'Our people have broken the chains which have fettered them for nearly a century'

It's 79 years ago today that President Ho Chi Minh delivered Vietnam's Proclamation of Independence in Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi.

Dear subscriber

I’m guessing that the audio on the recording above was recorded as a reconstruction, because there is no crowd noise on the track.

Earlier on the 2nd of September, the occupying Japanese army had signed the formal surrender on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and President Ho Chi Minh didn’t wait for the ink to dry before declaring Vietnam’s independence from France.

The Zinn education project conveys an eyewitness account of the famous speech:

Dr. Tran Duy Hung recounts the Vietnamese independence celebration in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square following the Japanese defeat—and occurring on the very day of the formal Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, September 2, 1945: “I can say that the most moving moment was when President Ho Chi Minh climbed the steps, and the national anthem was sung. It was the first time that the national anthem of Vietnam was sung in an official ceremony. Uncle Ho then read the Declaration of Independence, which was a short document. As he was reading, Uncle Ho stopped and asked, ‘Compatriots, can you hear me?’ This simple question went into the hearts of everyone there. After a moment of silence, they all shouted, ‘Yes, we hear you.’ And I can say that we did not just shout with our mouths, but with all our hearts. The hearts of over 400,000 people standing in the square then.”

Dr. Hung recalls that moments later, a small plane began circling overhead and swooped down over the crowd. When people recognized the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag, they cheered enthusiastically, believing its presence to be a kind of independence ratification. The image of the 1945 crowd in northern Vietnam applauding a U.S. military aircraft offers a poignant reminder of historical could-have-beens.

A copy of the original declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Happy independence day to all Vietnamese subscribers, and to people with Vietnamese backgrounds.

To everyone who is a paid subscriber, thank you so much. It is just me maintaining the speech library and writing these newsletters. I’m hoping to have 200 payers by the end of the year. It’s approx US$33 a year, or US$3 a month.

Thanks to new paid subscribers ⭐Fergulbear ⭐Chris Cooper ⭐Nicola Mostert

Here is the text of the Declaration of Independence, delivered by President Ho Chi Minh:

2 September 1945, Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, Vietnam

‘All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live and to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, made at the time of the French Revolution, in 1791, also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.’

Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

Politically, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three distinct political regimes in the North, the Centre and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our country’s oneness and prevent our people from being united.

They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly massacred our patriots. They have drowned our uprisings in seas of blood.

They have fettered public opinion and practised obscurantism.

The have weakened our race with opium and alcohol.