"All men 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 French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights. 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."

Ho Chi Minh, Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, 2 September 1945. Ho Chi Minh read the declaration before a crowd of approximately 500,000 people, two weeks after Japan's surrender ended the Second World War.