Sonadezi Bien Hoa Head Office. |
Someone blurted out:
- Hey! Mr. Hai Thuong - the mason supervisor went to hang the revolutionary flag! This supervisor is a "Viet Cong", folks!
Special "master"
In 1970, An Hao residents began to notice the appearance of a small-framed, 40-year-old bricklayer foreman who seemed to be very “playful” and lived right in the area of the Cogido Paper Mill. This was a new neighborhood in An Hao hamlet - a place that the police and soldiers of Bien Hoa sub-region were warned to be a “Viet Cong neighborhood” and they had “planted” many powerful “eyes and ears” here; along with secret agents and special police to track down a newly established Communist organization in An Hao with the code name “H21” that they heard about when they broke up the H20 Party Cell in Binh Da. Therefore, the neighbors of “Hai Thuong foreman” were Nguyen Phi Khanh - Head of Intelligence of Long Binh area, Nguyen Van Mot - reporter of the Duc Tu military security sub-region who was posing as a worker at the Vicasa Factory. Having a wide social circle, often drinking with influential figures in An Hao, Binh Da, Tam Hiep and even in Duc Tu district, Hai Thuong also let his workers go to Tam Hiep Family Camp to build a house for Colonel Thao - Commander of a unit of the Republic of Vietnam army stationed here without taking any wages, so he was highly respected by many "big shots" in the area.
Lost "Honda", made new ID
Hai Thuong's real name is Ton Van Dieu, born in 1931 in Loc Tho commune (Quang Nam province). At the age of 17, Dieu was assigned to the transport work group of area B 150 in Tien Phuoc. Thanks to his special achievements, in 1959, Hai Dieu was transferred to the South to work for the Saigon - Cho Lon Special Forces. The special forces, including Hai Dieu, were stationed at Dinh Quang pagoda (now in An Binh ward, Bien Hoa city) in charge of the Bien Hoa - Binh Duong - Cu Chi - Ho Bo area. Hai Dieu was assigned to stay close to the power plant - considered the heart of Bien Hoa Industrial Zone. With this task, Hai Dieu and his wife were arranged to stay in the grounds of Dinh Quang pagoda in a small thatched house. Here, every night, special forces soldier Ton Van Dieu wore a robe, beat a wooden fish, and chanted sutras. The abbot Thich Thien Hoa gave him the Buddhist name Thien Chi.
With the approval of the Saigon - Cho Lon Special Forces, Hai Thuong agreed to participate and was assigned as Deputy Head of the Special Forces in charge of transporting weapons and troops. So he dug a secret tunnel right at his house to serve as a shelter for cadres, troops and weapons transported from Song Buong base to infiltrate Bien Hoa city. |
At the end of 1967, Hai Dieu received orders to drive his Honda 67 with license plate 432 to Saigon to receive a mission. That was to attach explosives to this Honda, waiting for Major General Nguyen Ngoc Loan - Director General of the National Police and his bodyguards to leave the Hang Keo police station, then detonate it. According to the plan, the Honda 67 was blown to pieces, the head of the National Police was injured in the right leg, and 2 bodyguards died in the Jeep.
When reviewing the battle, the Special Forces discovered a fatal flaw: the license plate was not removed during the detonation of the mine, so the license plate flew out and would certainly fall into the hands of the investigators; so Chief of the Seven Dwarfs ordered Hai Dieu to immediately retreat to Ca Mau .
In this cape, the rich and powerful uncle-in-law spent 10,500 VND (at that time, the price of 1 tael of gold was about 3,000 VND) to make a real identity card for Hai Dieu with the name Ly Ngoc Thuong, born in 1920 in Song Ong Doc (Ca Mau province).
Mr. Hai Thuong (Ton Van Dieu). |
Returning to An Hao with different identification papers and a different appearance, Hai Dieu, now Hai Thuong, became a construction supervisor and sought to associate with powerful people in the Bien Hoa Industrial Zone. After investigating, Hai Thuong immediately rented a house in front of the Cogido Factory gate from Ms. Nguyen Thi Them (mother of a police lieutenant serving at the Duc Tu District National Police Department) to facilitate secret operations without fear of being spied on.
Party cell member H21
Once, Hai Thuong was assigned to bring TNT explosives to destroy the power plant of Bien Hoa Industrial Zone but failed, but this action did not escape the attention of an inner-city cadre of Bien Hoa City Party Committee, Tran Viet Nga - a secret party member who was operating legally under the guise of a taxi driver. Following the instructions of Bien Hoa City Party Committee, party member Tran Viet Nga approached and persuaded Hai Thuong to participate in activities for the Public Works Committee.
On March 23, 1972, at Bau Ham - the base of Bien Hoa City Party Committee, Ly Ngoc Thuong was admitted to the Vietnam Labor Party. And just one week later, at the northern base of Trang Bom, Bien Hoa City Party Committee decided to establish Party Cell H21 with the task of operating in the An Hao residential area. The cell had only 4 party members, including a new party member, Ton Van Dieu (alias Ly Ngoc Thuong), with comrade Tran Viet Nga as secretary.
Operating secretly under the enemy's close surveillance and pursuit, the H21 Party Cell still managed to attract the An Hao Hamlet Civil Defense Platoon to support the revolution, turning Dinh Quang Pagoda into a revolutionary base with a team of "Buddhist workers" as the core for political struggles. In particular, the H21 Party Cell coordinated with the Bien Hoa Special Forces to punish spies hiding under the guise of workers against the revolution. Notably, on the night of January 27, 1973, upon learning that the enemy had gathered their henchmen at the An Hao Hamlet headquarters to carry out the plan of "flooding the territory" to sabotage the Paris Agreement, the H21 Party Cell and the City Special Forces raided and killed the Chief of Security, two security officers, and the Chief of Youth, and injured 32 others.
During this battle, comrade Hai Thuong was exposed and captured by the enemy. Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hanh (Hai Thuong's wife) rushed to Saigon to meet her father who was working as an accountant for Dong Phuong Import-Export Company to borrow 50,000 VND to bribe powerful people who knew the "master". The large sum of money promptly erased the suspect file of Ly Ngoc Thuong for being a Viet Cong, so when he appeared in the Bien Hoa Criminal Court, Hai Thuong was only given a suspended sentence.
In the last days of April 1975, party member Hai Thuong and his bases were extremely busy. Appointed as the Head of the An Hao Hamlet Uprising Committee, and personally assigned the task of keeping the enemy from destroying Long Binh Bridge, Hai Thuong also had to arrange for trusted people to welcome cadres to hide in Bien Hoa Industrial Zone. At the same time, comrade Hai Thuong's wife was transported by Ban Cong with 500 dong with the request to buy 3 types of red, blue, and yellow fabric to sew 20 Front flags and about ten basa. Seeing that the money was not enough and the situation was too urgent, Mrs. Hanh called for an urgent sale of the fields to get money to carry out the task; in time for her husband and his bases to set up factories, plants... to signal to everyone that Bien Hoa Industrial Zone belonged to the people...
Bui Thuan
Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/dong-nai-cuoi-tuan/202504/thay-cai-treo-co-giai-phong-tru-so-sonadezi-6535d7d/
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