Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam War
Uploaded by kimtoa on Jan 21, 2008
Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19, 1890 in Kim Lien, Central Vietnam. Ho’s family always maintaining patriotic pride in their country and heritage. At an early age Ho found himself following in his father’s footsteps; running messages for the anti-French underground and being expelled from school for not conforming to French rule. During Ho’s travels overseas, he encountered and studied the Marxist ideals of Socialism and Communism. Ho came to believe that the only way to gain independence in Vietnam was with Communism. Settling in Paris, Ho set about preparing for the independence of Vietnam. Ho founded the French Communist party, and from 1927 to 1930, he helped promote communist revolution throughout the world. During the occupation of Vietnam by Japan at the start of WW2, Ho was forced to return home for the first time in 30 years. What he brought was a spirit of rebellion; against the Japanese, French and later the Americans. This was when he founded the Vietnamese Communist Independence movement, known as the Viet Minh, who fought the occupying Japanese forces and changed his name to Ho Chi Minh (Brocheux 127-28).
When it was after the Geneva Convention in July 1954, the United States government started to support South Vietnam toward independence. For almost 21 years, South Vietnam had established a tight relationship with the U.S. Many U.S. politicians and South Vietnam politicians began to argue the ethics of withdrawing from the war. Ultimately, with unethical action, in 1975 the U.S. found itself “abandoning [south] Vietnam” (Willbanks 1) to its loss of war. On April 30, 1975 as Uncle Ho’s led the Viet Cong to defeating Vietnam, U.S. troops evacuated the American embassy, leaving the South Vietnamese exposed to harsh injustice of postwar life. Therefore, the U.S acted unethically by withdrawing from South Vietnam and leaving the South Vietnamese exposed to the defeat by Uncle Ho’s Viet Cong organization. U.S. had promised to support southern Vietnam to gain independence, and back up the south from the North Vietnam against Soviet Union and China. Based on Eisenhower’s letter to President Ngo Dinh Diem, as he stated, “I am glad that the United States is able to assist in this humanitarian effort,” which gave the hope to the South Vietnamese that they got the support from the great country (Willbands 1). However, they would never imagine that...