The Party and State celebrated the 100^th birth anniversary of late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in Hanoi on February 28. He was a staunch communist and an excellent student of President Ho Chi Minh.

Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said during his 75 years of involvement in revolutionary activities, the late PM identified himself with the historical periods of the Vietnamese Party and Revolution. He was absolutely loyal to the Party and thoroughly dutiful to people.

While the country is accelerating preparations for the 10^th National Party Congress, the noble life of late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong sets a practical example of a personality with a heart dedicated to the country, and people and a deep sympathy for all types of people.

He was an exemplary model and we should learn from his iron-will to combat negative phenomena such as corruption, wastefulness and bureaucracy, and his sincerity, self-criticism and simple and transparent lifestyle, Mr Khai stressed.

Mr Dong was a Party Central Committee’s member for 41 years, a Poliburo’s member for 35 years, Prime Minister and President of Council of Ministers for 32 years and an advisor to the Central Party Committee for 10 years.

At the meeting, participants highlighted the revolutionary work of late PM Dong and confirmed that he fought loyally throughout his life for national independence, socialism and people’s happiness. He was an excellent student of late President Ho Chi Minh, an exemplary Party and State leader, an educationalist and a great cultural activist of the nation and a gifted and prestigious global diplomat.

Pham Van Dong was born in 1906 in Duc Tan Village, Mo Duc District of central coastal Quang Ngai province. He began his revolutionary activities in the student patriotic movement when he was 18. Two years later, in 1926, he participated in a training course held by Nguyen Ai Quoc, who later became President Ho Chi Minh, in Guangzhou Province, southern China, and was admitted to the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association.

He returned to his base, Sai Gon, now Ho Chi Minh City, after attending the Youth Association Congress in Hong Kong, and soon after was arrested by the French for his revolutionary activities and sent to the Con Dao (Poulo Condo) Prison Islands off the southern coast for 10 years.
Freed in 1936, Mr Dong travelled to Hanoi and in 1940 was admitted to the Communist Party of Indochina.

He held the highest distinction awarded by both the Party and the State – Gold Star Order.