- A look back at Ho Chi Minh’s journey seeking a path to national liberation
After four days of the campaign, Vietnamese troops took control of Saigon – Gia Dinh, now Ho Chi Minh City, at noon on April 30. They arrested and forced the President of the Saigon Government to declare an unconditional surrender.
The Ho Chi Minh campaign concluded in a total victory for northern forces, putting an end to the neocolonialism that the United States had taken great lengths to impose on the nation. This represents an important event in the Vietnamese history of fighting foreign aggression in the second half of the 20th century and can be viewed as having both profound historical and epochal significance.
The resounding victory recorded on April 30, 1975, was ultimately a key victory for Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s Thought, the ideology put forward by the Vietnam Workers’ Party, now known as the Communist Party of Vietnam, that combines the cause of national independence with socialism.
The Vietnam Workers’ Party and President Ho Chi Minh set out the revolutionary idea to lead the people’s war to a great success. They competently dealt with relations between various ethnicities and class, between national independence, democracy, and socialism, as well as between national and international interests.
They mobilised all people and the entire army to unite and participate in the resistance war and national construction, creating an aggregate strength for the nation and bringing the cause of the Vietnamese people’s resistance war against US imperialists to a complete victory.
General Van Tien Dung, former Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army during the war against the US imperialists, told Western journalists and scholars that, “Once again I would like to make it clear that all of our victories are sourced from the strength of an entire nation rising up to own the country and master its own destiny in the present-day era.”
Recently, several stories published by some media outlets, as well as posted on some websites and different social media platforms, allegedly distort the historical truth by denying the stature and significance of the victory. They insist that it is not a glorious victory, but only a natural result of the US changing its foreign policy to withdraw troops, reduce aid, and abandon the Saigon Government.
However, historical truth rejects those false claims, because the Vietnamese people’s resistance war against the US aggressors for the cause of national salvation is a just and noble fight which aims to repel the invading US imperialists, protect socialism in the North, liberate the South, and reunify the nation.
The great victory of April 30, 1975, is the result of the heroic, resilient, and indomitable struggle of the Vietnamese people. It therefore belongs to all Vietnamese people, the Party, and President Ho Chi Minh, along with support and assistance from international friends, as well as progressive and peace-loving forces across the globe.
The fourth National Party Congress held on December, 1976, affirmed that, “Time will fly, but the victory of our people in the cause of resistance war against US aggressors for national salvation will forever go down in our nation’s history as one of the most brilliant pages, a shining symbol of the victory of revolutionary heroism and human intelligence. It will also pass into the world’s history as a great feat of the 20th century, an event of great international importance and profound epochal sentiment.”
Vietnam has been undertaking the policy of Doi Moi (Renewal), national industrialisation, modernisation, and international integration with numerous challenges and difficulties to be addressed. Despite complicated and unpredictable developments regionally and internationally, the stature, significance and value of the April 30, 1975, victory will last forever. That presents both pride and motivation for the country, whilst leaving a valuable experience for the present cause of national construction and defence.
