The Vietnam Journalists Association is highlighting the special bond journalist Wilfred Burchett developed with late Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh during the war in Vietnam through photos taken by the Australian writer on display at an exhibition in Hanoi.

‘Wilfred Burchett – An Impression of Ho Chi Minh and Stories of A War Correspondent' kicked off at the Vietnam Journalists Association’s headquarters in the capital on Thursday.

The exhibition is being held in conjunction with a program of events celebrating the 129th birthday of late President Ho Chi Minh (May 19) organized by the Museum of Vietnamese Journalism.

Forty carefully selected photos and other rare pieces of Burchett’s work from his time in Vietnam, many never seen before, were donated to the exhibition by Burchett’s son, George.

The exhibition starts with images taken in 1954 when Burchett met Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's revolutionary hero and former president, in the jungles of northern Vietnam.

The encounter, as well as Burchett’s following reports on the historic Dien Bien Phu Battle, left a great impression on the Australian war correspondent and helped him forge a special bond with the Vietnamese leader.

Over the next few decades, Burchett traveled throughout Vietnam to report on the war while voicing his strong support for peace and the Vietnamese people via international platforms.

Burchett remained a loyal friend to Vietnam until his passing at 72 in 1983 due to cancer.

On the occasion of the ongoing exhibition in Hanoi, George Burchett donated copies of three books on the war in Vietnam published by his father in 1965, 1970, and 1978.

Writings by Wilfred Burchett during his trips to southern Vietnam between 1963 and 1966, as well as digital files of over 200 of his wartime photos, were also given to the Museum of Vietnamese Journalism.

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