80 years of the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - Dawn of national history: No one is allowed to distort historical truth (Part 2)

We are living in the historical autumn days - 80 years of the successful August Revolution and National Day September 2. The August Revolution of 1945 was the most successful national liberation revolution in history. The birth of the Democratic Republic became the fundamental factor firmly ensuring the independence and freedom that our people always yearned for. From here, a new era in the history of the nation was opened: national independence. Since the historic moment of September 2, 1945, the Vietnamese people "rose from the mud and shone brightly" and the image of "doors still closed and lives locked in silence" completely changed. President Ho Chi Minh was the flag that encouraged the movement to fight for independence and he himself led our nation to "dispel the dark clouds" in the long night of slavery.

Lesson 2: No one is allowed to distort historical truth.

History is what has happened, so no one can change the past even if they want to. In the turmoil of the times, of the nation's history, there were political figures who were on the front lines against the regime, but to some extent, they still spoke objectively, not to protect or polish their own personalities, on the contrary, they protected justice, protected the truth. In the August Revolution, poet Tran Dan wrote: "History has very big days / Even the most absent-minded people cannot forget / People's minds can scatter their own birthday / But - forever the birthday of the country / We can never forget..."

President Ho Chi Minh on the Independence stage (September 2, 1945) (Photo: Internet)

Voices from the other side of the battle line

In 2013, a nearly 2-hour interview appeared on YouTube by a journalist of Vietnamese origin but residing in France with Mr. VQT (for personal reasons, the character's name is abbreviated). Before 1945 and in the early years after the August Revolution, Mr. VQT held many positions in the young revolutionary government. Later, facing the changes of the times and based on personal calculations, Mr. VQT abandoned the revolutionary government and went to the South.

Here, after a period of “fighting”, he held a very high position in the Saigon regime. What did the person who once followed the revolution but then “turned over” to the opposing side say about the August Revolution of 1945? In the nearly 2-hour interview (conducted in France), the interviewer intentionally led Mr. VQT to speak according to her intentions, but to some extent, Mr. VQT was objective when speaking about the resistance of the Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Party.

“Vietnam must fight for independence, there is no other way” - Mr. VQT answered the interviewer's question when this person deliberately distorted the history of the resistance war against the French colonialists who invaded our country for the second time in 1946. Mr. VQT frankly said that the French government returned to Indochina, focusing on Vietnam. The French authorities, despite their failure when they let the German fascists occupy them during World War II, still harbored ambitions and ambitions to control Indochina and restore the colony.

After March 9, 1945, the puppet government of Tran Trong Kim, although claiming independence, was “in reality only independent on paper” because the French authorities did not abandon their occupation of our country. For that reason, Vietnam, specifically the Viet Minh, under the leadership of leader Ho Chi Minh, had to fight and expel the French colonialists to gain independence for the nation.

“The Viet Minh, represented by President Ho Chi Minh, were determined not to allow the French colonialists to re-establish colonial rule and protectorate over their country. In the situation of a person fighting for the country at that time, anyone in the position of President Ho Chi Minh would have led the Vietnamese people and the support of other countries to fight against the invading French army.”

“I am not a communist party member so I will speak frankly, we must not re-examine history, anyone with knowledge needs to put themselves in the historical context at that time, put themselves in the position of those (revolutionaries) who were responsible at that time, to understand people. If we look at it from the eyes of today, the mood of today, it is easy to fall into judgment and come to extremely unfair comments about people who have contributed greatly to the cause of liberating the country” - said Mr. VQT

He continued, fighting for true independence (not fake independence) is inevitable, and so is anyone in a position of leadership of the country. “I would like to ask, in the 20th century, where did the national liberation movement all over the world originate from? Was it from the colonial countries occupied by the colonialists?” - he asked a rhetorical question, meaning a question that does not require an answer.

“No one is willing to bring a piece of independence to oppressed and occupied peoples,” this person said. “You followed the Viet Minh during the 9 years of resistance against the French. What do you think of the fighting spirit of the Viet Minh army?” the interviewer asked.

Mr. VQT replied: “The resistance forces at that time were lacking and poorly equipped, but the resistance government knew how to rely on the people and their heroic spirit. From that moment on, I believed that no one, even a powerful country, could occupy Vietnam. The occupiers were still only a minority. That was the logic of history.”

They want to occupy our country again.

President Ho Chi Minh warmly received Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on a friendly visit to Vietnam (October 17, 1954) (Photo: Internet)

In addition to the VQT character mentioned above, also in France, there was a character who used to work in the Vietnam People's Army, then switched to journalism, in the 90s of the 20th century, facing the turmoil in Eastern Europe, this person fled to the West with the hope that one day not far away he would return to "lead Vietnam".

In an interview, this character himself said that he was also subjective, thinking that just a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, it would be Vietnam's turn. At that time, he would return as a leading flag. Thus, it can be said that this character was on the front line against the domestic regime.

In an interview with a Western press, when the interviewer intentionally led to the conclusion that France's second attack on Vietnam was partly the fault of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the character considered to be a reactionary leader immediately and bluntly rejected the interviewer's trap-like lead.

“No, the second French invasion of Indochina was due to the government’s desire to restore the colonial system,” the interviewee answered without hesitation. This is not difficult to understand because the historical facts are exactly as they were: Vietnam did not want war, but at that time, the French colonial ideology left our people with no other choice. The above statement was proven more eloquently in the “Call for National Resistance” on December 19, 1946.

It should also be added that when World War II entered its final stages, at first the US government asked France to grant independence to all the peoples occupied by France, but soon after, the US also supported France's return to Indochina.

According to the assessment of Dr. SD Pradhan, former Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee of India, published in the Times of India on September 2, 2020, translated and republished by the Vietnamese press, the August Revolution of 1945 not only ended the colonial and feudal regimes. This was also the initial and most important stage of independence in Vietnam, establishing a democratic republic oriented towards communism. The leader who played a key role in realizing the goal of that era was Ho Chi Minh, also affectionately known as Uncle Ho by the people.

When mentioning the August Revolution, it is impossible to forget to emphasize the strategic plan that was planned for a long time by Ho Chi Minh. The view of some historians that the success of the August Revolution was mainly due to favorable circumstances is completely wrong. “The success of the revolution was due to its leaders quickly taking actions to “adapt to the situation”.

Ho Chi Minh and his close associates took advantage of objective conditions to achieve their goals as soon as possible. The success of the revolution was inevitable, sooner or later. This was Ho Chi Minh's contribution in seeing the opportunity and taking wise steps towards the revolution.

With only poor and limited resources, Ho Chi Minh was able to put pressure on the colonial rulers and then fought the American imperialists. The success of the Viet Minh was mainly due to his excellent planning and strategy" - the head of the Indian Intelligence Committee commented./.

(to be continued)

Viet Dong

Lesson 3: The sunset of feudalism

Source: https://baolongan.vn/80-years-of-birth-of-vietnam-democratic-cong-hoa-binh-minh-cua-lich-su-dan-toc-khong-ai-duoc-phep-be-cong-su-that-lich-su-bai-2--a200475.html