Miracles from intelligence and people's hearts

These days, Dinh Hoa land - the "origin" of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, welcomes a large number of tourists. At a time when the whole country is joyfully welcoming the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory, Thai Nguyen people are even more proud of their homeland's history. For the people here, "9 years of Dien Bien" is not only a glorious victory but also demonstrates the strength of intelligence and people's hearts, of solidarity and passionate patriotism.

Tourists visit the Tin Keo hut relic - ATK Dinh Hoa, where the Politburo meeting took place on December 6, 1953, deciding to launch the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. Photo: TL

As an event of great significance to the history of Vietnam, the Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7, 1954) is considered an epic of the spirit and determination to fight and win, of the intelligence and mettle of the Vietnamese people in the revolutionary struggle for national liberation. This is one of the brilliant peaks in the history of building and defending the country of the Vietnamese people.

Ms. Tran Thi Lan (90 years old, group 8, Hoang Van Thu ward, Thai Nguyen city) said: At the age of 20, I and the people of the whole country celebrated the historic Dien Bien Phu victory. At that time, in the mind of a girl in her twenties, I understood that to achieve that important victory, patriotism, loyalty, and a spirit of courage and overcoming difficulties were needed. Later, I understood more deeply that the historic Dien Bien Phu victory also needed important decisions from our Party, State and Army.

As Ms. Lan shared, the Dien Bien Phu victory clearly demonstrated the intellectual strength of the Vietnamese people. It was the correct, creative and timely strategic policies of the Party Central Committee, President Ho Chi Minh, the Central Military Commission and the Campaign Command.

In particular, grasping the situation, promptly proposing correct policies and strategies; choosing appropriate combat targets, are decisive for the victory of our army and people. Based on objective analysis and assessment of many advantages, difficulties, positions and strengths of both us and the enemy, the Politburo decided to completely destroy the Dien Bien Phu stronghold. We proactively created and seized opportunities, forcing the enemy to passively engage in combat on a battlefield of our choice.

The resounding victory at Dien Bien Phu proved that our strategic policy and choice of combat targets were correct and appropriate, demonstrating Vietnam's intellectual strength.

Along with that, the timely change of the combat motto from “fight fast, solve quickly” to “fight steadily, advance steadily” is also an important factor for us to win. The preparation work for a long campaign had to be reorganized with countless difficulties and challenges, but it was a necessary task, ensuring the victory of a strategic decisive battle. After 56 days and nights of extremely brave and intelligent fighting with countless sacrifices and losses, the Dien Bien Phu Campaign was completely victorious on the afternoon of May 7, 1954.

Veterans at the Dien Bien Phu Campaign Headquarters Relic.

In that context, gaining the sympathy and support of brotherly countries and peace-loving people in the world, promoting national strength combined with the strength of the times was also the intellectual mettle of Vietnam. That was the solidarity and alliance to fight against the common enemy of the army and people of the three brotherly countries of Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia; the material and spiritual assistance of China and the Soviet Union...

Not only demonstrating intellectual strength, the Dien Bien Phu Victory also promoted the strength of national solidarity, raising the spirit of determination to fight and win. With the spirit of "all for the front, all for victory", in the Campaign, our people "contributed 25,560 tons of rice, 226 tons of salt, 1,909 tons of food, 26,453 laborers, 20,991 bicycles, 1,800 bamboo rafts, 756 rudimentary vehicles, 914 pack horses and 3,130 boats".

In many places, due to enemy attacks, the people could not do it in time. In order to have enough food to feed the troops, the people agreed to hand over their rice fields and corn fields to the units to harvest and then record them. In many areas, ethnic minorities even pounded rice at night for the troops, something that was previously taboo according to long-standing customs. Only with absolute trust in the Party and Uncle Ho, would the people be willing to contribute to the campaign like that...

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