Dien Bien Phu Victory: Lessons on promoting internal strength

After nine years of persistent and steadfast resistance, overcoming sacrifices and losses, our army and people achieved the victory of Dien Bien Phu, creating a “golden history” in the history of the nation’s struggle to defend the country. That victory originated from the endogenous strength of a nation that shared hardships, fought and built up its forces, gradually defeated the war plans of the French colonialists to achieve victory in the decisive strategic battle.

Groups of porters on the front lines with bicycles and manpower served the Dien Bien Phu battlefield. (Excerpt from the panorama recreating the Dien Bien Phu Victory)

1. With the spirit of “Rather sacrifice everything, but never lose the country, never become slaves” has united millions of Vietnamese people as one, creating the strength of a nation united in unity, joining forces to drive out the French colonialists. That is the internal strength of the entire nation brought into play under the leadership of the correct line of the vanguard party for the benefit of the nation and people. That internal strength has continuously defeated the enemy's war plans.

With the victory of Viet Bac in the Fall-Winter of 1947, the enemy was forced to abandon the plan of "fighting fast, winning fast", accepting the war to last longer than expected, bringing the resistance war to the stage of "our strength and the enemy's strength gradually being equal", to step up the movement to gain strategic initiative with the victory of the Fall-Winter Border Campaign in 1950. "At this point, our strength was superior to the enemy's strength, the enemy's strength was declining, inferior to ours" pushing the French colonialists deeper and deeper into a passive position, forced to rely entirely on American aid to maintain the war with the desire to win a military victory to end it with honor. That was the promotion of internal strength to build armed forces.

Along with that, the Party issued and implemented effective "nation-building" policies that encouraged all people to enthusiastically participate in the resistance war, promoted the abilities of all Vietnamese citizens, and created great potential to defeat the enemy.

The people's democratic government is increasingly consolidated and developed, creating one of the fundamental factors in leading and organizing the people to participate in promoting the resistance war. This is the fundamental factor in mobilizing all potentials and promoting the nation's internal strength to increasingly gain more decisive victories.

In order to increase internal strength, the Party advocated "strengthening economic and financial leadership to ensure a long-term resistance war, nurturing the people's strength, and making the resistance war develop smoothly towards victory". In agricultural production, with the policy of increasing production by the entire population and having policies to mobilize and encourage the participation of military units, although the country had to confront foreign invaders, food output not only decreased but tended to increase, providing enough for the militia and people, preventing people from going hungry for long periods, which was a step in preparation for "food security and strong soldiers". The increasingly consolidated and developed economy stabilized people's lives, creating conditions for people to contribute to the resistance war. Along with that, culture and education were increasingly developed, contributing significantly to improving people's knowledge and creating a source of cadres for the resistance war.

The above factors are steps to promote internal strength, mobilize the great strength of the whole nation, and prepare a solid premise to combine with the strength of the times, creating potential for the whole country to enter the strategic battle of Dien Bien Phu, and gain a decisive victory.

2. Deciding to build Dien Bien Phu into an unprecedentedly strong stronghold in the Indochina war, ready to crush the main force of the Viet Minh, and gain a decisive victory, Henri Navarre and the warmongers in the French and American ruling circles all believed that they had the advantage, because "French defensive structures were organized according to the most modern principles, especially with the help of the Americans, and were inviolable.

Vietnamese artillery was inferior to ours in any case, and could not climb to the high peaks around the basin. General Giap's forces could not be supplied with weapons, ammunition and food. Transporting tens of thousands of tons through the jungle was a strange task, and we controlled the air and bombarded the Viet Minh's communication routes, and they could not avoid it.

However, our army and people raised their determination to “definitely use all their strength to support the Dien Bien Phu campaign and definitely do everything necessary to achieve total victory for the campaign”. All over the country, from the Viet Bac resistance base to the marshlands of Dong Thap, from the rear of Inter-zone 4 to the ethnic minorities of the Central Highlands, from the newly liberated Northwest region to the guerrilla zones and guerrilla bases in the Northern Delta, from Zone 5, the heart of the central region,… concentrated their efforts and hearts on the decisive strategic battle.

The people's strength was promoted, the road and bridge front was promoted, the whole nation enthusiastically went to battle, creating a people's logistics front, with the participation of 261,453 laborers with 18,301,570 working days; using 20,911 bicycles, 11,800 rafts... transporting 25,056 tons of rice, 1,824 tons of meat and dried food, thousands of tons of vegetables to supply the campaign. Journalist Jules Roy affirmed: "It was not the outside aid that defeated General Navarre, but the Peugeot bicycles, carrying 200, 300 kg of goods and pushing them with human power, people who did not have enough to eat and slept right on the ground covered with plastic sheets.

What defeated General Navarre was not the means, but the intelligence and will of the enemy (the Vietnamese people-TG)”. The internal strength of the nation solved the logistical problem, a weakness that the enemy thought we could not overcome. The frontline porters not only completed the task of transporting food and ammunition, but they also excellently completed the task of transmitting the strength of the rear, adding fighting spirit to the cadres and soldiers on the Dien Bien Phu battlefield. This was the important factor to create victory.

At the conference summarizing the campaign, General and Commander-in-Chief Vo Nguyen Giap commented: “Imperialists and reactionaries never appreciate the strength of the people. That strength can overcome all difficulties and defeat all enemies.” It was the people who created the internal strength to achieve this great victory. The internal strength of the nation was built from tradition, from the will for independence and freedom, from the determination to defeat the invaders, creating an army of excellent qualities, which was an important factor in achieving the victory of Dien Bien Phu.

3. In September 1946, at the Fontainebleau Conference, the head of the French delegation, Max André, arrogantly declared to comrade Pham Van Dong, head of the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam: “You see, you should be reasonable, you know that in case the negotiations fail, you will see war and our army will crush your guerrillas in a few weeks…”. But less than eight years later, France had to struggle to find an honorable way out by betting on the Dien Bien Phu stronghold and had to accept the failure, accept the end of the war, and recognize the independence and sovereignty of the country that was once the most beautiful colony that they did not want to give up.

The Party's "resistance and nation building" policy has responded to the aspirations of the nation. The Vietnamese people have devoted themselves to creating internal strength to achieve the Dien Bien Phu Victory, successfully ending the long-term resistance war. That achievement comes from the tradition of thousands of years of defending the country, the strength of the will of a self-reliant nation, not willing to be enslaved, guided by Ho Chi Minh's thought, the revolutionary war viewpoint of Marxism-Leninism, and empowered by the times; leaving a great lesson on promoting the combined strength of the entire nation to create great internal strength to bring the country to strength and prosperity.

To fully promote the strength of the nation, create great internal strength for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland, we need to strive to build a truly clean and strong Party, firmly uphold the goal of advancing to socialism. Eliminate corruption and bureaucracy in the government apparatus, in order to consolidate the strength of the state, and increase the people's trust. Build a state "of the people, by the people, for the people", promote administrative reform; perfect the legal corridor; build a contingent of civil servants with both virtue and talent; improve the quality of human resources; carry out industrialization and modernization, enhance economic potential; implement great national unity, arouse all resources, all potentials and strengths of the country; exploit and use resources reasonably to create the internal strength of the entire nation to serve the cause of building and defending the Fatherland. Lessons from the resistance war against French colonialism and the Dien Bien Phu Victory make us realize this more clearly.

(According to Nhandan.vn)

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