Friday, May 12, 1972
Viet Marine Dials, & Ticks Off, A Red
by Donald A. Davis
PHONG DIEN, South Vietnam (UPI) --The South Vietnamese officer spun the radio dial, hunting a North Vietnamese frequency. Soon voices were heard and he broke into the conversation."One four eight commander," he said in the Hanoi dialect. Somewhere near the captured city of Quang Tri, a puzzled Communist radioman recognized the code as his own and summoned his commanding officer to the field radio set."The officer was angry because we knew his codes," the Hanoi-born South Vietnamese Marine officer said in his bunker at a brigade headquarters here. "Many people gathered in my bunker and listened as I talked to him for about an hour.""Most of his talking was propaganda," said the marine, thumbing through the captured code-book of about 500 frequently used phrases, numbered for use on radio."We discussed freedom and what it meant to be free," he said. "He told me they are only trying to liberate the South. But I told him we did not need them, we are already free."The South Vietnamese officer, who preferred not to be identified, was born in Hanoi. But he came South in 1954 with his family. He said a few uncles still live in the North."But whoever stays in the North is my enemy," he said he told the North Vietnamese officer. "I told him that if I got mad at President Nixon or President Thieu, I can talk about it. It would be very bad for you if you spoke against Chairman Mao or Premier Kosygin. The person next to you might turn you in."He got very mad, and I said if we cannot speak like gentlemen, we cannot talk."Then he disconnected.""Viet Marine Dials, & Ticks Off, a Red", by Donald A. Davis, published in the Pacific Stars & Stripes on Friday, May 12, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.