Historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign: The pinnacle of the art of people's war

(Baonghean) - At the 4th National Congress in December 1976, our Party stated: "Times will pass, but the victory of our people in the resistance war against the US to save the country will forever be recorded in the history of the nation as one of the most brilliant pages, a shining symbol of the complete victory of revolutionary heroism and human intelligence, and will go down in world history as a great feat of the 20th century, an event of great international importance and profound topicality."

The historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign - a decisive, strategic campaign in the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising ended in victory, fully implementing President Ho Chi Minh's guiding ideology of "Fight to drive the Americans out, fight to overthrow the puppet regime". This was a campaign with unique features in terms of creating opportunities, fighting methods, attack intensity, combat coordination, and military-service coordination, clearly demonstrating the nation's tradition of fighting against foreign invaders, symbolizing Vietnamese intelligence and military art.

Ho Chi Minh Campaign Command. Photo: Internet

It has been 41 years since the historic victory of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, but its great and immense significance is still relevant to the nation's art of people's warfare, forged over thousands of years of fighting to defend the country and highly promoted in the Ho Chi Minh era.

First of all, it was the victory of patriotism, hatred for the enemy with the indomitable spirit of a heroic nation enlightened by the truth of the Ho Chi Minh era "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom". Every Vietnamese person, when learning about the history of the nation, knows that after the resistance war against French colonialism ended, the consequences of the war were very severe, moreover, the country was divided into two parts; the South continued to directly fight against the American imperialists and their henchmen, the North, although peaceful, always suffered from the bombs and bullets of the American imperialists.

The country faced countless difficulties and shortages of all kinds, lack of food, clothing, medicine, weapons, and ammunition, but with patriotism, deep hatred for the enemy, and the willingness to sacrifice everything to gain complete independence, freedom, and national unity, the entire Vietnamese people achieved a resounding victory that shook the world.

The spirit of patriotism, the indomitable will, determination to fight, to win, the determination to liberate the South and unify the Fatherland were nurtured by the entire nation under the leadership of the Party and the great President Ho Chi Minh. He always affirmed the determination to gain independence and freedom and resolutely organized to implement that determination. He once said, "No matter how much sacrifice is needed, even if we have to burn down the Truong Son mountain range, we must gain independence." When the US imperialists massively sent troops to invade the South and used air force to attack the North, President Ho affirmed: "The war can last 5 years, 10 years, 20 years or even longer...", "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom...".

Before passing away, in his Testament, he affirmed: "The resistance war against the US may last for several more years. Our people may have to sacrifice a lot of property and lives. In any case, we must be determined to fight the US until complete victory." Along with President Ho Chi Minh's determination, the people of the North, the main rear of the Southern battlefield, were also seething with high spirits, with slogans resounding: "all for the frontline, all for the South"; "no regrets until the car has passed the house, no regrets until the road is cleared"; "not a pound of rice is missing, not a soldier is missing"...

Opening a major road with motor vehicles in preparation for the 1975 Spring General Offensive. Photo: Internet

The victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign also clearly demonstrated the victory of the intelligence, soul, character and cultural mettle of Vietnam. That revolutionary intelligence first of all originated from the scientific and revolutionary line of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh with the policy of "long-term, all-people, all-out resistance"; with military thinking that reached the art of: "combining preservation and development of forces" with "general offensive for total victory", "lightning-fast, bold, unexpected, sure to win", closely following the reality of the battlefield, analyzing the enemy's strengths and weaknesses to find ways to fight, the enemy clustered, we dispersed; combining three types of troops; the art of successive, continuous breakthrough warfare, combined with encirclement and destruction to achieve quick attacks and quick victories.

With that way of fighting, the Ho Chi Minh Campaign became a battle with its own characteristics in the history of human warfare, making Vietnamese intelligence, Ho Chi Minh's intelligence become one of the peaks of the 20th century. With that way of fighting, we forced the US imperialists to completely withdraw their troops from the South, and the Saigon puppet government to surrender unconditionally. In the Spring General Offensive and Uprising in 1975, with more than 50 days and nights of rapid fighting, we destroyed and disintegrated more than one million puppet government troops, destroyed hundreds of planes, tanks, and armored vehicles of the US imperialists, completely abolished the new colonial regime that the US had worked hard to build for more than 20 years.

People in the suburbs of Saigon participated in the political and armed struggle, contributing greatly to the victory of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign. Photo: Internet

The victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign also most concentratedly demonstrated the spirit of a just war defeating an unjust one. If the victory of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign clearly marked the decline and disintegration of brutal colonialism, the Ho Chi Minh Campaign once again reaffirmed: Even though colonialism had more sophisticated tricks and greater strength, it was ultimately defeated by the truth of justice. Vietnam has a strong culture and a unique military doctrine that has been tested in history. The victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign is also the embodiment of the beauty, nobility and magnanimity of the Vietnamese people since ancient times.

Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, one of the architects of the war of aggression in Vietnam, admitted: "The failure of the US in the Vietnam battlefield was because the US fought Vietnam without understanding anything about history, geography, culture, customs, habits, the Vietnamese people, the Vietnamese nation in general and the Vietnamese leaders in particular."

Liberation Army tanks entered the Independence Palace on April 30, 1975.

Female commandos lead the way for liberation army tanks into Saigon. Photo: Internet

In the resistance wars against foreign invaders in general and the resistance war against the US in particular, Nghe An has made a very worthy contribution. Thousands of outstanding sons of Nghe An have enlisted in the army, contributing their human and material resources to the resistance war, and thousands of people have also remained on the battlefields of the South or left behind some of their blood and bones.

The History of Nghe An Party Committee, Volume II, clearly states: "Over the past two decades (1954 - 1975), Nghe An Party Committee has thoroughly grasped the two strategic tasks outlined by the Party Central Committee: Building socialism in the North and fighting to liberate the South. Nghe An was the province that shot down the first jet plane on August 5, 1964, and Vinh was the first city in the North to shoot down 100 American planes, receiving a letter of praise from Uncle Ho on September 14, 1966."

In labor production, in the rear of Nghe An, the people have promoted their industrious nature, enthusiastically worked in production, created a new atmosphere, produced a lot of material wealth, food, and food, all for the South. As a result, by 1972, Nghe An had 6 districts achieving a yield of 5 tons/ha on a stable two-crop rice area.

Truong Bon historical relic site. Photo: Sy Minh

Presently, continuing to promote the glorious victory of the resistance war against the US to save the country, the peak of which was the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, together with the tradition of the heroic and indomitable homeland of Nghe An, the Party Committee and people of the province are striving to successfully implement the goals of the Resolutions of the Party Congresses at all levels, the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress, Resolution 26-NQ/TW of the Politburo, building Nghe An into an economic and social center of the North Central region on the basis of continuing to implement the orientation of building 3 key economic regions, with 5 identified economic pillars.

To do that, all levels and sectors need to make efforts to well implement the action plan and program to implement the resolutions of the Congresses at all levels, the socio-economic development plan for the period 2016-2020, focusing on promoting resources from investors and enterprises; promoting the application of scientific and technological advances and information and communication work; strengthening the leadership of Party committees at all levels, the administration of the State, the coordination of the political system, creating new determination and momentum for a sustainable development of Nghe An.

Nguyen Xuan Son

Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee