Career
He gained notoriety after being captured by the South Vietnamese while trying to assassinate United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and future ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Junior. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1963. Sentenced to death, Van 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 Van Troi"s sentence. The group threatened to kill the American if Trỗi was executed.
Smolen was eventually released unharmed, and Trỗi was shot by firing squad shortly thereafter in Chí Hòa Prison.
His execution was filmed, and he remained defiant to the education 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.
lieutenant 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.
lieutenant is against the Americans that I have taken action." When a priest offered him absolution, he refused, saying: "I have committed no sin.
lieutenant 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.
Many cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him. In Hồ Chí Minh City, the major road upon which McNamara traveled — and where Trỗi planned to assassinate him — is named Nguyen Van Troi Boulevard.
In Đà Nẵng, the Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Bridge spans the Hàn River.
Other countries have commemorated Trỗi, particularly Cuba. where a 14,000-seat public stadium in Guantánamo is named Nguyen Van Troi Stadium, and his statue overlooks Nguyen Van Troi Park in Havana. The city also has a school and a hospital named for him. The 1975 film Chronicle of a Latin American subversive (Spanish: Crónica de un subversivo latinoamericano) by director Mauricio Walerstein, narrates kidnaping episode of Colonel Smolen (portrayed as Colonel Robert Whitney by actor Claudio Brook) by FALN guerrillas in revenge for Van Troi"s death sentence.
Trỗi"s widow, Phan Thi Quyen, authored the 1965 book Nguyễn Văn Trỗi As He Was.