Nearly 100 officials, public employees and workers of the Dien Bien Phu Museum and soldiers of Regiment 82 participated in the “Green Campaign”.
Vu Thi Tuyet Nga, Director of the Dien Bien Phu Museum, said: “The Green Campaign” aims to call on officials, public employees and workers of the Museum to actively and voluntarily participate in cleaning up, improving the landscape and grounds, and caring for trees and ornamental plants at the historical sites belonging to the special national historical site complex of the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield. The “Green Campaign” will be maintained every Saturday; starting from A1 Hill historical site, officials, public employees and workers of the provincial Museum will then move on to carry out the Campaign at other historical sites.
“Currently, officials, public employees and workers of the Dien Bien Phu Museum have been divided into many teams and groups responsible for various tasks, including ensuring hygiene and maintaining the landscape at the Dien Bien Phu historical sites. The work of ensuring hygiene and maintaining the landscape at the historical sites, although not physically demanding, requires a great deal of time, effort and meticulousness, while the number of personnel carrying it out is small. Therefore, the Museum's leaders discussed and decided to launch the ‘Green Campaign’, calling for the collective efforts of officials, public employees and workers to spend their time further beautifying the historical sites. This is both a responsibility and the sentiment of each official and public employee at the Museum; it is also a way of expressing gratitude to the heroes and martyrs who fought bravely and sacrificed their lives, contributing to victory in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign,” Vu Thi Tuyet Nga emphasised.
Actively responding to the “Green Campaign” on its first day of launch (August 15), at A1 Hill, officials, public employees and workers and soldiers of Regiment 82 divided into several groups to care for the grass, prune trees and remove weeds along the walking paths and around the trenches, bunkers and pillboxes on the hilltop. Every gesture and movement of the men and women was extremely gentle; even their words and calls to remind one another were very quiet, as if to avoid “awakening” the soldiers who had remained here.
Quang Thi Kim Nhung, Deputy Head of the General Administration Division (Dien Bien Phu Museum), said emotionally: “Every handful of soil on A1 Hill is imbued with the efforts and sacrifices of countless soldiers; many soldiers fought bravely and sacrificed their lives here. Therefore, every day at work, we remind one another to walk softly and speak quietly so as not to ‘disturb’ them.”
Speaking further about the “Green Campaign”, Ms Vu Thi Tuyet Nga said that the Campaign was launched on August 15 but no end date has been set, as the historical sites are rotated each week, so officials, public employees and workers will follow the Saturday schedule each week to clean up and improve the landscape and grounds.
“We will make every effort to improve the landscape and grounds of the historical sites so that people and visitors, when they come to visit, can feel the contributions and sacrifices of previous generations and clearly understand the sentiments of young people today in the journey of preserving the historical sites for future generations,” Ms Vu Thi Tuyet Nga said emotionally.
A1 Hill is part of the eastern hill range, which, together with C1, C2, D and E, formed a solid defensive wall protecting the central sector. It was the last high point directly protecting the headquarters of the French forces and was likened to the “key” to the entire Dien Bien Phu stronghold.
At A1 Hill, the enemy deployed a large number of troops and strong firepower, with solid and well-fortified positions, to protect the Muong Thanh central area together with other high points. However, after 39 days and nights of brave fighting, on the morning of May 7, 1954, our army gained complete control of the A1 stronghold, clearing the way for the final general offensive against the headquarters of the Dien Bien Phu stronghold, achieving complete final victory on the afternoon of May 7, 1954.
