While Ho Chi Minh was beginning the long and tortuous process of negotiating with France over the postwar fate of the Vietnamese people, his government had also been exchanging messages with the imperial court in Hué over the potential abdication of Bao Dai. By August 20, the emperor had already hinted at a willingness to step down in response to a request from a group of patriots in Hanoi and he had formally appealed to the new authorities in Hanoi to form a government, but Ho and his colleagues had decided to forestall his action by sending a delegation to Hué to demand his abdication in favor of a new Vietnamese republic. The delegation, consisting of the veteran labor organizer Hoang Quoc Viet, Ho’s old comrade Nguyen Luong Bang, and the journalist and Party propagandist Tran Huy Lieu, arrived in Hué on August 29, After attending a mass meeting before the townspeople to explain their intentions, they met with the emperor the next day in the imperial palace. The bespectacled intellectual Tran Huy Lieu, who had developed a reputation as one of the more militant members of the ICP, spoke for the delegation: “In the name of the people, the venerable Ho Chi Minh, president of the Liberation Committee, has honored us by sending us to Your Majesty to receive your authority.” Bao Dai, who had never before heard the name Ho Chi Minh but suspected that the new president was indeed the veteran revolutionary Nguyen Ai Quoc, formally carried out the act of abdication. Then, at the delegation’s request, he repeated it that afternoon before a hastily assembled audience in a brief ceremony on the terrace of the Moon Gate, at the entrance to the imperial city, where the flagstaff already flew the red banner with the gold star. After receiving the imperial seal, Tran Huy Lieu tendered an invitation to Bao Dai from President Ho Chi Minh to go to Hanoi to take part in the installation of the new government. Bao Dai agreed to attend, as an ordinary citizen of the republic. In general, the atmosphere surrounding the change of regime was festive rather than frightening, although some observers were visibly upset by the sight of the emperor abdicating the throne, even if the act appeared to be voluntary.
Not all of Bao Dai’s subjects were treated with such elaborate courtesy. Two prominent opponents of the ICP, the conservative journalist and politician Pham Quynh and the court official Ngo Dinh Khoi, were quietly arrested by revolutionary activists in Hué and executed in early September. In Quang Ngai province, farther to the south, the veteran Trotskyite Ta Thu Thau, long one of the more outspoken critics of the ICP from the left, was arrested by Vietminh adherents and met the same fate.13
On August 27, Ho Chi Minh convened a meeting of the National Liberation Committee, soon to become the new provisional government, at the Palace of the Imperial Delegate, now to be renamed the Bac Bo Phu, or Northern Palace. In his now characteristic manner, Ho showed up at the meeting in his jungle clothing, with worn brown shorts, rubber sandals, and a khaki sun helmet. The agenda for the meeting was to formalize the membership of the new government and discuss the wording of the text for the Declaration of Independence. Ho had been at work in a dark small room at the back of the house on Hang Ngang Street, typing and retyping the draft document. Now he was ready to present it to his colleagues. As he told them later, these were “the happiest moments” in his life.14
At the meeting, Ho suggested that the new government be broadly based to reflect all progressive strata and political elements in the country, and that its policies be aimed at achieving broad unity within the population. His proposals were accepted unanimously, and several Vietminh members of the committee reportedly offered to resign to make room for members of other political parties. After Ho Chi Minh was elected chairman of the provisional government of a new Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), he extended his welcome to each member of the new government, which decided to establish its headquarters at the Northern Palace.
Two days later, the names of the members of the new government were announced on the Hanoi radio. In addition to the presidency, Ho Chi Minh occupied the position of minister of foreign affairs. Vo Nguyen Giap, Pham Van Dong, Chu Van Tan, and Tran Huy Lieu occupied the ministries of Interior, Finance, National Defense, and Propaganda, respectively. Other high officials were from the Democratic Party, a puppet parry representing progressive intellectuals that had been established under the aegis of the Vietminh Front in 1944, and among the appointees were a Catholic, and several individuals aligned with no party. About half of the ministries in the new administration were assigned to members of the Vietminh Front.15
During the next few days, Ho Chi Minh worked steadily at a small office in the Northern Palace, polishing his speech declaring national independence that was scheduled to take place on September 2. He had moved his residence to a more secluded villa on Rue Bonchamps, but continued to take his meals with his colleagues at Hang Ngang Street. Party leaders had decided that the ceremony would be held in the Place Puginier, a large square adjacent to the Governor-General’s Palace. The city had returned to a semblance of normalcy, although popular demonstrations in support of the new government took place almost daily. Hastily produced flags bearing the gold star on a red background began to appear on the façades of homes and shops, while Vietminh self-defense units assumed sentry duty at public offices and buildings. With the war at an end, the black shades that had been placed over street lamps had been removed, and the downtown area took on a more festive atmosphere after dark. There were still relatively few foreigners in the streets, since most of the French who had been interned after the March coup had not yet been released from imprisonment and the bulk of Chinese troops had not yet arrived. Japanese troops generally stayed out of the public eye, although on several occasions a confrontation between Japanese and Vietminh military units was averted at the last minute through urgent negotiations.
Beginning in the morning hours of September 2, crowds began to gather in Place Puginier, soon to be renamed Ba Dinh Square. As described many years later by Vo Nguyen Giap:
Hanoi was bedecked with red bunting. A world of flags, lanterns and flowers. Fluttering red flags adorned the roofs, the trees and the lakes.
Streamers were hung across streets and roads, bearing slogans in Vietnamese, French, English, Chinese and Russia: “Viet Nam for the Vietnamese,” “Down with French colonialism,” “Independence or death,” “Support the provisional government,” “Support President Ho Chi Minh,” “Welcome to the Allied mission,” etc.
Factories and shops, big and small, were closed down. Markets were deserted.... The whole city, old and young, men and women, took to the streets.... Multicolored streams of people flowed to Ba Dinh Square from all directions.
Workers in white shirts and blue trousers came in ranks, full of strength and confidence.... Hundreds of thousands of peasants came from the city suburbs. People’s militiamen carried quarter-staffs, swords or scimitars. Some even carried old-style bronze clubs and long-handles [sic] swords taken from the armories of temples. Among the women peasants in their festive dresses, some were clad in old-fashioned robes, yellow turbans and bright-green sashes....
Most lively were the children.... They matched in step with the whistle blows of their leaders, singing revolutionary songs.16
In the center of the square, a guard of honor stood at attention in the hot summer sun before a high wooden platform erected specially for the occasion. It was from this rostrum that the new President would introduce himself, present his new government, and read the Declaration of Independence. As the time for the ceremony approached, Ho Chi Minh uncharacteristically appeared concerned about the clothing he should wear, asking a colleague to find him a proper suit to wear for the occasion. Eventually someone loaned him a khaki suit with a high-collared jacket, the attire that he would wear along with a pair of white rubber sandals.
The program was scheduled to begin at 2:00 P.M., but because of the heavy foot traffic heading for the square, Ho Chi Minh and his cabinet arrived a few minutes late in their American automobiles. After they mounted the rostrum, Vo Nguyen Giap, the new minister of the interior, introduced the president to the crowd. Ho Chi
Minh’s speech was short but emotional:
“All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
This immortal statement appeared in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, it means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live and to be happy and free.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the citizen, made at the time of the French Revolution, in 1791, also states: “All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal tights.”
Ho Chi Minh followed those words with a litany of crimes committed by the French colonial regime in Indochina, crimes that had finally driven the people of Vietnam to throw off the yoke of French colonialism and declare their national independence. He then concluded with a ringing affirmation of Vietnam’s right to be free: “Viet Nam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence and in fact has become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their freedom and independence.”
At one point in his speech, Ho Chi Minh looked out at the crowd and said simply: “My fellow countrymen, have you understood?” According to Vo Nguyen Giap, a million voices thundered in reply, “Yes!” The ceremony concluded with the introduction of the members of the new council of ministers, brief remarks by Giap and by Tran Huy Lieu, and a public recitation of the oath of independence. Then the dignitaries left the podium and the crowd dispersed, some of them excitedly pointing out the squadron of U.S. P-38s that passed overhead. Ceremonies celebrating the transition to independence also took place at a Buddhist temple and the Catholic cathedral. That evening, the new president met with representatives from the provinces.
French citizens in the audience had undoubtedly reacted to the day’s events with a mood of foreboding. There were about fifteen thousand French living in Hanoi at war’s end, and many had taken the precaution of arming themselves in preparation for possible difficult days to come. There were nearly five thousand French prisoners being held at the citadel in the center of town, and Patti reported that they were making advance preparations to take up arms at the moment of landing by Free French forces in Indochina.17
On September 3, dressed in the same faded khaki uniform and pair of blue canvas shoes that he had often worn in the Viet Bac, President Ho Chi Minh convened the first meeting of the new council of ministers in the downstairs conference room at the Northern Palace. The National People’s Congress held at Tan Trao had already approved a series of measures—labeled the “ten great policies”—that had been drawn up earlier by the Executive Committee of the Vietminh Front. Some of them dealt with actions that needed to be taken to strengthen the armed forces in preparation for a possible future struggle with the French or the Allied occupation troops, others with the creation of a new political system and the adoption of measures to improve the national economy and to establish relations with other countries within the region and around the world.18
In his opening remarks, Ho Chi Minh explained that the most urgent topic was the terrible famine—specifically, how to alleviate its effects. Although the crisis may have abated somewhat during the early summer as the result of a good spring harvest, conditions had grown worse once again in August, when the Red River overflowed its banks and flooded low-lying rice fields throughout the lower reaches of the delta. Students at the local university organized teams to go out each morning to assist in removing the dead bodies that had accumulated on the streets of the city in the preceding twenty-four hours. At its meeting, the new government adopted a series of emergency measures to fight the famine, including a campaign to encourage the population to conserve food by reducing consumption. To set an example, Ho announced that once every ten days he would go without food. The food that was saved was to be distributed to the poor. In subsequent weeks, the government approved a number of additional policies to conserve rice and increase production. Communal lands, which constituted more than 20 percent of all irrigated land in the northern and central provinces, were divided up among all villagers over eighteen years of age. The manufacture of noodles and the distillation of rice alcohol was prohibited, the agricultural tax was reduced and then suspended entirely, a farm credit bureau was opened to provide farmers with access to easy credit, and vacant lands throughout the north and center were ordered to be placed under cultivation.19
The council also turned its attention to several other issues. One of Ho Chi Minh’s primary concerns, as expressed in his comments at the September 3 meeting, was the low rate of literacy in Vietnam. According to one source, 90 percent of the Vietnamese people were estimated to be illiterate in 1945, a damning indictment of French educational policies in a society where literacy rates had traditionally been among the highest in Asia. A decree was now issued requiring that all Vietnamese learn to read and write the national script (quoc ngu) within one year. The decree carried a strong Confucian flavor: “Let those who cannot yet read and write learn to do it. Let the wife learn from her husband. Let the younger brother learn from the elder. Let parents learn from their children. Let girls and women study harder.” Mass education schools were to be opened to provide training for students ranging in age from young children to the elderly. Although teachers and school facilities were in short supply (in many instances, pagodas, hospitals, and markets were turned into schools), the program had a significant impact: by the fall of 1946 over two million Vietnamese had obtained a level of literacy.20
At the cabinet meeting, Ho Chi Minh also raised the question of how to prepare for general elections to create a formal government based on democratic liberties. On September 8, a decree announced that elections for a constituent assembly would be held in two months to draft a new constitution for the DRV. All citizens over the age of eighteen were declared eligible to vote. Later edicts declared the equality of all nationalities and freedom of religion. On October 13, a decree announced that the traditional mandarinate had been abolished, and authority in local areas was to be established through elections for people’s councils and administrative committees at all localities throughout the northern provinces.21
The new government concentrated its economic efforts on lowering tax rates, improving working conditions, and distributing farmland to the poor. In addition to the abolition of the land tax that had been imposed by the French, the capitation tax, which provided three quarters of government tax revenue, taxes on the manufacture of salt and alcohol, and various other commercial taxes were immediately suspended, while the consumption of opium and the practice of corvée were officially prohibited. An eight-hour working day was promulgated, and employers were notified that they must provide employees with advance notice before dismissal. In the countryside, land rents were ordered reduced by 25 percent and all long-standing debts were abolished.
The government took no action, however, to nationalize industries or commercial establishments, not did it embark on an ambitious land reform program to confiscate the farmlands of the affluent and redistribute them to the poor. For the moment, only the lands of French colonialists and Vietnamese traitors were to be seized. In his writings and statements during the Pacific War, Ho Chi Minh had made it clear that following a successful general insurrection at the end of the conflict, Vietnamese society would enter the first, national democratic stage of the Leninist revolutionary process. That stage would be characterized by the establishment of a broad united front government representing the vast bulk of the population and by moderate reformist policies in the social and economic arenas.
The decision by the provisional government to present a moderate face to the Vietnamese people was a calculated move by Ho Chi Minh and his senior colleagues to win the support of a broad cross-section of the people in order to focus on the key problem of containing t
he threat of foreign imperialism. Despite Ho’s effort to avoid offending moderates, however, the government was not always able to control radical elements at the local level who wanted to settle personal scores or engage in class warfare. On some occasions village notables or mandarins were beaten, arrested, or even executed without trial. In some villages in central and northern Vietnam, newly elected councils abruptly declared the abolition of traditional religious rituals and confiscated the property of the affluent. To avoid complications, the government sent key Party members to reverse such measures and calm the ardent spirits of revolutionary elements.
While Ho Chi Minh was still putting the final touches on his speech in Ba Dinh Square, the first advance units of the Chinese occupation army had already crossed the border and were beginning to straggle into Hanoi. To many Vietnamese observers, they were a ragtag lot, their yellow uniforms tattered and worn, their belongings slung on poles over their shoulders, their legs swollen from beriberi. Many of them were accompanied by wives and children.
These were not among the best troops in the Kuomintang Army. For political reasons, Chiang Kai-shek had abandoned plans to use Zhang Fakui’s crack Guangxi troops as the main force for his occupation of Indochina, and had directed Lu Han, a warlord of Yunnan province, to send units of his First Army down the Red River to Hanoi. In the meantime, General Xiao Wen, Ho Chi Minh’s patron a few months earlier in Liuzhou, led units of Zhang Fakui’s Guangxi army across the border at Lang Son. Lu Han was designated commander of the occupation force, which was expected to reach a strength of 180,000 men, while Xiao Wen was selected as his chief political adviser. In their baggage came Nguyen Hat Than, Vu Hong Khanh, and other members of the nationalist movement who had spent the war years living in exile in south China.
On September 9, the main body of General Lu Han’s army entered Hanoi. Archimedes Patti described the scene:
Ho Chi Minh Page 46
