“I realized that in the world there are two peoples who are similar in their heroic spirit and are very good at fighting the enemy. Those are the Russians and the Vietnamese.“
During the resistance war to liberate the South and unify the country, I witnessed a talk between my father (General Secretary Lê Duẩn) and some Soviet youth and students. During the exchange, a Russian student stood up and asked him: "General Secretary, do you think Vietnam will win against America?"
My father said: “I realized that in the world there are two peoples who are similar in their heroic spirit and are very good at fighting the enemy. Those are the Russians and the Vietnamese. In the 19th century, when Napoleon won all European battlefields and held the most powerful armies to annex Russia. Faced with the resistance of a heroic nation, Napoleon failed. In feudal Vietnam, the Mongol army conquered from Asia to Europe, spreading terror to all countries they visited. Yet in all three times they invaded Vietnam, they failed miserably. At the beginning of the 20th century, when the German fascists devastated Europe, conquered all the wars, and aspired to conquer the world, they collapsed on Russian soil... Today, imperial America is the number one superpower, that has never tasted defeat. But they are also encountering resistance from a nation with a heroic spirit, Vietnam. The Russians defeated the German fascists, then history must also stand for Vietnam to defeat the USA." And yes, history has given victory to the heroic spirit of Vietnam.
“Victory has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan,” US president John F. Kennedy once said (paraphrasing the Roman historian Tacitus).
Tribute
"Truly, times have changed. When we defeated the Mongols, we sent them back on our own horses & boats, always with generous tribute and our excuses for defeating their armies after they crossed our borders. Now the invader sends his own transport and even an emissary to discuss the tribute amount."
Hồ Chí Minh
President Hồ turned his sun helmet upside down on the table. Running his slim fingers around the outer rim, he said, “This is the situation. Down there is the valley of Điện Biên Phủ – that’s where the French are with the best troops they have in Indochina. They will never get out.”
Việt Nam Will Win
"My people have always been here as long as we can count. Their bones lie here, even if the Yankee devils have torn up the tombstones with their shells. I will live & fight here and if I die from Yankee shells or bombs, at least my bones will remain on the same bit of soil as those of my ancestors."
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