Dong Si Nguyen - The general associated with the legendary path

Exactly ten years ago, I had the chance to meet him. To talk, to write about him, on the occasion of the legendary Ho Chi Minh trail celebrating its 50th anniversary.

I remember that day, his health was very poor. His hearing aid and pacemaker accompanied him for four hours as he patiently sat and talked to me. Despite the young clerk coming in and out impatiently, he smiled kindly, waving his hand every time he saw him wink at me to stop the interview.

In 2009, the legendary commander of the trail also entered legend, simultaneously welcoming two great joys. The Truong Son Trail would celebrate its 50th anniversary. And he would welcome his 70th spring in the ranks of the Party.

At that time, General Dong Si Nguyen was 86 years old, but the mind of the military strategist was still very sharp. In the open conversation with the younger generation - me, the milestones of time, events, numbers, strategies that made up the "eight trigrams battle formation through the jungle" were still recounted clearly and concisely by him. It was like turning the pages of a book. It was like watching the slow-motion footage of a glorious military career that had passed.

"Eight Trigrams Formation Through the Jungle"

In an article published in the US Army Forces Journal four decades ago, journalist George Weiss commented: “The Ho Chi Minh Trail was originally based on hundreds of trails for people to run on. But now, it has become a road for motor vehicles. But more frighteningly, it is not simply a supply route but has become a complex network of winding roads with dozens, hundreds of directions. All of that complexity was turned into a bagua map through the jungle by highly organized communist soldiers in the North.”

For the general who had the merit of "transforming", he only first learned the phrase that the Western press respectfully gave to that vital route connecting the great rear with the great front through the words of Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Minh Thao - then Commander of the Central Highlands battlefield.

Lieutenant General Dong Si Nguyen. Photo: Hoang Thuy

According to Western media, “The Truong Son road system was not simply a transportation route, but actually became a fierce battlefield between the efforts of the Northern government to support the Southern communists and the US and allied forces. The US tried every way from the most primitive to the most modern to cut off this strategic transportation route, from electronic equipment, weather and chemical weapons to marching, sweeping, commando sabotage... But the result was that the road still operated.”

During the eight fiercest years of his command (1967-1975), from a small, single road, the Ho Chi Minh Trail became a very large transportation route, with a peak force of 120,000 soldiers, organized into 8 divisions and an attached anti-aircraft missile division. When he took over, the transport force had only 5 battalions with 750 vehicles. That number grew to two transport divisions, with 10,000 vehicles continuously operating for several years after that. Breaking the monopoly, Truong Son road has developed into a complex system with 16,700km of roads (including more than 800km of closed roads, 1,500km of paved roads, 200km of asphalt roads. Besides that, there are 1,500km of oil and gas pipelines, 1,350km of information cables, 3,800km of liaison roads and 500km of rivers.

He and the Command directed the creation of a network of roads and bridges with many vertical axes North - South, East - West Truong Son across all three countries; many horizontal axes connecting the East - West flanks, connecting all battlefields to create a complete and synchronous transportation system, diverse and irregular. Six vertical axes and 21 horizontal axes created a majestic Truong Son road, with the starting point being Tan Ky - Nghe An and the ending point being Loc Ninh - Binh Phuoc in the Southeast region. That intricate network of roads and bridges, like capillaries, diligently transporting blood from the heart day and night to provide nutrients and nourish every corner of the country's body. From simple transportation, we have switched to the form of transportation in combat, under the combined combat of the combined arms. The ingenious "Eight Trigrams Battle Map" has taken shape.

General Dong Si Nguyen and General Vo Nguyen Giap. Photo archive

The general "one night gives birth to a hundred plans"

Holding the responsibility of “commanding troops” on a road - a battlefield thousands of kilometers long, with hundreds of thousands of troops requires the commander to have good management, command, coordination and especially to have broad knowledge in many fields. According to Lieutenant General Dong Si Nguyen, “we never allow our heads to stop thinking, to rest our minds. If we lose this game, we will set up another game. If this method does not work, we must immediately change to another method.”

And that constantly thinking mind gave the commander of Group 559 a special name, the general who "thinks of a hundred plans in one night".

With air defense positions, he shifted from arranging attacks with positions at key points to combining positions with mobile ambushes, and from attacking with anti-aircraft forces of all sizes to combining with missiles.

Roads and bridges have become the hottest and most urgent battlefront because if the enemy attacks and blocks a point on the main traffic route, transportation will immediately stop. Realizing that the main reason is that we only use the single road along the vertical and horizontal axes, he directed to change to breaking the single road situation, combining air defense and strong infantry, opening more vertical and horizontal axes, detours, and bypasses. By doing so, "the enemy keeps fighting, we keep going" is not just a slogan but has become a very positive reality.

He also realized that the driving troops had to be militarized and combatized. Not just simple transportation as in peacetime, but also had to be applied according to military tactics (moving in formation, squadrons, with direct command, with support forces such as: mobile repair teams, tractors, decoy teams, wounded rescue teams... combined with building a dense military system on all routes).

At first, the truck only dared to run at night, at slow speed, over short distances, and it took a lot of time to load and unload goods. From mainly running at night, he directed the truck to run early in the morning - late in the afternoon, then moved to moving during the day, on short sections under dense forest canopies, and finally connected the short sections into a route nearly a thousand kilometers long.

To stay safe, he chose to use some public routes as a diversion. Broken down vehicles, old and worn out vehicles regularly drove back and forth, anti-aircraft fire often returned to the planes to draw the enemy's attention to that direction. Then, on the hidden roads somewhere in the vast jungle, convoys of vehicles rumbled one after another carrying people, goods and weapons to support the battlefields of the South, contributing greatly to the country's day of complete victory.

General Dong Si Nguyen and General Vo Nguyen Giap visit Truong Son troops. Photo archive

The commander with a kind heart

“In this war, when the enemy mobilized its maximum strength to wipe out the Truong Son trail, when countless comrades and compatriots fell, remained forever on the barren reed hills, the remote forest edges for the life of the trail, for the victory of the campaign…, if anyone had the intention to romanticize everything, it would be a sin. But if we do not find the source of victory in the dancing steps of the Pa Co boys and girls on the ammunition route to the melodious sound of the Ta Lu zither, or the Lam Vong tune of the Laotian liberation soldiers after each battle, it would be difficult to fully explain the magnitude of this victory, and why we won.”

The old, white-haired general wrote down those emotional memories in the book The Truong Son Road, which was released to readers nationwide exactly 20 years ago, when the immortal road turned 40.

More than anyone else, the commander understood very well the price to pay for the day of total victory, and felt pain in his heart with the blood and bones that had been shed for the road that would last forever with the history of the nation. “The victory of the Truong Son supply line belonged to the great contributions and noble sacrifices of 120,000 outstanding sons who devoted all their strength, blood and bones and devoted their youth to building and maintaining the vitality and fierce fighting spirit of the road in the rain of bombs and bullets of the enemy. More than 20,000 comrades heroically sacrificed, more than 30,000 were injured and countless people were disabled by American poison and had unpredictable consequences for their race. About 14,500 motorbikes of all kinds, more than 700 cannons, more than 90,000 tons of goods were damaged or burned”. All to keep the strategic supply line's lifeline open, so that the day of total victory was getting closer and closer.

Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen. Photo: TTO

As one of the military leaders known to the world for his strategic talent closely associated with the Ho Chi Minh trail, Lieutenant General Dong Si Nguyen rarely talks about himself. In the stream of memories of Truong Son that is flowing, the personal pronoun he chooses to tell me is always "we". And the names of his fallen comrades, the noble and silent sacrifices he witnessed during the fiercest years of "cutting Truong Son to save the country" make his heart, until today, still beat with sadness and nostalgia. For many years, he still takes time to visit the families of his comrades who were once close and attached to each other, now lying in the deep Truong Son cemetery. Every time he meets, his tears flow. He misses the forest, misses his brothers, but his age keeps getting older and his strength keeps getting weaker, how can he keep going?

His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the simple meal with a battalion of female youth volunteers, and the very affectionate request, “If there are soapberries, please send us some, sir.” Then, he sent his love mixed with pity in the pages of his memoirs, “Now, when the mass media advertises all day long cosmetics for girls’ hair care, I feel a pang of sadness remembering the small demands of the female youth volunteers of that time. When they first joined the front line, the heads of the eighteen-year-old field girls had the smooth scent of grapefruit and lemon, but after a few bouts of malaria, only a few strands of hair remained. And now, there are still so many of them who spend most of their lives alone, without husbands or children…”

The default view that all generals are people who breathe fire seems to be incorrect for him. Tall and strong, with a decisive way of speaking, he has the appearance of a "martial artist". But deep inside his chest is a very kind heart, always giving love, care and sharing to his subordinates. Through concrete actions, because he is a practical person, does not like formalities, theories and is very quiet.

To the soldiers who once fought and died in the Truong Son mountains, “burning sun and swirling rain”, he was always a beloved commander, both in wartime and peacetime. When it came to getting married, building a house or doing business, they always consulted him and respectfully invited him to participate.

The life and career of General Dong Si Nguyen are closely associated with the legendary Truong Son road. Photo courtesy

Seven decades of contributing to the people and the country, he did not have much time for his small home. During the long years of war, the hardships and worries of his good wife that he witnessed during his short leave in Hanoi also followed him into his writings. “In fact, since the day we got married, during the two resistance wars, I was always on the battlefield. All the family matters depended on my wife. With a bunch of children (Mr. Ngoc Lan and Mrs. Ngoc Lan have six children in total - four boys, two girls), my wife took care of everything. National and family affairs seemed to weigh heavily on the small shoulders of women. But it was not just me, most of our generation were like that.”

And the question of his youngest daughter Thu Hien in 1967, “When can we return to Hanoi, Dad?” followed him throughout the march. And then, along with the whole nation, it took him 8 years to get the answer to that very childish question.

In the living room of Lieutenant General Dong Si Nguyen's family, placed solemnly on the altar is a picture of a very young man, with a resolute and strong beauty inherited from his father. That is the fourth son - First Lieutenant Nguyen Tien Quan. He was a 130mm artillery soldier, who fought with his father in the Ho Chi Minh campaign. And heroically sacrificed at Dong Dang, in the Northern border war in 1979. So in the heroic memory of the father's war, there is an additional piece of pain, when next to his comrades who have passed away, there is also the flesh and blood of his beloved son.

Dedicate your whole life to the legendary path

60 years ago, in the middle of the deep forest, a trail was born with the iron determination of the whole nation. Blood and bones were shed under each step, but from those brave steps, victory blossomed and the trail became a legend. Half a century later, the trail has become a highway. The legend of Truong Son continues to be written a new page.

During the construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, he was considered by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet to be the most suitable person to be assigned the task of special government envoy to direct the construction of this important route. The 500KV power transmission line, then the industrialized Truong Son road project took shape. That road will run through 30 provinces and cities, with a total length of 3,167 km, connecting Pac Bo (Cao Bang) with Dat Mui (Ca Mau) and will have a scale of 2 to 8 lanes depending on the terrain.

Vehicles passing through Truong Son road to support the front line. Photo: Documentary

During the war, he played an important role in turning Truong Son into an indestructible road, with a boundless vitality. And in peacetime, his name continues to be associated with the road, as a predestined relationship. Associated with many years of fighting, with a never-ending stream of memories. And with the love of his whole heart.

“The Ho Chi Minh Trail is a brilliant feat of arms in our nation’s resistance war against the US to save the country. The Ho Chi Minh Trail is the path of the will to win, of courage, of heroic spirit. It is the path connecting the North and the South, unifying the country, the path of a rich future for our Fatherland. It is also the path of solidarity of the peoples, of the three Indochinese countries. Glorious are the heroic Truong Son troops who fought and won on the road named after the great Uncle Ho” (excerpt from the guestbook of the late General Secretary Le Duan recorded in the Golden Book of Tradition of Truong Son Troops).

Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen

Born in 1923. Hometown: Quang Trung, Quang Trach, Quang Binh.

Real name is Nguyen Huu Vu, alias during revolutionary activities is Dong.

He chose the name Dong Sy Nguyen when running for the first National Assembly in 1946.

Joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1939.

He graduated from the Military Academy in 1950 and the Beijing Military Academy in 1961.

In 1965, he was Political Commissar of Military Region 4, then Commander and Political Commissar of the Vietnamese Volunteer Army in Central and Lower Laos.

In early 1967, he was appointed Commander of Group 559, then Commander of Truong Son Troops. In 1974, he was promoted from colonel to lieutenant general.

After peace was restored, he successively held the positions of Deputy Minister of National Defense, in charge of the General Department of Economic Construction, Minister of Construction, and Minister of Transport.

In 1979, he returned to the army as Commander and Political Commissar of the Capital Military Region.

In 1982, he was an alternate member of the 5th Politburo, a member of the 6th Politburo, Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister of Transport.

After a period of illness, he passed away at 11:42 a.m. on April 4, 2019 at 108 Military Central Hospital, at the age of 96.

Cuc Phuong Lake