The The Gioi (World) Publishing House and the Vietnam-France Friendship Association held an event on December 17 to introduce the book titled “La Campagne Ho Chi Minh au cœur de Paris" (The Ho Chi Minh Campaign in the Heart of Paris).

The book features memoirs of Vo Van Sung (1928-2018), a former Vietnamese ambassador in France, and images of Paris during Vietnam’s struggle for the reunification of the country in 1975. It was translated by Nguyen Dac Nhu Mai, an overseas Vietnamese in France and an historian.

Its content is based on the original text of the memoir by former Vietnamese Ambassador Sung first published in Vietnamese in 2005 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign which liberated the south of Vietnam, paving the way for the country’s independence and unity after 20 years of being separated.

The veteran diplomat was a member of the Vietnamese delegation in the secret negotiation between general Le Duc Tho and American politician Henry Kissinger, which resulted in the Paris Peace Accords. He was also the first ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in France at that time.

Not only a witness to history and one of the leading Vietnamese experts knowledgeable in modern Vietnam-France relations, Sung is also a key figure contributing to the wave from April to May 1975 in Paris and across Europe in responding to the Ho Chi Minh Campaign and congratulating Vietnam for the country’s victory.

According to the former ambassador, the name of the book is a tribute to the creative, vibrant and responsible activities of Vietnamese diplomatic representatives and of the overseas Vietnamese in France that have significantly contributed to the independence and unity of the nation. He called it the diplomatic front, which coordinated with the political and military fronts in Vietnam to become the three factors constituting the righteous power of Vietnam’s resistance.

“La Campagne Ho Chi Minh au cœur de Paris” is also a tribute to international friends for their perseverance and enthusiasm in supporting the struggle of the Vietnamese people.

Among them are the French Communist Party as the loyal friend of Nguyen Ai Quoc-Ho Chi Minh; French friends of various backgrounds, political views, and politicians following French General De Gaulle's policy of opposing the American war in Indochina as well as many international friends in Western Europe and America who have been wholeheartedly and silently supporting Vietnam in the special historic turning point.

With a condensed and straightforward writing style, the memoir is not only a rare historical document about Vietnamese people, the movements of overseas Vietnamese in France and international friends after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords from 1973 to 1975 but also the record of the feelings of overseas Vietnamese people and the sincere friendship between international friends and Vietnam./.VNA

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