In Nam Bo, the situation had become tense since early September.
On September 2, over one million people in Saigon-Cho Lon demonstrated with flags and slogans in honour of Independence Day. French provocateurs fired at the demonstrators.
Four days later, the British mission came to Saigon. They ordered the Japanese to police the city and demanded that our armed forces should hand in their weapons. From the very beginning, the British betrayed themselves as interventionists.
The first English and Indian units of the 20th Division under the command of the British General Gracey landed from the air one after another.
On September 20, General Gracey issued his Communiqué No 1. He affirmed the British troops’ right to ensure “order”. He prohibited the carrying of arms and declared that offenders would be severely punished, even shot. The British seized the prison and released all the Frenchmen who had been arrested when they had parachuted into Nam Bo after our general uprising. Fifteen hundred French legionaries of the 11th Colonial Infantry Regiment were taken out of Japanese POW camps and rearmed by the British.
Early on the morning of September 23, French troops of the 11th regiment and a unit of legionaries newly landed from France, supported by British and Japanese troops, came out into the streets. They attacked our police posts and killed civilians. Former colonial officials and French nationals were also armed. Colonial legionaries and French colonialists who had meekly surrendered to the Japanese only a few months earlier showed utmost savagery in massacring and illtreating unarmed civilians.
The great war of resistance of our nation against the French colonialist aggressors had broken out in Nam Bo.
The Southern people, who had held power for barely a month, were now rising up heroically to fight the enemy. They were the first citizens of this free country to shed their blood to implement the oath taken on Independence Day. The sacred fight of the South Vietnamese people, which has so far lasted a quarter of a century, began on that day.
On the afternoon of September 23, the Saigon people staged a general strike and opposed total non-cooperation to the French. All offices, business firms and factories were closed. Markets were deserted. Traffic in the streets came to a standstill. Barricades went up everywhere.
In an atmosphere of seething anger, self-defence units and the ordinary people of Saigon rushed to their combat positions, determined to fight back with all the weapons they had: pointed bamboo sticks, flintlocks, shotguns...
In Hanoi, during the whole of that day and far into the night, Uncle Ho and the Party Bureau followed the events in Nam Bo hour by hour. They received the first reports and issued the first orders of resistance to the Party organization and the people of Nam Bo.
From the 24th onward, many French-held factories and depots were attacked. Electricity and water supplies were cut. Self-defence units and workers’ detachments raided the Tan Son Nhat airport, set ablaze French warships which had just arrived at Saigon port, stormed the central prison and freed people detained by the enemy.
On September 26, in their combat positions in the city, the Saigon fighters and people heard the stirring words of President Ho broadcast from Hanoi over the Voice of Viet Nam.
“I, and the people of our whole country have faith in the firm patriotism of our Nam Bo countrytmen.
“... We would rather die than live in slavery!
“I am sure, and so are our Nam Bo compatriots, that the Government and the people in the whole country will wholeheartedly support the fighters and people who are making sacrifice and struggling for the defence of national independence.
“... We are bound to win, because we have the united strength of our entire people. We are bound to win because our struggle is a just one.”
The fight to defend Saigon assumed a new significance. Soon a slogan was put forth: “Let’s fight to defend Ho Chi Minh city!”, and it rapidly showed in the determination and action of each person. It was in the hearts and actions of our fighters and people on the Saigon-Cholon front that a new, glorious name was born for the city: Ho Chi Minh City.
Early in October, units of the French 9th Colonial Infantry Regiment continued to arrive by sea. On October 5, when General Leclerc came to Saigon the fighting had temporarily subsided as the French and British colonialists, to buy time while they waited for reinforcements, asked to meet our representatives for negotiations. Following the arrival of Leclerc, an armoured squadron belonging to the French 2nd Armoured Division landed on Saigon. The colonialists resumed hostilities and tried to occupy some areas around the city.
The Party Central Committee decided to send reinforcements to the South to help the Nam Bo fighters and people win the first victories for the resistance.
Southbound detachments were rapidly organized. Many units of the Liberation Army and some of the best commanders were ordered to go South. Many teams of cadres were also sent.
Our Party’s policy was to apply strict guerilla tactics, in order to frustrate the enemy’s plan for a “quick fight and a quick victory.”
Parallel with the sending of reinforcements to the South a vigorous nation-wide movement was launched to support the resistance in Nam Bo and to make active preparations to meet any enemy scheme to expand the war.
The whole country was looking toward Saigon. Everyone was determined to defend the Fatherland against aggression.
In Hanoi, during the last days of September, there were always large crowds in front of the public loudspeakers, listening to the news from the Nam Bo front.
The youth, eager to go south and fight the enemy, enthusiastically responded to the call-up. In some families, both father and son asked to join the army. Even Buddhist monks wanted to enlist. The Liberation Army’s strength grew up very quickly.
From the coastal provinces of the northern delta to the highlands in the Viet Bac revolutionary base area, from Hanoi, the capital city of the newly-established Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, to Hue, the ancient imperial city of the Nguyen dynasty, enthusiastic fighters set out. In the North alone, many Liberation Army units left simultaneouly.
The recent successes of the revolution gave a new look to the army units going south. They were no longer the poorly clad and barefooted guerrillas ordered to march south on the day of the general uprising. The new administration and the people were taking great care of their sons who were heading for the front. They were equipped with the best weapons we had at the time, with new outfits, shining gold stars on new caps, padded jackets, leather boots.
Crowds of people thronged the railway stations to see them off. The people in the northern and central regions of the country were contributing their own blood to the fight in the South, and sending their warmest feelings to the South through their departing sons.
The southward march for the defence of Nam Bo had begun with the participation of the whole nation. Rapid trains travelled day and night. The first southbound Liberation Army detachments arrived in good time and were entrusted with defending the northeast front of Saigon. The whole country was standing by the side of the people of Saigon and the South during those first days of national resistance.
With the support of the British, Indian and Japanese troops, the French colonialists planned to “pacify” Nam Bo within three weeks.
Although they had had no time for proper preparations, with the assistance of the people in other provinces of Nam Bo and the whole country, the Saigon fighters and people fought heroically and managed to pin down the enemy in the city for a whole month, inflicting heavy losses on him.
On October 25, a plenary conference of the Nam Bo Party organization was held in My Tho province. Comrades Ton Duc Thang, Le Duan and a number of others who had just got out of the prison island of Poulo Condore were present. It was an important conference. Comrade Hoang Quoc Viet, who had been sent to the South in mid-August by the Party Central Committee and the Viet Minh National Committee, also attended. The conference took many important decisions with a view to stepping up the southern people’s resistance to aggression and strengthening the Party’s leadership in the armed forces.