Pharmacist Ho Thu - a devoted and resilient Front cadre

Pharmacist Ho Thu's family (left) presents a souvenir to the Vietnam Fatherland Front Museum. Photo: Hong Lam.

Pharmacist Ho Thu was born in 1910 in Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan. He was a national intellectual who was enlightened early and followed the revolution. Before 1945, he actively participated in the Viet Minh Front and the Vanguard Youth, participating in the Intellectuals group led by Architect Huynh Tan Phat in Saigon and Ben Tre . Although he operated secretly, pharmacist Ho Thu was the owner of a large Western pharmacy in Ben Tre, had extensive connections and was very trusted, so he actively mobilized the elite, scholars, intellectuals... to support the revolution. He himself contributed his family's own money to buy weapons from Japan to prepare for the August 1945 General Uprising.

During the resistance war against the French, pharmacist Ho Thu worked in the Tri Van - Front in the Saigon urban area and was the Head of the Military Medicine Department of Military Region 7. He was one of the participants in establishing the first Intellectual Party Cell in Saigon. With his influence and prestige, pharmacist Ho Thu and his friends and comrades donated money, medicine, and medical equipment to secretly transport to the war zone. At the same time, he also actively participated in mobilizing many Saigon intellectuals to sign a petition demanding that the Saigon government negotiate with the Ho Chi Minh Government to end the war and restore peace. This petition caused a great resonance domestically as well as internationally, increasing the prestige and position of the Resistance Government. As the Head of the Military Medicine Department of Military Region 7, he was one of the first doctors in the South to pay attention to combining Eastern and Western medicine, actively researching medicinal plants, and actively searching for medicinal herbs available in the localities to treat soldiers, cadres, and people. In extremely difficult, arduous and deprived war conditions, he and his colleagues worked day and night to research, study and successfully test and produce anti-malaria, anti-hepatitis, anti-enteritis drugs...

During the resistance war against the US to save the country, he was Deputy Secretary General of the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, Head of the Military Medicine Department of Military Region 7. Before being welcomed to the war zone to attend the Congress to establish the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam on December 20, 1960 and being appointed Deputy Secretary General of the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, pharmacist Ho Thu went through difficult, dangerous, and painful years when the enemy relentlessly searched, surrounded, and arrested our cadres, including him. His wife, children, and brother were temporarily detained by the enemy. Undaunted, he lived a nomadic life among revolutionary base families, steadfastly and determinedly continuing his activities. With her new position and responsibilities, pharmacist Ho Thu continues to work for the Front while opening training classes for pharmacists and pharmacists, equipping them with knowledge of combining Eastern and Western medicine, compiling and publishing handbooks so that medical facilities can make the most of locally available medicinal plants to treat wounded soldiers, sick soldiers and people.

After the country was reunified, due to poor health, pharmacist Ho Thu retired. Not giving up in the face of illness, with the extensive knowledge of a pharmacist and the extraordinary courage and determination of a patriotic intellectual who had experienced two difficult resistance wars against the French and the Americans, he persevered and persistently practiced to improve his health and researched medicine with the thought that as long as he lived, he would be useful to the country.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front Museum currently preserves many relics and documents about the revolutionary life of pharmacist Ho Thu. Typical of these are the micro-scale that pharmacist Ho Thu used to prepare medicine during the resistance war, medical examination equipment (box and stethoscope), treatment equipment for patients... Three handwritten notebooks meticulously and in detail record the issues of disease prevention and control, the basis and formula of medicine preparation, prescriptions, treatments, pulse taking... What is special about the notebook that records details about asthma based on the specific condition of the patient are the instructions, feelings and wishes of a talented and dedicated doctor for each patient.

The memento left by pharmacist Ho Thu includes many images, documents, and artifacts about the years of working for the Front that he could never forget, including the photo Professor Bach sent in 1982 with the caption: "Respectfully presenting Mr. Ho Thu with an image of Ho Thu in 1962 to commemorate the time when he and Mr. Tu Phan, the first two people, were responsible for bringing the Platform of the National Liberation Front to contact with people's organizations throughout South Vietnam and successfully built the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam in 1960". The card certifying pharmacist Ho Thu as a member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front elected at the National United Front Congress in February 1977. The invitation to a meeting sent to him by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. Throughout his life of dedication to the country, pharmacist Ho Thu was awarded many noble awards by the Party and State: First Class Anti-American National Salvation Medal, First Class Victory Medal, First Class Independence Medal, First Class Resistance Medal, etc. He and his family have respectfully preserved these noble awards intact to this day.

On May 25, 1992, pharmacist Ho Thu passed away after nearly half a century of dedication, enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifice for the cause of national liberation, national unification, for the cause of great national unity, for Vietnamese medicine. The relics that pharmacist Ho Thu left behind, along with touching stories about the life of a typical patriotic intellectual, a devoted Front cadre, loyal to the country, devoted to the people, with a strong will to overcome all adversities, will forever be a shining example for today's and future generations.

Source