President Ho Chi Minh’s call for patriotic emulation lives on

President Ho Chi Minh and delegates to the congress held to honour role models in patriotic emulation movements in the Viet Bac region (May 1-6, 1952). (Photo: VNA)

President Ho Chi Minh meets individuals in the agricultural sector who demonstrated their dedication to promoting the patriotic emulation for the nation’s development and prosperity in Hanoi on May 23, 1957. (Photo: VNA)

Standout students from Trung Vuong School in Hanoi congratulate President Ho Chi Minh on his birthday (May 19) in 1958. (Photo: VNA)

President Ho Chi Minh, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and a delegation of heroes and heroines of the People’s Armed Forces for the liberation of the south in the Presidential Palace’s mango garden on November 15, 1965. (Photo: VNA)

President Ho Chi Minh meets standout individuals in the patriotic emulation movements at the Presidential Palace on May 6, 1962. (Photo: VNA)

President Ho Chi Minh speaks at the 4th National Patriotic Emulation Congress in Hanoi in December 1966. (Photo: VNA)

In the spring of 1948, the country was struggling as it waged its resistance war against the French. To encourage the entire nation to contribute to the war, President Ho Chi Minh made an appeal for patriotic work emulation on June 11, 1948. (Photo: VNA)

Opening the appeal, he wrote: “The purpose of patriotic work emulation is to eliminate poverty and hunger and illiteracy and foreign aggressors. It means our entire people have enough rice to eat and clothing to wear. The entire population will know how to read and write. The soldiers will have enough food and weapons to defeat the foreign aggressors. These are aimed at uniting the entire nation. Thus, we will have an independent nation, free civil rights, and welfare for the people.”

Seventy years have passed, but the appeal he made in June 1948 remains valuable even in peacetime. (Photo: VNA)