1. President Ho Chi Minh once pointed out: “To revolt, one must have a base, to resist, one must have a rear”. In December 1965, the 12th Conference of the Party Central Committee (term III) affirmed: “The South is the great frontline, the main battlefield today. The North is the great rear of the South”.

Deeply aware of its role and position, right from the years when the North entered the era of building socialism, Hanoi quickly affirmed its leading role.

The documents of the first Hanoi City Party Congress (held in April 1959) summarized and evaluated: "Industrial enterprises all exceeded the plan on the main targets, labor productivity in state-owned enterprises increased by an average of 20% compared to 1957".

The documents of the 2nd Hanoi Party Congress held in early 1961 continued to record: "Hanoi has transformed from a consumer city to an industrial production city", "The total output value of the city's industrial production in 1960 increased by 54.5% compared to 1957 and tripled compared to 1955", "compared to 1957, the winter-spring rice area increased by 1/4 and the output in 1959 doubled"...

In the context of the country being divided, Hanoi has never given up on the task of unifying the country. The 4th City Party Congress held in April 1968 affirmed that, regardless of how the situation developed, we must, together with the whole country, do our utmost to maintain the North, fully prepare in all aspects to crush the US imperialists' air attack on the Capital, do a good job of evacuating the people's air defense, and limit our losses in terms of people and property. In particular, the Capital clearly determined the spirit: We must strive to provide unconditional support to the South, and carry out the slogan "All to defeat the American invaders"...

With that spirit, the whole of Hanoi has united into a resilient and creative block of iron and stone to carry out the mission of the rear. Right in the early 1960s, the twinning movements of Hanoi - Saigon - Hue were launched among the people of the capital. Along with that was the movement "Saturday to promote production and struggle for national reunification". The faster, more difficult and urgent the development of the resistance war was, the stronger the revolutionary emulation movements in the capital became.

“Three ready”, “Three responsibilities”, “The Truong Son stick”, “Putting down the pen and going to fight the Americans”, “Each person works as hard as two for the beloved South”… were continuously born and quickly spread, becoming a great motivation for the whole North. Just counting the “Three responsibilities” movement launched by the Hanoi Women’s Union, in 1965, after 2 months of launching in the whole North, 1.7 million women registered to participate.

Despite the difficulties and increasingly fierce attacks by the US Air Force, Hanoi still became the center of non-stop support of human and material resources to the Southern front line, true to the spirit of "not a pound of rice is missing, not a soldier is missing", "all to defeat the American invaders". Troops and generations of young people in the capital enthusiastically set out to "cut through Truong Son to save the country", carrying with them the will and aspiration for peace and unification. Trucks loaded with food, medicine, weapons, and ammunition followed each other to the South, soaked in sweat, tears, and a steadfast belief in the day of total victory.

Just counting the “human resources” support, from 1965 to 1975, Hanoi conducted 29 recruitment campaigns, mobilizing more than 86,000 young people to support the battlefields in the South; of which the reinforcements were 119 battalions (including 42 battalions of Hanoi and 77 battalions of the former Ha Tay province, now part of Hanoi). Thousands of families had from 2 to 7 children joining the army; over 53,000 outstanding children of Hanoi and Ha Tay heroically sacrificed and tens of thousands of people devoted part of their blood and bones to the cause of national liberation and national reunification.

2. Not only has Hanoi successfully fulfilled its role as the "heart" of the great rear, always successfully fulfilling its mission of providing human and material support to the southern frontline, it is also a symbol of belief in the final victory.

In the face of fierce attacks by the US imperialists' air war of destruction, the Capital proactively responded and fought back fiercely. The highlight of the extremely important success was that the Capital firmly protected the Central agencies, President Ho Chi Minh and the Party and State leaders - the "brain" of the resistance war against the US to save the country. During those years, every street, every roof became a fortress, every citizen was a soldier. The image of brave soldiers on artillery trays, workers and farmers who both performed their labor and production duties and fought bravely in the midst of fire and smoke has gone down in history as a testament to the will that "nothing is more precious than independence and freedom".

The pinnacle of the fulcrum of trust named Hanoi was the victory of "Dien Bien Phu in the air" in the winter of 1972. The army and people of the capital, together with the army and people of the North, shot down 81 US aircraft, including 34 B-52 "super fortresses", completely destroying the enemy's air force strategy. This was the premise for the victory at the negotiating table of the Paris Agreement in 1973, forcing the US to completely withdraw its troops from Vietnam. This glorious victory created a historic turning point, opening up a strategic opportunity for the Great Victory of Spring 1975, completely liberating the South and reunifying the country.

Half a century has passed, the country has entered a new page of history, peace and development. In the sacred, emotional, proud moment of looking back at the great victory of April 30, 1975, we understand more deeply that this is the victory of the strength of great national unity, including the heroic and indomitable fighting role of the people and soldiers of the South, and at the same time, the great role of the Northern rear, of which Hanoi is the heart and center. The sacrifice and contribution of Hanoi to the national reunification festival further embellishes the golden pages of history of Thang Long - Hanoi, a thousand years of culture and heroism.

This will be a great source of spiritual motivation for the capital Hanoi to firmly and confidently carry out its pioneering mission in the country's new revolution, in the era of national growth.