Nguyen Thi Binh's Memoirs: The Secret of a Human's Strength
Nguyen Thi Binh's memoir "Family - Friends and Country" - a book that should be read, especially for young people. Each young person can find a message for themselves, which sometimes the author herself did not intend.
Writer Nguyen Ngoc commented: “When holding the book, readers will want to know the complicated and intricate details about the battle of wits and confrontation between Vietnamese representatives and US government representatives at international conferences. If the book only provided those things, it would be easy and would satisfy the readers’ curiosity… But the attractive thing about the book is the secret about the strength of a human being…”.
Talking about the reason for writing the memoir, former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh shared: “I want to represent many people who are no longer here and those who are still alive to express the thoughts, reflections, and strong, profound emotions of the youth of my generation during the revolutionary struggle, through two extremely arduous but also extremely glorious resistance wars... Our generation all agreed that it was the most beautiful period of our lives in the sense that we lived with purpose, with ideals and with full faith in the future of the country…”.
Many other memoirs were written by others, but the entire language in this memoir is Nguyen Thi Binh's. She writes briefly, speaks briefly, and is concise in each sentence, not fussy or wordy. Everything is conveyed simply but meaningfully. Writing is the person. That is the person Nguyen Thi Binh is.
In the memoir of former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh titled “Family - Friends and Country”, the portrait of Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh lies within that dialectical relationship.
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| Former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh signed her memoirs |
A young person asked: Family, friends and country, if you had to choose, which would you choose? Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh answered: “We all have family, friends and country to form a person. Of course, in difficult circumstances, we have to choose country, family or friends. We all have to try to do well those 3 tasks. If we do this task well, it will create conditions and foundation to complete the other task. Of course, we do not always have to handle those 3 tasks at the same time, but we need to focus on which task at any time.”
And in the memoir, there is a page that makes readers extremely emotional: “There were many difficulties, the assigned tasks were always beyond my ability… But there was one difficulty that I could not overcome, and I considered it a sacrifice of mine: that was taking care of my two children. From the age of two, they had to go to nursery school, coming home only once a week, when their mother was away, their uncles would pick them up, but when their uncles were busy, they could not come home. When my children grew up, I had to go away every year, sending Thang and Mai to boarding school. The war was fierce, and the children were evacuated with their aunt. My father was in the army, so he could not take care of the children. Working far away, hearing bombs falling near where my children lived, I was worried to the point of heartache, feeling extremely sorry for my children…” (p. 29).
Memoir "Family - Friends and Country"
Nguyen Thi Binh chose her man when she was 16 years old, but because of the war and responsibility for the country, 9 years later, the two had the opportunity to meet again and ended their 9-year love affair with a simple, cozy wedding at 2 Dinh Le Street - Hanoi. But the strange thing is, to have the faith to maintain a love for 9 long years, it was just a single line that Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh received from the person she loved - Mr. Dinh Khang: "Wishing you and your family safety and health".
A German friend came to the Tri Thuc Publishing House office - where the book was made, when he saw the photo of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh on the cover of the memoir, he exclaimed: "Oh, Madam Binh, I know her because my entire youth was devoted to Vietnam". Writer Nguyen Ngoc expressed his admiration: "Perhaps she is the Vietnamese person with the most friends in the world... During those years, she was present all over the planet; and strangely, beautifully, the image of a fiercely fighting Vietnam was represented not by a warrior full of murderous intent but by a small, humble yet erudite woman, close yet elegant, whose unshakable steadfastness was expressed by a leisurely and confident look...".
Self-respecting people always know how to criticize themselves.
Answering a reader at the book launch, asking if there is anything she regrets during the time when she was young and did many things, Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh kindly said: “If I say I regret, then yes, because there are things I should have done better, but due to my limited qualifications or unfavorable circumstances, I did not do well. But I do not regret to the point of remorse.
And she gave the example of the Paris Negotiation Conference: “My French is still relatively good, I have studied English but not very well. If I were good at both French and English like many comrades, with my position at that time, I would probably be able to do many better things. And later, 10 years ago, I was the Minister of Education. At that time, when I was assigned the task, a comrade said: Now in peace, the task of education is very important, so you have to do it. When I was asked, I accepted and I tried. Looking back at some of the shortcomings of the education sector today, perhaps they were from my time and I did not do well.”
She emphasized: "As a self-respecting person, you must always know how to self-criticize. You don't need to report to anyone how you criticized yourself, but to see what you didn't do well so you can do better next time."
Writer Nguyen Ngoc shared: “Nguyen Thi Binh is a person who is steadfast in her great ideas, and at the same time is always flexible in changing to accept new things… Working with her, I always see that she has a fresh mind and soul.”
Truth from simple things
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh's father once taught: to evaluate a person is first to evaluate them through their work... "He was a lover of labor, so he evaluated people through their work attitude: a diligent person was a good person, he did not like a lazy person... Later, throughout my life of activities and work, I was always close to and also easy to get close to the working people, often looking at people through their work attitude and the way they relate to workers. Thinking back, I am very grateful to him for that influence." (pp. 18-19). When her mother died early, Nguyen Thi Binh returned to Saigon, selling duck eggs at Tan Dinh market both to operate secretly and to raise her younger siblings.
Editor Nguyen Phuong Loan, the book's editor, shared: "I am lucky to be close to and work with Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh. She is a professional and industrial worker, always punctual. Days before the manuscript was published, she even called me to add details and edit the sentences to make them complete and perfect."
Ms. Nguyen Phuong Loan confided: A simple but meaningful quote by Ms. Nguyen Thi Binh in the book helped her clarify many things, and that was also the quote she shared with Vietnamese students studying abroad during a business trip to Singapore, where many of them were still unclear about their ideals in life: "You should do what is beneficial to the resistance, and you should not do what is harmful...".
Nguyen Thi Binh's memoir "Family - Friends and Country" - a book that should be read, especially for young people. Each young person can find a message for themselves, which sometimes the author herself did not intend./.
According to VOV - vp
