Veterans’ memorabilia keeps war stories alive

      After hearing about the campaign to collect war memorabilia, many veterans have personally brought their keepsakes to the Viet Nam Military History Museum. Some, who were told old to come themselves, have phoned the museum staff and asked them to come collect their war memorabilia.
When Colonel Nguyen Trong Quyen saw the launching ceremony of the campaign to collect war memorabilia on TV last Valentine’s Day, he realised that the things he had brought from the battlefield so long ago could help young generations learn about the traditions and history of the country. A few days later, he brought a national flag to the organising board.
"Through the TV programme, I learned the importance of the war memorabilia they are trying to collect," says Quyen.
Unity is strength
Joining the Ho Chi Minh Campaign to fight in southern Viet Nam in 1975 under the direction of lieutenant-general Le Trong Tan was the most memorable time his life, says Quyen.
"Campaign headquarters decided to fight the enemy on April 26 and required my unit collect to collect national flags and armbands for military administration. Tan entrusted me the task of finding 2,000 flags and 40,000 armbands on April 25."
"So I had only 24 hours to collect enough. I had to buy cloth and the poor soldiers didn’t have any money, would sew," Quyen says, "I was very nervous."
Quyen met with the chairmen of the Phan Thiet and Binh Tuy Party provincial committees to ask them for help. When the chairmen asked for money, Quyen nervously handed each one a bill worth one dong. At that time the north and south used different currencies and one dong could buy just one metre of cloth.
Quyen waited for the chairmen’s refusal but they just smiled. Both were moved staring at the portrait of Ho Chi Minh printed on the bill. The chairmen promised the goods would be delivered by the morning of April 25.
"Tan hugged me after I completed my task," Quyen says, "our troops went on their way and liberated Sai Gon (HCM City) on April 30."
The chairmen mobilised the local people to sew flags in a rush.
Quyen kept one of these flags as a keepsake, the same flag he recently gave to the campaign. A flag which has was witness to the nation’s victory.
"Above all, it is evidence of solidarity among the people," Quyen says. "Both soldiers and the people had a singleness of mind which brought liberation to the country."
Meaningful campaign
Viet Nam is calling for its citizens and foreign friends to step forward and donate war memorabilia from the resistance period in a bid to help preserve its history.
War is the border between life and death and every artefact has its own way of telling the story of the difficult, but important period in history.
Former General Secretary Le Kha Phieu donated his personal diary which he kept while commanding the Tri-Thien-Hue battlefield.
"I noted the war situation, my remarks on events and my poems," he said.
"I wrote in the small note-book in blue ink. The letters are almost too small for me to read."
Hundreds of private diaries and love letters were collected, some of which were read in public.
Some letters were found still sealed – their authors killed before they were able to send or read them.
One moving letter from a soldier to his wife was read aloud on Valentine’s day. The soldier set off to the front lines just one week after their wedding. The young couple exchanged love letters until he was killed. They had lived together for one week and never met again.
Dang Thi Yen, deputy chief of Dong Loc Vestige’s management board, spent over 30 years collecting war memorabilia from ten martyrs. Her prized possessions include the curl of hair Vo Thi Tan sent to her sweetheart before she went into battle and a threadbare shirt belonging to Ho Thi Cuc.
The collection campaign will run through February 3, 2010, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Viet Nam Communist Party. The collection will be put on display May 19, 2010, on President Ho Chi Minh’s 120th birthday.
Thousands of pieces of war memorabilia have been collected already. The campaign expects to gather between 15,000 and 20,000 items.
"This is the right time to instill a tradition of patriotism in the young and preserve traditional heritage," says major-general Le Ma Luong, director of the museum.
"The campaign is deeply compassionate, that’s why veterans and the people have supported us in collecting items."
Without their help, it would take the museum a decade to reach its goal, said Luong.
For more information visit the campaign’s website at www.kyvatkhangchien.vn. Public information about the campaign will be posted on the museum’s site at www.btlsqsvn.org.vn.
Exhibitions will be held in many provinces and cities between May and December 2009. A retrospective on the wars will be held at the museum of Viet Nam Military History on April 30, 2010 to mark the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Viet Nam.