9781422285992

Roots of the Vietnam War

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They wanted to meet with the Allied leaders, hoping that Vietnam could have greater freedom, as well as representation in the French parliament. However, the Vietnamese proposals were ignored or dis- missed. While in France, Ho became a member of the French Communist Party on December 30, 1920. French authorities began to keep a watchful eye on him as he studied the writings of Karl Marx and grew ever more active in anticolonial movements. In 1923, Ho Chi Minh left Paris for Moscow, where he took an active part in the Comintern, an association of national com- munist parties dedicated to promoting world revolution. While in Moscow, he studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East and continued his active role in political affairs. He became acquaint- ed with many communist leaders, including the future Chinese foreign minister Zhou Enlai. Although steeped in communist doc-

The driving force behind Vietnam’s 30-year fight for independence and, later, unity under a communist regime, Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) was the founder of the Indochina Communist Party and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from 1945 until 1969.

trine, Ho’s underlying aim was national independence for Vietnam, not class warfare or other concerns of communism. Ho was a communist because he believed it to be the best available means to achieve Vietnamese independence from France. Moving on to Canton, China, in 1924, Ho Chi Minh involved himself in Chinese communist activities and organized Vietnamese revolutionaries. In 1930, he founded the Indochina Communist Party (ICP). He began to recruit lieutenants and organizers, as well as rank-and-file members. Although the ICP was only one of several political parties and factions in Vietnam, it was, according to Ho, “the best organized and most active of them all.”