Journalism in the Laos battlefield

The day I packed my bag of clothes and went to the Teacher Training College, my father said: "Try to study well, then come back to teach, teach the younger ones". I understood, after me there were six younger siblings, old parents, I was the oldest, and at the same time it was also a responsibility. I went to school with peace of mind, but then as the old saying goes "man proposes, God disposes", after graduating with a diploma of excellence, I was called to join the army. At that time, I thought that three years of service as a teacher would be more solid. But then the destructive war of the American empire spread throughout the country, the military service system was abolished. Soldiers could only rest assured and walk steadily until the day of total victory.

The Lao Liberation Army Command and Vietnamese military experts discussed the combat plan in the Plain of Jars - Xieng Khouang campaign in 1972. Photo courtesy of VNA.

During the fierce war years, soldiers on the battlefield not only lacked food and clothing, but also lacked information. The entire company was given an Oriong radio by their superiors, which was kept and managed by the political commissar. Soldiers rarely had the opportunity to listen to the radio together. All information was recorded by the political commissar through the slow reading time of the radio and disseminated to the soldiers. The People's Newspaper and the People's Army Newspaper were delivered to the soldiers as quickly as a month, sometimes only once a quarter. Due to the information needs of officers and soldiers on the battlefield, from the end of the sixties, the General Department of Politics allowed the Commands and fronts to publish a newspaper instead of bulletins.

The Command of the Volunteer Army that fought to help Laos at that time was allowed to publish the newspaper “Soldiers of the Western Region”. The birth of the newspaper turned my life around. From the combat unit, I received a decision to go to the Political Department. At the very first meeting, Colonel Le Linh, Deputy Political Commissar, Director of the Political Department, assigned me the task of going to the new recruit unit to supplement the front line to recruit 10 soldiers with cultural qualifications, send them to Hanoi to study newspaper printing, and I went to the People's Army Newspaper to study organizing the editorial office, building a printing workshop on the battlefield to publish the newspaper “Soldiers of the Western Region”. I was very worried when I received the task, the chief assigned me to publish the first issue within 6 months. From childhood to adulthood, I only knew how to read newspapers, as for making a newspaper, I did not know how.

Having recruited enough soldiers, I took my comrades to Hanoi, met with the leaders of the Army Printing Factory, and was sympathetic to the Board of Directors, who sent experts to help develop a plan to train workers and set up a printing house project in the battlefield. Working with the Publishing Management Department, General Department of Politics, I was enthusiastically helped by my comrades and returned to the People's Army Newspaper to learn the process from: the editorial office to the printing and distribution stages. The final stage was to buy machines, lead type and some accessories. According to the plan, the finance representative of the Command gave me 6,000 VND, which I filled my security bag with. After 3 months of studying and preparing machines, lead type and facilities, the printing factory was completed and began marching to the battlefield.

While still in our country, we were able to travel by car to the border, disassemble the machine, and four mechanics shared the load. The lettering team had 6 people wearing backpacks with a 25 kg letter box on their backs. The remaining letter boxes and printing paper were transported by 10 laborers. Despite the hardships and difficulties, after exactly 5 months, the first issue of “Western Soldiers” was published and delivered to cadres and soldiers on the entire front. At that time, Mr. Hoang Tong was the Editor-in-Chief, the reporters were Mr. Pham Dinh Trong, pen name Khanh Tuong, Mr. Trong Thuy and I were both on duty at the editorial office and in charge of printing. The printing house was in the same cave as the Political Department, working by oil lamps, and after the working day, everyone’s face was dirty when they went out of the cave.

At that time, the newspaper was called the editorial office to get its name in the military phone book, but in reality there were only 4 people: the editor-in-chief, two main reporters, and me as an intern reporter and publisher. The newspaper was published once a week, 4 pages in size, the same size as the Bac Giang Newspaper today. But during the dry season campaign, the newspaper sometimes came out twice a week to meet the direction of the Command. There was a time when the newspaper suddenly published 2 pages, page 1 had an editorial, some news about the victories of the battlefields, page 2 printed the full text of the campaign's ideological slogans, encouraging cadres and soldiers to fight and win. The newspaper was delivered to the unit by the military post right before the shooting.

As a newspaper of volunteer soldiers on international missions in the Lao battlefield, the newspaper also highlighted the example of the coordination of Vietnamese soldiers with Lao liberation soldiers, praising the solidarity of Vietnamese soldiers and Lao ethnic people in the resistance war against American imperialism and its henchmen, liberating brotherly Laos. The newspaper “Western Soldiers” was born right at the time of fierce war in Laos. The newspaper accompanied the volunteer army until the day the Lao revolution won complete victory.

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/lam-bao-o-chien-truong-lao-postid420424.bbg