Teacher Nguyen Huu Dung - a son of Nghe An with a great personality and wise knowledge

Born into a family with a tradition of mandarin and patriotism

Nguyen Huu Dung was born in 1917 into a patriotic Confucian family in Trung Can village, now Nam Trung commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province. His father was Nguyen Huu Thanh (1880-1920), an intelligent and upright Confucian scholar who passed the Tam Truong examinations and returned home to teach and prescribe traditional Chinese medicine. Nguyen Huu Dung was the grandson of the second-ranked Hoang Giap Nguyen Huu Lap and the great-granddaughter of the second-ranked Tham Hoa Nguyen Van Giao. His mother was Ho Thi Xuan (1888-1962), daughter of Bachelor Ho Sy Trac, granddaughter of Bachelor Ho Sy Kha, cousin of Bachelors Ho Sy Tao, Ho Sy Tuan, Ho Sy Hao, who were famous teachers in Thanh Chuong and had many successful students.

Comrade Nguyen Huu Dung and his wife before going to B in 1965. Photo provided by the family

As a child, Nguyen Huu Dung studied Chinese with teachers in the village and commune. When he grew up, his family sent him to study at the French-Vietnamese Primary School in Nam Dan District. Naturally intelligent and studious, Nguyen Huu Dung was a famous good student in the district school. In 1936, his family sent him to Hanoi to study at Thang Long Private High School.

Here, he studied and taught privately to earn a living, and he studied and interacted with teachers Hoang Minh Giam (Principal), Vo Nguyen Giap (history teacher), and was close to and enlightened by comrade Phan Boi (aka Hoang Huu Nam). Nguyen Huu Dung was admitted to the Communist Youth group of the Democratic Youth organization in the school.

With a good command of French, able to speak and write fluently, Nguyen Huu Dung was assigned by Phan Boi to manage Notre Voix, the publicly distributed French newspaper of the Northern Regional Party Committee. While receiving articles, copying articles, editing articles from secret bases, taking care of printing, distributing and finding money to pay the printing house, to publish the next issues, Nguyen Huu Dung became an active Youth Union cadre working in the field of journalism and propaganda. Notre Voix, along with other newspapers of our Party, made an important contribution to the dissemination of the Party's policies during the Democratic Front period of 1936-1939, and from there Nguyen Huu Dung entered the path of professional revolutionary activities.

The period when comrade Nguyen Huu Dung (3rd row, left cover) participated in the resistance war against the French. Photo provided by family

In August 1939, the world situation had unfavorable changes for the Vietnamese revolution, the newspaper was suspended, Nguyen Huu Dung was added to the Anti-Imperialist Youth Executive Committee, with the task of organizing and leading anti-imperialist youth bases in Hanoi and the Northern provinces.

From Hanoi to Saigon, from Viet Bac to the Sac Forest swamps…

From 1943 to 1945, to avoid being monitored by French secret police, he was transferred to work in Saigon - Gia Dinh city. Here, he continued to be assigned to work in secret journalism with comrade Ly Chinh Thang and a number of cadres of the city's Youth Union. In June 1945, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam and directly participated in the uprising to seize power in Saigon - Gia Dinh city.

Portrait of comrade Nguyen Huu Dung. Photo provided by family

After the August Revolution in 1945, he was sent by the Central Committee to the North. At first, he worked in the suburbs of Hanoi. After the nationwide resistance war broke out, he was sent to the Viet Bac resistance zone to work as Head of the Propaganda Department, Standing Committee of the Central Youth Union, Member of the Youth Mobilization Committee of the Central Party, and Editor-in-Chief of the Central Youth Union Newspaper. During the early years of the resistance war against the French, when he was in the Viet Bac resistance zone, when he was sent to the localities, working in the provinces and cities, he and the Central Youth Union both organized and encouraged the young generation to participate in the resistance war, and advised the Central Party to build the Party's youth mobilization policy.

After the Border victory in 1950, the liberated Viet Bac area developed, requiring the construction and development of education. Comrade Nguyen Huu Dung was assigned by the Central Committee to be the Director of the Viet Bac Education Department, later the Viet Bac Autonomous Region. For nearly 10 years from 1951 to 1959, he stayed close to the people and the land to build the education career in the vast Viet Bac Inter-Zone. He made many contributions to the organization and implementation of the Party and Government's educational policies. From 1959 to 1964, he was transferred to Hanoi and assigned to be the Head of the General Education Department 1 - 2 - 3, then Head of the High School Education Department, and at the same time participated in the General Education Subcommittee. He made many contributions to the development of textbook programs, directed the construction and development of education in the North, especially the construction, summary, and replication of the Bac Ly school model. Many officials and teachers in the education sector still remember Nguyen Huu Dung's mark, not only in his close and approachable style but also in his ability to discover, summarize, and make important contributions to the development of the Party and Government's educational policies.

In 1964, due to the requirements of the revolutionary education development in the South, comrade Nguyen Huu Dung was transferred to the South. At that time, he was 48 years old and had a history of lung disease, but he volunteered with a number of educational cadres from the North to cross Truong Son to reinforce the South.

From 1964 to 1971, he was assigned to be the Head of the Education Subcommittee, member of the Central Propaganda Department. As the highest leader of the Regional Education Subcommittee, he both directed and led the building of revolutionary education in the liberated areas, and in the areas temporarily occupied by the enemy; and also had the task of summarizing and advising on educational policies for the Central Office for the South. He made important contributions in leading the Regional Education Subcommittee (commonly known as B3), building and developing the revolutionary education cause in the South, contributing to training human resources for the resistance war against the US to save the country. Many students of pedagogical schools, supplementary schools, primary schools, and secondary schools in the liberated areas became leading cadres of the regions and provinces.

Comrade Nguyen Huu Dung takes a photo with his wife and children. Photo provided by the family

In early 1971, comrade Nguyen Huu Dung was assigned by the Central Bureau to go to the T4 battlefield (Saigon - Gia Dinh Special Zone). Returning to the old battlefield, where he had been active during the turbulent years of the pre-uprising period of 1943-1945, he was added to the Executive Committee of the Regional Party Committee, assigned to be the Chief of the Regional Party Committee Office and Head of the Intellectual Mobilization Committee (mobilizing the intellectual contingent) of the Regional Party Committee. Living close to comrade Nguyen Van Linh (Muoi Cuc, Muoi Ut), he devoted all his strength and intelligence to the Regional Party Committee to build the base and revolutionary movement in the inner city of Saigon - Gia Dinh, and was the one who directly directed the struggles of the intellectual contingent in the whole city, especially the struggles of teachers, students, and university students, ensuring all aspects of the activities of the Regional Party Committee. When in Cu Chi, when in Sac Forest, when in the border swamps, comrade Tu Duong Nguyen Huu Dung was everywhere).

In 1974, the revolutionary situation in the South had many changes. The Central Bureau transferred comrade Nguyen Huu Dung back to the Central Bureau's Propaganda Department, directly serving as Head of the Central Bureau's Education Subcommittee and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Subcommittee to prepare for the new situation.

In April 1975, he was appointed by the Central Bureau as Head of the Leadership Committee (Group 4) to receive the entire education sector in the South, directly serving as President of Saigon University and opening political training classes for teachers of the old regime.

At the end of 1976, comrade Nguyen Huu Dung was appointed by the Central Propaganda Department as a member of the Central delegation to attend the 4th National Party Congress. After the reunification of the country, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Education, member of the Ministry's Personnel Committee, in charge of the provinces from Quang Tri onwards.

Great personality of a revolutionary intellectual

In early 1979, comrade Nguyen Huu Dung was appointed as Head of the Education Delegation to help build the Cambodian Ministry of Education of the Cambodian People's Revolutionary Government, and at the same time was a member of the Economic and Cultural Expert Delegation of our country alongside the Cambodian Government led by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Con. After 2 years of helping our friend build the education system from the Central to the grassroots level, he was assigned to Hanoi as Permanent Deputy Minister of Education, participating in the Party Delegation of the Ministry of Education until his retirement in 1982.

Comrade Nguyen Huu Dung in Germany in 1990.

On October 23, 2006 (September 2, Binh Tuat year), he passed away in Hanoi at the age of 90.

Throughout his life, persistently and faithfully following the path of “Teacher Nguyen Tat Thanh – Ho Chi Minh”, comrade Nguyen Huu Dung spent 70 years of revolutionary activities from 1936-1939 to the long-term resistance war against French colonialism and American imperialism. He was an enthusiastic person, always optimistic, believing in the future generations of the country, closely attached to the cause of educating the younger generation, the cause of mobilizing intellectual youth and, above all, the revolutionary cause of the Party and our people. Nguyen Huu Dung's greatest contribution was in directing the movement, in setting a shining example of revolutionary ethics. The intellectuals of the two regions of the South and the North, those who had worked with and had contact with Teacher Nguyen Huu Dung, all found in him the creative thinking ability of an intelligent mind, the great personality of a revolutionary intellectual, and the character of a man from Nghe An.

Comrade Nguyen Huu Dung's contributions were recognized by the Party, the State and the People. He was awarded the First and Third Class Independence Medals; two Third Class Labor Medals (one in Viet Bac, one in the Ministry of Education in 1963); two First Class Resistance Medals against France; First Class Anti-American Medal; First, Second and Third Class Victory Medals; Friendship Medal of the Cambodian Government and many other noble awards.