This statement was emphasized by historian Duong Trung Quoc, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences, at the seminar “Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam-US relations” co-organized by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations and the Vietnam-US Association on September 8 in Hanoi.
At the seminar “Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam-US relations”
The Chairman of the Vietnam-US Association, Nguyen Tam Chien, said that the event was a good opportunity for the participants to reminisce about documents and stories relating to President Ho Chi Minh and to learn about his thoughts, morals and manners, especially his visions on foreign affairs in general and on the Vietnam-US relations in particular.
Ho Chi Minh’s views on the Vietnam-US relations sprang from his ultimate goal of liberating Vietnam, contributing to helping oppressed colonial peoples to regain their freedom and independence. The history of the Vietnam-US relations also originated in the year 1911 when President Ho Chi Minh embarked from Nha Rong Wharf (Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City) to seek a path to national salvation.
Delivering their reports at the seminar, delegates agreed that President Ho Chi Minh was the one to lay the early foundations of the Vietnam-US relations. Deputy-Chairman of the Vietnam Peace Committee Nguyen Van Huynh reminded the seminar that in early 1945, the aircraft of American pilot William Saw was shot down in Cao Bang province. He was rescued by local people and then received by President Ho Chi Minh. After that, President Ho Chi Minh and some cadres directly took the pilot to China to hand him over to his country’s representatives there.
In October 1945, US President Harry S. Truman declared his government’s 12 fundamentals of foreign policy, emphasizing that the US “shall refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power.” From then, President Ho Chi Minh proposed the creation of the Vietnam-US Association. Since its establishment, the Vietnam-US Association has become a bridge for advocates of peace in the US to learn more about Vietnam. The association organized various activities, such as teaching English to Vietnamese people and Vietnamese to Americans, holding talks to improve its members’ knowledge on American culture, supporting Vietnamese students in applying to studying in the US, and translating Vietnamese and English books to help the two peoples learn more about each other.
Moreover, President Ho Chi Minh often wrote letters to US Presidents calling for improvements in Vietnam-US relations, highlighting American people’s sentiment to the Vietnamese and denouncing war crimes of some American forces in Vietnam.
Additionally, researcher Ha Chi Nhan, daughter of Hoang Quoc Viet – an outstanding student of President Ho Chi Minh, said that her father always told her that war is a misfortune to a nation and people should live in peace together. These lessons could easily be thoughts that President Ho Chi Minh imparted to his close student.
Over the 20 years since the normalization of Vietnam-US relations, both countries now enjoy a bilateral comprehensive cooperation thank to contributions from the two peoples and above all others President Ho Chi Minh, who laid the foundations for these relations. Many thoughts of President Ho Chi Minh are considered a paradigm to increasingly enhance the Vietnam-US ties, on the basis of independence, self-reliance and mutual respect.
Translated by Van Hieu