Story of Comrade Le Thi Thanh Liem: Fighting tenaciously in two armies

Comrade Le Thi Thanh Liem (Le Tien). Photo: K. Loan

Join the “Long Hair Army”

At the age of 80, although her health has declined and she is no longer as agile as when she was young, her memory is excellent, especially the important milestones of her life. Although half a century has passed and she has changed her career to the civil service, holding many important positions in the province, she cannot forget the heroic and brave years of fighting with her teammates and the units where she worked.

Ms. Le Thi Thanh Liem (Le Tien), clearly remembers that a few days before the Dong Khoi, she was invited by Mr. Chien Thang - Secretary of the Youth Union to the house of Mr. Nam Diet Thu to study the Charter of the Vietnam Labor Youth Union and assigned her a number of tasks such as propaganda, organization, training in the struggle, the principle of secrecy and protection of underground cadres, participating in printing documents, leaflets, sewing the Front flag and beating drums, gongs, and distributing leaflets when ordered... Then on the night of January 17, 1960, suddenly the drums and gongs sounded loudly, along with the shouts that woke up the whole neighborhood. Remembering the instructions of Mr. Bay Tien a few days before, she brought a brass tray, a tin bucket to water the plants and a net to beat the pepper continuously, feeling strangely happy and excited inside (because of the principle of secrecy, she later learned that the Dong Khoi of the people of the three communes of Dinh Thuy, Binh Khanh, Phuoc Hiep - Mo Cay rose up to destroy evil and break the yoke). After Dong Khoi, on March 26, 1960, she was honored to be admitted to the Vietnam Labor Youth Union, when she had just turned 15 years old, and was assigned the task of being a liaison and the leader of the female self-defense squad of the hamlet, with the task of protecting cadres and meetings of the Party cell, printing documents and leaflets, and at the same time being in charge of 7 young people in the hamlet (all older than her) and in charge of both the Young Pioneers and the Children's Team of the hamlet.

After 3 months of Dong Khoi, to deal with the revolutionary movement, the enemy increased its mobilization of forces, sending over 10,000 troops including marines, security forces, military vehicles, warships, and artillery to sweep through 3 Dong Khoi communes. They brutally shot, raped, imprisoned, and tortured innocent people, the elderly, women, and children... To prevent the enemy's crimes, the Provincial Party Committee had a policy of leading the masses to stand up and protest, to fight directly with the US - puppets, which was also a form of political struggle, the motto "Two legs, three prongs" in the Dong Khoi movement. People used boats to transport children, the elderly, and even pigs, chickens, ducks... to evacuate up to Mo Cay town to directly meet the district chief to submit a petition denouncing the barbaric actions of the US - puppets. At this time, she was mobilized by comrade Ba Chan (in charge of Hung Khanh Trung, Phuoc My Trung, Vinh Thanh, Vinh Hoa, Phu Son communes) to respond to the unprecedented scale of the struggle and assigned her as the leader of the shock team to take the lead in the direct struggles with the enemy government and during the days of the reverse evacuation. She and aunt Tu Toi held banners leading a demonstration of more than 300 forces to Hung Khanh Trung commune and marched to Mo Cay district to join the forces of the communes holding banners, slogans, drums, and gongs demanding the enemy to compensate, withdraw troops, fight terrorism, shoot and kill innocent people, not to rob or rape women... The struggle of more than 10,000 forces, mostly women, lasted for 12 days and nights, forcing the enemy to withdraw troops and resolve some of the people's requests.

Join the armed forces in combat

Seeing her agility, bravery, and courage during the years of political struggle with the “Long-haired Army”, the organization sent her to attend the district’s Youth Movement class. When she returned to her hometown, she actively participated in movement activities, along with the youth force and the armed women’s team, destroying roads, cutting off enemy traffic, making spike pits, setting grenades, and raising hornets to fight and protect the village. She clearly remembers the first mine-laying battle against the enemy in July 1960, when she heard that the enemy would sweep from the Ba Vat football field to Gia Phuoc hamlet, she chose a fighting position about 30m from her house, set up sardine grenades, spikes, pulled the grenade pin, wrapped it with wire and attached it to the "death zone" sign, if the enemy saw this sign, they would remove it and the grenade would explode immediately, at the same time she pulled the pin of the automatic spike pit cover and camouflaged the wasp nest, then ran straight home to change clothes, sat on the rice floor, and watched the enemy, a group of about ten soldiers advanced toward the fighting position, the sound of grenades exploding, screams and the sound of enemy submachine guns, she quickly wrapped a white tablecloth and went to Uncle Tam's garden and saw 2 enemies dead on the spot, 4 fell into the spike pit, and some were injured. This was the first time she had achieved a feat.

After that feat, on August 9, 1962, she was honored to be admitted to the Vietnam Workers' Party at the age of 16. She was assigned by the organization to be the Deputy Secretary of the Youth Union, Secretary of the Youth Liberation Association, and Deputy Commander of the Commune Team, directly in charge of the Hung Khanh Trung Commune Women's Attack Squad. She completed every task well, was trusted and highly appreciated by her superiors, the organization sent her to study at the Bui Ngoc Nghi Youth Union School and planned to transfer her to the District Youth Union, but the District Team did not agree because she had a lot of experience in political struggle as well as in armed combat, so in September 1963, they decided to transfer her to work at the Mo Cay District Team, as Squad Leader of the District Armed Women's Squad. This was the first armed women's squad of the province, consisting of 11 comrades, established in Phuoc Hiep Commune, Mo Cay District, and on the day she received her new assignment, she was given the code name Le Tien, and participated in many large and small battles such as the battle at Cay Go, An Thoi, An Dinh forts...

In October 1964, she was assigned to the Military Command (CHQS) of Cho Lach district, holding the position of Deputy Head of the District Militia Group, coordinating with localities to build local forces, creating a foothold for political forces and armed forces.

In 1967, the District Party Committee mobilized a cadre to stay in the weak area, building a base for the Mau Than Spring General Offensive. She and some comrades were assigned to Cho Lach town, where she was assigned to be the Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell and the Captain of the Town's Special Forces Team. She remembers most clearly that on February 1, 1968, the special forces and guerrillas of Son Dinh commune coordinated with the internal base to attack Cai Mit post. Seizing the opportunity, the special forces team formed three attack prongs to surround and attack Bo Cap post (Phung Chau hamlet). Our forces opened fire to threaten, then mobilized the masses around the post along with the soldiers' families to use loudspeakers to fight, forcing the cruel post chief Hai Ngan to surrender.

Then continued to surround Cho Lach sub-region and the posts around the town, contributing to the great victory in the general offensive and uprising in the Spring of Mau Than 1968 in Cho Lach district.

In March 1969, she was appointed Deputy Commander of the District Military Command in charge of the Militia and continued to work with her comrades in the District Military Command to fight side by side with the people against the enemy when the situation was extremely difficult and fierce. The enemy quickly pacified and used the tactic of Vietnamizing the war, increasing the number of troops to sweep and bombard the area.

In August 1970, she was transferred back to the Military Command of Mo Cay Bac (which had split Mo Cay district into Mo Cay Nam and Mo Cay Bac). With the responsibility of being the Deputy District Commander in charge of Military, she always worked with the scouts to monitor the situation and promptly report to the Command to deploy combat plans; coordinate with the armed units of the province to fight the enemy's sweep operations into the bases of the District Party Committee, the Provincial Military Medical Department, the Command of Battalion 560, Special Forces E...

She recalled: The days when the District Team was stationed in Thanh An were very difficult, the enemy abandoned us, we could not go out to buy food, provisions, medicine, there was no supply route, the soldiers had to eat potatoes, bananas, wild vegetables instead of rice, every day they caught fish or shrimp, they gave it to the Military Doctors to cook porridge for the wounded. But thanks to good coordination, the District Team was able to contact the Y4 Command Board (Saigon - Gia Dinh Regional Party Committee Base) and they shared with them food, medicine, ammunition...). On the other hand, she asked the liaison to contact her aunt in Tan Phu (Chau Thanh Tay) to support some cash and gold to buy food, provisions, medicine to treat the wounded, thanks to that the units stationed in Thanh An overcame the most difficult period.

The hardships and difficulties in the unit and the brutal crimes committed by the enemy against her parents, aunt and the people have fueled her spirit, fighting will and deep hatred for the enemy. She is determined to destroy the Americans and puppets as soon as possible, bringing a prosperous and happy life to the people.

The opportunity had come, according to the plan from above, the localities prepared forces, means, and ensured all conditions to coordinate the general offensive and uprising in the Spring of 1975, ending with the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign. The Military Command of Mo Cay Bac district was assigned the task of commanding the traffic cut-off of Highway 57 and preparing to attack the B outposts including Khanh Thanh Tan, Hung Khanh Trung, Tan Thanh Tay, Nhuan Phu Tan, Tan Binh, Vinh Thanh, Vinh Hoa. She was assigned by the Command to attack Cay Cong, Cay Da outposts, cut-off traffic at Hoa Khanh bridge, Cay Da bridge, Cong Ong Bui bridge. At this time, the main units had withdrawn to the province to prepare to attack the centers, large sub-regions, and Tan Thanh airport. In Mo Cay Bac, there were only 2 Special Forces teams, 1 joint guerrilla platoon, and guerrillas in the communes, but the units coordinated very well, assigning forces to cut traffic in each area and bridges in a timely manner.

On April 28, 1975, all preparations were completed, only waiting for the G hour to simultaneously open fire to attack and level the enemy posts, blocking the enemy from sending reinforcements. On the N day (April 30), the units simultaneously rose up and opened fire to force the withdrawal of Cay Cong and Cay Tram posts; on the one hand, they combined propaganda and mobilized the soldiers' families to call on their husbands and children to lay down their arms, surrender, and hand over their weapons. When she turned on the radio she carried with her (given by her aunt Nam Hanh) to follow the news, she heard the Voice of Vietnam radio reporting that President Duong Van Minh had declared his surrender. She mobilized more than 200 people and relatives of soldiers' families to march to the So Te Sub-region in Phu Long hamlet, Hung Khanh Trung commune to call for the surrender of 50 enemies, but they resolutely resisted. Thanks to her experience in participating in the political struggle in the “Long-haired Army”, she persuaded and announced that “The puppet government of the US and the puppet army has surrendered to the liberation army, some military posts in the province have laid down their arms and surrendered, brothers, lay down your arms and return to justice, the revolution will be lenient”, finally the notoriously cruel policeman Huong and his soldiers laid down their arms and surrendered unconditionally, we seized all weapons, military uniforms, military equipment and preserved our forces. After taking down the Phu Long Sub-region, the forces moved up to attack the Vinh Thanh Military Base, Cay Cong Post, Cay Da Post… without firing a single bullet.

It was an honor, a pride, and a happiness for her to be present in two armies that contributed to the heroic historical moments of her homeland and people, that is, participating in the political struggle in the legendary "Long-haired Army" and together with the Armed Forces of Cho Lach District and Mo Cay Bac District, fighting steadfastly, taking over and leveling enemy outposts, completely liberating localities in the province and completely liberating the South, reunifying the country on April 30, 1975.

Kim Loan

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/chuyen-ve-dong-chi-le-thi-thanh-liem-chien-dau-kien-cuong-trong-hai-doan-quan-16042025-a145240.html