1923
Russian newspaper Ogonhiok (Little Flame) published “Visiting Nguyen Ai Quoc, an international communist,” by Russian writer Osip Mandelstam, in which the author quoted him as saying: “It is very interesting that the French administration has taught us what ‘bolshevism’ is and who Lenin is … They hunted and seized individuals whom they labeled as ‘communists’ while in fact the arrested were not communists at all. After all, their actions have by chance ‘helped’ our people learn about Lenin and bolshevists.”
The author commented: “We can find in Nguyen Ai Quoc a kind of culture, which is not a European culture but may be a new kind of culture of the future… The Annamite people are simple and polite. From Nguyen Ai Quoc’s noble style and warm words, we can oversee a future in which a great, immense friendship covers all over the world.”
1929
Nguyen Ai Quoc left Thailand for Hong Kong. In a report dated April 10, 1930, he said: “I intended to go to China for the third time when I was told about differences between political parties in Indochina and Vietnam. I arrived in Hong Kong on December 23…”
It was his arrival in Hong Kong that triggered preparations for a conference to merge political parties into the Communist Party of Vietnam.
1945
President Ho Chi Minh held a meeting with representatives of political parties to set up a coalition government based on the spirit of national unity.
The meeting agreed to pass the “14-point agreement”, which read: “In the official coalition government, Ho Chi Minh takes on the position as chairman and Nguyen Hai Than assumes the post as vice chairman …”
1946
In “Questions and Answers” he wrote in an effort to publicize the national resistance war that had just been launched. The President said: “Some people asked me when the resistance war would be won, and I replied that “we should use water to put out a fire step by step. While our enemy wants to apply the “fast fight and fast victory” strategy, we must patiently confront them with our protracted resistance war and then we will surely win and our enemy will surely fail…"
He also answered questions like “What does a people’s war mean?” with the following verses:
Our people must safeguard our motherland
Each of us is a child of the nation
The nation is the mother of everyone
In response to the question “What should civilians do?” he put forward the following verses:
Soldiers on the frontline have sacrificed a lot
They are safeguarding our Fatherland
Civilians should step up production
It is also a glorious duty to serve the resistance war
1963
In “Southern people to win the war” in Nhan Dan (The People), the President spoke about the coup d’etat to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem, the President of the US-backed Saigon regime.
The author said: “They will overthrow each other and in the end, the people will overthrow all of them.”
1964
Copley Press Inc. (Hong Kong) published an interview with President Ho Chi Minh, who was quoted as saying: “If the US attacks North Vietnam, we will resolutely fight back. To resolve Vietnamese issues, the only path is for the US to respect the Geneva Agreement… The US must immediately stop its invasion of South Vietnam… They must also put an end to their military attacks against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
By Duong Trung Quoc* and his assistants
*The author is a historian and member of the National Assembly
