Colonel Tran Quang Trieu, former deputy Commander- in- Chief of Army Corps 4, recalls the time, 30 years ago, when the army began to advance toward Phnom Penh to help local revolutionary armed forces against the Khmer Rouge and liberate Cambodia from its brutal regime.
Trieu at the time was deputy chief of staff of Infantry Division 7 of the Army Corps 4, the first unit of the army corps that landed in Cambodia.
“It was on January 6, 1979”. Trieu said, “We, soldiers of Battalion 4 of 165 Regiment, began to cross the Mekong River on two rubber boats with AK riffles in our hands. Before getting into one of the boats, Luc, head of Battalion 4, made the last farewells to our companions who were seeing us off. We were fully aware that it was a life-and-death mission and none of us thought that we would be lucky enough to survive.”
“One of the boats was fired upon and sunk after sailing just a dozen meters offshore, one solider was wounded and carried by others back to the river bank,” added Trieu. “The remainder continued the journey to the other side of the river.”
At exactly 11:30 a.m. January 7, the Vietnamese voluntary troops joined with the revolutionary armed forces of Cambodia to carry out attacks on Phnom Penh. Despite the fierce counter-attack of several Khmer Rouge units, which were left behind in the capital to fight the revolutionary armed forces while regular troops were withdrawing, the revolutionary armed forces occupied all important areas in the capital.
At 12:00 p.m., Phnom Penh was liberated. Many Vietnamese soldiers, including Trieu’s comrades, sacrificed their lives in the battle.
After helping the Cambodian revolutionary armed forces remove the Khmer Rouge from power, the main tasks of the Vietnamese voluntary troops were to give food aid to local people and to help them get back home.
Trieu recalled, “Many locals were sick and starving. Since they couldn’t walk, we had to carry them on our backs to medical stations. As to the people who ran into the forests to escape the genocidal regime, we supplied food to them and persuaded them to go back to their abandoned villages. We shared our food and medicine with the locals”
In response to Uncle Ho’s troops’ heartiness, the local people regarded Vietnamese soldiers as their relatives. Trieu said, “One day, we came to Poi Pet, a town on the Cambodia – Thailand border. As soon as they saw Vietnamese voluntary troops’ vans, the locals rushed out to give us a warm greeting. We were treated with coconut milk and given a lot of bananas and pumpkins.”
One of his unforgettable memories, said Trieu, was that the locals had saved the lives of some of his comrades in a raid conducted by Khmer Rough guerillas.
Trieu recalled, “Our platoon had withdrawn from the village, only a few sick soldiers and some of their comrades who had stayed to take care of them were camped in an underground hideout. When seeing Khmer Rough guerillas approaching, some female villagers brought chairs from their homes, put them on the lid of the hideout and sat on them doing the knitting.”
While the guerillas were going past the hideout, one of the women even stopped knitting to breast feed her baby. The Vietnamese soldiers had a narrow escape from death because the women were calm and chatting together while the guerillas were looking at them. Trieu said, “They couldn’t smell something fishy about it!”
Trieu said, “That was a great sacrifice. If the enemies had found that the women were hiding Vietnamese soldiers, they would have killed them all.”
Trieu added, “Not only did they take care of wounded Vietnamese soldiers, the locals were ready to give their blood.”
Trieu said that 30 years had elapsed, but he always remembered the local people’s sincerity towards Uncle Ho’s troops during his time in Cambodia. It has always been an unforgettable time for him.
