Ho Chi Minh

[psgchisolm]

Can someone enlighten me more on him, and what is the lefts stance on him

[Raightning]

I don't have much more than a basic knowledge of the man I'm afraid, but on your second query, it should be made clear that for him - and for most similar historical figures - there's no unified line among the revolutionary left as a whole. I can't imagine many Trotskyists have sympathy with him for example, given (as I understand it) he was responsible for purges of Trotskyists after World War 2.

Although, that said, it should also be noted that you probably won't find anyone on here who isn't (retrospectively) in support of the North Vietnamese struggle or anything like that.

[FreeEire]

I saw a great documentary about him from the Biography Channel, which happened to find its way onto Youtube in 2009. However it has since been removed due to accused copyright violation after A&E contacted Youtube and I can't seem to find another version of it online.

Obviously the documentary was basic enough, nothing controversial or about specific tendancies in it.

[erupt]

Ho Chi Minh fought against imperialism long before U.S. involvement. He led the Viet Minh since the end of World War II, I bellieve. The left's stance on him is one of silence in general, for some reason.

[scourge007]

I always thought of him as a Vietmanese nationalist first and a communist second.

[Turinbaar]

As I understand it, Ho Chi Minh's first major political action was his attempt to appeal for vietnamese independence at the Versailles treaty drafting. His program he intended to present to president Wilson was based on the ideas of Karl Marx and Thomas Jefferson, but he was denied entry. He then met another man denied entry, Zhou Enlai, who introduced Minh to Lenin. His political ideas and actions would largely stem from this betrayal by the united states, and the subsequent adoption of Marxist-Leninism.

[erupt]

That was some pretty interesting reading there.