Vo Chi Cong: A steadfast revolutionary soldier

Comrade Vo Chi Cong, former member of the Politburo, former Standing member of the Secretariat, former Chairman of the State Council, former Advisor to the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, passed away on September 8, 2011 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nghe An Newspaper would like to introduce an article by Associate Professor, Doctor Tran Minh Truong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute and Party Leaders, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration, with the title: "Comrade Vo Chi Cong - a talented and resilient revolutionary soldier."

Comrade Vo Chi Cong (aka Vo Toan), was born on August 7, 1912, in Tam Ky district, Quang Nam, in a family of patriotic and revolutionary intellectuals.

Comrade Vo Chi Cong's grandfather participated in the Can Vuong movement against the French, his father was martyr Vo Nghiem (aka Vo Duong) - a revolutionary soldier of the Duy Tan movement in Quang Nam province, and at the same time one of the first communist party members of the Party in the fierce Central region. He was both a teacher and a person who instilled patriotism in the children in the family.

Later, Mr. Vo Duong became a party member in the same cell with comrade Vo Chi Cong as secretary. The French colonialists arrested, imprisoned, and tortured him many times, trying to shake the patriotism and revolutionary spirit of him and his family. But the imperialist whips and prisons could not shake the revolutionary's will. He still encouraged his children to continue following the path of the Party, wholeheartedly upholding the communist spirit, sacrificing until his last breath.

Inheriting the revolutionary patriotic blood of his family, and being raised in a homeland with a rich tradition of culture and steadfastness in fighting against foreign invaders, comrade Vo Chi Cong's childhood was forged in the seething patriotic movements against the French in Central Vietnam at that time, and he soon became a patriotic young man, full of revolutionary enthusiasm.

In 1932, at the age of 19, he was admitted to the Indochinese Communist Party, and shortly after he became a key leader of the Party organization in Tam Ky district, Quang Nam province.

During the years of revolutionary activities in the pre-uprising period (before the August Revolution of 1945), he continuously stayed close to the people, directly led local Party committees, built and developed a widespread mass force. Thanks to that, a series of revolutionary bases and patriotic organizations and unions were born, gathering a large number of people to participate, creating a vibrant revolutionary movement during the Democratic Front period (1936-1939) in the provinces of Quang Nam, Da Nang, Quang Ngai and many other provinces in the Central region.

In 1940, he directly assumed the position of Secretary of the Quang Nam Provincial Party Committee - an area where the enemy often terrorized and attacked fiercely, but with the spirit of not fearing sacrifice, for the cause of national liberation revolution, he often went deep into the grassroots, promptly directing the revolutionary movement. In mid-1943, he was arrested by French secret police and exiled to Buon Ma Thuot with a sentence of 25 years of house arrest. After the Japanese coup against the French (March 9, 1945), he was released, returned to his hometown and joined the Uprising Committee, leading the people to quickly seize power in Quang Nam-Da Nang.

After the August Revolution, comrade Vo Chi Cong was assigned to take on a new task, as one of the key leaders of the Zone V Party Committee, leading the people of Zone V in the resistance war against the French. Under the leadership of the Party Committee and the Zone V Military Committee, the people of the Central coastal provinces fought steadfastly, sharing the fire with the main battlefield of Dien Bien Phu, contributing to the overall victory of the whole country, forcing France to sign the Geneva Agreement (July 1954), restoring peace in Vietnam.

In early 1953, comrade Vo Chi Cong was summoned by the Central Committee to Viet Bac to attend the Party's National Conference to discuss land reform. Afterwards, he was retained in the North to participate in the work of mobilizing the masses to fight for rent reduction, land reform and organizational rectification. As an insider, he criticized the stereotyped and dogmatic approach based on foreign experience in a mechanical way, leading to mistakes and losses for the revolution. From the painful experience and lessons learned, the Southern revolution later avoided many losses in resolving the land issue and policies towards farmers in the liberated areas.

During the resistance war against the US, to save the country, Inter-Zone V, including the South Central Coast and the Central Highlands, was a fierce battlefield. The US and its vassal forces at one point concentrated on this battlefield up to 220,000 soldiers and officers, along with 170,000 puppet troops and tens of thousands of armed police and militia. They focused on attacking and sweeping, using any savage means to wipe out revolutionary bases, establishing a “white belt” in order to prevent the North from supporting the Southern battlefield.

As Secretary of the Regional Party Committee and Political Commissar of Military Region V, comrade Vo Chi Cong held firm, organized and directed the army and people of Region V to fight without retreat. During the dark days of the Southern revolution, the Party Central Committee received comments and realistic assessments of the revolutionary situation in the South from comrade Vo Chi Cong. Based on his comments, along with the Outline of the Southern Revolution by comrade Le Duan, the Central Executive Committee built the historic Resolution 15, creating the "Dong Khoi" movement, opening the period of armed struggle, using revolutionary violence to fight against the counter-revolutionary violence of the enemy in the South.

Under the direction of the Party Committee of Zone V, directly led by comrade Vo Chi Cong - Secretary of the Zone Party Committee, Zone V was always at the forefront of the emulation movement to destroy the US, contributing to creating our important position on the Southern battlefield.

In the fierce confrontation between the army and people of the Central Highlands provinces and the US military forces and their lackeys (nearly four hundred thousand US-South Korean and puppet troops), our army and people demonstrated unparalleled revolutionary heroism. The land of Quang Nam-Da Nang, the homeland of comrade Vo Chi Cong, was awarded the title: "Loyal and steadfast, leading the way in destroying the Americans." We defeated all the strategic and tactical plots of the US expeditionary force, until they had to accept to sign the Paris Agreement (1973), withdrawing their troops from South Vietnam, creating the premise for the cause of liberating the South and unifying the country in the spring of 1975.

After the country's reunification, comrade Vo Chi Cong was assigned by the Party and the State to hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the industry-agriculture-fishery sector. This was a new, complicated and difficult job, but with a working style that always went deep into the grassroots, he went to many localities such as Vinh Phuc, Ha Nam Ninh... to learn about the practical difficulties, but the problem of the mechanism "binding" farmers, from which he made specific recommendations to the Central Government, gradually removing them, creating momentum for the formation of the "contracting" ideology in agriculture, opening the period of miraculous innovation of the country. With important contributions to the Vietnamese revolutionary cause, at the first session of the 8th National Assembly, comrade Vo Chi Cong was elected Chairman of the State Council - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

As head of state, comrade Vo Chi Cong has actively and effectively directed and operated in the field of constitutionalization and legislation, aiming to supplement and perfect the Constitution and legal system, creating favorable conditions in terms of legal framework and production environment for the success of our people's innovation.

As Chairman of the Constitutional Amendment Committee, under the leadership of the Politburo, he directly directed specialized agencies to complete the amendment of the 1980 Constitution into a new Constitution - the 1992 Constitution, the Constitution of the renovation period, bringing our country into the era of integration and development.

Looking back at the arduous but extremely glorious revolutionary journey of comrade Vo Chi Cong, our Party and our people are very proud to have trained, educated and nurtured a steadfast revolutionary party member, a revolutionary with extraordinary willpower and courage, a talented leader of the Vietnamese revolution. Comrade Vo Chi Cong, with his pure moral qualities: diligence, integrity, impartiality, a leader respected and loved by the people, has been and will forever be a shining example for generations of Vietnamese people in the spirit of loyalty to the Fatherland, dedication to work, lifelong sacrifice to serve the Fatherland and serve the people.

According to Vietnam+