THE position of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is to strictly abide by and thoroughly implement the Geneva agreements.
Hardly had the Agreements been signed than President Ho chi Minh called upon the whole People and Army in these unmistakable words: “From now on, we must struggle with all our strength for the consolidation of Peace, achievement of Unity, completion of Independence and Democracy throughout the country.
We are resolved to honour the agreements signed with the French Government and concurrently we must prevail upon the French Government to live up to the terms they have signed with us”.
We carried out the cease-fire, withdrawal and transfer of troops under the following circumstances. Our battlefield was that of guerilla warfare with no clear-cut and definite front line. Our forces and the opposite forces were extensively interlocked.
Our troops were fighting in all the theatres of operations, from the main front to the battlefields in the enemy’s rear, from the North to the South, from the delta to the mountainous areas, from the rural districts to the enemy-controlled cities, from the battlefields in Vietnam to remote and insalubrious regions in Cambodia and Laos.
The armistice agreements were signed when our people’s and army’s patriotic war was entering its 9th year. In the process of all these years of cruel fighting, our people’s and army’s hatred and indignation had come to a head. Then our winter-spring campaign was marked by great successes: Our troops had won a great victory in Dien bien phu and following this had achieved success after success in every battlefield, liberating Nam dinh, Ninh binh, An khe and expanding the free areas in the South of Vietnam.
The cease-fire was ordered by the Vietnamese People’s Army High Command under the complex circumstances I have just described. I feel greatly privileged to report to the National Assembly that this order has been thoroughly observed by our troops in all battlefields. All the regular troops, all the territorial units, all the units of militia and guerilla altogether stopped firing at the fixed date and time.
Just after the cease-fire, our troops had to disengage within 5 days, to withdraw to the provisional assembly area within 15 days and after that, our forces in the South started their transfer to the North. With a great exertion of our troops, with the hearty and unqualified support of the people, with the fraternal assistance in transport of our friends the Soviet Union and Poland, we were able to achieve all the above in good time or ahead of schedule. Today with the exception for a part of our forces still stationed in the Binh-dinh Quang-ngai area, more than 70,000 troops and a number of cadres and civilians in the South have been safely transferred to the North.
Among them not a single unit was missing of those who had been fighting throughout those years of patriotic war in the East and West of South Vietnam, in the Dong thap Muoi and on the shores of the Mekong, and there were guerillas who had been struggling hard behind the enemy lines in the Saigon-Cholon suburbs or right in the heart of cities. In the ranks of the 5th Interzone troops, there were units who had been victorious in Kontum, An khe, units who had been holding the independent areas of Southernmost Vietnam throughout the Resistance years and units comprising peoples from no less than ten national minorities in the Central Vietnam Plateau. The Vietnamese People’s volunteers who were credited with many successes in Laotian and Cambodian battlefields also were back home. One and all officers and combatants were full of enthusiasm and high-spirited and they had been resolute in carrying out the cease-fire, withdrawal and transfer in parting provisionally with their beloved South, as a token of our people’s and army’s discipline and love for peace. This spirit of strict observance of discipline and obedience to orders deserves to be honoured.
As provided for by the Geneva Agreements, the French Union forces should gradually withdraw from the areas occupied by them North of the 17th parallel and on May 19, 1955 they must be completely withdrawn from the Haiphong area, their last assembly zone in the North.
A fortnight after the cease-fire, our troops took over Bac-giang, Bac-ninh, Vinh-yen, Phuc-yen, Son-tay, Hung-yen, Hai-ninh. On October 5, 1954 our troops began taking over the Hanoi perimeter area where is the town of Ha-dong and eventually on October 10, 1954 our main forces entered the Hanoi area: Hanoi, the capital of the Democratic Republic was completely liberated. Twenty days later, our troops took over the Hai-duong town.
All the above-mentioned areas, cities and towns had been under the control of the opposite side for rather a long time. Since the armistice, the deceitful propaganda had been stepped up, and law and order had not been maintained. Our government laid down an 8-point policy for the taking over of newly-liberated area and 10 rules of conduct to be observed by the troops and cadres. Thanks to these policy and rules of conducts, our troops and cadres in their advance were eagerly waited for and enthusiastically received by the population, law and order were at once restored, the activities of the population in every field continued as usual and a wave of cheerfulness flooded the newly liberated areas.
The taking over of our capital Hanoi was in particular a great achievement. It has given the evidence that our Government was capable to administer not only the countryside but also the big towns. Our troops’ and cadres’ strict discipline in regard to the population’s property, small and big, the considerateness and the care taken by them in regard to the population and foreign nationals’ lives and properties, the maintenance of activities in every field, have put heart and confidence into the whole population and commanded the world’s admiration.
In the South, under harsh and complicated circumstances, we correctly transferred many areas controlled by our troops such as Ham-tan, Xuyen moc, Dong thap Muoi, the Ca-mau area and a part of the Quang Ngai province. Many a time, the opposite side acknowledged that the transfer had been performed fully and orderly. When taking over, the French Union delegation admitted “the rather optimistic situation at Cao-lanh” (Dong thap muoi) and “the population’s easy and cheerful life” in Ca-mau.
From the outset of the Patriotic War to the signing of the Geneva Agreements, our people and army had been correctly carrying out the lenient policy of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam towards prisoners of war. As far as the prisoners of war of Vietnamese nationality are concerned, in compliance with their wish, we had been sending every year thousands of them back to their families. As for the prisoners of European and African origins, according to incomplete statistics, from 1950 until the conclusion of the armistice, we had liberated and repatriated more than four thousand men, we had several times allowed the French Union forces to retrieve their wounded soldiers at That khe (1950), at Thai nguyen (1951) and at Dien bien Phu (1954).
After the Geneva Conference, in strict abidance by the agreements signed, we have handed back to the French Union side 13,414 men, of these 9,247 were of European and African origins, 54 were officers from captain to brigadier general ranks, 530 officers of lower ranks and 3,523 N. C. officers.
Not a single prisoner of war made any complaint about the treatment meted out to him by the Vietnamese people’s army. On the contrary, prisoners of war have sent thousands of letters collectively or severally, expressing thanks to President Ho chi Minh and our Government.
Various investigations undertaken in Viet tri and Sam son have driven home to the International Commission the humane policy of the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The opposite side has surrendered to us 8,872 prisoners of war and 59,372 civilian internees. But to date there are still many prisoners in its hands. The Delegation of the Vietnamese People’s Army to the Central Joint Commission has handed to the French Union side a list of 11,932 persons not yet released, of these many names were on the list of prisoners of war previously supplied by the French Union side. An International Mobile Team’s investigation at Poulo Condor detention island revealed that the Ngo-Dinh-Diem Government was detaining prisoners of war and political prisoners of our side, that these were treated in accordance with the 1862 regulations, that is very harshly and that the undertaking concluded in Geneva and at Trung-Gia concerning the improvement of their living conditions were not lived up to.
The truth is so obvious. However, some responsible and competent French personalities and bodies on the French Union side, making unfounded assertions and quoting contradictory figures, alleged that we had not surrendered all their prisoners of war and political prisoners. Such statements had no other purposes than to mislead French and international opinion, dim out President Ho chi Minh’s and our government’s humane and lenient policy and our agreement-abiding policy and at the same to cover up their breaches of the accords, countenance the Ngo dinh Diem clique in detaining our prisoners of war and political prisoners.
As for the remains of the opposite side’s fallen officers and soldiers, we have been giving the French Union side all facilities and assistance in making search for assembling and repatriating them.
In application of the consistently lenient policy of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and in strict abidance by the art. 14C of the Geneva agreements, there has been on our part not a single act of discrimination or reprisal in the newly liberated extensive areas and towns against those who had cooperated with the opposite side during the war. The civil servants that had formerly served in the offices of Bao Dai administration and had sided with our just cause and remained have been maintained in office with their previous ranks and salaries. In Hanoi alone, more than 7,000 of these are staying behind (i.e. about 72% of the Bao Dai personnel). The numerous Bao Dai’s troops who refused to follow their units enjoy freedom and can continue to work untroubled. In the countryside, they have the same rights as the other peasants in land reform. In the cities they have been given jobs. In Hanoi alone, the Bao Dai troops who have left their ranks to stay in the North number more than 10,000.
Immediately after the liberation of the Capital, our Government promulgated freedom of speech and expression, and cancelled the newspaper censorship in force under the Bao Dai administration. Freedom of association and union has allowed the organizations and communities which existed under French occupation to continue to function, provided that they abide by the law. The right to move freely throughout the North and to choose any residence North or South of the provisional military demarcation line was clearly embodied in the December 20, 1954 communique of the Ministry of Public Security and the February 1, 1955 Communique of the Ministry for Home Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. (Under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in accordance with the Government’s policy, the right to freedom of circulation is guaranteed to the people).
Recently, the February 17, 1955 communique of the Ministry of Public Security laid special emphasis on regulations concerning facilities to move freely between the North and South of the provisional military demarcation line.
For the last 8 months, we have been correctly and fully implementing all the Geneva Agreements’ provisions. In the meantime, the opposite side has been carrying out a certain number of these provisions. We have displayed our people’s and army’s love for peace.
Today the main areas of the North, with the exception of the Haiphong perimeter, have been liberated and the rehabilitation of production and economy has achieved its initial results. Land reform has been stepped up. The correct policies of the Party and the Government in every field have been carried out. These policies have put confidence and heart in the population not only in the North but also in the South.
The international status of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam has been unmistakably enhanced.
The abovesaid achievements point out all the more clearly the momentous significance of the Geneva agreements, 8 months of struggle and exertion to implement them have supplied an even clearer evidence of all our people’s and army’s unity and unanimity from the North to the South, around President Ho-chi-Minh, the Party and the Government, of their unbounded confidence in the political line of President Ho Chi Minh, the Party and the Government. This unity and confidence were displayed in unequivocal way on the first of January 1955, the grand and lively day in honour of the President’s and the Government’s return to the capital.
However, these achievements are just a beginning. Peace is not yet consolidated. The American imperialists, the circles of French colonialists opponents to the Geneva agreements, the Ngo dinh Diem clique have been striving their utmost to wreck the agreements, to sabotage Peace.