Ho Chi Minh: A Life

Author - William J. Duiker ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book was reviewed on 11-Dec-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . I visited Viet Nam in 2002. After reading a favorable review of this book in the New York Times, I decided to take it with me on the trip to read during the 24 hour plane rides and down times. I had already read Stanley Karnow´s excellent book Viet Nam: A History, and thought this book would provide interesting insights into my trip, particularly in Hanoi where many of the events described in the book occurred. But this book is written in such a scholarly style that made it difficult to use for that purpose.

Apparently, there were no quality biographies of Ho Chi Minh before this was written. It was extensively researched and provides detailed descriptions of the first 55 years of Ho´s life prior to World War II. This clearly took substantial effort because Ho used many aliases to avoid capture by the French colonial government of Viet Nam and he traveled all over the world, including to China, Russia, France (he was a chef in Escoffier´s Paris kitchen!) and the United States. The problem is that the first 55 years of his life are somewhat uneventful, and so the 300 pages that cover them are not that interesting for casual reading.

This book starts to pick up the pace during World War II, when Ho and his followers assisted the Allies fighting in the Pacific theatre. Ho made overtures to the United States for assistance in establishing the independence of Viet Nam from France. When that effort failed, he led the effort to defeat the French and unify the country. When the United States stepped in to assist South Viet Nam in its fight against communist North Viet Nam, Ho, now in his seventies, helped lead the effort by the North to win the war. He died in 1969, years before Saigon fell in 1975, but not before becoming the founding father of a unified Viet Nam.

Over 600 pages to get where this book takes you will become a bit of a chore to anyone other than a scholar who really wants all of the mind-numbing details of Ho´s life. And as well written as this was, I found myself wishing that the author and his editor had condensed it down to the 300 pages that would have better held my interest.



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2) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . I was born in Vietnam during the war. University educated both in Vietnam and Australia; I was brought up to admire and respect Uncle Ho, but never actually knew what he did for Vietnam. Uncle Ho love him or hate him it´s your call, for me it´s unconditional love .

I strongly recommend this book for all Vietnamese patriots; it´s worth every cent.
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3) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . If you want to know more about Ho Chi Minh, the biggest father of Vietnam, and also understand more about the country and its people, this book is recommended.¤

4) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . No matter what country or area they represent, political leaders typically have an aura of mystery about them, and they usually cultivate this without hesitation. The media seems to be delighted to help them in this goal, sometimes deliberately and at other times inadvertently. The truth is an anathema for these individuals, and ironically the same is true for the people over which they rule, who feel that it is "practical" or "pragmatic" to do so, and that doing otherwise would threaten the "natural order of things." This situation makes it difficult for those who want to obtain information on the life and opinions of these leaders, with the goal of course in putting them in historical context and to possibly learn from their accomplishments and their mistakes. Obtaining accurate information on political leaders is therefore very difficult, sometimes taking a lifetime of effort, or at least periods of time that are prohibitive for the average citizen. Thus one must depend in large measure on historians, professional or otherwise, for this information and considering their track record one must still be in a mindset of extreme skepticism.

The same level of skepticism must be applied to his book, not because the author cannot be trusted to remain objective, but rather with the realization that he too is subject to the same biases and paucity of information that everyone is. Ho Chi Minh has been described as a humble leader of the Vietnamese resistance against French occupation of Vietnam and the American intervention some years later. If by leader one means he occupied the top of a social hierarchy then this indeed may be true, but if one means that his orders were carried out to the letter by his subordinates then this assertion needs far more evidence than is available. "Uncle Ho" as he was called by some, certainly played a role in the conflicts in Vietnam, and by his own admission he cultivated the aura of mystery referred to above. But the fighting and dying were done by those who were not motivated by the need for this aura, and history does not record their deeds.

The author endeavors to chronicle the life of Ho Chi Minh based on the information that publicly available (official archives in Vietnam are forbidden to researchers). He is quick to point out that information is difficult to come by, but he does allude to the fact that this has changed in recent years, and he gives source notes at the end of the book. With this in mind the reading is fascinating, and has many surprises for those who are curious about the history of Vietnam and the Vietnamese resistance to foreign occupation and intervention. It is highly doubtful that those who supported the American intervention in Vietnam will change their minds solely by reading this book, and a similar thing can be said for those who were against it, but by reading it both groups have expressed a willingness to plug through a very sizeable book. The significant block of time needed to read it is well worth it, and may cause many to change their perspectives after further investigation with other source materials.

It is easy throughout the book to at times paint Ho Chi Minh as a war criminal, and at other times a hero, but his life was complex enough to warrant a dropping of labels. It is perhaps natural to feel some admiration for him and all the individuals who faced up to the awesome power of both the French and American military, but at the same time one wonders if perhaps they should have concentrated more on building up their country in the North rather than engage in the liberation of South Vietnam. Certainly their energy would have allowed them to be successful, and leave their compatriots in the South to join them when ready. With two million casualties and climbing due to unexploded ordinance, one cannot help but engage in some degree of speculation in this regard.
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5) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . Although the author, William Duiker, a former foreign services officer for the USA in Saigon during the 1960s, takes no side in the scholarly dispute about Ho Chi Minh´s essential orientation as either a nationalist or an ideologically pure Marxist, there is little doubt from the evidence set forth in the book that Ho was first and foremost a nationalist. The evidence couldn´t be clearer given the numerous occasions Ho recommended elected coalition governments to rule an undivided Viet Nam, recommendations he made to several USA officials well before the onset of the war with the USA.

I couldn´t keep from wondering about the multiple millions of lives that might have been spared if the USA had only listened to its sober analysts in the region who believed Ho instead of hearkening to those caught up in the red scare.

Ho was essentially a pragmatist whose burning passion was for an independent and sovereign Viet Nam. Even his ascription to Marxist Leninism was born from his pragmatism since Marxist Leninism alone purported to provide a model by which the imperialist control of nations could be understood, resisted and broken. Accordingly, it also provided a vision through which ordinary Vietnamese citizens could foresee an end to the French imperialist occupation of their nation. Marxist Leninism was for Ho a means by which Viet Nam could become independent and self-governing.

Duiker´s work provides an excellent analysis of Ho´s early years leading up to his return to Viet Nam. I felt it was a bit short on content during the last years of Ho´s life before the war with the USA ended. But Duiker´s depiction of how the USSR and China played Viet Nam off against each other is not to be missed.

This book is worth reading.
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6) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . To grasp the complicated causes and consequences of the Vietnam War, one must understand the extraordinary life of Ho Chi Minh, the man generally recognized as the father of modern Vietnam. Duiker provides startling insights into Hos true motivation, as well as into the Soviet and Chinese roles in the Vietnam War.¤

7) Paperback Book Ho Chi Minh: A Life by . Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) fought for half a century to free Vietnam from foreign domination, and the story of his life illuminates the ongoing struggle between colonialism and nationalism that still shapes world history. William J. Duiker, who served in Saigon´s U.S. embassy during the Vietnam War, spent 30 years delving into Vietnamese and European archives, as well as interviewing Minh´s surviving colleagues, in order to write this definitive biography. The son of a civil servant from a traditionally rebellious province, the future president of North Vietnam was known for more than 20 years as Nguyen That Thanh. It was under this name that he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party, having concluded after reading Lenin´s analysis of imperialism that revolutionary Marxism was the most effective tool to achieve Vietnam´s independence. He spent 30 years in exile, cementing his communist ties in Moscow and working with Vietnamese rebels from a base in China, before assuming the name Ho Chi Minh in 1942, when the forces unleashed by World War II seemed to be clearing the way for Vietnamese liberation. French intransigence and American anti-communism would delay the emergence of an independent, united Vietnam for another 30 years, but Ho became an icon who inspired the communist North and the Southern Vietcong to keep fighting. Focusing almost exclusively on political events and ideological debates, Duiker depicts Ho as a nationalist first and foremost, but also as a convinced (though pragmatic) Marxist who believed socialism would help his country modernize and correct ancient inequities. This long, very detailed biography is not for the casual reader, but anyone with a serious interest in modern history will relish a dense narrative that fully conveys the complexities of the man and the issues with which he grappled. --Wendy Smith¤

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