7
RENEWED BATTLE
Establishment of My Thuy Phuong's Front committee in 1961-1962 coin-
cided with the beginning of local guerrilla warfare.1 At the time, there
were 15 or 20 guerrillas in the village, remnants of the earlier Viet Minh
struggle, and officially members of the Liberation Army .2 Local Front
leaders organized guerrillas into three-man cells, and in 1962-1963 formed
one or two squads.
The guerrillas needed no refresher course in military tactics, and suf-
fered no particular lack of weapons. During those early years, in fact,
guerrillas obtained weapons from a variety of sources, often fashioning
their own. Knives, for example, were readily available, and guerrillas
sharpened them into deadly weapons. They also manufactured hand gre-
nades from a variety of available materials. Guerrillas had to obtain only
explosive charges from outside the village. Front agents actually pur-
chased some weapons, such as American carbines, from Government
soldiers in need of pocket money. Among the most important of weapons
were punji sticks, small sharpened stakes of bamboo used in traps. And
the strangest guerrilla weapons of all were facsimile rifles, carved from
wood.3
Several villagers commented that during the early 1960s-as during the
Viet Minh period-they were frequently exposed to guerrillas, sometimes
daily. They also noted that the guerrillas operating in My Thuy Phuong,
like their Viet Minh predecessors, projected an image of simplicity. First,
guerrillas dressed in the scantiest of clothes. They usually wore black
Struggle / 83
, along with shirts of heavy-duty material. Guerrillas avoided con-
colors and patterns or marks of rank. Occasionally they went
, but more often than not wore sandals made of old tires, with
of hard outer tire layers, and the supporting straps of inner tubes.
the so-called Ho Chi Minh or Binh Tri Thien sandals, which
an added advantage when guerrillas strapped them on backwards.
in that fashion, the sandals left prints in mud or sand that misled
guerrillas journeyed far from the village, each man carried, in
weapons and ammunition, a small plastic or metal rice bowl, a
and chopsticks. In each squad or attack group one man carried a
pot and a cooking spoon. Guerrillas prepared and ate all of their
.these simple utensils. For sanitary reasons, they used an un-
c called "chopsticks two ends." The guerrillas served
to themselves with one end of the chopstick set and ate with the
, comments suggest, in summary, that the simple clothes and
utensils not only identified guerrillas with the poor and enhanced
image as men making great sacrifices, but were highly practical,
them greater tactical mobility than those they fought.
1954, a gradual Government military buildup occurred in the
vicinity of My Thuy Phuong. Army units occupied former
and the Government constructed new Army camps in
Thien/Hue. 11 staffed the Huong Thuy District headquarters with
a company of soldiers, and used the headquarters as a command
"' activities throughout the district. Occasionally over the
between 1954 and 1963, larger numbers of troops from distant mili-
installations came for operations to the village area. And soldiers
, .headquarters paid frequent visits to the small building used
village council and other civil servants.
the years, Army units organized operations to "neutralize" dis-
influence in the village. Such operations came frequently, and they
more frequent and intense than local operations by French military
.The operations mainly involved Army troops from outside the dis-
, along with a number of local military and paramilitary units. Here is
~ ., , of a typical operation, which people remembered primarily
it came at the time of the 1962 commemoration of Buddha's
.As the description unfolds, it is important to remember that
10 similar operations came to My Thuy Phuong between 1955 and
several former Government soldiers who were actual partici-
in the operation looked back on it, they noted that it occurred about
following a serious breach of security: local guerrillas had am-
a military convoy moving through My Thuy Phuong. The opera-
also came at a time of mounting anti-Government agitation in the
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