Our CP90 Agency Liberation Radio Station

And just a few months later, the Politburo ordered the establishment of Liberation Radio Station A in the North to support Liberation Radio Station B in the South, because Station B was still small, had extremely poor facilities, and was always attacked by the enemy in every way possible.

Đài Phát thanh Giải Phóng Cơ quan CP90 của chúng tôi- Ảnh 1. — Reporters and editors of Radio B at an intimate meeting in the war zone

The need to immediately establish a complete Liberation Radio Station in the North (Radio A) near the Central Committee was extremely urgent. In which, Radio B prepared the basic part, then "sent" it to the North. Radio A had the task of supplementing and adding what was necessary in addition to relaying the programs broadcast by Radio B while they were still available... Only 2 months later, on April 30, 1962, Liberation Radio Station A officially broadcast in Hanoi .

During this time, the war was fierce, Station A had to evacuate more than 10 times and change its code name 3 times. First it was V12, then C55, and finally CP90. When the Party Central Committee Secretariat decided to establish CP90 (a special agency under the Secretariat, replacing C55) to take on the tasks of Station B, Station A had a relatively complete staff.

Radio A, codenamed CP90, was run by journalist Nguyen Thanh. At this time, CP90 had the strongest development, with more than 400 members and 14 departments. Among the more than 400 staff, there were some from the North, most of whom were children from the South... Since 1972, the broadcasting time had been 10 hours a day and night in 5 languages. By August 1976, CP90 had completed its historic mission.

Đài Phát thanh Giải Phóng Cơ quan CP90 của chúng tôi- Ảnh 2. — Liberation Radio reporter interviews famous female prisoner Vo Thi Thang at the prisoner exchange between the two sides in Loc Ninh

Like a destiny

After graduating, in August 1970, I was assigned to CP90. The station is located at 56 Quan Su Street, Hanoi. It is a building built during the French colonial period, right next to the Voice of Vietnam Radio Station - 58 Quan Su. Since then, CP90 has become a place that has been closely associated with me during the first 5 years of my career as a journalist, as if it were destiny...

I still remember clearly the words of Mr. Nguyen Thanh, Director of Radio A, kindly instructing us - the new employees working in the agency: "From now on, you are reporters and editors of Radio A Liberation. Even though you do not go to the front, the work here is no less urgent and difficult. This is the place to train you to mature in your professional skills and political qualities. For the sake of our beloved South, I firmly believe that you will complete your tasks excellently."

At that time, CP90 organized departments and units according to code names from A1 to A10: A1 (News), A2 (Broadcaster Team), A3 (Foreign Affairs), A4 (Liberation Army), A5 (Enemy Affairs), A6 (Column), A7 (Arts), A9, A10, and commentary team, broadcasting room... The station also had an art troupe code name A8 (music, reformed opera, tuong, folk song bai choi) consisting of dozens of artists.

During the period when American planes were bombing the North, the News Department (A1) had to stay at the office, be on duty, receive news articles, and promptly report on the war in the South, while some other departments had to evacuate to several different places, thirty or forty kilometers away from Hanoi. Every day, at the end of the afternoon, there were buses carrying radio programs from the evacuation sites to Hanoi so that the announcers and the broadcasting department could finish broadcasting... and when returning, the buses brought documents for us to research and produce new programs...

Đài Phát thanh Giải Phóng Cơ quan CP90 của chúng tôi- Ảnh 3. — Four officers and reporters working together at Radio A ( *from left to right:* author, Ms. Le Thi Xuyen, Mr. Nguyen Kien Van and Ms. Tran Thi Be)

I worked as a reporter and editor for the A6 Section with over a dozen colleagues. Like a number of other CP90 editors, our A6 Section was tasked with widely propagating the policies of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam to the masses in the South, focusing on farmers, women, youth, intellectuals, etc. in rural and urban areas.

Our A6 Department's mission, as well as the station's specialized and editorial departments, is to follow the instructions of the Central Bureau: Station A has the task of "supplementing and directly completing" broadcast programs to serve political tasks... Our first job is to edit all news articles sent from the South (received through the agency's secret radio system) and then select appropriate content for the subjects, type, and program. We are very happy to receive articles from journalists and reporters from the battlefields of Binh Tri Thien, Central Central, Zone 5, and the South. Each article is a rare product that we greatly appreciate.

As soon as we receive a new article with suitable content, we will immediately change it to the broadcast program, even though the program that day may have been approved by the leaders and is ready to be transferred to the broadcast room. We cannot afford to delay, because the articles of war correspondents are not only always hot and current, but also special because they are written with the blood and sweat of our brothers and sisters on the battlefield, in the split second between life and sacrifice before the fire and bullets...

With daily broadcasting requirements, the duration of a program (rural, women, youth, urban) must be guaranteed to be 30 minutes. In reality, current news is often available, but articles from the battlefield are few, not enough to meet the requirements of the broadcast columns. Therefore, our important task is to proactively supplement and write more articles according to the practical political requirements of the battlefield. We quickly approached the leaders, wounded and sick soldiers, brave soldiers who defeated the Americans... from the battlefield to work, receive medical treatment, rest... and students from the South who were sent to the North to study...

I still remember the first time I went to interview female wounded soldiers from the South who had just come to the North for treatment. I had to wear a large tape recorder, weighing about 3 kg, which made me lean to one side. And when working, I not only had to struggle with the large, poor quality machine but also had to "fight" to reduce the surrounding noise.

Glorious completion of historical mission

After nearly 14 years of construction and development, Liberation Radio has grown steadily with a team of loyal revolutionary cadres and journalists of over 600 people (Station A has over 400 members, Station B has 210 members). The station has overcome all difficulties of war and fierce attacks to become a strong station, broadcasting in Vietnamese, English, French, Cantonese, Teochew, Khmer... The voice of the revolution through Liberation Radio has become increasingly powerful. It is a miraculous success in the struggle on the radio waves of the Vietnamese revolution.

During those arduous and fierce years, 25 officers and journalists of the Station (both Station B and Station A) died while on duty and in direct combat with the enemy. The Station also contributed to the revolution brave soldiers who destroyed Americans, tanks and shot down enemy planes...

Evaluating Liberation Radio, journalist Hoang Tung, former Secretary of the Party Central Committee and former Head of the Central Propaganda Department, affirmed: "Liberation Radio has gloriously fulfilled its historical mission. The station's contribution to the cause of national liberation and reunification is no different from the feat of a strong army."

With the "feats of a strong army", Radio A (CP90) and Radio B cooperated in combat, two but one... For its achievements and feats that contributed significantly to the great victory of the resistance war to unify the country, Liberation Radio was awarded the noble Bronze Citadel Medal by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam and many other noble awards from the Party and State. In particular, on September 7, 2018, the Station was honored by the Party and Government, awarded the highest title: Hero of the People's Armed Forces.

This is a great honor and pride not only for Liberation Radio, but also contributes significantly to the pride of Vietnam's revolutionary journalism over the past 100 years.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dai-phat-thanh-giai-phong-co-quan-cp90-cua-chung-toi-18525061716444963.htm