August Revolution: No hand can cover the "Sun of Truth" Part 4: The Revolution and the Immortal Manifesto

It would be a mistake if this series of articles did not mention the Declaration of Independence - a masterpiece of literature. The Declaration is politically strong, diplomatically flexible, humane in policy and as beautiful as a political poem. There is something that needs to be said first, 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. Some readers commented that a person with the title of professor should not have such behavior, because it is not serious in academics and not decent in character.

While some Vietnamese people in the country or abroad constantly attack and defame the historical event of August Autumn and insult the leader, the soul of the revolution, it is those in the countries that once sent troops to invade Vietnam who acknowledge his greatness.

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

In 22 years, the Declaration of Independence written and read by President Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi will be 100 years old. The further back we go, the more we see the immortal value of this declaration. We know that the Declaration of Independence of the United States 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 feudalism, guiding people towards democratic values, noble human 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 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.”

From the first lines of Vietnam's 1945 Declaration of Independence, President Ho Chi Minh quoted the most famous sentences in those two historical declarations with great respect: "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...".

Here, President Ho Chi Minh started from universal humanistic values as the basis and goal for the struggle of the Vietnamese people. He affirmed that the struggle for national liberation of Vietnam was also aimed at realizing legitimate, sacred rights that no one could violate, and was a continuation of the flag of national liberation and human liberation that the French and American revolutions had raised high.

Not only inheriting, President Ho Chi Minh 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 still existed, and 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. Meanwhile, President Ho Chi Minh clearly affirmed that rights were for “everyone”, regardless of status, class, religion, gender, or ethnicity. That was an absolute expansion, bringing great values and being consistent with the progressive development of humanity.

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

National independence is closely linked to the principles of national equality and self-determination, to 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 to national rights, the Declaration of Independence contributed to creating and affirming a new legal and justice foundation of human civilization, towards 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 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 in front of the door of life/ The door was still closed and life was locked silently/ “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 the industry/ Our heaven is the waves of the Red River/ An Duong Vuong, please wake up and build iron and steel with us/ Is this loudspeaker pleasing to your eyes?”.

It should be recalled that in 2015, during the visit of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to Washington DC, the then Vice President, Mr. Joe Biden (now the 46th President of the United States) 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 series of articles was published on the occasion of President Joe Biden's visit to Vietnam (September 10-11, 2023) at the invitation of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. "This is also a very important milestone in 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, but the future depends on us”. Through this, we can see that the great leaders of the nation, in any era, are all “mountains”. Therefore, do not waste time throwing stones at those “mountains”, because the more stones are thrown at them, the higher the mountain will become.

In the 2000 General Education Program, the Declaration of Independence was printed in full, original text and taught very carefully in the 12th grade Literature textbook. The Declaration of Independence appeared many times in the high school graduation exam. In the 2018 General Education Program, the Declaration of Independence is one of six (very few) works that must be taught, including: Nam Quoc Son Ha, Hich Tuong Si, Binh Ngo Dai Cao, Truyen Kieu, Van Te Nghia Si Can Giuoc and Declaration of Independence. This shows the value of this heroic piece of literature not only in terms of politics, history, diplomacy, and law, but also in terms of art. In particular, the art of argumentation in the Declaration is considered exemplary, classic, and modern in style.

Viet Dong

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