Lieutenant General Nguyen Quoc Thuoc: Life story

(Baonghean) - The house of the famous General is located quietly in a small alley, hidden in the middle of bustling Hanoi. Every day, in his living room, the aroma of Nghe An green tea still exudes warmth. He expressed: "This is genuine Nghe An green tea. I have to order it from my hometown and have it sent by bus. Every 10 days, only Nghe An green tea from my hometown is both bitter and fragrant," he said.

More in the army than at home

Asking for directions to his house was not difficult, because just standing at the top of the hill and asking passersby about the house number, people exclaimed: "Ah, it's Lieutenant General Thuoc's house, right? Just go through that alley and you'll get there."

Lieutenant General Nguyen Quoc Thuoc and his wife.

When I met him, I asked him this question, and he slowly answered: “In the past, I worked at the macro level, but now that I have returned to the grassroots level, I work at the micro level, and I see many valuable things. Therefore, there is no activity of the neighborhood group, ward, or association that I do not participate in. Therefore, many people know about it,” he explained.

The heroic memories of the days in the army uniform, covered in dust from the long march, kept coming back to him, clear and vivid like color films...

Born in Nghi Dien (Nghi Loc district, Nghe An), Nguyen Quoc Thuoc grew up and quickly absorbed the seething atmosphere of the revolutionary movement in Nghe An at that time. Having just finished the course of Co-le de Vinh School, the revolutionary movement was on the rise, the Viet Minh organization was developing strongly. The young man Nguyen Quoc Thuoc quickly realized: "From then on, the summer sun was shining in me/The sun of truth shone through my heart" (poem by To Huu), he secretly joined the Viet Minh. Life seemed to have arranged for him a path of revolutionary career, in every position he fulfilled his duties well and was quickly assigned to hold important responsibilities. The turning point that led him to military life was in 1949, when he was the Secretary of the Youth Union of Nghi Loc district, he volunteered to join the army and was admitted to study at the Tran Quoc Tuan Officer School.

His military career began from there, and he summarized it in a general sentence: "After fighting the French, he fought the Americans, then he performed duties in friendly countries, and then he participated in protecting the country in the border war." He was present at fierce battles and commanded important attacks. In 1975, Colonel Nguyen Quoc Thuoc, as Chief of Staff of the 3rd Corps, together with Commander, Major General Vu Lang, and Political Commissar Colonel Dang Vu Hiep, commanded the 3rd Corps, bravely attacking, contributing to the great victory of the nation in the Spring of 1975.

The country was at peace, the war was over, and he was given the important responsibility of being the Chief of Staff of Military Region 4. His life was associated with heroic battles and glorious victories... but behind him, his wife was still quietly "commanding" an equally fierce battle, which was to fight her youth without her husband by her side, to raise her children, and to shoulder the "kingdom" of her husband's family.

He spoke eloquently of his hectic years on the battlefields, but when he mentioned his wife, the general’s eyes seemed to droop. He confided: “My wife hardly had any youth, because having a husband like me, she spent all her time on wars. I spent more time with my comrades than with my family,” he concluded.

Talking about his marriage, he said: “Getting married was like going to war. From the time we were introduced to the time we got married, it was only 15 days!”

At that time, during the war, he was on duty in Quang Binh. Because this was a newly liberated area, there was a rule that officers were not allowed to marry in the occupied area. He wanted to marry a wife in his hometown but had no time to take leave, so even though he was over 30, he was still single.

Love only came to him when, during a short visit to his hometown, he happened to meet the District Party Secretary. The District Party Secretary patted him on the shoulder and asked: "How is it, do you have a wife and children?". He awkwardly answered no and explained the reason. "Okay, let me introduce you to my nephew", said the District Party Secretary. Immediately after that, a quick matchmaking was arranged for the young couple, both families agreed, the young couple agreed, 15 days after arriving in Hanoi to take up the assignment, he also quickly returned to his hometown to get married...

Silent rear

Officially becoming his wife, that was also the time when the 18-year-old bride Phan Thi Thuy wore out her youth in the days of waiting for her husband. Just after getting married and leaving for duty, her mother-in-law "gave instructions" to her daughter-in-law to follow her husband to the military base to have a child together. When the first child was born, he continued to receive orders to march to a new position. Not daring to tell his wife the truth, because he knew that war could not foresee all risks, he lied to his wife that he went to see a fortune teller, who said he had to have a child this year, otherwise God would only give them one child. When the second child was born, he was also away from his wife for a whole decade. The rare time he saw his child was only a little over an hour, then he hurriedly left again. There were times when the couple had no news of each other...

Quietly taking care of her children and waiting for her husband, but the wife's anxiety about her husband's safety still makes her heart yearn. Not only does he admire his wife's ability to take care of the family, he also admires her recklessness. He said: "Twice, my wife traveled a long distance to find me with just a short message that she heard that the unit I commanded had just fought somewhere."

The first time was after the liberation of the South in 1975. Hearing that the 3rd Army Corps participated in the liberation of Saigon, she took a bus alone for 4 days to Saigon to find her husband. However, his 3rd Army Corps had withdrawn to Thu Dau Mot (now Binh Duong). When she met the soldiers, she asked about him and his unit, but everyone shook their heads and said they didn't know. For 4 days, she struggled in Saigon with only a short message and her hope of finding her husband was fading. She had to wait until Sunday, when the soldiers in his unit were off, to go to Saigon to visit. She happened to start a conversation and ask, at that time, a few people were surprised: "So you are the wife of our chief, please get in the bus so we can take you to meet the chief!"

The second time, his unit received orders to march to the northern border. While stationed in Thai Nguyen, she also brought her teenage son to find her husband. Stopping at the Thai Nguyen Steel Complex, she sought information about her husband through the soldiers. However, because the 3rd Corps was a combat-ready unit at that time, no one was allowed to leave the unit. So it took several days of hopeless searching for her husband, until Sunday, when his assistant came down to receive the mission, coincidentally met her and brought her to the unit, and the couple was reunited.

He concluded that he and his wife were “like the moon and the sun”, because when the husband was in the South, the wife was in the North, when the husband went to the North, the wife was in the South, and when he retired and wanted to make up for his love for his wife, she also suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed: “My wife did not have a happy youth, we got married but did not have a day to go out together, like other couples”, he said then suddenly stopped, looked into the next room, where she was sitting motionless in a wheelchair, only her eyes still looking at her husband.

Green tea flavor

In 1997, after retiring, he officially returned to his family in Hanoi. The most vivid memories of Hanoi in his memory are still the days when he was in Quang Binh. “There were times when we had to go to Hanoi for meetings, we had to ride bicycles. From Quang Binh to Hanoi, we had to ride bicycles for three days straight...”, he recalled.

He confided that after retiring, he intended to stay in Nghe An, because that was his hometown. The provincial leaders also wanted to keep him to join the provincial Veterans Association, however, the comrades at the Central level wanted him to join the Central Veterans Association. So he left his hometown Nghe An for Hanoi. “Hanoi is the heart of the whole country. Coming to the capital to continue contributing to life, but my roots are still Nghe An. I still feel homesick in my blood,” he expressed.

As if he wanted me to understand his feelings of nostalgia better, he lifted his cup of green tea, took a sip, and then slowly said, the general idea being that his nostalgia for his homeland was as strong as the taste of this green tea. After so many years, it was still as bitter as ever!

Article and photos:Ho Viet Thinh