Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (1947 [1] – October 15, 1964) was a Vietnamese electrical worker and Viet Cong urban guerrilla. He became known after being captured by the South Vietnamese when trying to assassinate United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1963. [2]
Sentenced to death at the age of 17, Troi got a brief reprieve after Venezuela's revolutionary FALN kidnapped United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Smolen: the group threatened to kill the American if Troi was executed. Smolen was eventually released unharmed, and Troi was shot by firing squad shortly thereafter. [3]
Nguyen Van Troi became the first publicly executed member of the Viet Cong. [4] His execution was filmed, and he remained defiant to the end. His last words before his execution in Saigon to correspondents were "You are journalists and so you must be well informed about what is happening. it is the Americans who have committed aggression on our country, it is they who have been killing our people with planes and bombs.... I have never acted against the will of my people. It is against the Americans that I have taken action." When a priest offered him absolution, he refused, saying: "I have committed no sin. It is the Americans who have sinned." He refused to have his eyes covered before volleys hit him saying "Let me look at our beloved land" and as the first shots were fired, he called out, "Long live Vietnam!".[2]
Troi's wife Phan Thi Quyen authored the 1965 book Nguyen Van Troi As He Was. [5]
Troi was glorified by the Viet Cong and North Vietnam as a martyr. Considered an exemplar, Troi has his name bestowed upon a large school, the Lycée Nguyen Van Troi in Nha Trang, and a national academic award, The Nguyen Van Troi Prize. In Ho Chi Minh City, the major road upon which McNamara traveled - and where Troi planned to assassinate him - is named Nguyen Van Troi Boulevard. In Đà Nẵng , a Nguyen Van Troi Bridge spans the Han River. The DRVN issued a postage stamp bearing his portrait in 1965. [6] Other countries commemorated Troi also, but none more so than Cuba: there the 14,000-seat public stadium in Guantánamo is named Estadio Nguyen Van Troi, and his statue overlooks Nguyen Van Troi Park in Havana; the city also has a school and a hospital named for him.
In the West, Troi's arrest went largely unreported in the mainstream; indeed, major news media did not report on Troi at all until the FALN kidnapping episode. [7] His anonymity persisted after his execution, despite the honors heaped upon him in Communist countries. Apart from advocacy by revolutionaries like the Weather Underground [8], and a brief mention in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, Troi is still rarely acknowledged in accounts of the Vietnam War.
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