On 21 September, residents throughout the country hada shocking day as the news that President Tran Dai Quang passed away at the age of 62 was broadcast on air and online newswires.
The National Commission of Health Services for Officials announced that President Tran Dai Quang died of a serious illness. His official term was due to end in 2021.
The president was born in a rural commune in Ninh Binh Province, about 100km south of Hanoi, in 1956. He is described as a tough person by people in his hometown. One of his childhood friends said President Tran Dai Quang was born into a poor family and his father died early, but he fought strongly to grow up.
At the age of 16, he enrolled in the People’s Police Academy and later worked as a career policeman. He served as Deputy Minister of Public Security from 2006 to 2011, and Minister from 2011 to 2016.
He assumed office as the country’s President in 2016. The president was also a professor in security science.
As he was holding high-ranking positions, locals in his hometown said the president was still as a simple person as he had always been in their eyes. To staff in the president office, President Tran Dai Quang was a tough and confident person, said Tran Viet Thai, vice director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies.
The president signed a letter to Vietnamese children on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was in late September. He later went into a coma at around 5 p.m. in a hospital in the same day and never woke up.
This story is from the October - November 2018 edition of Vietnam Heritage.
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This story is from the October - November 2018 edition of Vietnam Heritage.
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