Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh
"Soldier's son" quality
General Vinh was a sociable person. Every year, on two important occasions, his family often invited many brothers and friends to attend. That was on the first day of the New Year (birthday anniversary) and early July (the death anniversary of his father, General Nguyen Chi Thanh). On these occasions, the number of guests was up to hundreds, in addition to generals, comrades in arms, colleagues, school friends... there were also many artists, journalists, reporters. It seemed that he always had special affection for them, this showed another aspect of his personality, besides being a high-ranking official of the Party and State, an intelligence general and a person who had been in charge of the foreign defense sector of our army for many years. I think he inherited this personality from his father. When General Nguyen Chi Thanh was the Director of the General Political Department, he was very interested in and knowledgeable about literature and artists, and was loved and respected by the literary and artistic community.
I met "Mr. Nam Vinh" many years ago, but only really had a chance to talk to him in depth in the last 10 years when I helped my teacher, martial artist and writer Tran Viet Trung, a close friend of his, complete the book Quyen Su and then the book Su De .
In the book "Master" there are many pages written about their school days, the real person and the fictional literary person seem to blend into one, vivid, carrying the different personalities of "children of soldiers", although both of them are children of high-ranking generals in the army. Mr. Trung is the son of Major General Tran Tu Binh, and Mr. Vinh is the son of General Nguyen Chi Thanh, the two families have had a close relationship for a long time. The two of them are not only the same age, the same class, but also orphaned when they were only 8 years old (General Tran Tu Binh and General Nguyen Chi Thanh both passed away in 1967), from which formed the indomitable, unruly but righteous temperament, creating a special friendship between them. Personally, if I have received his affectionate trust, it may be because we are both "children of soldiers".
Through meetings and conversations, I was surprised to learn that a busy person like him actually loves to read books. He said that when he went on long business trips, on flights across countries and oceans, he always brought along a pocket e-reader containing his favorite literary books. He said that on the plane he often did not sleep but read continuously until he arrived at his destination. He has his own reading taste, for example, with martial arts novels, he only reads Gu Long's novels and does not like Jin Yong. He also reads a lot of domestic literature, there were times when we met, he suddenly asked about a few newly published novels and short stories that I had not had time to update; or shared about the authors and works that he was interested in.
During those times, he often revealed his plans to write books and mentioned most often that he would write about "Mr. Ba Quoc, his teacher". He spoke sincerely and passionately, as if if he had not completed this book, he would still owe a debt of gratitude to his teacher. And as we know, in March this year, the book The Teacher was released to readers. Reading the book, readers learned more about Mr. Ba Quoc (intelligence officer Dang Tran Duc), the teacher who had a great influence on the military career of "Nam Vinh" and the achievements of intelligence soldiers in the K battlefield, on the northern border or Eastern European countries... during the especially difficult times of the Vietnamese revolution. At the time of the book's release, not many people knew that he was seriously ill. Completing The Teacher was an extraordinary effort of his and the work was carried out very urgently as if "fearing that there was no time left".
So many unfinished plans…
Since his retirement, from my observation, one of his top priorities has been writing books. There is information that he has completed and plans to publish two more books. From what I heard from him, there are still many plans, such as a book that collects more than 100 stories he wrote about his father (basically completed); a book about his time in politics; a book about his beloved mother... Besides that, there are books summarizing military , war, foreign defense, national defense strategy in the new situation...
Writing this, I recall the time I sat alone with him for hours at the headquarters of Media 21, to listen to him talk about his mother - Mrs. Nguyen Thi Cuc. “Until now, I still cannot forget the time I came home from school and saw a mother stopping her car on the side of the road to buy her child an ice cream. The joyful eyes of the child holding the ice cream, the affectionate and loving gestures of the mother made my heart ache. The feeling of sadness and loneliness made tears well up without me knowing. I wished I could do anything to take the place of the child.” That was when his father had just passed away. His mother was a strict and strong woman, but the passing of her husband had knocked her down, making her lose the will to live. If she tried to live, it was only because she loved him, her only son who was still too young. Her joy was that her son had good academic achievements or worked hard, but as a child he was naughty and neglected his studies so he never received any certificates of merit. The times he was praised, he "asked" his teacher or superior to bring them home to make his mother happy.
His mother was a principled person, who did not know how to compromise or ask for favors in any situation. As the Deputy Head of the Health Care Department of the Policy Department, she was assigned to manage the rare delicacies for high-ranking officials, but she did not even let her children touch a drop of honey. After his father passed away, the family's situation was very difficult, not because the Central Government did not care, but because his mother always refused all preferential treatment, even though under the circumstances, if she had asked for anything, it would have been easily granted.
Despite being so strict, she never beat her children. Only once, when he climbed a cotton tree in the garden to get cotton buds to make wood carvings, she was afraid that he would fall, so she beat him several times to teach him a lesson. While beating her, she cried. In the last three years of her life, from 1977 to 1980, his mother became seriously ill, suffered from schizophrenia, and suffered much pain and suffering. He had just entered his twenties, was stationed far from home, and could do nothing for his mother. At that time, he did not dare to blame anyone, just thought it was fate. He sadly said: “Now, thinking back, I miss my mother even more. When I was over 60 years old, I had everything, but I was only missing my mother. Those who still have a father and a mother in this world to serve, to listen to scolding, to indulge even the most unusual wishes of the elderly... are happy people.”
Many of the characteristics that make him who he is now seem to have been inherited from his mother. Therefore, I believe that the book about his mother will be very good, not only because of the deep maternal love, but also because it will be a portrait of the person, personality and fate of the wife of a general with the ups and downs of the times...
Many people have written and told about the military career with the important successes and contributions of General Nguyen Chi Vinh from a soldier to an intelligence general, a person in charge of foreign defense of the army. But certainly it is not enough and far from complete. Having witnessed his many exchanges, I found him to be an open and principled person. There were many questions, he answered frankly: "I can't say it right now". There were sentences he promised: "On the right occasion, I will read the file and find out for myself". There were also sentences he said: "This is for private discussion only, I can't write it down yet"... With the nature of his work, even though he is considered by reporters to be very "open and frank with the media", it is only a part of it. It should have appeared in his books, but alas, a serious illness has prevented many unfinished plans!
For me personally, he was always Mr. Nam Vinh in daily life, completely unrelated to any specific work, so that I could listen and observe, and discover his own personal corners. When he was with old friends, he would play the guitar and sing innocently and passionately Russian songs popular in our country in the 60s and 70s of the last century. His generation was attached to each other with a very strange friendship, close but clear, always sharing difficulties and hardships with each other. It was the same with the younger generation. Once, a younger brother working in the media field had an occupational accident, he met a high-ranking official and said, "In my whole life, I have never asked you for anything, now that something like this happens, please consider it and give it a chance to fix it." The matter was then handled by the right person, the right job; telling this story helps us understand more about his love for his brothers and friends.
Writer HUU VIET
Source
Comment (0)