Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Thu Van, 1981

Interviewer: Could you tell me why you went north in 1954 ? Thu Van: When the Geneva was signed there was a number of cadres and soldiers... Interviewer: Could you tell me why did you go north? Thu Van: After the Geneva Agreements , I was sent north to study film-making. Interviewer: You filmed for a long period during the war. Could you tell me what was the most memorable or distressing scene that you saw? Thu Van: During my film-making career in the North during the war years, the most memorable things were the crimes committed by the United States on the Vietnamese civilians. I filmed many scenes of women and children hit by American bombs. There was this very painful scene of a mother and her four children killed at the same time. These are scenes that I will never forget. Thu Van: Another unforgettable thing is the full cooperation and support the inhabitants of the North gave us during the war years when we went around filming the ways they resiliently fought back at the Americans and the indescribable crimes poured down on their heads. The spirit of the people was remarkable. Interviewer: You were away for a long time from your family. When you went away did you envision that it would be anything as long a period of time and did you have any contact with your family when you went away?

Thu Van: When I went away, the (Geneva) Agreements stated that there should be mail exchanges between the two regions, the region under the control of the Vietnamese government and the area under temporary control of the French . But the French never allowed this to happen. Therefore, there was no contact with my family at all in term of sending letters and postcards. Interviewer: Could you tell us how you got assigned to filming the final Offensive? What the sights which you saw? What was happening to you? And what difficulties did you have in catching up with the scenes and so on. Thu Van: I was the only female film-maker who specialized on documentary and war films. Therefore, when I proposed to accompany the Offensive I was given permission to go. And my film crew and I were going to head for Ban Me Thuot because there was a victory there, a victory which had been talked about a lot in the American press and on the Western radio. But as soon as we reached Vinh Linh (immediately north of the 17th parallel ), Hue was liberated. Thu Van: Therefore, with this fast-unfolding situation, it was impossible for us to go to Ban Me Thuot . Hence, we went to Hue and then Da Nang . When I arrived in Hue , it had already been totally liberated. The Americans and the puppet troops had fled. As for Da Nang , I arrived there on the 31st, the day after liberation. The Americans and the Saigon troops, again, had fled. Thu Van: Of course, as my film crew accompanied a contingent of troops which headed for the city from the northern direction there was some resistance from the puppet troops. Along the road I saw many corpses of the Saigon troops, and their weapons and clothes which they had stopped off were strewn all over the place. When we entered the city of Da Nang the first thing that happened was our meeting with a group of disbanded Saigon soldiers who had been hiding in a graveyard and who stood up to surrender to us. Thu Van: This was the first scene which I filmed for the movie “The Liberation of Da Nang ”. This was a group of Saigon soldiers without any uniforms on them. After that we went into the heart of the city, filming all the scenes which show how the Saigon troops fled and left behind pikes of clothes all along the streets and the beach of Da Nang . Thu Van: They also left behind heaps of weapons, many tanks and jeeps and scores of GMC trucks which had been driven down into the sea when the Saigon soldiers tried to board the American boats. At that time we had a lot of work to do, so we divided our crew into two groups. One group filmed the scenes around the city itself. And the other group filmed the American military bases. At that time we were very moved by the fact that Da Nang had been the longest occupied city under the Americans. Thu Van: And as film-makers at that moment when there was a great victory for the nation, we decided to work as hard as possible to get as many good scenes as possible. We managed to film the last encounters with the fleeing Saigon troops and the traces of defeat as well as of crimes which the Americans still left behind in the city. After that it took us only fifteen days to edit the film “The Liberation of Da Nang ” and show it to the public. After Da Nang we headed for Qui Nhon and then Saigon . Interviewer: Can you tell me again about your return to Da Nang ? Thu Van: My native city is Da Nang . After the Geneva Agreements were signed, I went to the North to study. During the period in the North, I never had any contact with my family in Da Nang . I never received any letters from them at all. In 1975 , during the Spring Offensive, I went back to Da Nang . Thu Van: When I arrived in Da Nang I really wanted to go and visit my family. But during the twenty years from 1955 to 1975 , between the changes from the French period to the American period, the city was nor completely unrecognizable to me. The city was now completely different from the one I left, and so I could not locate my family at all. Thu Van: I stopped a man riding a Honda motorcycle and asked him of the street. He told me where it was now and said that he knew of my sister’s family which still resided on that street. After I finished with my work, I was able to go home to see my family. When I found my family, I met my mother again after twenty years of absence. Before we could say a single word, we embraced each other and wept. After that my mother inquired after my health and my work. Thu Van: During the conversations with my family, I learned that all my nephews had become Saigon soldiers. My nephews’ friends were all puppet troops. In the film “The Liberation of Da Nang ” there is a boy who lost one of his arms. This boy refused to go into the Thieu ’s army and destroyed one of his arms with a grenade as a form of protest. But all my own nephews had to go into the Saigon army. Thu Van: They, however, managed to pay up to a million dongs each so that they did not have to go and fight in the battlefields. My father had been killed by the Americans because he chose to remain behind in the city to continue with clandestine activities. And my mother who also participated in the many movements against the Americans and the Saigon regime had been thrown into jail many times. She had been arrested, tortured, and jailed for many years by the Americans. Thu Van: After I arrived back in the city, I was very happy to be able to see my family again. At the same time, I was also somewhat sad because my family had suffered various physical and moral losses. But the most happy thing for me was to be able to see my mother after twenty years and that my brothers and nephew and nieces were all alive and were all remaining in the city.

Interviewer: Could you tell me a little bit more about the actual shock, especially at the discovery of the death of your father. What were your feelings then? Thu Van: When my mother told me about the things that had happened to the family there, I was thinking that during the war years my family had to live under the control of the Nguyen Van Thieu regime and therefore, first of all, there was no relationship between my family and me and, secondly, the family had to try very hard to make a living and at the same time had to find ways to resist the power that forced them to do the things that they did not want to do. Thu Van: I was particularly struck by the fact that my mother, in spite of her age, had to fight in order to survive under the repressive Thieu regime and had been imprisoned as a result. Therefore, it was already a happy moment for me to be able to locate my family when I arrived in Da Nang . What made me really happy was the thought that now my mother would be able to lead a more peaceful life. Of course my family was not as well off as other families, but there was no more insecurity and no more fear of sudden imprisonment.