Memories of a War Correspondent

During the war against the US, thousands of journalists from various media outlets went to the front lines, dedicating their youth, cameramen and soldiers, to fulfilling the sacred mission of journalist-soldiers.

Hundreds of people fell on the battlefields. Many suffered life-threatening injuries, leaving parts of their bodies on the battlefields.

1. Among the more than 500 journalist martyrs nationwide, over 260 were cadres and reporters from the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Liberation News Agency (TTXGP). Many of the streets in Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City, and other provinces and cities named after VNA journalists are named after martyrs. These include journalist Tran Kim Xuyen – a member of the first National Assembly, the first person in charge of VNA, and also the country's first journalist-martyr – who died in the resistance war against the French (in 1947). Three streets in Hanoi, Bac Giang city, and Huong Son town (Ha Tinh province) are named after him. Journalist Bui Dinh Tuy, Deputy Director of TTXGP, who died in 1967 at the Trang Dau front (Tay Ninh province), has a street named after him in Ho Chi Minh City. Photographer Tran Binh Khuol, a reporter for the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), and former Head of the Film and Photography Department of Zone 9, died in 1968 in U Minh (Ca Mau). A street in his hometown of Bac Lieu is named after him.

Journalist Tran Ngoc Dang, during the battle in Tay Ninh in 1967, destroyed two enemy armored vehicles before sacrificing his life. Reporter Truong Thi Mai of the Vietnam News Agency in the South Central region was captured by the enemy, subjected to brutal torture, and chose to sacrifice herself to ensure the safety of the base. At Hon Dat (Kien Giang), two journalists from the Vietnam News Agency fell fighting alongside Heroine Phan Thi Rang (Sister Su) and her comrades...

2. When mentioning the journalists who crossed the Truong Son Mountains in the early days, it is impossible not to mention journalist Vo The Ai (1930 - 2025). When the August Revolution succeeded, at only 15 years old, Vo The Ai worked as a liaison for the troops in Zone 5. In 1950, he went to the North to study abroad, but due to changing circumstances, he returned to work at the Information Department, later becoming a reporter for the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), and then participated in the historic Dien Bien Phu campaign. After peace was restored, he was in charge of the Zone 4 branch for a time. In 1960, when the Ho Chi Minh Trail was just opened, he bid farewell to his young wife (also a VNA reporter) and his newborn son to return to the Zone 5 battlefield. He laid the foundation for the Zone 5 News Agency from its very beginning, contributing to the establishment of the Vietnam Liberation News Agency (VNA). What is remarkable is that his wife, journalist Nghiem Thi Tu (a Hanoi native and the younger sister of Nghiem Thi Bang, the wife of musician Van Cao), later also sent their children to the battlefield to live and fight alongside her husband.

To this day, the story of the wartime love letters between journalist and martyr Tham Duc Hoa, a reporter for the Military News Agency, and his wife, Phuong Bich Ngan, continues to move many people. Tham Duc Hoa wrote his last letter to his wife on November 19, 1967. Four days later, on November 23, 1967, he died on the western front of Thua Thien Hue province. Not wanting to worry her mother-in-law, Mrs. Ngan altered her husband's old letters and read them aloud to her so she would believe they were new. After her husband's death, Mrs. Ngan maintained the habit of writing letters to him, sharing family matters. After finishing, she would place the letters on the altar, light incense, and read them to him. In 1996, with the help of the General Political Department, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), and Thua Thien Hue province, the remains of journalist and martyr Tham Duc Hoa were brought back and buried in his hometown (Gia Lam district, Hanoi).

Journalist Phan Hoai Nam, former Head of the Editorial Department of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), had a rather unique story. Born in 1940 in Dien Quang commune, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province, he moved to the North with his family in 1954. He studied at the School for Southern Students and later at the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University. In 1965, after graduating, he volunteered for the battlefield and became a reporter for the VNA. At that time, his fiancée, a classmate from the School for Southern Students, had already graduated as a medical doctor. With the permission of both families, they became engaged and went to the South to fight. Journalist Phan Hoai Nam lived and fought like a true soldier. In 1968, he fought bravely in an anti-raid battle and died on the Can Giuoc front (Long An province). It is known that the woman he was engaged to lived alone until the end of her life after the peace treaty.

In 1967, journalist Dinh Trong Quyen bid farewell to his wife and two-year-old son to go to the battlefield. He was assigned to head the Vietnam News Agency's branch in Quang Nam - Da Nang, a front already difficult and fierce, which became even more challenging and brutal after the Tet Offensive. He, along with colleagues Tran Mai Hanh, Luong The Trung, Nguyen Quoc Toan, and technical staff Ngoc Thach, Van Man, and others, overcame all difficulties and made sacrifices to successfully complete their mission. At the end of 1969, during a campaign, journalist Dinh Trong Quyen was wounded and had to have one leg amputated. Surrounded by the enemy, and with the rudimentary medical facilities on the front lines, miraculously, he survived, overcoming his life-threatening injury and being taken to the North for treatment.

3. I would like to say a few words about the VNA and VNA reporters in Quang Tri, where I have many close ties, as well as about my colleagues on the Tri Thien battlefield in general. During the 1972 General Offensive, VNA reporters on the Quang Tri front had their base at the Vinh Linh B Branch, which was then located in the evacuation area of ​​the Vinh Linh Regional Party Committee. Photographer Pham Hoat was the Branch Head at that time. The fighting was very fierce. B-52s, naval artillery, and targeted bombing were constant day and night. In those days of constant danger, with death lurking nearby, the human kindness and camaraderie of journalists on the front lines were truly sincere and moving.

Photographer Nghia Dung, a reporter for the Military News Agency, died while advancing with troops on a hilltop in western Quang Tri. Journalist Ho Minh Khoi, a member of the Propaganda Department, bravely sacrificed his life while leading a group of reporters to reinforce the battlefield. Around the same time, journalist Vu Tin, a veteran photojournalist from the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), who was reinforcing the B5 front, was wounded and lost a leg while accompanying Cao Ba Dong, the Director of the Propaganda Department of the B5 front. Mr. Dong died in a targeted bombing raid in Trieu Phong, the very place where I had met and spoken with them just days before… These men are shining examples of dedication and willingness to sacrifice for the cause of revolutionary journalism. Recently, Quang Tri province named a street in Dong Ha city after photographer Nghia Dung, a former reporter for the Military News Agency.

The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) force in Tri-Thien was established in 1966, after the Tri-Thien region separated from Zone 5. Initially, it consisted of a civilian branch and a military branch, which merged in 1971 and operated under the direct leadership of the Tri-Thien Regional Party Committee. Journalist Phan Tuan was killed in action during the 1968 Tet Offensive; journalists Pham Vu Binh and Nguyen Duc Thanh, and telegraph operators Phan Dang Oanh and Do Van Thinh also perished in subsequent campaigns.

During my return to Phan Thiet in early 2023, I visited the street named after Lam Hong Long, a colleague with whom I shared many close ties. For his historical photographs such as "Uncle Ho leading the way in unity" and "Mother and child meeting," he was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Art. During the Spring Offensive of 1975, I participated alongside journalist Lam Hong Long in the liberation campaigns of Hue and Da Nang, following the swift advance of the soldiers throughout the central region and being present at the Independence Palace on the afternoon of April 30, 1975.

Allow me to borrow the words of journalist Tran To Nga, a former reporter for the Vietnam News Agency (famous for her role in the struggle for justice for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin, and who, along with her colleagues, buried journalist Bui Dinh Tuy, Deputy Director of the Vietnam News Agency, and journalist Nguyen Dinh Cuoc, who died while on duty) to speak about those years: "My burning desire is that each of us should live life to the fullest, living for those who were not fortunate enough to live."

Journalist Tran Mai Huong
Former Director General of VNA

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/ky-uc-phong-vien-chien-truong-706059.html