French resistance leader receives honour

HA NOI (VNS)— President Truong Tan Sang yesterday conferred the Ho Chi Minh Order to Raymond Aubrac, a French resistance leader during the Second World War, for his support to Viet Nam during past wars.

The order, Viet Nam's second highest, was received by Aubrac's daughter Elizabeth in Ha Noi.

In his talk to her, Sang recounted activities that her father participated in during his revolutionary life. Aubrac and his wife Lucie helped set up Liberation South, one of the first networks of the Resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

In 1946, Aubrac met Ho Chi Minh when the Vietnamese revolutionary leader came to France for peace negotiations at Fontainebleau and stayed in Aubrac's house. During the Viet Nam War, Aubrac served as an intermediary between Ho Chi Minh and Western leaders such as US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and joined a group of intellectuals and scientists working to end the war. Aubrac died on April 10, 2012 at age 97. — VNS