December 18

1919 French detectives reported that Nguyen Ai Quoc had met Khanh Ky, a Vietnamese photographer who was involved in the revolutionary activities of the “Group of Vietnamese patriots in France.”

1919
 
French detectives reported that Nguyen Ai Quoc had met Khanh Ky, a Vietnamese photographer who was involved in the revolutionary activities of the “Group of Vietnamese patriots in France.”

 
At the meeting, Nguyen Ai Quoc said he had contacted L’ Humanité (Humanity) and Le Populaire (The Populace) to find a job for Phan Chu Trinh.

President Ho Chi Minh with students of Trung Vuong high school in Hanoi in 1956 (File photo)
President Ho Chi Minh with students of Trung Vuong high school in Hanoi in 1956 (File photo)

1921
 
French detectives reported Nguyen Ai Quoc had joined a discussion on the right to strike by the Railway Workers’ Federation.
 
1924
 
He wrote to the Communist International from Guangzhou, China, to say that he had carried out his assigned tasks and inform that he was masquerading as a Chinese under the assumed name of Li Rui. He also asked the Communist International’s representatives in China to care about Indochina as well.
 
1940
 
Cuu Vong Nhat Bao (Salvation Daily) published his article titled “Vietnamese forces for regaining freedom.”
 
In it, he denounced the Japanese fascists’ conspiracy to use some Vietnamese lackeys to establish an armed group named “forces for regaining freedom” to put pressure on French imperialists and get Vietnam’s national liberation movement to serve Japan’s machinations.
 
“We need to clearly identify which ones are Vietnamese political and armed groups and organizations and should not mistake unpatriotic organizations for national movements.”
 
1945
 
He received general Chen Xiu He, representative of the Chinese Army’s High Command in Vietnam, and suggested postponing the general elections and having members of political parties join the coalition government.
 
He signed a decree to postpone the general elections to January 6, 1946.
 
1946
 
He presided over a meeting of the Party's Standing Central Committee at Van Phuc village in Ha Dong Province.
 
At the meeting, the committee decided to carry on a nationwide war of resistance against the French colonialists.
 
In an effort to save the situation, he sent a message to French Prime Minister Leon Blum hailing the plan to send a “French National Assembly delegation to Vietnam that will carry the French people’s goodwill for the Vietnamese people and understand the situation [in Vietnam].”
 
1954

 
He visited Chu Van An, Nguyen Trai, and Trung Vuong high schools in the newly-liberated capital.
 
He told teachers and students that “youth is an important part of the nation. If the nation is enslaved, so are its youth. The youth are free when the nation is free. Therefore, the youth have to join the nation’s fight. Now that the nation has become independent, the youth are truly the people of the country’s future. To deserve the role of a master, [you] have to study … Studies have to go together with practice …”
 
1964
 
At a conference to review a campaign to build Party cells with “the four good virtues” held in a Hanoi suburb, he said: “… It is necessary to lead movements in suburbs and make the suburbs the socialist capital’s red belt.”

By Duong Trung Quoc* and his assistants
*
The author is a historian and member of the National Assembly

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