Pioneering writer Thai Duy

Journalist Thai Duy in the liberated zone of South Vietnam in 1965.

1. Born in 1926 into a family of civil servants in Bac Giang , Thai Duy (real name Tran Duy Tan) was fascinated by journalism from a young age. After the success of the August Revolution, young Tran Duy Tan would often compile news from newspapers and then climb a tall tree at the edge of the village to broadcast current events and the Viet Minh's policies to the villagers. Later, many people said that this was already participating in the revolution, but he said: "That's what I did on my own; I liked it that way, I didn't mention it to gain any credit!"

In 1949, Thai Duy was accepted into the Cuu Quoc Newspaper (headed by journalist Xuan Thuy), and he spent his entire life working for only one newspaper of the National Liberation Front.

He recounted his early days in the profession: "For several years I wrote articles for the newspaper, even though they weren't published, I kept sending them, to the point that the entire editorial office remembered my name. One day I was invited to the newspaper, and I was received by the editorial secretary, Nam Cao. He patted me on the face and said, 'To be honest, your writing is too bland, but I see how passionate and courageous you are, so I'll give you a try... Make sure you study hard and manage to stay in the profession.'"

Cuu Quoc Newspaper was the largest daily newspaper in the country at that time. Its staff included famous names such as Xuan Thuy, Nam Cao, Nguyen Huy Tuong... Among them, Xuan Thuy was a master journalist and a master manager. Understanding the unique nature of journalism, Xuan Thuy allowed reporters to conduct their own fieldwork and find their own topics, sometimes for months at a time; of course, there were also topics requested by the editorial office. This suited Thai Duy's personality perfectly.

2. Naturally inclined towards the most intense and fierce battles, Tran Duy Tan volunteered to join the 308th Division. Without a salary or any support from the newspaper (due to the difficult transportation and communication conditions at the time), he "lived and worked" alongside the soldiers, sharing their lives and working independently. The 308th Division had a regimental commander named Thai Dung, renowned for his bravery and charisma. Admiring this commander's personality, the young reporter Tran Duy Tan asked to become his "apprentice," and from then on adopted the pen name Thai Duy. He spent many years fighting on the battlefields of Laos and the Dien Bien Phu campaign, regularly submitting articles to the Cuu Quoc Newspaper, contributing to the newspaper's vibrant portrayal of the battlefield. Thai Duy's articles were always enthusiastically read by the soldiers and the people.

During the war against the US, in 1964, Thai Duy (using the pseudonym Tran Dinh Van) and journalist Tong Duc Thang (Tam Tri) walked for three months across the Truong Son Mountains to Tay Ninh and, together with several colleagues from Southern Vietnam, founded the Liberation Newspaper. The first issue of the Liberation Newspaper, published on December 20, 1964, consisted of 12 black-and-white pages and appeared simultaneously in liberated areas, suburban areas, even in the inner city of Saigon, and reached Hanoi via Phnom Penh (Cambodia), sounding a trumpet call to arms and boosting the morale of the entire nation.

In March 1965, Phan Thi Quyen, wife of the hero Nguyen Van Troi, who had by then joined the special forces, was a delegate to the Congress of the Women's Liberation Association of South Vietnam at Duong Minh Chau base (Tay Ninh). Thai Duy was assigned the task of meeting with and recording Quyen's stories about Troi, with a deadline of 15 days. The manuscript was immediately brought to North Vietnam by air from Phnom Penh by a Soviet reporter. President Ho Chi Minh read it, praised it, and ordered it to be printed as a book, with his own preface.

Originally titled "The Last Meetings," Prime Minister Pham Van Dong renamed the book "Living Like Him." First published by the Literature Publishing House in July 1965, the book printed 302,000 copies and has since been continuously reprinted in millions of copies. To this day, no other book in Vietnam has surpassed this record. "Living Like Him" created immense spiritual strength in both North and South Vietnam. Through the seasoned pen of author Tran Dinh Van (Thai Duy), each of Anh Troi's sayings became a truth: "As long as the Americans are around, no one can be happy," "The guilty party is not me, the guilty party is the Americans"...

After "Living Like Him," Thai Duy also has other famous works on the theme of commando soldiers, such as "The Prisoner in the Big Prison," "Nguyen Van Troi's Comrades," etc.

In 1977, the newspaper Cuu Quoc merged with the newspaper Giai Phong to form Dai Doan Ket, and Thai Duy remained a "low-level" reporter. I asked him about this many times, and he said: "It's not their fault. It's because I said I didn't know how to manage. I let others do it better... I've always liked being a reporter; being a reporter made me happy!"

Although just a reporter, Thai Duy was received and highly regarded by President Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and even Mao Zedong at various events related to journalism. This was thanks to his works and his character as a lifelong journalist and soldier.

3. Thai Duy was a pioneer in going to the battlefield. He was also a pioneer during the Doi Moi (Renovation) period, especially in the areas of new contract farming in agriculture and combating corruption.

Imagine the life of farmers and rural people back then. In the North, the average per capita food ration in 1961 was 24 kg/month, but by 1965 it had dropped to only 14 kg/month; and even then, rice had to be divided up for the battlefield. The younger generation today, when Vietnam has become a "rice superpower," may not understand the "extreme hunger" that lasted for decades until the late 1980s. As someone who only looks at the truth and remains loyal to it, Thai Duy is deeply troubled by the question of why, with the same people and the same land, the 5% rice fields yielded far more than the cooperative fields, and deeply troubled by the lamenting song: "One person works as hard as two / So the cooperative leader can buy a radio and a car." And he saw bold farmers "breaking the rules" to embrace the new contract system, then called "underground contracting," because cooperatives were linked to public ownership, and that was contrary to the Party's line and contrary to socialism.

“Underground contracting or death.” That was the choice of the farmers, a wake-up call for journalists. While newspapers like Văn Nghệ, Đại Đoàn Kết, and Tiền Phong in the mid-1980s published socially impactful articles such as “What Kind of Night Was That?” (by Phùng Gia Lộc), “The Woman Kneeling” (Trần Khắc), “The Story of the Tire King” (Trần Huy Quang), “The Procedure for Remaining Alive” (Minh Chuyên), “Springtime Remembering Uncle Ho” (Phan Thị Xuân Khải)..., on the agricultural front, writers like Hữu Thọ, Phan Quang, Lê Điền, Thái Duy... took pioneering steps even earlier.

Faced with the harsh realities of a society riddled with difficulties and shortages, Thai Duy pondered: Why have farmers suffered for so long? He wrote not with ink, but with blood dripping from his heart. Thai Duy became a leading figure in the fight for the new contract system, with hundreds of articles such as "A Revolution," "The Wind of Hai Phong," "Breaking the Monoculture in Thai Binh," "New Mechanism, New People," "Underground Contract System or Death"... These articles contributed to the revolution in agriculture, transitioning from Contract System 100 to Contract System 10, and were later compiled into the book "Underground Contract System or Death" (Youth Publishing House, 2013) - a new milestone in Thai Duy's journalistic career. Directive 100 led to an average annual agricultural growth rate of 4.9% during the period 1981-1985, with food production increasing from 11.64 million tons (1980) to 15 million tons (1981). In 1988, national food production reached 19.58 million tons, but just one year after the implementation of Contract 10 (1989), it increased to 21.58 million tons. Vietnam became a rice exporting country from then on.

Journalist Huu Tho, a staunch writer on the cultural and ideological front, who summarized and demanded that journalists possess "sharp eyes, pure hearts, and incisive pens," wrote in the Nhan Dan newspaper on April 22, 2013: "The struggle for the implementation of the product-based contract system was very fierce, not only at the grassroots level but also from high-ranking individuals and agencies. Those who disagreed with the product-based contract system ultimately threw out many big accusations, saying, 'If we implement the product-based contract system, we should burn Marxist-Leninist books,' even claiming, 'Implementing the product-based contract system is abandoning the Party'... My colleagues who fought alongside me in this struggle included Thai Duy and Le Dien at Dai Doan Ket newspaper, Hong Giao at Hoc Tap magazine, Dinh Cao at the Vietnam News Agency, Dac Huu at Ha Son Binh newspaper..., among us, in my opinion, the journalist who most enthusiastically fought on the battlefield and wrote the most was Thai Duy."

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/ngoi-but-tien-phong-thai-duy-705782.html