Successful August Revolution: Realizing President Ho Chi Minh’s theory of national liberation

78 years ago, under the leadership of the Party, led by President Ho Chi Minh, the people in the whole country together stood up to successfully carry out the August Revolution, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, opening a new era for the nation’s history – the era of independence and freedom. The successful August Revolution affirmed the strength of the great national unity bloc and the values of the revolutionary theory of national liberation of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh.

Lieutenant General Duong Cong Suu reviews the glorious revolutionary tradition of the province and the country with officers and soldiers of Regiment 123, Provincial Military Command (Photo: THANH HUYEN)

In the spring of 1930, the Communist Party of Vietnam was born, marking an important turning point of the Vietnamese revolution. The brief outline of the Party was drafted by Nguyen Ai Quoc, defining the task: “Fighting against the French imperialists and the feudalists. Completely liberating Vietnam.” That direction of national salvation of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh was suitable to the specific circumstance of Vietnam, focusing on resolving the basic and main contradictions of a colonial society, which demonstrated the wisdom and aspiration of national liberation of the compatriots, in accordance with the dialectic of history and the trend of the times.

In October 1930, the “Political Thesis” of the Indochinese Communist Party placed the bourgeois revolution of civil rights at the core “to completely practice the revolutionary territory, on the other hand, to defeat the French imperialism, to completely liberate Indochina”. It can be seen that, “The Brief Outline” and the “Political Thesis” in October 1930 both agreed to consider imperialism and feudalism as two objects that needed to be overthrown by bourgeois revolution of civil rights in order to won the right of national independence, to established the government of the majority of the population who were workers and farmers or workers, farmers and soldiers. The content of the Party’s brief outline and the brief strategy of the Party clearly showed that leader Nguyen Ai Quoc considered the anti-imperialist task the most important and he mobilized the entire nation’s forces to implement it.

The essential elements of Ho Chi Minh’s thought on the top position and importance of the anti-imperialist task in addition to the anti-feudal task, the division of land to the farmers and the promotion of national strength were included in the brief political documents of the Party and the brief strategy of the Party. These factors have been tested and confirmed by the reality of the Vietnamese revolution and the advances in theoretical awareness of the colonial liberation revolutionary among the Party’s leaders have opened a new direction unifying the perception of the Party Central Committee with leader Nguyen Ai Quoc on the relationship between the two tasks of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism.

In October 1936, a new point about the urgency of the national liberation revolution was raised in the document “About the issue of new war policies: “The national liberation struggle is not necessarily associated with the land revolution. That is, it cannot be said that in order to overthrow the imperialism, it is necessary to develop the land revolution; to solve the land revolution, it is necessary to overthrow the imperialism. That theory has some inaccuracies… if the development of the land division struggle hinders the anti-imperialist struggle, one must choose a more important issue and solve it first. That is, choosing the main and most dangerous enemy to concentrate the forces of a nation and fight for complete victory.” Those ideas, coincidentally, were consistent with the arguments of Nguyen Ai Quoc about identifying the leading position of the national liberation revolution and finding the most effective solution to handle the relationship between anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tasks, in accordance with the characteristics of the Vietnamese revolution.

Two months after the outbreak of the Second World War, the Conference of the Central Executive Committee of the Party (November 1939) identified that: “The only way of survival of the Indochinese peoples is no other than to overthrow the French imperialism, to fight against all foreign invaders regardless of their skin colors to gain independence (…) The cruel exploitation of the French imperialism in Indochina for the war will make the people of Indochina increasingly revolutionary. The revolution overthrowing the French imperialism of the Indochinese peoples will surely explode.” From that assessment, the Conference considered that the guidelines and policies of the Party during the campaigning period of the Democratic Front were no longer appropriate. Therefore, “The bourgeois revolutionary strategy of civil rights now has to change more or less to suit the new situation. The anti-imperialist revolution and the land revolution are the two key points of the bourgeois revolution of civil rights. If we cannot solve the land revolution, we cannot solve the revolution against the imperialism. On the contrary, if we cannot solve the revolution against the imperialism, we cannot solve the revolution of the land – that main principle can never be changed, but it must be applied wisely in order to carry out the core task of the revolution is to overthrow the imperialism”.

Hanoi on fire in the days of the August Revolution in 1945 (Documentary photo)

In May 1941, the Conference of the Central Executive Committee of the Party, chaired by Nguyen Ai Quoc, decided “It is necessary to change the strategy” and considered the task of national liberation and independence for the country as ” the first mission of our Party and the Indochinese revolution”. The conference affirmed: “The current Indochina revolution is not a bourgeois revolution of civil rights which must solve two problems: anti-imperialists and anti-feudalism, but a revolution that only has to solve an urgent matter of “national liberation”, then the Indochinese revolution in the current period is a national liberation revolution”. The Conference emphasized: “At this time, the interests of the class must be second to the life, death and survival of the nation and the people. At this time, if the problem of national liberation cannot be resolved, and the nation’s independence and freedom cannot be claimed, not only will the entire nation and nation suffer forever, but the interests of some parts of the nation will not be claimed in thousands of years.”

Those decisions led the entire nation to victory in fighting against France, expelling Japan and gaining independence and freedom for the Fatherland. Thus, from the Conference of the Central Executive Committee of the Party in November 1939 to May 1941, our Party, led by President Ho Chi Minh, completed the guideline of national liberation revolutionary – an important and pivotal stage of the national and people’s democratic revolution including a system of dynamic and creative views, guidelines and measures. Under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, the people of the country together rose up, conducted a general uprising and seized power within 15 days in the end of August 1945. The victory of the August Revolution and the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945 are the inevitable results of a long, careful and thorough preparation process in terms of guidelines, building revolutionary strength, heroic fighting spirit of more than 20 million compatriots under the creative leadership of the Party and Uncle Ho’s aspiration for national liberation with the spirit of “no matter how great the sacrifice will be, even if Truong Son mountain range must be burned down, we have to gain independence.”

The successful August Revolution affirmed the revolutionary theory and methods of national liberation with values of independence, self-reliance and creativity of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, it is an extremely valuable legacy for the Party to continue implementing new strategies and new goals on the chosen revolutionary path. The resistance war against the French colonialists and the that against the American imperialist inherited, applied and developed the revolutionary theory of national liberation of President Ho Chi Minh during the August Revolution of 1945.

The Conference of the Central Executive Committee (May 1941) supplemented and completed the “new Party policy” outlined from the Conference of the Central Executive Committee (November 1939), which affirmed the change in strategy, putting the task of national liberation first. The fundamental change in awareness of the current task of the Indochinese revolution is the source and foundation for President Ho Chi Minh and the Party to make great decisions in order to widely unite all patriotic forces in Viet Minh Front, building revolutionary mass forces in both rural and urban areas, building revolutionary bases and armed forces, actively preparing forces for the opportunity of insurrection.