In my hand is the book “Vu Khoan – A Heartfelt Message”. Looking at his face in the soulful portrait, printed all over the book cover, I feel as if he is confiding in us, as an erudite, wise politician, as a close, affectionate brother, and as a warm, intimate friend. His face is still filled with contemplation but also full of sharing, sympathy and love.
This book was compiled by a group of his subordinates, out of admiration and love for the leader, teacher, and brother Vu Khoan, with the consent of his virtuous wife, Mrs. Ho The Lan, to collect and select some of his articles and articles about him.
It is true that this book only reflects a part of Mr. Vu Khoan's life and career, but it also illuminates the portrait of a talented diplomat and a great personality.
In my 44 years of journalism, I have spent nearly 30 years commenting on international life and Vietnam's foreign affairs. Therefore, I have often had the opportunity to meet and interview Mr. Vu Khoan. As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990 - 1998), Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998 - 2000), Minister of Trade (2000 - 2002), Deputy Prime Minister in charge of foreign economic affairs (2002 - 2006), Secretary of the Party Central Committee (2001-2006), Mr. Vu Khoan has made many important contributions to policy making and directly implementing the process of breaking the blockade and embargo, especially in the process of negotiating and signing the Vietnam - US Trade Agreement, normalizing Vietnam - US relations, the process of opening up and deeply integrating into the world, and joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) of our country.
Mr. Vu Khoan is also the person who directly directs and participates in negotiating the integration process of our country with countries in the region, expanding international relations with important partners, enhancing the prestige and position of Vietnam. It can be said that Vu Khoan is one of the "architects" of Vietnam's foreign policy and diplomacy over the past decades, especially in the stormy years of the world at the regional level and on the global level, where Vietnam has always been a sensitive "node" under great pressure.
According to Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Vu Khoan was involved in the decision-making process and directly implemented major national policies in Vietnam's important international activities over the past decades.
I remember, in a press meeting when Mr. Vu Khoan was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, he met me, shook my hand warmly and said: “ I still read your commentaries regularly. The writers of the People's Army newspaper write clearly and firmly. Writing international comments is very difficult now. So just keep trying .” That was the period when our country faced countless difficulties in the situation of being surrounded and embargoed, the foreign front was always hot with the issue of Cambodia, issues of democracy, human rights, religion, boat refugees that the West called “boat people”…
During those years, commentaries on the above-mentioned hot issues frequently appeared in the People's Army newspaper. At a harsh historical turning point with such violent and upheaval, the work of writing commentaries became very sensitive and challenging. Hundreds of commentaries on the collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the Gulf War, the Asian financial and monetary crisis, the Yugoslav war, the September 11 event, the Afghanistan war, the Vietnam-US relationship... were all born in such urgent and difficult circumstances.
After the newspaper published those commentaries, we all waited to see how the public responded and the opinions of the leaders at all levels, and there were times when we were quite nervous and tense. Therefore, the opinion of Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Khoan as above is a very meaningful encouragement and motivation for the commentators of the People's Army newspaper. For me personally, this is like a "guarantee" for the spirit of "dare to think, dare to write" when facing difficult issues.
Vu Khoan is one of the senior leaders of the Party and State who always considers the press a special weapon with great effectiveness. He is a great friend of the press and at the same time a great journalist. He writes a lot and writes well.
Last year, both the press and the public were shocked and saddened to hear of his death on June 21, 2023, the 98th anniversary of the Vietnam Revolutionary Press.
I recall that 19 years ago, during Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's official visit to the United States, on the night of June 20, 1995, in Washington, before the very important meeting between our Prime Minister and the US President, the head of the Government and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan chaired a meeting to congratulate the press and 25 journalists who directly participated in that historic trip. It seemed that this was the first time a meeting to celebrate Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day was held abroad during a high-level visit.
At that meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan made sincere and warm speeches expressing his respect and affection for journalists, understanding their work when he raised the difficulties and challenges of journalism in the new circumstances. We were all moved by the attention of the Government leaders. Mr. Duong Trung Quoc, Editor-in-Chief of Xua va Nay magazine, took out the solemnly printed invitation and asked everyone attending the meeting to sign it to preserve a profound and unforgettable memory in America.
That visit of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai took place in the context that in the US there was still a group of Vietnamese Americans who had not yet escaped from wrong perceptions and outdated hatred, so they organized very fierce anti-government activities. In front of the hotel where our delegation was staying, they came and shouted loudly.
On the morning of June 21, 1995, when the car carrying Vietnamese journalists arrived at the gate of the White House, we saw a group of people waving the flag of the old Saigon regime, holding banners and shouting loudly. The American police prevented this group of people from approaching us. After attending the press conference of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and President G. Bush in the Oval Office, we had just left the gate and got into the car when some bold extremists rushed over, jumped into the car, spat and cursed and insulted us very rudely.
The most pitiful thing was that among the 25 Vietnamese journalists who participated in that trip, there were two veteran journalists, Dao Nguyen Cat, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Economic Times, and Pham Khac Lam, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam-US Magazine, former General Director of Vietnam Television, who, despite their advanced age, still had to struggle to get into the car when the violent mob rushed in. (These two respected veteran journalists recently passed away, to the regret of their colleagues across the country.) The American police immediately rushed in to intervene.
That day, after receiving the news that Vietnamese journalists were attacked right in front of the White House, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan shared, encouraged the journalists and provided us with more information about the Vietnamese community in the US. He emphasized that those who opposed the normalization of Vietnam-US relations were only a small group, mainly officers of the old Saigon regime, or had not yet recovered from the pain of the past years, or did not have enough information about the situation in Vietnam, about Vietnam-US relations, while the majority of overseas Vietnamese were looking towards the Fatherland, were very excited about the breakthrough steps in Vietnam-US relations. The next morning, while having breakfast, I presented Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan with an interview about the results of his visit to the US before sending it to the People's Army newspaper. The Deputy Prime Minister read it while drinking coffee, finished it in a flash, handed it back to me and said very briefly: "Okay".
A few months ago, by chance, while sorting through my documents, I came across a handwritten manuscript of an interview during that historic trip. It had been 19 years, but I felt as if I had just finished writing it last night. A few days later, when I had a meeting with Mr. Vu Ho, the son of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, before he went to take up his duties as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Korea, I brought the manuscript of that interview to him to see.
Seeing the manuscript of the interview with his father from nearly 20 years ago, Mr. Vu Ho was very moved. I would also like to add that Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan's wife is Ms. Ho The Lan, a veteran diplomat, former Director of the Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whom I had the opportunity to meet and work with for many years. I also greatly admire Ms. Ho The Lan's meticulous, confident, dedicated and thoughtful working style. Generation after generation, this is a family with a very proud diplomatic tradition.
Having spent his entire life as a diplomat, a strategic researcher, and a leading expert in the field of foreign economics, Mr. Vu Khoan is truly a professional journalist, both in the quantity and quality of his articles and in his journalistic style. He is a special contributor to Nhan Dan Newspaper, Quan Doi Nhan Dan Newspaper, and many other newspapers. Every newspaper hopes to publish his articles, especially for anniversary issues and Tet issues.
A colleague of mine at Nhan Dan newspaper shared that Mr. Vu Khoan is always responsible and careful with every word. He has written and sent it, but it is not necessarily finished, he still continues to monitor and closely follow the developments of the situation. Many times, author Vu Khoan has made important adjustments at the last minute, faster than the news and political reporters.
Journalist Bao Trung, People's Army newspaper, expressed that interviewing Mr. Vu Khoan was always exciting. Excited by a profound intellect but always humorous with the realities of life, excited by a person of a wonderful generation, ready to listen and inspire, to give knowledge to young people.
Author Vu Khoan was awarded the B Prize (there was no A Prize) of the National Press Award in 2011 for his work "Need a warm heart and a cool head" about incidents in the East Sea as a contributor to the People's Army newspaper when he had retired and still "fumbled" with the computer every day.
Mr. Vu Khoan is a shining example of self-study and self-training through practice to constantly strive to fulfill increasingly important tasks. Ambassador Nguyen Tam Chien said that Mr. Vu Khoan once joked with everyone: "I am an uneducated, uneducated person". Because in reality, until the end of his life, he did not have any official school graduation degree. With rare opportunities such as having worked as an interpreter for President Ho Chi Minh, General Secretary Le Duan, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, General Vo Nguyen Giap..., Mr. Vu Khoan spent his days and nights learning the art of communication and handling situations from the country's outstanding leaders.
Those who have had the opportunity to work and talk with him all retain a good impression of a leader, an intelligent but very humble and simple politician. He has a talent for presenting complex issues in a very simple and easy-to-understand way. According to Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh, Mr. Vu Khoan is a combination of intelligent knowledge, strategic vision, concise explanations and Vietnamese qualities, always closely following the national interests. His thinking, strategic vision, style and courage have been convincing, contributing to creating internal consensus, thereby leading to strategic decisions at very important times of the country. In foreign affairs stories, he always worries about the interests of the country, what is favorable, what is difficult, along with sharp interpretations. All of these confidences and shares were recorded by his later colleagues in the book Vu Khoan - Heartfelt Feelings.
Being flexible in order to create a good effect has become Vu Khoan's style. He once recounted that: At a very large party of the US side to celebrate the ratification of the Vietnam - US Trade Agreement, I opened my speech with Luther King's quote "I have a dream". I also said that last night I had a dream and in that dream I met American business partners and I introduced each Vietnamese product to them, then invited Vietnamese businesses to stand up, thereby creating a very good impression...
He is an inspiration to everyone, especially the young generation. His deep mark in the field of training and developing cadres is the training courses on foreign affairs methods and skills that he directly taught, which were successfully organized by the Diplomatic Academy in the period 2011-2016.
Those courses are affectionately called “VK classes” by the students. Each course lasts for 6 weeks, with a topic each week. With the heartfelt teaching that “skills are the lever to bring knowledge into life”, Mr. Vu Khoan has exchanged, discussed, summarized, and distilled from his experiences in his diplomatic career to share with the next generations about the “techniques” and “tricks” of work.
Through his way of communicating, seemingly complex and macro things are transformed into simple and easy-to-remember conclusions. Many potential cadres who participated in the “VK” class have become department heads, ambassadors, and heads of representative agencies in key locations around the world.
Not long after his death, a group of students from the Diplomatic Academy compiled and dedicated to his family the work "Gratitude to Uncle Vu Khoan: A great personality, an ordinary life". Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, former President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, when mentioning his advice "Try to be a decent person", was moved to write: "Uncle Vu Khoan, a man who, through his complete life, helped us understand more about what a decent person is".
April 21, 2024
Journalist Ho Quang Loi
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