Socialist Republic of Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet and Cuban President Raul Castro acknowledging the historic relations between the two countries. They held discussions on the sidelines at the 15th Non-Aligned Summit in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Vietnam, ten times more beautiful
Héctor Rodríguez Llompart
ON December 2, 1960 diplomatic relations were established between Cuba and Vietnam. On the same day, the Covenants of Trade and Payment, as well as a Cultural and Scientific-Technical Cooperation Agreement were signed, laying the legal foundation for the development of the relationship between the two countries.
These documents were signed by Minister Nguyen Khang and the deputy secretary of Cuba's Ministry of State, a responsibility which I was undertaking at the time. Also present, representing Vietnam, were Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and Pham Anh, the country's trade minister.
Fifty years have passed since that cold morning at the end of November 1960, when finding ourselves in Beijing, Comandante Ernesto Guevara designated me to lead a delegation, which also included Comandante Eddy Suñol and Raúl Maldonado, to travel to Hanoi in order to establish diplomatic relations between Cuba and Vietnam.
I have had the privilege to witness the beginning and the development of a beautiful friendship between the two sister countries.
From that first visit I remember my surprise when called upon to review a detachment of the People's Army. Later the indelible impression of seeing, all along the way to our residence, a whole people acclaiming us as representatives of the recently victorious Revolution which they so much admired.
Listening to the legendary General Nguyen Giap standing in front of a scale model, giving us an explanation of the development of the battle and the victory at Dien Bien Phu against French colonialism, was an unforgettable experience.
In 1973 I joined the delegation led by Comandante Fidel Castro which visited Hanoi during the war in South Vietnam.
Cuba was the first country to recognize the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam and the leader of the Revolution was the only head of state to visit liberated areas in the South.
Among the many emotional moments was seeing, on the side of the road as we returned north, several boys and girls wounded by anti-personnel mines dropped by U.S. aircraft and which exploded when stepped upon, while other children of the same age continued working in the fields nearby.
At that very instant, Fidel ordered the convoy to stop and with his extraordinary sensitivity, instructed the Cuban doctors to attend to the wounded and, moreover, to accompany the children to a medical facility.
On the trip, to and from the South, by air and by land, it was staggering to see the damage caused to that country by the yankee war machine, to its limited infrastructure, causeways full of craters produced by bombs dropped by U.S. bombers which the Vietnamese filled with baskets of earth and rocks, while soldiers on bicycles and on foot passed carrying sacks of rice and ammunition marching in long lines toward the battlefront.
Having witnessed that astounding reality, it was easy to come to the conclusion that there was nothing the all-powerful yankee empire could do, confronted with that heroic people’s determination, to win.
The empire was finally defeated and the Vietnamese people won and were unified. Vietnam gained its independence and freedom, preserving its dignity at the price of four million dead, a great number disabled, immense material destruction and delayed economic development as compared to other countries.
Cuban solidarity and support were unconditional, synthesized by Fidel in the phrase, "We are wiling to give our own blood for Vietnam." Suffice it to note as one example that, while struggling against the blockade and limitations of all kinds, Cuba donated 775,600 tons of sugar to Vietnam between 1960 and 1980.
It is good to know that the Vietnamese economy is currently one of the most rapidly developing in the world, making its people the first and foremost beneficiaries of these successes, allowing them to eliminate illiteracy, achieve a low infant mortality rate, reduce poverty to a minimum and substantially raise the standard of living of the population.
With a young population, 50% below 25 years of age, very low levels of unemployment and 65% of the people working in agriculture, Vietnam is today the world's second largest exporter of rice and rubber, third in coffee and first in pepper.
As for relations with Cuba, trade between the two has grown to a significant level, in excess of $300 million per year. Joint ventures are operating successfully and the cooperative program to develop rice cultivation in Cuba is progressing well.
Vietnam's advances in the field of high technology allow it to work cooperatively in Cuba on investment projects in informatics, electronics and oil exploration through drilling contracts in Cuba's exclusive economic zones in the Gulf of Mexico.
These realities made it possible to affirm, in the June 2007 Cuban/Vietnamese Joint Statement signed by Raúl Castro as second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, that "the relations between the parties and the people of Cuba and of Vietnam are everyday stronger and more fraternal."
We would like to illustrate here, if only as a pale reflection, the fighting spirit and accomplishments of that country which, in 1973, was in our eyes totally destroyed.
In order to do so, it is necessary to evoke that exemplary political thinker and patriot, that young teacher Nguyen Ai Qvoc who, to earn a living, was forced to work as a cook's help and sailor; who was capable of founding the Communist Parties of Indochina and Vietnam and was among the founders of the Party in France; the man whose intellectual and political stature have passed into history, to the pride and honor of his people and for the good of humanity. This was Ho Chi Minh, who foretold, "Vietnam will be free, independent and sovereign. The enemy will be defeated and the Vietnamese people will build a Vietnam ten times more beautiful."
Shortly before his death on September 3, 1969, President Ho Chi Minh left, as his political last will and testament, his dearest dream, "My last wish is that our Party and people, united in the struggle, may build a peaceful, unified, democratic and prosperous Vietnam and make a contribution to the world Revolution."
Today his dream is an admirable reality.
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