Hanoi (VNA) – A book based on the wartime diary written by Pham Huu Tham, a war veteran from the northern province of Hai Duong who fought on various battlefields, will be introduced at the Vietnamese Women's Museum in Hanoi on December 14.
Tham was born in 1945 in An Phu commune, Hai Duong province's Kinh Mon district. He joined the army in April 1968, and after only two months of training, he and his unit marched to the southern battlefield. Tham was assigned to Company 14 of Regiment 38 under Military Region 5's Division 2.
After the liberation of Da Nang city in 1975, Tham and his unit were sent to support naval forces in liberating Truong Sa.
In December 1978, he was assigned to an international mission in Cambodia and worked as a Vietnamese volunteer soldier until July 1979. In January 1982, Tham was demobilised from the army due to health problems.
During 14 years of serving in the army, Tham took part in 127 battles and shot down 19 aircraft. The war veteran received many noble awards, including seven Feat Orders of different classes. He was conferred the titles "outstanding soldiers" and "determined to win soldiers" many times.
Tham had a habit of recording the activities of his unit and his days on the battlefield in a notebook . He added more details about things that he witnessed in his free time.
Talking about their impression after reading Thiem's diary, writer Colonel Dang Vuong Hung and writer and war veteran Le Hoai Nam said they enjoyed reading the book, adding that the more they read it, the more interesting they found.
"This is not a literary work but a real life story," said writer Hung.
The book has conveyed a lot of honest information about how soldiers lived and fought on the battlefield of Zone 5 during the resistance war against the US, he added.
Unlike letters, which illiterate people can ask others to write for them, a diary requires the writer to have certain intellectual standards and know how to express their ideas, Hung said. Diary writers must also be persistent, maintaining the habit day by day, he noted.
Echoing his view, Nam said the book revealed a naked truth about life and the battles filled with blood and tears. He said that the battles that last day after day and month after month were depicted through each page of the diary.
The book is the continuation of Nhat Ky Thoi Chien Vietnam (Wartime Diary), consisting of four volumes, collected, compiled and edited by Hung between 2004 and 2020.
The Wartime Diary collection includes the two most popular diaries entitled Nhat Ky Dang Thuy Tram (Dang Thuy Tram's Diary) and martyr Nguyen Van Thac's Mai Mai Tuoi 20 (Forever Twenty).
Nhat Ky Dang Thuy Tram was penned by female doctor Dang Thuy Tram in the 1960s while working in a field hospital in Quang Ngai province. US troops killed the young doctor in June 1970 at 27.
The diary was found and preserved by American soldier Fred Whitehurst, who donated it to the Vietnam Center and Archives at Texas Tech University 35 years later. With the aid of veteran Tom Engelmann and American writer Lady Borton, officials were able to locate Tram's family, and the diary was returned to them in 2005. That same year, thousands of copies of the diary were published in Vietnam, becoming a phenomenon. It has been translated into English, Korean, Thai and Spanish.
Diaries by martyrs such as Chu Cam Phong, Duong Thi Xuan Quy and Nguyen Minh Son are also included.
The series is a valuable work conveying a message of goodness and humanity, said the writers association's chairman Nguyen Quang Thieu.
"These diaries were written on the battlefield and tell us what the writers most wanted to say, knowing they might never return to their families and homeland," Thieu said.
"Only when death is near, the voices of people become the most truthful. And that honesty has proved their patriotism and love of independence and freedom. They devoted all their young years to the fatherland," said the writer./.
