Compatriots of the entire nation assembled:
All people are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. 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.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of the French Revolution made in 1791 also states: All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.
Those are undeniable truths.
Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, in the name 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.
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, Center, and South of Vietnam in order to destroy our national unity and prevent our people from being united.
They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slaughtered our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in bloodbaths.
They have fettered public opinion; they have practiced obscurantism against our people.
To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.
In the field of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone, impoverished our people and devastated our land.
They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issuing of bank notes and the export trade.
They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty.
They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie; they have mercilessly exploited our workers.
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. Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased. The result was that, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, from Quảng Trị Province to northern Vietnam, more than two million of our fellow citizens died from starvation.
On March 9 [1945], the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. 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.
On several occasions before March 9, the Việt Minh League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists so intensified their terrorist activities against the Việt Minh members that before fleeing they massacred a great number of our political prisoners detained at Yên Bái and Cao Bằng.
Notwithstanding all this, our fellow citizens have always manifested toward the French a tolerant and humane attitude. Even after the Japanese Putsch of March 1945, the Việt Minh League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from Japanese jails, and protected French lives and property.
From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession. 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.
The truth is that we have wrested our independence from the Japanese and not from the French.
The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bảo Đại has abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic.
For these reasons, we, the 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 Viet-Nam, and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland.
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 the country.
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.
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!
For these reasons, we, the 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. And thus 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.
Jon Meachum: The Constitution is a Calvinist Ducument. The Declaration was an Englightenment one
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/l6vXR5iqReE?start=786″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>me to this point so I I do think it’s12:33a it’s a good bright line to draw John12:37Jefferson knew that part and this is in12:40your book all these codes about12:42partisanship I mean he was pretty12:44dedicated to engagement and political12:47issues but what would he think of the12:49type of partisanship we have now at this12:52moment I think he would recognize it12:54honestly he once said divisions of12:58opinion have convulsed human societies13:00since Greece and Rome divisions of13:03opinion were the oxygen of a free13:06government I’m a skeptic of the a13:08prevailing scholarly view that the13:10founders had this vision of a one-party13:14one-party state and we would all be on13:17Olympus with powdered wigs and13:19solving problems they may have had that13:22vision we all had that vision and but13:26they understood reality oh if you if you13:28worry if you’re worried about or if youdoubt me about whether they understoodreality read the Constitution which isentirely about reality constitute ifJefferson was an Enlightenment documentthe Constitution is a Calvinist documentas looms we are all Despres sinful anddriven by appetite and ambition andwe’ve done everything we cansince then to prove them right so I13:55think you know this is a the Hemings the13:59story about Sally Hemings was first14:01publicized in 1802 and we with all love14:07and respect to a net we don’t know that14:09much more than that first piece doing it14:20wasn’t seen as a historical or cultural14:22document it was a partisan attack yeah14:25you know right and and continued during14:27that you know during his presidency and14:29in a few times afterwards there’s been a14:32big debate recently coming out of the14:34New York Times 16:19 project how much do14:37we need to revise our concept of the14:39founding of this nation do you think14:41that makes sense or has it gone a bit14:44too far the pendulum is historians have14:48been writing about this down for quite14:50some time but what we haven’t done as14:54much as to think about what that means14:55for us today14:56that the legacy of slavery is still with14:59us there’s a tendency there has been a15:01tendency on the part of many people to15:03say oh well we knew that but that’s over15:05I think that’s the that’s the15:07contribution of the magazine of 1619 is15:11not to tell us something many things we15:14didn’t know but to say there is a15:17connection to this that is continuing15:20you don’t get rid of hundreds of years15:23of slavery in a century or so and we15:26really don’t get going as legally full15:29citizens until 1965 the passage of the15:32vote15:32that’s not in the history you know15:35that’s a blink of an eye so they even in15:37total blink of an eye in history and15:39thinking that this stuff is all in the15:41past has been the problem and that’s I15:44think that’s what the project was trying15:45to do is to say no this isn’t over John15:50I was struck I believe it was the15:54remarks at the signing of the Civil15:56Rights Act and in July July 2nd 196416:00Lyndon Johnson grounds his remark at the16:04bill signing not on Philadelphia but on16:07Jamestown it which which I was struck by16:11talk about a complicated figure well you16:16know were the Democratic nominee for16:19president is a 77 year old white man who16:25was the vice president of the first16:28african-american president incredibly16:30loyal and eulogized Thurmond and16:33Eastland you know so well if you’re16:36looking for simplicity if you’re looking16:38for straightforward figures good luck16:42I don’t know who they would be I think16:46what an it just said is absolutely16:47essential I have a theory16:49aboard Walter with this I think16:51privately actually that we’re only a 6016:56year old nation right the country we17:01have right now the polity we have which17:04is soon going to be majority diversity17:07whatever phrase it is was really created17:11in 1964-65 not only with the Civil17:16Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act but17:18with the Immigration Act yeah which17:20totally changed the nature of the17:24country and so no wonder this is so hard17:28no wonder we’re having such a ferocious17:30white reaction this is kind of the 1830s17:35in a way and so it’s not to excuse it17:40but I do think it explains it a little17:42bit and this idea of Prague17:45and I know it sounds tinny to people and17:48look if you look like me you can talk17:49about progress right I’m the boring Lee17:52heterosexual white southern Episcopalian17:54right I mean things tend to work out for17:56me in America so I stipulate that but18:00but it’s simply the lesson of history18:04that we are in fact a better country18:09than we were yesterday doesn’t mean18:12we’re perfect doesn’t mean we stop up18:15but our are enough of us devoted to18:21doing all we can as citizens and as18:24leaders to try to create a country that18:27more of us can be proud of and if we are18:30then let’s get to it yeah and and I18:34would throw in women the changing role18:37of women from the 1960s and this is18:39that’s a good point I wouldn’t I agree18:42with 60 years again a short time in18:47history where everything everybody’s18:49sort of in place it’s like Ken Burns18:51said that he found it difficult to call18:53talk about the Golden Age of baseball18:56and there were no black players in the19:00major league how do you how do you do19:02that and this is a similar situation19:04where you have blacks legally allowed to19:08vote and those rights are protected I19:11mean there’s issues with voter19:12suppression but sort of on paper19:14equality is there and it’s hard is19:17wrenching for people who have had you19:20know power who are used to a certain19:23hierarchy a certain way things are were19:25or they think about their grandparents19:27or good old days it’s hard to get used19:29to all of that and so you’re right19:32there’s no wonder that there’s a people19:33Annette gordon-reed Jon Meacham thank19:37you for joining us to be here19:42[Music]19:50[Music]19:53you
In Defense of Western Civ
The West’s tolerance for anti-Western philosophies is a fairly unique feature of the West itself.
But, again, until pretty recently, that tendency wasn’t against “the West” so much as it was against the Enlightenment or democracy or capitalism. Western radicals argued that the West had taken a wrong turn, not that the East was better.
.. The whole reason liberalism is in trouble today is that it has lost the ability to speak confidently in patriotic and loving terms about America, unless it is in the context of selling some government program or pressing some nakedly political advantage (I’m thinking mostly about immigration maximalism and identity politics). Cutting Medicaid may be wrong, but it’s not unpatriotic.
.. Peter himself recently argued that Democrats need to refocus on the importance of assimilation if they want to be trusted on the issue of immigration. Well, assimilation to what? If American culture is worth assimilating into, so is Western Culture, because the two cannot be separated.
.. Right now, there’s a hilarious effort afoot to defend the anti-Semitic Saudi sock-puppet Linda Sarsour. She recently called for jihad against Donald Trump and insisted that American Muslims must never, ever assimilate into American culture.
.. In Trump’s telling, the threat to Western Civilization must be met with his favorite qualities: Strength! Will! Etc.! The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?
.. In Trump’s telling, the threat to Western Civilization must be met with his favorite qualities: Strength! Will! Etc.! The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?
.. The key to keeping Western Civilization alive isn’t fending off the barbarians at our gates, though that’s important. They key is keeping it alive in our hearts. Civilizations die by suicide. As Lincoln put it:
From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia . . . could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever or die by suicide.
Fending off suicide isn’t a matter of martial will, but of simple gratitude. The Left has convinced itself that there is nothing to be grateful for about Western Civilization. ’s idiotic. And they need to be persuaded otherwise, not pummeled into thinking Western Civilization is just a dog whistle for MAGA.
Rich, who is on a mission to restore the good name of nationalism, asked whether the podcasters would still love America if it had different ideals. And they all said yes.
.. I’ve written countless times that nationalism is good in small doses and poisonous in large doses, save during times of war when it is channeled outward for legitimate reasons.
.. But it is not absurd to say that America is an idea. The Founders certainly thought it was. So did Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. They appealed to the idea encased in the Declaration, not to the nation. Appeals to nationalism can be appeals to ideas, but they usually are not. They are simply another form of populism, which says we’re right because we’re us. Appeals to ideas, particularly those that marry themselves to what is best about a nation, help a nation act in accordance with its best self.
.. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause