The outstanding activities and contributions of Comrade Dao Duy Tung to the Vietnamese revolution.

Homeland, family, activities, and contributions during the pre-revolutionary period.
Comrade Dao Duy Tung was born on May 20, 1924, in Co Loa commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi, into a patriotic scholarly family. His grandfather, Dao Duy Anh, was a teacher and physician. Living a simple and virtuous life, he always used his intellect and moral character to impart knowledge to his students and descendants. He left behind two outstanding ideas: "Respecting virtue, preserving it for future generations," and "Respecting past and present values, upholding family traditions." Comrade Dao Duy Tung's father, Dao Duy Khai, sympathized with the revolution, and from late 1943 to 1944, he encouraged all three of his sons to join the revolutionary movement at the ages of 18 and 19. On August 17, 1945, the Co Loa Viet Minh organization led the people in a successful uprising, establishing a revolutionary government, and Dao Duy Khai was elected Vice Chairman of the commune's administrative committee. Comrade Dao Duy Tung's mother was Mrs. Le Thi Tit. Mrs. Le Thi Tit's family was a revolutionary base in the Safe Zone (ATK1). His wife's parents' house was where comrades Le Dinh Thiep and Tran Dang Ninh held training courses to cultivate key cadres for the revolutionary movement in Co Loa and Dong Anh during the pre-insurrection period.
Comrade Dao Duy Tung was born and raised in a region with a rich history, culture, and revolutionary tradition (the Co Loa and Dong Anh areas). Around the 6th to 3rd centuries BC, the ancient Vietnamese people adapted to and developed intensive agriculture, cultivating two rice crops per year and fruit trees; they also developed handicrafts such as weaving, pottery, and woodworking. Along with a diverse and multi-cropping agricultural system, the Co Loa and Dong Anh area was a prominent region of the Bronze Age, a center of metallurgy for the ancient Vietnamese. Besides bronze casting, iron smelting (forging) also began to develop. The large bronze drum cast in Co Loa 500-600 years BC (discovered in 1982) belongs to the oldest and most beautiful group of bronze drums of the Dong Son civilization.
With its prominent position as a region of intensive and diversified agriculture, and as a thriving center of bronze metallurgy and the beginning of iron forging techniques, Thuc Phan, after unifying Lac Viet and Au Viet into the Au Lac kingdom, decided to establish his capital in Co Loa and build it into the first capital, military fortress, and city of the Vietnamese people. In 938, Ngo Quyen achieved a great victory over the Southern Han army at Bach Dang Giang, completely ending a thousand years of foreign domination and ushering in a new era of long-lasting independence and brilliant development for the country. Ngo Quyen decided to establish his capital in Co Loa to continue the ancient national tradition of An Duong Vuong. Co Loa was reborn as a "land of emperors," marking the beginning of the national and cultural revival in the 10th century.

In the revolutionary cause of national liberation under the leadership of the Party, the people of Co Loa upheld their patriotic traditions and spirit, quickly embracing the light of the revolution and the Party. The revolutionary movement in Co Loa and Dong Anh developed at a turning point after the 8th Central Committee Conference (May 1941). This historic conference, chaired by leader Nguyen Ai Quoc, finalized the strategic and tactical shift of the revolution, concentrating the strength of the great national unity for the goal of achieving independence and freedom for the entire nation. The conference decided to establish the Vietnam Independence League (Viet Minh). The conference determined the revolutionary method: “the Indochinese revolution will end with an armed uprising,” therefore the conference decided: Preparations for an armed uprising must be accelerated. When the opportunity arises, “with the available forces, we can lead a partial uprising in each locality and still achieve victory, paving the way for a great general uprising.”1 After the conference, the Central Committee decided to establish safe zones in several areas around Hanoi. At the end of 1941, Co Loa and the communes of Dong Anh district, the southern part of Kim Anh district, and Yen Lang district (Phuc Yen) were officially included in the Central Committee's Safe Zone 1, under the responsibility of the Central Committee's Special Task Force. At the end of 1943, Comrade Le Dinh Thiep, a member of the Central Committee's Task Force, was sent to Dong Anh and then to Co Loa to build revolutionary bases and develop revolutionary organizations into a revolutionary movement in Co Loa.
Comrade Le Dinh Thiep quickly sought out and enlightened progressive young people in Co Loa. The first group of young people in Co Loa were enlightened and joined the National Salvation Youth Organization. The revolutionary movement in Co Loa developed strongly. Comrade Le Dinh Thiep organized nearly a dozen outstanding National Salvation Youth and the Viet Minh organization in Co Loa. Comrade Dao Duy Tung was one of the first members of the Viet Minh organization in Co Loa. Under the leadership and guidance of the Central Party's working team, directly led by Comrade Le Dinh Thiep, the Co Loa Viet Minh organization intensified propaganda, enlightenment, and the building and development of many revolutionary bases and revolutionary masses, successfully fulfilling the tasks of ATK1 such as: transporting and protecting many comrades from the Central Committee to ATK for meetings, consultations, and directing the revolutionary movement; printing the Liberation Flag Newspaper and Party documents; and ensuring the smooth and safe operation of communication stations from ATK1 to the Viet Bac base and other localities nationwide. At the same time, the Viet Minh organization in Co Loa actively promoted the development of revolutionary forces such as the National Salvation Youth, National Salvation Peasants, National Salvation Women, National Salvation Elders, National Salvation Children, and especially educated and encouraged members of the National Salvation Youth to join the local militia and self-defense forces. They organized struggles against tax collection, conscription, jute cultivation, and punished local tyrants and oppressors. On March 9, 1945, when the Japanese staged a coup against the French, several French military camps in Co Loa and Dong Anh were in disarray and demoralized, or fled. Under the leadership of the Central Working Party, the Co Loa commune Viet Minh organized its self-defense forces to storm the French camps to seize weapons (guns, grenades) and collect weapons from the fleeing French soldiers. Most of the weapons were handed over to the Working Team to be sent to the Viet Bac base, while the rest were used to equip the local self-defense forces.
In May 1945, due to the new demands of the revolutionary movement, Comrade Le Dinh Thiep selected a number of capable grassroots cadres to open a training course to become cadres who had left their homes to work elsewhere. Comrade Dao Duy Tung was one of 10 local grassroots cadres who attended the 7-day training course. Comrade Tran Dang Ninh directly taught three topics: the world situation, especially the situation on the Soviet-German and Japanese-French fronts in Indochina; the 10 policies of the Viet Minh; and the ethics of revolutionary cadres. After the course, Comrade Tran Dang Ninh selected Comrade Dao Duy Tung and three other comrades from the 10 trainees to introduce and provide further training on Marxist-Leninist communism and the Party Charter.
In early August 1945, in response to the Central Committee's Resolution No. 8 and the Central Committee's directive "The Japanese and French are fighting each other, and our actions," the Co Loa Viet Minh organization, based on the revolutionary forces and movement of the masses and the local enemy forces, organized a meeting to plan an uprising to seize power in Co Loa. The meeting set August 17, 1945, as the date for the uprising (previously, the Central Committee's working group had decided that the uprising in Dong Anh would be on August 21, 1945). With the report and approval of Comrade Le Dinh Thiep and the Central Committee's working group, on August 17, 1945, Comrade Dao Duy Tung, together with the Co Loa Viet Minh organization, led the successful uprising and established a revolutionary government in Co Loa, named the Provisional Revolutionary Liberation Committee. On August 21, 1945, the Co Loa Viet Minh organization mobilized the revolutionary forces of the commune to advance towards Dong Anh district town along with forces from several other communes, under the direct command of the Central Task Force and the Dong Anh District Party Committee. The self-defense forces successfully attacked the Japanese troops in the district town and seized power in Dong Anh district.
On September 3, 1945, Comrade Nguyen Trong Vinh, Secretary of the Dong Anh District Party Committee, went to Co Loa to announce the establishment of the Indochinese Communist Party branch in Co Loa commune and appointed Comrade Dao Duy Tung as its secretary. He was then transferred to the district as a cadre, assigned to build revolutionary government and mass organizations in the communes of the district. From June 1946 to December 1952, in his capacity as a Standing Committee member of the District Party Committee, Head of the Viet Minh in Kim Anh district, Secretary of the Kim Anh District Party Committee, Provincial Party Committee member, in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Phuc Yen Provincial Party Committee, Standing Committee member of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Viet Minh in Phuc Yen province, Deputy Head of the Mobilization Committee for the border liberation campaign, and Deputy Secretary of the Cao Bang Provincial Party Committee, he, along with the collective of the District and Provincial Party Committees, led the local people and military forces, making significant contributions to the resistance and national reconstruction.
Comrade Dao Duy Tung's outstanding contributions during his more than 30 years in charge of ideological and theoretical work and nearly 10 years as a high-ranking Party leader are noteworthy.
After completing his studies at the Marxist-Leninist Theoretical School in Beijing, China, from May 1955 to December 1986, he worked in ideological and theoretical fields at central agencies in various positions: Deputy Director, Director of the Training Department (1955-1962); Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department (1962); Deputy Head, Editor-in-Chief of the magazine "Learning," now the Communist Magazine (1965-1980); Standing Member of the Central Theoretical Research Committee (1965-1980); Director of the Marxist-Leninist Institute (1980-1982); Head of the Central Propaganda and Training Department (1982-1986). From 1986 to 1998, he was a high-ranking Party leader, serving as a Politburo member, Secretary of the Central Committee in charge of ideological and scientific work (1986-1991), Politburo member, Standing Secretary of the Party Central Committee, and Standing Member of the Politburo and Party Central Committee (1991-1996). For over 40 years, Comrade Dao Duy Tung, with his unwavering faith in revolutionary ideals, solid moral foundation, and high intellectual capacity, tirelessly strived to excellently fulfill all tasks and responsibilities entrusted to him by the Party. His outstanding contributions include:
He made a significant contribution to the cause of political theory education within the Party and society, building and developing the system of political schools at all levels from the central to provincial, city, and district levels, both full-time and part-time; training and developing a team of political theory lecturers; and forming and perfecting the system of textbooks for the subjects of Marxist-Leninist theory, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and Party history. During the 6th term, as Chairman of the Editorial Board, Comrade Dao Duy Tung directly supervised the organization and completion of the national standard textbooks for the subjects of Marxist-Leninist science, Ho Chi Minh Thought, and the history of the Communist Party of Vietnam; and as the first Chairman of the Publishing Board for the Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Selected Works; the Complete Works of Ho Chi Minh, and the Complete Party Documents. These are classic political theory books, forming the foundation for studying, understanding, steadfastly applying, and creatively developing the Party's ideological foundation.
For nearly 43 years working at the central level, Comrade has devoted most of his time, intellect, and passion to theoretical research, summarizing practical experiences, disseminating and educating on political theory and the Party's policies, identifying and promoting exemplary models and new factors, and effectively and seriously combating erroneous views contrary to the Party's guidelines and viewpoints. As a theoretical thinker with innovative thinking, Comrade always closely linked theoretical research with summarizing practical experiences, spending much time visiting grassroots levels to listen to the voices of the people, cadres, Party members, and intellectuals. This allowed him to promptly identify and support new factors when they were still in their nascent stages and not yet officially recognized.
In late 1970, when the product quota system for production teams and cooperative members emerged in Vinh Phuc and then in Hai Phong, although not yet officially recognized, Comrade Dao Duy Tung, in his capacity as Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Magazine, and Standing Member of the Central Theoretical Research Committee, along with several other officials, repeatedly visited Vinh Phuc and Hai Phong to directly observe and listen to the voices of cooperative members, officials, district officials, and provincial and city leaders. He then proactively coordinated with the leaders of the Nhan Dan Newspaper and Dai Doan Ket Newspaper, as well as the leaders of Hai Phong, to organize a scientific seminar on product quotas in Hai Phong, leading to the organization of a national agricultural conference in Hai Phong. From these activities, Comrade Dao Duy Tung concluded that the product quota system for groups and individual workers was an economic management model that created motivation because it directly linked the interests of each worker. This conclusion is one of the practical scientific arguments that significantly contributed to the Central Secretariat's issuance of Directive 100 CT/TW on January 13, 1981 (commonly known as the "contracting system"), with the new contracting mechanism and state investment in irrigation, fertilizers, seeds, etc., enabling Vietnam's agriculture to initially overcome its long-standing stagnation and weakness, and to make progress. In the years 1981-1985, it increased by an average of 4.9% annually. National food production increased from 15 million tons in 1981 to 18.2 million tons in 1985. Average per capita food production increased from 273 kg in 1981 to 304 kg in 1985, and in the North, more than 80,000 hectares of abandoned land were restored!
After nearly two years of implementing the Resolution of the Sixth Party Congress, in his capacity as a member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee, and in charge of ideological and scientific work, he devoted much time and effort, with a spirit of innovative thinking, facing the truth, speaking the truth, and accurately assessing the truth, to directing and organizing theoretical research activities and summarizing the practical experience of the five years of implementing the "contract farming" system and the two years of implementing the Sixth Party Congress's guidelines. He also made outstanding contributions to the drafting of the Politburo's Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW dated April 5, 1988, on reforming agricultural management.

This Resolution assessed the positive impacts of implementing the 10 guidelines and policies of the Central Committee's Resolution IV (August 14, 1977), especially the policy of contracting out the final product to groups and individual workers. Notably, it highlighted the emergence of several good models and new factors. At the same time, the Resolution pointed out that Vietnam's agriculture was developing slowly, the commodity ratio was low, many regions were still stuck in a state of self-sufficiency, fragmentation, and monoculture, food production was declining, forests were being severely damaged, the ecological environment was not being protected, and superstitious customs and social evils were on the rise.
The resolution clearly points out that the main causes of the above situation are due to the following major shortcomings in leadership and guidance: Lack of a correct strategy for socio-economic development to gradually create a rational industrial-agricultural structure; insufficient focus on the leading sector, agriculture, especially the development of food; lack of close integration between agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; failure to link industry with agriculture, especially the industry producing means of production for agriculture and the processing industry; and insufficient investment in scientific research and the application of advanced technology to production. Direct investment in agriculture has been wasteful and inefficient. In the reorganization of production and socialist transformation, agriculture has had a simplistic understanding of socialism and the initial stage of the transition period; it has not grasped the law that production relations must necessarily conform to the nature and level of development of the productive forces; They failed to grasp the natural, economic, and social characteristics of each region and did not adhere to the principles of voluntarism and democratic management. They were subjective and hasty in reforming and forcing farmers into cooperatives and production groups, and in thoroughly collectivizing the means of production. They mechanically applied organizational and management forms to different regions and cooperatives. For a long time, they lacked encouragement for household economies, did not have a proper policy for utilizing individual and private economies, and did not organize linkages and joint ventures between economic sectors effectively. They lacked a comprehensive policy to consolidate and strengthen socialist production relations in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in all three aspects: ownership, management, and distribution. They maintained a centralized, bureaucratic, subsidized system and an egalitarian distribution system for too long. Many mistakes were made in major agricultural policies, such as policies encouraging food crop growers and policies concerning the relationship between the State, cooperatives, and farmers. The supply system for agricultural materials is slow to be reformed, and its organization and operational methods have many negative aspects. The organizational and management system from the central to the local level is irrational, increasingly cumbersome, bureaucratic, and inefficient. The agricultural science and technology workforce has not been properly assigned and utilized. The management staff at the local level is weak and slow to receive training and professional development.
Based on an accurate assessment of the situation and its causes, Resolution 10 decided to vigorously reform agricultural economic management in order to achieve the following four requirements:
- Truly unleashing productive forces and developing the full potential of all economic sectors, regions, and specialized agricultural industries.
- Properly resolving conflicts of interest, especially ensuring the legitimate interests of producers, primarily rice farmers, continuously improving people's lives, and contributing to the accumulation of resources for the cause of building socialism.
- Expanding democracy, upholding the rule of law, and building new rural areas.
- Reforming the organizational structure and personnel to suit the new economic structure and management mechanisms. Purifying and enhancing the fighting capacity of Party organizations and the contingent of cadres and Party members.
To achieve the above objectives, Resolution 10 identified four major policies with a system of synchronized and feasible solutions aimed at strongly and effectively reforming agricultural economic management. Resolution 10 of the Politburo on reforming agricultural economic management, commonly known as "Contract 10," is truly a comprehensive and synchronized reform decision targeting a crucial aspect of the agricultural economy, creating synergistic strength and a new economic management model, driven by the harmonious resolution of three interests: the State, the collective, and the workers. Resolution "Contract 10" is truly a breakthrough for the remarkable development of Vietnamese agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.
The most outstanding contribution of the theoretical thinker Dao Duy Tung came from his role as a leading member of the Editorial Team for the Political Report presented to the Sixth Party Congress. Comrade Dao Duy Tung made significant contributions to the development of three economic viewpoints: on the economic structure, on socialist transformation, and on the management mechanism. In this role, Comrade Dao Duy Tung not only contributed to the Editorial Team's proposal to the Sub-committee for discussion of the document, but also played a crucial role in drafting the conclusions of the Politburo meeting on September 20, 1986, regarding several issues related to economic viewpoints. Following Comrade Truong Chinh's directive, Comrade Dao Duy Tung was assigned to lead a group of members of the Editorial Team to directly draft the Politburo's conclusions on several important issues, especially regarding economic viewpoints, in order to clarify the Party's strategic guiding ideology on building socialism in general and leading the development of the economy in particular. When the Politburo of the 5th Congress approved these conclusions, it opened a breakthrough in revising and perfecting the Political Report submitted to the 6th Congress. This is a milestone in the Party's initiation and leadership of the comprehensive national reform, primarily in the economic field.
And during the Sixth Congress, with the responsibility of being the Standing Member of the Sub-committee for drafting the Platform for building the country during the transitional period to socialism, Comrade Dao Duy Tung made outstanding contributions, proposing to the Politburo to select talented theorists and leading experts in the fields of politics, economics, culture, society, national defense, security, and foreign affairs to participate in the Editorial Team, organizing democratic discussions and proposing to the General Secretary and the Politburo to approve: the name of the Platform, its structure, and main content; assigning editorial groups to be responsible for developing each content of the Platform based on a thorough summary of 15 years of building socialism in the North and 10 years of building socialism nationwide. During the discussion of the Draft Platform, each section strongly promoted freedom of thought with the motto of looking directly at the truth, speaking the truth, and assessing the truth. When there were differing opinions on each issue, it was necessary to frankly and objectively present the arguments of each viewpoint, without prejudice or generalizations. One had to calmly listen to opinions different from one's own, even opinions considered wrong could offer many ideas for further consideration, and opinions considered incorrect could be calmly examined to see if there were any reasonable elements.
The initial draft was nearly 200 pages long. The Standing Committee of the Sub-committee directly discussed it with each member and finally edited and summarized it into nearly 20 pages. When reporting to the Politburo of the 6th Party Congress, the Standing Committee member focused on presenting several options for the name of the Platform, evaluating the revolutionary process and lessons learned, presenting scientific arguments to identify each characteristic of the socialism that our people are building, the basic directions of the process of building socialism in our country, and major orientations on economic, cultural, social, defense, security, and foreign policy. After incorporating the opinions of the Politburo and the Central Committee, the Drafting Sub-committee completed the Draft Platform 91 to be submitted to the 7th Party Congress. The Seventh Party Congress discussed and voted on each issue and finally unanimously adopted this historic Platform – the Platform for building the country during the transitional period to socialism, which is a very distinctive development of our Party's theoretical thinking on socialism and Vietnam's path to socialism.
For nearly 40 years, Comrade Dao Duy Tung dedicated his efforts, intellect, and passion to writing numerous works of political theory with profound and lasting impact, as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong wrote: “In over 50 years of revolutionary activity, Comrade Dao Duy Tung spent more than 30 years working in ideological theory. This is a very difficult and complex field, but it is in this field that Comrade Dao Duy Tung made great contributions and left very positive and profound impressions. We, the younger generations, the students of Comrade Dao Duy Tung, have learned many good things from him. I have read his works such as: “The Revolutionary and Scientific Nature of Our Party,” “The Process of Forming the Path to Socialism in Vietnam,” “Some Issues Regarding Our Ideological Work”… these theoretical works are the result of a "The process of deeply summarizing the practical experiences of the Vietnamese revolution, especially the years when he served as Standing Member of the Politburo - Secretariat, accompanying General Secretary Do Muoi to many places, led to the discovery of many issues. I can say that he lived simply, spoke simply, and wrote simply, but his writing contained a high level of wisdom and a very profound perspective, full of affection for the nation and the country."
---------------
Note
1. Chronological History of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Volume 2. National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2008, Volume 2, p. 739