Prof. Dr. Yang Dao at the meeting with Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính in the US. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prof. Yang Dao, a Mông man who has lived in the US for years, got a chance to meet President Hồ Chí Minh in Việt Nam when he was a child and has never forgotten the experience.

Yang Dao was around five years old and lived with his family in Mèo Vạc District in the northern mountainous province of Hà Giang. His family was honoured to welcome Uncle Hồ and a group of Việt Minh (Vietnam Independence League) to visit his family.

Since then, the beloved President's simplicity and closeness have always been on his mind.

Later, when he grew up, Yang Dao understood more about the valuable things in President Hồ's life and the cause of national liberation.

Speaking at the meeting with Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính, who is on a working trip in the US, and representatives of the Vietnamese community on the East Coast on May 14, Yang Dao said he was impressed by the late President's ideology of solidarity among ethnic groups.

The professor repeated Uncle Hồ's saying, in which he used the image of many beautiful flowers in a garden to imply the diversification of many ethnic groups living together in Việt Nam.

He also expressed emotion when recalling the first time he visited Uncle Hồ's Mausoleum. Like other overseas Vietnamese people living far from the country, he said he hoped to have the opportunity to return every year and revisit Uncle Hồ's Mausoleum.

Yang Dao was the first Mông person to receive a PhD in social sciences at the Sorbonne University of France. He then moved to the US state of Minnesota and lectured there until his retirement.

He has continuously contributed to uniting the Mông and the Vietnamese community to promote national cultural identity and connect people with the homeland.

About 350,000 Mông people live in the US, of which many are professors, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, parliamentarians and judges. — VNS