Australian veteran seeks mass grave of 42 Vietnamese soldiers for 12 years

Cleaver has a friendly, smiling demeanor, but in his heart there is always the sadness of war.

Cleaver went to Vietnam for the first time in late 1967, when he was just 20 years old. He was a soldier of the Australian Royal Regiment 3. Before putting their feet down at Tan Son Nhat Airport, HCM City, Brian and his comrades thought that they would be in Vietnam for about one year only and then would go home. They did not know that the war in Vietnam was very fierce at the time.

He said soldiers had to draw lots to know whether they have to go to Vietnam. In a bowl were numbers and if anyone drew the number that coincides with their birthday, they will have to enlist and go to Vietnam. “I drew the number 11, my date of birth, and that is why I was in Vietnam," the 68-year veteran said.

Battle in Binh My

In May 1968, Cleaver was present at the military base in Binh My Commune, Tan Uyen District, Binh Duong Province. After the Mau Than campaign, the fighting situation here was fierce but when Cleaver came, it was the time the two sides suspended fighting. Every day, soldiers of one side could see soldiers of the other side, but they did nothing. Cleaver called that time a nightmare because his spirit was always in a state of extreme tension.

"One night, Vietnamese soldiers suddenly attacked. They used mortars to fire at us. The first shot fell right at the position where I stood. What surprised us most was why they could shoot so accurately," he said.

The fierce battles took place in an open area, with no bushes to hide behind. At dawn, when the confrontation ended, Cleaver lost five teammates and 14 others were injured. The Vietnamese army lost 42 soldiers.

"We buried them in a bomb crater. When we left, there was a body still burning by phosphorus near the grave. That's the image I do not want to remember the most, but it has haunted me for years," he said.

In late 1968, the young soldier Cleaver finished the mission in Vietnam and returned home. Many anti-war meetings were being held in the United States and Australia. The ship took him home and his team landed at midnight. There were no notices about their return because they were afraid to confront the war protesters.

"Staying on the ship, we felt relieved. It was the most comfortable feeling we had since we set foot in Vietnam," he said.

The life of Cleaver completely changed. He wanted to engage with the community, but he also tried to separate himself from the world. At work, he closed all the doors and did not want to meet anyone. Sometimes he just sat quietly alone and cried. Doctors said he had post-traumatic stress syndrome after the war.

"Among those who returned from the war, many people faced psychological problems and I was one of them. Many people did not want return to Vietnam for the fear of memories of the past," he said.

Return to Vietnam

In 2002, Cleaver decided to return to Vietnam. His original intention was to see how the country had changed and to look at the old scenery as a way to face the past and to cure his psychological war wounds.

He returned to Binh My. The old battlefield became a vast rubber plantation. He met with Mr. Hoa, Chairman of the veteran association of Binh My commune. Hoa has many documents noting the battles in Binh Minh for many years. The two men looked up the event on May 26, 1968 and read the line “A platoon of the Vietnam Liberation Army with about 40 people were wounded and missing in this area". And there was no more information about the event.

"The moment I decided to search for the grave of the 42 Vietnamese soldiers was when Mr. Hoa asked for help to find the burial place of these soldiers," Cleaver said.

The search began. They used shovels and hoes to dig because Cleaver remembered the coordinates of the grave. They discovered a partly intact skeleton. It was the remains of the soldier burnt by phosphorus.

Initially, he was confident that he would find the grave because once he knew the location of the phosphorus burned soldier, the grave must be very near. However, it was not easy.

Mr. Le Hoang Viet, a former officer of the military command of Binh Duong Province, who accompanied Cleaver for 12 years, said the Australian usually returned to the site in the dry season to start a new search. In some years he returned twice.

After many years of searching, the digging area was expanded to 9ha, 4-5 meters deep in the vast rubber plantation. They used both manual and modern methods, but they could not find the remains.

"We know that sacrifice and losses are inevitable in war but he usually said that he was tormented about the 42 soldiers who died here. He wanted to find them by any way. Once when we dug at the depth of 4m without finding anything, we had to stop while Brian sat crying," Viet recalled.

In late 2014, the Australian veteran decided to stop the search after 12 years. When making the decision, he cried and said, "I'm sorry for everything that happened. I think that the 42 soldiers were training together, they marched from the north to the south together, they fought together, they died together and were buried together. Perhaps, they do not want to be found, they want to stay together."

Though he stopped the search of the mass grave, Cleaver has decided to return to Vietnam every year to do something to heal the wounds of war.

Cleaver's effort to find the 42 Vietnamese martyrs: