà Nội on August 16, in Hà Nội on August 19, in the imperial capital of Huế
on August 23, and in Sài Gòn on August 25. On August 27, the Việt Minh promulgated its list of
the national provisional government with Hồ Chí Minh as president. On August 30, Trần Huy
Liệu, representing the Việt Minh, accepted the imperial sword and scepter from Emperor Bảo Đại
in Huế, thereby ending a thousand years of Vietnamese monarchy. On the afternoon of
September 2, President Hồ Chí Minh read Việt Nam’s Declaration of Independence at Hà Nội’s
Ba Đình Square, formally announcing formation of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam
(DRVN) with Hà Nội as the new nation’s capital.

[4] “To the Streets”: Lưu Hữu Phước wrote the music for “To the Streets” (Lên Đàng).

Huỳnh Văn Tiếng, who later moved to California, wrote the lyrics. For Lưu Hữu Phước, see
Chapter 2, “Childhood,” footnote 8, p. 49.

[5] Morning of September 2: On very short notice, Việt Minh activists in Sài Gòn and other

communities across the country organized events in concert with President Hồ Chí Minh’s
reading of Việt Nam’s Declaration of Independence. In Sài Gòn on the morning of September 2,
Dr. Phạm Ngọc Thạch spoke as president of the Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn Resistance Administrative
Committee and as minister of health for the new, national government. That afternoon, at 2:00
p.m., there was to be a much-publicized simultaneous broadcast of President Hồ’s speech from
Hà Nội. However, technical difficulties thwarted the broadcast, creating some impatience in the
crowd. Shots were fired into the crowd from French-occupied buildings on the square in front of
Notre Dame Cathedral.

[6] Eastern Zone: The area southeast of Sài Gòn’s center is delta lowland very close to sea

level. Local people travel by sampans along a web of tide-affected sluices only they know. That
setting was perfect for shielding revolutionaries.

[7] Nationwide elections: These first nationwide DRVN elections on January 6, 1946 elected

representatives for the Ist National Assembly. On March 3, 1946, the Ist National Assembly met
and affirmed the first national government with Hồ Chí Minh as president.

[8] Nationwide Resistance: In November 1946, the French bombarded the northern port

city of Hải Phòng. Then the French Far-East Expeditionary Corps landed and began its march
toward Hà Nội. The DRVN government withdrew to its Secure Zone in the northern mountains of
Việt Nam. The Vietnamese dismantled factories and moved them to the far north. They also
carried a ten-year supply of salt to the mountains.

On December 19, 1946, President Hồ Chí Minh read his “Call for Nationwide Resistance,”
signaling the beginning of Việt Nam’s two-month battle against the French siege of Hà Nội and
announcing the beginning of the Nationwide Resistance War Against France (the “French War”).

The French War had already begun in the Southern Region (Nam Kỳ, Cochin China) on
September 23, 1945, when French troops invaded Sài Gòn. Thus, the dates for the French War
are from September 23, 1945 until July 20, 1954 (the date of the signing of the Geneva
Agreement).

[9] The mangrove swamps (bưng biền) were the site of a key Resistance base in the

Southern Region during the Resistance War Against France and the Resistance War Against the
United States.

[10] Colette School is on Hồ Xuân Hương Street, District 3, Hồ Chí Minh City - Sài Gòn.

[11] Association of Women for National Salvation: The Communist Party founded the

Việt Minh in May 1941 to widen the revolutionary movement and include patriots who were not
communists. The Việt Minh established people’s associations for national salvation, including
Women for National Salvation, Youth for National Salvation, and Farmers for National Salvation,
etc.

[12] Đỗ Thị Duy Liên (1927-) was a revolutionary activist during the Resistance War

Against France and a member of the NLF (National Liberation Front of South Việt Nam)
delegation at the Paris Conference. She served as vice president of the Hồ Chí Minh City People’s
Committee. Đỗ Thị Duy Liên lives in Hồ Chí Minh City.

[13] Ngô Thị Huệ (1918-, a.k.a. Bảy Huệ or “Seventh Huệ”) came from Kiên Giang

Province in the Southern Region, joined the Party in 1936, and took part in the August
Revolution. She was a member of the National Assembly, Sessions I (1946-1960), II (1960-
1964), III (1964-1971), and IV (1971-1975). In addition, over the years, she held many Party
positions. She is the author of Tiếng Sóng Bủa Ghềnh (Sound of the Whirlpool, 2011).

[14] Nguyễn Văn Linh (1915-1998) came from Hưng Yên Province in the Northern

Region, joined the Revolutionary Youth in 1929, and was arrested and sent to Côn Đảo Prison
Island in 1930. He was released in 1936 during the French Popular Front. Upon his release, he
joined the Indochinese Communist Party (then the name of the current Vietnamese Communist
Party) and organized in Hải Phòng and Hà Nội before shifting to Sài Gòn in 1939. Nguyễn Văn
Linh served as general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1986 until 1991; he
oversaw the first stages of Đổi Mới (Renovation or Renewal).

[15] Hoàng Quốc Tân (1919-), a Paris-trained lawyer, was a French Communist Party

member and active in the French workers’ movement during World War II and particularly active
with the Vietnamese who had been moved from Việt Nam to work as laborers in France during
the war. Hoàng Quốc Tân returned to Việt Nam after President Hồ Chí Minh’s June 1946 appeal
to patriotic Vietnamese living in France to return home and help build the new nation.

[16] Bùi Thị Cẩm (1912-?) came from Sa Đéc Province (now Đồng Tháp) in the Southern

Region, studied in French schools, and secured her doctorate in law in France in 1941. She
became Việt Nam’s first woman to achieve that academic level. In 1954, she regrouped to the
North, where she served as vice president of the Executive Committee of the National Women’s
Union and as one of five vice presidents for the IInd term (1956-1961), including the period
Mme. Bình was Mười Thập’s secretary. Bùi Thị Cẩm was a representative in the National
Assembly, Sessions II (1960-1964), III (1964-1971), IV (1971-1975), and V (1975-1976).

[17] Vietnamese pronouns: The Vietnamese language uses dozens of pronouns for the

simple “you” and “I” of English, with the choice of pronoun dependent on sex, age, status, and
intimacy. Speakers elevate the addressee and lower themselves. Thus, Mme. Bình’s choice of
“older sister” reflects greater intimacy instead of formality. See also Chapter 3, “I’m a Happy
Person,” footnote 1, p. 53.

[18] Party introduction: Introductions are important in every culture, but even now,

introductions carry extra weight in Việt Nam. This more serious focus in Việt Nam originates
with the security dangers for activists during the Resistance, when an imprudent Party

introduction could result in arrest, torture, imprisonment, and perhaps even the execution of other
activists.

[19] Hồ Thị Chí (1925-) came from Tiền Giang (formerly Mỹ Tho) Province in the

Southern Region. She later served as deputy minister of light industry and was a representative in
Việt Nam’s National Assembly, Session VI (1976-1981).

[20] Hà Huy Giáp (1908-1995), from Hà Tĩnh Province in the Central Region, was arrested

in 1933 and sentenced to Côn Đảo Prison Island, where he was active in using the prison as a
school for detainees. Hà Huy Giáp was an alternate member of the Central Committee of the
Vietnamese Workers’ Party (now the Vietnamese Communist Party) for Session II (1951-1960)
and a full member for Session III (1961-1976).

[21] Fontainebleau Conference: On March 6, 1946, President Hồ Chí Minh and French

negotiator Jean Sainteny signed the March 6 Agreement about the relationship between the newly
formed Democratic Republic of Việt Nam (DRVN) and France, with subsequent talks to take
place in France. President Hồ and Vice-Premier Phạm Văn Đồng, head of the DRVN negotiating
team, left for Fontainebleau, France that May to negotiate details. Formal talks collapsed when
French High Commissioner d’Argenlieu called his own conference to determine the fate of the
Southern Region (Nam Kỳ, Cochin China).

[22] Nguyễn Bình Thanh (1937-2004, a.k.a. Phạm Thanh Vân) played many roles while at

the Paris Conference on Việt Nam (1968-1973). During the 1990s, she served as Việt Nam’s
counsellor at the United Nations.

[23] Marie Curie School on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa Street in District 3 was established by the

French government in 1918 in honor of Mme. Curie, a naturalized French citizen, who was the
first woman to win a Nobel prize (physics, 1903; then chemistry, 1911). Marie Curie School is
among the oldest and most famous high schools in Hồ Chí Minh City and the only one to retain
its French name. Originally a French-language girls’ school, Marie Curie became a public co-ed
school in 1997. A number of famous women activists in the French War and the American War
had studied at Marie Curie.

[24] Dương Quỳnh Hoa (1930-2006), who came from a scholarly Sài Gòn family, received

her medical degree in pediatrics in France and returned to Việt Nam in 1957. She was a
representative in the VIth National Assembly (1976-1981) and headed a pediatric hospital in Hồ
Chí Minh City. While Dr. Hoa was an undercover organizer in Sài Gòn, she was known in the
foreign community for her charm and exquisite French. Always undercover, she attended
diplomatic receptions hosted by successive American ambassadors.

[25] Nguyễn Hữu Thọ (1910-1996) came from Chợ Lớn - Long An in the Southern Region,

received his degree from the Law School in Aix-en-Provence, France, and returned to Việt Nam
in 1933. He was an early advocate for legal rights and became a wealthy, activist lawyer in Sài
Gòn. He was arrested in 1954 and exiled to the port city of Hải Phòng, which was still under
French control in the Northern Region. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ was sent back to the South in 1955 and
kept under house arrest in Tuy Hoà, Phú Yên Province until 1961, when local residents helped
him escape to the Liberated Zone. Nguyễn Hữu Thọ was elected president of the NLF’s Central-
Level Committee (1961-1969) and later president of the PRG Council (June 1969 - April 25,
1976). After formal re-unification, Nguyễn Hữu Thọ served as vice president of Việt Nam (1976-
1992) and as president of the National Assembly (1981-1987).

[26] Tám Lựu (1909-1988, a.k.a. Nguyễn Thị Lựu, given name: Đỗ Thị Thưởng) was born

in Sa Đéc in the Mekong Delta. She was an early revolutionary, who worked as an underground
liaison agent. The French imprisoned her from 1931 until the French Popular Front’s greater
openness in 1936. Tám Lựu was an organizer in the Southern Region and later served as a
representative in the National Assembly, Sessions II (1960-1964), III (1964-1971), and IV (1971-
1975).

[27] The Southern Uprising: See Chapter 2, “Childhood,” footnote 3, p. 45.

[28] Dr. Phạm Ngọc Thạch (1909-1968) came from Bình Định Province in the Central

Region, was orphaned when he was very young and raised by relatives, who emphasized
learning. He studied at the Hà Nội Medical School and then received his medical degree in Paris
in 1934. He returned to Việt Nam in 1936, was an activist in Sài Gòn, and joined the Party in
March 1945. Dr. Phạm Ngọc Thạch served as president of the Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn Resistance
Administrative Committee, as the minister of health for the Provisional Government of Việt Nam
(1945), and as minister of health for the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam (1959-1968).

[29] Huỳnh Tấn Phát (1913-1989) came from Mỹ Tho Province in the Southern Region.

He graduated from the Indochina Fine Arts College with a degree in architecture in 1938 and was
the first Vietnamese architect to open an office in Sài Gòn (1940). He was a social activist and
joined the Party in March 1945. Huỳnh Tấn Phát served as president of the Provisional
Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Việt Nam from its establishment in 1969 to
its incorporation with the DRVN in 1976. He then served as the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam’s
deputy prime minister (1976-1986) and as vice president of the State Council (1982-1989).

[30] Pétrus Ký School was named after Pétrus Trương Vĩnh Ký (1857-1889), a famous

Vietnamese scholar, who knew twenty-seven languages and wrote more than a hundred works of

literature, history, and geography. Pétrus Ký School was established in 1927 in Sài Gòn. Now
called Lê Hồng Phong School for the Gifted, it ranks among the best of Việt Nam’s high schools.
The school is at 235 Nguyễn Văn Cừ Street, Ward 4, District 5.

[31] Trần Văn Hữu (1895-1985) came from Vĩnh Long in the Southern Region. He earned

a degree in agricultural engineering in France. Trần Văn Hữu joined the French-backed
Vietnamese administration in September 1945 and was both deputy premier and foreign minister
of the French-and-US-supported Republic of Việt Nam (ROVN) from May 1950 until June 1952.
During his tenure, the ROVN joined the French Union and received official recognition from
Great Britain and the United States. Trần Văn Hữu left Việt Nam for France in 1955. In 1969, he
attended the Paris funeral service honoring Hồ Chí Minh.

[32] Trần Văn Ơn was born in 1931 in Bến Tre Province in the Mekong Delta (Southern

Region).

[33] Tôn Thọ Tường School is now the Ernst Thälmann School at 8 Trần Hưng Đạo Street,

District 1 in Hồ Chí Minh City.

[34] Phạm Huy Thông (1916-1988) came from Hà Nội and studied in France, where he

earned a doctorate in law and a master’s degree in geography. He assisted Hồ Chí Minh during
President Hồ’s time in France for the Fontainebleau talks. Phạm Huy Thông joined the French
Communist Party in 1949 and was the key organizer for overseas Vietnamese. The French sent
him back to Việt Nam and placed him under house arrest. Phạm Huy Thông joined the
Vietnamese Workers’ Party (now the Vietnamese Communist Party) in 1953. He was rector of the
Hà Nội Pedagogical School from 1956 until 1966 and a member of the National Assembly,
Sessions II (1960-1964) and III (1964-1971).

[35] The red flag with a gold star was the flag of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam,

with its government at that point in the mountains of Việt Nam’s far north, as well as the flag of
Việt Minh Resistance in the Southern Region and in areas temporarily occupied by the French in
the Northern and Central Regions.

[36] Nguyễn Hữu Thọ was arrested by the French in June 1950 and imprisoned in Lai Châu

and then in Sơn Tây (a province due west of Hà Nội) until November 1952, when he was
released. He returned to Sài Gòn and to his organizing work.

[37] Trần Bội Cơ (1932-1950), a student activist, was arrested in 1950, when she was

eighteen. She died in prison from torture.

[38] 1950 Border Campaign: The People’s Army had been formed in December 1944 with

thirty-four troops. Faced with the French re-invasion of the Northern Region in November 1946,
the DRVN government withdrew to the mountains north of Hà Nội. For several years, the
People’s Army fought from within a French siege. No foreign country recognized the DRVN until
January 1950, when both China and the Soviet Union established formal relations. Hồ Chí Minh
met with Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin in Moscow in February 1950 and secured assistance
with military materiel.

At this time, the French had a series of posts on Route 4, a one-lane road running along the
Vietnamese-Chinese border. In September, the People’s Army attacked posts in two key district
towns, cutting the French supply route from the sea to the highland provincial capital of Cao
Bằng, which the French controlled. In three weeks, the People’s Army secured complete control
of Route 4, including Cao Bằng Provincial Capital. As General Võ Nguyên Giáp wrote in Đường
tới Điện Biên Phủ (The Road to Điện Biên Phủ, 1999, p. 88), “Now, a huge area of the Northeast
had no enemy soldiers. And then on beyond the Vietnamese-Chinese border lay an endless
rearguard stretching from Asia to Europe.”

[39] The Việt Nam Women’s Union was founded in 1930, the same year as the Vietnamese

Communist Party, as a mass organization to mobilize women for the Revolution. Today, the Việt
Nam Women’s Union has thirteen million members, with offices on the national level, in every
province or city, every district, every commune or village (the lowest governmental
administrative level), and even in every hamlet.

[40] Mười Thập (1908-1996, a.k.a. Nguyễn Thị Thập) came from Châu Thành District,

Tiền Giang (formerly Mỹ Tho) Province. She was elected to the Southern Region Party
Committee in 1935 and participated in the Southern Uprising (1940). Her husband, who had
been arrested in 1930 and recently released from Côn Đảo Prison Island, also took part in the
Southern Uprising. Mười Thập served as a representative in the National Assembly, Sessions I
(1946-1960), II (1960-1964), III (1964-1971), IV (1971-1975), V (1975-1976), and VI (1976-
1981). Mười Thập was president of the Women’s Union of Việt Nam in the South. After the
Geneva Agreement (1954), Mười Thập regrouped to the North, where she served as president of
the National Women’s Union for the IInd (1956-1961) and IIIrd (1961-1974) terms. Mười Thập,
a mentor for Mme. Bình when she had recently arrived in Hà Nội, appears later in the narrative.

[41] Lê Thị Riêng (1925-1968) came from Bạc Liêu Province in the Southern Region. She

joined the Revolution in 1945 and was head of the Committee for Agitation and Propaganda
Among Women in Sài Gòn - Gia Định. She was arrested by soldiers from the US-supported Sài
Gòn army during the 1968 Tết Offensive and executed at Bà Hòa, a small post in Chợ Lớn - Sài
Gòn. She used her body to shield another prisoner, Phùng Ngọc Anh, who survived.

[42] Northern Liberated Zone: When the French re-invaded the Northern Region in

November 1946, the DRVN government withdrew from Hà Nội to the northern mountainous
provinces. The government spread its offices over a wide area known as “ATK” (An Toàn Khu -
Secure Zone) along the border between Tuyên Quang and Thái Nguyên Provinces. The success
of the 1950 Border Campaign added a large area to the Northern Liberated Zone, which is known
in Vietnamese as “Việt Bắc” (literally, “Việt” and “North”).

[43] Lê Duẩn (1907-1986, a.k.a. “Third Older Brother,” given name: Lê Văn Nhuận) came

from Quảng Trị Province in the Central Region but south of the Bến Hải River, the dividing line
in 1954 between North Việt Nam and South Việt Nam. His father was a worker; his mother, a
farmer. Family financial difficulties kept Lê Duẩn from studying beyond middle school. In 1926,
he began working as a railway flagman. This brought him in touch with labor issues and the
movements that were the predecessor to establishment of the Vietnamese Communist Party in
1930. The French arrested Lê Duẩn in 1931 and sentenced him to twenty years in prison. He was
released from Côn Đảo Prison Island in 1945 after the success of the August Revolution. Lê
Duẩn was elected to the Politburo in 1951. He served as general secretary of the Party from 1960
until his death on July 10, 1986.

[44] Lê Đức Thọ (1911-1990, a.k.a. “Sixth Hammer”) came from Hà Nam Province in the

Red River Delta of the Northern Region. While a student, he was an organizer of a demonstration
commemorating the death of Mme. Bình's grandfather, scholar-patriot Phan Châu Trinh. The
French imprisoned Lê Đức Thọ from 1930 until 1936 and from 1939 to 1944. In October 1948,
as a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Central Committee, Lê Đức Thọ left the Việt
Bắc Northern Liberated Zone to work in the Southern Region. He was added to the Politburo for
the IInd Term (1951-1960) at the end of 1955. He served as the Politburo’s special advisor to the
DRVN delegation at the Paris Conference on Việt Nam (1968-1973), while Nguyễn Thị Bình was
deputy head of the NLF delegation and then head of the PRG delegation.

[45] Phạm Hùng (1912-1988, given name: Phạm Văn Thiện) came from Vĩnh Long

Province in the Mekong Delta of the Southern Region. He began his revolutionary activities
when he was sixteen and joined the Communist Party in 1930. He was arrested in 1930 with a
double death sentence, to which he objected eloquently in court. The French held Phạm Hùng on
Côn Đảo Prison Island for fourteen years. He was released with the August 1945 Revolution and
immediately appointed Provisional Party Secretary for the Southern Region. Phạm Hùng served
as head of the Party for the South and then as a member of the Politburo beginning in 1956 and
as Party general secretary from 1956 to 1958. He was prime minister from 1987 until his death in
1988.

[46] Nguyễn Kiệm (1912-1951) came from a family of Confucian scholars in Nghệ An

Province in the Central Region. He studied the classics, including Hán ideographic Chinese, and
then attended Quốc Học (National School) in Vinh. There, he came in contact with organizers for
Tân Việt (New Việt) Revolutionary Party, which evolved into one of the three groups Hồ Chí
Minh drew together in 1930 to form the Vietnamese Communist Party. In 1940, Nguyễn Kiệm
went to Sài Gòn, where he was an active organizer with the labor unions and then, in 1943,
elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Trade Unions in the South. He
was a representative of the Southern Region at the IInd Party Congress held in Việt Bắc Liberated
Zone, February 11-19, 1951. He returned to the Southern Region, was arrested in the middle of
1951, and tortured to death.

[47] Đoàn Văn Bơ (1917-1958, a.k.a. Cao Hoài Đông) came from Bến Tre Province in the

Southern Region. He went to Sài Gòn to study and then became a worker at Ba Son Ship-
Building Factory. He joined the Revolution on March 9, 1945, when the Japanese assumed full
administrative control of Việt Nam from the French. He joined the military Resistance when the
French War broke out in the Southern Region on September 23, 1945. Đoàn Văn Bơ returned to
Ba Son as an undercover organizer in late 1946. He was exposed in 1952 and slipped away to
the Resistance Zone but came back again as an underground organizer in Sài Gòn in 1954. Đoàn
Văn Bơ was arrested in 1958. He died in Hàng Keo Prison, Gia Định (now part of Hồ Chí Minh
City).

[48] Nguyễn Thọ Chân (1922-), originally from one of modern-day Hà Nội’s outlying

districts, was active in the Indochinese Democratic Front, a quasi-Party organization during the
French Popular Front. He joined the Party in 1939, the year of French repression following the
openness of the French Popular Front. In 1946, the Party sent Nguyễn Thọ Chân to Sài Gòn,
where he served as head of the Party Committee for Sài Gòn until he was succeeded by Nguyễn
Văn Linh. Beginning in 1956, Nguyễn Thọ Chân held administrative positions in Hà Nội. He
served as Việt Nam’s ambassador to the Soviet Union (1967-1971) and, at the same time, as
ambassador to Sweden (1969-1971). Mme. Bình met Nguyễn Thọ Chân in Moscow and
Stockholm during visits she made while with the NLF-PRG delegation at the Paris Conference.

[49] Catinat Police Station (Bót Catinat) is now the office of the Hồ Chí Minh City

Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism at 164 Đồng Khởi in District 1. The Catinat Police
Center was created through renovations begun in 1917 and completed in 1937. It is said that the
basement of the current building still has original cells. That area is not open to the public.

[50] Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: The People’s Army of Việt Nam (PAVN) under the guidance

of the Politburo staged its Winter-Spring 1953-1954 Campaign with many coordinated battles

across the country and in Laos and Cambodia to disperse the forces of French General Henri
Navarre, who sought an “honorable end to the war.” The Campaign culminated with the Battle of
Điện Biên Phủ in the far northwest of Việt Nam. The battle between the PAVN and the French
Far-East Expeditionary Corps raged for fifty-five days and nights, from March 13 through May 7,
1954.

The United States supplied equipment and more than 75 percent of the financing for the
French side; American pilots flew supply missions. At one point, the United States considered
using nuclear weapons and B-29 bombers. The Chinese provided advisors and materiel for the
Vietnamese side, including not only small arms but also artillery and anti-aircraft guns.
Thousands of porters carried rice and ammunition for the Vietnamese side. The Vietnamese were
victorious on May 7, 1954, the day before the opening of the Geneva Conference on Indochina.

[51] Nguyễn Văn Tố (1889-1947) was a patriotic Confucian scholar from Hà Nội, who had

studied in France. He was among the leaders of the Association for the Promulgation of Quốc
Ngữ (the Romanized Vietnamese script), which helped make the Literacy Campaign possible.
Although not a communist, Nguyễn Văn Tố was minister of social affairs in the Provisional
Government and president of the Ist National Assembly. When the French re-invaded in
November 1946, Nguyễn Văn Tố withdrew with other governmental officials to the Secure Zone
in Việt Bắc Northern Liberated Zone. In October 1947, the French staged their blitzkrieg, multi-
prong Operation Léa to besiege the DRVN government. In particular, the French wanted to
capture Hồ Chí Minh. Unbeknownst to the French, they did ensnare Party Secretary Trường
Chinh and Army Chief-of-Staff Hoàng Văn Thái, but both escaped unnoticed. The French
captured Nguyễn Văn Tố and executed him because they mistook him for Hồ Chí Minh.

[52] Geneva Agreement: The Geneva Agreement signed between France and the DRVN on

July 20, 1954 provided for a ceasefire and divided Việt Nam into “North Việt Nam” and “South
Việt Nam” at the 17th parallel, with elections re-uniting the country to be held in 1956. Việt Minh
combatants and activists in South Việt Nam were to regroup to North Việt Nam, while French-
allied combatants and activists in the North were to regroup to the South. The United States was
not a signatory to the Geneva Agreement; it was not intended that the United States should be a
signatory.

However, the regime sponsored by the United States in South Việt Nam refused to allow
elections. In Mandate for Change (1963, p. 372), President Eisenhower wrote, “I have never
talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree
that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly 80 per cent of the population
would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bảo
Đại.”

[53] Trịnh Đình Thảo (1901-1986) came from Hà Đông, now part of Hà Nội. He studied in

France between 1919 and 1928 and earned multiple degrees, including in law. Trịnh Đình Thảo
was minister of justice in the short-lived Trần Trọng Kim government, which the Japanese
instituted after toppling the Vichy French administration in Việt Nam on March 9, 1945. In 1946,
Trịnh Đình Thảo went to Sài Gòn, where he served on the French-backed Vietnamese
government’s Supreme Court. However, in 1950, Trịnh Đình Thảo participated in the
demonstration honoring martyr Trần Văn Ơn, which Mme. Bình has described. Trịnh Đình Thảo
became an increasingly outspoken opponent of US involvement. He was president of the
Vietnamese Union of Nationalist, Democratic, and Peace Forces and vice president of the
Council of Advisors to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Việt
Nam (1969-1976). Trịnh Đình Thảo was a member of the National Assembly, Session VI (1976-
1981).

[54] Nguyễn Văn Dưỡng (1923-1958) came from Gia Định, now a district of Hồ Chí Minh

City. He studied between 1949 and 1953 in Paris, where he earned degrees in law, political
science, and international relations. He then returned home and taught at the Sài Gòn Law
School. After Nguyễn Văn Dưỡng and the two other key peace-movement organizers were sent
out to Hải Phòng (which was then in French hands), there was such citizen pressure that US-
backed Premier Ngô Đình Diệm was forced to bring the three back to Sài Gòn, where they were
arrested again. Nguyễn Văn Dưỡng’s health deteriorated in prison. The prison authorities moved
him to Tuy Hòa Hospital, but it was too late. He died on July 21, 1958, four years after the
Geneva Agreement, which he had tried to explain to the populace.

[55] The three people arrested immediately after the Geneva Agreement were key leaders

in the Resistance Movement in the South: Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, lawyer and head of the Coordinating
Council of Organizational Representatives; Phạm Huy Thông, poet and professor in the French
High-Level Educational Council; and revolutionary activist Nguyễn Văn Dưỡng.

[56] Region 9 covered the Mekong Delta and included all the provinces south of Long An.

[57] Regrouped: See Chapter 3, “I Am a Happy Person,” footnote 3, p. 54.

[58] Lê Thị Kinh (1925-, a.k.a. Phan Thị Minh) is the daughter of Phan Thị Châu Liên, who

was the elder daughter of Phan Châu Trinh. Lê Thị Kinh served on the PRG delegation in Paris.
She continued her diplomatic career and became Việt Nam’s ambassador to Italy and
Mediterranean countries, then head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International
Organizations Department. In 1995, she joined the NGO delegation from Việt Nam to the UN
Conference on Women in Beijing. Lê Thị Kinh edited Phan Châu Trinh: Toàn Tập (Phan Châu

Trinh: Collected Works, 3 volumes) (Đà Nẵng: Đà Nẵng Publishing House, 2001). She remains
active in the museum commemorating Phan Châu Trinh and other patriots in Đà Nẵng. Mme.
Kinh and Mme. Bình both appear in the large family photograph taken when they were children.
That photograph is in the back of this memoir.

[59] Marius Moutet (1876-1968), a French socialist, was minister of colonies four times:

June 4, 1936 - January 18, 1938 during Léon Blum’s Popular Front government, March 13 -
April 10, 1938, January 26 - December 23, 1946, and January 22 - October 22, 1947. He
became an advocate for Việt Nam’s independence and developed a sympathetic attitude toward
Hồ Chí Minh.

[60] Jean Letourneau (1907-1986), a journalist with a degree in law, was French minister

of colonies from October 29, 1949 to July 3, 1950 and high-commissioner for Indochina (based
in Hà Nội) from April 1, 1952 to July 28, 1953.

[61] Alfred-Ernest Babut (1878-1962) first went to Việt Nam with the French military in

1899 and soon became an outspoken critic of colonialism. He learned Vietnamese, wrote about
his concerns, followed the 1908 demonstrations closely, and defended Phan Châu Trinh, helping
to prevent execution of the scholar-patriot. Babut returned to France in 1917 and continued his
activism in Paris. Phan Châu Trinh was in Paris at that time. In Paris, Babut was also acquainted
with Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Hồ Chí Minh).

[62] Deeds-Earned Benediction: This is a Buddhist concept, where good deeds in one’s life

can be passed on to the next life.

5.

A Special Front Opposing the United States to
Save the Nation

At the Central-Level Women’s Union in Hà Nội, I worked as secretary
to Mme. Mười Thập,[1] the Union’s president. She was also the Party
general secretary of the Women’s Mobilization Unit, a member of the
Party Central Committee, and a member of the National Assembly. At
first, this work was difficult because I was more familiar with secret,
illegal, local organizing. In Hà Nội, everything was completely different
because my work was open. My tasks involved concentrating on each step,
organizing the work myself, which meant usually making my own
decisions and taking personal responsibility for those decisions.

I worked with State offices, the National Assembly, the ministries, and
the labor unions. All these offices were comfortably open. I was not
acquainted with any of this. The Sài Gòn authorities had recently released
me from prison, and my health was poor. Working in this new environment
tested me, but it also provided new experiences and many additional
lessons, which I learned quickly. I was fortunate, for my experiences
during the years of struggle in Sài Gòn had taught me to face every
difficulty with a self-confident, unflinching approach.

All of us working at the National Women’s Union affectionately called
Mme. Mười Thập “Tenth Older Sister.”[2] In truth, Tenth Older Sister was
about my mother’s age, yet my relationship with Mười Thập was both that
of a secretary with the top leader and yet also that of a family member.
Tenth Older Sister both guided and supported me. When my son was still
only a few months old, she and I often had to work late into the evening,
long after the office crèche had closed. Tenth Older Sister would bring my
son into the office and look after him. Mười Thập passed away several
decades ago, but memories of her will remain forever in my heart. Many
sisters working in the National Women’s Union office, such as Hoàng Thị
Ái,[3] Hà Thị Quế,[4] my friends Nhan, Phương, Như, Thu, and others, left
me with warm feelings I can never forget.

One day in late 1954, a few months after I’d arrived in the North, Dr.
Phạm Ngọc Thạch[5] came to see me. I had met Dr. Thạch while he was
president of the Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn Resistance Administrative Committee.
Dr. Thạch said, “Uncle Hồ[6] wants to meet you.” Dr. Thạch had told
President Hồ Chí Minh that a granddaughter of Elder Phan Châu Trinh was
working in Hà Nội. Hearing this, Uncle said he wanted to meet her.

I was very excited to receive an invitation to the Presidential Palace,
where Hồ Chí Minh worked. He lived nearby in a converted workers’ shed.
Uncle greeted me and said he had known my grandfather when they were
both in Paris and that he regarded Phan Châu Trinh as the older brother
who had helped him. I also knew that my grandfather and Elder Nguyễn
Sinh Sắc, Uncle Hồ’s father, had been scholarly colleagues and activists
together during the early days of the twentieth century. Later, I had many
chances to meet Hồ Chí Minh. Each time, I felt fortunate to receive
Uncle’s Hồ’s attention, concern, and encouragement.