The exhibition aims to pay tribute to the great contributions of General, Chief of the General Staff Van Tien Dung in the cause of national struggle and liberation; contributing to portraying the staunch revolutionary soldier, the excellent student of President Ho Chi Minh.
The exhibition introduced 150 artifacts and images with 3 topics: The outstanding person of Hanoi; Great General of the Ho Chi Minh era; and Memories of the General.
Chief of the General Staff Van Tien Dung in the area of the General Staff (currently the Kinh Thien Palace terrace). Photo provided by the General’s family.
General Van Tien Dung (May 2, 1917 – March 17, 2002) was a talented general, an excellent military man of the Vietnamese nation.
Born in a poor family in Co Nhue village, Tu Liem district, Hanoi city, Van Tien Dung had to drop out of school early and work in textile factories to earn a living. Under the oppression of the colonial regime, he participated and worked actively in the workers’ movement and soon gained revolutionary enlightenment.
Experiencing many difficulties in the struggle movement, growing up in wars, in 1953, he was assigned by the Party Central Committee and President Ho Chi Minh to be the Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army. He was also the longest serving Chief of the General Staff in history – 25 years.
During the period of resistance against the American imperialists, under the leadership of the Party and the Political Bureau, at the General Headquarters, Chief of the General Staff Van Tien Dung, together with General Vo Nguyen Giap, directed the fronts and won many great campaigns; defended Hanoi and the North during the American imperialists’ destructive war, etc. In particular, during the fiercest years of the war, Chief of the General Staff Van Tien Dung was often present at the battlefield, directly commanding key campaigns, such as: Road 9 campaign – Southern Laos; Tri – Thien campaign; The Central Highlands campaign and especially the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, successfully ending the resistance war against the US, liberating the South, and reuniting the country.
Writing about General Van Tien Dung, General Vo Nguyen Giap commented: “General Van Tien Dung is a general with the high spirit of victory and outstanding tactical skills, a resilient and indomitable communist who devoted his life to the Party’s ideals, to the cause of national liberation and reunification and to the cause of building and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.
The Thematic Exhibition “General Van Tien Dung – Great General of the Ho Chi Minh era” highlighted the imprint and role of Chief of the General Staff Van Tien Dung at the Vietnam People’s Army Headquarters (House and Tunnel D67) from 1968 to 1975. Here, under the assignment of the Political Bureau and the Central Military Commission, General Van Tien Dung many times left the office to directly command the fierce fronts which are the turning points of the war.
In particular, in the days leading up to Tet holiday (1975), the General Staff secretly left the Headquarters (House D67) to the Central Highlands, commanding strategic attacks, laying the foundation for the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising. Those historic spring days brought victory with the Ho Chi Minh campaign in which the General was assigned by the Political Bureau as the Commander.
The exhibition is open to visitors from April 28, 2022. Within the program, there had meetings and discussions with historical witnesses and representatives of General Van Tien Dung’s family.
Visitors could visit the exhibition online at website: trungbayonline.hoangthanhthanglong.vn.
H.T