In the heroic and resilient fight, the army and people of the capital fought hundreds of battles, depleting much of the enemy's strength, creating conditions for the whole country to enter a long-term combat position.
78 years ago, responding to President Ho Chi Minh's call for national resistance, the army and people of Hanoi raised high the flag "Determination to die for the survival of the Fatherland," turning every street and house into trenches and ramparts to deploy a people's war, the entire people fighting the enemy.
After 60 days and nights of resilient, heroic, and creative fighting, the army and people of Hanoi successfully completed the task of protecting the headquarters, evacuating, and ensuring the safety of the people; transferring thousands of tons of machinery and supplies to safe areas, creating initial potential for the resistance.
In that heroic and resilient fight, the army and people of the capital fought hundreds of battles, depleting much of the enemy's strength, creating conditions for the whole country to enter a long-term combat position.
The proactive and creative resistance of a peace-loving nation
The August Revolution succeeded, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born, a great achievement of the nation's heroic and sacrificial struggle. However, on September 23, 1945, the French colonialists opened fire on Saigon, officially opening the war to reoccupy Vietnam and Indochina. Meanwhile, the young revolutionary state was facing countless challenges, and the government had not yet been firmly consolidated.
Faced with that situation, through diplomatic channels, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh made every effort to seek solutions to maintain independence, freedom and peace for the country. We made concessions and signed the Preliminary Agreement (March 6, 1946) and the Provisional Agreement (September 14, 1946) with France. However, with the ambition to invade our country once again, the French colonialists broke the signed agreements, advanced, and declared: Implementing all military measures to restore the right to rule.
But also realizing early that "sooner or later, France will attack us and we must definitely attack France" (1), our Party anticipated: "The vital thing is that while opening negotiations with France, we not only do not stop for a minute the preparation work, but are still ready to fight at any time and anywhere, but also do our utmost to promote it and absolutely do not let negotiations with France dampen the fighting spirit of our nation" (2). Our Party and President Ho Chi Minh considered negotiations with France to prolong the preparation time, create momentum, and create strength for the resistance.
President Ho Chi Minh and the Party Central Committee made great efforts to prepare in terms of ideology, guidelines, organization, and forces, as well as to build the determination to resist for the entire Party, the entire army, and the entire people. The Party's basic viewpoints on the resistance line against French colonialism were gradually formed, expressed in the Directive "Resistance and National Construction" (November 5, 1945), the document "Urgent Work Now" (November 5, 1946), the National Resistance (December 12, 1946)... and were determined at the (enlarged) Central Party Standing Committee Conference in Van Phuc (December 18 and 19, 1946). That was the line of resistance for the entire people, comprehensively, and long-term.
After nearly 16 months of revolutionary forces being prepared in all aspects, the Party has matured a step forward in directing the revolutionary war; the Party members have been strengthened, the revolutionary government has been increasingly consolidated; the armed forces have made new developments, gaining more combat experience from the Southern resistance. In particular, we have built up the determination to fight and the belief in certain victory among the people.
This is a great driving force to promote the development of the revolution; it is a decisive factor to ensure the victory of the resistance war. President Ho Chi Minh once affirmed: "No army, no weapon can defeat the spirit of sacrifice of an entire nation." (3)
Awakening the Power of Patriotism
Faced with the enemy's plots and acts of invasion, the Vietnamese people had no other choice but to take up arms and fight to protect the independence and freedom they had just won. On December 18 and 19, 1946, the Central Party Standing Committee held a conference in Van Phuc (Ha Dong) and made a historic decision: to launch a nationwide resistance war.
At 8:00 p.m. on December 19, 1946, Hanoi took the lead in opening fire against the French army, opening the nationwide resistance war.
On the night of December 19, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh, on behalf of the Party Central Committee and the Government, called on the people of the whole country to resist, clearly affirming:
“We want peace, we must make concessions. But the more we make concessions, the more the French colonialists encroach because they are determined to take over our country again! No! We would rather sacrifice everything than lose our country, we would rather be slaves. My compatriots! We must stand up! Men, women, old and young, regardless of religion, party, or ethnicity. Anyone who is Vietnamese must stand up to fight the French colonialists to save the Fatherland. Those who have guns will use guns. Those who have swords will use swords. Those who do not have swords will use hoes, shovels, or sticks. Everyone must strive to fight the French colonialists to save the country.” (4)
Responding to President Ho Chi Minh's call, the entire nation rose up in resistance with the will to "die for the survival of the Fatherland". In Hanoi, after the order to open fire, the National Guard and Self-Defense Forces simultaneously attacked targets in the city center. In coordination with the army, all classes of people actively participated in combat and combat service, creating a widespread people's war to block the enemy.
Along with the army and people of the capital, the army and people of cities from the 16th parallel northward, such as Da Nang, Hue, Vinh, Nam Dinh, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang... also opened fire to attack and pin the enemy in cities and towns, achieving initial victories.
In the South, South Central and Central Highlands, the armed forces and people stepped up guerrilla warfare, attacked the pacification plan, and prevented the enemy from sending reinforcements to the Central and Northern regions. The fierce and heroic fighting of our army and people in the early days of the nationwide resistance achieved important victories, defeating the French colonialists' strategy of "fighting fast, winning fast".
After nearly two months of continuous fighting, our army and people achieved important victories: carrying out the wear and tear, destroying, and trapping the enemy in the city, defeating the French colonialists' plan of "fighting fast, winning fast"; creating conditions for moving agencies, warehouses, and materials (we transported nearly 40,000 tons of machinery and raw materials to the base area); taking advantage of the time to organize hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate to the base area to build a long-term resistance position.
Forever a lesson for the cause of building and defending the Fatherland
The spirit of the National Resistance War remains a heroic epic reminding every Vietnamese citizen, especially the young generation today and tomorrow, to perceive and understand more deeply a heroic historical period of the nation; at the same time, adding strength to successfully build socialism and firmly protect the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam.
The national resistance war has entered the nation's history as a brilliant milestone in the patriotism and indomitable will of the Vietnamese people in the 20th century and left many extremely valuable lessons.
That is, our Party, headed by President Ho Chi Minh, has firmly grasped the unchanging goal of independence, unity and territorial integrity; been flexible in its strategy to divide, isolate and eliminate the enemy, creating more time and conditions to consolidate the revolutionary government, and preparing all forces to enter the long-term resistance war.
That is a great lesson on promoting the strength of national solidarity in building and defending the Fatherland, for a strong and prosperous Vietnam. Promoting the strength of national solidarity is the glue to continue to consolidate and gather into the nation's endogenous strength to build Vietnam into a "rich people, strong country, democracy, equality, civilization"; firmly ensuring peace, independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.
In the process of renovation, to maintain and protect the country's independence, freedom and lasting peace, the idea of "peace" that President Ho Chi Minh ignited from the first day of mobilizing the people to enter the resistance war against the French colonialists has always guided our Party, people and armed forces to focus on practicing and resolving well the relationship between the two strategic tasks of building and defending the Fatherland.
77 years have passed, but President Ho Chi Minh's immortal appeal of profound historical value still holds true, affirming a great lesson on promoting the strength of great national unity.
The aspiration for peace, preventing and repelling the dangers of sabotage and invasion, and firmly protecting the independence and freedom of our country is not only nurtured, fostered, and promoted among all classes of people and armed forces, but is also concretized through specific actions and deeds in building an increasingly prosperous and happy country and the policy of protecting the Fatherland early and from afar by peaceful means.
Nearly 80 years have passed, and we are more deeply aware of the significance and historical value of the National Resistance Day (December 19, 1946). The event contributed to affirming the Party's independent, autonomous, correct, and creative political and military lines in the historic confrontation with French colonialism. On the other hand, the victory of the National Resistance was the first victory in the 30-year long war of national liberation and defense of the Fatherland (1945-1975), creating a solid foundation for us to achieve revolutionary achievements in the following stages./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/cuoc-khang-chien-chu-dong-sang-tao-cua-dan-toc-yeu-chuong-hoa-binh-post1002526.vnp
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