Research Project: Uncle Ho and His Importance (posted by Jane)

 Ho Chi Minh was one of the founding fathers of Vietnam and by far the most famous. He was born on 19th of May 1890 to a minor French official. As a young adult he worked on a boat that traveled to Boston, New York, London and France. He worked towards Vietnamese independence with the Russians, Chinese and even the USA throughout his career. I wanted to know if he was actually significant to Vietnam's independence struggle. Ultimately, I found that he often gets credited for policies he did not implement like the Land Reform or Tet offensive. He did not play a role in planning battles and offensives, but he did secure diplomatic ties with the USA, Russia, and China. I personally believe Ho Chi Minh made more of an impact after he died since he is the symbol of Vietnamese nationalism and is often used as a propaganda tool.

Ho Chi Minh was a great diplomat. An amazing example of this is how he was able to obtain aid from both Russia and the USA. He admired Lenin and even named a stream after him but was also able to impress OSS operatives who visited the Viet Minh jungle camp in 1945 with his knowledge on literature (Burns ep1). Another smart move he made is in Vietnam's independence declaration he used a quote from Thomas Jefferson in hopes of gaining US support (Hastings). The diplomatic ties Ho made with Russia and China would benefit North Vietnam greatly during the war with a total of $650 million in aid coming from the USSR in 1967.

However, by 1967 Ho Chi Minh became overshadowed by more radical opponents like Le Duan. Ho Chi Minh and Giap the general liked to take a slower approach to war, only fighting if you can win; we can see this at Dien Bien Phu. Le Duan and his radical counterparts wanted to attack sooner and faster, like during the Tet offensive. Giap and Ho were opposed to the Tet offensive and believed it was too risky. In fact Ho was ill by the time they were planning the Tet offensive (Bowden). While he and Giap were away Le Duan led the anti revisionist campaign which imprisoned political enemies many of which were more moderate like Giap and Ho. I think because Ho Chi Minh was more of a diplomat than a war strategist he got sidelined once Vietnam was officially at war with America. When we visited the politburo in Hanoi we noticed that Ho Chi Minh did not have a private room in the building but Le Duan did. This helped us understand that Ho really wasn’t around much for policy making in ‘67 onwards. 

Today Ho Chi Minh is the embodiment of nationalism. Nationalism is when your identity is shaped around where you are from. Ho understood this and made himself an embodiment of all people in Vietnam; he looked similar to a confusion scholar, he dressed like a peasant, but could also make conversation with the elite. The reason he is still so well known today is because the communist party kept him around even after he did not have power because he was a good propaganda tool and was considered the father of revolution (Bowden). In the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam Duang Van Mai said that Ho Chi Minh was so revered because he gave up everything for his cause. Including family because he never had children of his own (Burns ep1). We can still see his impact today in Vietnam, there are posters of Ho Chi Minh everywhere. A school in Saigon had a whole mural of him with school children. We also saw his statue at the VC tunnels museum. It was set up like a shrine with flowers all around the base of the statue. The communist party is using Ho Chi Minh as the face of the country because he is the perfect communist. He lived in a two room house his whole life and was only photographed wearing farmer clothes. He is why many people joined the NVA.Our tour guide Viet said his grandfather joined the VC because Ho was so inspiring (Viet). So really it doesn't matter about what he did or did not do because he has had an effect on countless people whether in the way he intended or not.

Ho Chi Minh was important but did he do enough that he deserves this holy image in Vietnam? I think he was smart enough to cultivate an image of himself so that he is relatable to everyone. That is what set Ho Chi Minh apart from other political figures: he was relatable to the everyday person.

Works Cited

Bowden, Mark. Hue 1968. Atlantic Books, 6 June 2017.

Burns, Ken. “Watch the Vietnam War, a Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, PBS, Ken Burns.” The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick , PBS, 2017, www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/.

Freedman, Russell. Vietnam : A History of the War. New York, Ny, Scholastic, Inc, 2017.

Hastings, Max. Vietnam : An Epic History of a Tragic War. London, William Collins, 2019.

Viet. 24 Nov. 2025.