Fact Check: Top Vietnamese Leader Falsely Claimed as Sam Sary in Cambodia

Major national elections are approaching in the next two years while criticism and political verbal attacks are also becoming a topic of debate between supporters actively sharing on social media. Meanwhile, one of the two photos showing former top leaders of Vietnam including Ho Chi Minh was posted recently on a social media platform. This photo was circled and mentioned he was “Sam Sary”, Sam Rainsy’s father. This post was reacted with mixed comments and shared by Cambodian Facebook users. However, after running a Google Reverse Image search, it proves that the claim attached with the photo above is false. 

This is about our investigation of this claim.

Social Media Claim

On September 1, 2021, one of the Facebook users  posted two photos into the Facebook group called in Khmer or translates in English as “Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen”, which one of them shows a group photo of Vietnamese leaders along with claim mentioning he was Sam Sary. Sam Sary is widely known to be the father of Sam Rainsy, he also served as Deputy Prime Minister and General Khmer Ambassador to the United Kingdom as well during his time.

This photo was shared with mixed reactions from many Khmer-speaking users on Facebook recently. Below is a snapshot captured from the user’s post showing a group photo of the Vietnamese top leaders which claimed to be Sam Sary; Sam Rainsy’s father.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

Fact Check

Fact Crescendo Cambodia had started to check and verify this photo directly by running a Google Reverse Image search, which brought us to the sources containing the following photos.

Vietnamese local news website, VOV News published a report with this viral photo on February 7, 2017 . This report also confirmed the names and titles of the four top Vietnamese leaders as well on its website.

An image from the VOV News website, which describes in Vietnamese as “Tổng bí thư Trường Chinh trở thành cộng sự, người học trò gần gũi của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh  và được xem là nhà lãnh đạo kiệt xuất trong những bước ngoặt của cách mạng Việt Nam. Trong ảnh, từ phải sang trái: Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh, Chủ nhiệm Tổng cục  Chính trị Nguyễn Chí Thanh, Tổng Bí thư Trường Chinh,  Phó Thủ tướng Phạm Văn Đồng tại Việt Bắc. (Ảnh tư liệu)” or translates into English via Google Translate which means “General Secretary Truong Chinh became an associate, a close student of President Ho Chi Minh and is considered an outstanding leader in the turning points of the Vietnamese revolution. In the photo, from right to left: President Ho Chi Minh, Chairman of the General Department of Politics Nguyen Chi Thanh, General Secretary Truong Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in Viet Bac. (Documentary photo)”.

VOV News Report | Archived Link 

On March 22, 2014, another Vietnamese website, Viet Info, also published this photo of Vietnam’s top leaders taking group photos in 1952. The same report did not confirm that it was Sam Sary at all. An screenshot captured from the above website that reads in Vietnamese as “Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh và các đ/c Phạm Văn Đồng, Trường Chinh, Nguyễn Chí Thanh, Lê Văn Lương làm việc với đại sứ Trung Quốc và” or translates into English via Google Translate which means “President Ho Chi Minh and Mr. Pham Van Dong, Truong Chin, Nguyen Chi Thanh, Le Van Luong while taking a photo with the Chinese ambassador”. 

Viet Info Link | Archived Link

According to the website of the National University of Vietnam that has posted a photo in the exact photo on its page mentioned that “From right to left: President Ho Chi Minh, Chairman of the General Department of Politics Nguyen Chi Thanh, General Secretary Truong Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in Viet Bac”. This shows that all the people depicted in the photo were all Vietnamese leaders, not Sam Sary as claimed above by the users.

Vietnam National University Link | Archived Link

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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo Cambodia has found that the photo attached with the above claim linking the top Vietnamese leaders as Mr. Sam Sary is false. This photo is not a photo of Sam Rainsy’s father.​ This photo actually was (from right to left) President Ho Chi Minh, Chairman of the General Department of Politics Nguyen Chi Thanh, General Secretary Truong Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong in Viet Bac, 1952.