Inauguration ceremony

     The monument was built at the site of the former Nga Nam district, with an area of more than 2 hectares, in Nga Nam township, Thanh Tri district at that time. Now, this place belongs to ward 1, Nga Nam town, next to Nga Nam floating market.

     Nga Nam sub-zone was decided to build here by the US - former governance of Vietnam, because Nga Nam town has a unique topography and terrain and is a river area with the intersection of five tributaries radiating from five streams, convenient in transportation and trade. Nga Nam district has been identified as having an important strategic position both militarily and economically. After the Dong Khoi movement that took over the rural government in the early 1960s of Soc Trang province, the US - former governance of Vietnam returned to recapture and tried to consolidate and build this district into a strong military base with a thick system of garrison surrounding it, the number of soldiers was about 600. They organized sweeping the countryside, raiding the revolutionary base area. At the same time, they combined the religious groups in the Tra Long area, using traitors who surrendered to disrupt the revolutionary movement. They often organize sweeps, attacked suddenly and caused many massacres of innocent civilians, arresting and imprisoning hundreds of people, not only in the communes of Soc Trang but also in the adjacent areas of Long My, Phung Hiep (Can Tho) and continuously down the U Minh - Rach Gia - Ca Mau area... to quell the ferocity of the enemy, We mobilized the forces of Vinh Quoi, Tan Long communes... along with the masses in the town to organize hundreds of demonstrations to fight against repression, shooting and killing people. In the struggle, the enemy brutally beat, arrested, imprisoned, some people had to be sacrificed or got disabled.

People come to enjoy life in the evening

     In the dry season in 1962, the provincial armed forces came here, combined with guerrillas and local soldiers to encircle and liberate Nga Nam district for the first time, making the people here and the whole province satisfied. With the spirit of clinging to the ground and clinging to the people, our army built a base, creating a legal position for the people to fight right in the enemy's land. Many women and farmers became secret guerrillas. The enemy increased to force people to join the army, we advocated for young people to enter pagodas to practice or hide and build pagodas to protect the revolutionary base. In general, the mobilization of people to be soldiers in Nga Nam town at that time was recognized by the district and the province as one of the most well-founded units in the military operation. The township commandos combined with secret guerrillas, and the revolutionary masses created the strong position with the insurgent soldiers and insiders, took over 7 outposts, disbanded over 2,000 soldiers and destroyed many defense groups, collected more than 150 guns. Thanks to that, the special forces of Nga Nam township were very well equipped compared to other units in the district…

The Monument

With a sense of self-reliance, the armed forces of the district and commune guerrillas both fought and learned from experience, flexibly applying combat forms of the people's war, relying on the people to build secret bases to operate effectively. At first, we organized the extermination of those who went individually, going in groups, gradually destroying each fortress around the district. From there, we used that as a springboard to create conditions for local forces, provincial troops and the main army to defeat Nga Nam district many times.

Of the attacks and sieges of Nga Nam district, the war in 1968 was the longest and fiercest siege. Participating in the siege of Nga Nam district, there were mixed forces including the local company of Thanh Tri district's army, the defense team of the Provincial Party Committee (B.68); guerrillas in Nga Nam town; Guerrilla in Vinh Quoi commune, Tan Long commune. In addition, there were more than 1,000 citizens of Vinh Quoi, My Quoi, Vinh Loi, Tan Long communes, many vehicles such as canoe, boat, plank, millions of dong in cash and hundreds of bushels of rice that were mobilized for the battlefield…

On the night of May 21, 1968, the encircled areas, simultaneously opened fire on Nga Nam district. Initially, our troops chose four outposts blocking the way outside the district as targets of attacking first. These were the fortresses of Phat Mau, Cong Da, Xom Gao and Tam Gioi, but focused on attacking strongly the two forts of Phat Mau and Cong Da. On the early days of the siege, we only bombarded, sniped, and overwhelmed the enemy soldiers' morale, creating conditions for the civil forces to focus on building two fortresses, forming a siege posture, and attacking more effectively for the next steps. The battle surrounding Nga Nam district later became more and more intense when the fortresses were erected, completed with a sense of urgency and fierceness. During the time when soldiers, guerrillas and civil servants competed to build the fortress, the enemy inside saw it. The enemy was very frightened, they tried to risk their lives to attack, and at the same time, they called for aircraft and artillery to support. With the fortress, our soldiers, including good shooters, were on duty, taking turns watching, and any enemy that came out was within sight. After nearly a month of siege, we have repelled 21 times, the enemies risked their lives to drive out the soldiers to counterattack. Our troops destroyed and wounded more than 60 enemies. Of whom, there were many commanders from security guards, military security, detectives and cruel forces of former republic of Vietnam. Most especially, our troops defeated the lieutenant Ha - the evil leader who counterattacked. Because in more than 20 times of protesting against the encircled area, Ha was present to command dozens of times, he caused more than 20 casualties to our officers and soldiers.

During nearly a month of siege, our troops won a great victory, the enemy was extremely confused. They called Ba Xuyen Sub-region dozens of times to ask for reinforcements, but due to the influence of the common battlefield after the general attack on the province and the whole region, our troops continued to attack, so the enemy of the province could not send supporting forces here. This situation was favorable for our army, if we put our strength into it, we would definitely win and finish.

However, due to the limited strength of the local troops and guerrillas, and after nearly a month of siege, our troops suffered many casualties, the rest were exhausted, and many attacking groups were almost exhausted. In that situation, the campaign command promptly learned from experience and changed siege tactics. The new fighting strategy was called "armored tactics". At night, we let the guerrillas approach artillery, sniping, and disrupting the enemy's rest. During the day, the guerrillas withdrew to the rear to recuperate, in return, district and provincial troops were brought in to replace them, mainly to fight resistance and kill leaders. Sometimes, when the night comes, the district forces fought, during the day, the guerrillas continued to attack... Sometimes at night, we used small parts, equipped with good guns, to attack deeply, fight fiercely, quickly, causing damage to the enemy and then withdrew, in the morning, we sent guerrillas to hold the attack area...

Along with changing the siege tactics, the leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and the District Party Committee paid attention to directing with a high determination: "All efforts are devoted to the siege, all for the end of Nga Nam district". Also from that determination, the comrades directed the neighboring districts and communes to put all human and material resources back here, such as food, ammunition and all other means needed for the campaign.Comrade Secretary of the District Party Committee instructed comrade Sau Keo (namely Comrade Nguyen Tan Thanh, who was Provincial Party Committee member in charge of mobilizing people to join the army by that time) to directly master the situation of the  enemy officers, soldiers at the district, brought the soldiers' families to fight directly with the sub-districts, demanded to move their children to another place, and to discharge out of any enemy stronger service in order to send their children back to their families for doing business… This method of mobilization disintegrated many soldiers in the district. At the same time, it had a strong impact on the spirit of the remaining soldiers. All the efforts of our army made the situation of the soldiers in Nga Nam very desperate. Until July 10, ie 49 days had passed since the launch of the campaign, the enemy of Ba Xuyen sub-regions reckoned that the Nga Nam district was in danger of being annihilated, if they did not intervene in time. Immediately, they mobilized a security battalion to coordinate air force and artillery to intervene. Understanding the above news, the siege command ordered to mobilize cadres and soldiers on the whole front: "Tighten and maintain the siege, resolutely defeat the reinforcements, and proceed to finish the district". On the contrary, the enemy troops fought and did not obey orders, so by the end of July 10, they only moved to Phu Loc (23 km from Nga Nam district) and stationed there. Knowing this news, the spirit of our officers and soldiers on the front became even more enthusiastic. During the two nights of 10 th and 11th of July, our siege points sent troops to fight hard and quickly, the enemy demanded their superiors to withdraw from the district.On the night of July 11-12, they begged the sub-district leaders many times to let them escape, their superiors encouraged "Try to stay until 12 o'clock tomorrow (July 12) reinforcements will come". Indeed, on the morning of July 12, artillery from Phu Loc district fired heavily on village road 42 (ie Phu Loc road to Nga Nam), in the air, reconnaissance aircraft L.19 flew to guide the reinforcements to arrive. They were intercepted by a part of the local troops in Thanh Tri district between Phu Loc and Cai Trau.Meanwhile, in the encirclement area, the besieging force concentrated to fight against enemy with the strongest gunmen of the B.68 units, the district army and a part of the 602 artillery unit, which increased support in tightening the encirclement. The battle lasted until 3 pm, seeing that the reinforcements could not enter, the enemy of the district  prepared to open a way to escape. The commanding board of siege reckoned that "our troops are enthusiastic and determined to fight, but the force is not strong enough to intercept and destroy them, the best way is to open the way for them to flee and then chasing their tails is the best strategy." With such determination and plan, the comrades in the command board directly held guns and commanded our troops to push close to the fence. At the same time, use strong firepower, machine guns, B.40s, mortars to bombard the center of the district. The enemy could not stand it, the entire army rushed to a place where there was no firepower, and fled to Phu Loc. Fast as lightning, the commanding officers, and the soldiers were close to the fence and stormed to occupy the district, immediately used the machine gun they had just obtained, turned the barrel and opened fire on the fleeing enemies. Leaving the dead and wounded, they all ran without daring to turn back. Knowing their troops had escaped, the leaders of the Sub-Region ordered artillery fire to destroy the district. Knowing the enemy's intentions, our forces deployed to withdraw safely. By 4 p.m. that same day, the gunfire stopped.

As a result, after 52 days and nights (May 21, 1968 to July 12, 1968) of the encirclement and encroachment campaign, Thanh Tri's army and people, with strong support from a part of the provincial forces, our army hadcompletely liberated Nga Nam district.

The victory of Nga Nam district has great historical significance, it was the first time in the Southwestern battlefield, with the encirclement and encroachment tactics of guerrillas and local troops at the district level (with a combination of a small part of the provincial force) completely destroyed a military sub-zone belonging to the first and second class of solid defense in the plains. The victory of Nga Nam district was the result of determined leadership, knowing how to promote the synergy of many armies, in building a people's war posture; persistently clinging to the people, building a solid base, being clever, creative, brave and constantly attacking.

After the liberation day, Soc Trang Department of Culture and Information had  a stele built at the location of the branch, to record the historical event of victory in Nga Nam district, in order to educate the local people and future generations on the tradition of revolutionary struggle. By 2014, the construction of the Victory Monument in Nga Nam district was started. The monument was sculpted on stone by sculptor Tran Thanh Phong, a member of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association (Director of Mekong Applied Art One Member Co., Ltd.). Majestic monument with the main group of statues consisting of three proud figures, showing the specificity of the forces that surrounded and liberated Nga Nam district, in the posture of a victor. The main side of the monument overlooks 5 river crossings - Nga Nam floating market. Panorama and works of the Monument were built on a total area of more than 6,000m2. In which, the base of the statue is nearly 520m2. The pedestal and monument are 18m high; The bows on both sides are two embossed plates, each side is 8m long. Around the monument are a number of technical infrastructure areas, squares, green campus... creating more scenery for people and tourists to visit and enjoy....

In August 2016, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Soc Trang province coordinated with related sectors to solemnly hold the inauguration ceremony of the Victory Monument in Nga Nam district - a national monument commemorating this historical event. The monument stands firmly and exists as historical evidence, reminding today and future generations of the historical tradition of struggle, the solidarity in the struggle of the army and people of Nga Nam, Soc Trang in particular and of Vietnamese people in general. In addition, the victory monument of Nga Nam district and Nga Nam floating market will be an ideal combination for sightseeing and discovery of the culture and history of the past and present Nga Nam land.