Throughout history, every revolution owes its success to subjective and objective causes in which two decisive factors are the leading force and the power of the mass. The August 1945 Revolution in Vietnam is such the case. This is a historical and undeniable truth.
However, there are some people holding that the August Revolution succeeded due to a “good luck”. This is a false and unscientific argument of the hostile and reactionary forces with the aim of sabotaging and denying the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) over the success of the revolution and important events of the nation. Their attribution of the August Revolution’s success to “good luck” is a typical example.
The CPV founded by leader Nguyen Ai Quoc or Ho Chi Minh, in 1930 has set out and persisted with the goals of national independence, creating conditions to build a good society – the socialist society; combining national liberation with social liberation for the freedom and happiness of Vietnamese people who have long suffered from the colonial and feudal oppression. The fact is that, prior to the inception of the CPV, Vietnam has seen various patriotic movements against the French colonialists but they all failed. Only when the CPV was founded with sound lines and platform suitable to the domestic and international situation, did Vietnamese revolution entered a new stage. The further the history goes, the more clearly it shows the decisive role of the CPV and leader Ho Chi Minh in the revolution, a typical national liberation one in the 20th Century. This objective truth is undeniable.
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Meeting held by the Viet Minh Front in Hanoi to launch the General Uprising
on 19 August 1945 (File photo) |
This is shown, firstly in the fact that the CPV has always persisted with, developed and perfected its lines for national liberation struggle. Since 1920, in France, Nguyen Ai Quoc has voiced his demand for independence for the country, freedom for the people. The 1930 Platform of the Party aimed mainly at destroying the rule of the French colonialists and feudalists to gain independence for the country, land for the farmers and a free and happy life for all people. His primary goal of national liberation has been stressed in the Central Plenary in November 1939 that when the revolution succeed it would demolish the feudal and colonial regime and build a democratic republic in Vietnam. Facing the fast changes of the world and domestic situations at that time, the Party regarded national liberation as its top priority; armed struggle for gaining authority as its central task; focused on building the Viet Minh Front, the national solidarity with concrete and realistic action plans and policies; paid attention to analyzing revolutionary situation and seizing the opportunities; agreed on thinking, will and action; built political force, armed forces and revolutionary base, etc., hence, leading the revolutionary movement to continual developments and successes.
That lines are based on deep analysis and awareness of the characteristics and circumstances of the country, the basic and major contradictions of the society, aspiration of the people and evolutions of the world situation. In addition, they also represented the creative application and development of Marxism – Leninism’s theory on war and revolution, armed insurrection, and state authority. Therefore, the revolution occurred exactly as what the Party had forecasted, planned, and succeeded. Its scientific and practical values do not detach from the viewpoints and creative lines of the Party and leader Ho Chi Minh on revolutionary cause of a semi-colonial semi-feudal country. There were both objective and subjective causes to the success of the revolution. We cannot deny the importance of its objective cause, i.e., the changes of the world and regional situation at that time which positively affected and created favorable conditions for Vietnamese revolution. However, we must also see the subjective cause, the decisive one to the revolution. That was the effort of the Party and our people which was manifested in the sound lines, the seize of opportunity, as well as the establishment of a capable revolutionary force for the insurrection. The truth was that. Historical truths are immortal. However, hostile forces are still trying to distort the truth though they know that they are trying in vain. How ridiculous it is!
To prepare for the revolution and the insurrection when the chance comes, our Party and leader Ho Chi Minh decided to build the Viet Minh Front to gather force from the mass. From the mass, three armed revolutionary forces were built, namely the National Salvation Army (1941), Vietnam Armed Propaganda Army for National Liberation (22 December 1944) and Vietnam Liberation Army (15 May 1945). Armed forces built by the Party made the strength of the revolution and became the core force for the mass movement. In the high movement for national liberation, the political force was gathered in the Viet Minh Front to stimulate national consciousness and patriotism among the people. The front was highly organized with concrete action plans and policies hence contributing greatly to uniting people, communicating and instructing the mass in their struggle. Its components included the Worker’s Association for National Salvation, the Farmer’s Association for National Salvation, the National Salvation Youth Union, the Women League for National Salvation, the National Salvation Cultural Association, etc., which took a very important role in training, communicating, organizing struggle and creating synergy for the revolution. The combination between political force and armed forces, political struggle and armed struggle, and the development of revolutionary movement in mountainous, rural, plain and urban areas are a notable feature in leading, directing of the Party, bringing about activeness and supports among localities throughout the country. Partial insurrection with partial victory helped consolidate and develop the real strength of the revolution. Siding with the Allies against Fascism but our Party always stressed the need to strengthen our own strength in order to gain victory. Our Party held that we had to build our own strength and not to rely totally on external help. Subjective factors, internal strength, and self reliance always play the decisive role; favorable conditions from the objective circumstance are important and should be utilized. These are the fundamentals in the science of revolutionary leadership.
The Vietnamese revolution, led by CPV and Ho Chi Minh, soon upheld internationalism to strive for the common cause of human kind against oppression, inequality, and earn support from international friends. Combining the nation’s strength with that of time has become a major lesson of the Vietnamese revolution. Thereby, we gained significant support from allied countries, a very important factor contributing to the success of the revolution. Moreover, this showed the cleverness of the Party and Uncle Ho in leading the revolution, gathering forces, creating synergy to defeat colonialism and feudalism to gain independence and freedom for the nation.
In the 1945 August Revolution, the Party and Uncle Ho’s leadership was also shown in the way that we were successfully in seizing the opportunity and repelling risks for the country to gain victory in a fast and least damaging way. Since June 1940 when France was conquered by Germany and French troops in Indochina were weakened, Nguyen Ai Quoc has seen the chance for independence. He decided to return to the country. The 8th plenum of the Party in May 1941 analyzed chances for the revolution and demanded that we actively seize the opportunity on the basis of boosting the growth of revolutionary forces. In October 1944, Ho Chi Minh wrote in his letter to the whole country’s people that: “The invader is being destroyed. The Allies will gain the final victory soon. Chance for our national liberation is just in one year or one and a half year time. It is urgent. We should be hurry”. “Hurry” means that we should quickly develop forces and potentials for the revolution. The Party’s directive titled “Japanese and French shooting at each other and our actions” dated 12 March 1945 pointed out the conflict between Japan and France; the development of revolutionary movement across the country and the leading role of the Party; launched a high movement against Japan for national salvation and foster the conditions for the full growth of the insurrection. In August 1945, revolutionary high movement grew robustly throughout the country and when Japan surrendered the Allies, our Party decided to launch the General Uprising. Time for the General Uprising was set in the second half of August 1945. If the Uprising had broken out before the Japanese surrender, it would have faced numerous difficulties. If it had broken out after August 1945, it would have faced other challenges from the Allies when they came to disarm the Japanese troops in our country and implement their plans. Then, French troops, taking advantage of the Japan’s defeat, would return to rule Vietnam and Indochina as they used to do before the day of 9 March 1945. These were the risks pointed out and by the Party and Uncle Ho. Upholding self - reliance and the strength of the whole nation, actively seizing opportunity and preventing risks were a remarkable success in leading and directing the August Revolution of our Party.
The Party’s leadership in the August Revolution was also shown in the strong determination, and high fighting morale as in Uncle Ho’s words “regardless of sacrifice, though Truong Son range has to be burn out, we must determinedly gain independence”. The resolution of the national plenum of the Party (took place on 14 and 15 August 1945) pointed out that: “1. Good chance for our independence has come. 2. Time is critical now. All of our actions must be focused on three principles: a. Focus – focusing forces on the main tasks. b. Unification – unification in military, politics, action and command aspects. c. Timely – timely taking actions, not to miss any opportunities. 3. Our goal in this struggle is to gain total independence”. To repel the risks, our Party pointed out: “Our policy is to avoid the situation in which we have to face the arrivals of allied countries (China, France, Britain, America) and their imposed government, whether a colonialist or a puppet one. For this reason, we must earn support of the USSR and America to counter the plot of the Chiang Kai-shek troops to invade our country. Finally, only our own strength can decide our victory”. Sensible decisions, creative and decisive leadership and direction of the Party, together with the activeness, high sense of responsibility in leading the insurrection of Party organizations and the Viet Minh Front in localities have brought about the success of the 1945 August Revolution.
All the things mentioned above prove the ingenious and creative leadership and direction of the Party and Uncle Ho – the decisive factor to the success of the great August Revolution. All arguments trying to deny and distort the history serve for unscientific and bad-willed attempts. Morally, they are ungrateful to historical figures. Politically, they represent anti-communist and reactionary attitudes, running counter to the revolutionary cause of our nation and people. Those who are trying to distort the truth about the August Revolution should study thoroughly the following Ho Chi Minh’s judgment of the revolution to see its value: “Not only Vietnamese people and working class but those in other oppressed countries can be proud of the fact that: this is the first time in the history of semi-colonial semi-feudal countries, such a 15 year old party led the revolution successfully and gained power totally for the country”.
Assoc Prof., Doctor Nguyen Trong Phuc