80 years ago, on this date: 28 February 1946, Vietnam asked the US to support its struggle for independence against its French colonial occupier.
Ho Chi Mihn was the first Prime Minister and, later, the first President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, founded as a constitutional republic in 1945. Able to speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin as well as his mother tongue, Ho studied the US Declaration of Independence and based the constitution of his tiny new nation, seeking independence from a colonial occupier and recognition of its sovereignty on that document. In this telegram to US President Truman, he pleaded for American support for his new nation. We know how that turned out.
Hell, he quoted the American Declaration of Independence directly (read the opening) in his own Declaration. Why? Because the United States once set a standard by which most of the world wanted to live ... a belief that there are certain natural rights that we all possess from birth.
The Vietnamese were claiming those rights and they were claiming the promise of America.
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The Vietnamese were claiming those rights and they were claiming the promise of America.
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Charles
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