Bulletins Friendship and cooperration
She is a woman who dedicated her entire life to the Revolution and managed to overcome countless hardships and challenges to fulfill her missions. This resilient woman, a Heroic Mother, from the South of Central Vietnam still felt her revolutionary career unaccomplished even at the last moments of her life because she had been filled with love for the people.
Her name is Nguyen Thi Thap. On the occasion of the 113th anniversary of International Women's Day (8/3/1910 - 8/3/2023), the "Friendship & Cooperation" bulletin would like to introduce to readers this woman with her significant contributions to Vietnam’s revolution.
Nguyen Thi Thap was born Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tot in 1908, into a low-income farmer’s family in Long Hung commune, Chau Thanh district, Tien Giang province. She joined the uprising in 1929, and in 1931 she earned the pride of joining the Communist Party of Vietnam. After that, she left her home to be engaged in the revolutionary movement, and established bases in My Tho, Tan An, Ben Tre, and Saigon.
She was chosen to serve on the Nam Ky Provincial Party Committee in April 1935. However she was taken into custody and given a prison sentence by the French adversary in May of that year. She returned covertly to her hometown after she had served the sentence in order to resume her revolutionary activity. As an organizer of the farmers' protest against taxes in Long Hung commune in December 1938, Nguyen Thi Thap was detained by the French again, but this time she was saved by the population of Long Hung and Long Dinh. When the Nam Ky uprising started in 1940, even though she was about to give birth, Ms Thap tried her hardest to encourage the populace to raise flags and banners and attack Tam Hiep station. Unfortunately, her spouse, a communist soldier, who had been held captive by the enemy on Con Dao Island since 1930, was executed in the wake of the failure of the revolt. Nguyen Thi Thap had to leave her children to a caregiver so that she could further work covertly with the remaining party members to rebuild the revolutionary base.
In 1954, after many years of separation, Nguyen Thi Thap was finally reunited with her children. However, losses fell on her soon after. In May 1954, her eldest son, an inter-commune military commander for Long Hung and Long Hoa villages, bravely sacrificed himself in a battle against the enemy. Her second son was dispatched to Germany to study cinematography. Soon after returning home, he volunteered to go to the battlefield in the Southeast region and also bravely fell down just in his homeland, like his father and elder brother. Their entire lives were dedicated to the revolutionary struggle for the sake of their nation. In her memoir "Through the Journeys," Nguyen Thi Thap wrote: "In the tight fight against the most brutal and barbaric enemy in the world, the US Imperialism, there would be no family in our country that would not have suffered losses and sacrifices to protect their life and gain national independence and reunification. My family was also one of such cases."
During the 9 years of resistance against French invasion, Nguyen Thi Thap was appointed by the Party as Secretary of the Women's Union in the South and then the President of the Women's Association in the South. Regrouped to the North (1954), she was elected as the Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women's Union during the national resistance against US invasion (1956-1974). In her position, Nguyen Thi Thap always paid attention to nurturing and training female cadres and built a competent and experienced pool of cadres to lead major women’s movements, notably the "Three responsibilities" movement. Launched by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, it gathered women from all walks of life in both urban and rural areas to actively participate, ensuring that the front in the South had enough food and military forces. The "Three responsibilities" movement, along with the "Three readinesses" movement of the youth, established a solid foundation for the large Northern rear in providing support to the front lines in the South.
Nguyen Thi Thap was also entrusted with other important positions by the Party and the State, such as the Secretary of the Women's Union and Head of the Central Party's Women's Affairs Committee, Member of the Party Central Committee (from the second to the fourth tenures), elected to the National Assembly (from the first to the sixth tenures), and held the position of Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly (from the second to the sixth tenures). She was awarded the highest national honor, the Golden Star Medal, and was bestowed the honorary title of "Vietnamese Heroic Mother" by the State. After the great victory of Spring in 1975, she took up the task of compiling the history of the Vietnam Women's movement before retiring to the South.
For nearly 60 years of participation in the revolution and holding many responsibilities, Nguyen Thi Thap had overcome all difficulties, challenges, and even personal tragedies to fulfill all the tasks assigned by the Party, State and people. Her life and contributions have enriched the glorious tradition of the Vietnam Women's Union and Vietnamese women in general.
Uyen Nhi