August Revolution: Historical lessons, future values

The value and significance of the August Revolution in 1945 lies not only in the results it brought about but also in the factors that led to its success.

The August Revolution of 1945 was one of the most important events of the Vietnamese people in the 20th century. The revolution overthrew the outdated feudal regime, crushed the harsh domination of colonialism and fascism, and opened a new era for the Vietnamese people: the era of independence, freedom, and socialism.

The power of national unity

The value and significance of the August Revolution of 1945 lies not only in the results it brought about but also in the factors that led to its success.

The historical and practical value of the August Revolution in 1945 is first and foremost the ideology and will for national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is also the highest expression of the strength of the entire people for the goal of national independence.

The strength of the August Revolution is the strength of the great solidarity of the entire Vietnamese people for the goal of national independence. This strength was gathered and tempered through revolutionary movements led by the Party from the Nghe Tinh Soviet 1930-1931 to the democratic movement 1936-1939 and the national liberation climax 1939-1945.

The strength of the great national unity bloc was continued to be built and promoted by the Party in the long-term, all-people, and comprehensive resistance war against the French from 1945-1954, and then the 21-year resistance war against the Americans to save the country from 1954-1975.

The victory of this revolution is the victory of proactive preparation of forces, of the art of creating opportunities, seizing opportunities and resolute action.

The success of the August Revolution was not due to the "power vacuum" as some foreign scholars believe, but was the result of the Party's comprehensive preparation from organization, building political and armed forces to proactively seizing opportunities when Japanese fascists surrendered to the Allies and when the French army was weak.

The art of the General Uprising to seize power in the August Revolution was promoted by the Party in the following stages such as in the "Dong Khoi" campaign of 1959-1960, the General Offensive and Uprising of Tet Mau Than 1968 and especially in the General Offensive and Uprising of Spring 1975, which gloriously ended the resistance war against the US to save the country.

Today, our entire Party and people are carrying out the cause of renovation and have achieved proud successes. That success is the result of the creativity of the Party and the Vietnamese people, and the inheritance of lessons learned from the history of the struggle for independence and national construction over the past 69 years since the victory of the August Revolution in 1945.

Since the late 1980s, in the face of the crisis of the world socialist system as well as the socio-economic crisis in the country, the Communist Party of Vietnam has boldly "looked straight at the truth, assessed the truth correctly", and decided to carry out the comprehensive renovation of the country. The achievements of nearly 30 years of implementing the renovation process demonstrate the creative and correct path of the Party and people of Vietnam.

National unity - the driving force that determines success or failure

In the current trend, no country can develop without separating from the general trend of the world. Vietnam must combine promoting national strength with the strength of the times, promoting foreign relations on the basis of maintaining a peaceful and stable environment, making the most of external resources, contributing to Vietnam's rapid and sustainable development.

It is important to maintain independence and autonomy during integration. Currently, the world's major powers are using economic, financial and military measures to deeply interfere in the internal affairs of countries, especially small countries, to change ideology or invade territory.

The historical truth of Vietnam in the years 1945-1946, in the resistance war against France and the US, in the Geneva Conference, the Paris Conference on Vietnam and in the ethnic and religious conflicts, in the issue of peaceful evolution, and the current disputes over sovereignty of seas and islands further affirm the importance of maintaining independence and autonomy in international relations.

Party building, government building, and national unity are key and urgent issues.

This is the most important and core issue leading to the victory of the Vietnamese revolution since the Communist Party of Vietnam was born and led the revolution as well as in the current renovation process.

The Vietnamese revolution has gone through many turbulent periods, from the enemy's white terror after 1930, to the "life-threatening" times in 1945-1946, or the difficult years in the South in 1954-1959, 1968-1969, but under the leadership of the Party, headed by President Ho Chi Minh, we have overcome them all.

That is thanks to the perseverance and determination to build the Party and build the government on the basis of taking the people as the root, relying on the people and for the people. If the Party is not strong and the government is not clean, it will be difficult to achieve great national unity.

In the current market mechanism with a multi-sector economy, the polarization between rich and poor is inevitable, corruption and bureaucracy are unavoidable. Therefore, the Party building and the building of a socialist rule-of-law state have been considered by our Party as key issues and therefore, need to be promoted and implemented more drastically, because this is the most important issue to ensure the building of the great national unity bloc, the driving force that determines the success or failure of every revolution.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Van Nhat
(Institute of History)