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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06615 to 363-06630.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06615 to 363-06630
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Title
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Article about a journey along the Ho Chi Minh Trail
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Description
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Original title: "rally", Keever's title: "North Vietnamese Trooper Walks 800 Miles on Ho Chi Minh Trail for 10 Months", Article draft about North Vietnamese soldier Đinh Công Ba's trek across Vietnam on the Hồ Chí Minh Trail, for the Christian Science Monitor
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AI Usage Disclosure
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Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.
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Transcript
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2020 888
yy 1jp
rally 1 (normass/deepe)
44
BIEN HOA, SOUTH VIETNAM, February 13-One of the greatest
foot-odysseys in modernt times is being imprinted on the soles of
South Vietnam and the soul of * America by the spartan Ho Chi Minh
sandals. The austere foor footwear, named after the North Vietnae
Vietnamese President, is made of rubber tire treax treads on the soles
and the inter-tube lining for the straps which shod the North Vietnamese
marchers.
==more reuter
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
rally 2 (normass/deepe)
In Homer's epic poem,
Ulysses wandered about for
ten years; but for Dinh Cong Ba, the beginning and end of his
journey was telescoped into ten months to the exact date. The
along with tens of
sign signicance of Ba's journey, like thousands of his young comrades,
indicates the war in South Vietnam is becoming increasingly North
Vietnamese supplied, manned and directed on the Communist side.
The American military command now calls these 1 odysseys a "North
Vietnen Vietnamese invasion of the South," their intelligence
sestien has officially estimated half of the Communist military
strength an in South Vietnam is derived from North Vietn the North.
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2020 sag
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rally 3 (normass/deepe)
The martial odyssey of Dinh Cong Ba began on March 31, 1967
in North Vietnam; ten months to the day later, he was a combattant in
the Communists' Cross-country general offensive into South Vietnamese
towns and cities.
For ten months, the slight-framed North Vietnamesex/Army
trooper transversed four countries: North Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia.
and South Vietnam. His journey totalled more than
800
miles all on foot.
The finale of his destination resulted in participation in the attack
near the Bien Hoa airbase, about twenty miles from Saigon, where he was
He
later interviewed at the government's center for ralliers.
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2020 seg
Jy 1jp
rally 4 (normans/deepe)
He had been told " by his superiors before the
You will celebrate Tet
attack: "You must now make sacrifices.
(Vietnamese lunary new year) after the battle. This is to be
a decisive victoy victory--the big battle." His military unit
was called "Finish the War" companyl company.
He was not told by his immediate superior to expect
a "general uprising" of support from the South Vietnamese population,
as American and South Vietnamese officials have said publicly.
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zozo sag
yy 1jp
rally 5 (normass/deepe)
The 24-year-old Ba was born in Han B Hoa Binh province, Omiles
of Hanoi. A member of the Muong tribal group, rather than ethnic
the weary ex-soldier wore a brown uniform
Vietnamese in extraction,
given him by the government and a pair of Ho Chi Minh sandals. The
arms and face of the young soldier was pimpled from mosquito bites and
the scratches of bramble bushes in the forest.
Ba's parents in North Vietnam lived in a four-room house and
farmed one hectare (2.5 acres) of riceland in the Communist agricultural
cooperative. Ba had worked on the cooperative along with his two
brothers before being drafted for the North Vietnamese Army on cot.
October 29, 1966. Rather well educated with the equivalent of an
eleventh grade education, Ba was trained for three months in Tanh
Thanh Hoa province along the x seacas_seacos se Gulf of Tonkin coast.
He received a salary of five dong a month, two army uniforms and a pair
of the Ho Chi Minh sandals he wore all the way to the South.
alot when
left.
"I got 15 days leave with my family before leaving for the South," Ba
said. "My parents oried
I love my
parents very much.
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zozo seg
yy 1jp
rally 6 (normass/deepe)
Then, the North Vietnamese leg of his oddys odyssey
began. On March 31, 1967, he began marching on foot, crossing the
rivers by boat, since the bridges were knocked out and picking the
"right moment" xxxmamanzum to avoid being bombed by American
aircraft. After a month mon one month march, he departed the North
and crossed into the Laotian panhandle somewhere between the Ben Hai
River, dividing North and South Vietnam, and the heavily bombed
Mu Gia puse mountain pass.
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2020 sag
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rally 7 (normass/deepe)
BA
BATTL
entered marched
In Laos, he and his 750-marr
along the famed, multi-fingered Ho Chi Minh Trail. Road-lets used in
the daytime were covered by the triple canopy of hoa Laotian Junge jungle;
open spaces were travelled only at night.
Each
He marched passed Tohepone
and near Attopeau, where he saw the tire tracks of trucks.
day's march coincided with appropriately placed liaison agent's outposts
and shelters; each day a new guid lead his bands unit, re-routing
when necessary to avoid areas bombed by American aircraft. He recalled
seeing American flares, bombs bombing and the use of defoliants
= Mort
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2020 888
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The Laotian leg of the odyssey required two months.
Towards the end of June, last year, the battalion then
jogged into South Vietnam Kontum province of South Vietnam. As they
entered, the battalion suffered its first and only casualty from
airstrikes. One of the 750-man unit was killed; all the others survived.
Fifty others werd were returned to North Vietnam with illness.
Kontung the unit mamom marched for a week to Dalat, and then swerved
From
into Cambodia.
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2020 sag
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rally 9 Normass/deepe)
"My commanding officer and the liaison guides told us we were
in Cambodia," Ba recalled. "We stayed there two months. We sometimes
saw the Cambodian mountain tribesmen, but not the ethnic Cambodians.
"We were told the Cambodians do not love us and they do not
hate us'.
in Laos,
where the people were pro-Communist,
We were forbidden to buy and sell with the Cambodians,
we could barter with
but
them.
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zozo sag
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Living continuously under the jungle canopy, Ban
and his unit would march for five days, thamamaram at arat rate of
The liaison
and
five or six y hours a day, and then rest for five days.
agents arranged for their rice supplies of 700 grams per man
also supplied for them to carry 1.5 kilos of dried, powdered meat,
400 grams of monosdium glutamate, which with forest vegetables is
used for making soup, and 1.5 kilos of salt. Agin, Again, the unit
and as they
headed for South Vietnam, moving along the Song Be river,
passed one kilometer from a Cambodian post, he was ordered, to "keep
quiet and be vigilant."
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20 sag
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He spent the next six days in Phuoc Long province of
South Vietnam, along the border, where his unit were sw servedas
as replacements for and were integrated half and half with a viet
Southern-borne borne Viet Cong company.
called the "Finish the War" company; the Viet Cong company was the 92
artillery company of the Fifth Viet Cong Division.
about half North Vietnamese and half Southern, inmmumiwas lead by
bocal southerners,
The Ba's company were
The integrated unit,
from section chiefs up to all commanders and including
the political commissar.
"Relations between the Northerners and Southerners
were very good," Ba recalled.
"The political cadre
apoke very well.
He was the spiritual element in the company. When we Northerners were
surprised by the prosperity of the people in the South, the political
cadre explained that they were slaves of material things'. We all
All of us Northerners believed him."
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2020 sag
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rally z 12 (normass/deepe)
In Thuoc Long, the Nom company was also issued
its artillery weapons: five DKZ 75 mm. recoiless anti-tank rifles
and ± eighteen AK-47 automatic rifles. Those without weapons served
as ammunition porters, which was Ba's job. The integrated unit
then moved southward along the Dong gai river towards Bien Hoa, where
their mission was "to attack the Americans, to unify the country
and liberate the people in the South. We were told it would be enough
to have one battle to liberate the
out
Southerners."
But, after two months in Bien Hoa, they unit withdrew;
they were lacking in rice caused "by American tactics." The unit
returned to the Cambodian border area, based near the Phuoo Ha Hoa
river. Here, they received military training, eight hours a day,
ten days a month. The remainder of the months was spent transporting
rice-and the unit orossed into Cambodia to get it.
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SO2C sag
Jy 1jp
rally 13 (normass/deepe)
"Morale was very high at that time beczu because
everyone thought that just one battle was needed to win the war," Ba
said.
One month before Tet, the unit again moved southeast towards
Bien Hoa; ordinarily the journey would have tkane on taken only ten
but they had to oriss-cross back and forth to carry rice and
days,
ammunition.
You will
Before the general offensive, on January 31, the political
cadre addressed the troops: "You must now make sacrifices.
celebrate the Tet after the battle. This is to be a decisive victory-
the big battle." Ba was not issued any escape plans or routes of
withdrawl-as American sources have interpreted this the Communists meant
to say stay hold territory and centers--but Ba said he would only
a soldier of his rank would only follow the orders of the geveien
section chief.
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On the night of January 31, his fifty-man section
moved into position along a road from Phan Thiet, where they were to
ab ambush American tanks and reinforcements. Of the 50 men in the section
eighteen-
assigned to handle the five NZ recoilles rifles
twelve, like Ba, carried ammunition, five carried the DKZ each DKZ,
and the section chief commanded. But,
that night too many fal flares
were being dropped in the vicinity of their position and the unit
did not attack. The second night, the unit waited for orders, but
none came and the unit withdrew early in the morning.
During the withdrawl into the jungles, an 1-19
spotter plane caught a glimpse of them and artillery and airstrikes.
descended upon Ba.
"I was ordered to sa stay in my foxholes, but I lost
I had
"I
my courage and escaped under the cover of smoke," Ba explained.
then came across some villagers who took me to a Roman Catholic priest.
The priest brought me to the government's Chieu Hoi center.
read about the Chieu Hoi program from leaflets in the forest and
I planned to come over to the government once I left my foxhole.
I hadn't thought of defecting to the government before that."
But,
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zozo sag
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Be didn't know how many in his 50-man section might
have been killed by the bombardment of artillery and air, but he
supposed it might be as many as ten.
"It will be imo impossible to arouse the ardor
of the unit now," Ba predicted, "but perhaps the political cadre
will think of some way."
Asked if the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese could
go on fighting for ten or twenty more years,
Minh her publica publicly said, Ba replied:
as President Ho Chi
"Oh, ten or twenty years--that's po propaganda.
But
we think we can go on for another six years."
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2020 386
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Ba said he didn't know if there were men lik Ho Chi
Ba said.
Minh in the South. "In the North, discipline is very severe," /The
people hate the Americans alot. I admire Ho alot; he is very intelligent;
mply
he speaks imply and it is easy to understand him.
But,
there isn't
liberty there."
He did think though, that he preferred the Americans
serving as advisors
he had met (in the government center), to the South Vietnamese government
officials.
When asked his ""aspirations" for the future, Ba
stared through the sled roof a Viet Cong mortar had shattered
a month before, leaving only the charred skeletonal / beams silhouetting
against the sky. Ba said he did not really know what would happen to him.
"Maybe I could join the American army," he said. "I've
now seen how strong it is. I think it will destroy the Communist forces.
He added: "If I joined the American Army I could
follow them it when it invades North Vietnam.
"Then I can see my family once again."
possible,
(Hank: I hope you see fit to zeepage this with map,
in order to give balance to our coverage from here on
North Vietnamese involvement and some of their problems axx too.
I'
Bev).
more on Bien Hoa trip.
Perhaps John will also
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Date
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1968, Feb. 13
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Đinh, Công Ba; Ho Chi Minh Trail; Transportation, Military; Vietnam (Democratic Republic). Quân đội
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Location
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Biên Hòa, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.9574; 106.8427
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B9, F18
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Format
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dispatches
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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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Collector
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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
