Điện Biên Phủ victory, an inspiration for peace-lovers
The great Điện Biên Phủ victory on May 7, 1954 turned a new page in the history of world revolution, becoming a source of encouragement for the independence struggles in other countries around the world, according to General Secretary of the Labour Party (PT) of Mexico Alberto Anaya Guitiérrez.
Recently visiting Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’S representative office in Mexico City on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Điện Biên Phủ victory (May 7, 2024) and the 49th anniversary of the Liberation of South Việt Nam and National Reunification (April 30, 2024), the PT leader affirmed that the two victories have risen above the stature and boundary of a country, as they embodied and symbolised the burning desire and unyielding strength of a nation fighting for freedom and independence.
He recalled that during those days, the name of Điện Biên Phủ and the slogan "Việt Nam - Hồ Chí Minh Điện Biên Phủ" resonated across the five continents, becoming a source of inspiration for independence movements around the world.
The spirit of solidarity, self-reliance, the will to fight, the determination to win and the historical lessons from the Điện Biên Phủ victory have remained valid today, giving more strength to Việt Nam to firmly go forward on the path that President Hồ Chí Minh and the Communist Party of Việt Nam have chosen, Guitiérrez stated.
Mentioning the Hồ Chí Minh Campaign and the Great 1975 Spring Victory, the PT leader said that this historic event was more than a victory but a national reunification festival, paving the way for a Việt Nam of peace, unity, independence, democracy, reform and prosperity.
Guitierrez said that he believes that in addition to patriotism, unyielding strength and limitless solidarity, Vietnam won the two resistance wars thanks to the nation’s righteousness and justice. The PT General Secretary emphasised that with justice on their side, Vietnamese people are determined to fight and demand the right to live in peace, independence and freedom despite all sacrifices and hardships.
He said that Latin American countries and Mexico in particular have learned a lot from President Hồ Chí Minh through his sound leadership and ideology that led the Vietnamese people from one victory to another.
President Hồ Chí Minh’s saying “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom” is a motto for not only Viêt Nam but also for all peace-loving people around the world, including those in Latin America and Mexico, stated Guitierrez.
Meanwhile, in an interview granted to VNA correspondents in the UK, British historian John Callow said the enormous sacrifices that enabled the decisive victory at Điện Biên Phủ were the products of a unique political and military praxis, stemming directly from the personal qualities and intellectual brilliance of President Hồ
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Chí Minh and Võ Nguyên Giáp, and collectively applied and developed through the party’s cadres. This method created a durable path to freedom, that has the capacity to maintain and enhance Việt Nam’s socialist revolution.
Callow said lightening rarely strikes twice, but in the case of the relationship and creative synthesis between President Hồ Chí Minh and General Võ Nguyên Giáp, it certainly did. The political visionary was complimented by the military theorist. Together, they forged the Vietnamese Communist Party and a revolutionary army that were capable of freeing the country and securing its independence, free of domination by external governmental and economic forces.
According to him, Điện Biên Phủ victory’s significance lay in its transformation of what had started out as a network of irregular guerrilla bands into a conventional army capable of defeating seasoned and extremely well-armed and well-trained Western forces in a set-piece battle; and in so doing confirming – through the deliberations of the Geneva Conference – the passage of colonial “Indochina” to the nation state of Việt Nam.
The historian said the victory at Điện Biên Phủ and the eventual reunification of the country were not mere accidents of history but the result of careful planning, firm adherence to principle, and the creative application of Marxist theory to the specific conditions of Vietnamese society. Marxism - which had hitherto been primarily rooted in a Western, industrial context was greatly enriched by Hồ Chí Minh, who applied its vital essence and critique of imperialism to the task of liberating the Vietnamese people and the transformation of a peasant economy, ridden by landlordism and colonial exploitation, into a modern state, where the status of small and middle farmers was enhanced, and where the fruits of productive labour might be shared for the benefit of all, guaranteeing the rights to home, health, work and welfare.
Discussing the significance of the victory at Điện Biên Phủ to the then national liberation movements in the world, Callow said the victory changed everything, shattering the myth of western, colonial, dominance (whether military, cultural or economic) and opening up the vision of national liberation for the global majority peoples, while providing direct inspiration for those struggling for independence around the world.
Assessing Việt Nam’s recent achievements, Callow said there is no denying that Việt Nam has faced some incredibly tough problems and threats over recent years, and the country remains a beacon to those developing nations, just as it was in the wake of the victory at Điện Biên Phủ.
It does so on account of its conception of nationhood, its independence and its principled respect for international law and treaties. It does so because of its continued efforts to realise the vision of President Hồ Chí Minh and General Giáp, as evidenced in the decisions of the recent 13th Party Congress, to combat corruption and inequality, to maintain economic growth that runs contrary to global trends, and to re-invigorate the cultural and political gains achieved through the life’s work of all those who participated in the liberation struggle, he stated.