Tiem Dong

Story

PART 1. In the Vietnam War, I served in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) (South Vietnam) since 1954. My last rank was Lieutenant Colonel and my last position was at J6 Joint General Staff (Signal Communications). I worked until the last minute of the war, 30th April 1975 so I was captured in action with my colleagues at the Headquarters. Since that moment, we were detained & moved frequently from prison camp to prison camp, the so called RE-EDUCATION CAMP by the Communists & shamefully the free world could easily recognise that name as in reality they were a chain of hard labour camps. All prison camps were far in the valleys or in the mountainous areas, numbered by thousands, spread from the South to the North of Vietnam and isolated as no-human lands. We had to build prison camps with trees & bamboos & in doing so we must climb high mountains to cut and carry them back on our shoulders. Everyday typical hard work was breaking mountain rocks with TNT for road paving, immersing in the swamp and digging mud for dam construction, burning forests to plant cassava for food,É

Never had enough to eat, we also suffered from malnutrition and this was the cause of oedema & death to many prisoners. Our daily meal was a very small portion of dried cassava or potato slices cooked with a little rice, salt & vegetables. Fresh cassava was given to us at harvest time but also on small ration. The rice was often rotten and worm-infested as they were hidden underground during the war time. Pure rice was provided on casual basis only. Bad grains used to feed horses in other countries were also used to feed us. Meat was extremely rare, a couple of thin slices per head & only supplied on national holidays such as Independence Day, Labour Day, Communist Party Day,É…

Death always haunted us. Illness was never treated by medicine but by herbs. Never a seriously sick prisoner was transferred to a public hospital. Many emergency surgeries were done at the camp by their unqualified medical cadres, using field tools, which resulted in no patient survival. Sudden death often came to any prisoner accused of regulation violation and kept in disciplinary cell. He could be killed at night being bashed by the Communist guards & the next morning we were told that the punished prisoner committed suicide.

The International Red Cross tried to seek permission to see us at the camps on basis of the Geneva Convention on POW (prisoners of war) but they never got any approval. For the Communist Party propaganda, sometimes they allowed foreign Communist officials to visit the prison camps they arranged to show off like a nursing home with entertaining facilities but all prisoners were sent far off site.

For the first three years in detention, we were cut off contact with our families. By 1979, due to the war between China and Vietnam, all prison camps had to be withdrawn from mountainous regions down to the delta of North Vietnam & that was the first time they allowed us to meet our families & to receive food and medical supplies. Many wives could not recognise their husbands because of their physical changes by malnutrition & sickness. I met my wife in the same situation, tears in our eyes without a word at the first minute. I passed three years in the North-West mountainous camp Son La near Laos border, then another three years in Nam Ha, far in the South-West of Hanoi, & the last three years in the palm jungle of Ham Tan, far in the North-East of Saigon. At last, I was released in May 1984, after 9 years in hard-labour prison camps.

We were told and issued a paper called ‘TEMPORARY RELEASE’ with 2 years of close supervision by local police; that meant we could be re-arrested at any time they wanted. At home, every week, I must present myself at the local police to report what I did, where I went, whom I met in the week. This was done regularly for 2 years.

After release, I sent all my personal papers including diplomas justifying my studies in the United States Army Schools to The American Embassy in Bangkok to apply for a visa to the U.S.A. My application was approved very soon with a letter of introduction to the Vietnamese government asking them to prove passports to my family to go to Bangkok for formal migration process before entering the United States but the Vietnamese government never replied.

My dilemma at the time was for me and the family to stay or leave the country? Trying to escape the country on my own as early as possible because I was only temporarily released, I could be caught and brought back to the prison camp for being a threat to the national security. Risking our family lives fleeing by boat, we could be killed by Thai pirates or by natural disasters on the sea. (See part 11)

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