In the process of developing revolutionary journalism, President Ho's valuable lessons on journalism still hold value for today's and tomorrow's generations of journalists...
In the field of journalism, President Ho Chi Minh was the founder of the Vietnamese revolutionary press - a press considered to be the press of the future, in the context of our country's press before 1945 operating in a colonial environment. He was also the first revolutionary journalist, his journalistic activities not only began with the birth of revolutionary journalism with Thanh Nien newspaper (1925), but before that, when he was in France, he wrote for Le Paria, Humanité... as a communist of the Communist International. He was not only an excellent journalist with a highly combative and colorful political style, rich in reality and cultural depth, but also a talented journalist, with a talented art of propaganda.
The Vietnamese revolutionary press in the period 1925-1945 had two newspapers born at two different times, playing an important role for the Vietnamese revolution in the cause of national liberation, both newspapers were founded and directly directed by Nguyen Ai Quoc. They were Thanh Nien, published in 1925 and Viet Nam Doc Lap, published in 1941. Although these two newspapers were born nearly 16 years apart, they had many interesting coincidences.
Thanh Nien Newspaper – the origin of revolutionary journalism…
In the early 20s of the 20th century, the second colonial exploitation policy of French colonialism towards our country on a large scale and in depth caused a deep division in Vietnamese society. Many classes were formed and developed, with conflicts at different levels of political and economic interests, in which the working class was exploited the most heavily, but it was the class that developed rapidly in quantity and quality. They not only recognized the vicious nature of French capitalism but also became aware of their role towards the nation and the country. Many patriotic youths crossed the border to Guangzhou, China to welcome new ideas to participate in the world revolution. Some young people such as Ho Tung Mau, Le Hong Son, Le Hong Phong... stood up to establish the Tam Tam Xa group with the purpose of "uniting everyone, getting collective opinions, courageously moving forward, bringing back to everyone the human rights that were robbed and seeking happiness for the nation". The Sa Dien bomb of young Pham Hong Thai aimed at the evil Governor-General of Indochina, Merlin, signaled the beginning of a new phase of the struggle.
At this time, Nguyen Ai Quoc was in the Soviet Union. In that situation, the Communist International immediately sent him to the revolutionary base in Guangzhou (China) to directly lead. In June 1925, he selected a group of young soldiers in the Tam Tam Xa organization to establish a revolutionary organization with Marxist tendencies. That was the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association. Following Nguyen Ai Quoc's initiative, the General Department of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association published the Thanh Nien newspaper, as an agency to propagate the Association's guidelines, goals and action programs. On June 21, 1925, issue 1 of Thanh Nien newspaper was published, and this day is considered the birth day of the Vietnamese revolutionary press. Thanh Nien was the first revolutionary newspaper because it was the voice of a proletarian revolutionary organization, founded by a communist fighter of the proletariat class, and another important thing was that the Vietnamese revolutionary press began to operate according to Lenin's viewpoint on press activities: "The press is a collective propagandist, collective agitator and collective organizer.
During the early period of the newspaper, Nguyen Ai Quoc was also the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, directly directing and writing important articles, in addition to editing articles and drawing illustrations. The main content of Thanh Nien newspaper focused on a number of basic points: "Deepening the people's hatred for the invaders; studying domestic and world history on how to bring the Vietnamese revolution to complete victory; propagating Marxism-Leninism, gathering forces and building organizations to establish a political party with enough strength to lead the masses in revolution", and 5 years later (1930) that became a reality.
Under the leadership of Nguyen Ai Quoc, Thanh Nien newspaper introduced to our people a revolutionary path, a revolutionary method and a new type of revolutionary person. The newspaper equipped us with a new philosophical way of thinking. A new world view and outlook on life began to penetrate Vietnam. The newspaper actively promoted a new revolutionary path, which was the combination of Marxism-Leninism with the workers' movement and the Vietnamese patriotic movement.
…to the newspaper Vietnam Independence – “knowing things, knowing how to unite to fight the French, fight the Japanese”
16 years later, after the French colonialists were defeated and lost in their motherland, the Japanese fascists invaded Indochina and, together with the French, exploited our people to the bone. At that time, Nguyen Ai Quoc was in South China, trying to contact the Party Central Committee to prepare conditions to return home to directly lead the revolution. In the spring of 1941, after 30 years of wandering abroad, he and a number of secret party members returned to their beloved Fatherland, which was bleeding day and night under the trampling of the fascist imperialists.
It must also be said that during the years of World War II, the political and social context of our country was extremely complicated, with many different political and ideological trends and cultural activities. However, the Indochinese Communist Party still saw the path of the Vietnamese revolution in the dark night - a path full of challenges and opportunities. That revolutionary path was proposed by the 6th Central Party Conference (November 1939), the 7th Conference (November 1940) and was affirmed in the 8th Central Party Conference (May 1941) chaired by Nguyen Ai Quoc, and set forth the immediate task of the entire Party to prepare to lead the "armed uprising to gain freedom and independence", in which the task of national liberation was placed first. He initiated the establishment of the Vietnam Independence League, abbreviated asViet Minhand planned a partial uprising, leading to a General Uprising. More than two months later, on August 1, 1941, he founded the newspaper Vietnam Doc Lap, as the propaganda agency of the Viet Minh in Cao Bang province. The newspaper's purpose was clearly stated in the first issue: "The purpose is to make our people stop being ignorant and cowardly, know how to do things, know how to unite, to fight the French and the Japanese for Vietnam to be independent and free.
Like Thanh Nien newspaper, in the first thirty issues of the Vietnam Independence newspaper, Nguyen Ai Quoc was directly in charge of writing, editing, and illustrating.
Articles in the Independent Vietnam newspaper, regardless of their form, were aimed at calling for national unity and efforts to consolidate and build armed forces for the Viet Minh Front. The newspaper focused on propagating revolutionary awareness to the masses, denouncing the crimes of the invading enemy, exposing all their brutal plots, deepening the people's hatred of the enemy, and setting examples and lessons of solidarity, unity, and joint efforts to do great things. The newspaper also provided guidance on the organization and direction of activities of the organizations in the Viet Minh Front, according to the goals and policies set forth by the Party.
The art of propaganda
As mentioned above, the two newspapers were born at two extremely important moments of the Vietnamese revolution and were both founded, directed and directly worked on by Nguyen Ai Quoc in the early stages. Both newspapers were published secretly, written with a steel pen, and printed in a rudimentary manner. Moreover, the propaganda art of both newspapers was imbued with his style.
First of all, the art of propaganda is clearly shown in the language style. It is a concise, simple, easy-to-understand writing style imbued with national character but very modern, with the power to influence and persuade readers, especially the revolutionary masses. He often uses specific numbers and events to illustrate, thereby generalizing the problem, so the article not only has high theoretical and political value but also has the value of authentic information. Denouncing the brutal exploitation of French colonialism, in Thanh Nien newspaper, he wrote:“In 1925, the French took away 1,319,648,916 kg of rice from us, and the export tax alone was 4,609,933 dong 84 xu.”The caller: “Fellow countrymen! Freedom is a gift from God. Those who are not free would rather die. Wake up, wake up, break the cage that the West has locked you up in..” Denouncing Japan and calling for solidarity, the newspaper Vietnam Independence wrote: “Our people were exploited by the French no less than the Japanese exploited the Korean people. Now they are being exploited by the Japanese again. How can we live under two yokes? If we want to live, we must quickly unite and fight to expel the French and Japanese to gain independence and freedom.”. The propaganda of Marxism-Leninism and the revolutionary proletariat's guidelines and policies were thoroughly explained by Thanh Nien newspaper: “To make a revolution is to transform evil into good, it is the sum of actions by which an oppressed people becomes strong. Revolution must go through two periods, destruction and construction.
The art of propaganda is also demonstrated in the fact that these two newspapers have used many types of journalism such as news, articles reflecting, commenting, editorials on domestic and international issues. In particular, many forms have been used to convey propaganda content effectively such as rhymes, poems, and illustrations. This is vividly demonstrated in the Vietnam Independent newspaper. Each issue usually has two rhyming sentences as the title for the propaganda content of the issue, such as the first issue, number 101:Many things cover the mirror, People in the same country must love each other; or number 105:Viet Minh is the root of the movement. If you want to be liberated, you must join Viet Minh. …Illustrations were also a method that these two newspapers often used. In Thanh Nien newspaper, he drew a picture criticizing the compromises with France in the policy of national reform. The picture depicted two people: a Frenchman holding a stick and beating a Vietnamese man in a turban and ao dai, one hand scratching his ear, the other hand holding out a piece of paper with the Chinese characters “Phap Viet De Hue”. In the section “Vuon van” of the Independent Vietnamese newspaper, there were illustrations of “big stone”, “Everyone reads Independent Vietnamese newspaper”… or expressed in long poems such as: “Dan cao”, “Ca binh linh”, “Con fox va to ong”… to call on everyone to join hands and hearts to make a revolution.
Over the past 90 years, the contributions of the two newspapers Thanh Nien and Viet Nam Doc Lap to the revolutionary cause of the nation have been recorded in history. In the process of developing revolutionary journalism, the valuable lessons on journalism taught by President Ho Chi Minh still hold value for the generations of journalists today and tomorrow.