European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 21, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Up photo be due Tho left with North vietnamese troops on Way to front line in by Sylvana Foa United press International a veil of mystery surrounds the Silver haired poet who rules the Nobel peace prize laureate who made his Mark on every major Campaign in a 30year War that humiliated first France the United mystery begins with his people Call me by Many the name is not says the evasive and secretive widely considered the most powerful Man in decades ago he adopted the Nom de Guerre be due following the example of his to Chi whose name also was a wartime it was with that name he engaged Henry Kissinger in a fou year Battle of wits at the secret Paris talks on ending the Vietnam War and emerged not Only Victo rious but and it was Asle due Tho that he added insult to injury by refusing to share the Nobel peace prize with a Man he called a a it was be due the political whose name evoked fear during both the bloody 1968 tet of which turned the tide of the and the to Chi Minh Campaign that culminated in the dramatic communist capture of Saigon on april but there Are other names As the 12 aging leaders who sit with him on the politburo of the vietnamese communist party affectionately Call him Anh Sau or 6th readers of his emotional which record what he Calls the Cornerstones of my him As Trung sour at having been outwitted in dubbed him but when the Gray Eminence of Vietnam was born in the Village of Dich be in North Vietnam a Nam Ninh province 1911rhis Mother named him Phan Dinh Vietnam policy the dominant Mem Ber of the ruling leads a spartan most of his time is spent in a simply furnished Bun Galow in the Par like Retreat along Hanoi West Lake reserved for High ranking communist party i like to work Here because it is Tho climbing the stairs to his cozy but unheated adorned with the Ever present portrait of to Chi despite layers of Long underwear visible beneath the floppy Green suit and Blue plaid Wool Scarf he wore throughout the three Days of Tho Shivers in the bitter North vietnamese one minute appearing frail and stooped and the next he perpetually squints behind thick steel rimmed despite vast responsibilities that include overseeing Viet name military occupation of Cambodia and attempting to pull his country devastated Economy onto its Tho says age has forced him to Cut Back his work throughout the three Days of Tho repeatedly urged vietnamese Spring succulent mangoes and delicately iced cakes on a but he touched nary a morsel and sipped Only weak i was in the South during the War so Cha Giol is one of my favorite he looking longingly at the Spring a typical Southern vietnamese but i cannot i can eat Only regular be dug Tho in Silver haired poet who rules Vietnam up photo with his Mother in a Dong in neither does Tho and he shuns alcohol and i spent Many years in prison and in the Jungle so i never got used to those in i was Strong and that was Good because the discussions were very it was a match with Kissinger not Only of brains but of he then i was in better Al Paris time tuesday the 23rd of january be due Tho and Henry Kissinger initiated the Paris agreement on ending the War and restoring peace in Tho had been dispatched to the Paris talks in May fresh from his successful direction of the tet of which spectacularly demonstrated the futility of the troop buildup in the secret Paris peace talks began in August 1969 with Tho pulling the strings behind the six months he dropped his cover As special adviser to the North vietnamese delegation and sat Down across the table from Kissinger As its head the frustrate virtually fruitless bargaining began in Kissinger was no match for the obstinate old revolt who was in no hurry to come to terms unless those terms were his but under extreme Domestic pressure to end the was in a and Tho knew the two sticking Points were the de Mand that North vietnamese troops withdraw from the South simultaneously with the and a Nois insistence that South vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu be they were Tough says they demanded and we demanded then at he had to make a Concession and so did he we turned up our last and there was the in his Kissinger heaps abuse on Tho Nick naming him Ducky and repeatedly calling him obnoxious and Tho seems less perturbed than amused by Kissinger i read parts of but it is too Long a Memoir and i didst have time to read it Tho it is evident that there is much but if he did not distort the truth in his he would not be Kissin if Kissinger had spoken of me with any it would have been a Surprise for Tho pausing to stare out the French doors As an armed Soldier on patrol beside the Lake appears and then disappears into the Hanoi i talked to him on Many occasions in Strong but you must understand that our negotiations took place in unique it was during the there were scenes of Mas images of the b52 bombing of Hanoi with Many women and children of the Tiger Cage Graves of North vietnamese pos who were tortured and killed during their that was the atmosphere in which the negotiations took it was very i once told him you Are a a you Are he had agreed with me on the whole text of the but the next Day he changed because of i called him a on the Nobel peace prize was awarded jointly to Kissinger and it was the most controversial decision in the history of the prize and two Nobel committee members resigned in the Paris agreement brought a wave of Joy and Hope to the entire the Nobel committee unaware that the agreement already had Kissinger promptly accepted the Tho waited a week and the Nobel peace prize committee put the aggressor and the victim of aggression on the same Par that was a says adding that he had written the committee a letter saying just the Nobel peace prize is one of the greatest prizes in the Tho but the United states conducted a War of aggression against it is the Viet namese people who made peace defeating the Ameri can War of aggression against by regaining our Independence and despite past Tho says he  mind meet ing Kissinger recalling that after the Paris Kissinger invited him to visit the United if Kissinger meets with me the topic of Dis Cussion would be the normalization of the War is Over so there would not be the tension of the Paris he the War has been Over for a decade it is High time for our two countries to normalize that would be the Wisest Ujj would go to the United states at this time if the would be if the americans wanted i am despite the severe headaches and insomnia he has suffered for Tho says he never contemplates re it is beyond my i am willing to work until my last minute except if i am too he i consider it a Tho is widely considered the heir apparent to Secretary general be now who holds the top party Tho says he became conscious of the revolution at the age of 16 but was still in Grade school when he Felt the first twinges of a Friend and i were walking on a narrow sidewalk and a Frenchman was walking toward Tho my Friend was just ahead of me and i told him not to give Way to the that he should step aside for that French gentleman gave my Friend a hard i will remember it All my by Tho had organized a Small group of fellow students and was writing articles on the revolutionary youth league founded by to Chi Minh in 1925 heard of this and sent comrades to Contact me i joined in to proclaimed Viet name Independence in 1945 and was North Vietnam president until his death in Tho Rose quickly in the communist party in he was named to the Central committee and in 1951 was up photo arrested by French in up photo next to tank during with Kissinger during Paris talks in up photo be due Tho in March elected to the Al powerful he was Only on and off since he has held the Post of presi Dent of the organization of the an innocuous title for a murky Job that gives him vast Power and influence Over Vietnam million communist party Tho is a prolific poet and the few hints Viet Nam watchers have been Able to Garner about his career have come from the three published volumes of his collected my poems Are about my my my visits but most Are about soldiers because i understand and sympathize with Tho i first began writing poems in 1948 when the Cen trial committee sent me on a Kilometre trip to the South during the fight against the he it took seven months on foot and by i made Many poems on the Way and they were published in a Book called on the his second volume dealt with poems written on the to Chi Minh Trail during the War with the United states and during the final Campaign that resulted in the capture of Saigon on april his third volume was written As he directed what the vietnamese Call the Campaign on the Southwest fron tier their invasion of it also contains poems that show Thos important decision making role in the fight with neighbouring one of his favorite poems was written in when he was sent South to Monitor the final phase of the together with Pham currently Interior min and Van Tien currently defense min Tho made his Headquarters in the Jungles near Ben it was there that he heard the radio broadcast of the surrender by South Vietnam last Duong Van big on the morning of april the next Day we entered the recalls the roads were littered with the clothing the puppet troops had taken off to even their their i haunt been to Saigon since i passed a night there on my Way to prison in Poulo condore that time in this time i was not in for it was a moment of indescribable when he reached Tho sent his politburo comrades a report in the form of a poem finished our Days of misery and great pain our North and South Are reunited like under the same the task entrusted us by great Uncle to in his will has been and now he surely sleeps in the is infinitely infinitely with Vietnam now solidly in the soviet peking and Hanoi have resumed their centuries old fighting a bloody Border War in who has personally presided Over Hanoi Cam Bodia policy since the operation that sent vietnamese fighters into Cambodia in de Cember he blames the cambodian situation on chinese efforts to destabilize and says peking encouraged Cambodia to attack Vietnam during the late 1970s forcing Hanoi to invade in Tho says Vietnam is anxious to end the costly con the biggest stumbling Block to diplomatic relations Between Hanoi and strolling along the Banks of Hanoi West Tho talks about his dreams for to make a one must have a he the Road of revolution is full of thorns and to climb one must have a to Chi Minh said nothing is More precious than Independence and Freedom and that was our dream when i was i am one of the most he because i am alive to see the dream come occasionally we talk about my comrades and and we wonder that we Are still alive to see the dream of Independence realized after All those years in All those years in the our greatest dream now is to be Able to stabilize the country and the life of our people in a nation already Independent and he and recites a poem he wrote in the revolutionary path is an endless full of trial and but also full of Flowers and fresh he leads the Way Down his Garden like his it is shrouded in if if if the stars and stripes april the stars and stripes Page 15 1j