W.Minh Tuan
On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese army launched a surprise attack on the US military’s Pearl Harbor naval base in the Hawaiian Sea, the Japanese could not know that it was the beginning of their defeat in World War II, and the price they had to pay was even more terrible, the two American atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki August 6, 1945.
The entire feudal system that lasted for more than 4000 years in Japan began to collapse after the Pearl Harbor incident.
On August 15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the Allies unconditionally, and at that time, no one could have expected that from that humiliating defeat, in the ashes of war, Japan had worked hard, humbly learned, so that 23 years later, in 1968, they rose to be the world’s No. 2 economic power for 43 years, only to yield to China in February 2011.
An Asian country, tiny, with almost no resources, always suffering from earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, failing miserably in wars, but rising to the position of the world’s number two economic power is something that no one expected before.
On October 23, 1956, Hungarian students protested against the Communist government, causing Soviet troops to flood into Hungary to suppress the protesters.
The Hungarians resisted, and as a result more than 2,000 Hungarians, and 700 Soviet soldiers were killed.
When Soviet soldiers invaded Hungary on November 4, 1956 to suppress Hungarian protesters, they did not know that this event had planted seeds of anti-communism smoldering and growing stronger in the hearts of the Hungarian people.
For 30 years, Hungarians were barred from discussing that 1956 protested event.
But since 1986, Hungarians began to openly discuss the protests 30 years earlier, creating an unexpectedly strong anti-communist wave.
The pent-up resentments, banned for the past 30 years, are now exploding violently. And on October 23, 1989, the 33rd anniversary of that 1956 rally, that seemingly ordinary celebration in 1989 led to the revolution that ended communism in Hungary.
Some people say that if by banning discussion of historical issues, the Hungarian communist regime will still be able to survive until now, in the 21st century.
Of course it can be banned, but it cannot be banned forever, because it is like a needle in a pocket, like a famous saying around the world:
“The needle in the pocket must one day come out.”
The most important thing is not to generate that sharp needle. And if that sharp social needle happened, then sooner or later, that needle will still be exposed and detected.
It’s like cancer, no matter how much you try to cure it, it will eventually metastasize, and destroy the body.
The most important thing is to live a healthy life, eat a balanced diet, do sports, and not cause any disturbance in the body so as not to get fatal diseases and not get cancer.
And so is society, the most important thing is not to let the people’s anger smolder, not to let the social needles arise.
On October 23, 1989, the communist regime in Hungary fell, and no one could have imagined that this event would quickly lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall just over two weeks later, on November 9, 1989, and thereby lead to the unbelievably rapid collapse of the entire socialist Eastern European faction.
Thus, no one could have expected that the Soviet military’s suppression of the Hungarian people in 1956 would be the seed to lead to the collapse of the entire Socialist faction 33 years later, in 1989.
The Hungarian government collapsed, Hungarian laws immediately changed, and Hungarians and East Germanian people who passed through Hungary were free to travel abroad.
Hundreds of thousands of East Germans flooded into Hungary to travel to West Germany. Just over a week later, the people of East Germany suddenly found the Berlin Wall erected on August 13, 1961, to be an unreasonable impediment to free travel. And they began hammering down the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, after the Hungarian government allowed free travel for just over a week.
And who would have thought that the hammer blows that smashed down the Berlin Wall were not anti-Government at all: we wanted freedom of travel, and the police couldn’t violently suppress it for very peaceful, not anti-government reasons.
And since then, the struggle for free travel has led to the collapse of the entire socialist system that gripped Eastern Europe.
No one could have predicted that such wonderful things would lead to such great changes in the political life of countries.
Just like in Tunisia, Africa, in 2010, a 26-year-old Tunisian young man, Mohamed Buoazizi, set himself on fire to protest that the police had not allow him to sell vegetables on the street. On the streets of the streets on December 17, 2010, no one could have imagined that such a very personal event would lead to the Tunisian revolution, and just over two months later, on February 14, 2011, the Ben Ali police dictatorship had to collapse, the family of President Ben Ali had to flee the country, after 23 years of ruling Tunisia with a police government.
And from Tunisia, which led to revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Syria,,,, today, and perhaps more.
In 1968, the Vietnamese Labor Party launched the Spring Mau Than General Offensive, which at first did not achieve the desired results, because as General Vo Nguyen Giap later remarked:
“Only General Offensive, no General Rebellion”.
However, no one could have expected that the military failure in the 1968 Tet Offensive was a huge political victory, which resulted in an unprecedented increase in the anti-war movement among the American people, which led to the US government to de-escalate the war, and sign the Paris Agreement in 1973.
On January 27, 1973, when Comrade Le Duc Tho and US Secretary of State Kissinger signed the Paris Agreement on peace in Vietnam, no one could have imagined that those signatures were also the beginning of the end of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago to China.
The Chinese applauded the Paris Agreement even louder than our Vietnamese, because it was an invaluable guarantee that the US military would not be able to intervene in Vietnam again.
And on January 17, 1974, 1 year after we signed the Paris Agreement, a Big friend attacked the Hoang Sa archipelago, on the 19th, captured the whole Hoang Sa archipelago from the old Saigon army, 64 soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam fell in the battles to protect the Paracels in 1974.
And yet, on March 14, 1988, a Big friend continued to attack the Truong Sa archipelago, occupying Gac Ma island and 5 other islands in Truong Sa, 68 soldiers died heroically, 2 ships were sunk, but the island was still lost.
And on December 25, 1978, when our Vietnam attacked Cambodia to destroy the genocidal Polpot regime, our party could not expect that it would be an excuse for a Big friend to open a full-scale war on all six northern border provinces on February 17, 1979, to “teach Vietnam a lesson”.
What lesson, we don’t know, but our Big friend thinks that Vietnam can’t enter Cambodia.
Historical events always have an unexpected connection.
Just as one would have thought that the great earthquake of March 11, 2011 that struck Japan, was the event that led to the beginning of the shrinking, and possibly ending, of the era of nuclear power worldwide.
On May 26, 2011, when the Chinese Hai Giam vessel cut the cable of Vietnam’s Binh Minh 2 ship right in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, no one would have expected that the anti-China protests would be massive and persistent, lasting until the 8th week in Hanoi, with a brave, skillful, tight, and increasingly powerful organization.
Who could have imagined that at the protest against Northern expansion on July 24, 2011, in Hanoi, a crowd of thousands of protesters raised banners with the names of all 68 soldiers of Uncle Ho’s army, and 64 soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam who fell in the battles to defend the Paracels in 1974, and the Spratlys in 1988.
Who would have thought that the names of soldiers who were once enemies, now lined up side by side, united, paraded around Hoan Kiem Lake, in 2011, 36 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
And no one could have expected that, on July 27, 2011, on the occasion of Vietnam’s War Invalids and Martyrs’ Day, there was a celebration in Saigon to celebrate both the soldier of the Republic of Vietnam, and soldier Uncle Ho, to be celebrated and honored equally, in the struggle to protect the sea and islands, against the expanding of a Big friend of the North.
And on February 24, 2022, Russian President Putin sent Russian troops into Ukraine to invade Ukraine, then everyone thought that the peaceful Ukraine would fail in a few weeks. The US Embassy in Ukraine has asked Ukrainian President Zelensky that they will send the plane carrying President Zelensky abroad to go exile.
President Zelensky wittily and bravely replied: “We need planes carrying weapons and ammunition to help us, but we don’t need a hitchhiking flight” – indeed the humorous words of the greatest comedian in the world, now the president.
Until now, after more than a year of war in Ukraine, no one could have imagined that the Ukrainians fought bravely, and got better and better, and are now gradually regaining the territories that were invaded by the Russians.
And the biggest surprise will be that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine will lead to an unprecedented change in world history, and in Russian history, in the not too distant future.
Please wait and see.
So when the US government of US President Biden cowardly in October 2022, advised the Ukrainian government to give in to Russia to sit at the negotiating table to end the war, the cowardly Biden who will never know his name will go down in the history books as one of the most cowardly American presidents in America, and the most cowardly in human history.
Of course, the brave Ukrainians rejected that cowardly American advice.
Will the Americans abandon the Ukrainians again, like the Americans abandoned the Republic of Vietnam like in 1975?
Probably not, because if that happens, Americans will have no friends in the world, everyone will stay away from cowardly Americans.
And the COVID-19 pandemic is leading the world to unexpected turning points in terms of protecting nature, developing wind energy, solar energy, electric cars that will quickly replace petrol cars, and treating diseases without using drugs, but using measures in harmony with nature.
With our Vietnam, if the Big Friend cut the cables of our Vietnamese ships, and hit, caught, and killed our fishermen again, what events would happen?
Then it will be a landslide, signaling a new spring will come in the country of Vietnam with more than 4000 years of history.
At that time, the lyrics “Get up and go”, and “Uncle still march with us” will resound throughout the new Vietnam, to defend the homeland, the sea and islands, and the defense of independence and freedom.///