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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-06457 to 363-06464.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-06457 to 363-06464
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Title
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Article about a wedding and marriage in Vietnam
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Description
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Original title: "VIET CONG LOVE AND MARIAGE", Keever's title: "A Viet Cong Wedding in Jungle if Celebrated 20 miles from Saigon", article about a wedding and marriage in Vietnam, 2nd of 5-part series
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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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Deepe Women-article 2 of 5 article series page 1 October 6, 1965 VIET CONG LOVE AND MARRIAGE BINH DUONG, SOUTH VIETNAM--The bride wore the traditional peasant’s black pajamas, the groom looked resplendent in his khaki uniform decorated with the insignia of the commander of the village guerrillas. The 22-year-old bride received a few handkerchiefs from her fellow Viet Cong nurses “but nothing more important than that.” The 27-year-old groom received “best wishes” from his Viet Cong subordinates and superiors. The bride and groom exchanged photographs of each other, “but we had no money and only gave each other souvenirs.” The Godmothers of the Liberation Army fighters served sweetcakes, candy and tea during the dusk to midnight celebration; the groom’s Viet Cong [insertion: commander--]a political cadre--[deletion: commander] talked with the bride’s commander--a doctor--and they agreed the marriage was on; then the bride’s mother and the groom’s 54-year-old father also agreed; and the celebration rolled on until midnight. There were [insertion: no] bridesmaids or best men; no wedding ring, no marriage certificates [deletion: or] nor religious rites, (“the Viet Cong don’t believe in these superstitions”); instead the two Viet Cong superiors of the bride and groom verbally pronounced them married and “it was generally accepted we were married.” (More) Deepe Women-article 2 of 5-article series page 2 Then, at midnight, the young bride returned to treat the Viet Cong wounded and the groom returned to his village to command his guerrilla units. Only, one week later, after requesting permission from their Viet Cong superiors, did the young couple again see each other and spend the night together. The eyes of Mrs. Nguyen van [deletion: Lon] Long twinkled as she recalled her wedding in the jungle village of _[insertion: Phu My Hung]_, only _[insertion: twenty]_ miles northwest of Saigon and _[insertion: two]_ miles from a large government training center. Her husband explained with delight that “it was love at first sight”--but the marriage in the fall of 1963 was arranged in traditional Vietnamese fashion through an elder mediator. Mr. [deletion: Lon] Long sitting in [insertion: a] Vietnamese government re-education center, explained: “My father introduced me to the Viet Minh (the pro-Communists fighting the French during the French Indo-China War) in 1974 and when I was nine years old I became one of their liaison boys; I stayed with them until 1954 when the war ended. After that, I remained in the Ho Bo jungle (a renowned Communist stronghold for decades) until 1960 when we started to fight the Americans. Deepe Women-article 2 of 5-article series page 3 In 1964, when I was [deletion: only 27] 26, I became commander of all the village guerrillas; generally each hamlet (a subdivision of a village) has one squad and one squad leader which has the two fold responsibility to defend their own village against intruders and to attack the government villages. I was commander of all the guerrillas in the village. One day [insertion: I] was on a mission with two of my men; afterwards we dropped in to see the 12 girl nurses at the hospital and I saw this one nurse and [insertion: I told my] two guerrilla-comrades she’s a very nice girl. The others said ‘If you love her why don’t you push on and get her.’ I replied: ‘Alright, I shall try.’ My comrades advised me to see an elder villager and ask for his help to arrange the marriage. [deletion: He] I took a 10-piastre (ten cents) tea package when I went to the elder’s home and told him the problem. The elder found out about girl-nurse’s background;--and told her ‘you know that young man--he’s in love with you,--what about you--do you love him.’ She told the elder yes. Deepe Women-article 2 of 5 article series page 4 So both of us put in duly typed our requests to our individual Viet Cong commanders. Then I was sent on a two-week mission and she was also on another mission. When we both returned, her commander and my commander got together with the village elder…and a private meeting of the girl I loved and myself was arranged--we talked about background of each other and then we decided firmly to get married. We both got approval from our commanders. We set a date; I typed out 10 invitation cards and she typed out 25 invitation cards, but I also verbally asked 15 others to come to the wedding--so about 50 people came. Mrs. Long talked vivaciously, and wiped her sweaty hands on her pink pajama-blouse--one of the two she owned. She had never owned a Vietnamese dress. She was brighter and more politically conscious than her husband and by far the stronger personality of the two. Her husband listened intently as she spoke, as though he were already henpecked. She explained why she joined the Viet Cong and what she did for them: “In 1961, when I was 18, I was recruited and sent to a medical training school for 3 months; I did so well the Viet Cong sent me to Ho Bo jungle base for 6 months’ training under a surgical unit. That’s where I met my husband. Deepe Women-article 2 of 5-article series page 5 In 1961, I was a girl in business, catching crabs and shrimps and selling them. There was a Viet Cong cell in my village; one man looked after everything. He recruited me into the organization; I had to do everything including intelligence; I had to go through alot of hardships for 3 months, including cleaning the latrines until the Viet Cong were satisfied with me, then they proposed to send me for three-months training to be a medical nurse where I learned to give injections, apply bandages and feed the wounded. There were two women with me and two young men; at any one time there weren’t more than 10 people. Sometime the patients were nice; sometime very vulgar and swearing, but [deletion: the] we women had to calm them down. After six months of serving in the hospital I was sent to Ho Bo jungle for higher-level medical training with a surgical team. I was given six months’ training there as part of a 12-women medical team under the supervision of a doctor.” Asked why she joined the Viet Cong, she talked excitedly, her eyes sparkled [deletion: or] as though she had spun into a new exciting world: “The Viet Cong from the village executive committee gave me the propaganda line that this is a feudal society--that we had to standup and have a new society; we had to liberate the country and so on. I was so happy. I wasn’t afraid. There were so many people like me--it was fun. Deepe Women--article 2 of 5 article series page 6 In 1960, the Viet Cong village executive committeeman asked me to ‘struggle’--this involved seven or eight villages and if everyone from all these villages converged at one time there would be 7000 to 8000 people. I was flattered by the Viet Cong. They had demonstration banners--’down with’...and ‘long live’...I didn’t make any banners, but one man who did was arrested; the executive committee told me and another girl to go to the government district center compound to ask for the release of the man. We two got in; the one girl was badly beaten, but I wasn’t. The man was released. After the success of this, many thousand people came to a [XXXX indicating deletion] big meeting--there weren’t enough seats for them all to sit on--I and the other girl got the seats of honor and they gave us a big ovation because the man was released. The crowd was in the thousands. This was in 1960--when the military struggle against the Saigon government began. When a struggle was successful the Viet Cong bought soft drinks and chicken and everyone ate heartily and was very happy; but when the struggle failed, no one had the heart to eat. We had four demonstrations in 1960. Everyone from every family had to go; the Viet Cong came and persuaded people from the each family to go; if they didn’t go the Viet Cong said these people are complacent and want only quiet--they are afraid to die--and hence are cowards. Deepe Women-article 2 of 5 article series page 7 So, after this success in 1960, I joined the Viet Cong. First, I was in a woman’s intelligence cell. The women sent intelligence to the Viet Cong village council and the council sent it up to the Viet Cong district committee. For example, I’d go to a coffeehouse and have coffee and look at the government district center, where the government troops would have a flag-raising ceremony at 7 a.m. every day. I’d take note of how many government troops, how many rifles, what kind of rifle; then I’d go home and write it down and mark it HOA TOC (very urgent) and I would walk to the village executive committee and hand the letter to the secretary-general. They’d send it to the district. I’d stay near the district center and see if a big operation was beginning; I’d watch everything and report it to the Viet Cong. But, when the women’s intelligence cell was broken up, I went into the medical program.” In the autumn of 1963, she married the village guerrilla commander. Based in separate villages, they received permission from their Viet Cong superiors to see each other three times during the following 18 months. Deepe Women-article 2 of 5 article series page 8 “If we wanted to see each other, we would put in requests for seven days leave every three months,” her husband explained. “Generally we got only two or three days leave instead of seven. The first time I got leave to see my wife was for our honeymoon. The second time was almost a year later when our baby was 5 days old. Then we talked of defecting, from the Viet Cong, but we didn’t have the means, (Also significantly, an American B-52 raid in the Ho Bo jungle killed [deletion: Mrs. Long’s] three of Mrs. Long’s medical associates, including her doctor-superior.) The third time, I saw her, our baby Thao (Herb) was five months old; I told my wife, ‘we have a family now, we can’t go on like this. We had better give ourselves up to the government. We have no future with the Viet Cong.’” On July 21, this year the young married couple walked two kilometers to a district town and caught a bus to this Vietnamese government provincial capital.
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Date
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1965, Oct. 6
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Women; Mặt tráºn dân tá»™c giải phóng miá»n nam Việt Nam; Soldiers; Weddings
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Location
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Bình Dương Province, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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11.3254; 106.4770
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B187, F6
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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
