Stories with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Communist Magazine

I remember, around the end of 1986, I had just graduated from the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science, and was doing an internship at the Experimental Education Center of Professor Ho Ngoc Dai, when I was asked by Professor Nguyen Hung Vi to come and meet me.

As soon as he saw me, Mr. Vi asked: "Do you want to go home?"Communist Magazineno?". I was still surprised by the nameCommunist Magazinetoo big for a new graduate, the teacher continued: "Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong also studied at the Faculty of Literature, and is currently a leader atCommunist Magazine, was invited by us to teach journalism to students of the Faculty of Literature. Mr. Trong asked me to find a good graduate student for him to consider and bring back to the Magazine to work, I immediately thought of Thien.

At that time, I also thought about leaving the Educational Experimental Center to find another opportunity because I felt it was not suitable, so when I heard that, I didn't think much and quickly nodded.

The next day, the teacher and student cycled out.Communist MagazineAt No. 1 Nguyen Thuong Hien, I went into the living room and sat down to wait. A moment later, a man of average height, gray hair, wearing a Soviet flight jacket, wearing white glasses, and smiling, walked in. That was my first meeting with Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong. I don't know why, but as soon as I met him, I greeted him as uncle, even though he wasn't much older than me. Maybe because of his gray hair and calm demeanor, he gave the other person a feeling of closeness but not being too casual.

The meeting that day was quite brief. He asked me a few questions about my family background, my studies at the Faculty of Literature, my wishes and plans for the future, and briefly introduced me toCommunist Magazineand the work here, told me to think and learn more.

Knowing that he had just started teaching journalism at the Faculty of Literature, I asked permission to attend because my knowledge of journalism at that time was zero. Both he and Mr. Vi happily agreed and encouraged me to attend.

After that day, I invited Dang Nam, a classmate from the Faculty of Literature who was doing a journalism internship at the Youth Radio program of the Central Youth Union (now the Director of the Department of Children, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) to join me in the study.

I remember that was the journalism topic that Mr. Trong taught to the 30th class of the Faculty of Literature (the class of Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son and journalist, poet Nguyen Tien Thanh - current Chairman and General Director of the Education Publishing House). Here, I learned the basic introductory concepts of journalism: news, reportage, investigation, editorial, treatise, commentary, working methods, news and article processing... along with the contents of the Party and State's guidelines and policies on journalism.

After each class, from Thuong Dinh, I often cycled home with Mr. Trong. The streets in Hanoi were still deserted at that time, so the two of us cycled side by side and chatted happily. At that time, I asked him: "Where does your wife work?", he replied: "My wife works at the Hai Ba Trung District Police", and added with a smile: "Our family always firmly grasps the proletarian dictatorship".

Then, through many procedures, in early 1987, I was admitted.Communist Magazinewith the first job as an editor at the Secretariat. Saying editor makes it sound impressive but in fact, the job is to proofread, check for errors, and correct mistakes.

It was a job I did for 2 years as a way of training our staff.Communist Magazine(from the most basic, simple kitchen tasks of journalism) before being transferred to the professional department. I was so absorbed in this job that to this day, when texting, I still have to write in uppercase, lowercase, full stop, comma, otherwise I feel uncomfortable.

At that time,Communist Magazineis the political theory organ of the Party Central Committee, equal to the ministerial level, but the entire editorial office has less than 60 people, and all are equally poor, so there is always a close-knit, warm, and harmonious family atmosphere.

During the subsidy years (before 1990), in the Magazine campus, between two high-rise buildings, there was a level 4 house - called the clubhouse - which had an old table tennis table. During the day, this table was set up for people to park their bicycles. In the afternoon, it was installed for brothers, uncles and nephews to play table tennis. Mr. Trong also often joined in the game or cheered with everyone.

On Tet holiday, to help our brothers and sisters improve their lives, the agency asked an officer from Nam Dinh to return to his hometown to raise a pig, and bring it up near Tet to cook for everyone to eat, delicious and joyful beyond words.

Another thing, when I first joined the Magazine, registering my household was my top concern, because only with a household registration could I get a rice purchase book. One morning, when I met him in the yard, Mr. Trong gave me a blue book and said: "Thien's household registration, Ms. Man has already completed it for him, please send it to Thien!". I received the household registration book from his hands, feeling so moved that I couldn't speak.

Mrs. Ngo Thi Man - his wife is a police lieutenant colonel, in charge of the household registration team of Hai Ba Trung District Police. Not only me but many men who joined the agency before me were also helped by her to handle household registration procedures (a very difficult and complicated task at that time) smoothly and quickly.

Communist Magazinehas a fairly prime location, facing Nguyen Thuong Hien and Tran Binh Trong streets, and has two large apartment buildings (actually two old villas from the French colonial period) for generations of cadres before me to live in, which are 61 Nguyen Du and 16 Nguyen Thuong Hien. Mr. Trong's family lives at 16 Nguyen Thuong Hien, in a 20m2 room.²on the 3rd floor. The 2nd floor below his house is the family of 2 leaders of the Magazine, who are Mr. Trong's seniors: Mr. Nguyen Trong Thu - Head of the International Department and Mr. Vu Xuan Kieu - Head of the Economic Department.

At that time, Ho Bat Khuat and I were still single, and the agency arranged a dormitory on the first floor of the headquarters. On Sundays, I often went to 16 Nguyen Thuong Hien to visit the uncles and aunts' houses, which was friendly and fun.

I'm backCommunist Magazine1987 was the time after the 6th Party Congress, the new Editor-in-Chief of the Magazine was the literary theorist and critic Ha Xuan Truong, who was from the same hometown as me in Ha Tinh, an alternate member of the Party Central Committee, former Head of the Central Committee for Culture and Arts. Mr. Truong replaced Mr. Hong Chuong, a veteran journalist, who had moved to become Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association.

Mr. Trong was promoted from Deputy Head of the Party Building Department to Head of the Department (in 1987), Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the agency. At that time, he was already a star at the Magazine. Everyone in the editorial office naturally considered him the future Editor-in-Chief, without any debate. Besides his erudition and solidity in his profession, he always showed leadership qualities.

Maybe it was the authority of a leader that radiated from him, even though he was always calm and gentle when interacting, hardly ever raising his voice or yelling at anyone, even when facing tense, tense situations in the office. Maybe it was his leisurely, dignified demeanor, his ability to speak and direct with coherent, concise, and clear thinking, his flexibility and moderation. However, when working, one understands that he is also a very principled and consistent person in handling work. When it comes to principles, he always has a strict, uncompromising attitude.

Remember, when I came backCommunist Magazineand even before that, the Magazine rarely added staff, only taking one person every few years. About 4 or 5 years after I returned, facing the need to develop the Magazine, Mr. Trong decided to recruit a batch of young staff, about a dozen people, for training. After that, he opened a knowledge training class for this batch of staff, inviting veteran theorists, journalists, and lecturers to teach.

At that time, I thought that I had been back to the office for a long time and had already attended several classes of the Journalists Association, so I expressed that I did not need to attend this class anymore. When the story reached him, he immediately called me into his office and scolded me:You have only been working for a few years, your knowledge and understanding are better than anyone else, why are you so arrogant and saying you don't need to study anymore? I am the senior (I am the Secretary of the Youth Union), I have to set an example for the younger generation. If you don't study, I will discipline you!”. After hearing that, I broke out in a cold sweat, apologized to him, and attended class seriously.

There are many stories that seniors in the Magazine told me about him. For example, after the 4th Party Congress, Mr. Le Duc Tho - Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Organization Committee asked the Magazine to prepare for him an article with a guiding nature on the Party's cadre work. The task was passed from the Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor-in-Chief to the Head of the Committee and finally assigned to Mr. Trong. The article was written by Mr. Trong and submitted to the Magazine's levels, then to Mr. Le Duc Tho's Office. Mr. Tho reviewed it and "only changed 2 words" (what people told me) and approved for publication. Later, during a meeting with the Magazine's leaders, talking about the article, Mr. Tho praised its good quality and asked: "The person who wrote this article must be at the level of the Head of the Department at the Magazine, right?" At that time, Mr. Trong was just a young Editor at the Party Building Department.

The seniors at the Magazine also recounted that the person considered to have the greatest impact and influence on Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong's political career was Mr. Dao Duy Tung, the longest-serving Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine (and Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department from 1965 to 1982), before becoming Head of the Central Propaganda Department and Standing Secretary of the Secretariat (term VII). It was Mr. Dao Duy Tung, a key leader in ideology and theory of the Party at that time, who discovered and nurtured the "Nguyen Phu Trong factor" from a young cadre to become a potential leader of the Magazine and of the Party later on.

In 1989, from the position of Head of the Board, Mr. Trong was promoted to Member of the Editorial Board, then Deputy Editor-in-Chief (in 1990) and Editor-in-Chief (in 1991). In 1994, he was elected as an additional member of the Party Central Committee and in 1997, he was elected as an additional member of the Politburo. A rather special thing in Mr. Trong's political life is that when he entered the Central Committee or the Politburo, he was always through mid-term appointment.

In 1996, he leftCommunist Magazineto become Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, ending a 30-year journey of dedication to the Party's theoretical and political magazine. 30 years of both journalism and theoretical research have prepared him with a solid foundation to embark on a new journey, the journey of a politician, a great leader, who has created changes and indelible marks in the history of the Party and the country.

Talking about Mr. Trong, we cannot help but mention his family, his wife, Mrs. Ngo Thi Man, and their two children, one boy and one girl.

During my years at the Magazine, everyone in the office, especially the women, had special respect and affection for Mrs. Man, a sincere, gentle, kind-hearted woman, always ready to help everyone.

Mrs. Man is a model of a humble woman who stands behind the home front and helps her husband succeed. The modest, simple, and sincere lifestyle of the couple also influences their two children. Whether when Mr. Trong was still at the Magazine or when he had reached the highest leadership positions of the Party and the country, I still received the same attitude when meeting Mrs. Man and her two children: humble, sincere, cheerful, without pretentiousness, color, and without intentionally creating distance.

During these days, from the time I first heard unofficial information about his health until the official announcement of his passing, I truly felt a sense of loss and sadness as if I had lost a loved one. In 13 years of working at the Magazine, I spent 9 years working under him, receiving his guidance and guidance in many things, although I only learned very little from him.

Flooding social media these days are lines of grief and sadness at the news of his death. That is the people's love (something that is not easy to come by) for a leader that everyone believes in not only for his purity, integrity, simple lifestyle, closeness to the people, respect for the people, but also for his steadfastness, dedication to the country. Although there are still many unfinished tasks, many wishes (of the people) that he has not yet fulfilled, but the life of a human being is limited.

The ancients said: "The official determines", or like a sentence of poet Khuong Huu Dung in a poem about Nguyen Ai Quoc and Phan Boi Chau: "Close the coffin lid and open it.”. With a proud career, with strong and indelible marks, with "heaven-shaking, earth-shattering" policies and decisions that could change history, future history books will write much, much more about him.

In this moment of grief, I would like to send my deepest and most sincere condolences to the family of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. I hope that after putting down the heavy burden of the country, the General Secretary will rest in peace and tread lightly into the white clouds.

Vo Dang Thien - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of VietNamNet Newspaper