42 years of war to protect the northern border: Anxiety from the border

A small incense altar, built by veterans of Division 356 at the Vi Xuyen battlefield, has become a sacred memorial complex.

And the consequences of the war on the northern border are still there, in the lives of people disabled by post-war mines like we met in Nam Ngặt (Thanh Thủy commune, Vi Xuyên district, Hà Giang). Many questions still remain, like the memorial stele covered by overgrown bamboo in Tông Chúp (Cao Bằng). The worries still remain, like when we sat in the house of veteran Kham Văn Chân...

Historic February Border

More than 10 years ago, in an interview with a reporter about the 1979 border war, Colonel Nguyen Manh Ha (former director of the Institute of Party History, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics) said very accurately:

"As a historian but also a soldier, I would like to say frankly that no matter what the circumstances, peace is still the most precious. Only when the border war truly ends can we continue the cause of innovation, have long-term and sustainable policies to develop the economy, stabilize people's lives, and have a new position on the world diplomatic map like today.

But that does not mean that the history of the border war has closed. History is inherently fair and objective, what has happened will eventually be put back on the historical scale for judgment. We look back at the border war, first of all to learn lessons for ourselves: what could have been avoided, what needs to be remembered to remind future generations."

We were happy to see that from the development of Vietnam - China border trade, the lives of people in the border areas have improved a lot. In Lao Cai, Quang Ninh, Lang Son, in the border cities, the development is a testament to the effectiveness of a friendly border.

But that does not mean we do not pay attention to the lives of people in villages who are still living in poverty, suffering from injuries caused by post-war bombs.

Three post-war victims only have two legs. From left: Mr. Bon Van Dang, Mr. Bon Van Hon, Mr. Trieu Van Nguyen

Small dream for poor village Nam Ngat

Throughout our journalism career, we will never forget the image of three relatives in a family in Nam Ngặt. Three people, one old and two young, sitting on a bench in front of their house one afternoon at the corner of Vi Xuyen mountain.

The old man is Mr. Bon Van Hon. In 2000, while clearing land, he stepped on a mine. People carried him for dozens of kilometers to Ha Giang Hospital. After being hospitalized for several months, he was discharged with a prosthetic leg. It was thought that a person stepping on a mine was a rare event.

But four years later, Mr. Hon, while leading his buffalo to graze, a mine left in the Vi Xuyen war took away his remaining leg. He stepped on the mine twice and lost both legs. Two young people sat with Mr. Hon on that bench, one was Trieu Van Nguyen and the other was Bon Van Dang.

Nguyen, Mr. Hon’s son-in-law, also stepped on a mine while working in the fields and lost a leg. Dang, who called Mr. Hon his uncle, also became disabled in 2007 - the year he turned 20. The 20-year-old’s dreams of crossing rocky mountains and reaching new lands ended there.

The brutality of war is sometimes told through heroic stories and footage of noisy vehicles. But sometimes it is only summarized in the story of a small family of three people with only two legs left in the house of Mr. Bon Van Hon.

In July 2020, we went up here with the team searching, collecting and collecting the remains of martyrs. Just a few months later, during the search for remains, a mine killed and injured two soldiers in the collection team. One young soldier died at the age of 20, he was Private Ban Van Thuy; the other was Private Hoang Van Huynh, who was injured and had to have his limbs amputated.

Passing through the houses of the people in Nam Ngặt, we were filled with so many emotions. Because more than anyone else, living in a land that used to be a frontier battlefield, with post-war bombs and mines lurking every step of the way, but they still stuck to their villages and the border, they must be brave people.

And their patriotism is concretely demonstrated in their daily lives in the mountainous border area, although Nam Ngặt now has no electricity and the phone signal is still unstable. Although the disabled people have a subsidy system, it is not enough to live on, they still work in the fields and herd cows to make a living.

Memorial stele in Tong Chup, when?

More than 40 years later, the pain has subsided, but even though it has subsided, it cannot be forgotten. We went to Tong Chup, a small village that used to belong to Hung Dao commune, Hoa An district (now Hung Dao commune, Cao Bang city), less than 10km from the city center.

Every time we came here, even though we had a very clear location, it still took us an hour to find the bamboo clump and the small stele. We waded through a stream, continued wading through the mud across the field to find a bamboo forest along the stream bank and didn’t know which bamboo clump the stele was in. We searched for each clump one by one and eventually found it. But at this rate, I’m afraid that in ten years there won’t be any trace left of this place.

In March 1979, the Chinese army killed 43 workers and their families at the nearby Duc Chinh pig farm and threw them into the well under the bamboo groves where we were standing. The people and soldiers who returned were shocked and saddened to discover 43 bodies of their compatriots at the bottom of the well. The soldiers used ladders to climb down and pull each body up.

Some bodies were identified by their relatives and buried in their family cemetery, but many were not identified by their relatives because their entire families were killed and no one was left. Those innocent people killed in the border war deserve a memorial stele and a path leading to the stele, not to be lost in the dense bamboo and at risk of disappearing.

Returning to Dr. Nguyen Manh Ha's comment: "We look back at the border war, first of all to learn lessons for ourselves: what could have been avoided, what needs to be remembered to remind future generations."

Worry about the lives of the border people in the mountain corners becoming more and more prosperous because they are the ones who have been and are performing the duty of living landmarks to protect the border. Building a memorial house for the souls of the people in Tong Chup is also a reminder for the next generation, not to hate but to love more the peaceful life we ​​have, to avoid war and mourning. That is also the morality of the Vietnamese people.

According to Tuoi Tre