The “Ki hoa trong chien hao” (Drawing in the trenches) war diary was written by Pham Thanh Tam (1932-2019) when he was participating in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign as a war correspondent for Quyet Thang newspaper, the newspaper of the Artillery Regiment 351.
The English version of the diary named ‘Drawing Under Fire: War Diary of a Young Vietnamese Artist’ was published by Asia Ink in 2005, and the French version was released by Armand Colin in 2011.
The Vietnamese edition of Kim Dong Publishing House uses design materials and images from the English version published in 2005.
Vu Thi Quynh Lien, Editor-in-Chief of Kim Dong Publishing House, said: “The diary was kept by artist Pham Thanh Tam for 50 years. The diary was translated into English and printed into a book in 2005, along with sketches he drew during the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. With the desire to introduce to Vietnamese readers, after nearly 20 years, Kim Dong Publishing House has officially brought the book back to its homeland on the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory.”
In addition to the diary content, the book also features images of 16 original diary pages, including handwritten pages, map pages, wartime artefacts and more.
On the same day, Kim Dong Publishing House also held an online exhibition of sketches of Pham Thanh Tam’s diary and 17 books by other authors commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory.
