I am sitting here at All Day Coffee at 55 Hàng Bún. That's not far from my old-style 6th floor apartment on the lakeside of Hồ Tây (West Lake).   It's the afternoon of the 10th October, 2024:  a big day in Vietnam. 

It's the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the capital city of Hà Nội by Viet Minh troops on October 10th, 1954.   

That historic day was about 6 months after the final defeat of the French colonial forces in the battle of Điện Biên Phủ. 

The nationalist Viet Minh forces were victorious.   That's an understatement.  At the end of the battle in May 1954, they took 10,000 French soldiers as prisoners in one day!     The French were finally kicked out of Vietnam on this day 70 years ago, when the Viet Minh troops entered Hanoi. 

Viet Minh troops on Oct 10, 1954. Billboard opposite Highlands Coffee Xuân Diệu (Photo by the writer, Oct 3, 2024) 

I've got writer's block.  How can I concentrate on another chapter on such a momentous day?   

All week there's been a festive mood in the air, as local people walk around the lake and view the big posters, murals, and streetside displays. Patriotic red flags with the yellow star are hanging on street corners and from overhead cables. The people are celebrating the 1954 defeat of the French colonialists who tried to claim what they thought was theirs (the colony called Indochina) after the Japanese were defeated by the allied powers, ending World War 2  in 1945.   

Hanoi ladies out walking during the Autumn Festival (Photo by Half-wracked Sep 27, 2024)


As a distraction, I've decided to think about the history of this great country and great people now, on this day.  The new chapter can wait for another day. 

I will distract myself by publishing some photos I took about 18 months ago.  I was walking back home from the Old Quarter of Hoan Kiem, when I decided to enter this old house that was converted into a museum.   It was number 48 Hàng Ngang  - on one of the long streets that connect lake Hoan Kiem to West Lake. 

The house at 48 Hàng Ngang converted into a museum (Photo by the writer, Sep 27, 2024 - closed on that day)

Below's a photo of the house as it was in 1945 after the Japanese occupiers were defeated in World War 2.   Note: the Japanese occupied Vietnam during World War II.  In September 1940 they entered French Indochina & established a military presence. The French administration, under the Vichy government, cooperated with the Japanese forces until March 1945, when Japan took full control, fearing a potential French uprising. 
     

Self-explanatory caption "House No 48 in Hang Nang street, where President Ho Chi Minh and Party Central Committee members lived and worked from August 25th, 1945 to September 2nd, 1945. Where President Ho Chi Minh wrote the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam"


A picture of the house at number 48 on the day it was open and I walked in. You can see the bust of Uncle Ho inside (Photo above & below by the writer, February 20, 2023)  

OK, we are going to walk in now, and take a look around.  I will copy below - in chronological order - a few selected wall photograps that you can take a look at.   You will learn of some historical events that the leadership sees as significant.     


The bust of Uncle Ho that is staring at you as you walk through the door (Photo by the writer, Feb 20, 2023)


Caption: "Portraits of participitants of the Party Foundation Conference in Hong Kong (China) in 1930.  That looks like Ho Chi Minh playing the central role, second from left.

Caption: "The Nghe-Tinh Soviet Movement led by the Communist Party of Indochina, a top point of the high tide of the Vietnamese revolution during 1930 and 1931.  It was considered as the first general rehersal for the successful August Revolution (photo taken from the painting)"

Caption: The anti-Japanese aggressors high tide movement has shown up the huge efforts of Vietnamese people in the resistance for national independence,  It was also a great rehersal for the general uprising for the revolutionary government of August 1945. 

The leadership in 1945.    Top President Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969).  Sadly he died in the early stages of the American War and did not live to see final victory in August 1975.  Middle row, second from left.  Vo Nguyen Giap (1911-2013).   Later known as General Giap, North Vietnamese Army during the American War.  He was regarded as one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century, leading Vietnamese nationalist forces to victories in wars against Japan, France, South Vietnam and the United States, and China. 

Caption "President Ho Chi Minh and major Archimedes L.A. Patti - head of the Office of Strategic Services who was one of the first mission groups received by Uncle Ho in the house at No. 48 Hang Ngang street and the first foreigner to read the Declaration of Independence before the official announcement" in 1945.   Note: Ho Chi Minh was in an alliance to defeat the common enemy, Japan during World War 2. 

Caption: "President Ho Chi Minh at the Opening of "Resistance Day", held at the Opera House, Hanoi, November 5, 1945"|


Caption "President Ho Chi Mind (first, left) and G. Sainteny (middle), the French government representitive and representitives of alliance countries listen to the reading of the Preliminary Agreement before signing.   This followed the Decision of 3 March 1946 of the Standing Council of the Party Central Committee on solution "making friends with the French" in order to drive the Chiang Kai-shek troops back home and conserve our forces as well have enough time to prepare for a new fight,  Hanoi, March 6, 1946.   

Caption: Delegation of the Vietnam Democratic Republic attended Fontainebleau Conference, held from 6th July to 13 September 1946 in France.   The conference was aimed to improve relationship between Vietnam and France.   Postsciipt: what a joke.  It was akin to Palestinian peace talks with Israel, where the colonial power plans to invade while talking peace. 

Geneva, July 1954, two months after the total defeat of the French forces at Ðiện Biên Phủ .  Caption:  "The general session of the Geneva Conference about ending war and restoring peace in Indochina. The Geneva Treaty was a geat success of the anti-French aggressor resistance war, an important of the virtuous, hardship and long struggle of Vietnamese people for national independence under the Party leadership."

  Caption "Hanoians at the welcoming meeting for the Party Central Committee, the Government and President Ho Chi Minh on their return to the Capital after 9 years of the long and arduopus resistance war.  Ha Noi, January 1, 1955. 


Note this was a couple of months after the capture of the Capital 70 years ago on this day, October 10, 2024.   At this time with the French expeditionary forces were totally and humiliatingly defeated by Vietnamese forces,  after the colonial power tried to re-take Vietnam.    At this time the American's were starting to plot about to how to kill Ho Chi Minh's dream of a unified Communist state.  The Cold War between America and the tnen Soviet Union can be seen in hindsight as the cause of the American War, 1965-1975.

Vietnam appears to have ditched Marxist-Leninist ideology these days, because once the Americans were defeated it simply did not work economically.  This followed the ditching of Marxism in China by Deng Xiaopeng in 1978 and in the following years.   



Caption, following the landing of French troops in North Vietnam: "In response to President Ho Chi Minh's appeal. "Those who have rifles will use their rifles, those who have swords will use thir swords, those who have no swords will use spades, hoes, or sticks . . " the copmpatriots all over the country stood up as one to fight against the French colonialist aggressors". 

Footnote:  one could imagine what the West Bank would be like today, if they had a leader like Ho Chi Minh in 1955.  During this period, Ho Chi Minh was called a Communist, and therefore Evil.  The substitute term these dase is Terrorist, since the term Communist is no longer applicable to engender fear and loathing.  

Caption: "The third National Congress of the Vietnam Labor Party - the Congress of "socialism construction in the North and struggle for peace and country reunification". Hanoi, September, 1960.   Uncle Ho speaking.  Note at this time the American propaganda was based on the domino theory.  Note the picture of Marx and Lenin as a backdrop.  

Caption "The flag rising ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York on September 20, 1977 - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam became the official member No. 149 of the UN. 

Caption: "The opening ceremony of the 6th National Congress of the Party.  The Congress charted the line and initiated the process of renewal in Vietnam under the Party's leadership.  Hanoi, December 15m 1986. 

Footnote.  I speculate that "renewal" here pertains to "renewing" the failed Marxist economic policy, to introduce market capitalism.  

Above: Hanoi, 12 January, 2011.  Caption:  "The 10th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party.  The Congress had pushed the country renewal process, laid down the groundwork for the country to become a modern industrialized country by 2020" 

Aside: I reckon they have achieved their economic goal, by abandoning the economic tenets of Marxism-Leninism:  a rigid revolutionary ideology without which they could not have held together for 30 years from 1945 to 1975.   During this period when us baby-boomers were growing up in the West, when JFK and MLK were assassinated, when the Beatles were singing All You Need is Love, the people of Vietnam were undergoing an enormous & dedicated struggle against foreign domination, entailing huge collective suffering.  The US government’s Cold War strategy for defeating communism and the Domino Theory was to cause a civil war in Vietnam by setting up & financing an alternative government in the south.  

That's all for now. 

I'm off to the Havana Cafe for a beer and a bite to eat (see pics).  


The writer's granddaughter's (10 & 5) at the Havana Cafe, September 14, 2024. 

Note: The cafe is named Havana for good reason, so it seems.   In the upstairs dining area the walls are filled with large photos that appear to commemorate a visit of Fidel Castro to Hanoi, maybe during the nineteen sixties.   I’ll have to explore that slice of history sometime. 


October 6, 2024. The lady owner of the Havana Cafe with an Autumn Festival traditional sweet gift for the 2 granddaughters.   These were home-made made in her father's village in the countryside. She's worked in Australia and has a son attending UTS in Sydney


Steps leading up to the dining area of the Havana Cafe (Photo by the writer, October 6, 2024)


And finally . . . .time to walk home

West Lake (Hồ Tây), Hanoi (Hà Nội)  9:04 pm, Aug 28, 2024

The End 

--ooOoo--