The 9 O'Clock Visitors

A young Vietnamese came running across the paddyfields to Thaibinh one day last week from the nearby village of Thanthuong. This was his story:

"This morning about 9 o'clock, young men and women carrying rice, vegetables and baskets came into the market at Thanthuong. They mingled with the local crowd. We thought they were peasants from a nearby village having something to sell. As we knew later, all were Communist guerrillas wearing peasants' clothes. The 'women' were young Communist soldiers carrying hand grenades under their coats instead of breasts. A few of these visitors started a dispute with a woman about the price of a chicken. It was a trick to divert our attention while others were encircling the village. We heard a whistle. Knives, grenades, submachine guns came out of the baskets carried by the Communists. With submachine guns firing, they made their way through the screaming crowds. One group entered the church. I heard a blast of machine-gun fire and screams. The children went out of their classrooms to see what all the noise was about. I saw the Communists shooting with rifles on the children. I don't know how many were killed because I escaped at this moment."

Two days later, a French Union column reached Thanthuong. Of its 2,000 people, only 600 remained; 25 were known dead, the rest had disappeared. A French colonel continued the story: "The shops that were the pride of Thanthuong were completely looted. We found the body of a six-year-old child, strafed with bullets. Inside the church, all statues of saints were broken, their heads and hands chopped off. The big statue of Christ was broken. The Catholic sisters' cloister, an orphanage and a school ... all that was left standing were a few bits of walls."

The sole reason for the Communist onslaught appeared to be the prestige of Thanthuong's Dominican priest, Father Barthelemy An. He had made Thanthuong a peaceful refuge. Father An once gave his flock 300 borrowed French rifles to defend themselves from the Communists. Father An was among the dead.

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