I am here in front of you because I am a member of the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, and our mission is the dedication to the preservation, promotion and celebration of the Vietnamese American history and heritage for the benefit of present and future Vietnamese Americans. And Dr. Reckner had created the Viet Nam Center to help us realize our dreams, that is to preserve, and to promote our heritage. With Dr. Rechner and his staff, I am sure to always have a helping hand when in need

I wish to introduce myself before I start my presentation. I am Mr. An Hoang Le, a Captain of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Viet Nam. The reason I still call myself a Captain is that I never got officially discharged, nor left the Armed Forces. I didn’t surrender to the enemy either, because they arrested me at home and during the night to put me in the hard labor camp that they called the re-education camp several days before my companions-in-arms reported themselves to those camps. I used to be an English Instructor of the Armed Forces Language School before I was transferred to the Presidency to serve our Fatherland as a Liaison Officer to the President of the Republic of Viet Nam. I came to the United States of America in Mid 1992, after spending 7 years in the Vietnamese Communist hard labor camp. Right now, I live in Austin with my family, and work for Freescale, which is the new name of Motorola. I also work for the Travis County Court House as Interpreter.

I’d like to talk to you today about two famous battles during the war. Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and An Loc in 1972. There were thousands of battles, large and small, but only these two battles drew the attention of the world because of their issues. These two battles have many similarities and contrasts. I will focus on 3 similarities and 4 contrasts.

SIMILARITY

First the similarities; these battles had huge political implications, both battle grounds have great strategic advantages, and the communists used the same battle tactics.

1.

In 1954, several months before the Geneva Conference both the French and the Communist forces wanted to make a statement to the world. They wanted to have a large scale military victory to gain a better negotiation position. With a win, the French can claim Indochina for themselves again. With a win, the Communists can claim the right for independence.


An Loc took place months before the Paris Conference. The communists wanted to set up a provisory government 100 kilometers (65 miles) from Saigon. If we lost, we would have lost the war.

2.

As you know, Dien Bien Phu is not a city, not a village, not even a hamlet. It was a large pan-like valley. Why was this valley so important? This valley sits near the border of Burma, Laos and China. Control of this border region was very important to the French control over Indochina.

An Loc is a small town just 100 kilometers from Saigon. The communists wanted to control the area, set up a provisory government, and used it as a starting point to launch their final attacks into Saigon.

3.

The communists used the same battle tactics in Dien Bien Phu and An Loc. They started each battle with an attempt to fatigue the enemy with heavy relentless artillery fire. Then they attacked with large scale human waves because they were willing to accept the sacrifice of large human casualties. They followed the tactics of a famous Chinese general several centuries ago:” if you outnumber them 10 times, then attack. At the lowest five times. If you don’t outnumber them that much, then don’t attack.” At Dien Bien Phu, they outnumbered the French 9 to 1. At An Loc, they outnumbered us 5 to 1.

What is more important than the similarities is the contrast between these two battles. I believe the results of both battles were different for the communists because of the four following reasons.

CONTRAST
The four differences are: Reinforcement of troops, artillery positions are reversed for the communists, superior air support with ARVN and US forces, and willingness of ARVN to fight.

1.

Reinforcement at Dien Bien Phu for the French was impractical and nonexistent. Reinforcement would require sending French troops half way around the world. It proves to that reinforcement would be futile.

At An Loc ARVN started with 4,500 troops, then a few days later they came up to 7,500 troops. As the battle progressed, we brought in 12500 more. These 12500 troops fought for almost 80 days to travel 30 kilometers to reach An Loc. Upon their arrival, the communist forces withdrew with very heavy casualties.

2.-

At Dien Bien Phu, the French had artillery, tanks, airplanes at their base. At An Loc, we had no artillery, no tanks, no inside airplanes. At Dien Bien Phu, the Communists had no tanks, but at An Loc, they had a little more than 200 tanks, brand newT.54 and PT.76. At An Loc, we had only M.72 and later XM202 to kill the tanks.

3.

The French expected, and called for, but did not receive air support. Their air support needed to use the runways within the valley to get air borne. These runways were destroyed by the communists. So their air support could not be used.

Superior air support supplied by ARVN and US forces helped the 7,500 besieged fighters withstand attacks from over 50,000 communists. From the B.52 boxes to the F. fighters-bombers to the helicopters trying to bring in reinforcement troops and supplies, to the AC.130 Specter and AC.119 Fire-dragons having 105 howitzers and mini-guns, all that helped An Loc in the struggle against the Communist attacks. But air support alone, would not be enough to without the willingness to fight from the soldiers in An Loc. That brings me to my fourth point.

4.

The brave soldiers and citizens of An Loc refused to give up their fight. The French soldiers at Dien Bien Phu may have dreamed of the day they would return home, the people at An Loc were at home, they had no where else to go. They fought to keep their homes and they fought until their death. It was their fatherland, their families, their lives, their freedom. An Loc is the Stalingrad of Viet Nam, according to the newspapers around the world.

Conclusion

I hope with my short story you all have an idea of the two battles, their similarity and their contrast. I am proud of my companions in arms, at An Loc and elsewhere, I always honor them.

That is why I am writing a book about An Loc, the history of the Victory of An Loc, for our future generation to understand why their forefathers fought and why they have to preserve and promote the Vietnamese heritage.



Thank you for your attention. Good bye.