Independence Day

From my friend Phuong in Vietnam:

Tomorrow is 2/9, Vietnam 's independent Day, everyone in my country is rest, so I have a little time to write to you. I want to talk to you about 2/9 in my country. On that day in 1945, Ho Chi Minh, our great president read Declaration of Independence to declare that Vietnam had become freedom after many year in war with France! So it 's a very very important day with all of us!

Gentle Sun...a soft
breeze...a flower smiles
candidly
At the top of a tree...a
shining branch...
The hum of a chorus of
birds.
Men and beast feel the
change coming
What is more natural?
After unhappiness, here
comes joy.

(From Notebook From Prison by Ho Chi Minh, 1942)

In Vietnam, it is hard to escape both the image and the influence of Ho Chi Minh, or Uncle Ho as he was called by his followers. From his embalmed corpse in a mausoleum to endless statues throughout the country to countless posters and souvenirs bearing his likeness to his ideology which shapes Vietnam to this day, his presence is felt throughout the country whose independence he fought for so bitterly.

In 1945, the Japanese completely overtook Indochina and imprisoned or executed the French officials. Six months later, the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, defeating the Japanese. The French and Japanese were eliminated as enemies of the Viet Minh. Vo Nguyen Giap (Ho's faithful ally and military strategist) led forces into Hanoi on August 19, 1945. On September 2, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent using language strikingly similar to that in the Declaration of Independence. Thus began nearly three decades of battle for Vietnam's independence.