"Refreshing old information" is a trick that hostile, reactionary forces and political opportunists are actively using to distort and discredit the stature, meaning, and value of the 30 April Victory as well as our people's resistance war against the US for national salvation. However, historical truth is always clear, and this malicious and hostile tactic of sabotage is unacceptable.

Nearly 50 years ago, at exactly 11:30 a.m on 30 April 1975, the flag of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam flew on the roof of the Independence Palace - the presidential palace of Saigon puppet regime, marking the sacred moment of the Vietnamese people when the Ho Chi Minh Campaign was victorious, gloriously ending our people's resistance war against the US to save the country. This victory "will forever be recorded in our nation's history as one of the most brilliant pages, a shining symbol of the triumph of revolutionary heroism and human intelligence, and will go down in world history as a great victory of the twentieth century, an event of great international importance and profound epoch-making significance”.

Time flies, and this great victory has receded into history for nearly half a century. During that period of time, the descendants of the winning generation have become more aware of the losses, pain, and great sacrifices of their predecessors; felt more deeply in all aspects of the resistance war and become more proud of the glorious Party, the great President Ho Chi Minh, the nation and the heroic Vietnam People's Army. That is a great source of motivation for our people's cause of building and protecting the Fatherland today.

The victory on 30 April 1975 was also hailed by the world's people as a great victory of "justice, humanity and heroism"; proving that no power can "subdue a heroic nation"; is a victory that "will forever be recorded  in history books", etc. The Americans themselves had to admit defeat and admire the strength of the Vietnamese people, as well as our courage and indomitable spirit.

However, over the past half century, many people have deliberately distorted the history, nature, meaning, and scope of the resistance war. Allegations that distort, downplay, and negate the meaning and value of the Victory on 30 April 1975 are spread by hostile forces in all media and in many forms, both at home and abroad. They blatantly misrepresented our people's resistance war as a civil war between the two regions; that this war was "completely meaningless", "should not have happened, and it could have been avoided"! More deceitfully, they also tried to justify America's invasion of the South as "helping" Vietnam access Western civilisation, which is not invasion; Because the communist North "invaded the South", America had "responsibility to protect its allies", etc.

The above distorted allegations are, in essence, just a trick of "refreshing old information", showing hostility, bias, misunderstanding, and ambiguity in perception and assessment of history of some people. Those offensive arguments are not simply aimed at distorting and denying the stature, meaning and value of the Victory, but also at sabotaging the revolutionary cause, the work of innovation, building and defending the Fatherland of our people under the leadership of the Party. They also spread hatred, undermine the great national unity bloc, divide Vietnamese people in the country from those residing and living abroad, in order to discredit and destroy international relations of Vietnam in general, and the increasingly good relations between Vietnam and the United States in particular. That is the real plot of those who make false allegations about the 30 April Victory.

It is widely accepted that truth must always be respected and cannot be distorted, and evaluation and recognition of history must be objective and honest. It is impossible to deny or underestimate the great sacrifices and losses of many generations of Vietnamese people who made the Victory possible. Those who consider this a civil war have deliberately distorted the nature of our people's resistance war. It is necessary to remind them that this war is a historic confrontation between righteousness - anti-aggression and injustice - invasion and brutality; between national independence and socialism with imperialism and anti-communism led by the US imperialists. When invading Vietnam, they wanted to "crush all national liberation movements and stop the advance of socialism anywhere in the world". The United States deployed more than half a million troops into Vietnam, with all types of weapons and most modern technical equipment, planning to crush our fighting morale and force our people to surrender. The US imperialists also carried out a bombing campaign to destroy Hanoi capital and the North with the B-52 Stratofortress, aiming to turn Hanoi and North Vietnam "back to the Stone Age". Those are historical truths.

It is also necessary to remind them that the South is an inseparable part of Vietnam, the flesh and blood of Vietnam. That truth never changes. The Vietnamese people stood up against the invaders to protect that truth. Only Vietnamese people fought against the invaders. There was no such thing like the North invading the South, or a civil war as distorted by hostile forces.

Our people are peace-loving ones. We do not want war to happen in our country as it would cause death and destruction. Therefore, the argument holding that this war was "unnecessary" and completely "avoidable" is a shameless fallacy, because the enemy actively waged this war. They sent troops to invade our country, and forced our people to fight. In that case, we had no choice but to rise up and fight. It cannot be groundlessly said that our victory "was not the one of Vietnam over America"! This is an unhistorical and unethical statement. It should be noted that the 30 April Victory was a victory of the entire Vietnamese people against powerful invaders, directly eliminating "a crime against humanity." It represents the bankruptcy and failure of the most powerful invading force attempting to impose domination and oppression on Southern people. It has been proven that America's strategic goal is to impose new colonialism and turn South Vietnam into a new-style colony, a strategic springboard, to carry out its plan of becoming the world hegemony. Their withdrawal out of Vietnam in 1973 was due to the bankruptcy and failure of America's policy of invading Vietnam, not a simple "historical mistake".

If there was a "historical mistake" here, it must have been America's malicious invasion of Vietnam. Many American officials and scholars have admitted this. The famous journalist Rubert Conwell had to raise his voice to refute the distorted view that it was not Vietnam's victory over the US when stated, "Today that view has collapsed". In the book The Vietnam War and American culture, J.C.Rowe and R.Berg wrote: "Over 70% of the American people still consider the war (the US invasion of Vietnam) “fundamentally wrong and unethical”; “In short, America invaded South Vietnam, where America ignored the crime of invasion with many horrendous crimes against humanity throughout Indochina”.

Thus, the distortion of hostile forces is unacceptable. It becomes more and more out of place and ridiculous, because the historical truth is increasingly shining, and the great value and significance of the April 30 Victory is increasingly permeating and spreading widely. This great victory made the whole world admire, including American scholars, politicians, and generals who directly participated in the war, seeing it as a symbol of heroism and heroic spirit, courage, and the indomitable will to imperialist forces and called Vietnam "the conscience of the times". Many Vietnamese people on the other side of the front line once strongly opposed communism have now returned to their homeland, got rid of their hatred and been welcomed with open hearts of the Homeland.

No matter how hard hostile forces try, their old tricks and distorted information will not work and can not devalue the meaning of the 30 April. Many Americans are becoming increasingly sensible. They are more aware of the sacrifices, losses and victories of our people, and believe in the future development of Vietnam. Robert Mac Namara - former US Secretary of Defence said that: "What really touched me was that I did not see any hatred in the eyes of the Vietnamese people for me. A peaceful Vietnam, though not yet prosperous, is truly beautiful. It is indisputable that a country like that, a people like that, has stood firm in the past and will move forward in the future."

Recalling history, but we should close the past and look forward to the future. Americans also advocate the same. Vietnam and the United States have normalised relations. The two countries have seen increasing advances in relations and we have now become comprehensive strategic partners of each other. This cannot be gained without the influence, permeation and influence of the great values and meanings of the 30 April Victory of the Vietnamese people.

Senior Colonel, Associate Professor, PhD. NGUYEN MANH HUONG and Senior Colonel, MSc. NGUYEN CONG HUYNH