On the morning of 23/9, the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, and Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee held a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Southern Resistance War. Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang, city leaders, and veteran revolutionaries attended the event.
In his address, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Vo Van Minh recalled that just 21 days after the Declaration of Independence, French colonialists, supported by British troops, attacked the revolutionary government in Saigon, initiating their second war of aggression.
 |
Ben Thanh Market during the first day of the resistance war against the French, 23/9/1945. Photo archive |
Ben Thanh Market during the first day of the resistance war against the French, 23/9/1945. Photo archive
On the night of the 22nd and into the morning of 23/9/1945, the people of southern Vietnam were forced to take up arms in response. Tran Van Giau, chairman of the Southern Resistance Committee, issued a call for national unity to defend the nation: "All compatriots, old and young, men and women, take up arms and rise up to drive out the invaders," he urged.
According to Minh, the Southern Resistance War provided the Party and President Ho Chi Minh with a firm foundation of support among the southern population. It affirmed the indomitable will of the southern people, whom President Ho Chi Minh honored as the "Copper Wall of the Fatherland."
 |
Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang visits the photo exhibition on the morning of 23/9. Photo: An Phuong |
Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang visits the photo exhibition on the morning of 23/9. Photo: An Phuong
Duong Quan Ha, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Resistance Tradition Club, noted that those who participated in the resistance, now in their 80s and 90s, still vividly remember the spirit of "refusing to lose the country, refusing to be enslaved."
To mark the occasion, Ho Chi Minh City opened the exhibition "Southern Resistance War - The Shining Vietnamese Spirit" at Lam Son Park, along with two photo exhibitions on Dong Khoi Street: "Ho Chi Minh City - A Metropolis Reaching International Heights" and "Ho Chi Minh City - Building a Streamlined, Efficient, and Effective Government." The exhibitions will run until 5/10.
Le Tuyet
