The sky of Hanoi seems higher and bluer, welcoming the first summer sunshine, glowing red with red cotton and bauhinia flowers. The streets and corners of the capital, from the suburbs to the inner city, are brightly decorated with flags and flowers to welcome the great festival, filled with the joy of the three regions: Hanoi - Hue - Saigon and Hanoi - Dien Bien.
1. Hanoi - Dien Bien Phu are only half an hour away by airline but the weather conditions in the Northern Delta and the mountainous Northwest are very different. For the past few days, to be more precise, for almost a week, the sky in Dien Bien province and Dien Bien Phu city has been cloudy, foggy, with light rain in the morning and at night, and the weather is cool and pleasant. It seems that this is also the last cold spell of the season - the cold of Miss Ban is coming. Cold wind and spring colors have once again come to the land of Ban flowers - the "Capital" of the mountainous Northwest.
Memorial area of General Vo Nguyen Giap at the Dien Bien Phu Campaign Command Headquarters in Muong Phang. Photo: Tuan Diep
Dien Bien Airport has been upgraded, renovated and expanded, with a capacity doubled, meeting the requirements for A320 and A321 transport aircraft to take off and land. It will be put into use before the Lunar New Year 2024, and can accommodate half a million passengers per year. Modern Dien Bien aviation trade paves the way for the economy of trade in goods, tourism and culture, not only in the provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Son La, but also in the entire Northwest region, connecting and integrating, creating new opportunities for comprehensive development.
2. The people of Dien Bien Phu city are living and working in the atmosphere of a great festival. From Vo Nguyen Giap and Hoang Van Thai avenues to the streets and roads, everything is beautifully decorated, filled with the red color of flags and flowers, the splendid colors of the fresh spring day, welcoming the great festival of the country and the nation. On the faces of the children wearing red scarves carrying their books to school or the Tay, Thai, Mong, Dao girls and the black-toothed, "tang cau" old ladies with their hair tied up high, all exude the confidence and pride of the owners of the country - the heroic citizens of Dien Bien.
Dien Bien Phu City has soon completed preparations to welcome millions of relatives and tourists to gather on the occasion of the grand celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory Day. 70 years, equivalent to the average age of a person - bringing people closer to the age of seventy-five! 70 years compared to the history of a nation, a country is not long, but how many old men and women who held guns, hugged explosives, pushed carts during the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in the past, are present today with their comrades to revisit this battlefield!?
We, the descendants of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, were fortunate to be present in the heroic city of Dien Bien Phu on the day of the National Scientific Conference "Dien Bien Phu Victory and the cause of building and defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" (April 2024) chaired by the Ministry of National Defense, in coordination with Dien Bien province and central ministries and branches. The conference reaffirmed the correct guidelines and wise leadership of our Party and Uncle Ho; the will to fight and win, the ardent patriotism, the great political strength and spirit of the nation; the uniqueness and creativity of Vietnamese military art; an opportunity for the entire Party, people and army to review the tradition of steadfast and indomitable struggle of generations of fathers and brothers, and to remember our heroic compatriots and comrades who sacrificed themselves in the cause of national liberation.
Explosive crater on Hill A1 relic. Photo: Tuan Diep
3. Over the past half century, Vietnam has made its mark on the world map with the place names and famous people honored: "Vietnam - Dien Bien Phu - Ho Chi Minh - Vo Nguyen Giap". After the August Revolution in 1945, the Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954, our army and people recorded a feat equal to the place names of Bach Dang, Chi Lang, Dong Da, Rach Gam, Xoai Mut - the brilliant milestones of fighting against foreign invaders, creating a golden history: "Famous in five continents, shaking the earth", "Nine years of Dien Bien / Created a red wreath, created a golden history".
The Dien Bien Phu victory ended the nine-year long resistance war of our army and people, forcing the French colonialists to sit at the negotiating table, sign the Geneva Agreement, recognize the independence, unity, and territorial integrity of the three countries: Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia, and accept the withdrawal of troops from Indochina.
The Dien Bien Phu victory created an important turning point in the history of the revolutionary struggle of Laos and Cambodia. The Dien Bien Phu victory was the pinnacle of the resistance war, with “56 days and nights of digging mountains, sleeping in tunnels, pouring rain, rice balls/ Blood mixed with mud”, we created a new miracle, that is the victory of national pride, determined not to lose the country, not to be slaves.
With the military art of "encircling, encroaching, attacking, destroying, and exterminating", the skillful direction of the Commander-in-Chief, General Vo Nguyen Giap and the Campaign Staff, changed the combat strategy from "fighting quickly, resolving quickly" expected in 2 days and 3 nights to "fighting steadily, advancing steadily", we won complete victory.
At 3:30 p.m. on May 7, 1954, our troops bravely charged from all directions, captured the Command Headquarters of the Dien Bien Phu stronghold, and captured General De Casdtries and the French military command staff in Dien Bien.
The operations house, where the Dien Bien Phu Campaign Command holds daily meetings. Photo: Tuan Diep
4. Dien Bien Phu today, there are still traces of the strongest group of strongholds of the French colonialists at that time, located in the Dien Bien basin, 49 checkpoints on the high points, have been preserved, embellished to become immortal historical - cultural relics, echoing the feat of "blood, mud and flowers". Those are the relics of the strongholds of hills A1, D1, C2, Him Lam, Doc Lap, Ban Keo, Muong Thanh airport, De Castries bunker. And there, the Dien Bien Phu Victory Monument, the Dien Bien Phu Victory History Museum, the Campaign Command Headquarters in Muong Phang. Recently, our State has completed the Dien Bien Phu Battlefield Martyrs Temple located on a high hill among the clouds and mountain winds next to Hill A1.
In memory of the great contributions of thousands and tens of thousands of heroic martyrs who fell, creating the Dien Bien Phu Victory, our Party and State have gathered them together with their comrades at three national martyrs' cemeteries: A1, Doc Lap, Him Lam. Next to that, there is Tong Khao martyrs' cemetery, gathering martyrs of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who fought and sacrificed on the land of Laos.
The cemetery covers an area of over 32,000 square meters , where there are 644 graves of officers and soldiers who heroically sacrificed their lives in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. Photo: Tuan Diep
A1 Martyrs Cemetery, the resting place of 644 heroic martyrs, but only 4 martyrs have enough grounds to have their names engraved on their tombstones: Heroes: Tran Can, Phan Dinh Giot, To Vinh Dien, Be Van Dan, the rest are "unknown" martyrs. Only then can we know how fierce the war was, because their flesh and blood were "mixed with mud"...
5. More than 160 years have passed since the French colonialists opened fire to invade Vietnam (in 1858) and seven decades since the epic Dien Bien Phu was celebrated, we sent the last French soldier home after the 1954 Geneva Agreement. The Vietnam-France relationship has gone through many ups and downs, and is now developing deeply and effectively. Promoting the Vietnamese spirit and the flexible "Vietnamese bamboo diplomacy" policy, we are ready to shake hands and be friends with countries around the world, regardless of political regime.
In 1973, Vietnam and France established diplomatic relations. In 2013, Vietnam-France relations were upgraded to a Strategic Partnership. We have welcomed visits from French Presidents, including President F. Mitterand (1993), President J. Chirac (1997, 2004), and President F. Hollande (2016). The two countries have effective and comprehensive cooperation in all areas, from economic cooperation, defense - security, trade, investment, science - technology, education - training, innovation, digital transformation, green transformation, culture, and people-to-people exchange. Economic, trade, and investment cooperation is one of the pillars in Vietnam-France relations, when the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union (EVFTA) comes into effect (August 2020).
The command bunker of the Dien Bien Phu stronghold is located in the center of the Dien Bien basin. Photo: Tuan Diep
6. Coming to Dien Bien and Lai Chau is coming to the common home of the Northwest, the homeland of the fragile and graceful Ban flowers; the attractive Thai Xoe dance that captivates tourists. The Nam Rom River is still green with its cool, clear water, irrigating the rice fields and Muong Thanh rice fields with sticky and fragrant rice, taking us to cultural villages and new rural areas. Dien Bien Province and Dien Bien Phu City are twinned with the capital Hanoi; the homeland of gratitude and repayment of provinces and cities in the spirit of the whole country joining hands and contributing to Dien Bien, Dien Bien for the whole country, so that "Muong Thanh, Hong Cum, Him Lam/ Apricot flowers are white again, orange gardens are yellow again".
The increasingly spacious and modern economic, commercial, tourist, cultural and social works springing up in Dien Bien and Dien Bien Phu city are not only a proper recognition and worthy compensation for the noble sacrifices of the people of all ethnic groups for independence and freedom, but also the heart, intelligence and efforts of the people of the capital and the whole country with the people of the Northwest, so that the mountainous region can soon catch up with the lowland region.
In recent days, responding to the campaigns of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Vietnam Veterans Association, organizations, associations, agencies, units and authorities at all levels have been mobilizing and contributing funds to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses and build Great Solidarity houses for veterans, youth volunteers, frontline laborers serving the Dien Bien Phu Campaign and their families who are facing special difficulties.
Suddenly, I woke up to the heroic song: "Liberating Dien Bien, our troops marched back/ In the middle of the blooming season, the Northwest was jubilant and happy."
Dien Bien Phu, the immortal heroic epic, the torch of revolution forever burning, illuminating the hearts and minds of each of us!
Source
Comment (0)