Ba Dinh Square
Sweeping public plaza where a revolutionary leader proclaimed a nation's independence in nineteen forty-five.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi returns to September 2, 1945, when Ho Chi Minh climbed a cloth-draped platform here to read Vietnam's declaration of independence to a crowd in the hundreds of thousands, opening with words borrowed from Thomas Jefferson. It traces the collapse of Japan's wartime occupation and France's colonial grip in the days before, and the jade-encrusted sword Ho raised that same afternoon. Look toward the flagpole ahead, which rose above that same stage.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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