Uncle Le Dinh Thong emotionally tells the story of meeting Uncle Ho.

Uncle Le Dinh Thong was born in 1935 in Phong Phu commune (now Dien Hoa commune, Phong Dien district). When he was young, his family was very poor but still created conditions for him to study sewing with a teacher who was the son of a mandarin under King Bao Dai. The sewing teacher loved Uncle Thong very much, he took care of him and created conditions for him to study, after finishing school he was allowed to stay and work with his teacher. The teacher was enlightened and participated in revolutionary activities quite early, he was a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Chairman of the Commune Front. During a sweep by the French colonialists, the sewing machine head was taken by them and the house was burned down. With no other job to do, and hating the French, Uncle Thong followed the revolution with the introduction of his uncle's younger brother who was the Commune Captain. Although Uncle Thong was an only child and his parents were old, he was still determined to leave the locality to participate in revolutionary activities. Uncle Thong was a quick and skillful person, so he was recruited to the provincial security department and lived with comrade Phan Xu, Deputy Head of the Thua Thien Provincial Security Department. In 1951 and 1952, he was introduced by comrade Phan Xu to join the Hue City Special Forces. After participating in the battle at Ha Van Dong's residence (located near Le Loi Street today), he met comrade Phan Xu again. After that, Uncle Thong was introduced by comrade Phan Xu to serve the provincial Military Congress. During the Congress, he met comrade Than Trong Mot and was asked by comrade Than Trong Mot to join his company as a scout.

After the Geneva Agreement in 1954, Company 107 of comrade Than Trong Mot, including Uncle Thong, was regrouped in Hanoi . In the capital, Uncle Thong was able to participate in the army's parade training class. It was here that Uncle Thong had the opportunity to meet Uncle Ho.

When he met Uncle Ho, Uncle Thong was only 19 years old. This year he is 88 years old, so after 70 years of meeting Uncle Ho, the story of meeting him is still imprinted in the mind of the old Uncle Ho soldier. Uncle Thong was moved and emotional as he recounted the story of meeting President Ho Chi Minh :

I first met Uncle Ho on the morning of December 20, 1954, at Bach Mai airport, when I participated in the parade training of the Vietnam People's Army. In preparation for a large parade of the Vietnam People's Army taking place at Ba Dinh Square on January 1, 1955, welcoming President Ho Chi Minh and the Party Central Committee back to the capital Hanoi after nine years of victorious resistance against French colonialism. The parade had 54 companies. Before participating in the parade, Uncle Ho went down to each company so that everyone could comfortably look at him carefully, so that when the official parade began, everyone would focus on the formation, ranks and movements, and not stare at Uncle Ho on the flagpole, losing the formation and ranks.

After the first inspection of the Flag Tower, the units received orders for the troops to return to the Flag Tower and assemble, with the far ones standing in front and the near ones standing behind (in the South, the far ones gathered first, and in the North, the near ones stood behind). When the 54 companies had assembled, we continued to meet Uncle Ho and listen to him speak. Uncle Ho spoke with a very touching Nghe An accent, I still remember it clearly:

When they saw Uncle Ho walking up to the flagpole, everyone shouted in unison, "Long live the Vietnamese Labor Party", "Long live President Ho", Uncle waved his hand to signal so everyone fell silent, then Uncle asked:

- Are you full?

Yes, sir!

- Do you guys get 8 hours of sleep?

- Yes, sir, enough! (Although we, the parade soldiers, were not prepared in advance, everyone answered in unison loudly and clearly).

- I'll ask again, do you need anything?

We thought to ourselves, the country is still poor so we don't ask for anything but it's so cold!

To tell the truth, soldiers from the South going to the North at that time felt very cold and only had two sets of clothes. But when we looked back at Uncle Ho, we saw him wearing khaki clothes, a scarf not made of wool but of cloth or cotton; wearing rubber sandals, inside were white socks also made of cloth, not wool. Uncle Ho was very close so we could see very clearly, Uncle Ho was old but still dressed very simply and modestly like that. Therefore, we did not have any requests or demands, although it was cold, we promised Uncle Ho to overcome the situation to complete the mission well.

Because it was so cold while talking, Uncle Ho had a cough, so Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh asked Uncle Ho to take a day off to ensure his health and told us to sympathize.

After resting, we returned to the barracks to eat, drink, and then ran to the airport to continue training. This time I got to meet Uncle Ho in person in a very special situation:

I was on my way to the airport for training when I met some sons of officers from Division 308, about 12 or 13 years old, sitting and playing. Seeing that I was a young soldier, they teased me. While I was running, one of them tripped me, causing me to fall face down on the road, my hands bleeding. I was so angry that I grabbed the boy and slapped him in the ear.

At that time, Uncle Ho was sitting in the Guest House of Division 308 with the division commander, very close to the road. Seeing that, Uncle Ho immediately went out with two civil servants. He asked:

- Why do you hit children?

- I answered tremblingly (my soul was gone at that time): Yes, sir! I was running quickly and it tripped me, causing me to get cut, both my hands were bleeding, my knees were scratched and my pants were torn.

- Speaking of this, Uncle Ho immediately asked: Hue?

- I hesitantly replied: No! Phong Phu, Phong Dien, Thua Thien!

He smiled gently, held the child in his arms with one hand, put the other on my shoulder and said gently: Next time, don't hit your brother. If you hit your brother, your hand will not stop bleeding!

He spoke with a very emotional Hue accent, which moved me deeply.

A story that happened in very special and touching circumstances about Uncle Thong's direct meeting with Uncle Ho.

Later, Uncle Thong had the opportunity to meet Uncle Ho many times, but this was a meeting in special circumstances that Uncle Thong will never forget.

The story of meeting Uncle Ho and the image of Uncle Ho has always followed Uncle Thong for more than 70 years. He always told his colleagues, children, friends... that touching story. Every time he talked about Uncle Ho or saw his image, Uncle Thong confided: I was moved to tears, I loved and missed Uncle Ho so much - a very deep feeling I had for him. Today, we, the staff working at the museum named after Uncle Ho, were fortunate to hear this touching story from a son of Hue who had met Uncle Ho directly.

Through the story, we see the extremely humane and delicate behavior of President Ho Chi Minh, from the big things to the smallest things, he handled them skillfully, appropriately, reasonably, and with profound humanity. The story is worth for us to ponder and learn from him.

Article and photos: Le Van Ha