Lesson 1: Late Memories

(Baonghean) -In the last days of November 2012, at the invitation of Khammouane Province (Laos), the group of former experts 37 from Nghe An Province who had gone to help their friend during the war against America returned to visit the place where they had devoted their strength and blood for the brotherhood of the two nations and the noble international friendship. For the former experts, Laos is their second homeland... Nghe An Newspaper reporters went along, recording their feelings and impressions about Laos.

The 11 former experts of Group 37 in Nghe An this year are mostly between 65 and 85 years old. When invited by Khammouane Province (Laos) to revisit their old workplace and battlefield, everyone was enthusiastic and excited to set off. Because Khammouane is a part of our flesh and blood, a place that marks our deep affection... From Vinh City, the delegation followed the Ho Chi Minh Trail to Khe Ve intersection, turned onto Highway 12A to Cha Lo International Border Gate, Quang Binh Province to go to Khammouane. The road to the border gate was smooth, and the officials of the neighboring province had been waiting to welcome and lead the delegation since the morning.

Kham Muon is located in the Lower Laos region (formerly the Kingdom of Vientiane), bordering Bolikhamxay province to the north, Savannakhet province to the south, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces (Vietnam) to the east and Nakhon Phanom province (Thailand) to the west; the province currently has 9 districts and 1 town. On the top of Truong Son (Laos call it Xaiphouluang), the car taking the group gradually descended the altitude, passing 150km towards Thakhek town - the provincial capital of Kham Muon, located on the Mekong River. Kham Muon is now at the beginning of the dry season, this year the rainy season ended early so the mountains and forests are withered. Mr. Xi-Thon Mom-Xai-Nhom, Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of Kham Muon province, said: Lao people in Kham Muon are currently doing wet rice farming, upland rice farming, raising livestock, poultry and small-scale handicraft production. Currently, Vietnam is one of the three largest investors in the province... The former experts asked the Kham Muon cadres about the situation of the Lao friends who had eaten, lived, and fought with them in the past; asked for their addresses to visit, and were sad because some of them were no longer with them.

Meet old comrades and teammates

To help you fight for independence as well as build the country, from 1965 to 1975, our State had a policy of establishing C committees - sending experts in all fields to help you, there were tens of thousands of Vietnamese cadres going to Laos. This was an army without ranks or insignia but fought and contributed no less than the regular armed forces... Kham Muon in those years was divided into two zones: the free zone and the occupied zone; in districts like Lang Khang or Bua La Pha, many villages were wiped out by bombs, B52s "carpeted" this place twice a day... The car took the group to the intersection where the historic Tay Truong Son road began (formerly Lang Khang district, now merged with Bua La Pha).

Mr. Le Duc Muoi, 74 years old, in Do Luong district (formerly a lecturer at the Water Resources College who became a basic construction expert to help his friend from 1967 to 1974) said: “Lang Khang is a land where every day, Lao cadres, soldiers, and people have to “put their backs on” to endure bombs and bullets; napalm bombs, flare bombs, and Agent Orange were dropped on the shelters of the youth volunteers; leaf mines and countless tropical trees. Sometimes, people who were in front only took a few steps back to look, and the bodies of their comrades and teammates behind them had been bombed and blended into the grass and trees.” For Mr. Muoi, the unforgettable painful memory was in 1969, when they arrived at Ko Pao village one night, Mr. Muoi and his teammates went into a cave to ask the villagers for a place to stay; at 4am, the villagers woke them up to leave early to avoid the bombs dropped during the day; after walking for about 2 hours, they heard the sound of bullets and falling bombs behind them. That morning, none of the 100 villagers of Ko Pao village survived – as he spoke, tears rolled down Uncle Muoi's wrinkled cheeks.

The old scenery and old objects still seem to be here. Mr. Pham Ngoc Lai (Anh Son Town), 67 years old, a former hydrometeorological expert, can still name the rivers, streams, and creeks that he and his Lao friends had crossed and measured data to build works to serve the resistance war. And it must have been a strong determination for the friendship of the two nations that helped the cadres overcome the malignant malaria, the dangers of bombs, falling trees, swallowing rivers, tigers... Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, 70 years old (a forestry expert who helped his friends from 1966-1975) told about the 9 years of active activities in Kham Muon land. He confided: in 1969, he and Xi Thon, the Laotian militia platoon leader (later the Chairman of Khammouane province) and 38 others fought against a 200-man enemy battalion in the bamboo forest of Noong Bok district. Everyone bravely rushed forward, shot the commander dead and pushed back the enemy. During the Vietnamese New Year, Laotians secretly went into the forest to provide supplies by putting candy and medicine in bags and throwing them on the roads they often traveled, with the labels "gifts for Vietnamese New Year."

In the forest, there were no vegetables to eat. Seeing our cadres enjoying the bundles of water spinach that overseas Vietnamese gave them, the Lao people encouraged each other to plant a lot of vegetables in the forest with the message, "Feel free to take those vegetables and eat them." And conversely, when Vietnamese cadres worked here, when they returned to the liberated areas, they left any good clothes for the people, shared anything delicious, and when people were sick, they used all the medicine to treat them. For that reason, the people trusted and protected them very much... Uncle Nguyen Van Dung had an adopted son in this Kham Muon - in 1970, he worked in Xieng Le village, Tha Khek, an occupied area. The 6-year-old son of Mr. Kham Xay - the village's Party cell secretary, was exposed to the heat and then bathed in cold water, so his illness developed complications and worsened into pneumonia, meningitis, and intestinal spasms. Despite the danger surrounding him, Uncle Dung and the doctor stayed for three days to treat him by injecting antibiotics, heart stimulants, tonics, massage, and blowing on a papaya tube to clear his intestines. The child recovered, and the villagers held a ceremony for the child to accept Uncle Dung and the doctor as their adoptive fathers.

The story of you helping me and me helping you is very long, like Mr. Nguyen Van Cau, 74 years old, in Nghi Trung commune, Nghi Loc district (an irrigation and agriculture expert who helped you from 1965 to 1975) remembers the story in 1968, he saved the life of the wife of a comrade of the Na Kai district Party Committee, a Lao Thong ethnic, living in Tong village because she had postpartum illness. When Mr. Cau and his cadres went to the village, they encountered a case where the wife of the district Party Committee member had just given birth and suffered from postpartum hemorrhage. The family invited a shaman, but the shaman made her sit and hug sticky rice and chicken to worship; after about five hours, due to heavy blood loss, the wife collapsed and fainted. Mr. Cau, who had been relatively trained in first aid work, from 9 pm to 5 am, he injected 40 tubes of Vitamin K, B1, B12 and supplements for his wife; instructed the family to roast hot rice and salt and apply it to her abdomen. By morning, her health had basically recovered. All the medicine the working team brought was left for the family and they were told to go to the fields to get the fibers from old luffa fruits, burn them to ashes, mix them with boiling water and give her to drink - to supplement Vitamin K...

Uncle Dang Van Nong recounted the memory of 1969, when he and his comrades were having a party cell meeting in a cave gathering goods in Tha Thot village, Nhom Ma Lath district, when they were discovered and heavily bombed by the enemy. He was injured and thought to be dead, but as soon as the bullets and bombs stopped, the villagers rushed in to help him. From 2:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m., the villagers unloaded dozens of tons of goods and moved them to a safe place.

Mr. Pham Xuynh, former Head of the Propaganda Expert Group assisting the Propaganda Department of Kham Muon province from 1966 to 1973, expressed: Always wishing that the two countries Vietnam and Laos will forever continue to cooperate closely, opening up new directions of cooperation, especially in the fields of education, health, trade, culture, tourism, science and technology, human resource training, investment and cooperation in economic development, border protection to help each other develop further... Stories from not so long ago about the homeland of Nghe An, the homeland of Kham Muon seem to bring the distance closer.

Arriving at the Mekong Hotel of Truong Son Tourism Company - a member unit of the Economic Cooperation Company of Military Region 4, in Tha Khek Town, comrade Kham Bay Dam Lat, Secretary - Governor of Kham Muon Province, came to welcome the delegation. Comrade Kham Bay affirmed: The traditional and special friendship between the Lao PDR and Vietnam in general, Kham Muon Province and other provinces in Vietnam in particular, has been nurtured through many generations, forever lasting and nothing can separate it. Over the years, the relationship between the two countries and two provinces has been increasingly consolidated and developed. During the war, the Lao people always remembered the great contributions of the Party, State, Army and people of Vietnam; during the journey of national recovery and reconstruction, Vietnam continued to help Laos in both material and spiritual terms...

Late afternoon, the Mekong River was covered in purple mist, and the streets in Tha Khek Town and Nakhon Phanom Town (the province with the Uncle Ho Relic Site, Thailand) on the other side of the river were lit up. The former experts of Group 37 excitedly invited each other to visit the homes of their old friends in their homeland of Khammouane.
(To be continued)

Thanh Chung