General Vo Nguyen Giap and his care for writers and artists   General Vo Nguyen Giap and artists - war veterans (Nguyen Trong Nghi) In addition to his fame as a world-renowned military strategist and an eminent disciple of President Ho Chi Minh, General Vo Nguyen Giap was well known for his humanism and his attention to Vietnam’s culture and artists, as Professor Hoang Chuong recalls. When I studied in Romania in the 1970s, a European journalist told me that he hoped to visit Vietnam one day to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh, to salute General Vo Nguyen Giap and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, and to see the Ham Rong bridge in Thanh Hoa province, which sustained tonnes of bombs dropped by the US. Also in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, I met Mohamed, an Algerian apprentice who was an imprisoned legionnaire at the Dien Bien Phu front in 1954. He told me that he was released thanks to the humanity of President Ho Chi Minh and General Giap. My articles about our talk, which was published in Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper in 1974, inspired writer Dao Phuong to include the event in his play entitled Vao Dien Bien (Entering Dien Bien). Despite my deep respect and admiration for General Giap, I had not been lucky enough to meet him in person until a symposium on President Ho Chi Minh held in September 1990 to celebrate Uncle Ho’s 100th birthday and UNESCO’s recognition of him as a hero of national liberation and a world great man of culture. At the conference, which was chaired by General Giap and other leaders, I delivered a speech entitled ‘President Ho Chi Minh and the country’s stage’, in which I quoted a German Professor on the Vietnamese victory. The German scholar likened President Ho to a scriptwriter and General Giap to a director of Vietnam’s miraculous victory. I got applause from the audience in the hall when I finished my speech. When I left the hall, General Giap came up to me and asked, ‘Where does the quote come from? Can you send the document to me?’ ‘That is the statement of the German stage researcher Schumacher’, I responded, ‘who had the honour of meeting Uncle Ho many times’. This is the first time I had a direct meeting with General Giap. In May, 1994, when I was the Director of the Vietnam Institute for Stage Research, our institute hosted a symposium entitled ‘The Arts of Stage in connection with Dien Bien Phu’ to mark the 40th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. The event featured a Cheo (traditional opera) act entitled ‘Moi Tinh Dien Bien’ (Lover for Dien Bien) by late writer Luu Quang Thuan performed by artists from Hanoi Cheo troupe. We invited General Giap to enjoy some major segments of the opera. Although it was quite hot on that day and the hall was very crowded, General Giap watched the performance from beginning to end. He told the artists and the institute’s staff that he appreciated their contributions to the people of Dien Bien and the army. However, he also commented that the opera just touched upon the atmosphere of the days after the Dien Bien victory, and that the piece was not strongly imbued with the typical features of Cheo, but rather that it seemed more like a play. His opinions motivated us to seek better ways to truthfully and deeply reflect the glorious and earth-shaking Dien Bien Phu victory and to stage Cheo operas on contemporary issues while remaining true to the distinguished features of the art form. Another memory of General Giap that is still alive in my mind is associated with a conference under the theme ‘Literature and Arts in connection with Dien Bien Phu’, held by the Research Centre for Preserving and Promoting the Culture of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups in May 2004 to observe the 50th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. We asked the General for a favour; to contribute his ideas to the conference. General Giap applauded the initiative of organising the event, and praised the artists’ significant contributions to promoting the great Dien Bien Phu triumph and to educating the younger generations on the country’s fine tradition. After the conference concluded, I paid a visit to inform him about the event’s outcomes as well as the efforts of artists nationwide in composing and performing works about Dien Bien Phu. General Giap expressed his delight and appreciation at the talent and contributions of the artists to the Vietnam People’s Army and the Dien Bien Phu victory in particular. Although General Giap was very busy, he always paid time to receive and talk with artists as well as foreign writers. During the visit paid by artists from around the nation to salute General Giap, the General immediately noticed the presence of People’s Artist Chu Thuy Quynh, who performed at the Dien Bien Phu front. He also remembered dances she had performed at the northwest front in those days. General Vo Nguyen Giap left a deep impression on the memories of writers and artists. He remains in my heart as a legendary general; a great man with great dignity. No words can express all of our sentiments for him, this excellent disciple of President Ho Chi Minh, regarding his talent and moral.  HOANG CHUONG, Nhan Dan