From July 11 to 15, 2012, the veterans group of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi had a meaningful "return": the "return" to Quang Tri ancient citadel, Truong Son National Martyrs' Cemetery. This return is even more meaningful, because this year - 2012, the whole country solemnly commemorates the 81-day and night event of the Ancient Citadel, a historical turning point in our nation's resistance war against the US to save the country. And among them, there are those who directly fought and left here a part of their youth. The notes of the veterans group will help us understand more clearly about that meaningful trip...
11th...As usual, every July, when summer is pouring down on the ground, veterans of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities gather to return to the old battlefield. This year's return is scheduled at two familiar addresses that just mentioning their names makes everyone feel excited: Truong Son National Martyrs' Cemetery and Quang Tri Ancient Citadel. Especially with the location of Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, the journey of this delegation will be more meaningful: this year the whole country solemnly celebrates the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Quang Tri province; 40 years of the event of 81 days and nights of the fiercest war ever in the history of the Vietnam War: with only more than 10 hectares in 81 days and nights, Quang Tri Ancient Citadel had to endure up to 325 thousand tons of bombs and bullets from the enemy; 81 days and nights, thousands of beloved children of the Fatherland forever lie under the sacred soil of the Fatherland. There are examples of sacrifice that have become legends. An 81-day and night battle of Stalingrad in Vietnam... In less than ten days, I had two trips back to the lands that once held so many legends. The group went with the most careful preparation of two members, now the president and vice president of the Veterans Association of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities: Mr. Nguyen Chi Hoa and Pham Dinh Lan. The group chose a route that could not be more reasonable: the starting point was Thang Long Avenue, connecting the historic Ho Chi Minh trail, cutting through Highway 1 along the sacred land of Nghi Xuan, the hometown of the great national poet Nguyen Du; passing Deo Ngang "the evening shadow" of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, to Dong Hoi city, once considered a bomb-catching bag in the war against America. A tiring but also exciting day on the road...
12th...The trip back to the Citadel would have been less meaningful if we had not spent a whole day visiting Thien Duong Cave, a natural wonder in the Phong Nha Ke Bang cave chain of the war-torn Quang Binh land, which I believe is nowhere else in the world to have such a wonderful wonder. A Ha Long Bay on land? Or maybe even more wonderful than that, because along the 31 km length, each space here, under the delicate hands of nature, has become a "little paradise". Standing before the amazing beauty of this place, all our imaginations became powerless... Throughout the entire journey along the Truong Son forest, now the Ho Chi Minh Trail, looking at the immense green forests, the endless and pure green, we regained the feeling of passionate love for the country. Only when we come here, living in the vast green of nature and mountains and forests, do we realize that the dream of a peaceful and happy life is really simple: we don't need skyscrapers, gray concrete blocks, noisy streets and bustling traffic to be happy. The proof is that even though we were walking in the summer heat of up to 38 degrees Celsius, when we set foot in the entrance of Thien Duong cave, looking at the splendor of nature's hand, the temperature "suddenly" dropped to 20 degrees, just like when we were in the middle of Sa Pa or Da Lat. Suddenly, I felt so much admiration and gratitude for a certain British explorer who had the merit of discovering this wonderful series of caves...
13th...On the 13th, we finally arrived at our destination. The driver seemed to be very familiar with these types of trips, and suggested a route that couldn’t be more reasonable. The departure started early in the morning. The first destination would be Hien Luong Bridge, Ben Hai River, the once famous 17th parallel. The group stopped to take some souvenir photos. What a dear and beloved country. It turned out that this was where the former soldier of Co Thanh, Le Ba Duong, who had extremely touching poems about Thach Han River, once wrote the “magic pen” lines: “A gun holds the two skies of the South and the North/ A footprint prints the color of the soil of two regions”. Before coming here, I had heard a lot about Quang Tri: this is a poor land, every inch of land here bears the marks of bullets, bombs and poverty. Now, a real Quang Tri is appearing before our eyes. Nearly 40 years after liberation, this land still bears the imprint of poverty. The endless green of the Truong Son forest no longer lingers here, the fields are infertile, the rice is barren and short like grass. Until now, I still have not overcome my "embarrassment", when looking at the rice fields on both sides of the Quang Tri road, I firmly told veteran Nguyen Ba Thanh that they were grass. Veteran Vu Thanh Tung must have passed through this land many times, knowing that I was wrong, he just smiled and did not rush to "correct" it right away. Anyway, my "innocence" also said one thing, that I still feel guilty towards Quang Tri, I have to do something for Quang Tri...
This trip to the Citadel also gave me a lot of "realizations", understanding more about the people that I have lived with every day, but I still do not fully understand them. For example, if I had not gone on this trip, how would I have known that veteran Bui Duy Dan, usually quiet and taciturn, son of our teacher Bui Duy Tan, was a brave warrior in the battle to capture Tri Buu Church and shed blood here? I also would not have known that veteran Nguyen Van Thong had fought on the Quang Tri front. This time, when he went with the group, he did not forget to bring along a HD handheld camera, which he explained to us would help him record images, so that his life when he was "old" would be less boring. For veteran Pham Thanh Hung, this trip was even more meaningful. The Road 9 Southern Laos battlefield was where he fought during his military service. On the body of this veteran, there were still many painful scars. But for him there was a more serious “wound”, that is, here, many of his comrades were laid to rest forever. Throughout the journey, he found a quiet place at the back of the car, with a burning desire, when he reached Quang Tri, he would “shake off” the group, go alone to the Road 9 cemetery, “light an incense stick for 5 or 6 of my friends”, with a plea, hoping that his country would have fewer bad people and “more good people” like you. Veteran Pham Dinh Lan, although he did not directly fight on the Quang Tri battlefield, had once marched through here. The poems he wrote for the beloved children of the Fatherland, which the tour guide read to the group right at the foot of the Ancient Monument, made us unable to hold back our tears:
Tread lightly and speak softly
Let my comrades lie still in the grass
The sky is also clear and windy
Even if it's noisy, don't shake the trees too much.
Tread lightly and speak softly
The citadel is so wide that my comrades are cramped.
Every inch of land is a real life
Today I am choked upBefore the car entered Quang Tri Ancient Citadel, we had a very meaningful task. The whole group stopped by Vinh Linh cemetery, where martyr Tran Nhat Dinh, his brother Tran Nhat Chinh, went with the group, to burn incense for him. At this cemetery, we coincidentally met and heard an interesting and touching story of the female caretaker whose name I did not have time to ask. I was also not fortunate enough to directly hear the short, touching story she told. But veteran Luong Van Ke, who took the cheerful photo of this woman, directly heard her tell the touching story of her life, and insisted on convincing me to write something about the lovely, silent caretaker here. I promised Luong Van Ke that if I had the chance, I would fulfill his request. And now, I do not want the group's small notes to be interrupted by a story, which should have the scale of a novel. There are many more stories worth recording in our group. That is the story of veteran Ngo Van Hoan. Although he has been retired for a year now, this trip back to the Citadel still makes him "excited" as always. Ngo Van Hoan confided that his family had just found the remains of his beloved younger brother who fought on the Quang Tri battlefield in the past. This time, he and his partner, also a veteran, will go to the land where his younger brother "lies", light an incense stick and pray for this land to find eternal peace. Only when I stood right on the land of the Citadel, witnessed with my own eyes every inch of land and blade of grass here, looked back at the pictures taken by military photographer Doan Cong Tinh, and read the words on the letter that martyr Le Van Huynh wrote to his relatives before his sacrifice, did I realize the price of national peace today, which young soldiers of my generation had to pay. Looking closely at the green color of each patch of grass growing up in the blazing summer sun of the Ancient Citadel, I seemed to understand more of what poet Thanh Thao wrote in his epic poem Those Who Go to the Sea: "
Eighteen and twenty years old, sharp as grass/ Thick as grass/ Weak and strong as grass/ We go without regretting our lives/ (But how can we not regret being twenty)/ But if everyone regrets being twenty, then what's left of the Fatherland?/ The grass is sharp and warm, isn't it, dear?”. Just below the soft grass inside the Citadel, right in the clear water of the Thach Han River, thousands of young soldiers’ remains are entangled and crowded here. Surely many decades later, the pain of the Citadel will still be heard. The mottled fragments of the Bo De school wall that we had the opportunity to visit later said a lot of things...
14th...Leaving Quang Tri, on the morning of the 14th, we crossed the Ho Chi Minh trail again towards the Truong Son National Martyrs' Cemetery. I still have the feeling that nowhere in our 63 provinces and cities has a land with as many martyrs' cemeteries as in Quang Tri. It seems that the greatest pain and loss of the war has converged here. Almost every commune, district, and piece of land in Quang Tri carries in their hearts the remains of the nation's beloved children. When we arrived at the Truong Son Cemetery, we realized this even more. Anyway, we were a little comforted that the people today have done something meaningful for the deceased. The Truong Son Cemetery today is no less beautiful than the Père Lachèse Cemetery in Paris, where I also had the opportunity to set foot. I don't know exactly how many soldiers fell on the battlefield during the last war? But coming to the Truong Son Cemetery these days, the pain and sorrow are evident on every inch of land. “
My comrades remained in the whole regiment / The formation was neat and orderly.”, soldier and poet Doan Trung Hoi wrote when arriving at Truong Son Cemetery. In order not to waste time, we divided the work of each person to burn incense at the cemetery of our province. There is a touching story of veteran Nguyen Ba Thanh that I cannot help but tell. After finding the cemetery of soldiers from Ha Tinh, he discovered the name of a soldier from his commune who was still lying there. With gratitude, he immediately called his relatives in the commune to inform them and learned that the soldier now had no living relatives. What could we do? At this Truong Son Martyrs Cemetery, and many other cemeteries throughout the South, there are still many remains of soldiers without names or addresses. Vu Thanh Tung and Pham Thanh Hung went to the Ninh Binh cemetery to burn incense for their relatives. Le Van Sinh and I went to the Thanh Hoa cemetery. Everyone was racing against time to try to find a familiar name. In the end, we Realizing, that is no longer necessary, because all the soldiers here, far or near, named or not, aren't they our loved ones? They shed blood, lying here so that we can have truly peaceful days...
15th...Saying goodbye to Quang Tri Citadel, Truong Son Martyrs Cemetery, and following the Ho Chi Minh trail, we returned to Hanoi. Looking back at the journey, even though it was only 5 days, we had some truly meaningful moments. Five days of living together like a family: "sharing a bowl and chopsticks means family". The former Truong Son soldier Pham Tien Duat once wrote like that. Female member Tang Huyen Oanh, although still quite young, took care of every meal for us like a "sister" in the family. The head and deputy head of the delegation Nguyen Chi Hoa and Pham Dinh Lan always reminded the group to avoid any unfortunate incidents. Veteran Nguyen Long was no different from a real war journalist. He was always there to record the group's hot photos. Nguyen Van Thong diligently and quietly recorded every image with his HD camera. Veterans Vu Quang Hien, Nguyen Huu Thu, Trinh Duc Hien, Tran Nhat Chinh, Nguyen Van Mao, Tran Van Nhue, Tran Huu Huynh, Tran Thuc Viet, Vuong Kha Dung... each carried their own memories of the war. All of them felt younger after the days returning to the Citadel... Stopping by Cua Lo, finding a bit of coolness in the blue sea here; unexpectedly meeting a large family from Kim Boi, Hoa Binh in a restaurant in Ngoc Lac - Thanh Hoa, strange but very familiar, looking back at the endless green of Truong Son forest, we truly understood the value of the days "leaving the city". Thank you to the veterans of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities for thoughtfully organizing this extremely meaningful trip. Only on a journey of less than one-fifth of the country, we saw how beautiful our country is; saw less petty worries in daily life; felt sorry because our country should have been "bigger, more beautiful and more decent"; I see that every person living today needs to be responsible for the deceased... On Monday morning, returning to their daily work, I received a message from veteran Pham Thanh Hung (who had traveled to Singapore with his family): "I was standing looking at the Singapore spaceship and still thinking about Quang Tri Ancient Citadel yesterday, sir", I affirmed to the group leader Nguyen Chi Hoa that the journey to the Ancient Citadel of the group of veterans from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities was truly a great success. He had a part in that...
Quang Tri,Hanoi,July 11-15, 2012
