While the entire Party, people and troops are striving to make achievements to welcome big celebrations of the country in 2015, some demand reassessment and even deliberately distort historical events of the Vietnamese revolution.
Who are they? What are their intentions? Are their actions for or against the country? The answer is quite clear to us. However, it is still necessary to unveil these figures so that people stay vigilant against those harmful plots.
First, some of them are employees of the Saigon puppet government who have fled the country before and after the reunification day of 30 April 1975 and were told of a “bloody massacre” of “Northern Vietnamese communists” by hostile forces. Those once being lackeys for foreign invaders still bear deep hatred for and determine to counter communism. Some of them were born and grown up in the new regime led by the Communist Party of Vietnam but with wrong perception and impacted by false propagation of hostile forces; they became dissident and politically deteriorated. Even worse, some used to be cadres, party members, intellectuals, artists, writers who were trained and employed by the Party and State and raised by the people. They are cheated by hostile forces and called as “opinion dissidents”, “democrats”, “fighters for democracy, human rights”, etc in Vietnam. Utilizing mass medias, such as the Internet, overseas press in Vietnamese, they often post articles with wrongful arguments aiming at the country history, particularly major events and victories of the Vietnamese revolution under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh. They employed various arguments with different tones to express their hidden and harmful plots with the aim of destabilizing people’s perception and ideology, causing skepticism and separation among people, devaluing and denying the achievements of Vietnamese revolution.
Regarding the victory of the August Revolution, some distorted blatantly that: “The August Revolution is, in essence, a quick grab of the government while it was almost left empty”. Was it the case? They have missed or deliberately ignored the Call of the Northern Military Committee on 1 July 1945 which read: “The anti-Japanese guns of guerrillas are firing fiercely. Guerrilla movement is spreading all over the upper and middle provinces of the North. Guerrillas have taken control of a number of areas, etc. People of all strata, oppressed nations in Indochina stay side by side fighting the common enemy!”. Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary government was established in most of localities. People selected their most creditable and capable representatives to join the Resistance Committee. Between 16 and 17 of August 1945, National Congress issued its Resolution on appealing people, associations, organizations, forces nationwide to unify and implement the 10 revolutionary terms, of which the first term stated that “to gain the government and build a Democratic Republic of Vietnam on the basis of total independence” and stressed that “The Japan’s defeat would not necessarily result in our independence. Hardships and obstacles will occur. We must be clever and determined to avoid disadvantages and gain total independence”. The success of the August Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were the inevitable result of a long and arduous struggle of our people under the brilliant leadership, the art of organizing and deploying forces, creating and seizing opportunities of our Party and President Ho Chi Minh. The event also made Bao Dai – the last king in the Vietnam’s feudal regime claim in surprise: “I would rather be a citizen of an independent country than a king of a colony”. That the way the history went. Yet, in the dissidents’ words, the event was just a certainty, without any contribution of our Party. This is so blatant and ridiculous!
During 30 years of revolutionary war (1945 – 1975), countless effort and sacrifice have been devoted by our people to gain independence and reunification. However, some sophists hold that: “Vietnam would not have endured the two bloody wars if its leaders had exercised a more clever relationship with France and America”. The fact was that French colonialists had the intention to invade Vietnam the second time. After more than half of a century, western analysts concluded that France has missed the chance of peace to enter its dirty war as to refuse Ho Chi Minh’s handshake of peace. The Franco – Vietnam Preliminary Agreement signed on 6 March 1946 has shown the desire for peace of the Vietnamese people. Ho Chi Minh, as the representative of the Vietnamese people said: “Our people and I truly want peace. We do not expect a war and I know that French people do not, either. We try to avoid this war by all means… Vietnam wants to develop. We do not want our country to be deadly place. However, we would take up arms if we are forced to do so”. In his visit to Vietnam in February 1993, the former French President F. Mitterrand said that: “To me the war (1945-1954 France – Vietnam war) was a mistake” and “President Ho Chi Minh had tried to seek a negotiation solution but failed. Though wishing a negotiation for independence, Ho Chi Minh was forced to accept a war”.
How about the resistance war against the US? In accordance with the Geneva Accord, Vietnam was temporarily divided into two parts but a general election would be held in July 1956. Complying strictly with the accord, our Party and State wanted a free election nationwide to unify the country in peace. The attempt never came true due to the refusal of the South Vietnam government supported by the US. What’s more the US troops and its allies massively came into Vietnam. Yet, some hold their wrong argument that: “This is a civil war between the North and the South and among Vietnamese”; and that: “It was an anti-Communist war against the northern invaders. The government of South Vietnam lost because of its incapability”. Some even consider the great victory day of 30 April 1975 as a day of hatred. How unreasonable and ahistorical those arguments are! An evidence to refute them is that: in his official visit to Vietnam in November 2000, the US former president B. Clinton said: “Many Americans have misunderstood. They misconcepted that they came to Vietnam to help bring freedom and self-determination to the country”.
The fact is that Vietnam’s victory in the two resistance wars against the French colonialists and the US imperialists was supported, admitted and praised by the whole world, including French and American citizens. In their eyes, Vietnam was considered the conscience of the time, the symbol of human dignity, the peak of the revolutionary heroism, the forefront in the anti-imperialism and colonialism movement for national liberation in the 20th century, etc. The two wars have gone by for ages. Historians, intellectuals, generals and politicians in France and the US, in their books, articles and memoirs, have admitted their mistakes and failure when invading Vietnam.
Vietnam has now normalized its relation and become comprehensive partner with the US and strategic partner with France for mutual benefits. While every year, thousands of overseas Vietnamese visit the home country and enjoy the reconciliation and contribute to building a prosperous, democratic and civilized country, there are some Vietnamese exiles in America, France, etc deliberating to criticize the heroic tradition of the nation in Ho Chi Minh era. Those attempting to spoil the past will get due consequences in their future as a saying goes “if you fire a gun into the past, the future will fire a cannon into you”. This is warning signal to those who are trying to condemn events and figures in the Ho Chi Minh era, one of the most glorious eras in the nation’s history.
Trung Dung