This is the talk given by Prof. Le Dung Trang (Professor Emeritus, Aix-Marseilles University) at the opening ceremony of VMS-SMF joint congress, Hue August 20-24, 2012.
The history of the link between the French Mathematics and Vietnam goes back to the time Professor Lê Van Thiém studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. It was during the second World War. He passed his thesis in Göttingen a few days before it fell in the hands of the American Army.
During many years the northern part of Vietnam was isolated from the World.
Laurent Schwartz, Professor at Ecole Polytechnique, a Fields medalist (considered to be a Nobel Prize in mathematics), founded the organization “Comités France-Vietnam” in 1966 and, then, joined the Tribune of Bertrand Russell for crimes against humanity of the American War in Vietnam. But, only in 1967 did a mathematician, Alexander Grothendieck, also a Fields medalist, visit Vietnam for the first time. Laurent Schwartz visited Vietnam in 1968. However, it was more as member of the Russell’s Tribune than as a mathematician. In 1969 Laurent Schwartz arranged that Nguyen Dinh Tri, a professor in the Polytechnique school in engineering of Hanoi, could visit Japan from Vietnam to attend a Mathematical meeting. Professeur André Martineau, a former student of Laurent Schwartz, who unfortunately passed away in 1972, came in 1970. Professor Bui Trong Lieu, a Vietnamese mathematician living in France, visited Vietnam in 1970. He organized my visit in 1972. So until then, nearly no one in mathematics visited Vietnam. One of the main reason is that Vietnam was continuously at war between 1945 and 1975.
In spite of the danger of the war a man stood at the side of Professor Lê Van Thiêm to develop Mathematics. Minister Ta Quang Buu studied in France before the second World War. He told me that he was supposed to study at the Sorbonne, but in order to make things difficult to the French masters he decided to pass a free Licence, studying some mathematics, physics, literature, English. By this way he understood the value of science and the meaning of mathematics. At some point he was private secretary of President Ho Chi Minh, then vice-Minister of Defence. In 1954 he signed the Geneva Peace Agreement after Dien Bien Phu. When I met him, he was Minister of Higher Education. In the Vietnamese government he was the one who immediately understood the potential of mathematics in Vietnam.
Prof. Le Dung Trang giving his talk at VMS-SMF Joint Congress.
He knew who Grothendieck was. In those days no politician in the World would know who a mathematician like Grothendieck would be. It is rather surprising that Ta Quang Buu knew of him and of his mathematics. He organized the travel of Grothendieck, although the bombings were fierce and the universities had to hold their classes in the mountains north of Hanoi. A young female mathematician, Ms Hoang Xuân Sinh, answered a problem conjectured by Grothendieck during his course and a few years later passed her thesis under his supervision. Later in october 1974 Ta Quang Buu helped me organize a school with Bernard Malgrange, Alain Chenciner and Frédéric Pham. For the occasion he wrote a long article on the theory of Catastrophies in the Party newspaper Nhân Dân. He welcomed the visits of Yvette Amice who was once President of the SMF, Jean-Louis Verdier, another President of the SMF, Pierre Cartier, who later visited Vietnam several times, Dacunha-Castelle, who introduced Probability and Statistics in Vietnam. In relation with Japan he also organized the visit of Kyoji Saito who was in those days one of my best Japanese friend.
Nowadays all this seems an easy achievement. Young people have to understand that until the end of the 80’s Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the World. When I came in 1972, there were less than 30 mathematicians in Mathematics in North Vietnam. The most distinguished then were Professor Lê Van Thiêm, Professor Hoang Tuy and Professor Phan Dinh Diêu. The mathematical institute was a small room in the State Science Committee in Hanoi. The seminars happened in one of the universities of Hanoi. Obtaining a Visa was a continuous battle with the authorities. Arriving to Hanoi by plane or by train was difficult. I do not remember if Malgrange, Chenciner or Pham went through Bangkok or Vientiane. I personally came by train in 1972 through Siberia and China. The following years I travelled by propeller plane through Moscow or Berlin. It was taking 37 hours.
Anything which looks now obvious or easy was then extremely difficult. To arrange the timing between the visas, the arrival of the mathematicians, the reserving of a hotel room, the disponibility of an audience, the room for the lectures, the transportation, the sightseeing, all this was an endless source of difficulties. I remember that it was hidden to Grothendieck that, after his visit (he lectured around 70 hours in three weeks in the mountains) the mathematics library lost more than a hundred books in a flood.
Well, memories still flow in my head and I could endlessly speak about these earlier years. I have just chosen to tell them to-day so that younger generations do not forget all the efforts that were put in developing mathematics in Vietnam and remember the names of Lê Van Thiêm and Ta Quang Buu.
To end my talk, let me give you a vivid memory that I have of this early times.
It was during my first visit in 1972. In those days Tran Quynh was the Head of the Science State Committee. He was not really a scientist, but he was a practical man and wanted good reasons to develop these relations with the outside World. I had a private meeting with him during half an hour. Then he asked me abruptly: “Tráng, what do you want to do in Vietnam?”. I did not know what to answer, because I did not think of any diplomatic answer, as I should have done politely. I had to show that I did not hesitate. I remembered that my whole brain was concentrating to give a proper answer. Then, I answered: “I wish that Vietnam in 25 years can have someone receiving the Fields Medal, the award that mathematicians consider as their Nobel Prize.” I am very sorry I made a mistake of 13 years.
Lê Dung Tráng, Professor Emeritus
Aix-Marseilles University
Editor: N.T.