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| Vietnam Times |
October 10 is mostly associated with Double 10 in Taiwan. However, Communism has its celebration with Hanoi Liberation Day. I got this information from the Vietnam Times on what the day is all about:
Along with the victory of Dien Bien Phu campaign, the Geneva Agreements on armistice in Indochina was signed. After many days of struggling in the Geneva Conference, agreements on transfering Hanoi to the Vietnamese people were finally signed on September 30th and October 2nd 1954 in the United Armistice Center Committee.
Following the Resolution on September 17th 1954 of the Government Council, the City Troops Committee of Hanoi was established with General Vuong Thua Vu, the commander of the Pioneer Division, as the Chairman and doctor Tran Duy Hung as the Vice Chairman. The City Troops Committee of Hanoi had the task of taking over and managing the city. The Military Commanders ordered the Vietnamese soldier units to take over the city of Hanoi and abide by the policies and discipline of the Government. The Pioneer Division took over Hanoi. On October 9th, the soldiers entered the center of the city from five city gates to take over the Station, the Residency, the Naval Station, Hoan Kiem Lake area, the Governor Mansion, ect. At 4.00 pm of the day, soldiers of the French Unions left the city, went to the North of Long Bien bridge. At 4.30 pm, the Vietnamese soldiers kept the city under their control safely. Welcome gates, banners were set on many streets and the flags with yellow star (the flag of Vietnam) waved on buildings.
In the afternoon of October 10th, all residents of the city focused on the Flag ceremony held by the City Troops Committee. After that, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Vuong Thua Vu, read The Call of President Ho Chi Minh to all residents of the capital in the Liberation Day.
For details on the Dien Bien Phu campaign's importance, we need to look at the battle against the French, as described by the History website:
The First Indochina War
The Viet Minh began fighting against the French in 1946 in what became known as the First Indochina War, first using guerrilla tactics and then more conventional methods of warfare as it received weapons and financial support from the Soviet Union and China.
In November 1953, thousands of French paratroopers dropped into the Dien Bien Phu Valley in the mountainous far northwest region of Vietnam near the Laotian border. They took possession of a small airstrip there and began creating a military stronghold that included a chain of fortified garrisons on a 40-mile perimeter around the airstrip.
The French brought in more than 15,000 troops but this sizeable force was stretched thin defending the large perimeter. And they were badly outnumbered. The Viet Minh had almost 50,000 troops under the command of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, an ardent Communist who is considered one of the 20th century’s greatest military strategists.
France had two primary objectives in its occupation of Dien Bien Phu. It sought a base from where it could attack and cripple the supply lines into Laos that supported the growing insurgency in that country. And it wanted to provoke the Viet Minh into an open, massed attack, confident that French forces would prevail in this type of warfare.
The French underestimated Giap’s leadership as well as the Viet Minh army’s weapons and capabilities. The French forces expected to rely on the airstrip to resupply the bastion, wrongly assuming that the Viet Minh had no anti-aircraft weapons.
Giap did nothing to try to stop the initial incursion. For four months, his troops prepared. They spread out through the steep hills until the army literally surrounded the Dien Bien Phu valley. They dug out well-protected artillery positions and somehow manhandled huge artillery pieces up and down the steep slopes and through dense growth to their positions.
Viet Minh Surround French Forces
On March 13, 1954, under the dark sky of a new moon, the Viet Minh artillery began shelling one of the French perimeter garrisons and the army laid siege to the entire French outpost. The next day, Giap’s artillery disabled the airstrip and his troops attacked and captured another perimeter garrison.
For the next two months, under the cover of artillery fire that the French could not suppress, the Viet Minh forces adopted the type of trench warfare seen in World War I, digging closer and closer to the French lines while working to isolate the remaining French garrisons. The French Air Force, without an operational airstrip, had to drop supplies by parachute while under fire. It lost 62 aircraft during the battle; another 167 were damaged.
On March 30, 1954, Viet Minh troops attacked two more garrisons. Bloody, desperate attacks and counterattacks raged for almost a week as the French fought with fierce resolve but continued to give way. By April 22, Giap’s forces had captured 90 percent of the airstrip, forcing the cessation of the air drops and leaving the French army in dire and deteriorating conditions.
The human toll on both sides was tremendous and Giap had to call for reinforcements from Laos before resuming ground attacks on the shrinking French perimeter on May 1. The end came on May 7, as the last shred of French resistance crumbled, and a triumphant Vietnamese soldier stood atop the conquered French headquarters waving the red and yellow Viet Minh flag in victory.
Sadly, Asian history in high school is rushed. History in school can be interesting or boring, but mostly boring because of how teachers are made to teach it. We had some details of the Vietnam War in Asian History. Fortunately, I'm now having history as a hobby, which can be more interesting than history in school.
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