Cold Open

It’s the morning of April 30th, 1975, in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam.

Lieutenant Bui Quang Than's hands shake as he grips the controls of his T-54 tank and maneuvers through the city streets. Through his tank's periscope, he can see the Presidential Palace ahead of him. Its once pristine white facade now bears the scars of a city under siege.

Than and his comrades have been fighting for this moment for years. They've marched hundreds of miles through the jungles under near constant bombardment, and somehow, they’ve made it here to the heart of enemy territory.

Than sweeps his periscope left and right, catching glimpses of a city in chaos.

Helicopters buzz across the skies. Gunfire rattles through the streets.

Than’s radio crackles with updates from other units. The final assault on Saigon is nearly complete.

But the work is not done yet. There is one last symbolic victory to be had. Than pushes his tank forward toward the Presidential Palace.

The metal gates buckle and crash as the tank bursts through into the courtyard beyond. Dust and debris scatter as Than brings his tank to a halt.

He climbs out, a Viet Cong flag clutched in his hand, and begins running up the front steps. Inside the palace, the South Vietnamese President waits to surrender.

When Lieutenant Bui Quang Than raises the Viet Cong flag above Saigon's Presidential Palace, he marks the end of a long and bloody civil war. But the unification of modern Vietnam was a story thirty years in the making, one that began when revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh first declared Vietnamese independence on September 2nd, 1945.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 2nd, 1945: Ho Chi Minh Declares Independence for Vietnam.

Act One: Declaring Independence

It’s September 2nd, 1945, in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, thirty years before the fall of Saigon.

An enormous crowd has gathered in a square in the center of the city. They’re all waiting to hear from one man. 55-year-old Ho Chi Minh is the leader of the country’s Viet Minh independence movement. And today he will tell his nation that their time has come.

From beside a makeshift wooden stage, Ho Chi Minh gazes out over the mass of people. He is a slender man with intense eyes and a wispy gray beard. He folds and refolds the speech in his hands. The nervous excitement he feels reminding him of when he left Vietnam as a boy in 1911, to become a cook on a French steamer. He spent decades traveling the world, living in France, Britain, and America, as well as in the Soviet Union and China, where he learned about socialism. But Ho Chi Minh never forgot his homeland, and in the early 1940s, he returned to Vietnam to lead a new independence movement.

Vietnam has long been dominated by foreign powers. For most of the past sixty-five years, the French have ruled Vietnam, extracting wealth from the country while denying its citizens basic rights. But when World War II erupted, the entire region fell under the sway of Imperial Japan. In 1941, Japanese troops were stationed in the country with the cooperation of the French colonial administrators.

Ho Chi Minh called it a “double yoke,” twice subjugation. And by his tally, two million Vietnamese died from an avoidable famine. This was just one of the many injustices his people suffered under French and Japanese occupation.

But the landscape of power has shifted dramatically in recent months. In March 1945, as Allied victory in Europe grew closer, Japan became suspicious that French colonial authorities might assist Allied operations in the region. So, Japanese forces launched a coup, arresting French administrators and dismantling their control. For the first time in decades, the French grip on Vietnam was broken.

But the new Japanese rule in the country hasn’t lasted long either. Only just this morning, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies, finally bringing an end to World War II. But peace leaves behind a power vacuum in Vietnam. With both Japan and France now out of the picture, Vietnam’s future is up for grabs. It’s exactly the kind of opportunity Ho Chi Minh and his supporters have been preparing for.

Trumpets echo across the square and drums roll as a voice calls out in Vietnamese, announcing the arrival of the President of the Provisional Government. Ho Chi Minh steps out onto the wooden platform. Despite the immense crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, it's eerily quiet. He can hear his own footsteps as he approaches the microphone.

And once there, he begins with the words that once inspired another revolution, centuries earlier, in a country thousands of miles away: "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." These words from the American Declaration of Independence are warmly applauded by the crowd in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh looks down at his notes. He's thought hard about this speech. It’s more than just a call for freedom—it's a clear overture to America.

Ho Chi Minh is a Communist, but he still admires America’s democratic ideals. During the war against Japan, his Viet Minh independence movement worked closely with American intelligence agents, providing crucial information about Japanese troop movements in Vietnam. And now that the war is over, Ho Chi Minh hopes his former partners in Washington will support an independent Vietnam. After all, the United States was the ultimate example of breaking free from colonial rule.

But America will turn its back on Ho Chi Minh’s overture. Within only months, French forces will return to Vietnam to reclaim their colony. At first, America will remain neutral, before eventually providing the French with tacit support and eventually direct military and financial aid. Washington will rationalize that, with Communism gaining strength across Europe, it needs France as an ally more than it needs Vietnam.

But this decision will set Vietnam on the path to three decades of war and division, a bitter conflict that will consume the nation, cost millions of lives, and embroil the very country that inspired Vietnam’s call for independence.

Act Two: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu

It's May 1st, 1954, in a valley in northwest Vietnam, nine years after Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence.

Wan Dung Ving lies in the mud, trembling as he grips his rifle. A 20-year-old soldier in the Viet Minh, this is his first battle, and he’s terrified.

Ving's orders are clear, though. When the signal comes from his platoon leader, Ving is to storm the French positions ahead. If all goes well, this will be the Viet Minh’s final, decisive assault in a war that's dragged on for almost a decade.

After Ho Chi Minh's declaration of independence in 1945, the French quickly returned to Vietnam to reclaim their colony. And initially, there was hope that war could be avoided. Peace talks with the French led to an agreement in March 1946, one that appeared to promise autonomy to the Vietnamese. But the French had no intention of letting their old colony go. By November of that same year, tensions exploded when French naval forces bombarded the northern port city of Haiphong, killing an estimated 6,000 Vietnamese civilians. This massacre convinced Ho Chi Minh that diplomacy was futile. By the end of that year, he had declared war against the French, marking the beginning of the First Indochina War. As French colonial forces advanced through the country, Ho Chi Minh and his forces fled into the mountains, where they began a relentless campaign of guerrilla warfare.

The French were outnumbered, but they had more modern weapons and a powerful ally in the United States. With the Cold War deepening, American policymakers in Washington, D.C., were terrified that Communism would spread across the globe. By 1950, U.S. foreign policy had firmly embraced what was known as the “domino theory”—the idea that the fall of one country to communism would lead to another and then another. America had once opposed French colonialism in Southeast Asia. But President Truman decided to send American weapons, money, and military advisors to support French forces in Vietnam.

But despite all their advantages, and technology, money, and manpower, the French have failed to defeat their enemy. By 1954, France has suffered more than 100,000 casualties and spent billions of dollars without success. Now, it's on the verge of a humiliating defeat as the signal is given, and

Wan Dung Ving raises his rifle and charges forward. Machine gun erupts from the French positions. Ving’s platoon leader is shot in the mouth. Other men fall to the left and right, but Ving forces himself forward, firing into the chaos.

Suddenly, two French soldiers emerge in front of him. Ving instinctively aims and fires, but nothing happens. He’s out of ammunition.

Ving attacks the first soldier with his bayonet. Seeing this, the other soldier turns and flees. This is the first time Ving has killed anyone, but there’s no time to process that. He just keeps pushing forward.

Not far away, in a reinforced bunker buried in the earth, 51-year-old French Colonel Christian de Castries studies maps by lamplight. When he arrived at this remote valley six months ago, he was confident he could achieve a decisive victory. The plan was to fortify a base in the valley and lure the Viet Minh into the open, where French artillery and air power could destroy them.

But today it’s the French, not the Vietnamese, who have become trapped. De Castries’ fortress has become a prison. Since the Viet Minh launched their attack in March, a string of outposts has fallen. And now, just a few thousand French troops are trying to fight off a force of up to 50,000 Viet Minh. Their airstrip has been destroyed. Supplies dropped by parachute are falling into enemy hands. And the endless monsoon rains are turning defensive trenches into a quagmire of rot and filth.

Then, finally, on May 7th, 1954, after relentless Viet Minh assaults on French positions, de Castries knows his men cannot resist the onslaught any longer. He radios his superiors in Hanoi to tell them that the end is near.

Soon after, the Vietnamese break into his command bunker. The first soldier inside is not much older than a boy. De Castries pleads with him not to shoot, stuttering in French that he surrenders. Eventually, the boy lowers his gun. De Castries will be spared, at least for now. As the boy marches him out of the bunker, De Castries catches his name from another Vietnamese soldier: it’s Wan Dung Ving. Days of hand-to-hand fighting have hardened the once callow boy into a fearsome fighter.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu effectively ends French colonial rule in Indochina. At the Geneva Peace Conference that follows, the two sides agree to divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi Minh’s forces retreating to the North and the French to the South. This partition is intended to be temporary, with a promise of nationwide elections in 1956 to reunify the country.

But the United States is convinced that if there is an election, then Ho Chi Minh will win, and Communism will spread across Southeast Asia. So, the Americans will scramble to establish a new anti-communist government in South Vietnam.

But just like the French before them, the United States will soon discover that even the mightiest militaries in the world can’t win every war.

Act Three: Independence at last

It's early on September 2nd, 1969, in Hanoi, Vietnam, fifteen years after the end of the war with France.

Ho Chi Minh lies in his modest home, his breathing labored and weak. At 79 years old, his last battle is with diabetes and heart problems. But despite his body’s growing frailty, his mind remains sharp, and he's all too aware of the significance of the date. It’s exactly 24 years since he stood up and declared his nation’s independence. But the fight for a unified and free Vietnam goes on.

The past four years have brought a level of destruction beyond anything Vietnam experienced under French rule. More than half a million U.S. troops are now in the country. And they’ve dropped more bombs than fell on all of Europe during World War II. Towns, cities, and countryside—no part of Vietnam has been left untouched.

So, as his heart struggles to beat, Ho Chi Minh tries to focus on his vision for a unified and independent Vietnam. Just weeks ago, he received a letter from U.S. President Richard Nixon that proposed peace talks, while threatening escalation if North Vietnam refused to negotiate. Ho Chi Minh welcomed the offer but made no concessions in return. He knows Nixon's threats ring hollow—America's own people are turning against this war, taking to the streets in protest.

So, Ho Chi Minh’s vision for independence feels within reach. If he can just fight through his illness, he is sure he will live to see the Americans leave, just as the French did before them. But each breath becomes more difficult, and at 9:47 AM, his heart stops entirely.

Ho Chi Minh’s body may have finally surrendered, but his struggle continues without him. Over the next six years, American forces steadily withdraw, while the North Vietnamese gather their strength to launch a massive invasion of the South. Finally, in 1975, Saigon falls, and the long civil war in Vietnam comes to an end. The country is unified, and the former capital of the U.S.-backed South Vietnam is renamed Ho Chi Minh City, in tribute to the man who first declared the modern country’s independence on September 2nd, 1945.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 3rd, 1260. An Egyptian army wins a pivotal battle, halting the westward expansion of the Mongol Empire.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Galen Foote.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.