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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
Ho Chi Minh issued an "Appeal for General Insurrection" following the August 16 conference:
- "...This is a great advance in the history of the struggle waged for nearly a century by our people for their liberation.
- "This is a fact that enraptures our compatriots and fills me with great joy.
- "However, we cannot consider this as good enough. Our struggle will be a long and hard one. Because the Japanese are defeated, we shall not be liberated overnight. We still have to make further efforts and carry on the struggle. Only a united struggle will bring us independence.
- "The Viet Minh Front is at present the basis of the struggle and solidarity of our people. Join the Viet Minh Front, support it, make it greater and stronger!
- "At present, the National Liberation Committee is, so to speak, in itself our provisional government. Unite around it and see to it that its policies and orders are carried out throughout the country!
- "In this way, our Fatherland will certainly win independence and our people will certainly win freedom soon.
- "The decisive hour in the destiny of our people has struck. Let us stand up with all our strength to free ourselves!
- "Many oppressed peoples the world over are vying with each other in the march to win back their independence. We cannot allow ourselves to lag behind.
- "Forward! Forward! Under the banner of the Viet Minh Front, move forward courageously!"30
The hapless Bao Dai — the first Vietnamese to govern a nominally united, independent nation in nearly a century — on August 18, 1945, dispatched to General de Gaulle of France the following poignant and prophetic message:
- "I address myself to the people of France, to the country of my youth. I address myself as well to the nation's leader and liberator and I wish to speak as a friend rather than as Head of State.
- "You have suffered too much during four deadly years not to understand that the Vietnamese people, who have a history of twenty centuries and an often glorious past, no longer wish,
B-29
TOP SECRET – Sensitive
