General Vo Nguyen Giap reminisces about the jubilation in Hanoi on the day President Ho Chi Minh read aloud the nation's first Declaration of Independence and describes the event vividly on his book "Unforgettable Days".

He wrote:

"Hanoi was bedecked with red bunting. A sea of flags, lanterns and flowers. Fluttering red flags adorned the house facades, the trees and the lakes. Streamers were hung across streets and roads, bearing slogans in Vietnamese, French, English, Chinese and Russian: "Vietnam 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, closed. Markets were deserted. All trade and industrial activities in the city were suspended. The whole city, old and young, men and women, took to the streets. Everyone felt that they should attend the first great festival of the nation.

Multi-coloured 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. Ordinary working people arrived at the festival with the dignified bearing of people who were masters of their own country and their own destinies.

Hundreds of thousands of peasants came in from the city suburbs. People's militiamen carried quarter staffs, swords or scimitars. Some even carried old-style bronze clubs and long-handled swords taken from the armouries of temples. Among the women peasants in their festive dresses, some were clad in old-fashioned robes, yellow turbans and bright-green sashes. Never before had peasants from the poor villages around Hanoi walked into the city with such pride.

Old men wore solemn faces while young girls were radiant in their colourful dresses.

The most lively were the children. From this day on, they were the young masters of an independent country. They marched in step with the whistle blows of their leaders, beating drums and singing revolutionary songs.

Buddhist bonzes and Catholic priests also left their monasteries to attend the great national festival.

The autumn sun was shining brightly the day when Ba Dinh Square made history. The guard of honour stood at attention around the newly erected rostrum. Members of the Liberation Army, who had followed the First Military Order of the Insurrection Committee a few days earlier to leave the jungles and "attack the important towns and cities held by the enemy", were now standing side by side with the self-defence units of the workers, youth and labouring people of the capital to defend the Provisional Government.

After long years of exile abroad, sentenced to death by the French imperialists, experiencing all sorts of privations and hardships in dozens of jails, Ho Chi Minh was now back and making his first appearance before a million countrymen. Not long before, this had been only a dream.

The name of Ho Chi Minh was soon to be known all over the world and surrounded with the legendary anecdotes which often accompany great men. However, on that day, his name was still unfamiliar to his people. Few of them knew that he was none other than the famous Nguyen Ai Quoc.

Our great leader, President Ho Chi Minh, the head of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, appeared for the first time before his people a thin old man with a broad forehead, bright eyes and a sparse beard, wearing an old hat, a high-collared khaki jacket and white rubber sandals. A couple of days before, the problem had arisen as to what he should wear for the occasion. He eventually chose the khaki suit. During the next twenty-four years as President, on great national days as well as on visits to foreign countries, he always appeared in this simple, unchanging attire: a plain suit, without any decorations, as on the occasion when he first stood before his people.

The "old man" had a lively gait, which rather surprised some people at that time. They did not find in the President the stately bearing of "high-born" people. His voice carried the accent of a rural area in central Nghe An province.

His speech was quiet, warm, articulate and clear. There was none of the eloquence so often heard on solemn occasions. Its very simplicity suggested deep feelings and determination. Everything he said was full of vitality; every sentence, every word went straight to the people's hearts.

In the middle of the Declaration of Independence, Uncle Ho stopped and asked suddenly, "Do you hear me clearly, fellow-countrymen?"

A million voices thundered in reply, "Yes...!"

From that moment on, he and the sea of people were merged into one.

That was the Declaration of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which had just won back independence after a national struggle lasting eighty years. It was also the heartfelt and touching declaration of the most conscious vanguard of the most revolutionary class, many of whom absolutely loyal to the interests of the class and the nation, had fearlessly faced the guillotine or the firing squad shouting: "Long live the independence of Vietnam", while they tore away their black blindfolds.

The ceremony concluded with the oath of independence:

"We, the entire Vietnamese people, swear to give resolute and wholehearted support to the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh.

"We swear to join the Government in safeguarding the full independence of the Motherland, to oppose any scheme of aggression, even at the cost of our lives.

"If the French should invade our country once more, we swear that we will neither serve in their army, work for them, sell them food nor act as guides for them!"

One million people took the oath with one voice - a voice which expressed the resolve of the whole people to carry out what President Ho had just read in the conclusion of the Declaration:

"Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence and has in fact become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilise all physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their freedom and independence."

A new chapter of history had begun. A new era had begun: that of Independence, Freedom and Happiness.

The map of the world would have to be redrawn for a new State: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Together with the General Uprising which had taken place during the later part of August, Independence Day, September 2, were days of great significance in the nation's political and spiritual life.

Uncle Ho's concern of thirty years before - "Poor Indochina! You will perish if your senile youth do not come back to life soon" - need no longer weigh on his mind. The whole nation had come back to life.

Independence and freedom had come to every citizen. Everyone could realise their sacred value and knew his responsibility to defend them. Innumerable difficulties lay ahead. But for the imperialists who wanted to take back their lost paradise, it would not be so easy." (VNA)