Journalism in the Laos battlefield

The day I packed my bag of clothes and went to the Teacher Training College, my father said: "Try to study well, then come back to teach, teach the younger ones." I understood, after me there were six younger siblings, old parents, I was the oldest, and at the same time it was also a responsibility. I felt secure going to school, but then as the old saying goes "man proposes, God disposes", after graduating with a diploma of excellence, I was called to join the army. At that time, I thought that three years of service as a teacher would be more solid. But then the destructive war of the American empire spread throughout the country, the military service system was abolished. Soldiers could only feel secure and steadfast in their march to the day of total victory.

The Lao Liberation Army Command and Vietnamese military experts discussed the operational plan in the Plain of Jars - Xieng Khouang campaign in 1972. Photo courtesy of VNA.

During the fierce war years, soldiers on the battlefield not only lacked food and clothing, but also lacked information. The entire company was given an Oriong radio by their superiors, kept and managed by the political commissar, and soldiers rarely had the opportunity to listen to the radio together. All information was recorded by the political commissar through the slow reading time of the radio, and disseminated to the comrades. The People's Newspaper and the People's Army Newspaper were delivered to the soldiers as quickly as a month, sometimes only once a quarter. Due to the information needs of officers and soldiers on the battlefield, from the end of the sixties, the General Department of Politics allowed the Commands and fronts to publish a newspaper instead of bulletins.

The Command of the Volunteer Army that fought to help Laos at that time was allowed to publish the newspaper “Soldiers of the West”. The birth of the newspaper turned my life around. From the combat unit, I received a decision to go to the Political Department. At the first meeting, Colonel Le Linh, Deputy Political Commissar, Director of the Political Department, assigned me the task of going down to the new recruit unit to supplement the front line to recruit 10 soldiers with cultural qualifications, send them to Hanoi to study newspaper printing, and I went to the People's Army Newspaper to study organizing the editorial office, building a printing workshop on the battlefield to publish the newspaper “Soldiers of the West”. I was very worried when I received the task, the chief assigned me to publish the first issue within 6 months. From childhood to adulthood, I only knew how to read newspapers, as for making a newspaper, I did not know how.

The “Western Soldiers” newspaper did not exist for long, but it made a small contribution to the Vietnamese volunteer army, helping Laos, and working with friends to protect the Ho Chi Minh trail until the victory day of April 30, 1975, unifying the country.

Having recruited enough soldiers, I took my brothers to Hanoi, met with the leaders of the Military Printing Factory, and was sympathetic with the Board of Directors, sending experts to help develop a plan to train workers and set up a printing house project in the battlefield. Working with the Publishing Management Department, General Department of Politics, I was enthusiastically helped by my comrades and returned to the People's Army Newspaper to learn the process from: the editorial office to the printing and distribution stages. The final stage was to buy machines, lead type and some accessories. According to the plan, the finance representative of the Command gave me 6,000 VND, which I filled with a secure bag. After 3 months of studying and preparing machines, lead type and facilities, the printing factory was completed and began marching into the battlefield.

While still in our country, we were able to travel by car to the border, disassemble the machine, and four mechanics took turns carrying it. The printing team had 6 people wearing backpacks with 25 kg boxes of letters on their backs. The remaining boxes of letters and printing paper were transported by 10 laborers. Despite the hardships and difficulties, after exactly 5 months, the first issue of “Western Soldiers” was published and delivered to cadres and soldiers on the entire front. At that time, Mr. Hoang Tong was the Editor-in-Chief, the reporter was Mr. Pham Dinh Trong, pen name Khanh Tuong, Mr. Trong Thuy and I were both on duty at the editorial office and in charge of printing. The printing house was in the same cave as the Political Department, working by oil lamps, and after the working day, everyone came out of the cave with dirty faces.

At that time, the newspaper was called the editorial office to get its name in the military phone book, but in reality there were only 4 people: the Editor-in-Chief, two main reporters, and me as an intern reporter and publisher. The newspaper was published once a week with 4 pages, the same size as the current Bac Giang Newspaper. But during the dry season campaign, the newspaper sometimes published twice a week to meet the direction of the Command. There was a time when the newspaper published 2 pages unexpectedly, page 1 had an editorial, some news about victories in the battlefields, page 2 printed the full text of the campaign's guiding ideology slogan, encouraging cadres and soldiers to fight and win. The newspaper was delivered to the unit by military post right before the shooting.

As a newspaper of the volunteer army carrying out international missions in the Lao battlefield, the newspaper also presented an example of the coordination of the Vietnamese army with the Lao liberation army, praising the solidarity of the Vietnamese army and the Lao ethnic people in the resistance war against the American imperialists and their lackeys, liberating the brotherly Laos. The newspaper “Western Soldiers” was born during the fierce war in Laos. The newspaper accompanied the volunteer army until the day the Lao revolution won complete victory.

Hoang Tien

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/lam-bao-o-chien-truong-lao-postid420424.bbg