Crystallization of Party's will and people's heart

35 years ago, on July 2, 1976, at the first session, the 6th National Assembly decided to name our country the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. For the first time, the name Vietnam expressed the unity and aspiration for peace of a nation just emerging from war and the belief in a civilized and prosperous society.

After the great victory of Spring (1975), the Fatherland of Vietnam was unified, the country was reunited. However, in the first year after the Reunification Day, in terms of political institutions, we still did not have a common state, elected by the people through universal suffrage. The 24th Conference of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party (September 1975) set out the task of completing the unification of the country in terms of state. The Conference emphasized: "National unification is both the most earnest desire of the people of the whole country and an objective law of the development of the Vietnamese revolution and of the history of the Vietnamese nation".

On April 25, 1976, the General Election for the National Assembly was held nationwide. This was the second time the General Election was held nationwide after the first one on January 6, 1946. More than 23 million voters went to the polls and elected 492 representatives.

From June 14 to July 2, 1976, the National Assembly of unified Vietnam with 492 delegates, called the 6th National Assembly, held its first session in Hanoi. The issues hotly debated by the delegates were: country name, capital, national flag, national anthem...

There are many different opinions on the issue of the country's name, but they are concentrated in two basic streams: One is to keep the name Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which Uncle Ho gave in 1946, and the other is to give a new name, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRVN). Many delegates want to keep the name Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) because they think its connotation is "broader". In addition, emotionally, people want to keep the old name because it was the name Uncle Ho gave. However, this name was not approved by the majority of delegates from the South.

And the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the most optimal solution, both orienting the goal of building socialism and carrying the meaning of a new common name for the two merged states. Therefore, in addition to its political meaning, it is a "people's heart solution". Moreover, the goal of the Vietnamese revolution is to move the country from a national democratic revolution to socialism throughout the territory, so the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is consistent with the task of the Vietnamese revolution in the new period. That name has once again affirmed the inevitable path of the Vietnamese revolution that was chosen by President Ho Chi Minh and affirmed right in the first political platform of the Party: "To carry out a bourgeois democratic revolution and agrarian revolution to move towards a communist society", meaning "national independence associated with socialism". That path is consistent with the history of the nation and the development trend of the times.

From July 2, 1976, the National Assembly decided to name the country the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the National Flag is the Red Flag with a Yellow Star, the National Anthem is the Marching Song, and the National Emblem bears the words "Socialist Republic of Vietnam". It can be said that the discussion on naming the country, choosing the National Flag, National Anthem... at that time demonstrated high unity, crystallizing the wishes of the entire Party and people to erase the many years of division of the country.

After 35 years, the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has always echoed, reminding every Vietnamese person of the heroic years of the nation in the 20th century to move towards peace and unification in all aspects; and aiming to build a fair, democratic, civilized socialist Vietnam, on par with the world powers as President Ho Chi Minh always wished.

Minh Quan