Cover of the book (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The The Gioi (World) Publishing House and theVietnam-France Friendship Association held an event on December 17 to introducethe book titled “La Campagne Ho Chi Minh au cœur de Paris" (The Ho ChiMinh Campaign in the Heart of Paris).
The book features memoirs of Vo Van Sung (1928-2018), aformer Vietnamese ambassador in France, and images of Paris during Vietnam’sstruggle for the reunification of the country in 1975. It was translated byNguyen Dac Nhu Mai, an overseas Vietnamese in France and an historian.
Its content is based on the original text of the memoir byformer Vietnamese Ambassador Sung first published in Vietnamese in 2005 on theoccasion of the 30th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign which liberatedthe south of Vietnam, paving the way for the country’s independence and unityafter 20 years of being separated.
The veteran diplomat was a member of the Vietnamesedelegation in the secret negotiation between general Le Duc Tho and Americanpolitician Henry Kissinger, which resulted in the Paris Peace Accords. He wasalso the first ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in France atthat time.
Not only a witness to history and one of the leadingVietnamese experts knowledgeable in modern Vietnam-France relations, Sung isalso a key figure contributing to the wave from April to May 1975 in Paris andacross Europe in responding to the Ho Chi Minh Campaign and congratulatingVietnam for the country’s victory.
According to the former ambassador, the name of the book isa tribute to the creative, vibrant and responsible activities of Vietnamesediplomatic representatives and of the overseas Vietnamese in France that havesignificantly contributed to the independence and unity of the nation. Hecalled it the diplomatic front, which coordinated with the political andmilitary fronts in Vietnam to become the three factors constituting therighteous power of Vietnam’s resistance.
“La Campagne Ho Chi Minh au cœur de Paris” is also a tributeto international friends for their perseverance and enthusiasm in supportingthe struggle of the Vietnamese people.
Among them are the French Communist Party as the loyalfriend of Nguyen Ai Quoc-Ho Chi Minh; French friends of various backgrounds,political views, and politicians following French General De Gaulle's policy ofopposing the American war in Indochina as well as many international friends inWestern Europe and America who have been wholeheartedly and silently supportingVietnam in the special historic turning point.
With a condensed and straightforward writing style, thememoir is not only a rare historical document about Vietnamese people, themovements of overseas Vietnamese in France and international friends after thesigning of the Paris Peace Accords from 1973 to 1975 but also the record of thefeelings of overseas Vietnamese people and the sincere friendship betweeninternational friends and Vietnam./.
VNA
