touching peace
Colonel, Poet Tran Anh Thai (born in 2019, in Thai Binh) - former Head of the Department of Cultural - Sports Publishing, People's Army Newspaper, former infantry soldier, Regiment 52, Division 320. For him, living a healthy life through April 30, 1975 was a boundless happiness, a miracle.
Recalling the historic April 30th, in the early morning of that day, when he had captured the Trang Bom, Ho Nai, and Bien Hoa bases, he and his teammates boarded a truck preparing to enter Saigon, when a sudden incident occurred, a dragon explosion from the sky, black smoke rising about 100 meters from where he was standing.
While still a few kilometers away from Saigon, Mr. Thai and his teammates received a notice from President Duong Van Minh declaring surrender. At this time, the whole company was silent for a moment because of emotion, then started hugging each other, some crying, some laughing. According to Mr. Thai, there were no words or words that could describe the emotions at that time.
When the reporter asked who was the first person he remembered at that time? - Colonel, Poet Tran Anh Thai said: "I am your mother. I don't know how happy she will be to know that her child is still living through such a fierce, arduous battle. But it was not until many months later that I could write a letter to my family."
By the afternoon of April 30, Mr. Thai's company officially arrived in Saigon and was assigned to manage military hospital 10, performing duty and order around the area. Having spent a short time in Saigon, his regiment left Saigon for Phu Yen. A few months later, he was ordered to return to the Central Highlands to continue the mission of searching for the Phun-ro army.
At the end of 1978, Mr. Thai was sent to school, then started writing for newspapers and officially worked at the People's Army newspaper from 1981,
Behind the victory
As a soldier, Colonel, poet Tran Anh Thai said that all the soldiers were at the time of sacrifice to regain independence for the nation. He said that at the time of the war, in his hometown, not all young people to age were forced to enlist on the battlefield, for example, the only child, the family had many people going to the battlefield, the martyrs' children, the martyrs ... were often exempt from military service.
But in reality, many people refuse the incentives they enjoy, willing to make a comeback. Many young men under the age of active duty and those exempted from military service have written blood reports to the battlefield, even though no one under the law forces them to write reports in blood.
"It is not a matter of necessity or just a moment of flourishing - it is the Vietnamese spirit, nurtured for thousands of generations, through many generations, deeply imbued in the cultural blood of Vietnamese villages and ethnic groups.
When they go to the battlefield, they fight for their expectations and desires, faith, hope and pride of their loved ones, their parents' families, relatives and their hometown behind them. They must win for that and be willing to sacrifice themselves. This value is not a sudden event but a story of the mind, of the thousand-year-old culture that has accumulated in the family people" - Colonel, Poet Tran Anh Thai shared.
cherish the two words peace
"I heard the cold between the two battle/ deaths/ deaths.
As a soldier who directly held a gun in combat, he understood better than anyone the losses, pain, human identity in war... His poems were all built on the basis of practical exploitation, however, the information was carefully screened and only the most elite was included in the work.
In 2022, he received the State Prize for Literature and Arts with another schoolwork called Do bong xuong Sol (launched in 1999) - a schoolwork about war observed from another perspective. War is not the story of the resistance fighters or the winners, but the story of everyone.
"I use poetry to preserve the history and reality of the war from many perspectives. Not everyone who reads these works can immediately understand. However, I believe that at some point, truly valuable works will be loved and learned by readers.
For the younger generation today, recalling the past is not to incite hatred, but to show gratitude to previous generations, those who fought bravely and sacrificed to bring independence and freedom to the nation, to see how much the two words of peace are precious" - Colonel, Poet Tran Anh Thai shared.
