“This is the Voice of Viet Nam, broadcasting from Hanoi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam...”
Each time this sentence resounded over the radio those autumn days, it stirred deep feelings in every heart...
Viet Nam had known a rebirth. The heavy, dark cloud of the colonial regime had dissipated. The skies of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam were beautifully blue. The capital city of Hanoi, more splendid than the former Thang Long or Dong Do, was filled with revolutionary enthusiasm and ready to face the gathering storms.
The newly-promulgated democratic liberties were like rain falling on dry fields after a long drought. Our people greeted the first fruits of the revolution as “water for the thirsty and food for the starved.” Not long before, one would have been imprisoned for carrying a revolutionary handbill or shouting a revolutionary slogan. At present, the mere fact that people could fly the country’s flag on their roof, walk proudly in the street which was now their own, or sing a revolutionary song in a loud voice, filled their hearts with joy and sometimes their eyes with tears.
The revolutionary flame kindled by Uncle Ho and the Party some time before was blazing throughout the country. The common citizen realized his responsibility in the consolidation and defence of the new power. This was precisely to defend the fruits of the revolution, the newly won democratic freedoms, and to preserve his most beautiful hopes and dreams.
In that surging revolutionary wave of the entire people, it was necessary to continue organizing the masses, taking them to ever higher forms of struggle. Uncle Ho paid great attention to the mobilization and organization of the workers, peasants and intellectuals. Even in his letters to the old people in Hanoi, to businessmen and to school children on the occasion of the new school year, he stressed the need for them to organize themselves and join patriotic organizations.
Within a short time, millions upon millions of people in the whole country, old and young, men and women, had organized themselves. Even in cities where the Chiang troops were stationed our patriotic organizations developed impetuously in face of their guns. Day and night in towns and in the countryside, meetings and rallies were being held. There had never been such activity and animation in the traditionally quiet rural areas of Viet Nam.
The country was encircled by the imperialists, threatened by enemies from all directions. The national conference of the Party at Tan Trao had affirmed that “Our strength alone will determine the success.” In a directive written in December 1944, Uncle Ho had pointed out that the fight to defend the country was “a war of resistance by the whole people”, therefore, “it was necessary to mobilize and arm the whole people.” His directive set forth the basic lines for the resistance and the building of the revolutionary armed forces. The Tan Trao conference held before the general insurrection set forth the two simultaneous tasks of “arming the people” and “developing the Viet Nam Liberation Army”.
Through the two long resistance wars against the French and the US imperialists, our lines regarding the resistance and the building of the armed focces — which include the relationship between the armed forces of the masses and the regular army — have contributed decisively to the victory of the nation. Today, reviewing the resolutions and directives concerning the problem, we see that the Party and President Ho had set forth correct orientations and policies right at the outset.
The militarization of the patriotic organizations, which had been put into practice only in the guerilla bases before the general insurrection, became common throughout the country. Members of those organizations, especially the younger ones were eager to undergo military training and exercise themselves in traditional boxing and fencing.
There was a great drive to procure, make and buy weapons. Village blacksmiths became producers of spears and scimitars for the militia and self-defence units. Children helped collect scrap iron. Grown-ups contributed such household utensils as copper trays and pans, or even worship articles such as incense burners and urns, to be made into arms.
Under foreign rule, all weapons were prohibited. During repressive operations, a dagger found in a house might lead to the massacre of all its inhabitants. It is hard to describe the citizen’s burning desire to have a weapon to defend the newly-won independence.
With a scimitar or a long spear in his hands, the militiaman standing at the village gate felt surging in him the nation’s tradition of courage, stronger than ever before.
The self-defence and guerilla organizations existing before the August Revolution developed very quickly.
President Ho described these forces as the “iron wall of the Fatherland” which would crush any enemy, however unyielding. During the insurrection, it was the shock force supporting the people in seizing power in various places. When the resistance war broke out in the South, and later, when it expanded to the whole country, it helped to turn every street, every village into a fortress.
Toward the end of 1945, self-defence units were organized in almost every hamlet, village, street and factory; one or two companies in some places, at least one platoon in others. They were put under the close direction of the Party and given assistance in military training by government authorities, but were wholly self-supporting in food and equipment.
In areas not yet at war, they proved an efficient instrument of dictatorship for the revolutionary power to ensure security for Party, State and Front offices, economic and national defence establishments, to keep peace and order, to put down the reactionaries. In most rural areas, theft and robbery were eradicated. It was a fine sight to see doors left open when people were absent or asleep.
In Hanoi, the city self-defence corps included practically all young men and numbered tens of thousands. They managed to procure for themselves various sorts of weapons, from daggers and shotguns to anti-tank mines and Japanese machine-guns.
The core of this force was made up of self-defence shock units. They were selected from the ranks of the National Salvation Youth League and included workers, poor labourers, schoolboys and students. They were armed and equipped by the Ministry of National Defence and mostly quartered at specified places, because of the existing situation. Their daily supplies came from the people. Along with the task of defending the revolutionary power against the reactionaries, they also took part in propaganda work and helped train the other self-defence units.
There was a training centre for them, called the Ho Chi Minh Self-Defence Training School. Uncle Ho visited it several times. Comrade Nhan and I often came to give lectures. Many of the trainees later became excellent cadres for the Viet Nam People’s Army.
While developing the armed forces of the masses, we stepped up the building of a regular army.
The units of the Viet Nam National Salvation Army, the Armed Propaganda Brigade for the Liberation of Viet Nam, the Ba To Guerillas etc., had merged into the Viet Nam Liberation Army, undergone swift development and been organized into battalions, companies and platoons before the general insurrection. Following Party decisions, they developed very quickly in the new situation within a month, their strength had increased tenfold as compared with the days immediately after the revolution.
All units of our army, the National Defence Guard, were put under the leadership of the Party through the agency of Party organizations within the army, in which Party members played an important role.
The cadres and members of the first armed units of the Party in earlier times became the nuclei of army units at national and regional levels.
The Anti-Japanese Political-Military School established in the guerilla base earlier was turned into the Viet Nam Political-Military School, and enlarged. Hundreds of cadres were trained at one time. Uncle Ho often came to give talks. To conceal it from the Chiang men, he renamed it “Viet Nam Cadres’ School”.
There was a seething nation-wide drive to enlist. Patriotic organizations sent many of their members to the armed forces. Self-defence units gave the army their best fighters and in some regions transformed themselves into army units. In Hanoi, altars to the Fatherland were set up in many quarters where volunteers were enrolled. These included middle-aged men as well as young people.
During the general insurrection, many civil guard units had crossed over to the revolutionary side. We decided to accept former officers and soldiers who, inspired by patriotism, volunteered to join the revolutionary army. Many were later to become good soldiers and cadres of our army.
In most regions, the army had to be supported by the people. The Women’s National Salvation Association played a prominent role in taking care of our fighters.
We decided to try every means to get more weapons for our army. Besides those we had seized from the civil guards or from the Japanese in battle, we used the money and gold contributed by the people to buy more armaments from the Japanese and the Chiang troops. Yet, it was hard to meet the needs of our developing army in armaments and equipment. We had to use everything we could lay hands on, so the few arms and munitions we had were of many kinds. Along with the handy lightweight submachine-guns made during World War Two and recently brought in by foreign troops, there were long rifles made in Czarist times and flintlocks turned out by local black-smiths. While at present our infantrymen are equipped with three infantry weapons of the same calibre, at the time we had to use some forty different kinds, of varying calibres. The rifles alone belonged to twenty kinds, manufactured in eight different countries:
Armed with more sticks than rifles, the National Defence Guards trained hard day and night, rain or shine. They were offered food, drink and fruit by local women. On their way to the front, they were shown warm feelings and well looked after by the people.
A new army was appearing for the first time in national history, an army of the people, issuing from the people, fostered by the people and fighting for the people. This army was founded by the Party and President Ho Chi Minh. Therefore from its early days it bore the deep imprint of the Party and Uncle Ho. Referring to our Party Uncle Ho once quoted two lines by Lu Hsun:
Glaring contemptuosly at a thousand athletes,
Bending gently to serve as a horse to the children.
And he explained that “a thousand athletes” meant powerful enemies like the French colonialists and the American interventionists, and also difficulties and hardships; while the “children” meant the large masses of common people, and also work done in the interest of the nation and the people.
These two lines also gave an image of our army. The National Defence Guards well deserved the affectionate feelings the people throughout the country showed them when they called them “Uncle Ho’s soldiers”.
Our army and the armed forces of the masses were born in the flames of the struggle for national salvation, building themselves up while fighting, heightening their political qualities as a result of their education at the hands of the Party and President Ho, steeling themselves in the fierce fire of the battlefields. Those armed forces have grown up day after day and met the great and urgent needs of the country.