Declaration of Independence of The Democratic Republic of Vietnam

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF VIET-NAM
(September 2, 1945)
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 in 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 Viet-Nam 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 practiced obscurantism against our people.
To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.
In the field 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 monopolized 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 Viet-Nam,
more than two million of our fellow citizens died from starvation. On March 9 [1945],
the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. 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 Viet Minh 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 Viet Minh members that
before fleeing they massacred a great number of our political prisoners detained at Yen
Bay and Cao Bang.
Notwithstanding 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 Viet
Minh 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 Viet-Nam. 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 Viet-Nam, 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 Teheran and San Francisco have
acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse
to acknowledge the independence of Viet-Nam.
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 Viet-Nam, solemnly declare to the world that Viet-Nam has the right to be a
free and independent country—and in fact it is so already. The entire Vietnamese people
are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives
and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.
Ho Chi Minh

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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC

Those are undeniable truths.

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