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Life during wartime: Sketches from the diary of war veteran Le Duc Tuan were returned to him yesterday by the US Embassy. |
HA NOI — The last paintings from the diary of war veteran Le Duc Tuan were returned to him by the US Embassy yesterday. Tuan lost his diary full of sketches during the resistance war against the American invaders.
In January, the diary was then given to the Viet Nam Museum of Military History by an American in response to a museum campaign to collect objects or souvenirs relating to the war.
During an attack on a Vietnamese revolutionary base in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tumin in March of 1968, Major Robert B. Simpson, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Division, US Army, found Tuan's knapsack, which contained a 16 by 21cm painting diary, a collection of Pushkin's poems and other personal belongings.
The diary includes 112 paintings reflecting soldiers' daily lives and places where the soldiers had travelled. However, only 109 paintings remained as Simpson kept three sketches as gifts for his wife.
The diary was then presented to General William Peers. In an article published by an American newspaper, Major Simpson recalled that he had asked his soldiers not to burn the diary because he found the paintings to be very moving for the American soldiers.
When Simpson obtained the diary, he reported the case and Charles Black, the war correspondent at The US Columbus Enquirer newspaper wrote an article about it on May 20, 1968.
The article mistakenly said Tuan had died said: "Tuan, the young art student from Ha Noi, was killed last month in a massacre, 10 miles (16km) from a Montagnard settlement named Polei Kreng in the Central Highlands near Cambodia."
In a letter to Tuan, Simpson wrote: "It is pleasure for me to return to you these three pages from the works of art you produced as a soldier during the war. I salute you both as a soldier who fought honourably and as an artist who produced beauty in the midst of conflict."
When granting the three sketches to Tuan, US Ambassador Michael Michalak was moved that the war memorabilia was finally returned to its rightful owner. "After 42 years, the diary was protected and now returned by American veterans; this shows a spirit of mutual respect, he said."
The diary's sketches and stories have been published in a book by Thanh Nien (Young People) Publishing House which is sold for VND105,000 (US$5). — VNS