Portraying the image of the Southwestern border soldier through "Smoke on the Roadside"

Writer Doan Tuan was born in 1960 in Hanoi , was a student of the Faculty of Literature - Hanoi University, graduated from the Soviet University of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1991. He fought in the Cambodian battlefield from 1978 to 1983. In his latest book, writer Doan Tuan recalls: “In July 1983, after 5 years of fighting in the Cambodian battlefield, I was discharged from the army and returned home. Passing border post No. 23, we rested in a rear base at the back of Mang Yang Pass. After a day of sleep, in the afternoon I went out. Before my eyes appeared the image of a woman herding cows.… And behind that woman, in the distance, a plume of smoke was rising.

The smoke of the Central Highlands people. The smoke smells of the fields. That was the first beautiful picture I saw when I returned to my homeland. A thin wisp of smoke, rising from the fields on the hillside, why did I keep looking at it? In that moment, I knew I had lived, I had truly returned. My homeland appeared through that faint green smoke. It was simple, silent and persistent like breath.

Through the memoir "Smoke on the Roadside", writer Doan Tuan once again brings readers back to the K battlefield, where he spent years of life and death.

It was that hazy green smoke that haunted writer Doan Tuan throughout his writing career. He wrote about the K battlefield as a way to repay his comrades, for the heroic and tragic past. The memoirs in Smoke by the Road revolve around Battalion 8, Regiment 29, Division 307 of the Vietnamese volunteer army in the northeastern battlefield of Cambodia, especially the area of Preah Vihear province. The long story follows the journey from the days of holding the post in Gia Lai - Kon Tum to crossing the border to perform international duty, crossing the Mekong River to pursue Pol Pot's army, then advancing to the Preah Vihear area to protect the Cambodian border, fighting against Pol Pot's army's raids into the interior.

With the simple, strong and honest writing style of a person who has held a gun and then a pen, the author tells stories about the life of a soldier, during the war and after the war. Through that, readers can see their sacrifices and hardships, the fierceness of the battlefield, blood and bones, and the deep wounds in their hearts. However, overcoming the bullets and bombs, loss and hardship, the soldiers still laugh, sing, joke and tease each other, still see pieces of peace, and always wish for peace for both countries.

The stories in the memoir seem trivial but are full of care, showing many aspects of the "human" behind the "soldier", seeing the personality and emotions inside each figure holding a gun on the battlefield.

With the memoir collection Smoke by the Road , writer Doan Tuan continues to add to his literary heritage about the K battlefield, while contributing to enriching the image of the Vietnamese soldier, an image that plays an important role in the country's literature, which is closely associated with the history of fighting to build and defend the country.

Works about soldiers will continue to be written and always need to be read, because reading and writing about soldiers is a way to pass on knowledge about the past, about the journeys the country has gone through, about the people of our nation. For that reason, Smoke by the Road is both a message from a predecessor to the next generation about the price of peace, and a promise to those who have passed away that the next generation will remember and strive to preserve their achievements.

QUYNH YEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/khac-hoa-hinh-anh-nguoi-linh-bien-gioi-tay-nam-qua-nhung-ngon-khoi-ben-duong-post810113.html