The Politburo once again placed a heavy responsibility on the General's shoulders - he, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will seek to explore and "open a breakthrough" to move towards normalizing relations with the US.

After the great victory in the spring of 1975, reunifying the country, Vietnam (VN) entered a new phase of both healing the wounds of war and restoring the economy and developing the country. That historical context placed on the shoulders of a general a great responsibility: Carrying out a diplomatic mission - an important and confidential task. And with his qualities, intelligence and courage, he completed it excellently. That general was General Le Duc Anh - the man who quietly opened the Vietnam-US relationship.

Golden opportunity

Vietnam started to launch the renovation from the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1986 with basic outlines. But in fact, to comprehensively implement the renovation process, we must mention the 7th and 8th Congresses. The 7th and 8th Congresses carried out drastic and effective renovation: bringing the country out of the serious economic and social crisis, inflation up to 774%, solving very basic economic problems for development, from which our people honored the leaders of these two terms as the "golden" leadership.

Also during this period, a slogan considered as the strategy and guideline of our Party was: "Vietnam wants to be friends with all countries and peoples in the world". The Politburo clearly recognized that to open up the economy, we must first cooperate with strong countries such as South Korea, Japan, the EU, the United States... and the "breakthrough" step is to normalize relations with the United States. Because up to now, these countries have taken the United States as the standard - "just follow the United States to do things, look at the United States to act" seems to have become an unwritten law.

That raised the issue of normalizing with the US as soon as possible. At that time, in the Politburo, Uncle Do Muoi, Uncle Vo Van Kiet, Uncle Le Duc Anh simultaneously met on the above idea. On the side of the Advisors of the Party Central Committee, Uncle Nguyen Van Linh and Uncle Pham Van Dong also strongly agreed. This was a great advantage when the Party's senior leadership had consensus and high determination.

A deep analysis of historical developments shows that this is a golden opportunity for Vietnam to break the embargo and promote normalization of relations with the US. After the US used China (China) with the direct hand of the Pol Pot group in Cambodia to attack Vietnam's southwestern border, it failed; while the US did not have a new policy towards Vietnam.

"President Le Duc Anh visits Mr. Boby Muller, an American veteran of the Vietnam War", by Pham Cao Phong, taken in 1995 in New York.

Specifically, Vietnam liberated the South and unified the country on April 30, 1975. On October 15, 1975, the US President sent Special Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, to Beijing to meet with Deng Xiaoping (China). The US had figured out that: Deng Xiaoping had begun to launch an open door policy, economic reform, and "building Chinese-style socialism" and was in dire need of foreign currency.

Therefore, the US made an agreement: China was surrounded on all sides, the only way out was to the South. The US would “give” China one billion USD, in return, China would prepare for 17 months, in the 18th month it would have to use Pol Pot’s army to attack Vietnam from the Southwest of Vietnam and China would directly provoke at the northern border of Vietnam. At the same time, the US and China would jointly train large commando teams, send them to Vietnam to cause riots to prevent Vietnam from peacefully healing the wounds of war.

Because the US has realized that if Vietnam heals the wounds of war and joins ASEAN early, it will be very disadvantageous for both the US and China - ASEAN countries will rise up in independence and autonomy, freeing themselves from dependence on "big countries"...

Based on the fact that General Le Duc Anh had previously successfully carried out the task of “probing and opening the channel” to move towards normalization with China, the Politburo once again placed the responsibility on his shoulders. Accordingly, the General will, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, seek to probe and “open a breakthrough” to move towards normalization of relations with the United States.

It should also be added that normalization with China is difficult, because the two countries have just had a border war, but it is easier than with the US. The biggest obstacle is that Vietnam and the US have just gone through a 21-year war, so both sides have pride, resentment and suspicion, and neither side is willing to speak first.

Previously, China and the US fell into a period of “frozen” relations for 16 years after World War II. To “open the way” to mend relations, China used the tactic of “ping-pong diplomacy”. That is, sending its table tennis teams to the US to compete to both exchange and probe the other side’s reaction. Now, how will Vietnam and the US open the way? This is a big question for General Le Duc Anh.

The General considered that opening the way through economic exchange was not feasible because America was a superpower, while we were one of the poorest countries in the world.

Scientific and technical exploration

Through research and exploration, General Le Duc Anh came up with the idea of ​​"opening the door to exploration through science and technology". At that time, there was an event that was not big but very meaningful: Major General, Professor, Doctor Nguyen Huy Phan, who was working at Hospital 108 (Ministry of National Defense), was a very good orthopedic surgeon, had just attended an international orthopedic surgery conference and was admired and praised by international doctors, including a group of American doctors.

A few days later, the US invited Mr. Phan to continue attending an international medical conference held in the US. Therefore, the General called Mr. Phan in to give him a task: When you go there, you should only focus on reporting your achievements in orthopedic medicine, and not talk about politics. This matter is absolutely confidential, only the Politburo and the person assigned to the task know. Mr. Le Duc Anh also instructed that if the American doctors intend to help the Vietnamese people with something, then invite them over.

When arriving in the US, overseas Vietnamese, many of whom were doctors, heard that a world-famous Vietnamese orthopedic surgeon was visiting, they were very impressed and warmly welcomed him. Taking advantage of that support, Mr. Nguyen Huy Phan followed the General's instructions and discussed with the American doctors to send "Operation Smile" teams to Vietnam.

Professor Nguyen Huy Phan reports on the method of reconstructing a severely wounded soldier with General Vo Nguyen Giap and Uncle Ton Duc Thang, July 27, 1974.

Professor Nguyen Huy Phan did a very good job with his assigned task. And as General Le Duc Anh had expected, in a short time, the US sent a team of doctors to perform free surgery on children with cleft lip and cleft palate in Vietnam. That was a very important opening step, confirming that the medical exchange had helped Vietnam probe the goodwill of the US.

After one or two rounds of American and Vietnamese medical groups exchanging and supporting each other in an open and friendly spirit, at the request of General Le Duc Anh, the Central Committee appointed Mr. Nguyen Huy Phan as Chairman of the Vietnam - US Association, as a communication bridge between the two sides. However, a very difficult situation was that because Mr. Phan was assigned a top secret mission, the General Department of Logistics (which manages the entire medical sector of the Army) disciplined Mr. Phan because he was considered an American spy.

It was that misunderstanding that led to a man's fate being pushed in a different direction, and it was not until later, when the normalization process was successful and everything could be made public, that Mr. Nguyen Huy Phan was cleared of his name, praised for his achievements, and awarded the Labor Medal. The person who "cleared" Mr. Phan's name was none other than General and President Le Duc Anh.

Colonel Khuat Bien Hoa - Former assistant of General Le Duc Anh

(According to Vietnamnet)