W.Minh Tuan
The truth “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged” is true in all wars. When one side wins, it is easy to produce arrogance, despise the enemy, be subjective, looks down on the enemy, underestimate the enemy, and then it is easy to fail.
And when one side is temporarily defeated, it is easy to be depressed, disappointed, lose all fighting spirit, lose all morale, and then complete defeat will be very likely.
In the history of our Vietnamese people’s war against aggression for more than 2,000 years, the lesson “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged” is always hot, always proving its correctness.
During the first war against the Nguyen-Yuang army in 1257-1258, in the beginning, our Dai Viet army always lost the battle, at that time, King Tran was discouraged, intending to surrender to the Nguyen army.
But General Tran Thu Do calmly replied to King Tran: “If my head hasn’t fallen, don’t worry, Your Majesty.”
Since then, King Tran was not discouraged any more, regained his courage, and directed the Tran army and people to defeat the Nguyen army.
When the Nguyen army invaded Vietnam for the second time, in 1284-1285, before the Nguyen enemy was very strong, King Tran was discouraged and again wanted to surrender to the Nguyen army.
But General Tran Hung Dao bravely replied:
“If Your Majesty wants to surrender, cut off my head first.”
Since then, King Tran regained his courage and determination, and from there, directed the Tran army and people to defeat the Nguyen army for the second time, and then, for the third time.
Regarding the victory over the birth of pride, in King Le Loi’s war against the Ming army, there are many very good examples.
General Nguyen Xi and Dinh Le subjectively despised the enemy, sent 500 troops to attack the Minh army, so both were arrested.
At that time, many generals asked King Le Loi to send troops to save Nguyen Xi and Dinh Le, but King Le Loi said no, let 2 generals Dinh Le, Nguyen Xi, and other generals see for themselves the lesson “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged. “.
General Dinh Le was killed by the Ming army, General Nguyen Xi fake surrendered and then escaped. At that time, King Le Loi allowed General Nguyen Xi to make atonement.
Since then, General Nguyen Xi, and other Le generals no longer dared to “subjectively despise the enemy”.
During the Vietnam War against the intervention of the Americans, the communist Vietnamese side also many times made the mistake of “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged”.
During the battle of Thuong Duc in 1974, General Hoang Dan recalled that at the beginning of the Thuong Duc campaign, the Vietnamese communists were arrogant and despised the Saigon army, so they encountered many difficulties in the beginning.
General Pham Xuan The, then the deputy regiment participating in the battle of Thuong Duc, also recalled that many communist soldiers were injured and killed because of the “subjective, contemptuous” disease of their commanders.
In the war of the Ukrainians against the current Russian invaders, the Ukrainians at first barely knew how to fight, and suffered many losses, and gave birth to depression and pessimism.
In February and March 2022, when more than 2,000 Russian tanks were lined up on the roads more than 50 km long into Ukraine, the Ukrainian army did not know how to organize interception, division, rearguard, and rear lock of long tanks. Just because the Ukrainians then had a failure mentality, no fighting spirit.
Up to now, in May 2023, the Ukrainians have gradually learned from experience, fought better day by day, smarter by day, and braver day by day.
The current battle in Bakhmut shows that the Ukrainians know how to fight “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged”, even though victory is not subjective, even if it is defeated, it is not discouraged.
In war, “win-lose” is normal.
Most importantly, the final, decisive battle must be won.
Ukrainians have the right and justice to fight against the Russian invaders, and have the support and aid of the peace-loving world.
Although the Russian invaders were strong, they did not have justice, because they were invaders, so the fighting spirit was not brave, not determined, not persistent and resilient like the Ukrainians.
That is a huge advantage for the Ukrainian army.
But even though the whole world is supporting the Ukrainian army in terms of material, weapons, ammunition, and spirit, it is still the Ukrainians who decide the war.
The Americans, the British, the French, the Germans,,,, can send weapons to the Ukrainians, but cannot decide the win-lose of the Ukraine war.
The weapons provided by countries that help Ukraine, though advanced, many, and powerful, cannot replace the Ukrainian soldiers and commanders themselves on the battlefield.
Only the Ukrainians can decide whether they win or not.
Only Ukrainians can write their own history.
And the lesson of “Victory is not arrogant, defeat is not discouraged” will help Ukraine to the final victory.///
