The story of the special announcer

At noon on April 30, 1975, President Duong Van Minh announced his surrender to the Liberation Army on Saigon Radio. From then until the evening, Duong Van Minh's surrender announcement was occasionally rebroadcast on the radio, with no additional content. At around 8:00 p.m. the same day, a clear, heroic female voice suddenly rang out on Saigon Radio: "This is Saigon Liberation Radio...". The person who had the honor of reading that special news bulletin was Ms. Vuong Thanh Liem in Long An.

Waiting in anxiety

Although President Duong Van Minh had declared unconditional surrender to the liberation army on Saigon Radio since noon, Saigon was actually peaceful or had “held to the death” as some extremist Saigon generals had declared at that time. Meanwhile, Saigon Radio, after broadcasting President Duong Van Minh’s declaration of surrender, rebroadcast the declaration of surrender every 15 minutes or so, with no additional content.

Mrs. Vuong Thanh Liem

That day, traffic was completely stopped, few people dared to leave their homes, so there was no news from Saigon. Until around 8:00 p.m., on Saigon Radio suddenly sounded the theme song "Liberating the South" by Luu Huu Phuoc. Then a female voice rang out over the music: "This is Saigon Liberation Radio. Dear friends, on April 30, 1975, the historic campaign named after the great Uncle Ho was completely victorious. Saigon was completely liberated. At 1:30 p.m. on April 30, the puppet president Duong Van Minh announced his unconditional surrender. This is the voice of Duong Van Minh...".

After rebroadcasting President Duong Van Minh's surrender declaration, Saigon Liberation Radio continued to broadcast news about Saigon city celebrating the victory, Saigon people welcoming the liberation army, electricity and water workers, etc. staying at factories to provide electricity and water for the city.

Special female announcer

The female announcer who had that special honor was named Vuong Thanh Liem. Once, in Mrs. Liem's ​​house in Ward 4, Tan An City, Long An Province, she said that she was born into a poor family, and after finishing second grade had to stay home to help her parents earn a living. When she grew up, her uncles encouraged her to join the revolution and assigned her to distribute leaflets. Because she was exposed, the organization sent her to Cu Chi to work.

Thanks to her enthusiasm in work and her warm singing voice, in 1962, she was recruited to work as an announcer at the Liberation Radio Station when it was first established. In the Lo Go - Xa Mat forest (Tan Bien district, Tay Ninh province), she read the introduction countless times: "This is Liberation Radio Station, the voice of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam ".

One time, right after she finished reading the program, she had just finished saying “Dear friends”, a bomb was dropped right on the station, the guard managed to pull her down to the basement. “Luckily it was just a bomb, and the basement was solid so there was no significant damage. If it had been a B52 bomb, there would have been no one left!” - she said. Later, because the enemy had accurately positioned the waves, the station was bombed continuously, so the Liberation Radio Station had to broadcast from Hanoi , the department in the South only made the program to send out.

On the morning of April 30, 1975, she and the Liberation Radio crew departed from Tay Ninh to Saigon following orders from their superiors. Due to unfamiliar roads, people poured into the streets to celebrate the liberation of Saigon, so it was after 7 p.m. that the car carrying the crew arrived at the Saigon Radio Station. Ms. Liem and her colleagues immediately got to work, and less than an hour later, the first radio program broadcast from liberated Saigon excited millions of Southern compatriots who were waiting for the news of liberation.

For decades, Mrs. Liem did not notice that she read the first news bulletin about the liberation of Saigon on Saigon Liberation Radio. It was not until traditional historians found the documents that she remembered that she had that special honor.

Happiness in struggle

At that time, in the Tay Ninh war zone, Mrs. Liem worked at the Liberation Radio Station, next to the Central Propaganda Department of the Southern Office, where there was a secretarial officer named On Van Tai who directly worked as a secretary for Mr. Tran Bach Dang. Due to confidentiality requirements, Mrs. Liem and Mr. Tai had never met each other. It was not until Mr. Tran Bach Dang "matched" them that they got to know each other and got married on International Women's Day, March 8, 1963. A year later, their daughter On Thi Phuong Oanh was born in the forest, but after only 3 months, due to the dangerous war situation, Mrs. Liem and her husband had to send their child back to their family.

Mrs. Vuong Thanh Liem's ​​family reunited in 1975.

On April 29, 1975, Mr. Tai saw his wife off with the Liberation Radio Station to Saigon to carry out her mission. The two promised to meet again in the heart of the city. All day on April 30, Mr. Tai held the radio close to him, but there was no more clear information than the surrender declaration of President Duong Van Minh. In the evening, while lying on a hammock in the middle of the deep forest, the voice of his beloved wife suddenly rang out from the radio. Mr. Tai burst into tears of happiness. His wife had safely arrived in Saigon, the South was completely liberated, the war was over!

Ms. Liem recalled that after reading the historical news on the evening of April 30, 1975, she and her colleagues continued to prepare the content for the radio program the next morning. She did not have time to think about finding her son, even though she knew that he was living with his grandmother just a few kilometers away from her. A few days later, when Mr. Tai returned from the war zone to visit her, her parents in Saigon recognized Ms. Liem's ​​voice on the radio and took their grandchild to look for him. Ms. Liem's ​​small family had a tearful reunion after 11 years of separation, in a great reunion of the whole nation after 21 years of separation./.

Nguyen Phan Dau

Source: https://baolongan.vn/chuyen-ve-nguoi-phat-thanh-vien-dac-biet-a194263.html