Vũ Kỳ (26 September 1921–16 April 2005) was the personal
secretary
A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...
to
Vietnamese leader
Ho Chi Minh. He was also a former member in the National Assembly and the former director of the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
Vũ Kỳ was born in 1921 at Thường Tín,
Hà Nội
Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
. Vũ Kỳ obtained the position of personal secretary on 28 August 1945 after Ho Chi Minh had declared independence from France during the
August Revolution, and remained until Ho Chi Minh 's death on 2 September 1969. Vũ Kỳ was born named Vũ Long Chuẩn and later renamed by Ho Chi Minh.
[Pierre Brocheux, Claire Duiker, ''Ho Chi Minh: a biography'', Cambridge University Press (2007), p.128]
In 1952, Vũ Kỳ was made a full member of the Hanoi Party Committee and was with Ho Chi Minh, serving as his personal secretary, every day until his death. Later in a 1988 interview with
National Geographic, Vũ Kỳ explained that in 1969, as Ho Chi Minh's health gradually become worse, Vũ Kỳ secretly sent three local Vietnamese doctors to the Soviet Union to learn the embalming technique (as with the case involving Soviet former leader
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
) for the preservation of Ho Chi Minh's body after death, but Ho was never informed about the plans because he would have "sqwashed" the idea.
In 1970, Vũ Kỳ was a member of the Steering Committee for the construction of the
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, and later in 1977, the Deputy Director of the
Ho Chi Minh Museum. From 1987 to 1990, Vũ Kỳ was the full Director of the Ho Chi Minh Museum as well as a member of the National Assembly from 1987 to 1992. At the dedication of the Ho Chi Minh Museum on 19 May 1990, the 100th anniversary on the birth of Ho Chi Minh, Vũ Kỳ resigned as Director of the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
Vũ Kỳ died in the early morning hours on 16 April 2005 at the Huu Nghi Hospital in Hanoi at age 83, and was buried in Mai Dich Cemetery.
References
External links
"Vũ Kỳ"Obituary at vietbao.vn.
1921 births
2005 deaths
{{Vietnam-bio-stub