Thursday, November 11, 2010

Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (September 2, 1945)

Declaration of Independence of the
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam
(September 2, 1945)
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 earth are equal
from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and
free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on
the Rights of Man and the Citizen 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.
Their have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.
In the field of politics, 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 Viet Nam in order to wreck our national unity and
prevent our people from being united.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly
slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in
rivers of blood.
They have fettered public opinion; they have practised obscurantism
against our people.
To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.
In the field of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone,
impoverished our people and devastated our land.
They have robbed us of our ricefields, our mines, our forests
and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issuing of
bank-notes and the export trade.
They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced
our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme
poverty.
They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie;
they have mercilessly exploited our workers.
In the autumn of 1940 when the Japanese fascists violated
Indo-China’s territory to establish new bases in their fight
against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their
bended knees and handed over our country to them.
Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double
yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and
miseries increased. The result was that from the end of last
year to the beginning of this year, from Quang Tri province to
the North of Viet Nam, more than two millions of our fellowcitizens
died from starvation. On the 9th of March, the French
troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French colonialists
either fled or surrendered, showing that not only were they incapable
of “protecting” us, but that, in the span of five years,
they had twice sold our country to the Japanese.
On several occasions before the 9th of March, the Viet Minh
League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the
Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists
so intensified their terrorist activities against the Viet
Minh members that before fleeing they massacred a great number
of our political prisoners at Yen Bay and Cao Bang.
Notwithstanding all this, our fellow-citizens have always
manifested towards the French a tolerant and humane attitude.
Even after the Japanese putsch of March 1945, the Viet Minh
League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued
some of them from Japanese jails and protected French lives
and property.
From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to
be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession.
After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole
people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam.
The truth is that we have wrested our independence from
the Japanese and not from the French.
The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor
Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the
chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have
won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same
time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned
supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established
the present Democratic Republic.
For these reasons we, members of the Provisional Government,
representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that
from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character
with France; we repeal all the international obligation that
France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Viet Nam and we
abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired
in our Fatherland.
The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose,
are determined to fight to the bitter end against any
attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country.
We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Teheran
and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination
and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge
the independence of Viet Nam.
A people who have courageously opposed French domination
for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side
by side with the Allies against the fascists during these last
years, such a people must be free and independent.
For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government
of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, solemnly declare
to the world that Viet Nam has the right to be a free and
independent country—and in fact it is so already. The entire
Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical
and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in
order to safeguard their independence and liberty.
Source: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, 4 vols. (Hanoi, 1960–1962), III, 17–21.