Bùi Bằng Đoàn

Bùi Bằng Đoàn (; Chữ Hán: 裴鵬摶; 11 September 1889 – 13 April 1955) was a Vietnamese politician. He led the League for the National Union of Vietnam (Hội Liên hiệp quốc dân Việt Nam/Liên Việt) 1946–1951 and was Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam.

Bùi Bằng Đoàn started his political career as a mandarin working for the Confucian bureaucracy of the Southern dynasty in Tonkin, starting his career in 1913 as a district magistrate working up to become minister of justice for Annam in 1933. Following the August Revolution the chairman of the Indochinese Communist Party Hồ Chí Minh invited him to become a special inspector in the newly established government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam where he would later be elected to become a member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on 6 January 1946.

Bùi Bằng Đoàn's son Bùi Tín, a senior Communist Party editor, defected to France in 1990.

Biography

Bùi Bằng Đoàn descended from a line of prominent mandarins, his father was a Tuần Vũ (high-ranking military mandarin) and his grandfather received the title of Thủ-Khoa in the imperial examination system during the reign of the Minh Mạng, Tiến-sĩ during the reign of Thiệu Trị, and was the Tổng Ðốc of Bắc Ninh province during the reign of Tự Đức with the rank of Thái-tử-Thiếu-bảo.

Career as a mandarin in the Southern dynasty

In 1907 Bùi Bằng Đoàn started his education at the Trường Hậu bổ in Hanoi and in 1911 he graduated with the highest grades in the school. In school it was clear that he was exceptionally intelligent with his strongest skill being mathematics (especially algebra), he was further quite adept in French.

Sino-Vietnamese Vietnamese translation English translation Khán thư sơn điểu thê song hãnPhê trát xuân hoa chiếu nghiễn trìTiệp báo tần lai lao dịch mãTư công tức cảnh tặng tân thi. Xem sách chim rừng vào cửa đậuPhê văn hoa núi chiếu nghiên soiTin vui thắng trận dồn chân ngựa Nhớ cụ thơ xuân tặng một bài. See the book of wild birds at the gateLiterature review of mountain flower mats and studiesThe good news of winning the horse-drawn battleRemember the old poet gave a song.

Bùi responded with the following poem:

Sino-Vietnamese Vietnamese translation English translation Thiết thạch nhất tâm phù chủng tộcGiang sơn vạn lý thủ thành trìTri công quốc sự vô dư hạThao bút nhưng thành thoái lỗ thi. Sắt đá một lòng vì chủng tộcNon sông muôn dặm giữ cơ đồBiết Người việc nước không hề rảnhVung bút thành thơ đuổi giặc thù. The whole iron heart backs the people rock-steadilyKeeping citadels of the thousand-miles countryKnowing you are not free cos of public affairs Swinging a pen into a poem to repel the enemy.

Honours and decorations