Tran Van Giau, a prominent intellectual

General Vo Nguyen Giap (left) and Professor Tran Van Giau.

Professor historian Tran Van Giau, now 91, has lived for nearly a century, passionately nurturing revolutionary ideas and historical research. In January 2001, the Ho Chi Minh City Council of Social Sciences established the Tran Van Giau Award for excellent works on history and the history of ideology in the southern part of the country.

Professor Tran Van Giau was born on September 11, 1911, at An Luc Long Village, Chau Thanh District, Tan An Province. When young and studying in Saigon, he joined the patriotic movements. While studying at Toulouse University in France, he took an active part in the patriotic movement of the Vietnamese nationals there. He joined the French Communist Party in May 1929. On May 19, 1930, as he participated in the demonstration in front of the French Presidential Palace, demanding the annulment of the capital verdict of the 13 combatants in the Yen Bai Uprising, he was arrested and expelled to Vietnam by the French government. In Vietnam he joined the Indochina Communist Party, and together with Hai Trieu, took charge of the 'Anti-imperialist Students’ Section' of the Cochinchina (ie South Vietnam) Party Committee. In 1931, he travelled to Russia and studied at the University for Oriental Studies in Moscow, where he wrote the thesis 'The Land Problem of Indochina.' Returning to Vietnam in 1933, he mobilised for the revival of the Cochinchina Party Committee. In 1935, he was arrested by the French and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on the island of Poulo Condor. Only nine days after the completion of his jail-term, he was arrested again and banished to Ta Lai Camp. The Party Committee in Ta Lai Camp organised a jailbreak for him and some other inmates. In October 1943, at the Regional Party Congress, he was elected Secretary of the Cochinchina Party Committee. In August 1945, he and the Cochinchina Party Committee successfully led the General Insurrection to seize power in Saigon and the then six provinces of South Vietnam. He was then appointed Chairman of the South Vietnam Provisional People’s Committee. On the eve of December 23, 1945, the French launched attacks at our vital institutions. As chairman of the South Vietnam Administrative Committee for Resistance War, he issued an appeal at 5.30 am, on December 23, 1945, calling upon the entire South Vietnam to fight against the French colonialists’ scheme to re-impose themselves upon Vietnam.

In response to the call, the entire Vietnamese southerners rose up in arms to fight the French colonialists, thus starting the resistance war against French colonialism. This historic document was, to some extent, typical of his literary style: energetic, concise, always from the standpoint of an insider. At this stage, Tran Van Giau was a man who created history, always bearing the brunt of the Revolution, assessing the situation with the heart of a combatant and making vital decisions. All this has helped him with a clear-sighted Marxist-Leninist vision in his studies of philosophy and history.

In the resistance war against French colonialism, he was active in the West of Indochina, as director general of the Department for Information, and President of Pre-University School. After the return of peace, from 1954 to 1960, he was Dean of the Department for Literature-History, University of Hanoi. He has, ever since, entirely devoted himself to conducting researches and giving lectures, to which he has dedicated all his later years, with all his heart. He worked at the Section for Social Sciences under the State Commission for Sciences from 1960 to 1965, at the Institute of History from 1965 to 1976, and at Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Social Sciences from 1976 to 1978.

With rich experience in revolutionary work, in ideological and political activities, Tran Van Giau has made meritorious contributions to the dissemination of Marxist-Leninist methodology in the study of the history of the Vietnamese revolution and ideology. As a strategist, an eye-witness of, and a participant in, many contemporary events, he is author of writings that not only meet the immediate demand for topical issues, but are of long-term significance to research as well, which sometimes helps blaze new trails in learning.

He deeply understands the history of Vietnamese ideology and politics, one of the knotty themes, for which he has reserved so much ink and paper. Swimming against the tide of time and surmounting so many rapids and waterfalls of events and political ideologies, with rich justification and firm argumentation, he has come to the conclusion that it is Vietnamese patriotism which makes the hard core of the doctrines of the Vietnamese revolution, the epicenter for convergence and success of the proletarian revolution in Vietnam. Formerly, Taoism and Confucianism or such religious ideologies as Buddhism and Catholicism, were all doomed to failure in this historical mission, ie national salvation and liberation. He has turned out dozens of well-known works: 'World Outlook,' 'Dialectics,' 'Historical Materialism,' 'Combat Foreign Aggression,' 'The Vietnamese Working-Class,' 'A History of Ideology,' 'From the October Revolution to the August Revolution,' 'Crisis of Vietnamese Feudalist System,' 'the Communist Party - the Party of Vietnamese Wisdom,' 'Development of Vietnamese Ideology from 19^th Century to the August Revolution,' 'Philosophy and Ideology,' and many others. His five works of 18 volumes on Vietnamese history won him the Ho Chi Minh Award in 1996.    

He has never divorced himself from the press. Under such various pennames as Ho Nam, Tran Van Giau, Tam Vu, Thao Giang, Gio Nom, his pen portrays a variety of themes and erudition. He has also written quite a few articles for the papers of the French Communist Party and the Communist International. In such scientific and political reviews as 'Study,' 'Fatherland,' 'Historical Research,' 'Philosophy,' 'Monographs of Teachers’ University,' 'Social Sciences,' etc he has touched upon many imperative issues of ideology and the times.

Professor Tran Van Giau has even been the teacher of a contingent of excellent students, who later have become the nuclei in the domain of social sciences. He was among the first batch to have been promoted to professorship and People’s Teacher, and awarded the Ho Chi Minh Medal, Independence Medal, first class, Anti-French Resistance War Order, first class, and the Anti-US Resistance War Order, first class.

The professor’s working day usually starts at 5am He has recently completed the manuscript of his nearly 1,000-page book entitled 'About the causes of the decline and the rise of Vietnam in 19^th and 20^th centuries.' He is not only a creator of history, but a watcher of many contemporary issues as well.

Story: VU DUC TAN - Photos: LE CUONG
(Vietnam Review)