Tran Huu Duc - A shining example of diligence, thrift, integrity, justice, and selflessness

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the death of comrade Tran Huu Duc (August 21, 1993 - August 21, 2023), we would like to introduce this article as a way to light a stick of incense in memory of a veteran revolutionary soldier who always upheld the ethics of "Diligence, thrift, integrity, uprightness, impartiality, and selflessness", fighting all his life for the noble communist ideal.

The beloved Uncle Ho of the Vietnamese people is an exemplary leader, always consistent between words and actions. He not only left profound teachings for the cadres and party members on studying and practicing the qualities of “Diligence, thrift, integrity, uprightness; impartiality, selflessness” to serve the Fatherland and the people, but also trained and nurtured the next generation of leaders to become exemplary communists who fully possess those noble qualities. Among his outstanding students was comrade Tran Huu Duc - a revolutionary soldier who defeated the enemy with a spirit of steel and the will to attack “over the enemy’s head”.

* *

During his revolutionary activities from 1926-1945, Tran Huu Duc was arrested by the French 4 times and sentenced by the Southern Dynasty government to a total of 29 years in prison and 22 years of house arrest. He had been through the notorious and brutal prisons of the colonial empire such as Quang Tri prison, Lao Bao prison, and Buon Ma Thuot prison (2 times).

Perhaps in our Party, there are few comrades who were arrested, brutally tortured and imprisoned for many years by the imperialist colonial government like Tran Huu Duc. Right in the hell of prison, with the determination of a patriot and the will of a communist, Tran Huu Duc defeated all the extremely brutal tortures of the enemy.

In June 1945, after escaping from the imperial prison and without a moment's rest, Tran Huu Duc immediately threw himself into preparing for an uprising to seize power. In an extremely urgent situation, his superiors assigned Tran Huu Duc to directly lead the uprising to seize power in Quang Tri. With his intelligence and practical working ability, Tran Huu Duc, together with the Uprising Committee, of which he was Chairman, successfully led the Quang Tri uprising quickly.

After taking power, he was not able to stay long with his compatriots and comrades in his hometown Quang Tri province. On August 31, 1945, at a meeting of delegates from the Central provinces, he was elected to the Standing Committee of the Regional Party Committee and Chairman of the Central Committee with absolute trust. The first appearance of the 35-year-old Chairman of the Central Committee caused a great stir among all classes of people in the capital Hue . From the officials of the old regime to the mandarins, including those who had signed the order to arrest him, all felt completely secure and confident in the new regime.

Life has had some truly miraculous changes. Just yesterday, he was a prisoner shackled in a cell, now his new residence is the residence of the Central Region Resident with all the luxurious amenities. But he was not overwhelmed by the change. Thousands of eyes followed the life and activities of the President - "The new Resident" and while "Some people competed to bring their children to the city to live in luxurious houses, some even got married right in the Resident's building, with lavish banquets...", Tran Huu Duc still left his wife and children in the countryside. Through his confession: “One time, my wife brought her 7-year-old son to visit me. I arranged a time to take my wife to visit the King's palace, and took her to visit the entire luxurious and splendid Apostolic Delegation… When I took my wife and children to the private room of the Apostolic Delegation of Central Vietnam, which was then the private room of the President of Central Vietnam, my wife exclaimed in surprise: “Our family is staying here?”. I happily replied immediately: “No! Our family is still in Duong Le Dong, Quang Tri. Tomorrow, the two of us will return there”… ^[1] shows us the precious integrity of Tran Huu Duc. Although, everyone knows that he loves and is grateful to his wife, who for more than 13 years had to be the wife of a communist prisoner, had to spend her youthful years missing her husband who was far away, from Quang Tri prison, Lao Bao, Binh Thuan to Buon Me Thuot exile, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.

In the work of building and consolidating the new government in the Central provinces, he often worked hard day and night, eating meals with his colleagues and other cadres in the agency, not accepting any preferential treatment for himself.

* *

During the 10 years of living and working with Tran Huu Duc, Mr. Tran Viet Phuong recounted: During the two years of 1949 - 1950 in the Viet Bac War Zone, comrade Tran Huu Duc was a member of the Government Party Delegation. I was the secretary who took the minutes, recorded the opinions of each person in the Government Party Delegation meetings, and saw that comrade Tran Huu Duc was always the one who spoke briefly, clearly, and expressed his opinions decisively and frankly. Comrade Pham Van Dong, Secretary of the Government Party Delegation, was a man of few words, valued time, and in the conference he demanded himself and others to get straight to the point, and make practical contributions to solutions, so comrade Pham Van Dong often liked the way he spoke and agreed with many of Tran Huu Duc's opinions. At that time, in the Viet Bac War Zone, there was a movement to increase production, grow vegetables and even rice, corn, potatoes, and cassava; raise chickens and ducks to improve life. I still remember the image of comrade Tran Huu Duc wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, cutting branches and roots of trees in the forest, hoeing the land to reclaim land, and cultivating vegetable beds. At that time, we were only about 20 years old, comrade Tran Huu Duc was twice our age, but in the entire Viet Bac War Zone, no one could produce as much as comrade Tran Huu Duc. Since the 1960s, comrade Tran Huu Duc was a minister at the Prime Minister's Office. Every day, for the whole week, he worked three sessions, morning, afternoon, and evening, at the Prime Minister's Office. Many times, he asked me to work from 11pm the day before to 1am the next morning. During the difficult times of the resistance war against the US, enemy planes bombed the traffic routes, the road from Hanoi to Vinh Linh was very difficult to travel, and had to cross 3 large ferries, so cadres often had to sit in cars for two days. Comrade Tran Huu Duc went urgently with two drivers taking turns, leaving Hanoi early in the morning, arriving at Vinh Linh at night, making an appointment with the cadres, arriving at the workplace immediately, finishing work, immediately returning, sitting and resting a little in the car, following the rolling route, stopping to work in each province. Working with an urgent, intense, and resilient spirit, the young cadres often had to try their best to keep up. Once, the Politburo met to discuss a number of important economic issues, comrade Tran Huu Duc was invited to attend the meeting and was authorized by Prime Minister Pham Van Dong to report on the situation on behalf of the Party and Government delegation. After that meeting, Uncle Ho told comrade Pham Van Dong, "Uncle Duc's report is good, helping the Politburo to discuss and reach consensus soon, decide on the right policies and measures. Next time we discuss similar issues, we can continue to assign Uncle Duc to prepare a situation report and make recommendations." During the war, after many days and nights of work, comrade Tran Huu Duc and we only had a pot of tea - average tea, each person got a few cups of tea, and no other nourishment. However, comrade Tran Huu Duc still fanned a flame of enthusiasm and passion in us that was always burning. In work, he always told us "not to care too much about positions and titles", we just needed to "be of one heart, one mind, for the people, for the country, and strive to fulfill our duties" and "there is no title, no reward, no joy more legitimate and noble than that" .

In using cadres and treating subordinates, comrade Tran Huu Duc paid great attention to the qualities of cadres, especially political qualities - the core of cadres; as well as the issue of fairness, there was no favoritism towards this person or that person in work. Mr. Duong Van Phuc, former Deputy Head of the Government Office, recalled in his memory: In his work, comrade Tran Huu Duc always closely directed and cared about the cadres assigned tasks. He carefully considered assigning tasks to anyone, not arbitrarily or according to his own subjective opinions. He assigned tasks clearly, determining who could do the job and had a sense of organization before assigning. In daily life, he was very frugal and simple, and he absolutely did not do anything that would cause waste. I remember that on the occasion of Lunar New Year, when I came to wish him a happy new year at home, he often treated him to ginger jam, very simply. He did not ask or demand anything in his personal life, just followed the regime. When he was Deputy Prime Minister, he was taken to work by car every day, and his wife rode a bicycle (although she also worked at the Prime Minister's Office). Many people asked why he didn't let his wife go with him, but he said: "How can we go together? Cars and drivers are the State's standards for serving the Deputy Prime Minister, not for serving the family" ^[2] . Even when his wife and children were sick or went to see a doctor, he did not use the agency's car. He always remembered Uncle Ho's teaching when he first took power in 1945: "The committee member rides a car, then the committee member's wife, and even the committee members' girls and boys also ride his car. Who will bear the cost?", and he believed that cadres must be exemplary in all circumstances, impartial and impartial in their work.

* *

Working for nearly 40 years in the Central Committee, as a member of the Party Central Committee for the first, second, third and fourth terms, Tran Huu Duc has held many important positions in the Party, Government and National Assembly such as Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee; Head of the Party Central Committee's Rural Work Committee; Minister of Agriculture; Minister of the Prime Minister's Office; Secretary of the Tri Thien Regional Party Committee; Deputy Prime Minister; Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy; National Assembly delegate from the first to the seventh terms. In all his positions, he was devoted day and night, grasped the situation, stayed close to reality, listened to the people, was close to cadres, set an example himself, promoted the collective, and thereby completed all tasks. Throughout his life, from his youth to his old age, Tran Huu Duc has always been a loyal and bright-minded cadre, seeing with his eyes and listening with his ears, thinking with his mind, speaking with his mouth, and doing with his hands. Throughout his life, Tran Huu Duc lived according to Uncle Ho's teachings of "Diligence, thrift, integrity, and uprightness" , directing his heart toward "Impartiality and impartiality" to serve the Fatherland and the people. He always lived honestly, straightforwardly, simply, and modestly. He hated opportunists, corrupt, bureaucratic, and morally depraved people. He believed that those people still existing within the Party were a more worrying danger than enemies outside.

Throughout his life, Tran Huu Duc remained loyal to the ideals of patriotism and communism, constantly striving for the ideals he had vowed to follow since he was in his twenties. At the age of 83, until his last moment, he remained steadfastly devoted to those ideals./.

------------------------------------------------------------

^[1] Tran Huu Duc, Stepping over the enemy's head, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1996 (reprinted in 2020), p. 82

^[2] Tran Huu Duc, Stepping over the enemy's head, op. cit., p. 83

Source link