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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-04855.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-04855
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Title
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Bottom of the Pyramid - Red Viet Prisoner's Story
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Description
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Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about Le Phan Hung, a defector from North Vietnam, page unknown
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Bottom
of the Pyramid-Red Viet Prisoner's Story
I was born in Nam Dinh province. My father is now 54
and is a farmer. My mother is 50. I have an elder brother
and a younger brother and sister. During the French war
(1946-54) we were lucky; nothing was destroyed and my
father did not serve in either army because he had a disease
of the leg.
In 1955-before the agrarian reform-my family had
five hectares (12% acres) of land, two houses and five
water buffalo. But in 1956 after the reform, the government
took away four hectares, one house and three buffaloes.
They said we belonged to the class of landowners. So we
had only one brick house, two water buffalo and one hectare
of land, which produced about 2,500 kilo of padi (unhusked
rice) in a good year. Of the five hectares, the government
gave us the worst land and took the best to divide up for
the poor people for them to work on.
The poor people can keep some of the ration, but give
some of it to the government. My father has to pay taxes
-about 10 kilo of rice for every 25 kilo he produces. But
the ration of what we keep depends on what the peasant
needs, on the quality of the land, on the amount of the
produce. If a family is large and can work more land, they
pay more taxes. Everyone pays their taxes after the padi
is harvested and dried. Then they carry it to the govern-
ment storehouse in sacks slung over their shoulders.
RATIONING
The only thing rationed is clothing. Before 1963, we
could buy as much cloth as we wanted. But in 1963, we
were rationed, eight meters (834 yards) per person per year.
It's the same ration for adults and for children.
We can buy as much food as we want. We have govern-
ment food stores and private shops in the market. The
government store is cheaper, but we must have coupons
for that, and there's a limit on how much you can buy.
But in the private shops we can buy as much as we want.
The limit in the government store is 200 grams (7 ounces)
of meat a day per person; 400 to 500 grams of seafood;
600 grams of rice. We can buy food for as many days as
we want, up to the limit of one month, and we have to
buy it showing our identification cards. The people prefer
the government stores because the price is lower, but if
they want to buy more they go to the market.
(He massaged his leg, rested it on a chair and digressed
to hospital care
In North Viet Nam, it's very easy to go to the hospital;
everyone is admitted. In serious cases, an ambulance carries
the people to the hospital. There are no private doctors.
Women are taken to the hospital for birthgiving, and in
the villages women go to the maternity center and stay
several days before giving birth. There's plenty of medicine
in the north.
RESORTS
In Sam Son, Thanh Hoa province (120 miles south of
Hanoi), there are some nice beaches and a lovely resort
area with two-story villas. Red Chinese people and workers
of the big factories can go to the seashore there. Some
important cadre go for one or two months; those who are
sick can go for three months, which is the maximum period.
I had completed my ninth year of schooling. The
school system in the north usually ends at the 10th year,
with exams at the end of the fourth, seventh and 10th
Infiltrator's route to date, from birth to
capture in South Viet Nam.
LE PHAN HUNG, whose name means "The Heroic One," is a 23-year-old North Vietnamese
private, one of the first Northerners ever captured in Viet Nam's five-year-old war. He was
interviewed at First Vietnamese Army Division headquarters, Hue, 400 miles north of Saigon.
He spoke freely, often stopping to massage his wounded knee, tugging at the gray pajama uni-
form he wore, eagerly accepting an American filtered cigarette or the cup of tea he finished
in four gulps. He wore the famous Ho Chi Minh rubber sandals-made of car tires. Beverly
Deepe, who filled two books of notes in this interview, was the second American he had ever
seen. The first was the helicopter pilot who flew him to Hue. His story is a peephole version of
a closed society in which he stood at the bottom and only the few at the top are known to the
West. There is no way of checking his accuracy. But this is his story, in his words.
Herald Tribune photos by Deverty
23-year-old peasant Le Phan Hung answers his South Vietnamese captors.
year. If I'd passed my 10th year exams and had the money,
I could go to the university.
My dream was to go to medical school. It's a five-year
course in the university. All the university classes are in
Hanoi, which has five faculties: one for agriculture and
forestry; one for medicine; one polytechnical; one teachers;
one all-students school. The last one takes seven years to
finish and includes engineering and arts and sciences.
In the university the government gives food and
lodging, but the family takes care of clothing and books.
Cost to the family is usually 200 dong a year (1 dong
equals U. S. 27 cents). If I'd have gone to the university,
my family would be in a very difficult financial situation.
We have some money after harvest, but it wouldn't have
been enough. My father would have to work at a nearby
brick factory. And my mother would have to go into her
savings to send me money and perhaps we'd have to go
without food sometimes. My family is very unhappy. Of
course, everyone loves each other, but we're very poor.
I went to school in the city of Nam Dinh. The school
used to be run by Catholic priests. It has 20 buildings, 15 in
brick and five with straw roofs.
North Vietnamese schools have three cycles. I was in
the third, which includes grades (or years) 8, 9 and 10.
In this cycle in my school, there were four classes of 8th
graders, four of 9th graders and two for 10th graders,
each with about 50 people. Girls and boys study together
with about 20 girls for every 30 boys in each class.
EDUCATION
My home was 10 kilometers (six miles) from Nam Dinh,
and I rode a motorized cycle to school every day and went
home at night. Some students had bicycles and a few had
motorized bicycles. In a class of 50, 15 students would have
bicycles and two or three would have motorized ones.
Bicycles cost 400 dong; they're made in Czechoslovakia.
Gas costs 1.2 dong per liter. A notebook of 20 sheets costs
.6 dong and cigarettes cost 1 dong for one brand and .5 dong
for another brand.
Thirty teachers taught in the school. I studied math,
chemistry, physical sciences for about 12 hours a week.
Also geography for two hours; history for two hours; litera-
ture for two hours. We had no military training in school.
In 1961-'62 my school taught Russian for four hours
a week. But in 1961-'62 my school taught it only one
hour a week. There are no Chinese language classes. I
didn't study any foreign languages, but if a student wants
to specialize in any language he can go to a foreign language
school in Hanoi.
Also about four hours a week we had political studies
and learned about Marxism. The teachers were administra-
tive cadre from the Vietnamese governmental services and
were members of the Communist party.
These classes are very boring. It takes too many hours
of study to the detriment of other classes-it takes time
away from math for example. Political studies are for the
third cycle only; in the second cycle-grades 5-6-7-the
students are too small.
ADVISERS
The political studies are mainly about what is com-
munism. We studied about Mao, but not about Khrushchev.
We didn't study Russian communism, but only Chinese-
the biography of Mao, about the Long March and the
liberation of China. But nothing about his theory of wars
of liberation-as is going on in South Viet Nam.
Some students think Mao is a myth and our studies
are not too close to the truth. Some students want to see
him, some don't. With the people, it is the same; some like
him, some don't. Some older people studied history and
know China has dominated Viet Nam in the past and Mao
is the leader of China. I wouldn't like to meet Mao.
I didn't see Russians and Chinese in Nam Dinh very
often, so I couldn't notice any change in numbers. The
Chinese are technicians; they help build roads, bridges,
hydroelectric plants and help with urban planning. They
helped build a steel plant in Thai Nguyen province (40 miles
north of Hanoi). It's been in production two years already.
It's a big center with a 40-kilometer (30-mile) perimeter.
And big high furnaces produce the steel.
We had no Russian teachers in school, but there were
many Russians with the government administrative serv-
ices in Nam Dinh-maybe 20 to 30. I saw a small car with
a Vietnamese chauffeur driving three Russians around Nam
Dinh once. The Chinese were more numerous than the
Russians in Nam Dinh, but I last saw Nam Dinh in April,
1963. I don't know how many are in Hanoi. All foreigners
are dressed in civilian clothes. I've never seen a foreigner
dressed in military clothes.
The North Vietnamese people have no opinion about
the government. We don't see the government very often
except Independence Day (Sept. 2, when Ho Chi Minh set
up his first government in 1945). I saw Ho Chi Minh at a
political celebration in 1962. He was bigger and fatter than
before. He was very simply dressed and spoke very simply to
the people. Everyone loves Ho Chi Minh.
INVASION
Pham Van Dong (Premier) is well known in the govern-
ment and Gen.. Vo Nguyen Giap (army commander-in-chief)
is well known in the military. During the battle of Dien
Bien Phu (the defeat of the French in 1954) Ho Chi Minh
and Giap came to the battlefield and led the battle. I was
very young then, but I heard people talk about it.
Since 1961, the government propaganda said the Ameri-
cans are invading Viet Nam and the South Vietnamese
would march toward the north. Before coming to South
Viet Nam, I was told we'd liberate it, but we weren't told
many details about the south. The army didn't tell us
much about the south either.
But the North Vietnamese people don't believe the
southerners will march towards the north. Each part of the
country would stay separate, but maybe the government
people at a higher level think differently.
The government started the propaganda that the
southerners would invade North Viet Nam so the people
would work twice as hard and give contributions to save
the country, but there are no trenches or civil defense in
Nam Dinh when I left. Just north of the 17th parallel they're
digging many trenches though.
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Date
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1964, Aug. 9
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives; Vietnam (Democratic Republic); Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Defectors--Vietnam; Vietnam (Democratic Republic). Quân đội
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Container
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B4, F6
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Format
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newspaper clippings
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
