Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi (1 February 1940 â 15 October 1964) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and member of the NLF (National Liberation Front). He gained notoriety after being captured by ARVN forces while trying to assassinate United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. who were visiting South Vietnam in May 1964.
In May 1964, the NLF forces planned to assassinate McNamara and Lodge by blowing up the Công Lý Bridge () as their motorcade passed over the bridge. Trá»Âi was captured by South Vietnamese forces.
Sentenced to death, Trá»Âi got a brief reprieve after the FALN, a Venezuelan Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, kidnapped United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Smolen in revenge for Trá»Âi's sentence. The group threatened to kill Smolen if Trá»Âi was executed. Smolen was eventually released unharmed, and Trá»Âi was shot by firing squad shortly thereafter in ChàHòa Prison.
Trá»Âi became the first publicly executed member of the NLF. His execution was filmed, and he remained defiant to the end. His last words before his execution in Saigon to correspondents were <blockquote>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.</blockquote>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, Trá»Âi's arrest went largely unreported in the mainstream; indeed, major news media did not report on Trá»Âi at all until the FALN kidnapping episode. His anonymity persisted after his execution, despite the honors bestowed upon him in the Eastern Bloc. Apart from advocacy by revolutionaries like the Weather Underground, and a brief mention in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book (1971) as a "Vietnamese hero", Trá»Âi is still rarely acknowledged in Western accounts of the Vietnam War.
Trá»Âi was glorified by the NLF and the DRV as a martyr. The first notable act of recognition was in 1965 when the DRV issued a postage stamp, illustrated on the right, bearing a portrait of him. Considered an exemplar, Trá»Âi has his name bestowed upon a large school, the Lycée Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi in Nha Trang, and a national academic award, The Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi Prize.
Many cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him. In Há» ChàMinh City, the major road upon which McNamara traveledâÂÂand where Trá»Âi planned to assassinate himâÂÂis named Nguyen Van Troi Boulevard and a memorial park, the Bia tðá»Âng niá»Âm Anh Hung Liet Si Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi is located near the former Cong Ly Bridge. In ÃÂàNẵng, the Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi Bridge spans the Hàn River. Other countries have commemorated Trá»Âi, 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.
Anti-war activists Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden named their son, an actor now known as Troy Garity, in honor of Trá»Âi.
The 1975 film Chronicle of a Latin American subversive (Spanish: Crónica de un subversivo latinoamericano) by director Mauricio Walerstein, narrates the kidnapping episode of Colonel Smolen (portrayed as Colonel Robert Whitney by actor Claudio Brook) by FALN guerrillas in response to Trá»Âi's death sentence.
Trá»Âi's widow, Phan Thi Quyen, authored the 1965 book Nguyá» n VÃÂn Trá»Âi As He Was.