Biet Dong Commemorative Medal
Biet Dong and the National Liberation Front presents oral histories from former members of an elite squad of Viet Cong operatives, focusing on their experiences during what is known, in Vietnam, as the American War. Author Michael Dedrick conducted interviews with eight former Biet Dong (the equivalent of “Ranger” or “Special Forces” in English) and sheds new light on this clandestine group.
Best known for their role in the 1968 Tet Offensive, the Biet Dong in the south were organized units hiding in plain sight. Members included young, old, farmers, tradespeople, men, women, agents, spies, monks, students, intellectuals, and journalists. They were highly patriotic, politically motivated and very secretive—operating in three-person cells under aliases. Their voices and experiences emerge in this bilingual volume.
In recent years, historians have made greater use of Vietnamese primary sources and transformed the study of the one of the twentieth century’s most controversial conflicts. Ably curated by Dedrick—who also offers his own perspectives as a veteran and peace activist—the first-hand accounts in Southern Voices add a new layer to the history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.
Michael R. Dedrick is vice president of the Veterans for Peace Chapter 92 located in Seattle, Washington. He served during the Vietnam War as an US Army Analyst and Interrogator-Linguist in Saigon through the Tet and May Offensives of 1968.
An essay, Heroes of Tet. was published in the Mekong Review October 2017
Paper entitled NLF Biet Dong Narratives and Saigon Tet Attacks at Texas Tech University Conference -1968 and the Tet Offensive April 2018
