Secret base of Saigon Special Forces
According to the classification request of Mr. Tran Kien Xuong and Mrs. Doan Duong Thai Anh, owners of house number 113A Dang Dung street, Tan Dinh ward, Ho Chi Minh City, "The house was bought by Mr. Tran Van Lai (Nam U-son, Mai Hong Que - Hero of the People's Armed Forces) and his wife Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su to be a secret base for the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces operating in the inner city of Saigon-Gia Dinh.
Under the guise of being a businessman and a skilled interior decorator at that time, Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su turned this place into a coffee shop and a broken rice shop, but in fact, in this house they built 2 secret mailboxes, 2 underground bunkers and an emergency exit. Taking advantage of the location near the house of Lieutenant General Ngo Quang Truong of the Republic of Vietnam, opposite the residence of Korean bridge engineers, Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su turned this place from a dangerous place into a safe place, a place for traveling and communication for special forces soldiers.
According to the book History of the Saigon-Cho Lon-Gia Dinh Special Forces (1945-1975) published by the Party Committee and Command of Ho Chi Minh City in 2015 (People's Army Publishing House), by the end of 1967, the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces security units had built 19 political sanctuaries, including 325 families in all districts in the inner city.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Do, Deputy Head of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Military Region's Armed Forces Resistance Club, said that the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces are a special armed force. They fight in a special battlefield with a special fighting style and they also achieved special feats.
To achieve those special feats, we cannot fail to mention the great, silent contributions of the soldiers in the silent army, the patriotic masses, the secret revolutionary bases built and planted deep in the inner city of Saigon-Gia Dinh, despite the dense network of the US-puppet regime that day and night crushed, hunted, and destroyed the revolutionary movement.
“With the documents we have kept, including the Third Class Resistance Medal of Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su, along with the certificates of their resistance achievements, it is enough to confirm that: House No. 113A Dang Dung Street, Tan Dinh Ward is a secret base owned by Mr. and Mrs. Do Mien-Nguyen Thi Su under the guise of Do Phu Coffee Shop - Dai Han Broken Rice and the person who built this base is Mr. Tran Van Lai (Mai Hong Que, Nam U-son) of Unit A.20-A.30”, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Do affirmed.
Deserves to be ranked as a historical relic
At the scientific seminar on the historical relic of House No. 113A, Dang Dung Street, Tan Dinh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, jointly organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Monuments Conservation Center and the People's Committee of Tan Dinh Ward on the morning of November 14, Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Xuan Bien, Vice President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, said that the construction of a political niche or a secret mailbox like the one at the Do Phu Coffee Shop - Dai Han Broken Rice is extremely important. What marks the activities of the Saigon Special Forces up to now needs to be preserved, considered a relic of the heroic Saigon Special Forces.
Mr. Do Tan Cuong, the third son of Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su, has lived at house 113A Dang Dung street since he was a child. He said that the purpose of opening this broken rice restaurant was to disguise himself from the eyes of the puppet police force, to hide the Special Forces liaison officers to exchange letters and hold meetings in the wooden attic.
Mr. Do Tan Cuong added that Mr. Tran Van Lai and his three brothers also mobilized and connected a number of working people in the surrounding neighborhood such as Mrs. Pham Thi Hoa (Nam Hue), Tu Chi (bicycle repair), Mrs. Tran Thi Ca (owner of Tay Ho rice paper shop, Da Kao market), Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen Van Nhung (Do Nhung) and Pham Thi Hoa who sympathized with the revolution... also came here to deliver letters, documents, gold, money, medicine to transport to the war zone. "The preservation and conservation of the historical relic of house 113A Dang Dung street is also the responsibility of our generation of revolutionary family descendants", Mr. Do Tan Cuong said.
After the complete liberation of the South, the family of Mr. Do Mien and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Su continued to live and sell broken rice, rice rolls, vermicelli soup with crab soup, and coffee at this house and then transferred this house to Mr. Tran Van Lai.
Since 2005, Mr. Tran Van Lai's son, Tran Kien Xuong (Tran Vu Binh), has devoted much effort and dedication to restoring and preserving the house with the desire to preserve a part of history so that visitors can know about the silent contributions of the liaison officers and Saigon Special Forces soldiers in the nation's war to defend the country.
“We are very proud and honored by the value of this historical relic. This is also a revolutionary relic in the historical relic cluster of the Saigon - Gia Dinh Special Forces History Museum system in Ho Chi Minh City,” Mr. Tran Vu Binh shared.
According to Mr. Tran Vu Binh, the secret mailbox and underground bunker of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces at house 113A Dang Dung Street, Tan Dinh Ward, have become a "red address", educating the revolutionary tradition for the young generation to learn about the history of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces as well as the history of the resistance war against the US of the army and people of Saigon-Gia Dinh.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Huong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Monuments Conservation Center, said that the opinions and discussions at the seminar focused on clarifying the content and objectives of the seminar. The seminar unanimously proposed the name of the relic at 113A Dang Dung Street as "Do Phu Coffee Shop - Dai Han Broken Rice, the secret base of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces".
“Do Phu Coffee Shop - Dai Han Broken Rice - the secret base of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Special Forces deserves to be proposed to the City People's Committee for consideration of ranking as a historical relic. In the coming time, the Center for Monument Conservation will coordinate with the People's Committee of Tan Dinh Ward to supplement and complete the scientific dossier for ranking the relic and report to the City Department of Culture and Sports”, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Huong emphasized.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/phat-huy-gia-tri-di-tich-quan-ca-phe-do-phu-com-tam-dai-han-post923125.html
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