Today, May 19, 2011, is the 121st anniversary of the birth of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.
The most important question which ought to be asked about Ho Chi Minh is whether he was a communist or a nationalist first? This is of course a purely rhetorical question, often befuddled in the past, for the purposes of cold war propaganda. Both the circumstances of his life and the most important statements he ever made, give an unequivocal answer to the question. Yes, he was a Vietnamese nationalist first and foremost, and his “communism” was in fact his only available tool to achieve his nationalist goals.
Here are a few of his most famous statements (ignored or dismissed in the West during the Cold War). One may argue that they may have been deficient in sincerity; but when a great Communist leader famously says, “It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me!” this is in fact the opposite of how communist propaganda would have had it (even if caricaturely assuming that politicians are propagandists by nature). It is safe to assume that in this case Ho Chi Minh's words come as close to honest truth as to become indistinguishable from it.
Here are some of his other characteristic quotes:
“Nothing is more valuable than independence and freedom. Those who wish to seize Vietnam, must kill us to the last man, woman and child… I follow only one party: the Vietnamese party. You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win. (This refers to France’s and America’s wars in Vietnam.) It is better to sacrifice everything, than to live in slavery! The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man… We have to win independence at any cost, even if the Truong Son mountains burn.”
These statements explicitly represent a great nationalist leader, but he was, admittedly, a communist as well. So, how do these two go together? It is true that communism, or rather totalitarianism, which I have already frequently discussed both in depth and at length, is much better suited to nationalist causes than capitalism or the milder forms of socialism, and it may be legitimately argued that Ho Chi Minh would have ended up as a totalitarian, even if he had not been pushed toward communism and Moscow’s Comintern by the force of circumstances. But it is still a fact that he was pushed in the ultra-left direction by the West (much reminding in this the historical experience of Fidel Castro).
Having lived, between 1911 and 1923, in the West (in France, England and the United States), he petitioned Western powers on numerous occasions on behalf of his native Vietnam, but was always ignored. Following World War I, he petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the 1919 Versailles peace talks, but was ignored. Citing the language and the spirit of the US Declaration of Independence, he petitioned President Woodrow Wilson for help in the removal of the French from Vietnam, replacing them with a new, nationalist government, but was ignored.
It was after that, in 1921, during the Congress of Tours in France, that he became a founding member of the Parti Communiste Français, and thereafter spent much of his time in Moscow, becoming Comintern’s “Asia hand,” and its principal theorist on colonial warfare.
After the August Revolution (of 1945), organized by the Viet Minh, Ho became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which borrowed from the French and American Declarations. Though he convinced Emperor Bao Dai (a surprisingly honorable man who certainly has deserved a special mention in my Nations section) to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any Western country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry Truman for his support of Vietnam’s independence, citing the Atlantic Charter (which was the contemporary nickname given to the joint Churchill--FDR statement, visualizing the post-WWII world order, issued by them in August 1941 in Newfoundland), but was yet again ignored…
Ho Chi Minh was a very controversial figure in the West, but who knows how his relationship with the West would have developed had he been accepted as a legitimate nationalist leader, rather than pushed even much deeper into the Soviet camp than he ever wanted to go. It is also pointed out in his Western biographies that in the last ten years of his life he was somewhat squeezed out of power in Hanoi itself. But no matter what, after his death his legend lives large in his native land, and he will surely forever remain Vietnam’s greatest national hero of all time. Whether he, as a real person, measures up to his legend or not, misses the point that it takes a genius only, to become his country’s national legend, and such was Ho Chi Minh.
The most important question which ought to be asked about Ho Chi Minh is whether he was a communist or a nationalist first? This is of course a purely rhetorical question, often befuddled in the past, for the purposes of cold war propaganda. Both the circumstances of his life and the most important statements he ever made, give an unequivocal answer to the question. Yes, he was a Vietnamese nationalist first and foremost, and his “communism” was in fact his only available tool to achieve his nationalist goals.
Here are a few of his most famous statements (ignored or dismissed in the West during the Cold War). One may argue that they may have been deficient in sincerity; but when a great Communist leader famously says, “It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me!” this is in fact the opposite of how communist propaganda would have had it (even if caricaturely assuming that politicians are propagandists by nature). It is safe to assume that in this case Ho Chi Minh's words come as close to honest truth as to become indistinguishable from it.
Here are some of his other characteristic quotes:
“Nothing is more valuable than independence and freedom. Those who wish to seize Vietnam, must kill us to the last man, woman and child… I follow only one party: the Vietnamese party. You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win. (This refers to France’s and America’s wars in Vietnam.) It is better to sacrifice everything, than to live in slavery! The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man… We have to win independence at any cost, even if the Truong Son mountains burn.”
These statements explicitly represent a great nationalist leader, but he was, admittedly, a communist as well. So, how do these two go together? It is true that communism, or rather totalitarianism, which I have already frequently discussed both in depth and at length, is much better suited to nationalist causes than capitalism or the milder forms of socialism, and it may be legitimately argued that Ho Chi Minh would have ended up as a totalitarian, even if he had not been pushed toward communism and Moscow’s Comintern by the force of circumstances. But it is still a fact that he was pushed in the ultra-left direction by the West (much reminding in this the historical experience of Fidel Castro).
Having lived, between 1911 and 1923, in the West (in France, England and the United States), he petitioned Western powers on numerous occasions on behalf of his native Vietnam, but was always ignored. Following World War I, he petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the 1919 Versailles peace talks, but was ignored. Citing the language and the spirit of the US Declaration of Independence, he petitioned President Woodrow Wilson for help in the removal of the French from Vietnam, replacing them with a new, nationalist government, but was ignored.
It was after that, in 1921, during the Congress of Tours in France, that he became a founding member of the Parti Communiste Français, and thereafter spent much of his time in Moscow, becoming Comintern’s “Asia hand,” and its principal theorist on colonial warfare.
After the August Revolution (of 1945), organized by the Viet Minh, Ho became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which borrowed from the French and American Declarations. Though he convinced Emperor Bao Dai (a surprisingly honorable man who certainly has deserved a special mention in my Nations section) to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any Western country. He repeatedly petitioned American President Harry Truman for his support of Vietnam’s independence, citing the Atlantic Charter (which was the contemporary nickname given to the joint Churchill--FDR statement, visualizing the post-WWII world order, issued by them in August 1941 in Newfoundland), but was yet again ignored…
Ho Chi Minh was a very controversial figure in the West, but who knows how his relationship with the West would have developed had he been accepted as a legitimate nationalist leader, rather than pushed even much deeper into the Soviet camp than he ever wanted to go. It is also pointed out in his Western biographies that in the last ten years of his life he was somewhat squeezed out of power in Hanoi itself. But no matter what, after his death his legend lives large in his native land, and he will surely forever remain Vietnam’s greatest national hero of all time. Whether he, as a real person, measures up to his legend or not, misses the point that it takes a genius only, to become his country’s national legend, and such was Ho Chi Minh.
No comments:
Post a Comment