80th Anniversary of the Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - Dawn of National History: The Immortal Declaration (Part 4)

We are living in the historical autumn days - 80 years of the successful August Revolution and National Day September 2. The August Revolution of 1945 was the most successful national liberation revolution in history. The birth of the Democratic Republic became the fundamental factor firmly ensuring the independence and freedom that our people always yearned for. From here, a new era in the history of the nation was opened: national independence. Since the historic moment of September 2, 1945, the Vietnamese people "rose from the mud and shone brightly" and the image of "doors still closed and lives locked in silence" completely changed. President Ho Chi Minh was the flag of encouragement for the movement to fight for independence and it was he who led our nation to "dispel the dark clouds" in the long night of slavery.

Lesson 4: The Immortal Declaration

It would be a mistake if this series of articles did not mention the Declaration of Independence - a "great work of literature for all time". The Declaration is strong in politics , flexible in diplomacy, humane in policy and beautiful as a political poem. In 2023, on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of National Day, an octogenarian professor posted the Declaration of Independence on his personal page but with bad intentions when he edited the content of the Declaration. A person with the title of professor should not have such behavior, because it is not serious in academics and not decent in character.

President Ho Chi Minh and the Declaration of Independence

The "eternally heroic writing"

While some Vietnamese people in the country or abroad continuously oppose and defame the historical events of August Autumn and insult the leader, the soul of the revolution, the people in the countries that invaded Vietnam acknowledge his greatness.

The Declaration of Independence - the "eternally heroic piece of literature" has a very subtle sentence, which is the sentence Uncle Ho said: "... in a broader sense, this sentence means, all peoples in the world are born equal...". The Declaration of Independence of the United States only says "all men are born equal", while the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam affirms that not only "all men" are equal but all peoples are equal. This is a message that President Ho Chi Minh sent to the great powers at that time, that all peoples and nations have equal rights.

The further back we go, the more we see the immortal value of this Declaration. We know that the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789 were born after the struggle for independence of 13 British colonies in North America and the great French bourgeois revolution.

Based on the inheritance of progressive ideas of the Enlightenment period, the two declarations of the United States and France are convincing affirmations of human rights, national rights, and the principle of "people's sovereignty" in the struggle against the feudal autocratic regime, guiding people to reach for democratic values, noble humanistic values ​​of freedom, equality, and fraternity.

In the American Declaration of Independence, author Thomas Jefferson (later President of the United States) affirmed that the colonies must have the right to be free and independent nations, abolishing the domination of British colonialism. The two declarations marked a milestone in the struggle for national liberation and human liberation. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Revolution in 1791 stated: “Men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and with equal rights.”

In the 1945 Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, from the first lines, President Ho Chi Minh quoted the most famous sentences in those two historical declarations with a very respectful attitude: “All men are born equal. Their Creator has endowed them with certain inalienable rights; among these are the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to pursue happiness...”. Here, President Ho Chi Minh started from universal humanistic values ​​of all humanity as the basis and goal for the struggle of the Vietnamese people. He affirmed that the struggle for national liberation of Vietnam is also to realize the legitimate, sacred rights that no one can violate, and is the continuation of the flag of national liberation and human liberation that the French and American revolutions raised high.

Not only inheriting, President Ho Chi Minh also expanded and developed the values ​​of previous declarations in the new era. Some researchers pointed out that in the American Declaration of Independence, the original phrase “all people” was “all men”.

The original of that sentence was set in the context of America in the late 18th century when slavery and racial discrimination existed, the men with rights mentioned in the Declaration were only white men. Thus, the basic human rights, those inherent rights were only for white men. While President Ho Chi Minh clearly affirmed that rights are for "everyone", regardless of status, class, religion, gender, or ethnicity. That is an absolute expansion, bringing great values ​​and in line with the progressive development of humanity.

Not just for Vietnam

In the Declaration of Independence read in Hanoi in 1945, Ho Chi Minh expanded the connotation of the concept of national rights in both breadth and depth. Based on the situation of colonial Vietnam that had just gained independence and the international historical context at that time, Ho Chi Minh affirmed: National rights are not only the right to national self-determination but also the right to equality, freedom, unity and territorial integrity.

National independence is closely linked to the principles of national equality and self-determination, with the right to life and the right to happiness of each nation. Moreover, the right to independence and equality here must be established in relation to all countries in the world, regardless of size, strength or difference in political regime. Therefore, the Declaration of Independence is no longer reserved for the Vietnamese people alone, but is also an encouragement and sacred affirmation of all nations in the world, especially small and weak nations under colonial rule.

From human rights extended to national rights, the Declaration of Independence contributed to the creation and affirmation of a new legal and justice foundation of human civilization, aiming at fairness, equality, and the elimination of oppression, exploitation, and injustice on the national and international levels. That justice later became not only a constitutional principle of Vietnam and many other countries, but also an international legal provision when it was recorded in international conventions related to national sovereignty, national independence, and self-determination.

Looking back at the journey from the time the young man Nguyen Tat Thanh left Nha Rong Wharf with the image "From then on, he took his first steps/ Drifting across the four seas, on a ship/ A stormy life, in coal dust/ Hands burning the stove, wiping pans, chopping vegetables"... until the day the Declaration of Independence was born, affirming to the world that "Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence" is a journey of "thirty years without rest".

During his lifetime, the late General Secretary Le Kha Phieu once answered the Western press that, from the time the French invaded Vietnam until before 1930, according to statistics, the whole country had 300 uprisings and uprisings against the French, but all failed.

As the political poet Che Lan Vien wrote: Our ancestors once broke their hands before the door of life/ The door was still closed and life was silently locked/ “The statues of Tay Phuong Pagoda” did not know how to answer/ The whole nation was poor and hungry in straw/ The soul-calling literature was soaked with falling raindrops/ Then with empty hands from Dinh, Ly, Tran, Le... The Party created industry/ Our heaven's palace is the waves of the Red River/ An Duong Vuong, please wake up with us to build iron and steel/ Is this loudspeaker pleasing to your eyes?

It should be recalled that in 2016, during General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to Washington DC, then-Vice President Joe Biden read two verses of Kieu in English to the General Secretary: Thank heaven we are here today/ To see the sun through parting fog and clouds, to talk about the relationship between the two countries. "This is also a very important milestone on the journey of joint efforts of the two countries to realize the wish of President Ho Chi Minh stated in his February 1946 letter to US President Harry Truman, that is, Vietnam has a full cooperative relationship with the US" - according to the assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This proves that "no one can change the past, the future depends on us"./.

(to be continued)

Viet Dong

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Source: https://baolongan.vn/80-years-of-birth-of-viet-nam-democratic-cong-hoa-binh-minh-cua-lich-su-dan-toc-ban-tuyen-ngon-bat-hu-bai-4--a200625.html