NVA FALN"Nguyen Van Troi"1940-1964 Medal B4 Be shot By Nguyen Khanh Murder/Death

NVA Vietcong " Nguyen Van Troi " 1940-1964 Medal B4 Be shot by Nguyen Khanh Attemp Murder/Death by firing squad. Condition is "Used".

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Nguyễn Văn Trỗi moments before being shot

Born

1 February 1940

Quảng Nam, Annam, French Indochina

Died

15 October 1964 (aged 24)

Saigon, South Vietnam

Conviction(s)

Attempted murder

Criminal penalty

Death by firing squad

Nguyễn Văn Trỗi (1 February 1940 - 15 October 1964) was a Việt Cộng (National Liberation Front) Patriot. He gained notoriety after being captured by South Vietnamese forces while trying to assassinate United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and future ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1964.

In May 1964 Viet Cong forces planned to assassinate McNamara and Lodge by blowing up the Cong Ly Bridge (10.791°N 106.682°E) as their motorcade passed over the bridge. Trỗi was captured by South Vietnamese forces.

Sentenced to death, Trỗi got a brief reprieve after the FALN, a Venezuelan communist guerrilla group, kidnapped United States 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.

Trỗi became the first publicly executed member of the Viet Cong.His execution was filmed, and he remained defiant to the end. His last words before his execution in Saigon to correspondents were

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 him 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!

In the West, Trỗi's arrest went largely unreported in the mainstream; indeed, major news media did not report on Trỗi at all until the FALN kidnapping episode.His anonymity persisted after his execution, despite the honors heaped upon him in Communist countries. Apart from advocacy by revolutionaries like the Weather Underground,and a brief mention in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, Trỗi is still rarely acknowledged in Western accounts of the Vietnam War

Trỗi was glorified by the Việt Cộng and North Vietnam as a martyr. The first notable act of recognition was in 1965 when the DRVN issued a postage stamp, illustrated on the right, bearing a portrait of him.Considered an exemplar, Trỗi has his name bestowed upon a large school, the Lycée Nguyễn Văn Trỗi in Nha Trang, and a national academic award, The Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Prize