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September
2,1945
Hanoi was bedecked
with red bunting. A sea of flags, lanterns and flowers. Fluttering red
flags adorned the roofs, the trees and the lakes. Streamers were hung
across streets and roads, bearing slogans in Vietnamese, French, English,
Chinese and Russian: "Vietnam for the Vietnamese", "Down
with French Colonialism", "Independence or Death",
"Support the Provisional Government", "Support President Ho
Chi Minh", "Welcome to the Allied Mission."
Factories and shops, big
and small, were closed down. Markets were deserted. All trade and
industrial activities in the city were suspended. The whole city, old and
young, men and women, took to the streets. Everyone felt that they should
attend the first great festival of the nation.
Multi-colored streams of
people flowed to Ba Něnh Square from all directions. Workers in white
shirts and blue trousers came in ranks, full of strength and confidence.
Ordinary working people arrived at the festival with the dignified bearing
of people who were masters of their own country and their own destinies.
Hundreds of thousands of
peasants came in from the city suburbs. People’s militiamen carried
quarter staffs, swords or scimitars. Some even carried old-style bronze
clubs and long-handles swords taken from the armories of temples. Among
the women peasants in their festive dresses, some were clad in
old-fashioned robes, yellow turbans and bright-green sashes. Never before
had peasants from the poor villages around Hanoi walked into the city
with such pride.
Old men wore solemn faces
while young girls were radiant in their colorful dresses. Most lively
were the children. From this day on, they were the young masters of an
independent country. They marched in step with the whistle blows of their
leaders, singing Revolutionary songs.
Buddhist bonzes and
Catholic priests also left their monasteries to attend the great National
Festival.
The autumn sun was shining
brightly the day when Ba Něnh Square made history. The guard of honor stood at attention around the newly-erected rostrum. The Liberation Army
fighters, who had followed Military Order No.1 of the Insurrection
Committee a few days earlier, to march south and "attack the
important towns and cities held by the enemy", were now standing side
by side with the self-defense units of the workers, youth and laboring people of the capital to defend the Provisional Government.
After long years of exile
and wandering in the world, sentenced to death by the French imperialists,
subjected to all sorts of privations and hardships in dozens of jails,
Uncle Ho was now back and making his first appearance before a million
countrymen. Not long before, this had been only a dream.
The name
Ho Chi Minh was
soon to be known all over the world and surrounded with the legendary
anecdotes which often accompany great men. But on that day, his name was
still unfamiliar to his people. Few of them knew that he was Nguyen Aui
Quoac.
Our great leader, now
President Ho Chi Minh, the head of the Provisional Government of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam appeared for the first time before his
people – a thin old man with a broad forehead, bright eyes and a sparse
beard, wearing an old hat, a high-collared khaki jacket and white rubber
sandals. A couple of days before, the problem had arisen as to what he
should wear for the occasion. He eventually chose the khaki suit. During
the next 24 years as President, on great national days as well as on
visits to foreign countries, he always appeared in this simple, unchanging
outfit: a plain suit, without any decorations, as on that occasion when he
first stood before his people.
He had a lively gait, which
surprised some people. They did not find in the President the stately
bearing of high-born people. His voice carried the accent of his rural
area in central Nghe An Province.
His speech was quiet, warm,
articulate and clear. There was none of the eloquence so often heard on
solemn occasions. But its very simplicity suggested deep feelings and
determination. Everything he said was full of vitality; every sentence,
every word went straight to people’s hearts.
In the middle of the
Declaration of Independence, Uncle Ho stopped and asked suddenly,
"Do you hear me clearly, fellow-countrymen?"
The million voices
thundered: "Yes... !"
From that moment on, he and
the sea of people were merged into one.
That was the Declaration of
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which had just won back
independence after a national struggle lasting 80 years. It was also the
heartfelt and touching declaration of the most conscious vanguard of the
most revolutionary class, many of whom, absolutely loyal to the interests
of the class and the nation, had fearlessly faced the guillotine or the
firing squad shouting: "Long live the independence of Vietnam" while they tore away their black blindfolds.
The ceremony concluded with
the Oath of Independence:
"We, the entire
Vietnamese people, swear to give resolute and wholehearted support to the
Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and
President Ho Chi Minh.
"We swear to join the
Government in safeguarding the full independence of the Fatherland, to
oppose any scheme of aggression, even at the cost of our lives.
"If the French should
invade our country once more, we swear that we will neither serve in their
army, work for them, sell them food nor act as guides for them."
People took the oath with
once voice – a voice which expressed the resolve of the whole people to
carry out what President Ho had just read in the conclusion of the
Declaration:
"Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence and has
in fact become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese
people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength,
to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their freedom
and independence."
The
Indictment of French Colonization had been written 30 years before. But only now was the
French colonial regime being brought to public trial by the entire
Vietnamese people.
A new chapter of history
had been turned. A new era had begun: one of Independence, Freedom and
Happiness.
The map of the world would
have to be redrawn for a new State had been born: the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam.
Together with the general
uprising which had taken place during the later part of August,
Independence Day, September 2nd, were days of extremely great significance
in the nation’s political and spiritual life.
President
Ho’s concern
of 30 years before – "Poor Indochina! You will perish if your
senile youth do not come back to life soon" – weighed no longer on
his mind. The whole nation had come back to life.
Independence and freedom
had come to every citizen. Everyone could realize their sacred value and
knew his responsibility to defend them. Difficulties lay ahead. But for
the imperialists who wanted to restore their lost paradise, things would
not be so easy either.
September
3, 1945
On the morning of September
3, the day following the presentation ceremony, the Provisional Government
met for the first time.
The meeting was at the
residence of the former French Resident Superior for Tonkin, an
impressive building with a green-painted iron fence. On this occasion, the
gate under the archway stood wide open to welcome the people’s
representatives. Two weeks earlier, the people of Hanoi, up in arms,
had crowded in front of it; despite the guards’ guns, an old worker had
clambered over the fence and onto the roof, pulled down the three-striped
puppet flag and hoisted the Golden Star on a red field of the revolution.
The conference room on the
first floor was bare with no flowers on the table. The representatives of
the new regime realized that the task they were tackling was by no means
easy. Never did Lenin’s teaching seem so meaningful: "It is
difficult to seize power, but still more difficult to keep it."
Eighty years of French
domination had ruthlessly ground the people down. During the years of the
Second World War, the Japanese had joined the French in exploiting us and
both had vied with each other in bleeding our people. More than one
million peasants had died of starvation amidst lush green rice fields.
Nearly a million more died after the harvest. Then floods came and we were
again faced with the threat of starvation. The peasants, who had found new
life through the miraculous power of their reconquered freedom and
independence, could not endure indefinitely on an empty stomach.
The legacy left by the
colonialists was pitiful: a few empty buildings, but neither rice nor
money. Pitiful also was the cultural inheritance: a 90 per cent illiteracy
rate, the result of an obscurantist policy more concerned with building
prisons than schools.
However, worse was to come.
Foreign troops were pouring in from all directions. They differed from
each other only by the color of their skins and their languages, but they
shared a common eagerness to reconquer our country and drive us back to
slavery.
Punctual as ever, President
Ho Chi Minh entered from an adjoining room wearing indigo-dyed canvas
shoes he had brought with him from the highlands. They had been offered to
him by some Nung people who had sewn them themselves. He was to wear
them on many occasions, even when receiving foreign guests. Uncle Ho
briskly went to the table and with a wave of his arm, invited the
representatives to sit down.
There was no opening
speech. Uncle Ho drew from his pocket a slip of paper on which he had
put down a few notes. Breaking with formality he went straight to the
heart of the matter.
"Dear elders, dear
friends,
"After 80 years of
oppression, exploitation and obscurantism by the French colonialists, none
of us has acquired any administrative skill. But we should not let this
worry us. We shall learn while working. Mistakes may happen but we’ll
correct them. We will have the courage to do it.
"Thanks to our deep
love for the Fatherland and the people, I am sure that we shall succeed.
"What are our most
pressing problems at the moment? In my opinion, there are six of them...
"
With straightforward
simplicity, Uncle Ho laid before the Council of Ministers the most
urgent future tasks:
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To
launch a production drive to fight famine. While waiting for the maize
and sweet potato crop to be brought in in three or four months’
time, start a food-collecting campaign. Everyone will fast once every
ten days and the rice saved will be distributed to the poor;
-
To
launch a fight against illiteracy;
-
To
hold general elections with universal suffrage as soon as possible, so
as to enable the people to exercise their democratic liberties;
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To
start a movement for industry, thrift, integrity and uprightness in
order to eradicate the bad habits and practices left by colonialism;
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To
immediately abolish poll-tax, market tax and ferry tax, and strictly
forbid opium smoking;
-
To
proclaim freedom of religious beliefs and unity between non-Catholics
and Catholics.
It took the President half
an hour to expound on all these problems. The difficult and complex
problems left by 80 years of French domination, matters of vital
importance to the nation, were briefly and clearly dealt with by President
Ho, who pointed out the directions to follow and occasionally the
practical measures to be put into effect. Those who had had the chance of
working with him before at once recognized his familiar style.
After discussing the
questions raised by Uncle Ho, all the ministers gave their enthusiastic
approval. Many of the ideas put forward by him at the very first meeting
of the Provisional Government have remained major Party and State policies
to this day.
The meeting went on until
the end of the morning. The atmosphere of simplicity and cordiality
pervading it deeply impressed all those who were meeting Uncle Ho for
the first time.
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
