Most young Vietnamese living today don’t know of Dang Thuy Tram.
She was a young doctor who served during the American/Vietnam War in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam.
She would have been 71 in 2014, probably a grandmother with many grandchildren.
It was a life she was not to have---she was killed by American troops on June 22, 1970; she was twenty seven years old.
She kept a diary from April 8, 1968 when she was 25, until her death. It is an account of a war in Vietnam as experienced by a young woman from Hanoi who once lived on Giang Vo Street in Hanoi.
Her father was a surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital; her mother was a lecturer at the Hanoi School of Pharmacology, an expert on medicinal herbs. She went to Chu Van An High school in Hanoi; attended the Hanoi University Medical School. Her academic concentration was in the sciences. But she loved literature and her entries in her diary were written in the flowery literary style of the intellectuals of her era, even as they were written in the dirty and cold surroundings of war.
In December 1966, she gave up her life in Hanoi and boarded a truck to go 250 miles to Quang Binh Province. She and her companions walked through the Troung Son Mountains to Quang Ngai Province. For the next three and a half years she worked in makeshift hospitals, and bomb damaged facilities, most of the time without electricity, tending to war wounded soldiers and villagers, writing all the time of her experiences, and the death of childhood friends who like her gave up a life of leisure to serve the National Liberation Front army.
The Province was the scene of fierce fighting, and to be the site of one of the worst atrocities of the War committed by American troops. The incident happened in Son My village where a platoon of American soldiers led by a Lt. William Calley, went on a rampage of killing and massacred 504 old men, women and children. This was called the My Lai massacre. Its reporting in the American press turned the tide of public sentiment in America against the US government and military and against the war in Vietnam.
The following are excerpts from her diary---Last Night I Dreamed of Peace (in English).
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8 April 1968
Operated on one case of appendicitis with inadequate anesthesia. I had only a few meager vials of Novocain to give the soldier, but he never groaned once during the procedure. He even smiled to encourage me.
23 April 1968
A day of utter exhaustion; three seriously injured soldiers brought in at the same time. All day I stand at the operating table.
25 July 1968
I came to sit by Lam’s bedside today. A mortar had severed the nerves in his spine, the shrapnel killing half of his body. Lam was totally paralyzed. His body was ulcerated from the chest down. He was in excruciating pain.
Lam is 24 this year, an excellent nurse from Pho Van.
Lam lay there waiting for death. This afternoon as I was sitting next to him, I am handed a letter from Hanh (Lam’s young wife).
“Big sister, you and the other sisters here ---you are my family---you have dedicated yourselves to nurturing me. What for? I will die sooner or later.; If I live I will only bring more hardships for you and the family. “ A single tear rolled down Lam’s gaunt cheek.
My heart was breaking for him, but I didn’t know what to say.
Oh! War! How I hate it, and I hate the belligerent American devils. Why do they enjoy massacring kind, simple folks like us? Why do they heartlessly kill life-loving young men like Lam, like Ly, like Hung and the thousands of others, who are only defending their motherland with so many dreams?
14 July 1969
Today is Dad’s birthday, I remember, despite all the bombs and bullets; just yesterday artillery salvos killed five people and wounded two….
Beloved Dad, Mom, and sisters out there, you cannot see life here in its entirety. It’s a life of extreme heroism, extreme perils where death and sacrifices come easier than eating a meal. Nevertheless, people still fight with determination. I am one of those hundreds of thousands. I live to fight, and have the feeling that one day I will fall for the future of our people. I will not be there when they sing the victory song. I am proud to offer my entire life to the country.
30 August 1969
In one night of continuous fighting, we destroyed fourteen tanks, one HU-1A and fifteen army trucks and killed 150 Americans. One guerilla sacrificed his life, and two comrades were wounded. Oh, why must that guerilla be the orphan Nhieu, Thuan’s beloved young brother. .. Oh, young brother], I understand your heart, the heart of an orphan struggling to raise his little brother, giving him his meals, his rest, teaching him. Now…I am so very sorry I cannot be near you to embrace you and ease your pain, to wipe the tears from your eyes.
3 September 1969
At 12:47 a.m. Uncle Ho left us forever.
Oh, Uncle! Your children vow to fight and fulfill your wish, to persist in your endeavor; liberate the South, secure independence and liberty for our nation.
31 December 1969
The fighting grows more vicious each day. Death is close.Just the other day if I had been a few minutes late I would have been dead or captured. We started to run when the enemy was less than twenty meters away. Fortunately, no comrade or wounded soldier was lost.
21 February 1970
I came close to death once more. Several gunships and HU-1As bombed us for over an hour. One of the points of impact is roughly ten meters from us. Fire and shrapnel fly everywhere. My comrades and I sit in the shelter without knowing when a bullet will strike us.
28 February 1970
Today, I suddenly miss sister Hai. Her letter filled with loving confidences touches my heart. Oh sister Hai, I will never forget the afternoon in that fierce summer when I saw you leave with tears and sweat running down your face. I could not go with you, but I kept following you all the way to Ong Thuong hamlet. Then you went away…
14 June 1970
…I said to brother Dat, “Oh, I don’t need any consideration or recognition. My wish is for peace so I can return to Mom and Dad. That’s all.
16 June 1970
…These days, I miss the North intensely. Looking at the overcast sky, I remember the afternoons I bicycled with my friends, riding leisurely through the nursery, the bright rows of pansies blooming like butterflies on the ground, the fragrant roses…
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Dr. Dang Thuy Tram is buried in Tu Liem Martyrs Cemetery in Hanoi.
When you are in Hanoi, please visit her grave site; take some flowers and offer your thanks for her sacrifice.She was a heroine.
Without her sacrifice, and the sacrifice of others, you would not have the life you have today. Be grateful!
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