The epic that shook the world

President Ho Chi Minh assessed: “The Dien Bien Phu victory is like a golden milestone in history”. This is the victory of the People's War, a shining symbol of patriotism, of the great national unity; of the will and strength of Vietnam, lighting up the belief, arousing the aspiration to build a strong Vietnam; a “miracle” in the most glorious era in the history of thousands of years of building and defending the country - the era named after Him - Ho Chi Minh!

Illustration photo.

1. One of the "wisest decisions" among countless wise decisions of President Ho Chi Minh was to choose "history teacher and journalist" Vo Nguyen Giap to be in charge of the military of the Party and the Vietnamese revolution.

When assigning the task of commanding the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, he instructed General Vo Nguyen Giap: “The Commander-in-Chief is on the battlefield - the General is abroad. Give you full authority to make decisions. This battle is very important, we must fight to win, only fight if we are sure of victory, if we are not sure, we will not fight”. Comrade Hong Son, Commander of Regiment 36, Division 308 in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, was assigned the main task of waiting for the order to attack when General Vo Nguyen Giap came down to inspect the battlefield... and ordered the unit to receive the new task. Later, we learned that after studying, grasping the situation, thinking and analyzing the advantages and disadvantages in all aspects, losing sleep; “wrapping mugwort around my head, worrying for 11 days and nights” and staying awake all night to come to the decision: “Fighting this way (fighting quickly, winning quickly) - according to the instructions of the military advisor of the friendly country, will definitely fail”! The General discussed with the front command staff, asked for the opinion of Uncle Ho and the Politburo and decided to change the combat strategy to “fight firmly, advance firmly” while tens of thousands of troops were deployed, artillery was moved into the battlefield, and ammunition was loaded and ready to fire on the night of January 26, 1954! This was the “most difficult decision in my life as a commander” - as he later confided!

Fighting steadily, advancing steadily means gradually encircling and attacking step by step, destroying each part, from the periphery to the center, which will create the strength to defeat the enemy. The shift to this motto has limited losses, especially human losses, and brought about a victory not at all costs!

The General believed that respecting human life is not only a matter of ethics and responsibility but also a measure of the level and quality of a military leader... He was a general who most clearly demonstrated the humane nature of a general! The late Senior Lieutenant General Tran Van Tra wrote: "There was a resounding victory, but too many soldiers were lost, people applauded loudly, but the General cried silently at the command post. Many times he buried his face in the bamboo fence and cried. Tears flooded his pillow... Anh Van became a banyan tree with the shade of love for his comrades"! Present at Dien Bien Phu, writer Nguyen Dinh Thi commented: "A General Commander-in-Chief who was also the commander of the campaign wrote a letter to the soldiers with intimate words like brothers, which is truly rare in wars of other countries!"... He always reminded his generals of Uncle Ho's extremely humane saying: "There is no victory that can be called beautiful"!

The reality on the Dien Bien Phu battlefield has proven that the fighting method (fighting firmly, advancing firmly) is appropriate: Our troops have successively destroyed each cluster of enemy strongholds, tightened the siege, used encroachment, sniping to cut off the airport, cut off the supply lines... causing the Dien Bien Phu stronghold (which the French and American imperialists both considered inviolable, challenging the Viet Minh to attack...) to be increasingly suffocated, difficulties to pile up, the fighting spirit of the enemy soldiers to decline and become more and more exhausted... After 56 days and nights of "Digging mountains, sleeping in tunnels, pouring rain, rice balls/ Blood mixed with mud, unflinching courage, unflinching will", our troops launched a decisive attack on the headquarters. On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, the "Determined to fight - Determined to win" flag proudly flew on the roof of General De Castries' armored bunker. General De Castries and the Command of the stronghold were captured alive. The entire enemy army raised the white flag of surrender! "There is no night as joyful as tonight/ The historic night of Dien Bien Phu shines brightly."

2. The Dien Bien Phu campaign and the Ho Chi Minh campaign 21 years later were both victories of the People's War. The whole country fought the French and the Americans, without distinguishing between the frontline and the rear. The unique, creative and constantly developing military doctrine was the strength of Vietnam in the Ho Chi Minh era! The great victory of Dien Bien Phu gloriously ended the long resistance war of our people against the invading French colonialists. In the next 21 years of resistance, the Dien Bien Phu victory created conditions for our army and people to fight a "decisive strategic battle" - the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign - creating the Great Victory of Spring 1975.

To create the "miracle" of Dien Bien, it is impossible not to mention the contribution of the rear, supporting human and material resources for the front line, in which Thanh Hoa made a great contribution. Implementing the decision of the Politburo to mobilize material forces for the campaign, from the beginning of March 1954, Thanh Hoa province completed the target of mobilizing and transporting 1,000 tons of rice and 165 tons of food ahead of schedule. When the campaign entered its final phase, the Central Government assigned Thanh Hoa to mobilize and transport 2,000 tons of rice and 292 tons of food. The people of Thanh Hoa province "emptied their baskets" and "poured out their baskets" to the front line until the last grain of rice. With the spirit of doing everything for the victory of the campaign, the provincial Party Committee mobilized farmers to go to the fields to trim each ripe rice stalk, providing timely supplies to the front line. To promptly and effectively transport food and provisions, Thanh Hoa mobilized a large force of bicycle porters; There is a bicycle that reaches a “record” of over 300kg per trip! This creative and unique vehicle has become a beautiful symbol of the “fire frontline laborers” group of Thanh province!

3. Nearly 40 years after our Party renewed its policy, opening a new era for our country's revolutionary cause, Thanh Hoa has achieved many important and comprehensive results in all fields. The growth rate in the 2021-2023 period reached 9.69%. The economic scale in 2023 reached 279,074 billion VND, 1.5 times higher than in 2020. The average income per capita in 2023 reached 3,144 USD, 1.4 times higher than in 2020...

The positive results achieved in politics, economy, culture - society, national defense - security continue to multiply confidence and aspiration, creating new momentum and motivation for Thanh Hoa to become a new growth pole in the North of the country, a civilized, industrial province in a modern direction.

The heroic epic of Dien Bien Phu created a "world-shaking" miracle 70 years ago, and until now, the spirit, momentum, and strength of Dien Bien Phu are still the driving force and aspiration urging Thanh Hoa - the land of "Spiritual Land and Talented People" - to join the whole country in "continuing the heroic epic", firmly grasping the opportunity, overcoming challenges, uniting, striving, realizing the set goals, creating new "miracles", building Thanh Hoa province to be prosperous, civilized, happy, rich, and beautiful, worthy of being a "model" province as Uncle Ho wished during his lifetime in the most glorious era of Vietnam - the glorious Ho Chi Minh era!

Vo Quoc Hien (Contributor)

Source