On this day in 1945, Hồ Chí Minh announced the Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to a crowd of thousands at the Ba Đình flower garden (now Ba Đình Square).

The Proclamation led directly to war with France, which concluded in the country being divided between French and self-rule at the 17th parallel. Vietnam would not achieve a unified, independent rule until 1976.

The Proclamation quoted heavily from the American Declaration of Independence and was vehemently critical of French rule. An excerpt reads:

"‘All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

…Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty…They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood…They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country - and in fact is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty."

Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam uncle-ho-2

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