Write more about Professor Ta Quang Buu
(Baonghean) - The article “Professor Ta Quang Buu and the country’s military science” by author Hoang Chinh (Nghe An Weekend newspaper, issue 8897, 2011) is not complete. I would like to add some more documents so that readers can clearly see the great contributions and far-sighted vision of Professor Ta Quang Buu in building the People’s Armed Forces.
(Baonghean) - The article “Professor Ta Quang Buu and the country’s military science” by author Hoang Chinh (Nghe An Weekend newspaper, issue 8897, 2011) is not complete. I would like to add some more documents so that readers can clearly see the great contributions and far-sighted vision of Professor Ta Quang Buu in building the People’s Armed Forces.
Author Hoang Chinh (HC) wrote: September 1945 - January 1946, he held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Defense.Correction: From September 1945 to February 1946, Professor Buu held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in March 1946, he held the position of Deputy Minister of National Defense. There is a very important event that has not been mentioned in this period: In October 1945, Professor Buu was appointed by Uncle Ho to the National Defense Rescue Council. He, along with comrades Truong Chinh, Vo Nguyen Giap, and Phan Anh, completed the immediate strategic plans for national military equipment. His roadmap and method for developing science and technology, and gradually modernizing the army, are still valuable today.
At the Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, Deputy Minister of Defense Ta Quang Buu (sitting, right) represented the Vietnamese side.
Author HC wrote: “In 1946, he participated in two important meetings: the Dalat Conference and the Fontainebleau Conference”. To be exact: In April 1946, he was a member of our Government in the Dalat Preparatory Conference and in June 1946, he was a member of our Government in the Negotiation Delegation in Fontainebleau. Regarding this event, unfortunately HC did not mention a very important document: From Fontainebleau, he was sent by comrade Pham Van Dong to Geneva to represent our Government to attend the 200th Anniversary of the Swiss Science and Technology Association. Here, he bought and was given more than 800 kg of books and documents on weapons manufacturing. Thanks to these documents, he and engineer Tran Dai Nghia successfully manufactured many types of weapons, contributing to solving the difficulty of equipping the army in the early days.
Author HC wrote: "In August 1947, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam and assigned the position of Minister of Defense."ExactlyIn July 1947, he was admitted to the Party and requested to be added: In December 1947, the Politburo Standing Committee appointed him to the Military Committee (now the Central Military Party Committee) in charge of leading military science and technology work. Professor Ta Quang Buu was never a "Member of the Supreme Defense Council and Chief of the Central Military Commission Office" as HC wrote. One of his great contributions at this time was that with his far-sighted vision, he directly established and built the working regulations of the "Air Force Research Board", "Navy Research Board", "Military Science and Technology Research Department", "Model Manufacturing Department"... This is the predecessor of many current military science and technology agencies. Following Uncle Ho's instructions, he directly organized the Tran Quoc Tuan Military Academy, directly compiled the curriculum, and participated in teaching many important courses. In the first officer school of the army (now the Army Academy), many students of the first, second, and third courses of the school became generals, heroes, and key military officers in the resistance wars. During this period, he wrote the book “Shooting down planes with concentrated rifles”. Regarding this event, HC wrote: “This book was very necessary because at that time we did not have anti-aircraft guns and other types of anti-aircraft guns”.Correction: At that time, we had the 367th anti-aircraft battalion. This is the curriculum of Tran Quoc Tuan Military Academy, demonstrating the viewpoint of people's war, the whole people fighting the enemy, using love to defeat the strong, using the few to fight the many of the Party and Uncle Ho. This unique military art has created many legends about the rifle that shot down a modern jet plane in the fight against the destructive war by the US air force of our army and people.
Author HC wrote: “… attended the Geneva Conference on Vietnam, in his capacity as Deputy Minister of National Defense and as the representative of the Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army to sign the ceasefire agreement in Vietnam and Laos.”Correction: According to the agreement between us and France, the military member representing the two governments has the rank of deputy minister. Professor Ta Quang Buu attended the conference and signed the document between the two Vietnamese governments.
As a great scientist of the time, holding the positions of Deputy Minister, Minister, and then Deputy Minister of National Defense until 1961, although he held other positions afterwards, he continued to make extremely great contributions to the cause of building the army in the fields of science and technology. In the article, HC mentioned two scientific topics that he directly directed, contributing to the liberation of bombs, mines, and mines to ensure transportation in the fight against the US to save the country. Unfortunately, there are two especially important documents that cannot be missed when talking about his contributions in the fight against the US to save the country.Please add:
1. When he was the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Professor Buu proposed that the Government allow Hanoi University of Science and Technology to establish a branch II with separate regulations, with the Ministry of Higher Education and Training and the Ministry of National Defense directly directing the study content, selecting excellent students from the third year to send back for training. After graduating from the school, these students entered the army. These were the first military engineers trained by our army domestically. Many of them became Heroes of the People's Armed Forces, generals and military scientists. After two training courses, Branch II of the University of Science and Technology became the Military Technical University, now the Military Technical Academy - a place to train postgraduate and undergraduate cadres in military technology for the country. General Vo Nguyen Giap called this a "great breakthrough" in building human potential and the fighting strength of our People's Armed Forces!
2. To have “Dien Bien Phu in the air”, Prof. Ta Quang Buu and scientists inside and outside the military successfully researched the “interference separation method” that forced the US B52 strategic aircraft to appear on the oscilloscope, creating conditions for our missiles to shoot down a series of B52 flying fortresses of the US Air Force on the spot. After this event, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong called Prof. Ta Quang Buu “Le Quy Don of the Ho Chi Minh era”!
During his lifetime, Professor Ta Quang Buu lived a cautious, serious, precise, straightforward and open-minded life. We would also like to add more information so that readers in our homeland can see more clearly his “modern stature” in the field of National Defense!
Nguyen Khac Thuan
