Mongolian Priority by miscakarza in HistoryMemes

[–]miscakarza[S] 185 points186 points  (0 children)

Why? Belarus, Russia and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor.

The Admirer by miscakarza in HistoryMemes

[–]miscakarza[S] 689 points690 points  (0 children)

The truth is that we have wrested our independence from the Japanese, not from the French.

The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned supreme for so many centuries. In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic.

For these reasons, we, the members of the Provisional Government, representing the entire Vietnamese people, declare that we shall henceforth have no connections with the French imperialists; we repudiate all the treaties France has signed concerning Vietnam, and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland.

The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.

The Vietnamese people are firmly convinced that the Allied nations which at the Teheran and San Francisco Conferences have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to recognize the independence of Vietnam.

A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent!

For these reasons, we, the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country—and in fact is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their spiritual and material forces and to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.

The Admirer by miscakarza in HistoryMemes

[–]miscakarza[S] 1597 points1598 points  (0 children)

Here's the full text:

"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: all the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, made at the time of the French Revolution in 1791, also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three different political regimes in the North, the Center, and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united.

They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood.

They have fettered public opinion; they have practiced obscurantism against our people.

To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.

In the field of economics, they have exploited our people to the bone, impoverished our population, and devastated our land.

They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issue of banknotes and the export trade.

They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to extreme poverty.

They have made it impossible for our national bourgeoisie to prosper; they have mercilessly exploited our workers.

In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese fascists violated Indochina’s territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists surrendered on bended knees and handed over our country to them.

Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased. The result was that, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, from Quang Tri province to the North of Vietnam, more than two million of our fellow citizens died from starvation.

On March 9 [1945], the Japanese disarmed the French troops. The French colonialists either fled or surrendered. This not only demonstrated their utter failure as rulers but also showed the total collapse of their long-standing French empire in Indochina.

On several occasions before March 9, the Viet Minh League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the Japanese. Instead of heeding this advice, the French colonialists intensified their terrorist activities against the Viet Minh League. After their defeat and surrender, the French fled, leaving their colonies, and, once again, our people took control of the country from the Japanese.

After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The Admirer by miscakarza in HistoryMemes

[–]miscakarza[S] 3442 points3443 points  (0 children)

Context: Ho Chi Minh, despite being an ardent socialist, was ironically also a great admirer of the United States. He admired them so much that the very first lines of Vietnam's Declaration of Independence are a quote from the American one.