"Remember my words!"
My name is Nguyen Van Troi, born on February 1, 1940, the third child in my family. My hometown is Thanh Quyt Village, Dien Thang Commune, Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province. My mother passed away when I was still very young.
At the age of 15, I left my hometown for Da Nang, then moved to Saigon to work as an electrician. During the day, I worked for hire; at night, I studied theory at Ba Nghe School. Later, I became a worker at the Cho Quan Power Plant.
I enlisted on February 17, 1964. From that moment, I operated continuously in Saigon. Witnessing American aircraft dropping bombs, killing innocent civilians, I was filled with anger.
In May 1964, the U.S. government sent a high-ranking delegation to Saigon, led by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, to discuss expanding the war with the Saigon administration. I volunteered to eliminate the man directing the enemy's war machinery.
Unfortunately, on the night of May 9, 1964, while placing explosives on a bridge, I was captured. Throughout my imprisonment and brutal torture in Chi Hoa Prison, I never wavered. I insisted that I alone had planted the explosives in an attempt to kill McNamara. No amount of pressure could make me say otherwise.
On the morning of October 15, 1964, the enemy brought me to the execution ground.
A journalist asked me:
"Before you die, do you have any regrets?"
I answered immediately:
"I only regret that I could not kill McNamara."
When a priest came to baptize me, I said:
"The ones with sins are not me, but the American soldiers."
They tied me to a stake and prepared to blindfold me. I pulled the cloth away and calmly said:
"No! Let me look at my beloved land one last time."
The firing squad loaded their rifles. The gunshots could not drown out my final shout:
"Remember my words! Long live Vietnam! Long live Ho Chi Minh!"