W.Minh Tuan
“My compatriots all over the country.
All people are born with equal rights. The Creator gave them rights that no one can violate; Among those rights, there are the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to pursue happiness.”
That is the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, quoting the American Declaration of Independence in 1774, read by President Ho Chi Minh on September 2, 1945, at the square Ba Dinh, Hanoi.
Why did President Ho Chi Minh not quote Mr. Mac’s Communist Party Manifesto?
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In 2006, the American publisher University Press of Kansas published the book “The OSS and Ho Chi Minh, Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan” – “OSS and Ho Chi Minh, unexpected allies in the war against Japan”, written by female author-Professor of history Dixee R.Bartholomew-Feis, of Buena Vista University-USA.
This book was also translated into Vietnamese by Vietnam’s The Gioi Publishing House and published in 2006 in Vietnam.
This book recounts the relationship in 1945 between the Viet Minh and President Ho Chi Minh, General Vo Nguyen Giap and many other officials of our party with the US strategic intelligence agency OSS, the predecessor agency of US Central Intelligence Agency CIA.
In May 1945, the OSS agency sent a group of American personnel to parachute into Tan Trao-Tuyen Quang to help train General Vo Nguyen Giap’s Liberation Army Propaganda Team. In the photos taken in Tan Trao on August 17, 1945, there is a photo of Mr. Ho wearing shorts and a mortarboard, practicing grenade throwing, under the supervision of OSS teachers.
In this book, there is a story about Mr. Ho consulting with two OSS officers in Tan Trao when he wrote the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Those are Major Archimedes Patti, and Lieutenant Dan Phelan.
According to Lieutenant Dan Phelan, Ho Chi Minh had been thinking about the American Declaration of Independence for many months. At that time, around May 1945, Mr. Ho talked a lot with Mr. Phelan, and asked him a lot about the wording in the 1776 American Declaration of Independence.
That is, at that time, Mr. Ho contemplated writing the Declaration of Independence for Vietnam, because Mr. Ho foresaw that Japan would fail, and that Vietnam would gain independence, and Mr. Ho predicted that Japan would fail, and he thinking about how to build a new, democratic and free Vietnam.
And it is very possible that Mr. Ho hoped to build a new Vietnam with the support of America, the richest and most powerful country in the world at that time – and still the richest and most powerful in the world today.
We all know that among our country’s leaders, only President Ho Chi Minh has lived abroad for 30 years. The president has lived in America, England, China, Thailand, and the longest in France and Russia. Uncle Ho knows many foreign languages, while other leaders of our party mainly know French, thanks to French education during the French colonial period.
Some recent leaders such as Nong Duc Manh and Phan Van Khai know Russian because they were trained in Russia.
It can be said that after 30 years of living abroad, Mr. Ho clearly understood the power of liberal democracy and Western civilization.
Citing America to show the Vietnamese people and the American people that the new Vietnam wants to cooperate with America, wants to receive America’s support.
When writing the Declaration of Independence for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Uncle Ho also quoted France’s Declaration of Human Rights in 1791.
Quoting France to show the Vietnamese people and the French people that Vietnam is new, that Vietnam has no hatred towards France, even though France invaded and colonized Vietnam.
And also because Uncle Ho saw the spirit of the French Revolution in 1789, that this revolution gave birth to the French Declaration of Human Rights in 1791.
The Declaration of Human Rights has eternal and immortal value, while colonial France was only in a short period of history.
Uncle Ho saw in the long-term future that Vietnam need to cooperate with France.
Today, Vietnam’s good relations with the United States and France have shown that President Ho Chi Minh has a very far-sighted vision.
As early as 1945, Mr. Ho predicted that, if the French Government recognized Vietnam’s independence, the new Vietnam would be ready to join the French Union, be a member of the French Union, and at that time, Vietnam was both an independent country and took advantage of all the cultural, economic, political, diplomatic support from France. And that will ensure that the new Vietnam develops firmly and stably, while preserving its long-standing cultural and historical values, while also absorbing Western civilization values, especially French civilization. France will be the bridge for the new Vietnam to open its doors to the Western world.
That was Ho Chi Minh’s hope in 1945.
From May to September 1946, President Ho Chi Minh was invited by the French Government to go to France as Supreme Leader guest.
On September 2, 1946, in Paris, President Ho Chi Minh held a ceremony to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
At this Anniversary, President Ho Chi Minh gave an important speech, praising the Vietnam-France friendship, and President Ho Chi Minh spoke of an independent Vietnam, a member of the French Union:
“The French Union will have a great role in organizing human society. As a democratic country and member of the French Union, Vietnam wishes to contribute to the establishment and maintenance of peace and democracy in the world, alongside the United Nations.”
It can be said that solidarity with France and cooperation with America was a great thought of President Ho Chi Minh in the period 1945 and 1946.
Unfortunately, history has not followed people’s wishes, so the river of history has flowed in a different direction.
Lieutenant Dan Phelan recalled that at that time, he provided President Ho Chi Minh with two copies of the Constitution and the Human Rights Law of the United States for Mr. Ho to refer to.
Major Patti of the US intelligence agency OSS also recalled that on August 29, 1945, in Hanoi, Mr. Ho invited Mr. Patti to meet Mr. Ho at the house located in Hang Dao street, to announce that King Bao Dai would abdicates the next day, August 30, and September 2 will become the Independence Day of the new Vietnam. And Mr. Ho said he wanted to consult Mr. Patti about the final details of the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam that Mr. Ho would read on September 2.
Major Patti heard the interpreter read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence again, and saw that the first paragraph quoted the American Declaration of Independence. He found it interesting, and made a small comment that Uncle Ho had reversed the order of the words “life” and “freedom”.
“Why? Uncle Ho said, of course there can be no freedom without life, and there can be no happiness without freedom.
But in the end, Mr. Patti had to admit that he was wrong, he had mistakenly remembered the American Declaration of Independence. Mr. Ho was right, because Mr. Ho did not reverse the order of those two words.
It can be said that in 1945, Mr. Ho understood very clearly the values of freedom, and having freedom will lead to a happy life. And because of that, Uncle Ho said the immortal words: “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.”
Uncle Ho did not say “Nothing is more precious than communism”. Uncle Ho also did not say that if you have Mac-Leninism, you will have happiness.
It can be said that in the world, only Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence quotes the American Declaration of Independence, and France’s Declaration of Human Rights.
And only President Ho Chi Minh dares to do so.
It is conceivable that if another leader of our party was assigned to write the Declaration of Independence of our country, would he dare to quote like that?
The layout and writing style of Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence is quite similar to the layout and writing style of the American Declaration of Independence.
The American Declaration of Independence, after the passage about “All men are endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” has a long passage denouncing the crimes of the King of England to America – at that time England was ruling America – and that was the reason America had to secede and become independent from England.
Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence, after the paragraph about Creation mentioned above, also has a long paragraph denouncing the crimes of the French colonialists and Japanese fascists against our Vietnamese people, and that is why the Vietnamese people must rise up to gain independence.
The original passage about this Creator in the 1776 American Declaration of Independence, in English, is as follows:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Righrts, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
“We believe in the self-evident truth that All people are created equal. The Creator gave them rights that no one can violate; Among those rights, there are the right to life, the right to liberty and the right to pursue happiness.”
In the 1022 words of the Declaration of Independence of our country Vietnam, there is not a single word mentioning communism, socialism, or Mac-Leninism.
Furthermore, President Ho Chi Minh also dissolved the Communist Party.
On November 11, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh instructed the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party – the name of the Communist Party of Vietnam at that time – to decide to dissolve the Party.
The text of that decision is as follows:
“Notification.
The Indochina Communist Party voluntarily dissolved.
1- Based on historical conditions,,,,2, 3, 4,,,
The Central Executive Committee, Indochina Communist Party met on November 11, 1945, and resolved to automatically dissolve the Indochina Communist Party.
Believers of communism who want to conduct research on the doctrine will join the “Indochina Marxist Research Association”.
Of course, the Vietnamese Communist Party did not actually disband, but withdrew into obscurity, under the name “Society for the Study of Marxism in Indochina”.
Another bravery of President Ho Chi Minh.
Of all the communist parties in the world, only The Indochinese communist party – that is, the Vietnamese Communist Party – dared to decide to automatically disband, without fear of the anger of communist extremist elements within the Vietnamese communist party, as well as of Stalin in the Soviet Union.
Is it strange that we have just won the government, after so many arduous struggles, bloodshed, and sacrifices, that we now have power in our hands, but we have to retreat into secret activities?
That strange thing only Ho Chi Minh’s bravery dared to do.
Aim what to do?
To prove to the world that the Vietnamese communist party and Ho Chi Minh dare to abandon the party’s own interests, dare to abandon communism, for the happiness of the people, for a democratic and free Vietnam, and happy.
Later, President Ho Chi Minh himself commented on the meaning of Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence written by President Ho Chi Minh.
In 1958, the Writers’ Association Publishing House in Hanoi published the book “Stories about the life and activities of President Ho Chi Minh”, authored by Tran Dan Tien. Later, people learned that this was the book President Ho Chi Minh wrote about himself. Uncle Ho took the pen name Tran Dan Tien – perhaps this name means that people are as happy as Angel-Fairy.
That’s right. Uncle Ho has made great contributions in bringing independence and freedom to our people, it is truly a happiness like a Fairy.
In this memoir-like book – but using a third person (imaginary character) to speak – Mr. Ho commented on the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as follows:
“Indeed, the Declaration of Independence is the result of the requests sent to the Versailles Conference that Uncle Ho wrote in 1919 (8-Point Request), and the Viet Minh Program that Uncle Ho wrote in 1940. Furthermore, The Declaration of Independence is the result of other Declarations of predecessors such as Doctor Huan, Phan Dinh Phung, Hoang Hoa Tham, Phan Boi Chau and others,,,”.
And it doesn’t stop at the Declaration of Independence.
It doesn’t just stop at dissolving the Communist Party.
One year later, Mr. Ho also directed the drafting of the first Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1946. This 1946 Constitution is unified with the Declaration of Independence, the 8-point Claim written in 1919, as well as the Viet Minh Program that Ho wrote in 1940.
Because all of the above contents affirm that a new Vietnam will allow our Vietnamese people to enjoy minimum freedoms, such as freedom of the press, freedom of publishing, freedom of association and freedom of association, due to assembly, freedom of residence, freedom to go abroad,,,.
And all the contents of the 1946 Constitution do not contain a single word mentioning communism, socialism, or Marxism-Leninism.
It can be said that the 1946 Constitution is an absolute unity with the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Article 10 of the 1946 Constitution stipulates that “Vietnamese citizens have the right to freedom of the press, freedom of publication, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of residence, freedom of movement within the country and abroad“.
Article 11 stipulates: “If the judiciary (court) has not yet decided, it is not allowed to arrest and detain Vietnamese citizens.”
Article 12 stipulates that “Private property rights of Vietnamese citizens are guaranteed“,,,.
These are the rights that Uncle Ho demanded for our people in the 8-Point Demand in 1919.
It can be said that in that period of 1945 and 1946, Mr. Ho had an iron determination to resolutely cooperate with the United States and France in building a new Vietnam, resolutely not mentioning anything about Communism, socialism, Marxism-Leninism.
To summarize, in those two years of 1945 and 1946, President Ho Chi Minh dared to do, and accomplished the above great things, that no other communist leader in the world could do, and dared to do.
President Ho Chi Minh also build a Government consisting of many parties. At that time, Mr. Huynh Thu c Khang, non-partisan, was invited by President Ho Chi Minh to become Vice President of the country. Lawyer Phan Anh, Socialist Party, served as Minister of National Defense, and then Minister of Foreign Trade until retiring in 1976. Professor Nguyen Van Huyen, Socialist Party, served as Minister of Education for 29 years , until his death in 1975. Professor Vu Dinh Hoe, Democratic Party, served as Minister of Justice,,,.
President Ho Chi Minh also allow the existence and development of the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party, to exist in parallel with the Vietnam Labor Party, and unite with the Vietnam Labor Party in the cause of building a strong and prosperous Vietnam.
The Democratic Party was founded in 1944, and the Socialist Party was founded in 1946. These two parties existed until 1988, then “disbanded”. If President Ho Chi Minh was still alive, maybe President Ho Chi Minh would not let these two parties “self-dissolve” like that.
President Ho Chi Minh also names the country the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, not the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Named the party the Vietnam Labor Party, since 1951, at the 2nd Party Congress, not the Vietnam Communist Party.
It can be said that no communist leader in the world dares to do the most uncommunist things like President Ho Chi Minh.
Unfortunately, all of those efforts by President Ho Chi Minh to gain the support of the US Government, the French Government, and the entire capitalist-free world for the young democratic republic of Vietnam Children have no results.
The French did not want Vietnam to be independent, and the Americans supported the French. That led to two wars with the French and the Americans. And from there, President Ho Chi Minh had to turn to seek support from the Soviet Union, China, and the entire socialist camp. And leading to the situation in Vietnam, and possibly the whole world today.
But now Vietnam has been unified, the war has ended for more than 40 years.
President Ho Chi Minh’s ideas of freedom and democracy are completely feasible. ///