"Liberate the South"

“Liberate the South, let us all move forward together/ Destroy the American imperialists, destroy the traitors/... Here is the majestic Mekong Delta, Here is the glorious Truong Son/ Urging our troops to volunteer to kill the enemy”.

Musician Luu Huu Phuoc.

In December 1960, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was born, requiring an official song of the Front, which both stated the revolutionary line and called on the people to rise up to drive out the invaders and liberate their homeland. In early 1961, this task was assigned to three comrades: Huynh Van Tieng, Mai Van Bo and Luu Huu Phuoc (abbreviated as the Hoang Mai Luu group). The group agreed to assign Luu Huu Phuoc to compose the song, and the group would give comments and make corrections. Within a week, the song "Liberate the South" was completed.

The song closely followed the policy of armed struggle, calling on all people to fight under the Party's flag "Shoulder to shoulder, under the same flag/... Swear to save the country! Swear to sacrifice to the end/ Holding swords, embracing guns, charging forward/ The fate of the country has come. Dawn shines everywhere/ Building a bright and eternal country".

After listening to the song, comrade Pham Hung, then a senior official of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, said: "Okay, very good!... Very good! Welcome and thank you, comrades." The song was quickly spread widely through the waves of Liberation Radio, Voice of Vietnam Radio and art troupes.

There is an interesting detail: When recording the author's name, the group wrote Huynh Minh Lieng (instead of Huynh, Mai, Luu) to keep it a secret. But when published in Nhan Dan newspaper, for some unknown reason, it was printed as Huynh Minh Sieng. Later, the author did not change it because the word Sieng also has a positive meaning.

Professor and musician Luu Huu Phuoc (1921 - 1989, from Can Tho) is famous for his political songs associated with the history of the national revolution. He was the Minister of Information and Culture of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam; Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture andEducation ; Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts. He was awarded the First Class Independence Medal and the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts. In his hometown of Can Tho, the city's central park and high school were honored to be named after musician Luu Huu Phuoc.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/giai-phong-mien-nam-699890.html