19452 September 1945 · Ba Đình Square, Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam's independence

The wide parade ground of Ba Đình Square in front of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum — Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

With Japan defeated and the Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại having abdicated, Ho Chi Minh read a declaration of independence to a vast crowd in Ba Đình Square in Hanoi, opening with lines from the American Declaration of 1776. France refused to accept the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and three decades of war followed before the country was reunified.

Revolutions & Resistance
Colonial & Imperial History
Political History
Hanoi, Vietnam

Sites

Site 1: Ba Đình Square and Ho Chi Minh MausoleumParade ground where the declaration was read, now fronted by the mausoleum.Map ↗
Site 2: 48 Hàng NgangOld Quarter merchant house where Ho Chi Minh drafted the declaration.Map ↗