HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — In 1954, Col. Le Dac Nhi left his wife and 5-year-old son to join the Viet Cong army in South Vietnam.
It would be 21 years before he saw them again.
Today, Nhi, now 90, contends the sacrifice was worthwhile.
“All our sacrifices and hardships were worth the victory in 1975,” he says.
As journalists and U.S. veterans gathered in Ho Chi Minh City for the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Viet Congs had a tribute of their own that included an afternoon of speeches, singing, and dancing.
For Nhi and many of his communist comrades in Ho Chi Minh City, sacrifice was just part of the price to free their country of foreign domination. Some say this dedication was North Vietnam’s secret weapon against the more powerful forces of the United States.
The jungles and rice paddies served as home for Col. Pham Ngoc Loi from 1952 until the end of the war in1975. Now 70, Loi says he did not see his family for 23 years because they were living in an area that was controlled by the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese forces. He did not even know his parents had died until after the war ended.
But Loi, who was in the final assault that toppled the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government a quarter of a century ago, says he has no regrets.
“We fought a legitimate struggle for our national independence,” Loi says. “We also firmly believed in the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. We thought we would win eventually, so we faced many hardships.”
Nguyen Thi Sau, 67, who was part of the Viet Cong army in Ho Chi Minh City’s Nha Be district, says she can’t describe the happiness she felt when she learned that the war was over.
“I was so happy, I was running in the street, telling everyone to fly their [liberation] flags and rejoice,” says Sau, who tracked the approach of the rebel army troop into Saigon over the radio.
The price of liberation came at a hefty toll for Sau. Her husband, also a trooper in Nha Be, was killed in action a little over a year after their marriage in 1967. She never remarried.
Sau says she also lost a brother and seven other family members in battle, which made the April 30 anniversary a particularly poignant event for her.
“My people were killed and many people in my family were killed, and they all fought for that day,” she says. “Reunification and liberation were long a desire of the Vietnamese people and they finally achieved it. Our job now is to concentrate on the economic development of the country and improve the lives of the people.”
— Tran Ha, a reporter for poynter.org., and her family fled Vietnam when she was a baby. She is in Ho Chi Minh City to cover the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and to reconnect with her past.
