 |
|
Ho Chi Minh: the Nation and
the Times 1911-1946 is available at The Gioi Publishers,
46 Tran Hung Dao St, Hanoi. |
A few weeks back, during the 10th
National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, I picked
up a copy of Pham Xanh’s Ho Chi Minh: the Nation and the Times
1911-1946. At this time of change, modernisation and
international integration, I thought it would be interesting
to learn some background information on how the Party started
and how it was that Vietnam became communist and gained its
independence under the great leader Ho Chi Minh.
In today’s Vietnam it is difficult
to imagine the country without conjuring up images of the
nation’s first president. His image is everywhere from the
currency to posters on the sides of schools. Listen to any
political or official presentation and you are guaranteed to
hear at least one of his thoughts or quotes, or browse any
book shop and you have the choice of thousands of volumes
written about this man.
So why the need for one more? I
began to ask myself as I read this newly printed book well
into the first three chapters. And why didn’t I just pick up a
copy of Ho Chi Minh’s complete works so heavily footnoted in
this volume? Reading on I understood that this book attempts
to put in context a colonised Vietnam under French rule during
the tumultuous time of World War II and the rise of Marxixm -
Leninism; a time when communism was emerging in Russia, China
and even Western countries.
It was during this time that Ho
Chi Minh set out to do what few Vietnamese had done before or
after; travel the world gathering knowledge and understanding
in order to come back and help his people in crisis.
Nowhere is this more obvious as in
the chapter entitled "American Impressions of Ho Chi Minh
prior to 1945", where a conversation is described between
Uncle Ho and Chinese-American Frank Tan, "And Uncle Ho told
Tan he liked a girl very much when he was young but he never
met her again after he went overseas and from then on, in his
heart, he had only the love for the people."
True this book does nothing to
shed more light on the young Nguyen Ai Quoc, as he is referred
in this book, which I would have liked; however, it does give
valuable background information on Uncle Ho’s strategy to gain
independence for his nation. "In June 1911, Ho Chi Minh left
Nha Rong Port in Sai Gon as a kitchen assistant on a French
merchant ship bound for France." And according to the book,
"Between 1911 and 1920, he set foot in more than 20 countries
on different continents", an amazing feat for anyone, even the
most seasoned traveller, however Uncle Ho was a poor
Vietnamese at a time when overseas travel was yet to become
affordable and easy. "Despite the difference of skin colour,
there are only two races on earth: exploiter and exploited."
While overseas, Ho Chi Minh became
involved in French politics, even joining the French Socialist
Party and later co-founding the French Communist Party.
Writing many publications for print both in France and
Indochina, "It might be said that Nguyen Ai Quoc used the
press, particularly the Le Paria, as a means to ‘sow the seeds
of liberation’ on the soils prepared by the cruel colonist
capitalism."
While in France he read Russian
communist leader V. Lenin’s Preliminary Draft Three on the
National and Colonial Questions. Soon Lenin became his mentor,
though the two men never met. From that point on the book
discuses how Ho Chi Minh planned and executed his take over of
power in Vietnam. Notably in the chapter entitled "Some
Characteristics of Nguyen Ai Quoc’s Introduction of
Marxism-Leninism into Vietnam."
One point I found interesting in
this book was how Ho Chi Minh used the youth to gain grounds
in his movement. Uncle Ho had studied youth movements in
western countries and realised his own nation’s young people
were key to carrying out his agenda. "In terms of age and
social background, the main forces he used were patriotic
intellectual youths."
Ho Chi Minh eventually returned to
Vietnam at Cao Bang and the rest, as they say, is history.
Decades have passed and this year saw the 10th Party Congress.
This is a time when the country is moving along a
"comprehensive renewal process" and a "market-oriented
economy".
State owned companies are becoming
equitised and borders are opening up at lightening speed.
Reading the passages in this book it becomes clear, once you
read between the lines of the sometimes dense rhetoric, that
the country is moving closer to Uncle Ho’s ideals of opening
borders and the minds of the people bringing this nation to
par with others. Once Vietnam joins the World Trade
Organisation it will no longer be the colony nor the
‘oppressed’ but a country directing its own fate amongst
peers.
Just as books are a product of
their time, so are ideas. People change, influences come and
go, and old ideas fade into the collective memory. Though
Uncle Ho’s ideals will never be forgotten, it was interesting
that during the congress, the country welcomed Bill Gates, the
worlds most influential and wealthy man worth an estimated
US $50 billion according to Forbes magazine.
Thousands of today’s youths, more
interested in computer games than history, showed up at
Hanoi’s University of Technology to catch a glimpse of the
‘star’. A British website ran a story quoting many of the
youth. One in particular, 19-year-old Nguyen Trung Dung,
stated "I hope that one day I can be as successful as him."
The country is changing rapidly as
it has so many times in the course of its long history. In the
words of author Xanh, "With culture as a code of conduct, Ho
Chi Minh definitely made an active contribution to the
accomplishment of political goals and tasks of each historical
period."
Though The Nation and the Times
1911-1946 often reads like a high school textbook, it is worth
the read if only to understand the mindset of the times. It
will be interesting to witness how all this is played out in
the modern, technologically advanced country.
By James W. Coates
(VNS) |
