Ho Chi Minh

[The Man]

Since I've been here in July 2010, I have never heard any word spoken about Ho Chi Minh.. What's the general feeling of him around here?

[ComradeGrant]

I think the ML's are fond of him but I myself am unaware of his contributions. I know he was a popular organizer post WWII but that's about it.

[red cat]

Since I've been here in July 2010, I have never heard any word spoken about Ho Chi Minh.. What's the general feeling of him around here?

Maoists hold that his position was centrist regarding the Sino-Soviet split.

[Robocommie]

Dude spoke seven languages. Pretty interesting guy.

[Coyote]

He was winning.

[Tommy4ever]

I'm not sure if he was a particularly significant theorist. But he was a truly incredibly revolutionary.

Defeated the Japanese, French and American imperialist armies.

[Red Future]

Well lets develop our Revleft knowledge

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/

[Sixiang]

I don't know enough about him to have much of an opinion. I do have a collection of his writings from when he was in prison that I plan on reading soon. Should be interesting.

[Pretty Flaco]

He had a pretty cool beard and other than what everyone else said, that's the extent of my knowledge.

[Tomhet]

I read somewhere that Ho Chi Mihn was influenced by Marcus Garvey, did he have any sort of affiliation to the Black Panthers???

[El Chuncho]

Ho Chi Minh was a great hero and person. Infact, he was popular with the majority of the Vietnamese people and fought successfully for their freedom. Sadly he did not live too long to guide Vietnam and to see his vision of a united country realized.

[altnet]

I have not read any of Ho Chi Minh's works although I can give you some background on him as a person and his characteristics from when I traveled to Vietnam. He is revered in the country for his virtues of simplicity, discipline, kindness especially to children, and revolutionary drive. He has assumed almost godlike status throughout Vietnam with school children being taught to idolize him. They regularly refer to him as "Uncle" or "Uncle Ho" He was featured in many propaganda posters/billboards across Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City especially while almost seemingly absent from Northern Vietnam.

When I traveled to the presidential palace, they had a shrine to Ho and discussed how he studied for many hours a day and only slept for approximately 4 hours a night, or some other absurd number. They had his study material laid out in his house on stilts as it is called, and he seems to be an example for diligence in academia. As stated above he did indeed know many languages and appears to have amassed a large amount of knowledge. He is revered for his anti-imperialist stance and his desire to be free from foreign rule; the declaration of independence of Vietnam is perhaps one of his most well known speeches which was delivered in Ba Dinh Square.

The people love him so much that you can regularly hear them tell their children to grow up and be like him. Many statues portray him with children, usually teaching them. When I traveled to where his body currently resides, a guard pulled out his pistol when someone on the tour crossed the line about 100 ft from the building to take a picture. That really scared our tour guides :lol: They absolutely idolize him and truly want to become Ho Chi Minh.

Hope that helps, I know you asked about his works and something a little more historically oriented although I hope this will help give you a little perspective on the man and the legend of Ho Chi Minh.

Here is the speech for independence.
"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

These are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

They have enforced inhuman laws; they have set up three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center, and the South of Viet-Nam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united.

They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots; they have drowned our uprisings in rivers of blood.

They have fettered public opinion; they have practiced obscurantism against our people.

To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.

In the field of economics, they have fleeced us to the backbone, impoverished our people and devastated our land.

They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials. They have monopolized the issuing of bank notes and the export trade.

They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty.

They have hampered the prospering of our national bourgeoisie; they have mercilessly exploited our workers.

In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese fascists violated Indochina's territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them.

Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased. The result was that, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, from Quang Tri Province to the North of Viet-Nam, more than two million of our fellow citizens died from starvation. On March 9 [1945], the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French colonialists either fled or surrendered, showing that not only were they incapable of "protecting" us, but that, in the span of five years, they had twice sold our country to the Japanese.

On several occasions before March 9, the Viet Minh League urged the French to ally themselves with it against the Japanese. Instead of agreeing to this proposal, the French colonialists so intensified their terrorist activities against the Viet Minh members, that before fleeing they massacred a great number of our political prisoners detained at Yen Bay and Cao Bang.

Notwithstanding all this, our fellow citizens have always manifested toward the French a tolerant and humane attitude. Even after the Japanese Putsch of March, 1945, the Viet Minh League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from Japanese jails, and protected French lives and property.

From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony and had become a Japanese possession.

After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our national sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam.

The truth is that we have wrested our independence from the Japanese and not from the French.

The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime that has reigned supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character with France; we repeal all the international obligations that France has so far subscribed to on behalf of Viet-Nam, and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland.

The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country.

We are convinced that the Allied nations, which at Teheran and San Francisco have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Viet-Nam.

A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, solemnly declare to the world that Viet-Nam has the right to be a free and independent country - and in fact it is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safe guard their independence and liberty.

[Pretty Flaco]

I read somewhere that Ho Chi Mihn was influenced by Marcus Garvey, did he have any sort of affiliation to the Black Panthers???

...marcus garvey wasn't a black panther.

[altnet]

...marcus garvey wasn't a black panther.

Indeed that is correct. Ho may have been influenced by Garvey's desire to throw off oppression and quite possibly admired him for his strength and resolve although I cannot factually verify this. The Black Panthers came in existence in 1966 while Garvey reached his peak popularity ~1914-1920.

Found this on Wikipedia:

In 1912, working as the cook’s helper on a ship, Cung traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. Among a series of menial jobs, he also has claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918; during this time, he was influenced by Marcus Garvey in Harlem. It is believed that, while in the United States, he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.[3]

Found this in an article here: http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=marcus-garvey-lives-on-in-asi


The great meetings of the Garvey movement at its Liberty Halls, especially in New York, would become of major interest to all imperialists. Not only were Africans from throughout the world, especially seamen, constantly visiting these meetings, but also other oppressed people and their developing leaders, such as Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh who regularly attended Garvey meetings.

It is seemingly true although I would prefer verification from more credible sources than an online encyclopedia and an online article.

[Tomhet]

Indeed , he wasn't, but did Ho Chi Mihn have any affiliation with the panthers???

[caramelpence]

Fun fact: Ho Chi Minh was a cook at the post-WW1 Versailles Conference. He also attended the Whampoa academy in China, although that's less surprising.

[altnet]

Indeed , he wasn't, but did Ho Chi Mihn have any affiliation with the panthers???

I do not believe he did. I know the Panther's promoted some of Ho's speeches/other texts although they never had any correspondence with him to my knowledge. I do not believe they were affiliated in any way, although I would like to someone to correct me if I am indeed mistaken.

[GallowsBird]

Well this Marxist-Leninist certainly respects Ho Chi Minh for his leadership against imperialist aggressors. I think it is sad that he is slightly forgotten in the west. He was a great man and I think of him as a major influence on my own thinking.

[altnet]

Well this Marxist-Leninist certainly respects Ho Chi Minh for his leadership against imperialist aggressors. I think it is sad that he is slightly forgotten in the west. He was a great man and I think of him as a major influence on my own thinking.
His has been forgotten and his works have largely been ignored. I do not know if this is due to his works being difficult to attain/translate or his demonization by the west. Whatever the case, it is indeed very sad and unfortunate that such a great and influential thinker has been neglected. I really need to get on reading his works though. He only remains as a name in many places, history has not been kind to such a great man who fought for equality and freedom. The actual man behind the mask has been forgotten.

[El Chuncho]

AeyJt46eoGE

[flobdob]

Indeed , he wasn't, but did Ho Chi Mihn have any affiliation with the panthers???

To my knowledge he didn't, but the Panthers supported him and the NLF's struggle in Vietnam; conversely, the Vietnamese were warm to the Black Panthers.

The front page of The Black Panther on March 3, 1969 had the text of Ho Chi Minh's new year message under the headline of "Long Live Ho Chi Minh." Similarly, Eldridge Cleaver represented the BPP at the commemorative ceremony of Ho Chi Minh's death in Vietnam.

[CHEtheLIBERATOR]

Ho chi minh is a legit Marxist and guerrilla I have great respect for his attempts at implementing communism in vietnam