We’re still in the Mekong Delta, but unfortunately, not for long. We boarded a bus this morning and left for Ho Chi Minh City via Vietnam’s North-South Expressway. From there, we’ll find our way to the airport, where we’ll board a plane for Hanoi. We call this a “travel day.”
On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, a.k.a. Saigon, we can already tell that it’s huge. The population in 2019 is 8.6 million. Approaching Ho Chi Minh City reminds me of driving into Los Angeles from the east. We went past miles and miles of industrial and densely populated areas long before coming to anything like a “downtown.”
Ho Chi Minh at the Turn of the Century
So what did Ho Chi Minh do to have this huge city named after him? To answer that question, let’s go back to the turn of the twentieth century, when he was just a young lad. By that time, the French had been in Vietnam fifty years, and had established colonial rule. And, as is the case with any uninvited guest, the longer they stay, the more you want them gone.
Ho Chi Minh grew up in a family of academics who were particularly unwilling to tow the French line. His father was often in trouble with the authorities. His sister received a life sentence for selling guns.
Ho had the revolutionary bug, too, but he decided to take an unusual approach. He would explore the West and study it’s cultures in hopes of finding a path to independence for his country. The Americans and the French were proven revolutionary experts. Maybe he could learn from them.
So when he was in his early twenties, Ho left scholastic life behind to travel the world. While working in the kitchen of a French steamer, he visited French-colonized Africa. It’s thought that he may have reached America, but no one knows for certain.
After spending two years in England, working in the kitchen of a posh hotel, Ho moved to France. He was surprised to find how different the French in France were compared to the French back home.
Paris
At the time, Paris was a hotbed of revolutionary fervor. Ho was in the thick of it. He joined a Socialist group and achieved some degree of prominence through his writing. But ultimately, Ho gave up on the Socialists. In his mind, they were mostly just talk. There needed to be action.
In 1917, the Bolsheviks in Russia succeeded in their revolution, kicking out the ruling class. Inspired by Lenin, Ho helped establish the French Communist Party. He toured Europe and later, studied in Moscow. He landed in Canton, China – a home for Vietnamese political exiles – and began organizing them.
World War II was Ho’s opportunity to make something happen. The French had lost to the Nazis in Europe, and to the Japanese in the East. Ho slipped back into Vietnam and set up shop in a remote region in the mountains. His recruits were nationalists as much as they were Communists. Communism was a means to a nationalist end, i.e., an independent Vietnam.
Ho and his cadre began recruiting an army in earnest, such as it was, with no arms, uniforms, command structure – nothing. At the time, the Japanese occupied Vietnam. Ho worked with the Americans to oppose them, furthering his emerging credibility on the world stage. When the Japanese surrendered, Ho saw his chance to do something big.
Almost-Independent Vietnam
At a rally organized by the Vietnamese president, (believed by all to be a puppet of the French), Ho’s followers staged a peaceful – and successful – coup. Ho Chi Minh was made president of an almost-independent Vietnam. In his acceptance speech, he quoted from the American Declaration of Independence.
But France wasn’t having any of it. After lengthy, but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations for independence, war ensued. It took eight years, but Ho’s forces, (known then as the Vietminh), prevailed. Then, as a result of more negotiations at the Geneva Conference of 1954, Vietnam was divided into North and South. Only the North would be independent. The agreement provided for an election to be held within two years, and then the two would be united.
No one was happy with the result, but Ho felt that he had done his best. And besides, he was certain of victory in the election. That election never happened. Instead, as everyone knows, more war happened. It took until 1975 for a unified Vietnam to achieve independence.
Independence
Ho Chi Minh didn’t live to see the realization of his dream of an independent Vietnam. He had died in 1969. But what a life he had, eh? He lived most of his life clandestinely, traveling the world under one assumed name or another. He was imprisoned in China. His death was (prematurely) reported on two separate occasions. It seems that just about everyone who met him, whatever side they happened to be on, was enchanted by his sense of humor and calm demeanor.
As we pull in to downtown Ho Chi Minh City, I wonder what Ho would think about Vietnam today?
To be continued…
