Uncle Ho

Uncle Ho - as the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh came to be called - is one of the most distinctive figures of the late twentieth century. Thin as a rake, barefoot and smoking endless cigarettes, Ho Chi Minh is an icon who continues to be revered as the father of the modern Vietnamese nation, at least in the more political northern region. Yet his real nature and personality are still not widely understood and many important episodes from his earlier life are still only just coming to light. For example, during his travels in Europe in the early decades of the century, he at one stage took a job washing dishes at a pub in London and was at that time undecided whether to opt for a life of revolutionary struggle or one of commerce.

Using the image of Ho Chi Minh as a great hero is of course one that has been used by subsequent Vietnamese administrations to support their own position. In doing so, details of his public life have necessarily been suppressed: heroes required by governments are not permitted to have feet of clay. The same was true of Chairman Mao who, as we have subsequently learned, deflowered large numbers of Chinese women who were recruited from villages around the country with or without their will for this dubious honour. We might equally look at the bizarre reliance on numerology and fortune-tellers of the current military junta in Myanmar (Burma) and the former US president Ronald Reagan.

What do we really need to know about the figures of the past? Personal details are interesting, certainly, but do we have the right to know these details? Should we not accept the totemic use of historical figures by people who wish them to represent higher or at least different ideals? Well, history is composed of ideals and of higher ideas and ideology; however, it is also created by and enacted by individuals. Further, individual decisions are subject to scrutiny according to various ethical principles and these have an influence on the ideas those people are used to endorse, even if they will not either validate or negate them.

So, what, then, of the life of Ho Chi Minh? It is apparently the case that the name Ho Chi Minh was derived from an identity card from a dying beggar in Kunming in southern China. It is also apparently true that he worked in photography in Paris and presented a petition to the US president Woodrow Wilson detailing colonial abuses that was at once rejected. He subsequently returned to his homeland and rose through the ranks of the communist party that seemed to offer the only meaningful alternative to colonization. He then led troops in driving Japanese, French and American forces out of the country before governing the reunited Vietnam. He also enjoyed the works of Maurice Chevalier and, presumably, succumbed to some of the many perks available to people occupying such a high-profile position, even if only for the sake of health and longevity. Throughout, he employed the tactics of disinformation and deception he learned while acting as an agent for Moscow around the world, constantly being declared dead before popping up somewhere else with a whole new alias and identity. The only fixed point in his personality seems to have been that of his commitment to independence: politically, his views are contested and it is most probably the case that he leaned towards whichever parties or tendencies best supported his desire for Vietnamese freedom.

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