US centre hands over Vietnamese martyrs’ artifacts to families

Hanoi (VNA) – US Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive has handed over a collection of diaries and letters of Vietnamese soldiers, mostly of those who had died during the wartime in Vietnam, to their families and relatives at a ceremony in Hanoi on June 2.

According to the organiser - the “Trai tim Nguoi linh Viet Nam” (The Heart of Vietnamese Soldiers) organisation, the collection comprises five diaries and 30 letters written during the war. It is part of the Vietnam War Legacy project implemented by the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive.

President of the organisation Colonel Dang Vuong Hung said that during the anti-US resistance war, thousands of notebooks, diaries, handwritten letters and personal items of soldiers from the north and the liberation force in southern Vietnam were captured by the enemy on the battlefield. The majority of them were destroyed. Some of them were kept and digitalised by the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive as part of the non-profit project “Vietnam War Legacy”.

At the ceremony, relatives of five martyrs who were authors of the writings were deeply moved to receive the documents.

Phan Dinh Deu, the younger brother of martyr Phan Dinh Dieu from Hai Duong province said he was moved to see the handwritings of his brother nearly 60 years after his death. He said his family hopes to find the remains of Dieu and bring him home.

At the ceremony, the “Trai tim Nguoi linh Viet Nam” organisation and the Vietnam Centre and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive signed an agreement on the handover of the documents of the Vietnam War Legacy project and the return of artifacts to the fallen soldiers’ families. Under the agreement, the two sides will work together to archive the document./.