Remembering Uncle Ho on the day of great victory

In an article published in the Saigon Giai Phong newspaper, Dr. Tran Viet Hoan, former Director of the Uncle Ho Relic Site at the Presidential Palace, shared his memories and deep feelings about Uncle Ho, the beloved father of the nation.

On April 30, 1975, at the age of 21, Uncle Ho had to travel alone across the world for 30 years, enduring imprisonment and hard work to make a living, with the ultimate goal of finding a way to save the nation and country from losing independence, freedom, the right to live, and the right to be human.

Thanks to the day Uncle Ho left to find a way to save the country (June 5, 1911), we have glorious and great historical days: February 3, 1930, Uncle Ho founded the Party to shoulder the task of liberating the nation and the country; September 2, 1945, Uncle Ho founded the People's State; May 7, 1954, liberated the North, preparing for national unification; April 30, 1975, the country of Vietnam was reunited, the whole country joined hands and hearts to build a decent and beautiful Vietnam that Uncle Ho had cared for all his life.

This event, as the Italian historian Perugia rightly said, “Without Him, history might have followed a different path; history placed Him in His rightful place, in the process, He was a creative, decisive figure.”

Mr. Huynh Thuc Khang, President of the Vietnamese Nation, acting President in place of Uncle Ho in 1946, when Uncle Ho visited France, praised:

“Mr. Ho Chi Minh, our beloved one,

A true patriot,

Veteran revolutionary expert

Travel around the world

The eye level looks extremely high.

"Understand the big picture, understand the secrets of heaven"

Uncle Ho led our nation's resistance to April 30, 1975, with all his care: "A day when the Fatherland is not unified, the people still suffer, is a day when I cannot eat well, cannot sleep well". Therefore, Uncle Ho and the Party outlined the path, showed the way for the resistance against the US to save the country through the following rehearsal steps:

First of all, there was the Southern Uprising, which started in Ben Tre province and spread rapidly throughout the South, the Central Highlands and some provinces in the Central region. During the uprising, our people's armed forces in the South developed rapidly. Districts had squads, platoons and combat companies. Provinces and regions had local troops and built up main forces. In May 1959, the 559th Group was established with the task of opening a road along Truong Son to ensure that delegations of cadres from the North could enter the South to fight. On December 31, 1967, in a room in Uncle Ho's living and working area at the Presidential Palace, Uncle Ho chaired a meeting of the Central Party Politburo and decided to launch a general offensive and uprising in the 1968 Tet Mau Than, aiming to deal a decisive blow to the American imperialists' will to invade.

The preparations were carried out very carefully, elaborately, meticulously and completely secretly. On the night of January 30th and 31st, 1968, the army and people of the South launched a general offensive and uprising simultaneously in 64 cities, towns and many large rural areas, attacking a series of military bases, airports, warehouses, ports, transportation systems, hitting the important headquarters of the US, puppets and vassals. The general offensive and uprising in the Spring of Mau Than 1968 was a lightning strike that left more than 1.2 million US, puppet and vassal troops unprepared, terrified and confused. It was a decisive blow to the local war strategy of the US imperialists, opening a new situation, forcing the US imperialists to negotiate with us at the Paris Conference. That victory, as Uncle Ho wrote in his New Year's poem in 1968:

“This spring is better than the past springs,

Victory good news across the country.

North and South compete to fight the American invaders,

Go!

"We will surely win"

That was the second rehearsal for the complete victory of April 30, 1975.

To carry out Uncle Ho's strategic direction of "fighting the Americans to leave", we carried out the third rehearsal - the 1972 strategic general offensive. The general offensive was carried out in three strategic directions: Tri Thien - Tay Nguyen - Southeast, in which Tri Thien was the most important. In the 1972 strategic offensive, we achieved a great victory that completely changed the balance of forces between us and the enemy, in our favor, completely changing the situation of the war so that our army and people could advance to gain new great victories. Having suffered a painful defeat in the South, the US imperialists sent B52 aircraft to attack the North with the ambition of bringing the North back to the Stone Age. Our people achieved the feat of "Dien Bien Phu in the air". On the first night, we shot down 3 planes. In 12 days and nights, we shot down 81 planes of all types, including 33 B52 planes, defeating the strategic B52 raid on the North and forcing the US to withdraw its troops from South Vietnam.

Those were the rehearsal steps, the strategic victories leading to the 1975 Spring General Campaign, the culmination of which was the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, the country was unified, the country was reunited, and Uncle Ho's wishes were fully realized.

"When will North and South be one family,

"Vietnam won, we are happy"

With all the life experiences that Uncle Ho had accumulated, and his sensitivity to the development of the situation, especially in the major historical events through the resistance war against the US to save the country, creating for the nation a steadfast determination and strong belief on the path to victory, did Uncle Ho affirm when the US lost? In a draft prepared for the National Day celebration on September 2, 1960, Uncle Ho wrote: “While celebrating the 15th great National Day, we remember even more our compatriots in the South who are heroically fighting against the brutal regime of the US and Diem. We would like to send our compatriots in the South our kinship and promise them that: if all our people unite and persevere in the struggle, then at the latest 15 years from now our Fatherland will definitely be unified, the North and the South will definitely be reunited as one family”.

So, Uncle Ho knew 15 years ago: In 1975, the country would be unified. Celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the country's unification, each of us misses Uncle Ho even more. The more we miss Uncle Ho, the more we try to build and preserve our Fatherland to become stronger and stronger, standing shoulder to shoulder with the world powers as Uncle always wished.