The person who discovered the truth of the times and opened up national independence
President Ho Chi Minh is the quintessence of the Vietnamese people, the pride of patriotic people. His great merit to his compatriots and the Fatherland is first of all finding the path to national liberation in line with the trend of the times, at the same time directly preparing the decisive conditions, leading the masses to make the August Revolution in 1945.
Revolutionary ideals are unshakable.
On September 2, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh, on behalf of his fellow countrymen, solemnly declared to the world: “Vietnam has the right to freedom and independence, and in fact has become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to devote all their spirit and strength, their lives and property to maintaining that freedom and independence.”
His voice resounding in Ba Dinh that day has entered the history of the Vietnamese people and world history as a revolutionary ray of light in the struggle for national liberation, laying the foundation for the construction of socialism on a world scale.
167 years ago, the French colonialists attacked Son Tra peninsula, starting the process of invasion and enslavement of the Vietnamese people. With the spirit of steadfast national defense, the patriotic Vietnamese people, whether kings, mandarins, scholars, scholars or commoners, sacrificed themselves to save the country and the race, but all in vain.
In the context of the struggle for national independence falling into a dead end, with a dark history with no way out, Nguyen Tat Thanh, with the desire to find a historical way out for his nation, was determined to leave to find a way to save the country. June 5, 1911 marked the beginning of the journey to find the truth of the times in the life and great revolutionary career of Nguyen Tat Thanh – Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh.
During the first 10 years of searching for a way to save the country, he persistently surveyed the Western capitalist world, to see how people became civilized, modern, and had “freedom, equality, and fraternity” so that he could return to help his compatriots. Nguyen Ai Quoc penetrated the lives of the working people, made friends with the poor, with like-minded people fighting against tyranny and oppression, relied on his own hands and brains, worked to earn a living, constantly cultivated new knowledge, learned the truth from classical documents, especially scientific socialism, discovered good and right things that were appropriate to the historical context of the time and his country; and summarized experiences from practice.
One thing that is very admirable about him is his unshakable will to fight and revolutionary ideals: “Freedom for my compatriots, independence for my Fatherland, that is all I want, that is all I understand.” The event of Nguyen Ai Quoc sending an 8-point petition to the Versailles Conference (France) was a bomb of justice aimed at the leaders of the capitalist world.
In July 1920, Nguyen Ai Quoc read the draft of Lenin’s Theses on National and Colonial Questions. That was a historical turning point for his entire life, in which he devoted himself to the cause of saving the country and people, and contributing to the world revolution.
After finding the “path to liberation” for his people, he found his way back, directly bringing the light of Marxism-Leninism to illuminate the path of struggle to victory. Following that was the period when Nguyen Ai Quoc experienced the ups and downs of history, always being followed and harmed by the enemy, sometimes being arrested and sentenced, but it could not dampen the revolutionary will of the international communist soldier.
A great contribution that Nguyen Ai Quoc made to the Vietnamese revolution was preparing to establish a proletarian political party, spreading revolutionary theory, promoting the proletarianization movement, training and sowing red seeds that became the nucleus for the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
The Thanh Nien newspaper, which was born 100 years ago, was the premise for building the Vietnamese revolutionary press, demonstrating Nguyen Ai Quoc’s strategic thinking in using the press as a tool for fighting and spreading revolutionary ideology. Nguyen Ai Quoc’s opening of revolutionary training classes in Guangzhou (China) was the work of training cadres in Marxist-Leninist theory, while creatively applying it to the conditions and requirements of the Vietnamese revolution. The book “The Revolutionary Path” is the “Ho Chi Minh ideological manifesto” for the Vietnamese revolution.
Bringing the foundation of freedom and independence
The event of February 3, 1930 was a breakthrough in the process of fighting for independence and moving towards socialism in our country, and at the same time contributed to the development of the international proletarian movement. From then on, the Vietnamese revolution had a genuine political party, taking Marxism-Leninism as a compass, capable of illuminating the Vietnamese people; along with that, it planted the flag of solidarity among oppressed peoples around the world, spreading the revolutionary inspiration of national liberation associated with class liberation, liberation of working humanity. In the spring of 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc returned to his Fatherland with so many emotions, because that was the sacred moment of a life that had come from bitterness and hardship, now returning to save his compatriots from slavery.
His luggage when he started from Ben Nha Rong with patriotism has never faded, now there is also Marxism – Leninism. His revolutionary activity space now is no longer a foreign land, but his own Fatherland. His friends in the world now only exist in his memory, but his compatriots and comrades will continue to give him strength in revolutionary belief.
In Pac Bo (Cao Bang), under the name of “Mr. Ke”, “Old Thu”, and taking the name Ho Chi Minh, he opened a new chapter for the history of the modern Vietnamese revolution. He used a rock on the bank of Lenin stream as a writing desk, continuing to translate the book History of the Communist Party (b) Russia (summary) into Vietnamese, to use as a training material for party members (he had previously translated a part of it when he was still working in China). There was another very special document that he compiled as a document to popularize the history of the country, to propagate and enlighten the masses to follow the revolution, that was the book “History of our country”, delivered in the style of six-eight verse, suitable for the method of oral propaganda for 98% of the illiterate population at that time. The 8th Central Conference chaired by Ho Chi Minh (from May 10 to 19, 1941) had a very important turning point, directly preparing the revolutionary forces for the General Uprising, which was the birth of the Viet Minh Front – a creative form of Ho Chi Minh in gathering and uniting social classes to fight for the goal of national independence.
There was a period when Ho Chi Minh was imprisoned and exiled by the Chiang Kai-shek regime, but it was in the imperialist prison that he shone with revolutionary spirit, unwavering in spirit, determined to pursue the ideal of national liberation. When he was released, Ho Chi Minh returned to the Party Central Committee to prepare conditions to welcome the once-in-a-millennium opportunity. One of the decisions, with unique political acumen, was that he urged to seize the historical opportunity to change the fate of the nation. The general uprising order was a timely message to seize power, it could not be sooner, nor could it be later.
The August Revolution of 1945 was the pinnacle of the art of seizing opportunities by the intelligent and courageous Communist Party of Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh. The Declaration of Independence drafted by Ho Chi Minh and read directly to the nation on the afternoon of September 2, 1945 was the high note in the heroic epic of seizing power and regaining independence for the Vietnamese people, inspiring the revolution for the past 80 years in the history of our country.
Looking back at the period of national salvation activities and direct revolutionary leadership of Nguyen Tat Thanh – Nguyen Ai Quoc – Ho Chi Minh from 1911 to 1945, it can be affirmed that: This is the historical space of the era occupied and devoted by the most elite people of the Vietnamese nation, bringing about the foundation of independence and freedom associated with the orientation towards socialism.
