Công Lý Bridge (literally means Justice Bridge) connects Phu Nhuan District and District 3 over Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal. The nowadays peaceful bridge was nearly blown up in an attempted assassination in 1964 by Nguyễn Văn Trỗi, a Viet Cong (National Liberation Front) fighter. He was arrested and subsequently executed by South Vietnam for plotting the assassination of United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and future ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr..
His plan went like this:
1. Plant bombs on Công Lý Bridge.
2. Wait for McNamara’s envoy to enter the bridge.
3. Boom.
Unfortunately for Nguyễn Văn Trỗi, that plan blew up when he was arrested just 3 days prior to McNamara’s scheduled visit. His trial was held in a military court and he was sentenced to death. This touched off a mini international incident, as guerilla fighters in Venezuela took hostage a US Air Force lieutenant, and in a gesture of worldwide Communist solidarity, offered to release the lieutenant under the condition that Nguyễn Văn Trỗi also be released. A deal was struck, the lieutenant was freed, but Nguyễn Văn Trỗi’s captors reneged on their agreement.
On October 15, 1964, in Chi Hoa Prison located in District 10, Nguyễn Văn Trỗi was marched out in front of cameras and media types from all around the world, and executed by a firing squad. When a priest offered him absolution, he refused, saying: 'I have committed no sin. It is the Americans who have sinned.' He refused to have his eyes covered before volleys hit him saying 'Let me look at our beloved land' and as the first shots were fired, he called out, 'Long live Vietnam!'.
Anti-war activists Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden named their son, an actor now known as Troy Garity, in honor of Trỗi.
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 Trỗi's death sentence.
Attempted to blow up a bridge, ironically his name is given to a bridge spanning the Han River in the city of Da Nang, which was built by an American company in 1965.
Trỗi was only 24 years old when being executed. On the contrary, Robert McNamara passed away in his sleep at his home in Washington, D.C on July 6, 2009. He was 93.
The cache resides in an open memorial site with steles engraved names of fallen soldiers. You can also pay a visit to the beautiful scenicview of Vinh Nghiem pagoda on the opposite side.
