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Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (1 February 1940 – 15 October 1964) was a #Vietnamese #revolutionary & member of the NLF (National Liberation Front). He gained notoriety after being captured by ARVN forces while trying to assassinate US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara & Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1964.
Trỗi became the first publicly executed member of the NLF. His execution was filmed, and he remained defiant to the end. His last words before his execution in #Saigon :
"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 Trỗi absolution, he refused, saying: "I have committed no sin. It is the Americans who have sinned." As the first shots were fired, he called out: "Long live Vietnam!"
His wife wrote a biography book on his short but brave life. Phan Thi Quyen (c. 1965) Nguyen van troi tel qu'il etait (Nguyễn Văn Trỗi As He Was).
Sentenced to death, Trỗi got a reprieve after the FALN, a #Venezuelan #MarxistLeninist #guerrilla group, kidnapped US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Smolen in revenge for Trỗi's sentence. The group threatened to kill Smolen if Trỗi was executed. Smolen was eventually released unharmed, and Trỗi was shot by firing squad shortly thereafter in Chí Hòa Prison.
In the West, Trỗi's arrest went largely unreported. Major news media did not report on Trỗi at all until the #FALN kidnapping episode. His anonymity persisted after his execution, despite the honors bestowed upon him in the #EasternBloc. Apart from advocacy by #revolutionaries like the Weather Underground & a brief mention in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book (1971) as a "Vietnamese hero", Trỗi is still rarely acknowledged in Western accounts of the #VietnamWar.
Many cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him. In #HồChíMinh City, the road upon which McNamara traveled ,& where Trỗi planned to assassinate him is named Nguyen Van Troi Boulevard & a memorial park, Bia tưởng niệm Anh Hung Liet Si Nguyễn Văn Trỗi is located near the former Cong Ly Bridge. In #ĐàNẵng, the Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Bridge spans the Hàn River. Other countries have commemorated Trỗi, particularly #Cuba. A 14,000-seat public stadium in #Guantánamo is named Nguyen Van Troi Stadium & his statue overlooks Nguyen Van Troi Park in #Havana; the city also has a school & hospital named for him.
Anti-war activists Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden named their son, an actor now known as Troy Garity, in honor of Trỗi.
The 1975 film Chronicle of a #LatinAmerican subversive (Spanish: Crónica de un subversivo latinoamericano) by director Mauricio Walerstein, narrates the kidnapping episode of Colonel Smolen by FALN guerrillas in response to Trỗi's death sentence.
(Ref: Doling, Tim (2019). Exploring Saigon-Cholon – Vanishing Heritage of Ho Cho Minh City. Thế Giới Publishers. ISBN 9786047761388.)