On February 8, in a small cozy house on Phan Van Tri Street in District 5 of Ho Chi Minh City, a solemn memorial service for the death of Scholar Tran Buu Kiem was held. This is the house he used to live when fighting for the peace of his country.
Tran Buu Kiem (nicknamed Chin An) was born in 1920 in Thoi Long Commune of O Mon District in formerly Can Tho Province. Leaving his hometown, young Tran Buu Kiem came to Saigon to study in the famous Pétrus Ky High School, and then in the Law University in Hanoi in 1942. There, he and his classmates actively took part in patriotic activities like giving presentations about the proud history of Vietnam with series of combats against invasions.
Having experienced many imprisonment times, Tran Buu Kiem returned to the South to take charge of the secret propaganda work of the Viet Minh. After the success of the August Revolution, he became a propaganda officer of Southern Interim Administrative Committee, responsible for newspaper development, publication, and management.
In 1948, he was the Vice Head of the Southern soldier-administrative officer-citizen delegation going to Viet Bac to report the current status and ask for more aid.
In December 1960, when the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLFoSV) was formed, Tran Buu Kiem was appointed the President of the Student Union for the Liberation of South Vietnam, in charge of propaganda tasks and radio programs, bulletin notices in English and French.
After the reunification of the country, he was elected as a Member of the 6th and 7th National Assembly as well as a member in the Committee for the Constitution Drafting of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
His comrade Kieu Xuan Long – Head of the Liaison Board of the Saigon-Gia Dinh Intellectual Resources Mobilization Board – commented that Tran Buu Kiem was a true Southern scholar, who was passionate, kind-hearted in his patriotic fights and never refused any given task no matter how challenging they were.
Thanks to his hard-working characteristic and intelligence, he was trusted by Uncle Ho in many critical missions, including foreign affairs tasks and radio programs in foreign languages of Liberation Radio, which were cited by several international news agencies at that time.
Due to old age and fragile physical health, he drew his last breath on January 28, 2022 in France at the age of 102. The memorial service for his death was held from 9am February 8 to 5pm February 10 at his private house at the address of 446 Phan Van Tri Street in District 5 of HCMC.
