16

Date …

Duc Vinh got out of the bus. There were a great number of people up and down in Saigon port. It was bright and sunny in the afternoon. What a terribly hot and muggy weather! A “North Europe Prince” ship bought from Norway which had “National Unity” as its new name was putting into harbor imposingly and light-heartedly. The people departed from either the North or the South of Vietnam too over-crowded after Saigon was affranchised. All of them had to take the boat as unique transportation as the North-South railway hadn’t been cleared yet.

Duc Vinh had one “ticket” at 4 o’clock that afternoon. Vinh was sent to the harbor by passenger car from detention centre in Phan Rang. Being neither roped nor handcuffed, Vinh with a small bag on his hand and other captives were carelessly walking like a normal group of passengers though the policemen were gripping their riffles in their arms and escorting at both sides.

All the internees got into the hold. The small rooms on the deck were set apart civilian population. The “North Europe Prince” had sadly sounded a whistling tone before it weighed anchor and steamed off to the high seas.

The convicts looked like canned fish which was in state of pitch-darkness and cramp. They were puppet officers and high-ranking civil servants used to work for “republican second nation” of Saigon regime which was defeated in the war, crumbled and reduced to dust. One after another they were delivered in many voyages to re-education camps in the North of Vietnam. They neither took “first-class or second-class” tickets nor stayed “air-conditioner” spaces but “a box” whose iron doors were closed tight in the hold in stead. They couldn’t come at anything even if they would like to rise in rebellion with their free bodies when the boat was in high seas.

Everything seemed to be all right in the journey from Saigon harbor to Vung Tau seaport. However, the vessel started wheeling due to strong surfs when it was coasting in the Central inshore area. The prisoners were getting seasick and set in rolling. In the condition of pitch-darkness, air insufficiency, redundant smell of bodies and 40 degrees and up in temperature, the captives looked like a swarm of sand-worms crawlingly curling up in their stuff coming out from their regurgitation.

-       I’m going to die soon – Duc Vinh cried out – Oh, my god! What a pity of me!

-       Where do they bring us to? Are they going to throw into the sea?

-       Can anybody shoot me dead with a fire so that I can die on the spot and my miserable status will be over?

Several aged officers and “dignitaries” had so high blood pressure that the blood vessels in their brains were broken. They had strokes. Those were the real deaths whose corpses were piled up in the corner before they were buried once the ship had made a landfall. Meanwhile, the boat kept going on its trip.

The weaves became gentle and everybody was restored consciousness. Some burly Captain who was so accustomed to great hardships in the theatre of war that he could “stand” the suffocating condition was lying next to Vinh. He smacked the lips:

-       I will flee into the forest and they will have no way to catch me if I know the imprisonment is going to be like that.

-       Which front did you stay?

-       The Colonel told the stories – I used to “struggle to the bitter end to hold the ground” in the Saigon North arc line. The soldiers threw away their weapons, slipped off their uniform and went jogging to inner city in shorts and singlet when the front was broken. Full of battledresses were just like straws being dried on the streets. Once arriving in homes, I carefully concealed myself in garret and assumed that Revolution would be large-hearted. Some days later, the announcement was given in local ward: All officers whose titles are Warrant-officer and up bring dry provisions and clothes to primary school in their precinct. Everybody is gathered so as to “study politics” within a week. My wife didn’t prepare fluffy pemmican, high-grade cakes and fruits but breads, dry provisions, rice balls merging with sesame and salt for me. I just thought of being released after attending “politics learning” as Revolution always had lenient and humanitarian policies up to then. Revolution had already affranchised the whole South of Vietnam. Who else dared to oppose it? The losers were captured for what purpose except for making them pity.

We assembled at junior school in my block. We gripped the papers and pens eagerly and keenly in order to write down what political cadres would teach. Unexpectedly, the learning wasn’t taken place at all. We were driven and had to get in the trucks right after we were there in full strength. We were directly sent to Saigon port and put into this hold.

-       We are going to be carried to penitentiaries in the forests in the North of Vietnam. What a melancholy! How early the soldiers in the South of Vietnam laid down their arms and surrendered! – The surrounding “officers” added.

-       The policy “evacuate at your pleasure” shouldn’t be launched. Everybody should stay where one was, contend and “struggle to the bitter end to hold the ground”. Liberation forces would have to deploy their troops in all the fronts. It would take long time for the South of Vietnam to be lost. “Evacuate at your pleasure” meant to withdraw from competition. That was just like the action of pulling out “the knot” or letting the water out to cause a breached dyke. Who else could remain their fighting spirit but run and run? Consequently, Vietcong expanded their ground as fast as a storm-rain. “Evacuate at your pleasure” was a wrong “strategy” which sabotaged the “general situation”.

-       Basically, America let alone the South of Vietnam without saving it from danger. If it insisted on holding the ground  it would keep aiding, “staging air raids” in the North of Vietnam turbulently, halting and attacking all Vietcong’s advances by using American air-forces, landing American troops. The boot would be on the other foot at once and the South of Vietnam would be held.

-       The traditional Democracy in America is the most basic question. Fancy administration’s warring while the people were making antigovernment demonstrations. American people were fed up with the war. The antiwar movement was being increased. The warmongers were running the risk of losing all their ayes in the election. For That reason, the top-notch officials had to firstly maintain their position in their National Assembly or their cabinet. There was no need for them to maneuver troops to Vietnam, waste the properties in the South of Vietnam and be removed from office. They let Nguyen Van Thieu’s administration to hold the South of Vietnam without concerning to his ability.

-       As a result of that, nobody died but us. We are left alone without getting any commiseration after fighting against Vietcong for almost ten years. We must devote our bodies to the quods.

-       Vietcong always appeals to us for surrender and then they would give us charitableness. On the contrary, they forced us to live in exile.

-       That is “the dictatorship of the proletariat”. How stony they are! However, they must do like that for the sake of government holders. We daren’t to blame them. Nothing can make sure that the republican troops who are the losers in clothes for casual wear won’t rise in rebellion although the country had been affranchised and united. It’s reasonable for them to be afraid of such a crowded rank of republican officials whose exile in the North of Vietnam may exterminate the hot bed of rebellion. In the history of mankind, Communists are the best in “ruling and ensuring security” anyhow.

Duc Vinh didn’t expect his life turned out to be like that. He was aged. He seemed to live in regal splendor. How he could stand such an exile circumstance …

Imprisonment came fated in Nguyen Duc’s clan. Duc Vinh’s father, Doctor of Letters Nguyen who used to have a famous age had had an imprisonment ending and become food for fishes at sea. Meanwhile, Duc Vinh had a whole life of honor and wealth. He knew how to worm his way into for benefits and his cleverness had reached the climax so that he wasn’t swept away by the hurricane of contemporary century. It was fancy that he would receive nothing but luckiness and successfulness. Nobody expected his imprisonment ending as well. Despite the fact that his daddy was put into jail came of being adverseness and stubbornness. On the contrary, he was also in the same imprisonment ending to his dad though he wasn’t against anyone. What a destiny! Nobody could escape his fate.

-       We look like the African slaves whom the white colonialists captured and sent to United State of America in the old days when lying in the hold of “North Europe Prince” boat – The Captain continued the conversation – The Americans traveled Africa to reduce people to slavery and also confine them in hold like this. It took a whole month at least for bound slaves to get to destination in America without a break by sea. And as a result of that, one third had passed away …

-       To arrive in the North from the South of Vietnam only after sailing three days and nights on end. Try to stand because we are losers. According to my opinion, it’s accounted very good enough to be like that – Said a colonel who looked “gentle” and “experienced” – I assumed to have a “bloodbath” ever so when Communists arrived in Saigon. Within 20 years of confrontation, the hatred was sky-high. The “National” side had shot dead the Vietcong side in great number. So many people in the North of Vietnam had been died in vain due to American planes’ bombing in turn during the period from 1964 to 1972. The American soldiers had massacred 500 people in a whole My Lai village including women and children. The South Korea ones had arrested people and used pieces of broken razor blades to “draw squares” on their skin. There were countless stories about inhuman soldiers who disemboweled people in order to pull out their livers, rounded the ears of people so as to dry and string as keepsakes for fun only as if such ears were the Job’s ears. On the contrary, Vietcong didn’t shoot or kill anyone when they came in Saigon. Everything remained peaceful. The windows were reopened. The music was switched on in dance halls in a boisterous brouhaha as though nothing had happened.

-       You said as if you are Vietcong cadre of propaganda and training – Duc Vinh commented.

-       Well! I’m going to be Vietcong official. Sincerely speaking, my younger brother whose father is my own uncle is liberation serviceman in the North of Vietnam and drove his tank to Saigon dated 30 April. My dad fled to the South in 1954. His natural younger brother remained to stay in the North. My brother with a sparkling star on his hat and a gun by his side loomed large in front of our gate at night dated 01 May. He said that he had found out the Christian evacuation area when he arrived in Saigon. He had had my house address after asking for information. He had told me what I have just told you. It sounds quite reasonable. Otherwise, how I can think out all such events. How “bright” the soldiers in the North of Vietnam are! They haven’t known how to abandon themselves to lives of pleasure, to get drunk and to have sexual relations with prostitutes like us. My father gave him tens of thousand but he refused whereas he hadn’t got any penny in his pocket. How the liberation servicemen can have Saigon currency. Another sum of money was handed over to him when my father fancied his disparagement. He refused more violently. How strange he was! They haven’t known how to spend money …

The whole gang of prisoners made loud rude laughs.

-       That was our weakness. Our machinery of government and republican armed forces were thoroughly corrupt and misappropriated – Duc Vinh was thoughtful – Corruption and bribery appeared everywhere. An abundant supply of American aid was just like water in the stream. But, the high-ranking officers took rake-offs and the “riff-raffs” stole. It was said that the whole citizens in Da Nang where the aid products were imported lived on the stolen American goods. The goods on each “convoy” being carried from the port to warehouse had been stolen in great quantity due to the present of robbers.

-       Their side “hasn’t known how to spend money”. What they need is “fighting ideals”. That’s why they are winners.

The ship landed at Hai Phong. The hold was unlocked. Duc Vinh staggered on the bank. He was dazzled after living in dark condition for some days. Without taking a rest, gang of prisoners was driven on the covered trucks which then were running quickly. Nobody could see anything at both sides of the road. The only thing they could perceive was that the trucks were climbing an uneven slope. They were on mountain road. It was nightfall when they arrived in “Yellow Water” camp.

Duc Vinh felt relieved after lying on the bed knitted by slats of neohouzeaua in the stockade. He had cleared all the complicated procedure of being admitted to Yellow Water camp. The tense years when the gap between the life and the death was a hairbreadth only were over. Then, he was content with his lot of a prison of war. It was so much the worse for life. He had to let his nerves unwound otherwise they would be broken at any time.

Life had its own fate. The destiny of Nguyen Duc line, either father or son, were prisoners. He had to resign himself to imprisonment circumstance. That was all. He would be sorrow if he kept thinking and the situation couldn’t be turned round no matter how much he considered.

The detention room was simple with the roof and the doors made of neohouzeaua and the walls made of soil mixing with straws. All the blocks of houses were as like as peas in a pod were built on the hill. What a funny cooler! It was the one with empty space with surrounding lines of barbed wire as a fence in stead of concrete walls and iron doors with tinkling chains. There were several sentry boxes beside the mountains and hills extended endlessly.

Where to run away? What for? The whole country was organized under the regime of proletarian dictatorship which was closely controlled by family record books and ration-books. He would die of hunger even if he could escape because how he could get the food ration tickets. He would be woodlander for the whole life if he ran into the forest. How could he get his “family record book” if he fled to inner city? If he hid himself in the countryside how would he get his “co-operative mark for work” so that the Agricultural Co-operative would “share the rice” for him? The poorness was happening in the person of members of co-operative. How they could divide any paddy for him. That meant staying there was the best. He should concentrate on his re-education and wait for releasing date.

Duc Vinh “had” 555 as his the prisoner number which was exactly the same to the top high-grade tobacco 555 in the world. Vietnam only had the best ones whose brand names were Tam Thanh and Cau River … that were sliced into threads and dried on tiled yards at that time. Meanwhile, Dunhill, Marboro and 555 were symbols of higher class and fast set in Europe – America. Any guy who was philandering with the girls and having a cigarette 555 on his lips was accounted luxurious. A box of Dunhill with a line of yellow words Paris – London – New York seemed to be flared.

By the same token, the Duc Vinh’s 555 prisoner number was quite a nice figure. His fellow prisoners called him as an “owner of three numbers manufactory”. However, the owner of three numbers manufactory always smoked the cigarettes rolling by dry manioc leaves which were counted as “a luxury item” and were produced by Duc Vinh to satisfy his craving during the first period of staying in the camp without having any supply from his relatives yet. And he could inhale, exhale and discharge smoke as well.

“The owner of three numbers manufactory” was made leader of a planting manioc team which included 20 people who used to be Ministers, Province chiefs and high-ranking administrative officials. All of them with their own palm-leaf conical hats and hoes had gone “out into the field” since the very early morning. The rice supplying for the whole country was in state of insufficiency. 13 kilograms rice per month was the ration of everybody, even the Minister of the win side, let alone the “Minister” of the lose one. They had to plant manioc to feed them, themselves. The ambrosia which “Ministers” used to eat in their meals in the old days couldn’t compare to the boiled manioc then.

Duc Vinh had never planted any stalk of vegetables but then he worked as hard as the elderly farmers’ grateful hearts towards the fields. The manioc products of “the owner of three numbers manufactory” were as big as his wrist. He was announced as a typical example for all other Ministers and Generals to follow.

Vinh felt relief. He was neither on the tenterhooks, anxiousness nor resentfulness. He considered himself to be very lucky when he wasn’t killed despite his whole life had been in the fighting revolution line and then he was a loser. He had been neither squeezed with pliers nor tortured in spite of being a prisoner. On the contrary, the penitentiaries of his republican side in Chi Hoa and Con Dao were very terrible. Vinh chuckled. To stay there just like to go to a “convalescent home in the forest” although it was a little bit hot in summer time but he was soon accustomed to it. It was quite wonderful in winter with dew poetically hanging at twilight. He hoed land all day long and would never be back till late afternoon. He ate everything deliciously even a bulb of banana-tree due to the hunger. It seemed that the aged people had to follow a strict regimen like a monk in order to avoid diabetes, the grease merging in the blood and cramped muscles. They also had to contain themselves from craving in spite of sitting on a pile of gold. He considered eating manioc as following a diet menu listed by the doctor to avoid diabetes and the grease merging in the blood and hoeing land as doing exercise. Other people had to at least spend some hours to go jogging, have a run, do jumping or go swimming everyday. As a result, they were bathed in perspiration as well like his hoeing. It assumed that they were “the same” to Duc Vinh.

Such way of imprisonment might prolong people’s life-span. Staying in society, they perhaps drank beer all day and had sexual relations with prostitutes; if anything, the stillbirth would soon happen. Being prisoners, all the baneful factors were eliminated.

Duc Vinh’s task was to remind everybody to start working when the voices of metals beating were sounded every morning. 20 prisoners including Ministers, Province chiefs and congressmen came out for queuing up, taking roll-call and receiving their daily job.

-       Financial Minister will collect the cow’s shit.

-       Foreign Affairs Minister will go for decayed thatches purchasing in the local village.

-       Industrial Minister will produce the mixture of decayed thatches and cow’s shit.

-       Agricultural Minister will put down fertilizer into the foot of manioc trees.

-       Defense Minister will catch green grasshoppers and locusts with a racquet.

-       Chairman of Upper House will process green grasshoppers and locusts and add them in prisoner’s food ration as protein.

-       Public health Minister will emasculate the bull buffalo so that it can be more tamable.

-       Minister of Culture – Information – Sport – Tourism will clean up the public latrine.

The tents no. 2 was the place for “military” faculty. The divisions of labor were sonorously sounded.

-       Top-ranking general Commander in the first Battle zone will pick up pennywort for preserving in salt.

-       Lieutenant-general Commander in the National intelligence Agency will steal some piece of sweet potato trees on the fields of villagers for planting.

-       Major-general Commander in the third Army corps will drive cows to the fields.

Taking the “title” as a leader, Duc Vinh had to work hard to be an example to everybody. He kept thinking how to increase the out put of cassava and sweet potatoes. How strange it was! People became more active by far with their “low-ranking position” even.

During the day, Duc Vinh had hoed so much that his perspiration was pouring off, the hollow of his hands were full of thick callosities. At night, he looked after his staffs with high spirit of responsibilities and he always reported the daily situation to his superintendent before going to bed.

… All the Ministers and Top-ranking generals had tan complexion, goggle eyes, slender shoulders with protruding bones and emaciated figures after a year.

They hid their pain without publicly showing their sorrows. On the faces of them, they tried to prove their being content with their lots in re-educating and admitting their guilt caused by opposing people in the past. Some Top-ranking general used to be famous for imperiousness but then he was obsequious toward the little corporal superintendent. Some Minister was high and mighty with others and accounted them foolish but then he “really listened to reason” by learning hardly, reading revolutionary books and newspapers and presenting their “knowledge” getting from such reading to the superintendent.

The Ministers and Top-ranking generals often played volleyball every afternoon. At night, they practiced singing revolutionary marching songs “To be self-sacrificing for the sake of our people, to lay down our lives for our people. Everybody! To be self-sacrificing for the sake of our people …” They looked as innocent and unprejudiced as students in the dormitories without having any torment or sore at all. They neither regretted their old time nor had rancor and bitterness the time being.

The Ministers and Top-ranking generals didn’t toss and turn in bed and breathed sighs till it was late at night when all the superintendents had already slept.

They blamed great power country America which let down its accomplices. They reproached the President with his badly operating the country. They blamed the historical trend, the capitalist side which had given way to socialist side and lost its fighting Communist “outpost”, their good-for-nothing destinies which plop made them cow shit pickers and bull emasculators while they were at the pinnacle of power, influence, glory and money, which made them hungry for pieces of boiled sweet potatoes, roasted manioc and a tiny shrimp cooked with brine while they were boring of delicacy, the mixture between the blood and the saliva of the swallow, the steamed mixture between cow’s tendon and ginseng and the bear’s hands stewed with nuts, which made them had to use their hollows of hands to get the spring water in the forest and gulp down it while they were happily staying in the five stars hotel and sipping Martel with 1887 production year cost 1.000 USD per bottle and which made them sprawled, withered in the forest late every night and hungry for the sweat of even a rag-and-bone-woman strolling on the streets while they were holding beautiful 18-year-old girl at their pleasure and changing any new bud for the bored one.

When would they be released? When would they be reunited with their wives and children? The stubborn prisoners who were weak in “enlightenment” were little by little placed in solitary confinement and nobody knew any information about them. All of them palpitated with fear and whispered each others “we should be more or less reasonable” whenever any one was appointed.

One day, Duc Vinh discovered the absence of “Secretary of state for foreign affairs” – an elderly had received a law PhD degree in Paris – when he was “calling the register” after taking bamboos and neohouzeauas to repair the tents in the forest all day. Everybody rushed off headlong to look for him and saw him hanging himself on one of the wild mangosteen branches because of despair and distraction. He accounted his life meaningless and would die before his last day arrived than let his old body be tormented by hardship. He appeared to look for some power by returning Saigon and working as Secretary of state for foreign affairs in spite of his whole famous life with academic distinction for wisdom. Within several months only, he hadn’t known how sweet his power was but had experienced how bitter his penal servitude for life was.

A crowd of ministers was releasing his body and hurriedly drying their tears otherwise they would be caught in the act by their educator-warden. Alas! What a human existence! It was now extremely glorious, now utterly miserable. How judicious the aphorism was! With their family’s blessing, how such saying could apply to their lives.

Duc Vinh with a worn-out conical hat on his head, a bamboo whip on his hand and a bag of food for lunch was tending oxen with bamboo bells on their necks. They were deliberately grazing.

Duc Vinh met Top-ranking general Commander in the second Battle zone who was caring for cows on the adjacent hill. He was taking a rod to change the herds of yellow ants and black ones’ directions of advance on the lawn.

-       What are you doing? – Asked Vinh.

The Top-ranking general seriously reply:

-       I’m commanding a match.

The flock of yellow ants was repeatedly whipped and thus they were scattered.

-       My troops were annihilating the enemy’s Front no. 1. You see! They are all fleeing.

The herd of black ants was driven to another direction under the effect of his lash.

-       This is my force which is advancing into the battlefield.

The red ants called intelligence agents and espionages were climbing up the rod, crawling on the Top-ranking general’s hands and sneaking into his shirt before gave him many bites for all one was worth.

The flock of wasps on a branch of a nearby tree which realized the Top-ranking general’s presence swooped down and stuck their “bombs” or stings into his face which was soon so considerably swell that it seemed to cover his eyes.

-       In the war, the air-force will play an important role if it’s strong. - The Top-ranking general concluded.

A he-buffalo incontinently voided feces from its bowels on the Top-ranking general’s “front” while it was passing by there. The herd of ants was buried and “the Top-ranking general’s troops” were weighed down on by the inches of … shit …

… The prisoners in “Yellow Water” camp lived on manioc, potatoes, Gynura crepidioides Benth, sweet potatoes buds, wild taros in the forest which could make one’s mouth blistery due to irritability whenever eating them. However, “A new life” was aroused since the new policy in which stated that the prisoners were allowed to receive the “support” presents from America was disseminated.

The majority of prisoners’ wives had been evacuated to America through many different ways in many times and many years. They were living there, the world of superabundant property. Some of them had migrated before 30 April. Although the high-ranking husbands had to “stay for fighting”, they arranged their families’ departure by requesting CIA to give them rooms in the planes “fleeing” to Taiwan right after the President Thieu had resigned from office dated 21 April. The others tried to cross the ocean. Their ships looked like the bamboo leaves were swept away by the weave of evacuation. They left all their villas and cars in Saigon, collected all their jewelry, joined in the groups of boat people, bribed the seaside policemen with “fix standard bargain”, struggled against in Thai buccaneers, survived all perils, landed on Bidong island in Malaysia, were granted political asylum there and received helps from H.C.R organization which was in charge of United Nation evacuation issue.

Floating on the sea, they would feed the fishes if a gale appeared. On the contrary, their lives would be saved when they met any “international” ships. As a result of that, they were sent to United State and the American had to receive them as long-term followers without any choice for the sake of humanity. There was a woman who had dared to alone row her two children across the sea in order to “look for freedom” and had drifted in the international waters for seven days. They had caught the attention of a British merchant ship while they were losing consciousness because of hunger and the woman’s hands were still clutching at the rows. They hadn’t been brought to their senses till some milk was poured into their mouths. Their story was broadcasted on BBC television and the British government was moved so much that they conferred a title “A knight of liberation search” on her and allowed her to settle in London.

Frankly speaking, all prisoners in Yellow Water camp were “extremely honest”. They didn’t have enough time to run away because they had “stayed in their offices”, “kept fighting” to the last minutes. Meanwhile, their “cunning superiors” tricked them into obedience and flied off in advance. On 29 April, a Top-ranking general called a Lieutenant-general and said: The President appointed me to a special mission. I would like to hand over the position of alert commander to you from now on and you will get a sudden promotion in rank. The Lieutenant-general was unexpectedly promoted and given a higher military rank. He was as happy as the day was long with his assigned work and hadn’t begun to understand the cheat till late afternoon: The Top-ranking general has given me the run-around. He asks me to be his “sacrificial puppet” while he is evacuating by taking a flight to American ship in the open sea. The whole machinery of government has already been fallen into pieces and I alertly command here for what.

The Lieutenant-general gave a major-general a call and asked that guy to see him in the headquarters:

-       The President appointed me to a special mission. I would like to hand over the position of alert commander to you from now on and you will get a sudden promotion in rank.

The major-general felt quite fortunate due to the promotion. Staying in the headquarters, he hadn’t realized the Lieutenant-general’s swindle until evening: He asks me to replace him so that he can flee with his family.

One more time, the major-general used his boss’ stratagem by ordering a colonel to see him in the headquarters. The power mutation had kept happening till the Liberation army’s tanks were wheeling on the yard, Liberation flag was fluttering above their heads, Vietcong’s AK gun pointed at their chests so as to force surrender upon them.

It was the capitulation but not “something called transference at all”. How naive the President Duong Van Minh was when he informed: “We are waiting for your arriving in order to hand over” after Liberation army’s tanks had overwhelmed the yard of Independence Palace and Liberation flag was fluttering on the roof of it!

… The “support” presents from American sent to Yellow Water camp were “high-grade” goods such as sugar, milk, chocolate, restorative, warm clothing and even perfumed soaps, pens …

What high quality things from America! Meanwhile, the “economy of contemporary society was being subsidized” by the government and was facing to the crisis whose manifestation was extreme goods scarceness. It was difficult to have even a needle or a piece of thread.

The first love is a face-flannel used for washing face

The second one is a dentifrice used for everyday use.

Previously, our ancestors used hands to wash their faces, used fingers to give their teeth a brush without having any toothpaste or wash-cloth. What unreasonable demands! Nevertheless, those were what the “persons who used to accustom to comfortable lives” requested.

In the Yellow Water camp, the prisoners brushed their teeth with Hyna and Hynot high grade dentifrices. How ridiculous it was!

Sending you a pack of tobacco,

On your fingers, your life is burned.

Sending you a precious pill,

You save my broken heart.

A gloomy song was sounded in the Yellow Water camp.

Duc Vinh “practiced Zen” to kill time. He received Ham, Hung and Lan Vien’s visit at times to get their spirit aids but not their “support goods” due to his family’s supply.

Vu Hung always pinned the symbol of Lieutenant-general on his lapels whenever paying a visit there. Talking to the Police Colonel Camp Chief, Hung didn’t forget to introduce: “Mr. Ham – the ex-provincial party committee secretary – is Vinh’s younger brother. Vinh’s father was a Doctor of Letter who was a patriot and used to join in modernistic movement to oppose French. Vinh’s grandfather was a leader of the Nha Son insurgent army which was against French …” By the same token, the Educator-warden Board showed its positive attitude towards him although every event of course had its own meaning and Vinh’s imprisonment term couldn’t be earlier than expectation period due to his curriculum vitae. In addition, Vinh’s “performance was very good”. He was setting a good example when planting manioc and collecting cow pat. He was the active team leader and Educator-warden Board had nothing to complain about him.

17

Date …

A long video clip shot what had happened in the year 1945 looked like a television report, “an epic”.

1975 is the great year in the history of Vietnam and Vietnamese nation. Vietnam has many great landmarks. In 939, Ngo Quyen defeated Nam Han army and regained the national independence after being ruled by the Northern Kingdom’s Domination in Chinese for nearly one thousand years.

1945 is the year which divides Vietnamese history into halves. The year 1945 and earlier is a peacefully prewar period. From that year and downwards is a continuous war period. And the war was ended in 1975. A peaceful epoch is made on the strip of land with “S” in shape. That’s why 1975 is counted as the greatest year.

1945 – 1975: A period of 30 years in war. Lots of people were killed and wounded. Much property was wasted. There were many belligerent countries such as Soviet Union, China and tens of nations in Eastern Europe. The other side was United States of America with 550 thousands of American soldiers and 110 billions US dollars taken from America’s budget and America had to appeal to South Korea and Australia to support.

Korean soldiers of fortune worked for America. Australian pilots worked for America as hired bombers. The Korat airport in Thailand, the Utapao airport … and a mass of military bases in South East Asia region had participated in the war …

It was the violent war just like the third world war. The world flocked here to create the third world war …

1945 – 1975: Vietnam achieved victories over the two top imperialists in the world. One of them was “a colonialism as sly as a fox” which was the first country in the world won the bourgeois revolution. Another was a superpower country who was the first country in the world successfully manufactured atomic bomb.

Vietnam vanquished them all. America’s planes were as much as swarms of flies whereas Vietnam had nothing but black rubber sandals. The whole grass on Vietnamese country was crumpled and broken. There were mothers who had 8 children laid down their lives in the battlefields. The whole Vietnamese people were in ravenous status and the scare rice rations were shared among them. Many Vietnamese cities became piles of fragmentary bricks. The whole Vietnamese streets were full of big and small pot-holes. The shadows of the bridges no longer reflected in the rivers. Vietnamese children had to stay in the combat trenches in order to receive lessons. The bombs dropped on the surrounding palm-leaf conical hats on Vietnamese women. The beads of shrapnel bombs went through the pages of primers. The children had to wear the straw hats on their heads to avoid shell fragments which could make their skulls broken …

Even so, Vietnam kept fighting against America. “Struggle against them despite there is nothing on but a hemline of the trousers”. In Vietnam, you could “meet heroes everywhere”.

In 1975, American Ambassador struck his national color, carried it under his arm, got in a helicopter on the roof of American embassy and flied off. Vietnam had a complete victory. North and South were unified from Nam Quan Border line to Ca Mau Promontory. That was what happened in the year 1975.

The world was in no mood to admire an undaunted country, a first-class indomitable nation of mankind. Within some years of fighting, every country was low-spirited. The war among the States in America only lasted 4 years. The First World War just lasted 4 years. The Second World War lasted over 4 years as well. Nobody could play with lethal weapons for a long while. On the contrary, Vietnam was phlegmatic when finishing its 30-years non-stop war like a life-fighting without tiredness or fear. What a will of steel nation!

In the long run, Vietnam is still a winner despite of sophism. Like the event that Mongol Empire had already occupied the whole world but not Vietnam although it had tried three times invading Vietnam and hadn’t dominated over this people yet even a day …

Our film describes two characters: One was from Saigon where had just been affranchised and came back the North of Vietnam in the rear. Another was on the contrary. She was from the North of Vietnam in the rear and traveled Saigon where had just been affranchised. The first one came back the rear to meet his wife whereas the second one looked for her husband in the latest liberated area.

Lieutenant-colonel Vu Hung went into the army in 1966. His division had confronted the division of American “Red Oldest Brother” for many years. He was the general with “a scared head and two stars hierarchy” in 1975. He was in command of an army corps whose position was one of members of terrific speed formation attacking and liberating Saigon … After the ceremonial parade of victory organized in Saigon, Vu Hung with his small bag carrying some meter of fabrics as a present got in the military transport aircraft within 4 hours and landed on Gia Lam airport.

Hung’s kepi with a twinkling pine-leaf represented the military rank Lieutenant-colonel on it was fallen due to the appearance of a wind when the door of the plane was opened. He made a long breath and his rib-cage was full of air.

It was in early fall. The autumn wind made Hanoi looked melancholy on that day. Having the sun in his eyes, Hung used his hand to shield it. The ground was endlessly flooded with autumn sun. Good Heavens! How beautiful the peaceful autumn sun! During his 10 years in the battlefield, he had perceived nothing but glows of fires which were created by the war. It was golden light. The sky was deep blue. The clouds were slowly drifting. How strange the very clear and quite landscape! Hung checked out. A command car was waiting for him. It picked him up and quickly sent him to Thanh Do town. In Hung’s consciousness, everything including both sides of the road had changed a lot. The rice fields were green. The skylarks were singing. The town looked antique. The sparrows were chattering around the streets. The fragrance of dragon’s claws-like flowers was pervading the fence of some house. The moss-grown towns-houses built in the previous century seemed to gaze at him who was coming back as a winner in the war. Hue, his wife, was standing on the three-step staircase flooding with autumn sun. She had changed a lot. She had many white hairs. Her figure was more corpulent … Hue burst out crying. Her tears made Hung’s shoulder wet. He was smiling and embracing her. Hue alone had lived in a suburban house with a stunted guava garden, a row of areca trees and a pond of water-fern for years. According to the criterion applied to children whose fathers were high-ranking officials fighting in the battlefields, their daughter Hai Yen was sent to Soviet Union for studying. That made Hue happy and proud. However, she had to accept loneliness as well …

In the three-space tile-roofed house, there were an oil stove, a bicycle and a bag carrying the documents of Commissioner of Provincial Woman Association … that showed Hue’s living condition in those years.

Hung was taking water. The bump sound of a bucket collided against the wall of the well was raised. A cock perching on the branch of pomegranate-tree and sunbathing gave plaintive crows at noon. Both of them were having lunch. Hue was happily filling his bowl with rice. The stalks of boiled water morning glory which were picked in Hue’s own field were verdant. How overflowing the simple happiness was! Nobody but a soldier who had just come back could perceive such joy …

The color of old yellow walls told its owner’s “decline”. Hue’s name was sunk deep in the past after several years of being “as famous as a dune” and even her “Hero of labor” degree hanging on the wall was covered with dust as well.

Hue didn’t even show her husband a wad of newspapers which mentioned information about Hue and her pictures in the old days. How many it was! It was as thick as a span. The articles spoke highly of “the leading bird” of co-operative movement in Dong Phong. Those were pictures in which Hue was reporting in the conference, Hue was bailing out water in the field, she was friendly talking to members of a cooperative and she was having a meeting with Board of Management …

The Cooperative movement seemed to be a wind which raised the kite Thu Hue as high as a sky. Then, the string holding the kite was broken when it reached its highest level. Ham made Hue famous and Hue’s reduction arrived in the person of Ham as well. Ham’s trial fixed rate in Dong Phong made him lost his title Provincial Party Committee Secretary and Hue lost her positions such as members of some organizations … Hue was stored in the “Provincial Woman Association” warehouse. She always had to disseminate the “birth-control” guideline …

She had to leave her husband within 10 years whereas she was full of youth, vitality and hunger for affection. During her” red-blooded” period, the “fame” had completely commanded Hue who was strong and used to actively make love with Vu Hung. Hue’s portly body lusting after men seemed to be forced within the framework of morality. That proved the great strength of will. How a “Hero of labor” and a wife of a general in the battlefield could have a promiscuous behavior at home. Actually, nobody dared to approach such a subject like her as well …

Hue was waiting for her better half indeed. She wished the war would be ended, her spouse could be back and they could lead their normal life: “a simple happiness beside small dreams” …

Lan Vien had a contrary journey to Vu Hung’s Northern destination. The South was her arrival. Both of them used to have had a strong attachment to each other for years but then the predestination made them so far that they became contrariwise … Lan Vien was looking for her husband. In peace, many people who “participated in the Southern battlefield” continuously came back but Vien had “no news” of her better half.

Phong had stayed in inner Saigon before he lived in France under the arrangement of intelligence organization. Therefore, everything was kept in “secret” and none of normal agencies could know any information about that. Vien had knocked “all doors” in Hanoi but she just received the shakes of the heads. Poor Vien! Phong had lived in France for years, got married, had children whereas Vien didn’t know anything about that. With Phong’s primary intention, he couldn’t send any “message” to Vien due to the war, the distance between an Asian country and a European one, the regime gap, the intelligence principles …

One day, the truck “through traffic” sent Vien to Saigon in the afternoon. It was raining. Vien was strenuously sheltering from the rain under the eaves of some house at one side of the road. Where could she search for Phong? Vien arrived in the office of “Arts Association of the City”. Phong was a painter and he was certain to work there. However, the whole office knew nothing about a person called Phong which was a perfectly strange name to them. There was no drawer like him.

Vien presented Phong’s identity papers, pictures and his old resume record book. The painters who was staying in “R” (the Southern base) and had never assembled in the North yet didn’t know him as well. Even so, they promised a thorough search into her affair for the sake of “comradeship” and the responsibility for “companion’s wife in arms”. They spared a small room for her as a place to eat and lodge during the time she lived in there for waiting. Vien still couldn’t meet any clue though she had been alone staying in Saigon for the whole month. Hopelessly, Vien looked for her old acquaintance, her old girl friend: Le Diem during the time waiting for her husband’s information. Le Diem and her family emigrated in Saigon in 1954. Getting the contact details from several places, Vien appeared in front of Diem family’s silk shop on Dong Khoi Street (the old name was Freedom). That was a quite big store compared to their traditional one on Peach Street.

Diem had changed a lot. She looked corpulent with a gentlewoman-like face. Diem was jealous of Vien because she still looked like the young girls and seemed not to have any change. Her figure remained delicate and romantic. Diem’s very small children were crossing their arms and said “Dear aunt!” to Vien. Diem asked her kids to stay in the upper floor so that she and Vien could day and night become attached to each other in the second storey. They had been far away from each other for twenty years when full of decisive turning-points of their lives had happened. Two persons had two own lives. They used to be “a pair of young birds” which always chattered in Dong Khanh School. One was a District Chief’s daughter. Another was a mistress’ offspring of a silk shop on Peach Street. Both were “high and mighty”, aristocratic and were the most beautiful girls in their class. Wearing white Vietnamese dresses, they let their long hair hanging down their backs, put their school bags in the baskets full of roses of their bicycles and rode on two Peugeot on the streets just like a pair of spotless white birds. They were a pair of angels of girlhood. Diem had a rather peaceful life. She got children after marrying a civil service employee. But then, her life was no longer stable. Her husband was a “high-ranking officer” under puppet regime in Saigon and thus he had to “undergo re-education”. Re-education! What a mild word! How smart the Vietcong was when they avoided the offensiveness to their adversary. It was an imprisonment as a matter of fact. The “National” people were losers and it was common sense throughout the ages when they were captured and were put into prison. They could resent very deeply no one …

Le Diem was crying and embracing Vien. So was Vien. She pitied her poor lonely destiny with “searching for husband” condition. Diem had had a peaceful life for 20 years at least whereas Vien had to spend her 20-years life with marriage troubles.

Well! Everything should be forgotten in order to continue to be existent. The meeting had brought pleasure to them. Le Diem gave Vu San a ring. How Vu San could be absent in that assembly. Vu San, Le Diem elder brother, looked like a common brother of the pair of young birds in Dong Khanh School in olden times. There was an idea that Vien would be Diem’s sister in law. However, such thought was so “faint” that it was soon vanished like a bubble just by a light wind. Their “first love” could only remain a bit of a remembrance which was vague and romantic but had a wonderful beauty of school-time and dreamy girlhood. Nobody could touch their memory. It seemed to be changed into individual stars which were microscopic and were non-stop twinkling in the very far corner of the sky and everybody could only see them with a careful look.

With several white hairs, Vu san was still in form. The very young commanding officer of a post who was arrested by Vu Hung in Thuan An in the olden days and Hung indirectly help him with escape in person due to Vien’s interference kept thanking Vien. San would certainly launch into eternity without Vien. Hung’s staffs could shoot San out of revenge for their comrades’ blood. That was a reasonable action. Nevertheless, San survived because of Hung’s arrangement and thus San had successfully escaped. He left his military career, lurked in Hanoi before migrating into the South of Vietnam.

San considered Vien’s good turn as the sky and the sea. Hung’s merit did too. Ridiculously, Hung’s action of saving San itself caused the brokenness of the married happiness between Hung and Lan Vien. One’s pleasure was the source of other’s sorrow. How awkward the life was! Hung’s action of saving San was mentioned in agrarian reform period and thus Hung was narrowly found guilty of “espionage rescued his accomplice”. Due to such destiny “bow” itself, Hung couldn’t help saving his life by divorcing Lan Vien and marrying another person of the same class. His life was the second of none. Next was his love. He had to save his own neck otherwise he couldn’t regain his title “Commanding officer of Provincial army section” and then the young and talent “Grey tiger in Thuan An” couldn’t be trained in the higher Military Academy, couldn’t be a strategic general who was in command of an army corps taking part in the Saigon liberation offensive.

How naturally clever the calculation of life was! Only that its “sub-consequence” was extremely painful.

Vu San treated Lan Vien like a “benefactress”.

-       Forget it. I don’t want you to make mention of it anymore – Vien innocently refused to consider San’s idea.

San was put out of countenance when smiling. His former pride feature was no longer existent. A melancholy look appeared in his distressed face.

-       Ha Trang was San’s wife. Previously, she worked for an American company – Said Diem – She had close relationship with her American boss who arranged her evacuation dated 30 April 1975. She had left her husband and children, brought her suitcases and alone took the flight. You know! Lan Vien! That is life! Affection and gratitude are nothing in comparison with interests. Ha Trang’s behavior went beyond the scope of my expectation. She was a virtuous woman in born and always looked after her family. Behind her virtue is a “secret wave of pragmatism“. The human real nature will be exposed when the condition appears. The stronghold of long-term family sentiment was totally collapsed. She alleged it as an excuse when saying that Vietcong would convict all people co-operating with American of crimes. How Vietcong could harm a white-collar worker like her. She followed her American boss and they turned out to have amorous intentions in advance. The war was an opportunity for them to carry out their disturbances and immorality. How we can believe in anyone else. Even a virtuous woman like Ha Trang did such bad thing like that …

Vu San interrupted Diem’s words:

-       It’s OK! We no need to say anything else. I have nothing to share. That’s life! I haven’t been gathered to my fathers without Ha Trang. I’m still alive. Cheer up, you! Three of us are now single due to the war. We must overcome without collapsing or surrendering …

Vu San – a gentlemanlike youth with “an artistic soul” – could be a painter or a doctor. However, he had to “unwillingly” receive a military career due to the cause of life. Having a narrow escape from death, he had been satisfied with his job as “second-rate public servant” under the scale of administration in Saigon. He assumed to be alright. On the contrary, his unexpected “family shock” made him lost his spirit.

How could a soul be blown into his body? …

The war was over. Vietnam would like to join the international orbit like other countries. France was the first capitalist nation wanted to open the diplomatic relationship with Vietnam and information communication played the leading role. People then could stick a stamp on an envelope of a letter which was put into a mail box in Paris and was automatically sent to Hanoi as if it had a pair of wings. Perhaps, Phong’s letter was a historical one which was an opening transaction of such postal communications relationship. Phong said sorry to Lan Vien. It did himself discredit to admit he was unworthy of Lan Vien’s love. He made a self-criticism when he was so pusillanimous and mediocre that he was resigned being prosecuted for “losing the human affection” with Lan Vien under the effect and the compulsion of his circumstance. Phong asked Vien to forgive him since he had already got married in Paris for some years. Phong advised Vien on looking for another deserving love and forget such a base guy like him. Lan Vien’s forgiveness would be a great favor like “the sky and the sea” which Phong would never dare to let it fall into oblivion no matter he was dead. Reading his letter, Lan Vien’s tears seemed to be as dense as wax. They stuck in her eyes without dropping. The “similar” of emotion which she had experienced when receiving Vu Hung’s information about his marriage with the poor peasant Thu Hue was happening in her soul.

What a terrible repeat Lan Vien’s fate received!

Could Vien’s body thaw into water?

Vien showed Le Diem and Vu San the letter. Three of them were “in the same situation” and the consolation and the understanding were in need.

Lan Vien stayed in Le Diem’s house for a year after she had had a unpaid vacation in Art Association in Hanoi.

She was searching a bit sun in the South which could warm her cold heart.

The instinct of self-preservation always tells us the optimal solutions.

Two drops of quicksilver which are near each other will automatically merge. One year was a short period. However, their “reason” had lasted for very long. The star of memory in the corner of the sky which was vague appeared to flash.

Nothing could prevent Vu San and Lan Vien from their love. She stayed with him without having any wedding. They didn’t want. How very ashamed they were! Lan Vien brought her suitcases to Vu San’s huge building on Red Cross Street and lived there. A soul had been successfully blown into Vu San’s body by Lan Vien herself. The truck carried her things including about Phong’s 100 oil-paints wrapped in nylon paper some of which were collected to decorate in the rooms by Vu San.

In the 90s or thereabouts, the international tourists started visiting Vietnam. They discovered “the treasure of paints” which hadn’t been displayed yet and they bought “the pictures of Vietnamese fragments”. Vietnamese paintings turned out to be the expensive goods.

Lan Vien sent a letter to Thuan Phong in Paris so as to inform him about that. He replied: “It’s not enough for me to use the whole quantity of my pictures to redeem my mistake. I offer you all. Sell them and earn some money for living. Remember that all of them were made of colors and fabrics supplied by revolution. Don’t forget to say thanks to revolution”.

Vu San’s house where receiving Western tourists became a small gallery during the following years. They naturally bargained the prices such as USD 500, USD 1.000 or USD 200. The money was used to appraise the art …

The drawings were sent to European countries. Phong had seen one of them in his acquaintance’s living room by accident. He talked to Mr. Dan and Mr. Lam: “It represents one period of my life, my love history” …

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