Careful every day
During the presentation of national archives about the Dien Bien Phu campaign and the Geneva Conference on the morning of April 5.4 in Hanoi, Ms. Tran Viet Hoa, Director of National Archives Center 3, read a document from Dien Bien Phu's memoirs. Doctor Ton That Tung's notes: "This morning, I was preparing to visit my seriously injured brothers. Last night it rained. Thinking about the wounded soldiers on the front lines in the trenches brings tears to my eyes, my body stirs like I see my children in pain. Never before have I understood the love of fellow soldiers like today. It's cold, it's cool, it's sunny, luckily for the soldiers who are fighting. Our heroic soldiers advanced too quickly. During this campaign, there were fewer days of day operations than night operations. During night surgery, as long as there are planes, the light is limited...".
Our troops volunteered to occupy the blockhouse on C1 hill
NATIONAL ARCHIVES CENTER DOCUMENTS 3
Ms. Hoa said that the documents about Dien Bien Phu like the memoir mentioned above show from the opening of the campaign, the preparations from both sides to the entire campaign. Including the Government's guiding documents from resolutions, directives, President Ho Chi Minh's Call... There are also many different records and autographs. According to Ms. Hoa: "If you want to look at this day and that year, there are reports from the National Assembly with detailed records. The stories also come from many sources such as the National Assembly, ministries, departments, and foreign archives such as France and Russia."
Therefore, people interested in the Dien Bien Phu campaign can access a variety of photo and paper documents. At a high level, we can see images of President Ho Chi Minh and leaders Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, and Vo Nguyen Giap meeting to discuss the decision to open the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in December 12.1953. On the French side, there are also photos of General Navarre and General De Castries meeting to discuss plans to build a defensive battlefield for the Dien Bien Phu stronghold in 1953, and photos of French troops parachuting into Dien Bien Phu on November 20.11.1953, XNUMX. Both of these photographic documents were provided by the French Ministry of Defense Archives.
The text is also diverse. These include the memoir Dien Bien Phu, a Vietnamese noun by Ther Moi, two volumes of Memoires by General Vo Nguyen Giap printed in French, and the book Some Memories of Dien Bien Phu by authors Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Ngoc. Mau, Vu Lang, Nam Long, Vuong Thua Vu, Ton That Tung... There are reports on the liberation of Dien Bien Phu by the Lai Chau Police Department, reports of the Administrative Committee of Vinh Phuc province on the awarding of rewards for the war. Soldiers and soldiers of the Dien Bien Phu front...
In the long term, Ms. Hoa said that in the coming time, when necessary, the center will also declassify new Dien Bien Phu documents, done in accordance with the provisions of law.
National treasures
Ms. Tran Viet Hoa assessed the great value of archival documents about Dien Bien Phu, "it can definitely be proposed to become a national treasure, for example, the instructions of President Ho Chi Minh, or sets of minutes related to the content of the meeting as well as the progress of the campaign, for example."
According to Ms. Hoa, the Dien Bien Phu victory was a process of preparation and direction of the Party, with implementation by many agencies. “In the archives there are records of the National Assembly, the Government, President Ho Chi Minh, and the leaders of the Party and State. Those documents, those guiding writings, even though we see them today as just a page, still preserve the entire nation's history. All of these are worthy of being national treasures," Ms. Hoa said.
Ms. Hoa also talked about building a national treasure file for Dien Bien Phu documents. “The National Archives Center has the criteria that archived documents are permanent documents and only documents with very special national value can be archived. Thus, each document when put into the national archive already has very special value and can completely be used as a nomination dossier for a national treasure," she said.
According to Ms. Hoa, when building a national treasure dossier, the center will pay attention to the criteria for building dossiers. “We will present relatively complete and complete sets of documents. But I also hope there will be more attention and participation from historians or the public," she said.
