A discourse analysis of presuppositions in the declaration of independence made by president ho chi minh = phân tích diễn ngôn các tiền giả định trong tuyên ngôn độc lập của chủ tịch hồ chí minh

Acknowledgements For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – M.A Phan Van Huong for her useful advice in choosing the topic, necessary assistance in reference materials and detailed feedback she gave on each of the pages of this thesis Without her enthusiastic help, I would not have completed my thesis I would like to express my thanks to dear teachers in Foreign Languages Department-Vinh University for giving the opportunity and creating favorable conditions for us to graduation thesis I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to my teachers at Foreign Languages Department for their undeniably useful lectures during the course, whereby I have accumulate basic and necessary knowledge for doing a research Finally, my warmest thanks are due to my family and my friends for their indispensable support and encouragement Vinh, May 2009 Le Thi Thao Table of Contents Page i Acknowledgements ii Table of contents Part I: Introduction 1.Justification of the Study 2.Aims of the Study 3.Scope of the Study 4.Methods of the Study 5.Design of the Study Part II: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 4 1.1.Discourse Analysis 1.1.1.Discourse and Text 1.1.2.Discourse Analysis 1.1.3.Spoken Discourse versus Written Discourse 1.1.4.Discourse Context 1.2 Presupposition: the Discursive Strategy 8 1.2.1.What is Presupposition? 10 1.2.2.Presupposition Triggers Chapter 2: Ideological Discourse Analysis 13 13 2.1.Ideologies 13 2.2.Ideological Discourse Analysis 14 2.3.Structures of Ideologies 15 2.4.Ideology and Presupposition Chapter 3: A discourse analysis of presuppositions in the declaration of independence made by president ho chi minh 17 17 3.1.Background of the Speech 18 3.2.Data Analysis 18 3.2.1.In the Perspective of Semantics 3.2.1.1.Expressions of Temporal Relations 3.2.1.2.Change of State Verbs and Adverbs 3.2.1.3.Expressions indicating repetition 19 21 22 23 3.2.1.4.Complex Adjectives of Time 23 3.2.1.5.Comparatives 24 3.2.1.6.Quantifiers 26 3.2.1.7.Definite Descriptions 28 3.2.2.In the Perspective of Pragmatics 3.2.3.Ho Chi Minh’s Ideology in the Speech 33 35 Part III: conclusion 35 1.Findings of the Study 37 2.Applications of the Study 37 3.Suggestions for Further Studies 38 References Appendix Part I: introduction Justification of the Study People may study language by examining the way that words relate to each other or investigating what words mean by themselves These are the things syntax and semantics However, these not take into account the outside world or context in which an utterance is made They not show us who said it to whom, where, when, or why Studying language in the perspective of discourse analysis can help the researchers understand more about language use Discourse analysis considers how humans use language to communicate, how they construct linguistic messages for others and how others work on the linguistic messages in order to interpret them It is closely attached to the purposes and intentions of the speaker Thus, this field opens up many interesting issues Political discourse is one kind of discourse which promises a lot of appealing research Politics is particularly important to a nation and when a person conducts a political speech, he really has to take linguistic means into careful consideration so that his political intentions can be revealed President Ho Chi Minh is not only a famous leader but also a talented person in using language to gain the political purposes Many of his speeches have been translated into English as well as many other languages Among them, the Independence Declaration of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945 catches the author’s attention The author’s choice, firstly, originates from her feelings of honor and gratitude toward a preeminent leader of the nation Moreover, the independence declaration not only contains nationally and internationally historic values but also makes a great contribution to the world on the new concept of human rights During the course of her study, the author found interest in pragmatics and discourse analysis, of which presupposition is an interesting issue This is the reason for the author’s choice to study presupposition This study will analyze the presuppositions embedded in the discourse Presupposition appears to be a more related concept to pragmatics and has not been mentioned a lot in the study of discourse This paper will show why the discourse was made in that moment and how intended meaning is communicated For these reasons, the author decides to conduct a discourse analysis of presuppositions in president Ho Chi Minh’s Independence Declaration The data was retrieved from the homepage of the Vietnamese Embassy in the United States of America The original record is published in HoChiMinh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960 - 1962) (vol.3, pp.17-20) Aims of the Study The study is aimed to: - Study presupposition in a greater depth and how it conveys implicit meanings to the audience - Probe into the relationship between language and ideology in president Ho Chi Minh’s declaration of independence - Suggest some practical applications in learning and teaching Scope of the Study Types of discourse are various Within the scope of this thesis, political discourse is chosen to be analyzed in order to explore how linguistic means are utilized to achieve communicative purposes The data is an English version of president HoChiMinh’s declaration of independence Thus, the study will entirely focus on dealing with the English record, ignoring any linguistic features related to Vietnamese and proposing no comparisons between the two languages Since doing discourse analysis is involved in many domains, we necessarily have to impose constraints on our subject-matter We only deal with presuppositions expressed in discourse and skip other tempting areas such as lexicalization, referent, modality Some of the related issues may be briefly presented here but they are out of the study’s focus Even within the types of presupposition, only a few ones are discussed Methods of the Study - Collecting the data and materials - Reviewing related theories -Analyzing the data - Synthesizing Design of the Study Except for acknowledgements, table of contents, references and appendix, this paper consists of three main parts: The first part is Introduction This part presents briefly the justification, aims, scope, methods and design of the Study The second part is Development of the study There are three chapters covered in this part Chapter one introduces the theoretical background, in which we will have a look at the theories related to discourse analysis and the theory of presupposition Chapter two provides an overview of ideological discourse analysis Chapter three deals with an analysis of president Ho Chi Minh’s declaration of independence by considering the data in the perspective of semantics as well as pragmatics; after that it gives a comment on the ideology conveyed in the text The third and also the last part is Conclusion which summarizes the major findings, applications of the study and suggestions for further studies Part II: development Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 1.1 Discourse Analysis 1.1.1 Discourse and Text There has been some confusion in using the two terms “discourse” and “text” Some researchers label their analysis “Discourse Analysis” while others claim they are doing “Text Analysis” The following are some of common definitions: According to Crystal (1992: 25), discourse is “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative” Cook (1989: 156) views discourse as “stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive” Crystal (1992: 72) also gives his opinion about text, saying “text is a piece of natural occurring spoken, written, or signed discourse identified for purposes of analysis It is often a language unit with a definable communicative function, such as a conversation, a poster” While Cook (1989: 158) states that text is a stretch of language interpreted formally, without context From the points above, it can be asserted that the meaning of a text does not establish until it is actively employed in a context of use This process of activation of a text by relating it to a context of use is what we call discourse In these terms, text is treated as the observable product of the whole communicative process or it is simply a representation or a verbal record of discourse In turn, discourse must be seen as the process that has created text In brief, although discourse and text are different, they are related to each other The difference and interrelationship between discourse and text is best captured by Widdowson’s claim: “Discourse is a communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made clear Its linguistic product is Text” (quoted in Aston, 1988) 1.1.2 Discourse Analysis Paltridge(2007) posits that discourse analysis focuses on knowledge about language beyond the word, phrase, clause and sentence that is needed for successful communication It looks at patterns of language across texts and considers the relationship between language and the social and cultural contexts in which it is used Discourse analysis considers the ways that the use of language presents different views of the world and different understandings It examines how the use of language is influenced by relationships between participants as well as its effects on social relations To sum up, discourse analysis involves the study of language in use A wide range of linguistic texts are explored in the study of discourse These might be in either spoken or written form, including a conversation or a letter, a speech or a report, a broadcast or an interview, a lesson, an advertisement or even a piece of gossip 1.1.3 Spoken Discourse versus Written Discourse Spoken discourse and written discourse can be understood as speech and writing In general, they share much in common, that is, both spoken and written discourses perform a similar range of broad functions They are used to get things done, to provide information and to entertain In spite of such similarities, they are distinguished from each other in some characteristics Firstly, in terms of context, written language is used for communication among people who are removed in time and space or for occasions requiring a permanent or semi-permanent record Meanwhile, most people in different cities and countries can communicate directly by means of speech They are also different in the way discourse is produced While speaking, the speaker has to control what he says so that it fits his intentions, and prepare for what to say next Every word uttered will be heard by the interlocutor, so the speaker might be under pressure However, there are some advantages for the speaker, i.e., he can observe the listener’s reactions and can immediately modify what he is saying to make it clearer and more acceptable to the listener The speaker may use facial expressions, postures, or gestures to increase the effect of what he speaks On the contrary, the writer has the advantage of taking more time in choosing lexis and organizing ideas He can rearrange what has been written and make changes if he wants There is no fear of interruption by the interlocutor But because of this, the reader has to imagine the reader’s reactions [Besides, the linguists propose a distinction of written and spoken discourse in terms of their form It is not our intention to discuss this here.] According to Brown and Yule (1983), the major differences between speech and writing derive from the fact that one is essentially transitory and the other is designed to be permanent These differences, anyway, are not absolute and the characteristics that we tend to associate with written language can sometimes occur in spoken language and vice versa This means that some spoken texts will be more like written texts than others, while some written texts will be more like spoken texts than others 1.1.4 Discourse Context Discourse Analysis involves many aspects such as cohesion, coherence, text type and so on Among them, context plays a key role in the analysis Thus, Cook (1989) asserts: “there are arguments for limiting the field of study to make it manageable, but it is also true to say that the answer to the question of what gives discourse its unity may be impossible to give without considering the world at large: the context” What is context? Is it really as important in discourse analysis as Cook says? A brief definition of context given by David Nunan (1995: 7) is: “Context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and within which the discourse is embedded” The meaning of context is understood at two levels, namely, the linguistic level and the non-linguistic level At the linguistic level, context refers to any linguistic items that occur before and after a word, a phrase, or even an utterance or text At the non-linguistic level, context refers to the surrounding situation in which an utterance or a discourse occurs It is the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used Linguistic context is what Joan Cutting (2002) calls co-textual context or cotext, which is concerned with such concepts as reference, substitution, ellipsis, repetition, e.t.c Cutting also mentions about the situational context It is the immediate physical co-presence, the situation where the interaction is taking place at the moment of speaking Simply speaking, it is what the speaker and hearer can see around them However, within the scope of this study, these types will be not elaborated here What we concern and serves the purpose of analysis is another sort of context: background knowledge context This can be either cultural general knowledge that most people carry with them in their minds, about areas of life; or interpersonal knowledge, specific and possibly private knowledge about the history of the speakers themselves To make it clear, let us study an example The following is a conversation between a husband and his wife: Husband: I’m flying to Moscow with David tomorrow At home, take care of yourself! Wife: Don’t worry! Everything will be okay,…except that I will miss you a lot Husband: Uhm, I’ll phone you regularly 10 he does not only write to his fellow-citizens and the world in general because if so, it does not require many trenchant words and close arguments Here, the listeners are also the French and American enemies and they are the objects the president wants to orient toward From that, he must have assumed that these listeners will have an obstinate and persistent attitude It means that regardless of any proclamations by Vietnam, the reactionary French and American will refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam They even will reconquer Vietnam since the French suppose that Vietnam is their colony civilized by them and when they lose Vietnam, they of course have access to regain it These presuppositions on the audience’s attitude actually assist president Ho Chi Minh in selecting how to argue It explains why he gives out a lot of close grounds For example, he says that the Vietnamese have wrested independence from the Japanese but not from the French in order to demonstrate that Vietnam is not related to France anymore; he accuses the French of betraying the Allies and suppressing the anti-fascism movement of the Allies in order to show that the French not keep their role as the Allied side in Vietnam; he accuses the French of opening our country to please the Japanese to come in while saying that they protect Vietnam, that is to demonstrate that the French have no more right in Vietnam; and he denounces the French crimes in the fields of economics, politics and culture-education in order to say that the French have no status to stay in Vietnam… It is also understandable why president Ho Chi Minh quotes the two declarations of France and the United States of America On one hand, Uncle Ho praises political ideologies in these documents On the other hand, he condemns the national oppression and violation and trampling on human rights to be illegal and immoral When praising, he judges the declaration of the United States of America as immortal, i.e never losing it values, and the French revolution’s declaration as undeniable truths This shows his political action, responding to the arguments of the opponents and foreseeing opposing dangers 33 Secondly, in quoting the declarations of independence of America in 1776 and the declaration of the French revolution in 1791, president Ho Chi Minh must presuppose that they are famous documents and are well-known by the world people, and that the truths in those documents are recognized by people all over the world Presupposing this, his purpose is to create a basis for his declaration of independence If the truths in the previous declarations are recognized, how can not the truths developed in the Vietnamese declaration of independence be recognized? The opening in any type of speech is important and is the result of much consideration Just thanks to that presupposition, Uncle Ho opens his declaration with those two quotations It leads him to use the method “turn someone’s battery against himself” (“Gậy ông đập lưng ông” in Vietnamese) In argumentation, in order to refute some opponent’s arguments, nothing is more interesting than using that opponent’s own arguments Thus, the use of “immortal” and “undeniable” words in the two declarations is to force the governments of France and America to recognize tacitly the independence of Vietnam because August Revolution of Vietnam also carries out the task of seizing the national independence as revolutions of France and America ever did before Therefore, with the quotation of the two big countries’ declarations, president Ho Chi Minh places three declarations on the same level and increases Vietnam position in the world body History proves that Independence Revolution of the United States of America and Bourgeoisie Revolution of France are the great landmarks in the history of human beings It is the basis on which president Ho Chi Minh wants to assert that if two previous revolutions are the great landmarks, then 1945 August Revolution is also a landmark for the development of human liberation history since it is the first model and a flag in the struggle to liberalize the small and weak peoples from the yoke of old and new colonialism Hence, 34 Vietnam Revolution is also a connection of evolution path on which humans have walked and will walk In short, presuppositions enable the President to give out effective strategies as well as express his political purposes The ultimate purpose which can be achieved is not only the world people agree upon the rights of independence and freedom of the Vietnamese people but also the French colonialists can not deny those rights Apart from the meaningful presuppositions above, Uncle Ho must have presupposed the situations of the world and especially of Vietnam It means that the president offers his audience to take them for granted without controversy This point will show how closely contexts are related to the interpretation of presuppositions Coming back to the context in which the declaration of independence was made, we know that August Revolution took place in the point of time when World War II was in the final stage World War II was the war between two factions: the Allies including Britain, France, America and Russia, and the Fascism including Japan, Germany and Italy The Fascists were very reactionary, combative and cruel Thus, Vietnam always sided with the Allied nations in the struggle against the Fascism In addition, until 1945 Vietnam had been ruled by the French for over eighty years France viewed it as the mother country of Vietnam But the truth is they oppressed and exploited the Vietnamese When the Japanese violated Vietnam, the French surrendered, which shows that the French not only betrayed the Allies but also could not protect Vietnam with its role as a mother country At the same time, the conflict between Russia in one side and Britain, France and America in the other side occurred 35 As president Ho Chi Minh composed the declaration, in the south, the French were entering on behalf of the Allies to lay down the Japanese arms; in the north, the Chinese or the American’s agents, were already standing in the border At that time, the conflict between Britain-France-America and Russia might lead Britain and America to make concessions with France and allow France to come back to Indochina Meantime, the French colonialists planning to conquer Indochina for the second time spoke out to the world public that this is their colony, that they had civilized this land and that returning was a matter of course, particularly after the Japanese had been defeated All the situations above are what president Ho Chi Minh assumes to be the case prior to making the speech Those are also shared by the audience Therefore, we can understand the main intentions of the president in composing the declaration of independence It is not purely a proclamation of independence but also a dispute to refute the imperialists’ arguments to the world opinion After all, presupposition is actually a powerful linguistic device It helps cut short of what need be said and moreover, have the right choice for the discourse strategies 3.2.3 Ho Chi Minh’s Ideology in the Speech There is some relation between presupposition and ideology: while presuppositions are assumptions shared by the interlocutors, ideology is social cognition shared by groups In the declaration of independence, the decisive ideology of president Ho Chi Minh is norms and values of human rights His statement on the new concept of human rights “All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free” stems from his assumptions that human rights are not only the rights of individuals but also the collective right, and these two types of rights are unified and rely on each other He claims that the national 36 right of self-determination is a human right and thus the decline of this right is a violation of human rights According to Uncle Ho, in order to bring national independence, freedom and happiness to people, we should rely on our own strength to liberalize ourselves; but not wait for the Allied nations to liberalize and return independence or wait for the end of the war and accept the status of mandated territories set forth by the United Nations Reality of 1945 August Revolution proves for his thinking that human rights came into being only when the Vietnamese people successfully seized independence In the president’s opinions, national independence, in both legal and moral aspects, is a natural right of all nations, which should be accepted by the international community For oppressed nations, the pre-conditions are national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity In other words, human rights go hand-in-hand with national independence and sovereignty However, as for him, national independence is not all what he wants; yet, national independence must be accompanied by freedom of the people That ideology is not overtly stated but the writer expects the audience to take for granted How does that ideology affect president Ho Chi Minh’s construction of discourse? Obviously, to defend his ideology, he must think of how to present the content of declaration in a convincing way One strategy discussed previously is the quotation of the declarations of France and America In addition, the president does this by emphasizing on the enemies’ violation of human rights In his independence declaration, president Ho Chi Minh lists a host of crimes that the French made in every field of life Thus, we can find the use of a lot of negative lexicalization, e.g abuse, slain, oppress, wreck and so on Here, more than twenty verbs with negative meanings are employed to expose the opponents’ violation and trampling on human rights It proves that in fact the French acted completely against lofty and beautiful ideals in the declaration made by themselves President Ho Chi Minh also focuses on the fact that the Vietnamese not have equal access 37 to independence and freedom and their desire for those values Thus, he elaborates the process of struggle of the Vietnamese people to gain independence and freedom Therefore, if presupposition is an implicit mechanism to make assumptions, ideology is unsaid assumptions and beliefs What unsaid is still communicated It is possible to say presupposition is a semantic device to indirectly emphasize norms and values, that is, norms and values are simply assumed to be known as if they were common sense Hence they need not be specifically asserted Part III: Conclusion Findings of the Study Presupposition is a mechanism used implicitly in communication It is in close relationship to the background knowledge context, i.e in order to interpret the meanings conveyed by presupposition, we have to base on our knowledge about the world President Ho Chi Minh makes a lot of presuppositions before he 38 writes the declaration of independence And thanks to them, he composes a brief and concise text but a very close and persuasive one Presupposition may be treated as either semantic or pragmatic As semantics, presupposition is marked by lexical items and grammatical constructions Among a variety of such items and constructions, this study uncovers the following triggers of presupposition: Types of presupposition Expressions Number of triggers occurrence Expressions of temporal Before, after, when Percentage 2.44% 1.83% 1.83% New 0.61% Comparatives More, broader 1.22% Quantifiers All, every, some, 12 7.32% 10 6.1% 3.66% relations Change of state verbs and adverbs Expressions indicating repetition Complex adjectives Become, ceased, already Regain, also, reconquer of time several, many Proper names:Vietnam, USA, Quang Tri,… Demonstratives: this proposal, these last 39 years… Definite descriptions Definite article: the 97 59.14% 26 15.85% 164 100% French, the Vietnamese… Possessives: our land, our uprising… Total In addition to the analysis of linguistically marked presuppositions, this study examines presuppositions in the aspect of pragmatics, relating what the President presupposes to the context From that, it explores the discursive strategies used in the declaration of independence in order to achieve the political purposes In sum, through the study of presupposition in the level of text, we have examined how presupposition conveys implicit meanings as well as the writer’s ideology to the audience We have also seen how ideology affects the discourse strategy Applications of the Study This study is beneficial in the sense that it will help to advance the applications of language into certain communicative purposes: First of all, authentic materials should be employed by teachers and learners as they provide a more sufficient look on the relationship between language and real world Next, the analysis of any discourse requires the consideration of context Context plays an important role in interpreting the intended meanings of discourse and the speakers/ writers’ purposes as well 40 Furthermore, in ideological discourse analysis, political speeches can be an attractive source of data Political speeches can reflect most obviously ideologies, i.e the social cognition of people on socio-political issues Last but not least, the command of presupposition also suggests an efficient instrument to examine the relationship between language and ideology Suggestions for Further Studies During the course of research, there occur many ideas related to the topic which may be a useful reference for the future studies These are some suggested topics that are worth being considered: Firstly, more investigation should be conducted to examine ideologies in political discourse Secondly, further works can deal with the domain of presupposition in other types of discourse, for example, the analysis of presupposition in the language of advertising, in the news reports or in conversation Finally, it is suggested that more studies can be carried out to investigate other linguistic means employed in president Ho Chi Minh’s declaration of independence such as reference or lexicalization and so on 41 References Aston, G (1988) Learning Comity: An approach to the description and pedagogy of interactional speech London: Michigan University Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cook, G (1989) Discourse Oxford: Oxford University Press Crystal, D (1972) Introducing Linguistics London: Penguin Cutting, J (2002) Pragmatics and Discourse: a resource book for students London: Routledge 42 Grundy, P (2000) Doing Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press Kasher, A (1998) Pragmatics: critical concepts London: Routledge Levinson, S.C (1983) Pragmatics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Martin, J R (1992) English Text: System and Structure Armsterdam: John Benjamins 10 Nunan, D (1995) Discourse Analysis London: Penguin 11 Paltridge, B (2007) Discourse Analysis: an introduction Continuum International Publishing Group 12 Stalnaker, Robert (1973) Presuppositions Journal of Philosophical Logic 2: 447-457 13 Van der Sandt, R A (1988) Context and presupposition London: Croom Helm 14 Van Dijk, T.A (1998) Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach London: Sage Publications Ltd 15 Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press Website: http://www.vietnamembassy.us/learn_about_vietnam/politics/dec_of_independ ence/ 43 Appendix Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh September 2, 1945 (1) “All men are created equal (2)They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (3) This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776 (4) 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 44 (5) The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: “All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.” (6) Those are undeniable truths (7) 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 (8) They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice (9) In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty (10) They have enforced inhuman laws; (11) They have set up three distinct 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 (12) They have built more prisons than schools (13) They have mercilessly slain our patriots (14) They have drowned our uprisings in the rivers of blood (15) They have fettered public opinion; (16) They have practiced obscurantism against our people (17) To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol (18) In the fields of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone, impoverished our people, and devastated our land (19) They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials (20) They have monopolized the issuing of bank-notes and the export trade (21) They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty (22) They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie; (23) They have mercilessly exploited our workers 45 (24) 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 went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them (25) Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese (26) Their sufferings and miseries increased (27) 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 (28) On March 9, the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese (29) The French colonialists either fled or surrendered, showing that not only were they incapable of “protecting” us, but that, in the span of five years, they had twice sold our country to the Japanese (30) On several occasions before March 9, the Vietminh League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the Japanese (31) Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists so intensified their terrorist activities against the Vietminh members that before fleeing they massacred a great number of our political prisoners detained at Yen Bai and Cao Bang (32) Not withstanding all this, our fellow-citizens have always manifested toward the French a tolerant and humane attitude (33) Even after the Japanese putsch of March 1945, the Vietminh League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from Japanese jails, and protected French lives and property (34) From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession (35) After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (36) The truth is that we have wrested our independence from the Japanese and not from the French 46 (37) The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai have abdicated (38) Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland (39) Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned supreme for dozens of centuries (40) In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic (41) For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character with France; (42) We repeal all the international obligation that France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Vietnam and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland (43) The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country (44) We are convinced that the Allied nations which at Tehran and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam (45) 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 (46) For these reasons, we, members of 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 it is so already (47) 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 47 ... War II was in the final stage World War II was the war between two factions: the Allies including Britain, France, America and Russia, and the Fascism including Japan, Germany and Italy The Fascists... completely against lofty and beautiful ideals in the declaration made by themselves President Ho Chi Minh also focuses on the fact that the Vietnamese not have equal access 37 to independence and freedom... in quoting the declarations of independence of America in 1776 and the declaration of the French revolution in 1791, president Ho Chi Minh must presuppose that they are famous documents and are