“Today we celebrate the birth of the death squad. We swear to protect the capital. We remain, the capital will never be lost. Swear! Swear! Swear!”. (excerpt from the oath ceremony of the Capital Regiment)

Hanoi has experienced such years – 60 days of smoke and fire (1946 – 1947). The years in which those who directly fought and died at the capital front have become a symbol of the immortal spirit, echoing forever in the hearts of many generations of people in the capital today and in the future. . And that oath, that spirit of death is the content introduced and highlighted by the Thang Long Heritage Conservation Center – Hanoi through the thematic exhibition “Hanoi – Echoes of the oath of death”. 75th anniversary of the National Day of Resistance (December 19, 1946 – December 19, 2021).

Faced with the situation of “thousands of pounds hanging by a hair” surrounded by countless difficulties from “ignorant enemies, hunger and foreign invaders”, the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, led by President Ho Chi Minh, has implemented many measures step by step to reverse the economic and social difficulties in the country and build the internal strength of the country. In particular, for the important task of protecting and maintaining the independence and freedom of the nation, the Government of Vietnam has been soft but resolute in implementing the strategy of “peace to advance” in the goal of avoiding at the same time. facing many enemies and avoiding military conflicts with the enemy in the context that our military forces are still thin, such as signing with France the Vietnam-France Preliminary Agreement (March 6, 1946), the Temporary Treaty Vietnam – France on September 14, 1946…

However, the last efforts of the Government of Vietnam to protect the fragile peace of the nation could not be kept for long due to the malice and betrayal of the French colonialists, but like General De Gon (France) “The attitude of France in Indochina is very simple. France intends to restore sovereignty in Indochina. War broke out and our people were forced to take up arms and fight, launching a nationwide resistance war to protect national independence.

On the night of December 19, 1946, in response to President Ho Chi Minh’s “Call for the Nationwide Resistance”, Hanoi’s army and people stood up with the whole country, Lang fortress fired the first bullets, opening the war. long-term resistance. In the unequal battle with the enemy, the Hanoi front became a typical example of the people’s war line. Every house, every street becomes a battlefield, a trench. Every citizen, from a 9-year-old boy to a gray-haired old man, from a musician to a peasant woman, from a petty bourgeois intellectual to a blue-shirted worker, cloth shoes… All of them shared the burden with each other. The heroic army of the Capital Regiment and the soldiers defending the citadel were in charge of detaining the enemy, creating conditions for the Party Central Committee and the Government to withdraw to a safe battle zone. All those ordinary people were attached to each other in the same will of “Determining to die for the Fatherland to decide for life”, making Hanoi’s epic song 60 days and nights of smoke and fire.

After successfully completing the set target, the soldiers of the Capital Regiment were ordered to withdraw from Hanoi to continue the long-term resistance war. In a touching moment, saying goodbye to the capital “the soldiers quickly wrote on the wall with bricks: “Dear Hanoi, I will return!”, “O invaders, they will fail! “. And after 9 years of long-term resistance, on October 10, 1954, soldiers of the Capital Regiment fighting in the old Hanoi front led the Pioneer Army to take over the capital in the middle of the jungle. , the boundless joy of the people of the capital and the whole country.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the National Resistance War (December 19, 1946 – December 19, 2021), the Thang Long – Hanoi Heritage Conservation Center organized a thematic exhibition “Hanoi – Echoes of the death oath”. 

The exhibition consists of 3 parts:

• Thousands of thin ice
• Hanoi – Echoes of the oath of death
• Going to Hanoi

The exhibition is open to visitors from December 16, 2021 with an online version at website: http://:trungbayonline.hoangthanhthanglong.vn