The Cult Of Personality: Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh was an icon, truly the definition of the cult of personality. Often compared to the likes of Mao Zedong, Lenin, and other revolutionary leaders, he was one of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century. He was the charismatic, founding father of Vietnamese communism. He was the heart and soul personified of the Vietnamese revolution and its struggle to gain independence. Through his sheer determination, he and his Viet Cong fought the United States to a standstill. He was an activist and an idealist, rather than a theorist. However, who really was Ho Chi Minh? The truth behind the man was much more complex than the public image that was perceived. He was man of many names throughout his life and details of his life are vague. He had adopted over fifty pseudonyms throughout his life such as Nguyen Ai Quoc or Nguyen the Patriot during his time in China until he eventually became Ho Chi Minh[footnoteRef:2]. To the United States military during the Vietnam War, he was enemy number one. To his people, he was “Uncle Ho”. But how does a man who was inspired by the Declaration of Independence become enemy number one of the United States? This paper will observe the life of Ho Chi Minh and his subsequent rise to power in Vietnam. 

In order to gain a proper perspective on man, myth, and legend of the “Bringer of Light” Ho Chi Minh, we must first look at his past. Ho Chi Minh was the son of Nguyen Sinh Sac and Hoang Thi Loan. Nyugen Sinh Sac was a studious man, constantly embarking on his career as a scholar. While under the tutelage of Master Duong, he fell in love his daughter, Hoang Thi Loan. Eventually the family consented to their marriage and Sac was gifted with a small three-room thatch hut on a small plot of land next to Master Duong’s house. Eventually, Nguyen Sinh Sac and Hoang Thi Loan would have four children together. Their daughter, Nguyen Thi Thanh was born in 1884, followed by their son, Nguyen Sinh Khiem, in 1888; and then, on May 19, 1890, Nguyen Sinh Cung, later to be known as Ho Chi Minh, would be born in the village of Nghe An Province in French Indochina (Central Vietnam). By the time Hoang Thi Loan has given birth to her fourth child, a boy named Nguyen Sinh Xin, she feel ill and passed away on February 10, 1901. Xin would eventually join her and pass away at the age of one. [footnoteRef:3] After the death of his wife, Nguyen Sinh Sac would return for his children and young Cung would study under his father. Eventually, he would be sent off to live with his distant relative Vuong Thu Doc. Cung was very much like his parents, intelligent, curious and had a knack for absorbing knowledge quickly. By the time Sung reach eleven and was reaching adolescence, his father assigned to him the new name Nguyen Tat Thanh, or “he who will succeed”. His father felt that an education was the best for his son and thus Thanh continued to study under his father and garner new mentors. His main studies would be that of learning the Chinese language and Confucian classics in National Academy of Hue. 

However, young Thanh would ultimately be raised in a time great strife in Vietnam. His father was a government official and very vocal about his distaste for the French and the puppet government in Vietnam. His father resigned in protest causing more hardship on Thanh and the rest of his family Thanh would soon pick up on some of his father’s ideologies and would soon be dismissed from the academy after taking part in demonstrations against the French. These protests did not end peacefully as French troops opened fire on the protestors. Thanh dispearred for a few months and even set his sights on Cochin China. He would continue to work odd jobs and even briefly worked as a schoolteacher. After bouncing from city to city and witnessing more French cruelty against the Vietnamese, he managed to make his way to Saigon. From there he adopted the name of “Ba”. He was then hired by Captain Louis Eduard Maisen as a assistance cook aboard a ship. His exact activities while at sea remained unclear, however, he seemed to have seen many port cities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. His observations gave him more insight into the cruelties of French colonialism. He made his way to France and was remarked, “The French in France are better and more polite than those in Indochina.”[footnoteRef:4] As he continued failing to find work in his homeland, he ended United States for several months. He worked as a laborer and as a domestic servant to a wealth family. He found himself spending quite a lot of time New York City, where he observed that Asian immigrants appeared to have equal rights in law, something very different to the harsh realities he faced under Western Colonialism. Eventually, he made his way to Boston and worked as a pastry chef. Unfortunately, his trip took a turn for the worse when he went down south and saw the lynching of African Americans by the Ku Klux Klan. He then left the United States for Great Britain and began studying English. Of course, whether or not he actually lived in Great Britain is up for debate. However, we do know he ended up in France sometime in December 1917. As World War I drew to an end in 1918, A young Thanh never leftl any record at immigration and started to sign his letters as Nguyen Ai Quoc. He repeatedly petitioned to the French representatives and their allies to free Indochina, however his attempts were rejected.

He would soon be introducted to communism in Paris with the works of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, being the most influential. Quoc went to Moscow in 1923 and found his socialist paradise. After being detained, he then began to work for the Far Eastern Bureau. From there, he quickly learned the basics of organizing a revolution. He participated in a number of other organizations such as the Red Labor International, the Youth International, and the Women’s International. He became a prominent figure in the Soviet Union. He chose more of a pragmatic approach than an academic approach and would avoid the internal disputes of Soviet leadership. His time in the Soviet Union allowed him to delve into his experiences and write one of his greatest works The Case Against French Colonization. It is a point-by-point trial condemnation of colonialism. In his work, he vilifies the governors, administrators, and civilizers for their exploitation of natives. Stating that, “After stealing fertile land, the French sharks collected taxes on bad land a hundred times more outrageous than the feudal taxes.” Though this writing seemed to be a rambling rush, he got the attention of many prominent communist members. As he rose through the ranks, Quoc was appointed as a member of the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Comintern Executive Committee and would soon set his eyes on starting up a Communist sect in China. 

By 1924, Nguyen Ai Quoc made his way to Canton, China. In order to protect himself from the French and local authorities, he changed his name again to Ly Thuy. Creating a secret group called Indochinese Nationalist Party, he attempted to strengthen the communist party in China. For over two years he lived in China, training Indochinese operatives by teaching them how to talk to women and children and how to speak in public to peasants. His optimism give his students a sense of morality. By introducing them to the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, he showed that there was a need for a social revolution. As he attempted to gather funds for a strike against the French colonial regime. He had a relatively stable life in China and even met his wife, Tang Tuyet Minh while there. However, Quoc’s days in China were coming to an end. His organization’s relationship with Sun Yat Sen’s Nationalist Party was already an uneasy alliance. When Sun passed and his successor Chiang Kai-shek took over, it spelled the end of Quoc in China. Chiang began a bloody crusade against the communists. His Kuomintang (KMT) massacred thousands of suspected communists. Quoc went into hiding and his allies urged him to leave China. On May 5, 1927, Nguyen Ai Quoc left his secret location and his wife, and caught a train to Hong Kong. The same day his residence was raided by Chinese officials. Once again, he was on the move.

By November 1927, Nguyen Ai Quoc had attempted to gain funds to go to Siam, however, he was instructed to proceed to Paris to assist building up the revolutionary movement in Indochina. He did not stay in France very long as the French authorities were aware of his movements. He then went to Berlin and waited to receive funds so that he could return to Indochina. He finally got the funds that he needed and returned to Indochina as Father Chin. Finally, after years of tireless effort, the Vietnamese Communist Party was created. However, there was still much work to be done. He would soon find himself in Hong Kong under another alias of a journalist named L. M. Vuong. During his time there, many Vietnamese troops and were revolting against the brutality of the French. With peasant and military uprising continuing to be put down, things were coming to a breaking point. By 1931, Nguyen Ai Quoc was arrested in Hong Kong while under the guise of Song Man Cho. Sickly and weakened from his imprisonment, he made his way back to Moscow and by 1938, made it back to China. However, this time China was vastly different than he remembered. Japan had already begun invading and Chiang Kai-shek, who had killed many Communists in his Nationalist agenda, had to turn to them for help. Trading French brutality for Japanese brutality, World War II was in full swing. With France’s surrender on June 22. 1940, Quoc hoped that the German occupation of France and the installation of a puppet government meant changes for the regime in Indochina. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, The United States entered the war in December 1941. Formally allying with the Soviet Union, the United States provided additional support for the Vietminh via the OSS. He would lead his guerrilla movement Vietminh, in opposition to the Japanese. On August 14, 1945, the Japanese had surrender. When the Japanese left Indochina in 1945 following their defeat in World War II, they handed over control of the country over to Vietnam. Ho then hastened to gain control of Indochina. 

Ho Chi Minh formed the National Liberation Committee, naming himself as president under the provisional government. He hoped for American support in his declaration of independence, unfortunately, he received none as the United States and its allies, restored French rule. On September 22, 1945, French soldiers and civilians alike began rampaging. Which in turn caused the Vietminh to retaliate by September 24.[footnoteRef:13] By the spring of 1946, the French returned to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh refused step down as president and was forced back into the role of guerrilla leader. With North Korea capturing the capital of South Korea, to Mao Zedong conquering all of mainland China, the United States was fully believed in the 'domino theory'. The idea was that if one country fell to communism, the neighboring countries would topple like dominoes. The United States preferred Indochina to be a self-governing nationalist state with close ties to the French. The French knew they were losing and refused to negotiate with Ho Chi Minh. The French had hoped to restore Bao Dai, their puppet emperor, however this failed as Bao Dai wanted nothing to do with ruling due to his fear of Ho Chi Minh. What followed would be a series of guerilla warfare, eventually exhausting the French. The United States, unable to support Ho Chi Minh, fearing another Mao Zedong, eventually gave their support to Ngo Dinh Diem. Of course, Diem’s regime was corrupt, and he would eventually be killed in a coup d’état.

Gradually, the United States involvement increased, until the country and other U.N. members were involved in all-out combat against Vietminh, now known as the Vietcong. I Ho Chi Minh had promised the people of Vietnam a quick victory over the Southern government and its foreign allies, the Second Indochina War, also known as the Vietnam War, dragged on. In 1968, he approved the Tet Offensive, which was meant to break the stalemate. Although it proved a military fiasco for the North and the allied Viet Cong, it was a propaganda coup for Ho Chi Minh and the communists. With U.S. public opinion turning against the war, Ho Chi Minh realized that he only had to hold out until the Americans got tired of fighting and withdrew.

Ho Chi Minh would not live to see the end of the war. On September 2, 1969, the 79-year-old leader of North Vietnam died in Hanoi of heart failure, and he did not get to see his prediction about American war fatigue play out. Ho Chi Minh's influence on North Vietnam was so great that when the Southern capital of Saigon fell in April 1975, many of the North Vietnamese soldiers carried posters of him into the city. Saigon was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. Ho Chi Minh is still revered in Vietnam today; his image appears on the nation's currency and in classrooms and public buildings