---
title: Ho Chi Minh
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/ho-chi-minh/
description: 5 verified quotes from Ho Chi Minh, President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945-1969), with sources.
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: a Second World War naval-intelligence collage of a Pacific theatre map, aerial reconnaissance photographs and radar plots.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-wwii-pacific.jpg)

[Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · Vietnam

# Ho Chi Minh

President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945-1969) · Vietnam

5 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=ho-chi-minh).

1. > “All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.” — Original (Vietnamese) — Tất cả các dân-tộc trên thế-giới đều sinh ra bình-đẳng; dân-tộc nào cũng có quyền sống, quyền sung-sướng và quyền tự-do. — English: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960-1962), vol. 3, official English text — September 2, 1945 · Speech · Hanoi, Ba Dinh Square — Opening of the declaration. He has just quoted the 1776 American Declaration of Independence and gives his own reading of it as applying to all peoples. — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, read at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945, in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-1962), vol. 3 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1945/declaration-independence.htm)
2. **Content note:** Denunciation of French colonial rule. The words are shown as they were said or written. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) — > “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. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.” — Original (Vietnamese) — Thế mà hơn 80 năm nay, bọn thực dân Pháp lợi dụng là có tự do, bình đẳng, bác ái, đến cướp đất nước ta, áp bức đồng bào ta. Hành động của chúng trái hẳn với nhân đạo và chính nghĩa. — English: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960-1962), vol. 3, official English text — September 2, 1945 · Speech · Hanoi, Ba Dinh Square — Charge against French colonial rule, following his quotation of the 1791 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The declaration was read after the Japanese surrender and the August Revolution. — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, read at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945, in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-1962), vol. 3 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1945/declaration-independence.htm)
3. > “In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty. They have enforced inhuman laws; 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. They have built more prisons than schools.” — Original (Vietnamese) — Về chính trị. — Chúng tuyệt đối không cho dân ta một chút tự do dân chủ nào. Chúng thi hành những pháp luật dã man. Chúng lập ba chế độ khác nhau ở Trung, Nam, Bắc để ngăn cản việc thống nhất nước nhà của ta, để ngăn cản dân ta đoàn kết. Chúng lập ra nhà tù nhiều hơn trường học. — English: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960-1962), vol. 3, official English text — September 2, 1945 · Speech · Hanoi, Ba Dinh Square — The political count of the declaration's charges against French rule in Indochina, which is followed by charges on repression, opium and alcohol, and economic exploitation. — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, read at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945, in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-1962), vol. 3 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1945/declaration-independence.htm)
4. > “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; 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.” — Original (Vietnamese) — Bởi thế cho nên chúng tôi — Lâm-thời Chính-phủ của nước Việt-Nam mới — đại biểu cho toàn dân Việt-Nam tuyên bố thoát ly hẳn quan hệ thực dân với Pháp, xóa bỏ hết những hiệp ước mà Pháp đã ký về nước Việt-Nam, xóa bỏ tất cả mọi đặc quyền của Pháp trên đất nước Việt-Nam. — English: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960-1962), vol. 3, official English text — September 2, 1945 · Speech · Hanoi, Ba Dinh Square — The operative declaration breaking colonial ties with France, made on behalf of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, read at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945, in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-1962), vol. 3 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1945/declaration-independence.htm)
5. > “Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country and in fact it is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilise all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.” — Original (Vietnamese) — « Nước Việt-Nam có quyền hưởng tự-do và độc-lập, và sự thực đã thành một nước tự-do và độc-lập. Toàn thể dân Việt-Nam quyết đem tất cả tinh-thần và lực-lượng, tính-mệnh và của cải để giữ vững quyền tự do và độc-lập ấy ». — English: Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi, 1960-1962), vol. 3, official English text — September 2, 1945 · Speech · Hanoi, Ba Dinh Square — Close of the declaration, introduced by 'we ... solemnly declare to the world that'. The English text is the Selected Works edition's. — Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, read at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945, in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works (Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960-1962), vol. 3 [Source](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/works/1945/declaration-independence.htm)