The declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Tuyên ngôn độc lập Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa) was written by Hồ Chí Minh, and announced in public at the Ba Đình flower garden in Hanoi on 2 September 1945.

Vietnam, under the Nguyễn dynasty, became two protectorates of France in 1883, but during World War II, Japan occupied the country from 1940.

On August 22, 1945, the OSS agent Archimedes Patti, who had met Ho Chi Minh in southern China, arrived in Hanoi on a mercy mission to liberate allied POWs and was accompanied by Jean Sainteny a French government official.

48 Hàng Ngang, Hà Nội, Chairman Hồ Chí Minh presided over a meeting of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which he had called.

On August 30, 1945, Hồ Chí Minh invited several people to contribute their ideas toward his Declaration of Independence, including a number of American OSS officers.