Professor Tran Van Giau: The mark of a personality: The 'soul' of the August Revolution in the South (Part 2)

Professor Tran Van Giau had a life full of glory and pride. During his revolutionary career, Professor, People's Teacher, Hero of Labor Tran Van Giau - former Secretary of the Southern Party Committee, former Chairman of the Southern Resistance Committee, used all his enthusiasm, strength, and intelligence to devote his whole life to the independence, freedom, and prosperous development of the country. Not only was he a veteran revolutionary and a great scientist, he was also a teacher of many generations of Vietnamese students and teachers.

Lesson 2: The "Soul" of the August Revolution in the South

In the context of the South being far from the Central, with his well-trained knowledge, innate intelligence, ability to analyze reality, predict trends according to dialectical laws, with a strong will, strong spirit, deeply imbued with the heroic tradition of the nation, Tran Van Giau was the one who made history during the August Revolution in the South, which according to him was both "an actor and a stage director of this heroic historical play".

The relic of Tong Than's House (now in Long An ward) is a testament to the August Revolution in the old Tan An province.

Establishment of the Vanguard Youth - A great innovation

In the 15 years before the August Revolution, the revolutionary movement was brutally suppressed by the French colonialists, especially in the South. Mr. Giau was arrested many times and spent time in 3 prisons (Saigon Central Prison, Con Dao Prison, Ta Lai). However, he and his group of comrades twice tried every way to restore the organization and rebuild the force. With extraordinary determination and clear intelligence, he and the Regional Party Committee successfully led the General Uprising to seize power in the South (August 1945).

The Southern Uprising (November 1940) was violently suppressed by the French colonialists, the Party organization and the masses in the Southern provinces suffered heavy losses. The restoration of revolutionary forces in the Southern region encountered many difficulties. Meanwhile, the Southern Party Committee was divided into two regional committees. Although both had the same goals and ideals, there were also some inconsistencies in their activities.

At the time of the Japanese coup against the French, the Central Party Standing Committee met in March 1945 and issued a directive on Japanese-French fighting and our actions, determining the direction of action of the entire Party and people in the anti-Japanese, national salvation movement. However, due to the distance from the Central Committee and the difficult conditions of transportation and communication, the Southern Party Committee at that time did not receive this directive.

The Southern Regional Party Committee, with Tran Van Giau as Secretary, advocated: “We must find a number of forms of organization and public activities - not necessarily legal - that are in line with our intentions, with a high political mobilization nature, first of all for the youth, to mobilize tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people, bringing them to the streets under the slogan of national liberation revolution.”

According to Associate Professor (PGS), Doctor (TS) Phan Xuan Bien - Vice President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, one of the creative marks that contributed to accelerating the preparation of the general uprising force was the direction of the Secretary of the Regional Party Committee Tran Van Giau to establish the Vanguard Youth. In May 1945, assigned by the Southern Regional Party Committee, Doctor Pham Ngoc Thach established and became the leader of the Vanguard Youth organization, using the Viet Minh flag but changing the color, the yellow background with a red star as the flag and choosing the song Len Dang as the official song of the Vanguard Youth.

Inside the relic of the General's House

“Previously, the assessment of the Vanguard Youth force was also different and not accurate or precise. Later, the Party History Institute determined it very clearly. We call it “green on the outside, red on the inside”. We see that Mr. Giau was creative in that if there was no flag, they would bring in their other forces... And what about the flag, if we make a red flag with a yellow star like the Viet Minh, it will be exposed, but if we change the yellow flag with a red star to a red flag with a yellow star, it will be fine. So after transferring the Vanguard Youth to the Viet Minh, the flag was changed back. This initiative was very good, and later, the experiences in the August Revolution were studied in the period of fighting against the US and saving the country” - Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Xuan Bien said.

Join the General Uprising

Professor Tran Van Giau once said: “Revolution is the people’s cause; the Party’s forces alone cannot make a revolution; there must be participation and uprising of millions of compatriots.” And the August Revolution is a strong proof of that saying.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Duc Cuong talks about Tran Van Giau's mark in the August Revolution in the South

The August Revolution in Saigon - Cho Lon - Gia Dinh had common points with the whole country, typically in Hanoi and Hue, and at the same time had many specific features reflecting the context and conditions far from the Central Government's grasp of the general direction. Thereby, it reflected the dynamism and creativity of the Regional Party Committee with Secretary Tran Van Giau as its leader.

The profound mark of Tran Van Giau in the August Revolution was the determination with the clear intelligence of a revolutionary leader, the cleverness, sensitivity, and creativity of a strategist. Tran Van Giau saw the "once in a hundred years" opportunity, so he and the Standing Committee of the Regional Party Committee established the Uprising Committee on the evening of August 15 and convened the Regional Party Committee Conference to issue the uprising order and appoint the Provisional Administrative Committee of the South.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Duc Cuong - Chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, said that on August 20, upon hearing the news of the Hanoi uprising, that very evening, the Cho Dem Conference reconvened, everyone was excited, thinking that it would be over in the morning, and on the afternoon of August 21, they would "press the button" for the uprising. But the opinions of the "non-uprising faction" continued to analyze, especially worried about the Japanese army. Theory had not yet been able to determine the winner, so we had to resort to practice, so we agreed to take Tan An (Tran Van Giau's hometown) as a pilot uprising. Because Mr. Giau understood the people and this land very well, and on August 22, Tan An successfully revolted. From the victory at Tan An, the Regional Party Committee decided on the uprising day for the whole of Cochinchina, contributing to the general uprising of the whole country - the first greatest feat of the 20th century led by our Party.

Location of the Regional Party Committee Conference to discuss the uprising on September 16 and 17, 1945 in Cho Dem

In the conditions of extremely great "obstacles" as mentioned above, the uprising was carried out very quickly. This is a prominent feature of the August Revolution in Saigon and the provinces and cities of the South, bearing the mark of intelligence, strategy and correct leadership of the Southern Regional Party Committee with Secretary Tran Van Giau. In the condition of heavy losses in forces after the Southern Uprising, the Regional Party Committee "countered the enemy" and quickly built a "political army" including the public forces - the Vanguard Youth and the National Salvation Youth, workers and farmers, and other social classes. With the intelligence and will of Tran Van Giau, with the experience of the people of Saigon taking advantage of the legal publicity to operate, in a short period of a few months, the Vanguard Youth developed into one of the largest organizations.

Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Xuan Bien analyzed that, in addition to the courage and intelligence in deciding on the timing and building forces, the uprising in Saigon - Nam Bo was directed "closely following the science and art of uprising of Marxism-Leninism", and was assessed by domestic and foreign historians as "different" from other places in that it "occupied from within", "was more concentrated and orderly", "more uniform" because everything had been carefully prepared. That was the result of "ability and will" which was the basic content of Tran Van Giau's courage in the August Revolution.

Tran Van Giau's bravery and intelligence were also demonstrated during the organization of the "Independence Ceremony" in Saigon at 2 p.m. on Cong Hoa Avenue (Norodom Avenue, Le Duan Street today) behind Notre Dame Cathedral. Due to technical problems at that time, Saigon could not broadcast Uncle Ho's reading of the Declaration of Independence from Ba Dinh, Hanoi. Therefore, Secretary of the Regional Party Committee and Chairman of the Southern Administrative Committee Tran Van Giau went up to the stage and spoke to the crowd: "Vietnam, from a colony, has become an independent country",... he called on the people to "resolutely oppose all invasions" and "be ready to fight". That was the declaration to the citizens of Saigon - Southern Vietnam: Our country is an independent country, a democratic country, everyone must be ready to protect that independence, against all invasions.

And the lesson about the power of the people, about the role of the people, about building a revolutionary government of the people, by the people, for the people was absorbed and experienced by Tran Van Giau, and drawn as a historical lesson that will forever remain valuable..../.

(to be continued)

Thanh Nga

Lesson 3: Courage and personality

Source: https://baolongan.vn/giao-su-tran-van-giau-dau-an-mot-nhan-cach-linh-hon-cach-mang-thang-tam-o-nam-bo-bai-2--a203420.html