PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH'S ADDRESS TO THE VIETNAM NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
President Ho Chi Minh in an address to the Second Session of the Third National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam called on the entire Vietnamese people to unite as one and fight with resolution to defeat the U.S. aggressors.
President Ho Chi Minh said:
"This National Assembly session is called in a very tense atmosphere but also in high spirits and with the utmost confidence. The anti-U.S. national salvation movement is sweeping the different parts of the country like a prairie fire. Many resounding victories have been won in both the north and the south.
"For more than ten years, the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys have been waging a war of unparalleled brutality and have brought innumerable calamities to our compatriots in the south. During the recent months, they have madly extended the war to the northern part of our country. They have sent hundreds of planes and scores of warships to bomb and attack the north continually in defiance of the 1954 Geneva agreements on Vietnam and international law. The U.S. imperialists have shown up themselves as gangsters and are attacking our country in a flagrant manner. They fondly hope that by force of arms, they could reduce our thirty million compatriots to be their slaves. In this they are grossly mistaken. They are doomed to miserable failure.
"We Vietnamese nation is a nation of heroes. In the last ten years or more, our fourteen million fellow-countrymen in the south have endured all inconceivable hardships and sacrifices and have fought with matchless valor. Bare-handed in the beginning, they captured arms from the enemy and fought back and have won one victory after another. They are now going on a sustained offensive and inflicting ever heavier defeats on the U.S. marauders and the traitors who are sinking deeper and deeper in the mire. The heavier their defeat, the more barbarous the means they employed, as for instance the employment of napalm bombs and poison gas to massacre our fellow-countrymen in the south. Just because they cannot pull themselves out of the hopeless predicament in the south, they have started frenzied attacks on the north."
He pointed out that "it is the usual practice of the U.S. imperialists to play the trick of thief-crying-stopthief! They are the aggressor, but they are cynical enough to slander the north as having 'invaded' the south".
Meanwhile, he said, U.S. President Johnson shouted himself hoarse the threat that force would be used to bring our people to terms. "This is the daydream of a madman. Our people will never submit."
He stressed: "The Taylor plan had fizzled out. The McNamara plan, too, has gone bankrupt. The 'escalation' plan which the U.S. imperialists are pursuing with the greatest energy against the north is also bound to fail. The army men and people of our country are determined to defeat them even if the United States sends a few hundred thousand more men and dragoons troops of some of its satellites into this criminal war.
"The statement of the National Front for Liberation of the South gives perfect expression to this heroism. The appeal of the Vietnam Fatherland Front manifests this inflexible determination.
"We love peace, but we are not afraid of war. We will drive out the invading U.S. marauders to defend the freedom, independence and territorial integrity of our country. It is the firm belief of our entire people that with our united fighting strength, our courage and creativeness, and with the sympathy and support of people throughout the world, we will surely be able to carry this great war of resistance through to complete victory."
President Ho Chi Minh thanked the people of the socialist countries and of all the five continents for their fraternal support and sincere help to the Vietnamese people in resisting the U.S. imperialist aggressor - the most ferocious enemy of mankind.
He heartily welcomes the expressed wish of young people of various countries to join the Vietnamese people as volunteers in Vietnam to repulse the American marauders.
He noted that many organizations and individuals in the United States were urging their government immediately to stop its unjust war and withdraw U.S. troops from South Vietnam. "Our people are determined to drive away U.S. imperialism, which is our sworn enemy, but we have always been friendly towards the progressive people of the United States."
The President reaffirmed the unswerving stand of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam:
"Resolutely safeguard the national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Vietnam. Vietnam is one country, and the Vietnamese are one nation. Nobody is allowed to encroach upon this sacred right of our people. U.S. imperialism must respect the Geneva agreements and pull out of South Vietnam! It must immediately stop its attacks on the north."
He said: "This is the only way to solve the question of the Vietnamese war, implement the 1g54 Geneva agreements and safeguard peace in the Indo-Chinese and Southeast Asian countries. There is no alternative. This is the answer of our people and our government to U.S. imperialism.'
He declared: "The people of our country are living in a historical moment of heroism and sacrifice. Our country is an outpost of the socialist camp and of the peoples of the world engaged in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism. To us, this is a great honor.
"Our people fight and make sacrifices not only for our own freedom and independence but also for the freedom and independence of other peoples and for world peace.
"Our nation is undertaking a momentous and glorious duty on the front of the struggle against U.S. imperialist aggression.
"At present, to resist U.S. aggression and save the country is the most sacred task of every patriotic Vietnamese. Under the leadership of the National Front for Liberation - the only genuine representative of the people of South Vietnam, the heroic compatriots and fighters of the south are valiantly forging ahead to win still greater victories to liberate the south and defend the north.
"The armymen and people in the north, while actively unfolding an emulation drive to build socialism, are fighting heroically to defend the north and giving all-out support to the south."
He proposed that the National Assembly give warm support to the statement of the National Front for Liberation of the South and the appeal of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, warmly hail the heroic fellow-countrymen and fighters in the south and pay glowing tribute to the armymen and people in the north who are working vigorously to increase production and performing meritorious services to decimate the enemy.
President Ho Chi Minh concluded his address by calling on the people and fighters throughout the country:
"Ceaselessly to develop your revolutionary heroism, sharpen your vigilance and increase your militancy;
"Vigorously develop the campaign of 'one man doing the work of two', resolutely surmount all difficulties, exert yourselves to build and defend the socialist north and give unreserved support to the fellow-countrymen in the south."
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