By RAE MURPHY

Ry}, °™ living with her par-
| ~
Don the small coastal village
He 1 in Quan Binh proy-
bh an ; Parents -were fisher-
Pan. s8e would help them
i small. = as they set out in
bth me built craft to
Ngped are inlets along

it
Or : :
i '0 the bombings, Don

ag a new * .
Pie village in the
i hat over 90 percent of the

iby on built of brick and a
Md i, OY was being deve-

a hatin in operation and
the 8 Were building beds
IF cen Xtraction of salt from
Then Aside from working
Hho ents, Thi Ly worked
et Weaving factory and
Mh ty, Pare time she trained
the da Scal militia preparing
Me Hv the bombs would fall.
Boo she was too small
$B gin 8 @ gun and was a
Hess, _ €r duty was to car-
i ton to eon one defensive
Ree to ae and from one
1 Ameri € other. With the
Mh y;c22 air attack on
eo Thi Ly’s work
Be man’ along with every
aa feoman and child in
fe TOvince, her life was
he 0
“ge ites years now her
{ si from een Pounded daily
: ting artillery fire, from
Pt ana pales of the 7th
4 tbs aa Napalm, phosper-
aN a sin nd defoliants. There
Kyi ee building standing
Hp ist aa and this holds true
Pitthe Ut every other vil-
NV Mated Province. It has been
* tons és there have been
Ware pabe dropped for
} OF One jlometer in Quang
bet an a oe every man,
hay - Whole period the
nthe fought back, not
of Btary defensive
: Ting anti-aircraft,
; building bomb-
Ving facilities un-
so m maintain-
: e fishin
night now, and

towards dawn the small boats
are sunk in shallow water only
to be brought to surface the next
evening and made sea-worthy
again. The salt extraction pro-
cess continues, the school func-
tions and somehow life goes on.

For Thi Ly, who is now 20 and
still appears to be too fragile to
hold a gun, the past years have
been one of military exploits and
courageous actions in defense of
her village. She has ferried am-
munition across the river that

divides her village while under’

fire and she has been buried
alive in a trench, rescued, and
continued. to fight. In March
1966 she was given her own rifle
and in December 1966 she was
awarded a medal as “Heroine of
the Armed Forces.”

I had a discussion with her in
Hanoi during an interval in the
bombings. Dressed in the black
loose fitting slacks and an em-
broidered white. blouse with a
red flower setting off her long
braided black hair she looked
like porclain. She spoke in a
soft straight-forward yet mod-
est voice of her role in bringing
down four airplanes. “It is
always best to wait until you
see the plane diving towards you
before firing, it is more danger-
ous personally but much more
effective.”

“1 had more fear when I was
a liason girl than now that I am
a gunner. I was young then and
feared ghosts and did not like
to run through the jungle my-
self.”

We spoke a long time that
afternoon in Hanoi. She told of
the spirit of the people, and of
their suffering, she told of muti-
lated and murdered children, of
napalm and pellets and B-52’s.
“When the first air-raid was
over,” she said, “there was not
much damage, but several fish
were killed by the concussion of
the bombs as they hit the river.
The village organized a fish bar-
becue that evening, and spirits
were very high. But the chair-
man of our village warned us
then that such raids were going
to continue and increase and that
we must be prepared to fight to-
gether for several. years’ She

smiled, with only a slight trace _

of bitterness, as the story was
translated.

<

rel Aff

_VIETNAM-WORLD WAR 3?
American war in Vietnam explode into World
is the question thousands of peace-ldving
Fe posing as they see that hapless country
the might of U.S. armaments.

icine the horror of this tragic internecine war
tog se troops and their American backers are
Sava FOcities one would normally expect from un- —
ae peadhunters. They are slicing off the ears

ve ‘© Communist propaganda ploy. The Cana-
cae Corporation showed a film clip pro-

he olumbia Broadcasting System on the battle-

is ‘hee trewn enemy dead with their ears lopped

Gover. world coming to?

iter ‘ment made its hesitant, timid approaches

y UM of hen Minister Paul Martin urged the U.S.
Ctham oc. United Nations to stop its bombing of
the ..12 © first step to possible peace talks.

5 1,0" in the White House lends a deaf ear to
g sth een he and his Pentagon staff are bent

SY few Vietnam off the face of the earth,

sa Madians can bring themselves to believe ©

Powerful state on this globe is in any way
ckward little Vietnam. But many do fear the:

1 at if this bloody war continues we can be
'SQstrous world holocaust.

I asked about her plans for
herself after the war. She start-
ed to say she didn’t have any
but was interrupted by a com-
panion and I was told that she
was just elected to the village
committee and would be very
busy after the war organizing
the reconstruction. For the first
time Thi Ly blushed.

Thi Ly was in Hanoi to parti-.

cipate in a recently concluded
“Congress of Heroes of North
Vietnam.” Later, when I was de-
scribing my interview with Tran
Thi Ly with another journalist
who covered the Congress- of
Heroes, he remarked: “Imagine,
they gather a large hall full of
people like Thi Ly in this situa-

ie

e Murphy in bombed home in Haiphong.

A Hero of North Vietnam

tion in Hanoi and have a meet-
ing that goes on for a couple of
days. That’s the way things are
in this country.”

There are a lot of heroés in
Vietnam now. There is a popu-
lar song here, with the rough
translation of the title being “]
Cannot Leave My Gate Witho-+
Meeting a Hero.”

Labor assembly takes
stand vs Vietnam war

CHICAGO

IVE hundred twenty three
union leaders meeting at
the special National Labor

Assembly for Peace Nov. 11, 12
unanimously called for “an im-
mediate and unconditional end
to the bombing of North Viet-
nam.”

The trade unionists came from
69 international unions and 38
states and Canada to participate
in the National conference held
at the University of Chicago and
called by the Trade Union Divi-
sion of SANE.

In the unanimously adopted
policy statement the assembly
declared: :

“Despite the unwavering Sup-
port of the administration’s
policy in the official councils of
labor, this Assembly has demon-
strated that there exists at all
levels in our unions the same
disquiet, frustration and opposi-
tion that characterize the Ame-

rican people... aoe
“We believe this war 1s Im-

moral. é

“We believe our continued in-
volvement in the war is contra-
ry to the best interests of our
country.

“We believe there can be no
justification for expanding _the
precious lives of our American
youth and destroying even larg-
er numbers of Vietnamese men,
women and children.

“American labor must play its
part in bringing this savage war
to a swift and just conclusion, so

that we may devote our wealth
and energies to the struggle
against poverty, disease, hunger
and bigotry.”

Highlighting the first day was
an address by Dr. Martin Luther
King in which he reaffirmed his
unyielding commitment to the
fight against this immoral war.

Other speakers included Emil
Mazey, Sec.-Treas. of the UAW,
Senators Vance, Hartke of In-
diana and Eugene McCarthy of
Minnesota, John Kenneth Gail-
braith, Frank Rosenblum, Sec.-
Treas. of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers, Rear Admi-
ral Arnold True, Victor Ruether,
Director, International Affairs
Dept. of the UAW and Norman
Thomas.

Every section and level of the
labor movement was _ present
either elected delegates, as from
the Wayne County, (Detroit)
AFL-CIO Council and the Inter-
national Longshoremen’s Union,
the UE and from scores of local
unions.

The spirit of unity in the fight
to end the war in Vietnam, de-
spite any other differences, em-
erged as the central fact and
thrust of the Assembly.

Trade unionists, auto, steel,
packing, teamsters, railroad, tex-
tile, machinists, rubber, teach-
ers—you name it, it was there—
united in what is unquestion-
ably, an historic turning point
towards a resurgent working
class.

For the first time since 1949,

the Longshoremen and the Unit-
ed Electrical Workers Union

took part in a labor gathering

on equal footing with all others
and judging by the standing
ovation given Harry @ridges
when he arose to speak in the
closing session, the AFL-CIO
unionists were glad to see them-
and participate with them.
Among the more than 50 union-
ists elected to the continuations

‘committee, a number of Long-

shore, UE and Teamster officials
were included.

Although repudiating the con-
cept of becoming a eaucus, fac-
tion, or dualist movement with-
in the labor movement, speaker
after speaker contrasted the
Assembly to San Francisco AFL-
CIO convention two years ago
which not only adopted a shame-
ful cold war resolution but also
sought to stifle dissent.

But the really big news was

the audience, the most signific- .

ant gathering of labor leaders
ever held in this country against -
a war in which the United States
was involved. The conference
radiated awareness that here
was the force capable of mobiliz-
ing the decisive sector of the
people, the working class, which
in reality could bring the war to
an end. As David Livingston, of
District 65. Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Workers
Union and chairman of the con-
cluding session said in winding
up the conference, “Here is
labor power, for peace.”

© 9g0%-— SNoVvember 24/1967 PAGIFIGTRIBUNE—Page 3