In the memoirs of Kostas Sarantidis, some of the most important turning
points in his life are described in detail. The structure of the author’s narration covers
three stages of his participation in the First Indochina War: the first months of service
in a new place, meeting with Vietnamese intelligence and joining the side of the Viet
Minh, working as the head of a prisoner of war camp. An important place is given to
the crimes of the French Foreign Legion soldiers, as well as to the description of cruel
scenes of torture and violence against civilians. This clarifies the reasons why he made
his decision to go over to the side of the DRV. A chance meeting with a North Vietnamese
intelligence agent was a milestone event, during which abstract reflections on the transition to the other side received a practical context which was later implemented. The next
stage, which received detailed coverage in the source under consideration, is associated
with the work at the head of the camp for the re-education of prisoners of war. In modern
studies on the history of the First Indochina War, the crimes of European “civilizers”
against the civilian population and the motives of the fighters of the Vietnamese liberation movement almost completely out of the sight of historians for various reasons. The
memories of a soldier involved in someone else’s conflict made it possible to compensate
for this important drawback and look at the war from the point of view of an ordinary
person who, having become an involuntary participant in it, was forced to make his own
conscious choice. Information from this source will significantly improve our knowledge
about the First Indochina war, discover its human dimension and better understand the
motives of its participants from different sides. Of particular interest are the methods of
work of the French and North Vietnamese intelligence, described by the author of the
memoirs, which, for obvious reasons, rarely come to the attention of both professional
historians and amateurs who are simply interested in the history of military conflicts.
(References 16 titles).