Ho Chi Minhs Formative Period - Essay Example

Evaluate the potential motives behind Ho Chi Minh’s triumph in liberating Vietnam from two great western powers during 1941 – 1965. To what does he owe his success? Vietnam was invaded by France in the latter half of 19th century and was renamed by it as Indochina by annexing Cambodia and Laos along with Vietnam. Vietnam had not witnessed such a change in the preceding 2000 years and its barter economy was devastated by monetary economy brought about by French colony thus depriving the Viteamese of their social cohesion. Their traditional culture was changed irreversibly by western methods of education and culture. Vietnamese were united by the common cause of driving the French out but were helpless until the emergence of HO Chi Minh. Considered ‘part Gandhi and part Lenin and all Vietnamese’, Ho Chi Minh’s use of communication methodologies peculiar to Vietnamese had been unknown to the western world. America too had joined French to help contain Vietnamese Revolution with its own justification. But for these interventions, Vietnamese would have unseated French by revolution themselves as dictated by communist ideologies they had embraced. Ho Chi Minh was more than any single man of the twentieth century. He had completely reflected the aspirations of the Vietnamese people to whom he was ‘Uncle Ho’ and to the French, he was ‘communist agitatator’. His rhetorical discourse motivated Vietnamese to unite together and rally behind him which helped him end the 87 year old French Colonial rule, once in 1945 and again in 1954 subsequent to French reoccupation in 1946 and the American invasion which came to an in 1974. No leader of twentieth century had the capability of HO Chi Minh to unite the divided people. Main reason for the debacle of the U.S. was due to its lack of understanding of the Vietnamese politics reinforced by Ho Chi Minh’s leadership. (DeCaro, 2003, p 1-3) Ho Chi Minh’s formative period Ho Chi Minh had been formerly known as Nguyen Ai Quoc until 1942. He was in Chinese prison throughout 1942 and in January 1943 when he came into contact with a Chinese revolutionary Chang Fakwei and joined his organization on release under the name of Ho Chi Minh mainly to travel in China secretly as a blind peasant (Sainteny, 1972 p 34-35) Ho Chi Minh was a ruthless to any one whether a friend or foe if he felt he was opposed to his cause. He would have that person assassinated or jailed. He also made a lot of political blunders prior to 1945 and when he negotiated with French and the United States in 1945-46. (De Caro, 2003 p7) Ho was born in 1890 in the family of scholars and mandarins. His father was born to a concubine and hence did not have respect in his society. He however managed to secure a job in Government after much hardship. Ho’s mother died when he ten years and when his father was 350 miles away on Government duty. His father later got dismissed by the French ruled government due to his nationalist leanings. Ho learnt English and French very well and started his career as a school teacher in 1911. He then took a shipping job as a cooking assistant, unable to adjust to the local tyrannical conditions and to due to his own economic conditions. This sea faring job gave him opportunity to see nations of the world. His landing in Paris surprised him to find an entirely a different class of French people unlike those he saw in Vietnam. They were a class apart rich and patriotic. These local French men in Paris were toiling and starving. His visit to the United Sates startled him on witnessing Negroes being tortured in a Harlem. He realized the entirely the different nature of Americans who had enslaved Negroes. His sea-faring job gave him opportunity to read the writings of Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Tolstoy and other contemporaries who were great shakers and behind national movements. On his visit to Africa, he witnessed conditions akin to Vietnam in the hands of foreign aggressors. During the two years he spent on sea, he had strived to develop himself as an international revolutionary and during the time he wrote book and articles indicting France and the United Sates for their ill-treatment of negroes. He left his sea job and took up a job as hotel Chef at the costly Carlton Hotel in London after some initial struggle there in London. He joined the clandestine organization of Oriental Expatriates in London known as Lao Dong Hai Nagoi (Overseas Workers Association) where he had the opportunity to meet with Chinese dominated political group. He also keenly observed Irish uprising during his stay in London. The world war created demand for Chefs and Ho also became once again Chef in ships on premium. When he learnt of colonial French’s dispatching of 100,000 Vietnamese to France, he went to France and spread his nationalist views among them. He was worried at the prospect of these people replacing French manpower doing menial jobs. His visit to Paris made him realize that while colonial French was tyrannizing in Vietnam, it was facing problems in the home front as a nation at war on all sides and had been subjected to revolutionary currents at home. In Paris he renamed himself Nguyen Ai Quoc which he carried for more than 15 years. After the World War I, he founded an organization called ‘The league of Vietnamese Patriots living in Paris and as his first ever political action, he mustered courage to present a memorandum at Versailles where the great powers United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany were meeting. The memorandum contained eight points demanding freedom for small nations as a part of self-determination program mooted by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The years 1917-1921 were revolutionary years for the entire world when peasants and workers were engaged in war and revolution and France was not an exception. During this period Ho remained in Paris, he met with Karl Marx’s son and joined the Young Socialists as a first Vietnamese member. Later during the period, he started French Communist Party along with others and also published La Paria and Viet Nam Hom and published several articles criticizing French repression in Vietnam. By 1922 he became an expert on the Far East affairs. Later he visited Russia in early 1923 representing French colonies to attend the meeting International Peasants Congress, since he felt he needed the help of the people there, after unsuccessfully voicing his concern for Vietnam in Paris circles. His journey to Russia proved to be a forerunner for his journey back to Vietnam. When in Russia he joined the University of the Toilers of the East to learn Marxism along with the first group of Vietnamese. After his brief stint at the University, he left for China as a Comintern interpreter to Chinese Nationalist Party though his real assignment was to introduce Communism in Vietnam. His journey to China marked the beginning of the spell of another revolutionary career. He was operating in China in two names and published a journal called Thanh Nien which he distributed in Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. He had to escape to Moscow in 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek staged his counter-revolutionary group and massacred Kwangtung communists. Ho was with Comintern until he returned to Hong Kong in 1930 and during the stay with Comintern, he visited Berlin, Paris and Brussels as a representative to the Congress for protesting against the imperialist war. After some years in prison in Hong Kong as he was arrested by British in response to a French request. By 1938, he went back to China and obliged Chiang Kai-shek who re-joined with communists and Ho as a representative of the Chinese Communist Party taught Chinese troops guerilla warfare. Indochina war I with France He finally retuned to Vietnam after three decades after visiting many nations and learning international affairs. By 1941, Ho convened a meeting of the Vietnamese Communists as the Eight Plenum of the ICP Central Committee in order to plan resistance war against French presence in Vietnam. With a view to gain strength to create a Democratic Republic of Vietnam, he formed a party known as Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (Vietnam Independence League) which later came to be known as Vietminh. He also planned to eliminate national competitors to achieve goal of driving out both the French and Japanese. Ho again went to China in August 1942 seeking the support of Kuomintang to drive out the French and Japanese from Vietnam. But Chinese Kuomintang had aversions with Vietminh’s activities in China and Vietnam after they gain had party company with the communists and therefore arrested Ho as a French spy. But in due course, Ho sensed Chinese handicap in following Japanese movements in Indochina and offered to supply necessary intelligence to Chinese in return for his release. As he was accordingly freed in September 1943, he could manage to go to Tonkin where British troops dropped supplies to Free French and Vietminh guerilla forces. Ho started enjoying the support of Allied powers and the Vietnamese and managed to take his Vietminh movement all over Tonkin. At the time Japanese gained full control by March 1945, the French proposal to defeat weak Vietminh guerillas was not successful. Since Japan was atom-bombed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it could not sustain its presence in Indo-China and surrendered to Allies and at the same time Nationalist forces and Vietminh forces started gaining gain control over Southern parts. Besides Soviet Russia also declared war on Manchuria. Thus when Hanoi remained defenseless, Vietminh forces captured it and Ho declared himself the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam 2, September 1945 after Emperor Bao Dai stepped down from his throne. This marked the beginning of communist movement dethroning the colonial powers and establishing its own rule there. (DeCaro, 2003 p 8-17). Ho’s residence in the United States for a year in his political formative period made him declare independence for Vietnam on the pattern of American declaration of independence. Though he had the support of Vietnamese people for the total independence, struggle appeared to continue. The Potsdam conference of great power made an agreement that North Vietnam of the 16th parallel be given independence immediately while South Vietnam (Cochin China) which was a prosperous region would have colonial rule for some more time before being given independence. About 150,000 Nationalist Chinese Army marched to Northern Vietnam above the 16th parallel without any supplies. But since Japan had stopped cultivation of rice and switched over to industrial crops, the resultant food shortage resulted in death of over 200,000 Vietnamese people. Besides, British troops and Gurkhas were also deployed in the South. Though the British commander in general returned civil and military control to French, their supreme commander Mountbatten did not permit reestablishment of French Sovereignty. The French, unable to tolerate defeat, sent the just released French prisoners of war along with Japanese, German troops and mercenaries to capture the whole of Indochina. Thousands of civilians died during the French naval forces’ bombardment at the port of Haiphong on the resistance of Vietnamese troops in the north. The commanders of the French forces had to show more progress in order to obtain support from their French Government back home. Since they could not find resources which had become scarce owing to reconstruction activities in Europe after the end of world war, its progress could not be sustained. The French commanders had the compulsion of showing the continued control so as to justify the presence of a viable French colony of French Union and they also wanted American support to defeat the Vietnamese which in effect would reduce the dominance of communist states in the Eastern European Block. At this time, commander on the Vietminh’s side Yo Nguyen Giap emerged to provide the necessary leadership with his back ground of high school history teaching, a law degree from the Hanoi’s French University and knowledge of ancient and modern military strategies he had acquired, in order to counter the offensive of French colonial forces. Vietminh’s forces rallied behind him as French forces started to reoccupy and strengthen all the outposts in the entire Indochina. The Vietminh forces learnt warfare on the job acquiring armaments in all possible means. The man behind this progress was indeed Yo Nguyen Giap. At the same time, there was a no unity between the North and South Vietnamese leaders. Many of the Vietnamese leaders and intellectuals resisted total evacuation of French in the belief of acquiring modern technology for their country’s uplift in spite of severe oppression suffered by them at the hands of French colonial forces. But the leadership of HO Chi Minh favored adoption of communist ideology and was not ready for any concession and focused on total elimination of French occupation. (Nehari Al S Dahi, 1995) As these local Vietnamese leaders and intellectuals were apparently collaborators of the French, Ho Chi Minh considered they were enemies of the State and hence wanted to eliminate them. Since communist forces under Ho’s leadership had the dominance, the other leaders failed enlist support resulting in a vacuum in power structure. Million of Vietnamese therefore fled to come under the communist control reflecting narrow ideology of communists. Soon differences within families and among neighbors as French reinforced their strategies to regain control of the lost territories. French capitalized on the differences among Vietnamese by offering them position in governing bodies and also in the army. They used the tactics of attracting Vietnamese revolutionaries into fixed piece battles. On the other hand, Viet Minh adopted attrition warfare against the dispersed French troops and weakened them. Meanwhile French Government back home asked their Commanders in Vietnam to show proof of their progress in the colony which they could not carry out for want of logistics and support from the Communist Chinese headed by Chiang Kai-shek. The French commanders had though that setting fixed piece battles and retaining control of Laos would be demonstrative of their control in Vietnam. Still having confidence in fixed piece battles, they staged a battle at Dien Bien Phu assuming that Vietnamese revolutionaries could not transport weapons and other supplies as the terrain at Dien Bien Phu was so difficult that nothing could be achieved within a time frame. Viet Minh forces however resisted the French troops artillery attacks and air strikes by mobilizing supplies undetected where the French enjoyed unrestricted observation. French used the Chinese-supplied weapons to the maximum advantage but further supply from Chinese became impossible by road due to logistics inadequacies. Unfortunately except for a meager percentage of troops of their own (French nationals), the rest were foreign nationals of African origin from their colonies, tribals, Thailand locals and not even ethnic Vietnamese. The forces other than minority French nationals proved to be an apparent weakness for the French and therefore their defeat at Dien Bien Phu was foreseen. However in spite of President Roosevelt’s policy of self determination of nations, the ideology of containing communism prevailed with the result after the death of Roosevelt, Truman who took over took the advise of European division of the State department and started providing all possible support both financial and moral for recapturing Vietnam. American had kept in readiness its aircrafts carriers and naval forces at South China sea and Philippines for the battle at Dien Bien Phu. Even atomic bombing was being seriously considered .But the just-then concluded Korean settlement made Americans “once bitten twice shy” They did not like to again get involved without the firm commitment of the French. Hence the congress insisted on the following conditions to be met to continue assistance in the war. (Nehari Al S Dahi, 1995) “1) United States intervention must be part of a coalition to include the other free nations of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the British Commonwealth. 2) The French must agree to accelerate their independence program for the Indochina States so that the United States assistance would not appear as supporting colonialism. 3) The French must agree to stay in the war.”(Nehari Al S Dahi, 1995) French was not in a position to agree to these conditions. While there was no time meet the condition 1, condition 2 did not interest the French. Condition three was out of question as it had been already tired of war. Meanwhile Geneva convention of 1954 partitioned Vietnam into North and South. Besides, American commanders had been less informed than French of actual conditions prevailing. Vietnamese were not prepared for any settlement for bifurcation of Vietnam and they were steadfast in their demand reunification of Vietnam. The plan of armed and political onslaught at the same time by the French and American Governments made it easy for Viet Minh to defeat the French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. (Nehari Al S Dahi, 1995) Indochina War II with the U.S. Following the defeat of French at Dien Bien Phu, Geneva talks proposed bifurcation of the country as Democratic Republic of Vietnam headed by Ho Chi Minh and as South Vietnam headed by Bao Dai who had been the last emperor in 1945 since abdicated. Ho agreed for the division with the hope that reunification could be achieved at the time of forthcoming election in 1956 which however did not take place. While France withdrew, America continued to play a role in South Vietnam by supporting the anti-communist and Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem who had been acting as prime minister under Bao Dai. The prime minister made Bao Dai leave the country after holding a referendum in 1955 for continuance of his leadership and declared himself as the President of Republic of Vietnam. America supported him in his refusal to hold elections. On other hand in the North, Ho Chi Minh earned the praise of their country men by following socialistic polices dictated by communism .and became a highly regarded leader in that country. Diem in South spoiled his chances by not bestowing his attention to democratic running of the government as well economic development of his country. He spent most of the U.S. aid for personal security and only confided with his family members. He was only popular among Catholics about 1 million of whom were northern Catholics and had been shipped by the U.S to the South in 1954. Ho Chi Minh seized the opportunity and had the National Liberation Front (NLF) formed .to oust Diem who was acting as the American puppet and not interested in people’s welfare. This NLF known as Vietcong for its adversaries, deployed Guerilla forces on the country sides of South Vietnam and also the won the support of sympathizers in that country. Kennedy who was the American President at that time in 1960, reacted to the Guerilla forces’ deployment and affairs in the country. He stopped aid and sent about 17500 military advisers in 1963. The situation in South Vietnam worsened as opposition to Diem kept mounting and Buddhist monks burnt themselves in protest against Diem’s conduct and in due course, Diem and his brother Nhu were murdered in October 1963 by South Vietnam’s military plotters. General Nguyen Van took over and managed to continue as the country’s president until 1975 with American support. Meanwhile Kennedy’s successor Johnson decided to confront the NLF directly by American forces and had begun offensives in both South and North Vietnam since 1965 through Air force. American land troops also were sent to South which action came to be known as Vietnam War. This was more or less as opposition to communist ideologies and hence China, USSR, and the Eastern block started supporting Ho Chi Minh by supplying men and materials to the NLF. On other hand, United States had sent in 525,000 troops from the U.S. by 1967 besides receiving support from Australia, New Zealand, and other Anti-communist Government in Asia though its major allies did not come forward. In spite of the massive deployment of forces by the United States, the NLF forces by virtue of Guerilla techniques mounted a massive offensive through the South in 1968 which startled both Johnson administration and American public. Richard Nixon who subsequently became the president in 1968 aided by his adviser Henry Kissinger looked for alternative strategies. The U.S. reduced its troop levels and encouraged the South Vietnam to increase the level of its troops. As a result, by 1973 more than one million South Vietnamese aged between 18 and 35 had joined the forces in what was called by the U.S as Vietnamisation of the war. The boning of both North and South did not deter the NLF of forces of the North and it failed to interdict the progress of the NLF forces the trail left behind by Ho Chi Minh, due to the rough terrain conditions. America was doubly cautious in further intensifying as it would by retorted by the U.S.S.R and China resulting in World War III. The talks in Paris which had begun in 1968 between the U.S. and the DRV still continued sluggishly until 1973 when Saigon agreed reluctantly for Paris Peace Agreement pressured heavily by the U.S. The first article of the agreement envisaged independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Vietnam. The articles provided for retaining of whatever southern territories held by North Vietnam (DRV) pending elections in South for determination of the future Government there. Besides it called for withdrawal of troops of the United States troops within 60 days. Though Americans left, war in South continued. Due to the exit of Nixon in 1974 following Watergate scandal, South Vietnam’s morale dropped and Gerald Ford who succeeded Nixon could not convince congress to continue its aid to Saigon (South Vietnam) DRV/NLF seized the opportunity to further intensify action in terms of 1973 Paris agreement and by the strength of Guerilla tactics supplemented by the modern weapons received from its allies. By March 1975 when DRV/NLF forces started attacking in South’s central highlands, South RVN’s forces started to retreat in panic. With this, the Southern Government collapsed by the DRV’s offensive facilitating the latter’s entry into Saigon on 30th April 1975. (History of South East Asia) Conclusion Although Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, it was his cherished leadership with unmatched qualities sustained itself even after his death to bring victory to the North Vietnam. More than any thing else, his ideals and aims were genuine and the occupation of French as well support of America were wholly unwarranted. Had it not been for his rhetorical prowess which mobilized support from his country men and socialistic ideals which were modern at the time, the overpowering of the French would not have been possible Besides the Guerilla warfare techniques unknown to the U.S and French forces also proved invaluable for the success of the DRV even after HO Chi Minh’s death. The false policies of the United States in supporting the French as if to counter the bad effects of communism also proved wrong in the long run. Whether capitalism or communism, if it does not take care of the people’s welfare, it cannot sustain. Hence there are cases of down fall of communist regimes as well. The route causes of down fall of any regime are the dictatorial and selfish tendencies of those who govern and also unwarranted intervention of a foreign power into another country. These weaknesses turned to be the sources of strength for the right thinking Ho Chi Minh and his legacy. Events in Vietnam subsequent to 1975 till today would show that even communism can not escape set backs due to failing economy for various unforeseeable reasons. . Works Cited DeCaro A.Peter, Rheotric of Revolt: Ho Chi Minh’s Discourse for Revolution, Prager, West Port, 2003, p 1, 3, 7 History of South East Asia, Vietnam, retrieved < http://www.aseanfocus.com/publications/history_vietnam.html> Nehari A1 S.Dahi, Military Issues Paper, Contrasting French and American Involvement in Indo China, (1995)18 October 2008 < Nehttp://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1995/ADS.htm French And American Involvement In Indochina SUBJECT AREA - Strategic Issues CSC 1995> Sainteny Jean, Ho Ch Minh and His Vietnam: A Personal Memoir, Cowles Book Company, Chicago. 1972 Read More