[Source: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works
(Hanoi, 1960-1962), Vol. 3, pp. 17-21].
"All men are created equal. They are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among
these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness"
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration
of Independence of the United States of America m 1776.
In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the
earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a
right to live, to be happy and free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution made in
1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states:
"All men are born free and with equal rights, and must
always remain free and have equal rights." Those are
undeniable truths.
Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French
imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland
and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted
contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. In the
field of politics, they have deprived our people of
every democratic liberty.
They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up
three distinct political regimes in the North, the
Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our
national unity and prevent our people from being
united.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have
mercilessly slain our patriots- they have drowned our
uprisings in rivers of blood. They have fettered public
opinion; they have practised obscurantism against our
people. To weaken our race they have forced us to use
opium and alcohol.
In the fields of economics, they have fleeced us to
the backbone, impoverished our people, and devastated
our land.
They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines,
our forests, and our raw materials. They have
monopolised the issuing of bank-notes and the export
trade.
They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and
reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a
state of extreme poverty.
They have hampered the prospering of our national
bourgeoisie; they have mercilessly exploited our
workers.
In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists
violated Indochina's territory to establish new bases
in their fight against the Allies, the French
imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed
over our country to them.
Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to
the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their
sufferings and miseries increased. The result was that
from the end of last year to the beginning of this
year, from Quang Tri province to the North of Vietnam,
more than two rnillion of our fellow-citizens died from
starvation. On March 9, the French troops were disarmed
by the lapanese. The French colonialists either fled or
surrendered, showing that not only were they incapable
of "protecting" us, but that, in the span of five
years, they had twice sold our country to the
Japanese.
On several occasions before March 9, the Vietminh
League urged the French to ally themselves with it
against the Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this
proposal, the French colonialists so intensified their
terrorist activities against the Vietminh members that
before fleeing they massacred a great number of our
political prisoners detained at Yen Bay and Cao
Bang.
Not withstanding all this, our fellow-citizens have
always manifested toward the French a tolerant and
humane attitude. Even after the Japanese putsch of
March 1945, the Vietminh League helped many Frenchmen
to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from
Japanese jails, and protected French lives and
property.
From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact
ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese
possession.
After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies,
our whole people rose to regain our national
sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam.
The truth is that we have wrested our independence
from the Japanese and not from the French
The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated,
Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken
the chains which for nearly a century have fettered
them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our
people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic
regime that has reigned supreme for dozens of
centuries. In its place has been established the
present Democratic Republic.
For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional
Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people,
declare that from now on we break off all relations of
a colonial character with France; we repeal all the
international obligation that France has so far
subscribed to on behalf of Vietnam and we abolish all
the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired
in our Fatherland.
The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common
purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end
against any attempt by the French colonialists to
reconquer their country.
We are convinced that the Allied nations which at
Tehran and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and
equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge
the independence of Vietnam.
A people who have courageously
opposed French domination for more than eighty
years, a people who have fought side by side with
the Allies against the Fascists during these last
years, such a people must be free and independent.
For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional
Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the
right to be a free and independent country and in fact
it is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are
determined to mobilise all their physical and mental
strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in
order to safeguard their independence and liberty.
