At the event, Ms. Binh publicly thanked for the opportunity to talk with readers about Vietnam. Some American journalists asked very "tricky" questions in defense of America’s war of aggression. Ms. Binh bluntly affirmed that it was a slanderous argument. They asked why we accepted the withdrawal of North Vietnamese troops from the South; Why the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam didn’t negotiate with Nguyen Van Thieu's government? They believed that "the North invades the South."
With a friendly, gentle, and confident attitude, Ms. Binh firmly replied, "We do not negotiate with Nguyen Van Thieu's government because it is not the people's government, but set up by the U.S. as its henchman." She went on to affirm, “There is no law that allows one country to drop bombs on another, and there is no law preventing the people of my country from fighting against the invaders,” "The U.S. policy is invading, expanding the war, and imposing domination on our nation and the Indochinese people." She suggested that everything must be considered at their root. An American journalist said that the root was the withdrawal of troops from both sides. She bluntly replied, “You have distorted the source of the problem, equating aggression with anti-aggression. We need to consider at the root of the problem that the Americans with half a million troops are invading my country. We, both North and South, are Vietnamese. Among the people returning from the North are Southern residents who gathered in the North, but now come back to fight. Don't we have the right to defend ourselves against aggression?"
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Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh in a meeting with members of the negotiation team |
French journalists supported Ms. Binh's point of view. Through television channels, the battle of wits quickly ignited the waves of opposition against the American invasion of Vietnam. We took advantage of the press meeting to spread, express our attitudes, and determine our stance. Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh had the advantage of good command of foreign languages, inherent intelligence, sensitivity, and acuteness along with the softness and friendliness of Vietnamese women. In traditional ao dai, she dominated and convinced journalists, including fastidious ones.
Once, we had dinner with some French journalists at L'Etoile Venitienne restaurant on Kléber Avenue opposite the Kléber International Convention Center, where the four-party conference was held. At that time, a journalist "questioned" Ms. Binh, “You said that most of the liberated areas of Viet Cong are in the South. So where is the boundary of your liberated zones?”. Ms. Binh smiled and softly replied, "Wherever the U.S. drops bombs, that place is our liberated land." Participating journalists irresolutely looked at each other. I asked my friend, a French journalist, "Don't you think it's right? Does anyone bomb his or her managed land? Therefore, where the U.S. drops bombs, it is Viet Cong land, isn’t it?"
Madeleine Riffaud was a journalist of the French Communist Party, who had been to Southern theater. She wore a Ba ba shirt and striped scarf (kind of scarf used by women in Southern Vietnam), ate rice balls, and stayed in trenches with liberation soldiers. The journalist continued the conversation at the press meeting that three-quarters of the Southern land are hit by American bombs. About 30km from the Saigon Presidential Palace, there is a place called Cu Chi, which is the land of Viet Cong... and Viet Cong had dug dozens of kilometers of underground tunnels. America dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs here, but it could not do anything. Journalists filled glasses of red wine to toast because of Madame Binh's excellent explanation of the question about the boundary of Viet Cong land.
On January 27, 1973, the International Convention Center was brightly decorated with flags and flowers. Inside the fence were rows of august soldiers, police, security forces, and journalists. Outside the fence were crowds of French and overseas Vietnamese holding flowers and the red flag with a yellow star in the center and National Liberation Front of South Vietnam’s flag with joyful and radiant faces. People flow stretched from the Arc de Triomphe to the junction of Kléber and Portugais streets and past the Kléber International Convention Centre. When the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Duy Trinh and Minister Xuan Thuy entered, the crowd cheered. Especially, when the delegation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam came in, the "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" "Viet Cong," "Viva Viet Cong" choruses resounded. They chanted like they were in the middle of an international festival.
That day, the Kléber Hall was brightly lit. Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh signed 32 documents with 32 different pens. Later, she presented those historical pens to her close friends who were foreign ministers of other countries and famous French communists who had wholeheartedly supported Vietnam during nearly five years. The U.S.’s UPI news agency wrote, "The signing ceremony of the peace agreement in Vietnam took place in the most glorious and magnificent setting in the 20th century created by human."
On the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement (2013), we and Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh returned to Paris to visit our French friends who had supported us during the years of negotiations. Ambassador Trinh Ngoc Thai (former assistant of Minister Xuan Thuy) and I revisited Choisy-le-Roi, a small satellite city located on the banks of the Seine River, 15 kilometers southwest of Paris. There was a political school of the French Communist Party named after General Secretary Maurice Thorez which was the headquarters of the delegation of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam participating in the Paris Conference on Vietnam for nearly 5 years of negotiations. On the first days when the Democratic Republic of Vietnam delegation was in Paris, the school was on summer break, so the French Communist Party lent the Vietnamese delegation as its headquarters. When the summer vacation ended, negotiations had not achieved anything. Ambassador Trinh Ngoc Thai recalled, “At that time, everyone was shocked when hearing about the monthly hotel rent prices. Understanding the above difficulty, the French Communist Party moved the political school to another place and handed over the headquarters to the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to use for nearly 5 years. Comrades Xuan Thuy and Le Duc Tho stayed there. The nearby house at 11 Darthé Street was the place for secret meetings between two advisors Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger.
Choisy-le-Roi city had set up twinning relations with the Dong Da district of Hanoi. On the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam, the city named a square on a bank of the Seine river the Square of Paris Agreement on Vietnam. Hanoi presented Choisy-le-Roi with a ceramic picture with the Paris Conference theme made by a group of Vietnamese artists.
During the meeting on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement, we met the President of the France-Vietnam Friendship Association Ms. Hélène Luc, former French Senator again. In her statement, Ms. Hélène Luc recounted, “At that time, I, Secretary of the Party Committee of Choisy-le-Roi of the French Communist Party, and the city’s Mayor Fernand Dupuy, General Secretary of the French Communist Party Georges Marchais, and all the activists did our best to ensure that the Vietnamese delegation not only had the best working conditions but also felt encouraged and shared.
Meeting Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh and us again, Ms. Hélène Luc was very happy. She hugged and kissed, inquired after each member, and recalled the past. We were happy because thanks to her, thanks to the France-Vietnam Friendship Association, Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh reunited with those who had supported Vietnam and Viet Cong.
On this trip to Paris, I met a person whom I was looking forward to. It was Mr. Raymond Aubrac. During the Paris Conference, I met him a couple of times as a journalist. Although meetings were short, he left me with many special feelings. He was the leader of the people in the South of France against the invaders during the Second World War. When Uncle Ho visited France in 1946, he chose Mr. Aubrac's house as his residence for three months. Now, his house had become Uncle Ho's relic in France. He was also the one who exchanged messages between Vietnam and the U.S. to ask the U.S. to stop bombing North Vietnam in 1967 and to call on the U.S. not to bomb the Red River dike in 1972. He many times went to the U.S. to see Kissinger and the Secretary-General of the United Nations and Pope Paul VI to seek a peaceful solution for Vietnam. With his great contribution to Vietnam, he was the first foreigner to be awarded the Ho Chi Minh Medal by the Vietnamese State. It can be said that Mr. Aubrac made a great contribution to the Paris Conference, especially to the "Viet Cong delegation" as he often said. In the year when 40th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement was observed, although he was old and weak and one year to 100 years old, he wore a suit, walked with his grandson to see his friends again. Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh welcomed him with respect. “I am very happy to see you again,” he said.
When spring comes, we reminisce about the days when "the Viet Cong comes to Paris." Thank you Paris, thank you France for contributing to the victory at the Paris Conference in 1973 so that Vietnam could fully implement President Ho Chi Minh's teachings "Fight to kick America out, fight to topple the puppet regime."
Ho Chi Minh City, January, 2023
TRINH QUANG PHU, former Specialist of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
Translated by Tran Hoai