A meeting at Hanoi Opera House (File photo)

Success of the August Revolution is the inevitability of a long and arduous struggle of our Party and people. However, there have been people holding ideas that “The August Revolution is an act of seizing power when the authority was almost empty”. Their arguments are inept and show their unhistorical view.

Their gloomy ultimate goal is to deny the contribution of the Party, the patriots, deny the outcome of the Revolution. Henceforth, they deny the road of Vietnamese revolution and eliminate the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and socialism in Vietnam.

History is fair and objective. Those holding biased and unhistorical views on the success of the August Revolution need to look back historical evidence to see the truth.

First, it is necessary to affirm that our Party and the leader Nguyen Ai Quoc have soon had anticipation and preparation of forces for the success of the Revolution. Since 1921, Nguyen Ai Quoc has anticipated of a people’s revolution in Indochina and set tasks for the revolutionists to facilitate the case: “Behind the negative obedience, the Indochinese seem to hind a burning desire and when the time comes, it will explode vigorously. The elite must facilitate for such a chance”. Under the leadership of the CPV, the two revolutionary movements namely 1930-1931 and 1936-1939 were the two rehearsals for the 1939-1945 movement. When the Second World War broke out, the French Colonialists exercised their wartime militarism policy in Indochina. This opened up the revolution situation. The 8^th Conference of the Party Central Committee (I tenure) in May  1941 analyzed thoroughly the First World War and forecasted: “ If the First World War gives birth to the Soviet Union, a socialist country, then this world war will give birth to a number of other socialist countries. Therefore, revolution will succeed in many countries.” On analyzing situation in Indochina, the Conference set out the central task for the whole Party and people  to prepare for the uprising for power and decide on the model for the uprising. After the conference, the Vietnam Independent League Front (or Viet Minh in short) was established to gather forces country-wide for independence. Political forces saw increasing development with salvation units being the core forces in the Viet Minh. Stemming from political force and political movement, armed force was gradually established, built its revolutionary bases and prepared for the general uprising. In Viet Bac base, platoons of National salvation troops were founded; later on 22 December 1944, the Vietnam Propaganda Unit of the Liberation Army  was founded. These two forces fought, gained victories and grew fast.

The flexible and creative leadership of our Party constituted a crucial factor to the  great success of the August Revolution. Right in the evening when the Japanese staged the coup and overthrew the French authority, the Permanent office of the Party Central Committee held that the coup has caused a severe political crisis, offering a big chance for the revolution and decided to launch an anti-Japanese movement country-wide. In most districts and communes of Viet Bac, political forces of the mass and the revolutionary armed force rose up and took control, established the Viet Bac revolutionary base. On 12 March 1945, the communists who were detained at the Ba To station (located in the West of Quang Ngai province) enlightened and led the soldiers of the station to revolt, capture the station and all weapons and established the Ba To Guerrilla Team. In spite of the seize and brutal killing of the enemy, Ba To Guerrilla Team bravely held the position, secured its force and undertook its guerrilla war in support of the anti-Japanese movement in the South Centre and became the central force of the Inter-region 5 armed force later on. In many localities of the South, such as Saigon, My Tho, Sa Dec, etc revolutionary force of the mass grew vigorously. Many defence teams and propagation team were founded changing greatly the situation.

When the revolutionary movement was at highlight, from 15 to 20 of April, 1945, the Permanent Office of the Party Central Committee convened the Northern Military Conference, analyzed the situation and concluded: The Second World War nearly came to an end with the victory of the Allies and “sooner or later, the Allies will come back to Indochina for their own interest”. As of our side, “we have to proactively promote guerrilla warfare, building anti-Japanese bases to prepare for the general uprising”. Therefore, “we have to positively prepare for forces, not to rest on outside sources”, “we have to build big guerrilla units, capture key areas and hold the initiative”. The conference decided to establish 7 combat areas in the North, Centre and South, being anti-Japanese bases and launched guerrilla warfare in these areas, considered this the key model of struggle to promote anti-Japanese movement. The conference also decided to merged Salvation Troops and the Vietnam Propaganda Unit of the Liberation Army to form the Vietnam Liberation Army. To this time, the whole country was ready for the chance of a general uprising.

Realizing the fast growth of the Viet Minh, in the mid of May, 1945, the Japanese deployed 2000 troops, launched a big attack on Viet Bac in order to destroy the Vietnam Liberation Army and leaders of the revolution. Revolutionary armed forces and people in the region conducted guerrilla warfare, left their homes empty and fought the enemy everywhere. The Japan suffered from heavy losses and was forced to withdraw out of our liberated area. In other combat regions, the Japanese also tried to attack but faced our strong resistance and had to withdraw.

Anticipating the world situation when the Japanese King surrendered the Allies, the Second World War would end, from 13 to 15 of August, 1945 the Party Central Committee convened a National Conference, identifying that: time for the uprising has come. The conference also formed the National Uprising Committee. Right in the evening of 13 August, the Committee decided to launch the general uprising. On 16, August 1945, National Congress formed the Vietnam Liberating Committee (or Interim Government) led by leader Ho Chi Minh. After the Conference, President Ho Chi Minh sent a message to the whole country which read: “There comes the critical time for the nation. Let us stand up to liberate the country by ourselves”. All of the nation, bearing in mind Uncle Ho’s words “whatever sacrifice we have to make, independence has to be gained even if Truong Son range has to be burned out” rose up agreeably. In many localities, political force of the mass and armed force saw drastic growth, gained the advantage, rose up in the form of meetings, demonstrations, armed marching with strong determination to gain power to the people. These are partly uprising, creating foundation for the national general uprising.

Insurgency in big cities-centres of politics, military, economy and culture, is the decisive factor to the success of the general uprising. In Hanoi, from 15 August1945, the Revolutionary Military Committee decided to mobilize political forces of the mass and facilitate preparation for armed forces. On 19 August, some hundred of thousands of people joining hands with defensive fighters in street demonstrations marking a huge armed uprising, subdueing the Japanese and the puppet government. The demonstrators took control of the  enemy’s headquarters and gained power. Victory in Hanoi is of vital importance to the whole country. It made the Japanese powerless, numbed the puppet government, encouraged and facilitated other localities in the country, especially Hue, and Saigon. In this time, northern and central provinces also uprised successfully. In Hue, on 23 August 1945, hundred of thousands of people supported by armed forces simultanously went down streets for demonstration, occupied offices, founded revolutionary government and forced King Bao Dai to resign. In Sai Gon, “pioneer youth”, “voluntarily  labour union”, labourers, students, farmers in neighbouring provinces hastily prepared their self-improvised weapons and practiced for the uprising.

On 25 August 1945, about 1 million people spilled the streets, totally overwhelmed the Japanese and the puppet government, occupied public offices and important places of the city, and established the revolutionary government. Victory in Saigon encouraged other southern provinces to stand up and gain power. On 28 of August, Ha Tien and Dong Nai Thuong were the last two provinces to end the uprising successfully.

Within half a month, the uprising ended successfully in the whole country. The August Revolution occurred rapidly, caused little bloodshed and ended successfully. the success is brought about after 15 years of fighting of our people under the leadership of the Party with countless of people sacrificing even their lives for the independence, for the unification of the country, for the freedom and happiness of the people. We must not forget this.

In August 1945, although chance appeared for the uprising, if the Party and President Ho Chi Minh had not had sound guidelines for national liberation, for organizing and leading the political and armed forces, the general uprising would not have happened. The uprising has gained  power from the enemy in reign full of violence tools, political plot, armed  forces and modern weapons. Although their morale were a bit sapped, they still defended violently against our revolution to maintain their reign. So if we had not undertaken a large scale and resolute fighting by both political and military strike, had not combined national strength with the power of times, had not liberated by our own strength, there would not have come that glorious victory. Reality in pre-revolution and during the revolution showed that if the revolution had not had huge forces, and had not attacked resolutely along with mobilization and persuasion, the Japanese  would not have “station their troops without acting” and the puppet government and military would not have surrendered unconditionally. Chance is not created only by objective matters but the combination of subjective and objective ones. If the Party had not prepared forces, put those forces into regular fighting to strengthen us and weaken the enemy and earn the trust and support of people of all strata, had not created and grasped the chance, even when favourable time came, we would not have launched and ended the uprising successfully. For this reason, creating chance, grasping it and taking advantage of chance is the unique of our Party in leading the August Revolution.

Those who respect history all admit that fact. Not only Vietnamese people but also foreigners accept and tell the truth about the August Revolution. History proves that the revolution is totally not an act of “grasping” while “the government system is empty”.

Vu Nhu Khoi