Letter from President Ho Chi Minh to the Executive Committee
Vietnam Workers' Party Committee of Nghe An province

Dear Executive Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee

I received a report on the results of four years of fighting against America to save the country of my home province.

I am pleased to see that our people, soldiers, cadres, party members, and union members have fought and served well in combat: shot down 439 planes, sank 14 American warships, and performed well in transportation tasks; hundreds of thousands of young men and women have joined the army and youth volunteers. This has promoted the revolutionary heroism and glorious traditions of the Soviet homeland, contributing much to the revolutionary cause of the nation.

Regarding production, despite the war, in 1968 there were 60 cooperatives that achieved rice productivity of 5 tons or more per hectare, Phu Thanh cooperative (Quynh Luu district) alone achieved 6 tons of rice, and a potato crop of 14 tons per hectare. The province also built a number of industrial establishments, producing some consumer goods that had not been produced before. People's lives were generally stable. This was progress, but much effort was needed because Nghe An's economy was still slow.

I am also pleased to see that cadres at all levels and in all sectors in the province have initially corrected the bureaucracy and commandism, trying to stay close to the people to organize and mobilize them to implement the policies of the Party and the State. What should we do next? Actively implement democracy with the people more. In agricultural cooperatives, all production, distribution, economic management, and election of responsible agencies must be discussed thoroughly by the people and decided by themselves in a truly democratic manner. Cadres, party members, and union members need to regularly self-criticize before the people and encourage people to criticize. Humbly listen to people's opinions to promote good deeds, correct wrongdoings, and do better work.

Must organize practical short-term training courses for new party members and union members.

Our people love our Party very much. We must encourage the people to contribute to building the Party, such as giving opinions to Party cells on selecting people to join the Party and selecting leaders. If we do so, the relationship between the Party and the people will become even closer.

In the near future, we should choose a suitable time for agricultural cooperative members to discuss the cooperative charter and discuss together to implement it well. In factories, construction sites, farms, forestry farms, stores, and agencies, we also need to mobilize cadres and workers to democratically discuss the improvement of economic management and the way of working of their units to make production and work progress quickly.

2. Restoring and developing the economy is a very important and urgent task, comrades must try to do it well. Agriculture in the province must produce a lot of food to improve people's lives and meet the requirements of the State; promote livestock and industrial crop cultivation to have more raw materials for industry and goods for export. In the immediate future, we must strive to fight drought and try to plant crops in the right season.

Nghe An has forests and seas. Our people have a saying: "Golden forests, silver seas". We need to do better in exploiting wood and forest products; have plans to plant trees and protect forests; quickly restore and develop fishing and livestock farming. To do well in settling down the mountainous people, we need to have close direction and have good ethnic cadres to mobilize the people.

Industry and handicrafts must produce many tools for tilling the land, irrigation, transportation, etc. They must provide many good and cheap consumer goods for the people. They must manage well to increase labor productivity and must fight against waste and embezzlement.

3. Take utmost care of people's lives. We must strive to develop production and practice thrift, and distribute fairly and reasonably, gradually improving people's food, clothing, housing, education, health care and entertainment. Special attention must be paid to war-torn areas, orphans, the elderly and the families of martyrs, wounded soldiers, soldiers and youth volunteers.

In the North of our country, many communes and cooperatives have achieved good results in this area, such as Nhan Trach Commune (Quang Binh Province), Dinh Cao Commune (Hai Hung Province). The Provincial Party Committee should send cadres to those places to learn from their experiences and do better.

4. One thing that must always be remembered is: our people's fight against the US to save the country is entering a fierce period. The US imperialists have suffered a painful defeat, but are still very stubborn. Our army and people must always be vigilant, ready to fight, maintain air defense and evacuation, and strengthen trenches. Try to contribute more efforts to join the army and people of the whole country to completely defeat the US invaders.

Nghe An is a large province with rich resources and a hard-working and revolutionary people. We hope that our compatriots and comrades will strive to make Nghe An one of the most prosperous provinces in the North.

Please ask the Provincial Party Committee to convey my wishes to all compatriots, soldiers, cadres, party members and union members in the province for good health and progress.

Hanoi, July 21, 1969

Best regards and best wishes