President Ho Chi Minh talks with Nghe An Provincial Party Committee when visiting his hometown in 1961.

(December 8, 1961)

How are you all?("Yes, sir, I am fine" - everyone replied.).

In the Provincial Party Committee, who is the oldest comrade?(An old comrade stood up),Who is the youngest comrade?(A young comrade stands up)How many comrades are there in the Provincial Party Executive Committee here?("Yes, 39 comrades" - the Provincial Party Secretary stood up and replied).How many girls are there?("Yes, 3 comrades").What does that mean? The female comrades are less than 10 percent. So there are too few female comrades. Do you see that? Not even one-tenth. Too few.

What is our immediate task, specifically in Nghe An now? Production. To produce, what must we do? We must strengthen cooperatives. To strengthen cooperatives, what must we do? We must educate. Whom should we educate? We must educate cooperative members. Who will educate them?? (“Education Party” - everyone replied). Talking about the Party is also broad. But first of all, who? The Party cell. If the Party cell is good, the cooperative is good, if the Party cell is bad, the cooperative is bad. That is common experience.

Talking about socialist education is too broad, but we have to talk about educating the spirit of mastery. First is the Party cell, then second is the Youth Union. If the Party cell and the Youth Union are good, then naturally how can we educate the members, the Youth Union, the Party Committee, and the local Party Committee be good??("Yes, the Party must educate" - everyone replied).But who exactly educates?("Yes, Provincial Party Committee").Yes, Provincial Party Committee.

Nghe An has good and average points; roughly what percentage are good and average cooperatives? What percentage are good?(“Yes, 40 percent”).How many percent?(Yes, 45 percent”).How many percent less?(“Yes, 15 percent”).How do you know? Who did the statistics? They stated it so you just believe it, right?

How do you know what percentage of agricultural cooperation is good, what percentage is average, what percentage is bad?("Yes, ask the party cell to know"), what you guys said is correct. A good party cell is a good cooperative, because the party cell leads the cooperative. A good cooperative is a cooperative that develops its business. How do we know if a cooperative is developing its business? It must be based on the people's lives and the income of its members, which is increasingly growing. What else is a good cooperative? Not only does the cooperative's economy develop, the lives and income of its members increase, but the cooperative also fulfills its obligations to the State. For example: From paying taxes, paying debts, selling rice to the State, to irrigation work, it is done quickly and well.

Irrigation in Nghe An is still very poor. In the irrigation conference of the whole North held in Hung Yen, if we talk about the poor, it is Nghe An and then Thanh Hoa. Do you guys realize that? If we say that 40 percent of cooperatives are good, it will affect, it will pull the 45 percent of cooperatives up, so irrigation is even better. But irrigation is still poor because cooperatives are poor.

How bad are the cooperatives? Because the Party cell is bad. And the bad Party cell is traced back to the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee. Is that right? During the resistance war, how did we know that the province, district, commune, and Party Committees were leading well? By participating in the resistance war well, killing many or few enemies, winning or losing. It can be said: Now we are also fighting a resistance war. Before, it was the resistance war against the French and Japanese invaders; now it is fighting against natural disasters, against poverty, against backwardness. To fight against natural disasters, in terms of the economy in general, we must do well in irrigation to fight against drought, against waterlogging, take advantage of good harvests, and make people's lives increasingly better. Therefore, if you want to know whether your local Party is strong or weak, good or bad, look at the leadership of the Party Committee. Do you agree? Of course, the Party Committees from the commune to the district are responsible, but the main responsibility is the provincial staff, the Provincial Party Committee. This is talking about agriculture.

As for industry, sectors and everything related to the national economy and people's livelihood in the province, who directs it? The Provincial Party Committee. If commerce is not good, the Provincial Party Committee must be responsible. If industry develops well, that is the work of the Provincial Party Committee, and if it does not develop well, the Provincial Party Committee is not fully responsible. I talk a lot about agriculture, because now we have to promote agriculture. If we want to promote agriculture, we must develop and consolidate cooperatives well. If we want to develop and consolidate cooperatives, the Party cells and Youth Unions must be good. If we want the Party cells and Youth Unions to be good, the Provincial Party Committee must have a firm grasp and be exemplary in everything. Now you must review the things that the Provincial Party Committee is responsible for, that is, industry, agriculture, commerce, trade, culture... Everything related to the national economy and people's livelihood in Nghe An is your responsibility. To do that, what principles must you firmly grasp?

One is,Principle of internal solidarity.

Second,principle of collective leadership, individual responsibility.

“

This year, compared to the year before, when Uncle Ho visited, he saw that the province had made progress. The cadres and people were all trying. But there had been no progress, no effort to the extent that we now demand.

President Ho Chi Minh

To do that well, what else is needed? Internal democracy. To have good internal democracy, what else is needed? Criticism and self-criticism. This is related to that. If you do that well, you must make the people know, understand, and act as the masters of the country and the cooperative. All people must understand that.

Once you understand that, you must be frugal in building the country, frugal in building socialism. In the army, you must be frugal in building the army. In factories, you must be frugal in building factories. In the countryside, you must be frugal in building cooperatives. That is the way it goes.

This year, compared to the year before, when Uncle Ho visited, he saw that the province had made progress. The cadres and people were all trying. But there had been no progress, no effort to the extent that we now demand.

Uncle, look at the report, some cooperatives are doing quite well. Vinh Thanh is quite even. There are a few others that are good in this aspect, good in that aspect, some are good in livestock raising, some are good in improving agricultural tools, some are good in irrigation, some are good in reclaiming land... We need to learn from the experience of one commune, then spread that experience to other communes. It seems that we are not doing that well here. Is that right? There is something right in front of us, why not learn from it? We need to take the experience in our province, summarize that experience and spread it to other cooperatives to learn. If we can do that, we will progress faster. For example, if Vinh Thanh is good, we will take Uncle to visit Vinh Thanh. Any Central comrade who comes here, just bring him to Vinh Thanh. That is also good. But we need to find a way for other communes to learn like Vinh Thanh. Learn from each other's experiences and do well.

There are 39 comrades here, how many comrades are in charge of the cooperative? In charge means directly in charge, going to the place to inspect and help, not just looking at the documents. How many comrades are there? Or is everyone in charge but no one is in charge?("Sir, there are four comrades").There are 4, so only one-tenth of the comrades in the Provincial Party Committee are in charge. That's all I said. You guys should calculate and rearrange the work, so that as many comrades as possible can directly take charge of agriculture, that is, the cooperatives.

Now, how can you be self-sufficient in food in the province? How much more does the Central government have to give each year?(“Yes, sir, 10 thousand tons”).10 thousand tons, this year it will be at least 6 thousand tons. Can agriculture in Nghe An produce an additional 6 thousand tons, 10 thousand tons? You guys should study it again. Uncle Ho was subjective to some extent but also realistic. If we promote cooperatives, not just 45 percent of them are good cooperatives, but how about 50 percent of them are good cooperatives, and the others are average, without any poor cooperatives, then we can be self-sufficient in food. That is very necessary. Of course, other works such as agriculture, handicrafts, and other sectors must also be paid attention to. But our immediate task is how to have enough food. That is not easy. A mau of western land can produce 6 tons, maybe 5 tons, maybe 4 tons per year. If each mau has 4 tons, then 10 mau will have 40 tons, 100 mau will have 400 tons, 1,000 mau will have 4 thousand tons. To have 6 thousand tons, we need more than 1,500 acres. So can Nghe An, in one way or another, reclaim land, increase crops, and do other things, to add 1,500 acres?("Yes, we can" - everyone replied).To have 9 thousand tons of rice, you need 2 thousand acres. Can you find 2 thousand acres in Nghe An?(“Yes!” - everyone replied). The ladies and gentlemen also agreed that 2 thousand acres could be found.

In our rural areas, there is still a lot of surplus labor and a lot of waste. If we want to have rice and paddy, what is the key? First of all, it is the land, and secondly, the human force. If we have land and human force, why can't we do it? Of course, there is leadership, planning, this and that. For example, in the North, Hung Yen province guarantees to reclaim 60,000 hectares in 5 years. Not to mention far away, right in Nghe An, how many square kilometers are there in total? 170,000. How many people? One million and three hundred. So we have people, we have land, the only way is to use that land, use those people, use that labor. Doing good things means being self-sufficient in food. What do you think?("Yes, we can do it" - everyone replied).You can do it, if you are determined, you can do it. I know it is not easy. It is difficult, but if you are determined, you can do it.

In short, from now on, you must find every way to use that land and labor to achieve food self-sufficiency. That is our urgent responsibility in Nghe An. No matter how difficult it is, we must try our best to do it. Do you agree?(“Yes,” everyone replied.)Of course, when it was brought up, some people said: in 1962, everything could be done right away. That was too much. But saying it was difficult this way or that way was also a step backward. There had to be determination, but there had to be a plan to progress gradually. For example: Now the Central Government had to give Nghe An an additional 6,000 tons, in 1962 it was reduced by 2,000 tons, then next year it was reduced by another 2,000 tons, making it 4,000 tons, and the year after that..., that would be fine, it couldn't be done right away today. If next year, we could pay for it ourselves, without having to rely on the Central Government, then the province would receive an award. That would save 2 years. If you guys could do that, that would be great.

The Central Government says agriculture must be comprehensive. We not only focus on rice, corn, potatoes, cassava, cotton, but also on other things. So it must be comprehensive. Increasing acreage without increasing output is useless and a waste of time. But increasing output must also be comprehensive. Rice is the main crop, but corn, potatoes, and cassava must also be present and must be focused on. If we only focus on rice without taking care of corn, potatoes, and cassava, it will not work. Or only focusing on food crops without taking care of industrial crops is also a shortcoming.

How much cotton is produced a year?(“Yes, 2,000 acres”).How many tons are 2,000 acres?("Yes, 1,000 tons").1,000 tons of cotton is small, but focusing on food without cotton means having food but not clothes. Do we need clothes? Yes. If we do not have everything, it means focusing on food but not clothes. Therefore, we must focus on food and also on clothes.

How do you plant trees and afforest here? Planting trees is very important. Now people have not seen it. Maybe you have not seen it either. I have experience planting trees for 5 years to harvest. For example: Longan trees bear fruit after 5 years, other fruit trees like grapefruit, if grafted, will be quick, coconut trees after 7 years. Castor oil trees can be used as poles after 3 years. Taking an average of 7 years, a 5-year-old tree, a 2-year-old tree, we consider it 5 years. If you plant a good tree, within 5 years you will have a huge profit: the tree can be used as wood, the tree can be used for fruit. I don't know if you guys see it that way. In our countryside, most of the people's houses are dilapidated, dark, not good, and have no order. Is that right? What is the livelihood of the people? It is food, clothing, and housing. All three are important. Food, we can increase production. Clothing, we can increase production. But what if we don't have a house? What do you need to build a house? Wood. If you want wood, you have to plant trees. If you don't plant trees well now, where will you get the wood? In the past, every family was busy building their own house, and it didn't matter what they did. But now it's not like that. Now we have to reform the countryside. Our countryside must be spacious and clean. If people want to live properly, they need wood, and if they want wood, they have to plant trees. If they plant trees, they have to take care of them. How many million trees does Nghe An plan to plant this year?("Sir, the plan is 19 million" - a comrade replied). You guys just try to plant 15 million trees well. Plant each tree and it will live, but if half of 19 million die, it will be useless. Plant every year, but plant each tree well.

In Vinh Phuc, there is a model commune for tree planting, with exemplary tree planting people. I wonder if there are any here? Like the commune that Uncle Ho visited, the cooperative assigned two people to take care of tree planting. Of course, everyone plants, but the planting plan, seed money, and care are taken care of by those two people. The cooperative pays more points than other members. Thanks to that, now this commune is very densely forested, even though it was destroyed during the resistance war. You guys should also pay attention to that. For example: this year, plant 19 million trees, next year plant another 19 million trees, in 5 years it will be millions. Keep planting year after year, not just doing it massively for a few years and then stop. If you plant 19 million trees every year, continue for 5 years, 10 years, then plant them indoors too, not just outdoors. How much does the Central plan for Nghe An cost?(“Yes, 12 million”).If you can make 10 million well, that's fine.

Today, I will only briefly discuss and focus on a few points like that. Those points may be the main points. If there are any other issues, I will talk more about them tomorrow.

(Documents kept at the Party History Research Board of Nghe Tinh Provincial Party Committee. Printed in: Uncle Ho with his homeland Nghe Tinh in 1977, pp. 76-78)