Ho CHI Minh: A Life

William Duiker has performed a great service to those of us who study and teach the Vietnam War. Prior to the publication of "Ho Chi Minh: A Life," there was no biography of Ho that I felt comfortable recommending to my students. The problem with Ho-biography has always been the seemingly infinite maleability of its subject: Ho was perfectly happy to reinvent himself--and his public face--to serve his tactical ends. He actively participated in the creation of a mythology of "Uncle Ho," the selfless leader of a his nation. As a result, it has always been a challenge to disentangle the reality from the story that best suited his ends at any given time. Was he the monastic patriot who sacrificed family and home for his only love, the Vietnamese nation? Or did he actually have a wife hidden away somewhere? Did his visit to New York as a young man cause him to admire America, or was this a convenient story to tell the OSS's "Deer Team" during the fight against Japanese occupation? And just which of those names that appeared on Vietnamese nationalist pamphlets in the inter-war years were penned by "Nguyen the Patriot" (Ho Chi Minh)? I used to tell my classes that Ho was the leading figure of the 20th Century about whom we knew the least. Duiker has admirably taken on these issues, filled in many gaps, and provided credible "guesstimates" where we are unlikely to ever have rock-solid proof. Ho--as Nguyen--spent so much time in the shadow world of Indochinese nationalist expats in Paris, Moscow, and South China that some things must be given up as lost. Even more admirable than his painstaking piecing together of Ho's wherabouts and activities prior to World War II is Duiker's attempt to answer the trickiest interpretive questions presented by this very mysterious and contradictory man. This is, after all, the kindly old "Uncle Ho" who set his trrops on the unarmed protesters at Vinh, protesters who came from the same region and same background as Ho himself. Hardly an act of great sympathy for suffering peasants. Duiker's conclusion that Ho was both deeply nationalist AND deeply communist provides the only satisfactory answer that I can find to the contradictions of his actions. This serves as a useful corrective, as well, to those who would overdo the "Lost Opportunity" thesis. America might have been able to deal on some level with Ho's Vietnam from the 1940's. But those who would argue this case will need to do so with more nuance and less stridency in the future. On this matter--as on everything else, it appears-- Ho would have made his decisions tactically, while continuing to pursue his long-term strategic goals for Vietnam. Goals determined by BOTH nationalist and communist ideologies. I agree with a previous reviewer that the amount of detail in this book is formidable. This was necessary to achieve what Duiker has sought to do. But his publisher may want to consider a scaled-down paperback version of this book for class

During the time when American involvement in Vietnam was at its' peak, my high school social studies class conducted a debate about Ho Chi Minh. One side argued that he was a nationalist who chose communism because it was the only way he could get the assistance he needed. The other side countered with the point that he was an international communist agent first and a nationalist second. Now, over three decades later and after having read this well-researched book, I still don't know. In reading the book and sifting through the details of his life, no definitive answer can be reached. It also seems clear that we will never know, which is unfortunate, because the difference was substantial. On the side of his being a communist first there is the fact that he was a Comintern agent who spent many years of training in the Soviet Union, surviving the Stalinist purges. Only those whose loyalty was considered absolute tended to survive those years. However, he apparently was once arrested and in danger of being liquidated. On the side of being a nationalist first are the countless times when he pragmatically dealt with his enemies over the objections of his comrades. However, he always justified it as the first step in retrenchment a la Lenin and his New Economic Policy. The primary reason for the involvement of the United States in Vietnam was the perception that he was an agent of the international communist conspiracy, hoping to expand their influence to include all of southeast Asia. However, if he had been perceived as a communist more in the mold of Tito of Yugoslavia, the successive U. S. administrations may have accepted his leadership. Certainly he gave them enough opportunities, having good relationships with some American OSS agents during the second world war. One does not have to think too hard to appreciate the difference that would have made in that area of the world. Ho Chi Minh was one of the most amazing, well-traveled and culturally experienced leaders of this century. Until I read this book I had no idea that he had spent some time in the U.S., working as a steward on a ship so that he could travel and experience other cultures. His reasoning was that he needed to understand other cultures if he was to deal with them. To me, this is the strongest argument in favor of his being a nationalist first and a communist second. As his adventures are chronicled, you realize that this was a very idealistic man who held one idea uppermost in mind, namely independence for Vietnam. Traveling around the world by working as a menial and spending his few earnings to write independence literature does not seem to be the behavior of a communist agent. Armed with hindsight, this book is sometimes difficult to read. He does try hard to avoid the heavy involvement of the United States and yet there is an inevitability to the escalation of the war. At times, the by now aged "Uncle Ho" becomes an iconic afterthought of the other leaders of North

This has been a good year of biographies for us social studies teachers. Short's excellent look at Mao, Bix's bio of Hirohito, and a tough but neccessary read on Ataturk. After all of that reading and bucks spent on books I was looking forward to reading some fun stuff. But how could any good global studies teacher pass a new biography of Ho Chi Minh. He, like Ataturk, has only been on every New York State Global Regents for the last 6 years! And I certainly could not resist after seeing Duiker on c-span discussing the book.First and foremost...is it a good book? YES! It was very informative and highly readable once you made it past the opening chapters and got used to reading the endless Vietnamese names. Also, please note that while the book is readable, it is not a fast read. This book took me over three months to read, and I am a pretty avid reader with a decent background in Vietnamese history. So be warned, great book but time consuming.The book is well researched and documented. To me the highlights of the book dealt with Ho Chi Minh's political views, his history as a communist in not just Vietnam, but France, and the USSR. I enjoyed learning about all his various identities and all the places he travelled. But the best parts of the book I felt dealth with Ho Chi Minh at the end of WWII and his attempts to gain independence for Vietnam, his attempts to win over US support, and to negotiate with the French. Duiker did a great job with this time period. Also, Duiker points out which I did not know, how much more radical other members of the Vietnamese revolutionary movement were by the 1960's. I had always thought he was in complete charge like a Stalin or Mao and had no idea about the various leaders and views to surface towards the end of his life.Duiker also does a great job discussing how Ho tried to deal with both the Russians and Chinese. Anyone who stills believes in a singular monolethic communism should read this.But the big question...was Ho more communist or more nationalist? Should the US have supported Ho like a Marshall Tito in Asia? Duiker does an awesome job on this.Yes, HO was a communist. Ho was an active communist in Vietnam, France, and even studied in the USSR. Ho believed in communism and felt the capitalist system would collapse. Duiker shows how Ho's growing up under French colonialism lead to his views on capitalism and communism.However, Ho was a nationalist also. Ho clearly did everything he could to gain independence for Vietnam. He even courted the US and even negotiated as much as he could with the French.Duiker shows clearly that Ho was both. He was a nationalist and a communist, not one or the other but both. Duiker also points out that Ho Chi Minh felt a world wide communist revolution was going to happen eventually and that it was neccessary for Vietnam to gain independence first and industrialize before communism could really happen there. So Ho's nationalisn was clearly linked to

695 pages of valuable and well written research on Ho Chi Minh. For westerners this is a much needed book, dispelling many myths and providing great detail on this otherwise secretive leader of Vietnam. Although some publicity indicated it is the only biography on Ho Chi Minh and that isn't true, it far surpasses those of Charles Fenn and Jean lLcouture both written before the war in Vietnam ended in 1975. Of course a lot more information became available over time. It's just amazing how much of it the author found, some coming from France and Russian archives. Having just returned from a trip to Ha Noi where Ho is even more a symbol of the country then Washington is to us, it was good to find this newly published book to put a human face on the man still called Uncle Ho and revered by his people. For those interested in the facts of Ho Chi Minh's life rather then the propaganda put out by those who revere him and those who hate him, this is the book to read. Then draw your own conclusions.