Ambassador Ha Van Lau with President Fidel Castro in Cuba. Photo: Document

Colonel – Ambassador Ha Van Lau (1918 – 2016) was an outstanding son of Lai An village, Phu Mau commune, Phu Vang district (now Phu Mau commune, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue province). He joined the Viet Minh Front in 1944. Later, he joined the Indochinese Communist Party and actively participated in military fronts.

In 1951, Ha Van Lau was appointed Deputy Director of the Department of Operations - Ministry of National Defense with the rank of Colonel.

By chance, from an army Colonel, Ha Van Lau (aka Sau Lau) became an Ambassador on a front without gunfire but extremely difficult, the memoir "Ha Van Lau - The person who went from the Sinh village wharf" (written by Tran Cong Tan, Women's Publishing House, 2004) said: While the combat staff was preparing for the plan to attack Dien Bien Phu, there was an order from Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong to keep Ha Van Lau to join the delegation preparing for the Geneva Conference. Sau Lau was assigned to the military group with Deputy Minister of National Defense Ta Quang Buu to prepare military struggle plans, demanding an end to the war at the Geneva Conference as a specialist in charge of military issues, assisting Deputy Minister Ta Quang Buu...".

To prepare for the new mission at the negotiating table in the spirit of President Ho Chi Minh's declaration to Expressen newspaper in November 1953, Ha Van Lau actively collected documents, all kinds of records, including the ongoing war situation to serve the delegation.

As military experts of the delegation, Ha Van Lau and Ta Quang Buu carefully studied the military plans of the conference, which were the restoration of peace in Indochina, ceasefire, troop transfer, French withdrawal from the three Indochinese countries... In the contents of the cessation of hostilities, we proposed the following plans: Either a ceasefire in place in the "leopard skin" style, or dividing the two sides' military regrouping zones. In particular, we calculated that if we divided the zones from the 13th parallel to the 16th parallel, it would be very convenient for the general election later. Therefore, we judged that the struggle to encroach or encroach in to choose a temporary demarcation line would take place fiercely at the conference.

As expected, when negotiating military matters at the conference, Deputy Minister of National Defense Ta Quang Buu and Colonel Ha Van Lau met privately many times with the French military delegation, including Major General Delteil and Colonel Brebisson. The most important issue was that the parallel dividing the country for the two sides' armies to regroup must follow our stance as Head of the delegation Pham Van Dong had instructed: "A ceasefire means not fighting again, ending the war, bringing peace to the country. If the other side proposes to divide the line to regroup and transfer troops, we can agree. If they avoid it, we can tactfully make tentative suggestions, but do not let them take advantage of it and slander us for advocating dividing the country. We must find every way to concentrate forces down to the 13th parallel"...

Therefore, during the negotiation process, we persisted with the opponent in demanding the latitude as far south as possible. At first, we demanded the 13th parallel across Quy Nhon because the three provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Binh Dinh were free zones of Inter-zone 5, except for Da Nang city. France demanded the 18th parallel, namely the Gianh River on Dong Hoi. On July 10, 1954, Head of the delegation Pham Van Dong met with Mendès France and chose the 16th parallel solution, but France still insisted on the 18th parallel. It was not until July 19, under pressure from the great powers, that the three delegations of the Soviet Union, China, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam agreed on the 16th parallel, but the opponent still demanded the 18th parallel. Finally, the conference agreed to take the 17th parallel, namely the Ben Hai River north of Quang Tri province, as a temporary military demarcation line for troop movements and the general election period was extended after two years (until 1956).

After returning from the victory of the Geneva Conference, Ambassador Ha Van Lau continued to be trusted by the Party and State, and assigned many important responsibilities on the diplomatic front. In 1962, he was sent to attend the International Conference on Laos. In 1968, he attended the International Conference on Cambodia, along with many conferences on the Non-Aligned Movement... In particular, from 1968 to 1970, Ha Van Lau was Deputy Head of the negotiating delegation of the Paris Conference on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam. With valuable experience from the Geneva Conference, along with his intelligence and sharp diplomatic skills, Ambassador Ha Van Lau greatly contributed to the victory at the Paris negotiating table, forcing the US to accept withdrawing its troops from South Vietnam, creating a favorable opportunity to end the long-term resistance war against the US in the historic spring of 1975.

In early 1974, Ha Van Lau was appointed as Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba, and also to the Republic of Argentina (from August 21, 1974 to May 31, 1975), concurrently as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Jamaica and Guyana, and Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations (1978 - 1982).

From March 1982, Ambassador Ha Van Lau was withdrawn from the country and appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, concurrently Head of the Central Overseas Vietnamese Committee. In 1984, he held the position of Vietnamese Ambassador to France and Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg until his retirement at the age of over 70.

History has chosen and placed on the shoulders of Colonel - Diplomat Ha Van Lau many important responsibilities of the country and he always completed his tasks excellently. Whether as a soldier in the army or a diplomatic ambassador, he always left an impression of a polite, knowledgeable and talented commander.

NGUYEN DINH DUNG