A symbol of human peace.

(Baonghean) - The victory at Dien Bien Phu is a glorious achievement for the Vietnamese people, who cherish peace and possess a strong spirit of patriotism and self-reliance. This pivotal nine-year resistance war and victory, which shook the world in the mid-20th century, is increasingly recognized by human history for its immense significance as a just struggle against colonialism. For the first time, the army of an Asian colony defeated the army of a European superpower militarily, simultaneously defeating the enemy's will to maintain its Indochina colony. This further affirms that the Vietnamese people are always ready for any war to defeat invading enemies and protect their independence and sovereignty!

Many progressive movements of peace-loving people in countries around the world annually commemorate the victory of the Vietnamese people at Dien Bien Phu; thousands of pages of books by those on the "other side of the war" have been written about the Dien Bien Phu event, expressing admiration and praise for the patriotic spirit and the will to defeat foreign invaders of a people-army with extraordinary strength. Soldiers who had just put down their plows in their fields immediately took up arms and charged into the trenches; fathers, wives, and sisters in brown clothes, barefoot, carrying and transporting food and ammunition to the front lines… That people-army enthusiastically set out to fight the enemy, with a simple, patriotic heart that created a glorious battle through “56 days and nights of digging tunnels, sleeping in bunkers, enduring rain, and eating dried rice rations”…

The victory at Dien Bien Phu will forever be regarded as a sacred and glorious victory, a source of national pride for the Vietnamese people; a victory that is a truth that no argument can distort. The challenges facing the country and the nation today demand a share of the responsibility from the younger generation, the children of the soldiers and civilian workers of Dien Bien Phu 59 years ago; as the Commander-in-Chief of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign – General Vo Nguyen Giap – once advised: "We must uphold the spirit of the Dien Bien Phu victory of the past in the cause of renewal, construction, and defense of the Fatherland today."

As a source of pride on the journey forward for the Vietnamese people, the Dien Bien Phu event also deserves to be considered a symbol of peace for progressive humanity.

NACT