Ambassador visits Vietnam's French friend Madeleine Riffaud

Riffaud recalled her deep memories of Vietnam, a country she always loves. At the age of 99, despite her poor health, she still clearly remembers the times she met General Vo Nguyen Giap and extended her regards to her Vietnamese friend Nguyen Thi Binh.

She said she does not forget the images of the American bombings which devastated the North of Vietnam. For her, Vietnam always remains in her memories and her love for this distant country is always intact, never changes.

Ambassador Thang briefed Riffaud on the recent activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and 10 years of strategic partnership between Vietnam and France and affirmed its significant contribution to these relations. On this occasion, he presented the French friend with a souvenir with the logo of 50 years of Vietnam-France relations.

Jean-David Morvan, who takes care of Riffaud and is always at her side, presented to the ambassador the memories she brought back from Riffaud's visits to Vietnam, including the posters “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”, to the Order of Friendship, pages of the Tet newspaper of Courrier du Vietnam, and the popular prints of Dong Ho. According to Morvan, all these memories are always cherished and respected by Riffaud.

Born on August 23, 1924 in Paris, the young French Madeleine Riffaud joined the French Resistance front at the age of 18 under the pseudonym Rainer. She fought bravely against the Nazis during World War II. As a war correspondent for the newspaper l'Humanité which speaks for the French Communist Party, she was directly present in the anti-American war in Vietnam.

Her articles on the life and courageous struggles of the Vietnamese people in this war were published in France, attracting many peace-loving readers. It has always supported the Vietnamese people in the national liberation struggle in the past as well as in the work of building the country today.

Recognising Madeleine Riffaud's great contributions, the Government of Vietnam awarded her the Order of Resistance, first class in 1984, and the Order of Friendship in 2004.