From July 20th, 1954, when the Geneva Treaty was signed, to the end of 1964, the two sides of Hien Luong Bridge were quiet. However, they were 11 long years of fierce cultural struggle between Vietnam and its enemy.

The Unyielding A Pier

Although the atmosphere at Hien Luong Bridge was calm, since 1960 the Armed Forces and the people of Vinh Linh had been secretly supplying the Quang Tri revolutionary forces through the Cua Tung transfer post (Tung Luat Pier) which was code named “A Pier”,

From 1965 to 1972, A Pier was attacked with 11,500 bombs and 36,000 mortars by enemy planes bombarded the area 1,100 times, including nine times with B52s. Nevertheless, the people of Vinh Quang had used their boats, through A Pier to carry 1.5 millions soldiers, 400,000 labourers and 30,000 people.

During daytime, all the boats on the river were sunk. But at nighttime, more than 10,000 trips were made safely under the bombardment. Many soldiers during the fighting became famous and their names are still remembered by local people.

A Pier also became a place for Vietnamese soldiers to deploy to the fighting in Do Linh and Cua Viet. In mid-1967, A Pier was discovered by the enemy and it under went attacks by planes and American ships. As a result, the Vinh Linh people and militia dug 2,500 meter of trenches, 15-20 metres deep, to protect the soldiers. However, from June 19th to 24th, 1967 US bombers released 3,700 bombs along with thousands of mortar shells, shutting down two doors of the tunnel on “61 hill” in Cua Hamlet, causing the deaths of 61 soldiers and people in the tunnel.

Meanwhile, A Pier was still operating.

In 1972, A Pier did an unprecedented job of carrying 50 tanks and amphibious vehicles across the river to the Quang Tri Battlefield. To do this, soldiers and militiamen in Vinh Quang had to immerse themselves in the water as signal posts to lead the way.

A Pier was also a departure place for boats which supplied food and ammunition to Con Co Island. The pier is 15 nautical miles away from the island, but from 1965 to 1972 the trip to the island was called the “blood way”. On average, six out of ten people died on the way to the island. 21 boats were destroyed by the enemy, 9 boats were captured and sunk by the enemy warships, 24 soldiers and people were killed, and 11 people were captured by the enemy at the pier over seven years. However, Con Co Island was continually supplied with food and ammunition. Thus A Pier was later recognised by the State of Vietnam as a Revolutionary Historic Site.

The War of Sound

After the Geneva Treaty was signed, in order to educate and encourage people to fight for the re-unification of the country, a system of speakers, dividing into five groups and stretching up to 1,500 metres, was installed along the northern bank of Hien Luong Bridge.
One of the speakers on the North bank of Ben Hai River

Each group comprised of 24 speakers with the capacity of 25W, facing the southern bank. 24 hours a day, this system of speakers broadcast radio programmes of the Voice of Vietnam, Vinh Linh Radio, with motivating music, poems and folksongs.

In return, several weeks later, the US and the Saigon Regime installed a group of speakers, made in West Germany and Australia. These speakers were of a high capacity and they overwhelmed the Vietnamese ones. In addition the Vietnamese speakers could not reach Cua Viet and Cho Cau. Due to this, eight speakers of 50W each and a speaker of 250W were added.

In early 1960, an American system of speakers was installed along the southern bank of Hien Luong Bridge. The enemy boasted that this system of speakers would “break the glass windows” and reach all the way to Quang Binh, helping the people along the northern bank of Hien Luong Bridge listen to the voice of the regime.

The Vietnamese side did not give up. They installed a big speaker with a diameter of 1.7 metres and a capacity of 500W. In addition, a high-power electric transmission line of 6KVA was constructed from Vinh Son to Tung Luat to increase power available to the system of speakers.

Each group of speakers was put in a firm concrete foundation while the biggest one, of 500W, was put on a truck in order to be mobile. When the wind blew from the North to South, people all way in Cho Cau, Cua Viet and Gio An could hear to its voice.

Until 1965, when the US bombarded the North of Vietnam, these speakers systems of the two sides never stopped working.

The “Flag Fighting” at Ben Hai River

“Flag Fighting” was a fight of life and death, which lasted for 14 years.

On October 8th, 1954, the Hien Luong Post erected a 12 metre high flag post made from a pine tree with a flag of 15.36 square metres. Meanwhile, the French raised their flag from top of the Xuan Hoa blockhouse on the southern side of the river. This flag stood at an altitude of 15 metre high, higher than Vietnam’s one.

The Vietnamese people living on the two sides of the river refused to accept this. They demanded that Vietnam’s flag must be higher than the enemy’s. To do this, the Vietnamese soldiers at the post went into the jungle and found a tree 18 metres high with which to make their new flag post. As well, they also made a new flag 24 square metres in area.

Several months later, Ngo Dinh Diem ordered the construction of a concrete flag post with a steel rod 30 metres high eluminated by a system of neon lights. After the new flag post was erected, the enemy boasted that “The President of the Republic of Vietnam ordered the building of a flag post 30 metres high at the parallel of latitude 17 to make the people in Northern Vietnam see the justice of the nation”.

In July 1957, Hien Luong policemen erected a new flag post 34.5 metres in hight, made of steel, with a new flag of 108 square metres. A bronze star with a diametre of 1.2 metre was placed on top of the flag post. The five points of the star were eluminated with a group of 15 light bulbs of 500W each.

When the Red Flag with a Yellow Star in the Middle was rasied, people along the north and south banks of Ben Hai River cheered because they could see the flag of the nation flying. The enemy was surprised by this event. They immediately upgraded their flag post to a new high of 35 metres and satirised: “North Vietnam wants to have a flag fight but they can’t beat the South”.

To meet the demands of the people, in 1962 the Vietnamese government sent a construction unit carrying materials from the North to build a flag post 38.6 metres high with a new flag of 134 square metres, weighing 15 kg. This was the highest flag on the parallel of latitude and people in Cua Viet, Cho Cau and Gio An could see the national flag from tens of kilometres away.

From 1954 to October 1967, Hien Luong policemen had to change flags 267 times. In 1967, the flag was bombed by the US and the policemen had to re-erect the flagpost 11 times with wooden posts 12 to 18 metres high.

On August 17th, 1965, a group of US planes attacked the flag post, but it withstood the bombardment even though was hit by many bombshells. The US planes then flew lower, trying to hit the flagpost, but they were shot at by the Vietnamese side and had to release their bombs early. In their hurry, the bombs fell on the Saigon Regime’s police station on the south bank, causing 87 dead and wounded.

In the struggle to protect the flag, 13 policemen and militiamen died, 8 were wounded. The people of Vinh Linh still remember Nguyen Thi Diem and Nguyen Duc Lang, who sewed the flag while under bombardment.

For many years, Nguyen Duc Lang, a soldier in the army, had to go to Hanoi in order to get new flags. Once the US started bombing North Vietnam, people in Vinh Linh found travelling was too difficult and collected money in order to make the flags locally.

Lang became the person in charge of making the flag. On average, he made one flag a month. Each year, he was able to form up to 14 to 16 flags of hundreds of square metres each.

Source: Tien Phong

Translated by Ngoc Hung