The cipher soldier and the secret telegram of General Vo Nguyen Giap
Present from the very first days of its establishment and having been attached to the Truong Son mountains and forests for 17 consecutive years, Colonel Nguyen Duc Mai - the first key soldier of Group 559 - was one of the people who directly announced the order to quickly liberate the South of General Vo Nguyen Giap.
The telegram was transmitted via radio waves nearly a month before April 30, 1975, and if it could be deciphered, the whole world would know about it. However, with advanced encryption techniques, the message conveying the General Staff's orders was kept absolutely secret, and until the very last minute, the enemy was still surprised...
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Currently living in Hung Binh ward (Vinh city), he is 83 years old this year, and has just suffered a heart attack so his health is a bit weak, but when mentioning Truong Son and Group 559, Colonel Nguyen Duc Mai seems to be completely healthy and excitedly tells:
Because I am a private...
One morning in early May 1959, after completing the encoding of three telegrams, I was called to meet Major General Nguyen Don - Commander of Military Region IV. The Commander briefly announced:
- The revolution to liberate the South and unify the country must shift to fighting with both political and diplomatic methods and armed struggle. To ensure the effectiveness of the armed struggle, the Politburo assigned the Central Military Commission to organize a military transport line called Group 559. The forces serving the line have been deployed. The communications department has sent a 15w VTĐ team ahead. As for the cipher department, due to problems, it has not been arranged yet. The Head of the Department has carefully considered and proposed to send you to do this task. What do you think, are there any difficulties or obstacles?
Without hesitation, I stood up and said seriously:
- Report to Commander! I am a Party member, a soldier and a secret agent. I am honored to be entrusted with this important task by my superiors. I am ready to accept the task and promise to fulfill all responsibilities in the best way possible.
On the morning of May 17, my guard and I set off for Quang Binh, and did not arrive until 9:00 p.m. On the morning of May 18, a liaison officer took me to meet Comrade Vo Bam (the group leader) and the commanders. On the 18th and 19th, I got to work, with the entire cryptography and communications department working together to try to contact the contacts. All incoming and outgoing calls were smooth and complete.
On the evening of May 19, the delegation gathered to celebrate Uncle Ho's birthday. The ceremony was simple, concise but very solemn. At around 9:00 p.m., the entire delegation boarded 15 sealed military trucks and headed southeast, all in silence to keep it a secret. Passing Dong Hoi town, the convoy went to Long Dai ferry and then turned west to Vinh Linh and stopped. I admired the majestic, towering mountains and forests surrounding me and asked around and found out that it was Khe Ho area.
Truong Son Memories and Two Paintingshistorical telegram
After building the camp, our radio team was assigned to follow and serve the Forward Command Department led by Captain Chu Dang Chu. The station was located at the top of 1701 Voi Mep Cave, north of Highway 9. The work was mainly carried out at night, so it was extremely difficult, especially in ensuring absolute secrecy. The radio of the 301 Forward Command could only communicate with the radio of the 341 Brigade Commander in Vinh Linh.
The early days of the 559 transport line were extremely difficult, with a lack of living conditions, eating and sleeping in caves, under the canopy of trees, and having to move every two or three days to avoid being discovered. Despite the hardship, everyone was in good health and had been thoroughly indoctrinated in terms of ideology, so we encouraged each other to overcome it with an optimistic spirit, believing in the day of victory. In the poem "Determined to Advance" I wrote a few lines like this:
Determined to stay in Truong Son
Climbing the cliff without losing heart
Even though the hardship is long
Still unwavering, never breaking the oath
The poem encouraged the spirit so the brothers really liked it.
After the first few shipments were successfully transported into Military Region V, the enemy detected our activities and increased patrols and searches day and night. To ensure the secrecy of the transportation route, we had to find every way to avoid leaving any traces. In early April 1961, the Saigon puppet army coordinated with the Lao puppet army to organize a sweep along the two corridors of Route 9. We had to bring the radio station to the top of Ham Nghi cave. There was no drinking water so at night we had to stretch out a tarp to catch the dew and then gather it to drink to quench our thirst. During that sweep, two of our scouts unfortunately fell into an enemy ambush and were killed, one comrade was Tran Tuong (from Quang Nam), the second comrade was Nguyen Duc Thong (from Dien Chau - Nghe An).
From the first core group 301, according to the increasingly urgent requirements of the Southern battlefield, Group 559 was born with the scale of a division including many combined arms, under the talented command of the legendary General Dong Sy Nguyen. From a cryptographic officer, through the process of working in many different positions, I was appointed as the Chief of the Cryptographic Department of the Operations Staff of the Group 559 Command, Deputy Chief of the Cryptographic Department of the 559 Staff; after a while, I was assigned to be the Chief of the Cryptographic Department of the 470th Division.
During my 17 years working in Truong Son, I had decoded, encoded and transmitted thousands of important secret telegrams. The most memorable of these was the secret telegram from General Vo Nguyen Giap with the order issued on April 7, 1975, which stated:
"Fast, faster! Bold, more daring! Seize every hour, every minute, rush to the front. Liberate the South. Fight decisively and win completely! Immediately convey this to party members and soldiers"
The task at that time was for us to immediately decode the contents of the telegram, then encode it according to the new keywords agreed upon with the receiving units and then transmit the order to all units on duty to protect the Ho Chi Minh trail and all units marching on the road. The order was transmitted via radio waves, the enemy side and the world media could all receive the signal. After the transmission, we anxiously and worriedly watched the BBC to see if the secret telegram had been leaked. However, several days later, we still did not hear anything from the international news agency that closely followed the developments of the Vietnam War. It was not until April 30, when our troops entered the gates of Saigon, that the enemy was still surprised.
At 11:00 a.m. on April 30, 1975, we were honored to receive a secret telegram from the Eastern Front Command sent by Lieutenant General Le Trong Tan to the General Staff with the following content:
"At 10:00 a.m. on April 30, the entire 203rd Brigade, E9, E66PB, CX of the 2nd Corps entered Saigon, occupied the Independence Palace, arrested Duong Van Minh, Vu Van Mau and many high-ranking officials of the Saigon puppet government who were in a meeting. Forced Duong Van Minh to go to the radio to announce his surrender (12:00 p.m., Saigon time).
- The 2nd Corps is continuing to deploy forces.
- The 4th Corps continues to capture the targets"
Although we were located in the middle of the Truong Son mountains and forests, we, the secret service soldiers, were among the first to receive the news of victory, even before the General Staff. After receiving the telegram, we immediately deciphered it, created a new key, and transferred it to the next intermediate station to quickly transmit it to the General Staff in Hanoi so that the Party Central Committee leaders could promptly turn on the radio to follow President Duong Van Minh's declaration of unconditional surrender.
Hoang Hao -(according to Colonel Nguyen Duc Mai)
