TWO DIRECTIONS: THREE
REVOLUTIONARY PATHS
DAVID LAN PHAM, F.A.B.I.
Phan Boi Chau (1867- 1940) and Phan
Chau Trinh (1872- 1926) were two Vietnamese revolutionaries in the early 20th
Century. Phan Boi Chau received cu
nhan (BA) in 1900. Phan Chau
Trinh received pho bang (MA) like
Nguyen Sinh Sac, father of Nguyen Tat Thanh (future Ho Chi Minh), in the 1901’s
hoi thi (doctoral contest). Phan
Boi Chau was the soul of the Movement to the East (1905). Phan Chau Trinh was the soul of the
Modernization Movement. He was the
Vietnamese pioneer struggling for democracy and human rights. Both revolutionaries went abroad in the hope
of obtaining foreign aid and support for their struggle for Vietnam’s
independence. Phan Boi Chau chose the
East (Japan). Phan Chu Trinh traveled to
the West (France).
In the 1920’s appeared a Nghe An- born
young man like Phan Boi Chau. His name
was Nguyen Tat Thanh. He adhered to the
French Communist Party on the day of its founding in Tours (December 1920)
under the pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quac.
Nguyen Ai Quac was the collective pen name of the Five Dragon Group
(Phan Chau Trinh, Phan Van Truong, Nguyen The Truyens, Nguyen An Ninh, Nguyen
Tat Thanh <Ho Chi Minh>) in Paris.
It was translated from the French pen name Nguyen Le Patriote. It’s Nguyen Ai Quac, who introduced
Marxism- Leninism into Vietnam after the founding of the Viet Nam Thanh Nien
Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi, precursor of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Phan Boi Chau and Nguyen Ai Quac were
from Nghe An. Phan Chau Trinh was a
Quang Nam native.
Phan Boi Chau traveled to the East
(Japan) in 1905.
Phan Chau Trinh traveled the the West
(France) in 1911.
Nguyen Tat Thanh went to France in
1911 a few months after Phan Chau Trinh.
He underwent politico- revolutionary trainings in Moscow in 1924 then in
1934. Russia is a Eurasian country. In other words, it’s semi- European and semi-
Asian.
Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chau Trinh had
their revolutionary activities in Vietnam before going abroad. In 1904 Phan Boi Chau and some
Confucian revolutionary scholars in Annam founded Viet Nam Duy Tan Hoi. In 1905 he left Vietnam secretly for
Japan. His purpose was to help the
Vietnamese youths study in Japan and to get Japanese aid and support. His simple thought was that Japan was a
military power in Asia after it defeated the Russian fleet at Tsushima Strait
(1905).
Phan Chau Trinh exhorted
modernization. He had hair cut, Napoleon
III’s mustache, put on leather shoes. He
paid interest in Contrat Social by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Esprit
de Lois by Montesquieu. These books
were translated into Chinese characters by Chinese scholars. Influenced by Phan Chau Trinh’s
modernization, residents of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Thua Thien
had their hair cut before involving in the anti- tax demonstrations in
1908. Phan Chau Trinh was sentenced to
death on account of these demonstrations.
Thanks to the intervention of the League for Human Rights the death
penalty was commuted to the banishment to the Poulo Condore Islands. In 1911 Phan Chu Trinh left the Poulo Condore
prison for My Tho where he was under house surveillance. He wished to go to France. The French colonial authority allowed him to
carry out his dream so that his supporters lost their revolutionary leader.
Nguyen Tat Thanh was son of pho
bang Nguyen Sinh Sac, who was Phan Chau Trinh colleague at the Ministry of
Rites. Like Phan Boi Chau, Nguyen Sinh
Sac was a Nghe An native. Nguyen Sinh
Sac thought of officialdom through the triennial contests. Phan Boi Chau renounced such a thought to
embark on revolutionary activities to liberate the country from French
rule. There was no sign of Sac’ s co-operation
with Phan Boi Chau. He neither betrayed
Viet Nam nor sold it out to the French.
During his service at the Ministry of Rites he respected and admired
Phan Chau Trinh. The latter resigned to
struggle against colonialism, feudalism and obsolete ideology. Due to poverty that cost his wife’s life,
Nguyen Sinh Sac didn’t dare to think of revolutionary path. He thought of officialdom, the only way to
save his family. Nguyen Sinh Sac
continued his job in Hue after Phan Chau Trinh’s resignation. He was appointed tri huyen of Binh Khe
(district chief), Binh Dinh. In 1909 he
was removed from his administrative position in Binh Khe district. The reason of the dismissal was unknown. He left Annam for Cochinchina where he spent
a wandering life before being saved by a rich landlord and philanthropist named
Le (last name), who turned his life stable in Cao Lanh where he died in
1929. The cause of Nguyen Sinh Sac’s
dismissal didn’t relate either to the
Movement to the East headed by Phan Boi Chau or to the anti- tax demonstration
in Quang Nam, Quang Ngai…If he was involved in these historic events he
couldn’t travel to Saigon easily.
Nguyen Tat Thanh quit his study at
Quoc Hoc, Hue, to go to Phan Thiet then to Saigon in 1910 i.e right after his
father was no longer tri huyen of Binh Khe. In Saigon Nguyen Tat Thanh got a job working
as a handy man on a French merchant ship, Latouche Treville. He had the opportunity to go to France by sea
(1911). Nguyen Tat Thanh as known as
Nguyen Van Ba worked on the merchant ship and traveled to France for the socio-
economic reason. It isn’t right to say
he looked for the path of national liberation.
From 1911 to 1917 Nguyen Tat Thanh didn’t know Paris. Nothing was important for him except for the
struggle for his daily life. World War I
broke out in 1914. In order to avoid his
military service under the French flag he lived in London. He was a pastry cook in a restaurant inside a
big hotel. In 1917 he received a letter
from Phan Chau Trinh, who was just released after spending 02 years in La Sante
Prison with Dr. Phan Van Truong. They
both were suspected of having contact with Germany. Nguyen Tat Thanh knew Paris and got in touch
with some French- educated intellectuals in the Five- Dragon Group for the
first time. From then on he paid
interest in politics. He had two jobs in
Paris: a. He earned his living by doing
photographic work. b. He brought
political articles signed by Nguyen le Patriote to the Socialist
Newspaper. The French Socialists liked
them and their solid arguments as well.
Nguyen Tat Thanh was believed to be Nguyen
le Patriote (Nguyen Ai Quoc). There
was a book by Nguyen Ai Quoc: Le
Dragon de Bambou. The French Secret
Police thought Phan Chau Trinh was Nguyen Le Patriote. Nguyen Tat Thanh told them that he was Nguyen
Le Patriote. Nguyen Tat Thanh became
member of the French Communist Party under the pseudonym NGUYEN Ai QUAC. It is certain that Nguyen Ai Quac (future Ho
Chi Minh) couldn’t write either books or political articles with his poor
knowledge and low level of education. He
didn’t know anything about the Russian proletarian revolution led by Lenin in
1917. In the Congress of Tours he didn’t
understand why the Socialist delegates discussed stormily on the Second
International and the Third International.
He asked one delegate: “Which International helps the colonial
peoples?” - The Third International.
The delegate replied.
****
Phan Boi Chau, Phan Chau Trinh and
Nguyen Tat Thanh (Nguyen Ai Quac- Ho Chi Minh) traveled to the East and the
West but three of them showed us three revolutionary paths.
1.
asking for Japanese and Chinese aid (Phan Boi Chau).
Failing to get aid and support from Japan Phan Boi Chau left Japan for
China. Sun Yatsen founded the Republic
of China after the Revolution of the Year of the Pig (1911). His power was unstable due to the
intermittent threat from Yuan Shikai.
Sun Yatsen couldn’t help Phan Boi Chau, who was continually unsuccessful
until his death in 1940 although his capacity, enthusiasm and patriotism was
undeniable. He founded Viet Nam Duy Tan
Hoi (1904), Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (1912) and Provisional Government in exile
(1912). He relied on Japan and China
because of their yellow skin and their Asian origin. A monarchist he honored prince Cuong De in
the hope of getting support from Japan for the Japanese venerate their mikado. At this point there was a clear difference
between Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chau Trinh, who disliked the monarchy. Phan Chau Trinh criticized Cuong De’s kingly
behavior in Japan in 1906. In 1922 he
criticized king Khai Dinh and prince Vinh Thuy (future king Bao Dai) visiting
the International Exposition in Marseille.
Phan Boi Chau exhorted violence in the struggle for Vietnam’s
independence. Phan Chau Trinh loved non-
violence. Violence wasn’t useful while
the anti- colonial force was infantile and militarily weak. Phan Chau Trinh disagreed with Phan Boi Chau
on foreign aid. Phan Boi Chau changed
his political view points many times. In
1904- 1905 he supported the constitutional monarchy of which Cuong De would be
king. In 1912, influenced by the
Revolution of the Year of the Pig (1911) he kept his eyes on the Republic when
founding Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi. Young
members of Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi founded Tam Tam Xa. In 1925, 80% of Tam Tam Xa members adhered to
Viet Nam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi founded by Ly Thuy, pseudonym of
Nguyen Ai Quac, who was a Comintern agent sent by Moscow to Guangzhou to serve
Borodin, Soviet advisor to Sun Yatsen. A
few days after the founding of Viet Nam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi, Phan
Boi Chau was arrested by the French Secret Police in Shanghai. In Hanoi he was sentenced to death. He wasn’t executed but under surveillance in
Hue where he died in 1940. Phan Boi
Chau’s revolutionary life ended right after the birth of the precursor of the
Vietnam Communist Party. The Vietnamese
revolutionaries on Chinese soil assumed Lam Duc Thu (Nguyen Cong Vien) and Ly
Thuy (Ho Chi Minh) sold Phan Boi Chau to the French Secret Police to receive
$100,000. With this big amount of
piasters Lam Duc Thu and Ly Thuy enjoyed their cozy life. Lam Duc Thu was a princely
revolutionary. He had a rich wife in
Guangzhou. He smoked opium. As for Ly Thuy, he consolidated Viet Nam
Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi, eliminated Phan Boi Chau from the political
stage, turned all the members of Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi and TamTam Xa into
members of Viet Nam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi then members of the Viet
Nam Communist Party. Lam Duc Thu was an
agent of the French Secret Police. Ly
Thuy was an agent of the Comintern.
Arriving in Guangzhou Ly Thuy lived in Lam Duc Thu’s villa. Lam Duc Thu was a member of Viet Nam Quang
Phuc Hoi, Tam Tam Xa. He helped Phan Boi
Chau, who, of course, trusted him. With
Ly Thuy, Le Hong Phong, Le Hong Son, Ho Tung Mau, Lam Duc Thu was co- founder
of Viet Nam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi in 1925.
2.
Phan Chau Trinh showed us the 2nd revolutionary path. It consisted of: democracy, educational
development, industrial development, economic development, construction of
schools, hospitals, roads, bridges etc.
When the people’s level of education is high and the national economy is
stable the country’s independence gets closer.
No real and stable independence without prosperous and stable
economy. Asking for aid from Japan or China
to expel the French out of Vietnam is compared to the scene in which the tiger
is out while the leopard and the lion
come into the house! Phan Chau Trinh
never thought of violence. He praised
Hoang Hoa Tham’s heroism without believing Vietnam will be independent thanks
to Hum Thieng Yen The’s military victory (Hum Thieng Yen The: The Yen The Sacred Tiger). Phan Chau Trinh wrote a letter to call Nguyen
Tat Thanh to come back to Paris. He
taught him to do photographic work to earn his living. Phan Chau Trinh was a Confucian scholar but
he had no expectation from China.
Seemingly he wasn't fond of
Confucianism that tied the loyalty to the king to patriotism. The Nguyen dynasty laws required much blood
from the anti- tax protesters in Annam in 1908.
Phan Chau Trinh was sentenced to death.
He was considered the leader of the anti- tax demonstrations. Dr. Tran Qui Cap had his back cut off with a
sword although he didn’t participate in the demonstration. A letter he sent from Nha Trang to his friend
in Quang Nam to express his joys when learning of the eruption of anti- tax
demonstration in his native province was found.
That was the cause of his death.
Phan Chau Trinh’s non- violence separated him from Nguyen Tat Thanh (Ho
Chi Minh) after the adhesion of the latter to the French Communist Party. Living in Paris, the Light City and French
political center, where the revolution of 1789, the revolution of 1848 and the
Commune of Paris (1871) broke out, Phan
Chau Trinh didn’t pay attention to either the Commune of Paris or the Russian
proletarian revolution, knowing that Karl Marx and Lenin had lived in exile in
Paris. He had his deaf ears to the
Comintern (Third International) founded by Lenin in 1919 but he was interested
in the people’s self- determination exhorted by American president Woodrow
Wilson and in the International Conference in Versailles (1919). Phan Chau Trinh was always loyal to the
Republic, modernization, self- sufficiency, self- survival without dreaming of
foreign aid from the third country.
Doing so we take off the old yoke to bear the new one. In 1925 Phan Chau Trinh returned to Sai Gon
from Paris. He lived in Gia Dinh
province instead of returning to Quang Nam, his native province. In 1926 he died. Residents of Sai Gon, Gia Dinh, Thu Dau Mot,
Bien Hoa, Tan An…honored him and turned his funeral into the most solemn one in
history in spite of the French Secret Police’s watch.
3.
Nguyen Ai Quac (Ho Chi Minh) represented the third revolutionary path
consisting of liberating the country to establish the dictatorial proletarian
regime a la Sovietique. The newly Communist country should be
in the orbit of the Soviet Union. Phan
Boi Chau and Phan Chau Trinh were two well known revolutionaries in the early
20th Century. Nguyen Ai Quac (Ho Chi
Minh) was an opportunistic revolutionary working for the Comintern i.e for the
Soviet Union but not for Vietnam, his native country. He didn’t have any patriotic concept before
leaving Sai Gon for France except for some bad memories, some nightmares he
underwent in Nghe An and Hue. His family
lived in poverty Nghe An. His mother
died for lack of food, medicine, and even of clothes. So did his younger brother. For that reason his father, Nguyen Sinh Huy,
decided to change his name and those of his sons in the hope of having good
luck in the hoi thi (doctoral contest) in 1901 in Hue.
Old Names New
Names
Nguyen Sinh
Huy (father) Nguyen
Sinh Sac
Nguyen Sinh
Khiem (Ho’s brother) Nguyen Tat
Dat
Nguyen Sinh
Cung (Ho Chi Minh) Nguyen Tat
Thanh
Nguyen Tat Thanh had his inferiority
complex facing members of the royal family, of the courtiers, and of the pro-
French mandarins speaking French, knowing quoc ngu, and converting to
Catholicism. His political concepts came
from Phan Chau Trinh and the Five Dragon Group.
Nguyen Ai Quoc became well known thanks to political articles and the
Eight- Point Demand brought by Nguyen Tat Thanh to Versailles in 1919. Nguyen Tat Thanh separated himself from Phan
Chau Trinh and the Five- Dragon Group to become a Communist in 1920. He had no choice. His life and honor improved visibly. A member of the French Communist Party he was
sent to Moscow to attend the Congress of the Peasant International
(Krestintern) in 1923. He received
political training in the Soviet Union twice (1924 and 1934) to become a
Cominternchik having Russian name, denying Family, Homeland, Religion to pay
respect to Lenin and to serve Russia loyally.
Violating these norms the Comintern agents should be expelled from the
party. Usually they should face corporal suppression. In order to consolidate his power Stalin
didn’t hesitate to banish Trotsky, to execute Lenin’s comrades, and many
foreign Comintern agents from Hungary, Germany, Turkestan, China, Korea. In 1933 Lin, Nguyen Ai Quac’ s pseudonym, was
about being executed on account of his Trotskyite tendency according to the
accusation of Maurice Thorez, leader of the French Communist Party. Lin (Ho Chi Minh) avoided the death penalty
thanks to the protection of Dimitrov, advisor to Stalin and general secretary
of the Comintern. From then on Lin (Ho
Chi Minh) was very scared of Stalin. He
followed the Comintern line rigidly to serve the Soviet Union effectively.
Lenin was extremely smart when
founding the Comintern in 1919. Great
Britain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany were soon
industrialized. They became empires in
the world while Russia was plunged into feudal and backward regime headed by
the Romanov. Russia was defeated by
Japan (1904, 1905) and by Germany in 1915.
Apparently Germany danced on the Russian political stage. With the
Comintern (Third International) Lenin succeeded in Leninizing or Russifying
Marxism. He turned Russia into the
center of the International Movement of Workers and Farmers and the Anti-
Imperialist Movement. Moscow used a
small budget to pay and to train the foreign agents. Returning to their countries those Comintern
agents led the anti- colonialist movements, using the slogan of socio- national
liberation to attract the masses. Those
Comintern agents were taught politics, technique of propaganda, technique of
rallying the masses, terrorist technique, intelligence technique, assassination
technique, technique of organizing the masses, technique of grabbing power
etc. Lenin designed the new technique of
conquering colonies not by military strength but by the colonial people’s blood
and bones under the leadership of a local Cominterchik trained and paid by
Moscow. Lenin’s policy was to steal
colonies from Western empires and to turn them into Soviet vassal countries
without using weapons. Moscow just
trained some Comintern agents and directed them after they grabbed power. The Western empires exploited their colonial
resources. They had to build roads, bridges,
railroads, harbors, schools, hospitals, and to ensure the colonial peoples’
livelihood. The Soviet empire a la
Leniniste exploited its vassal countries only but the latter must show
themselves thankful to Marx, Lenin, Stalin.
All of Ho Chi Minh’s activities aimed
at serving the Soviet Union but not Viet Nam and its people’s happiness. It is obvious that the Soviet Union couldn’t
spend money to hire and to train Ho Chi Minh so that he served Vietnam Lenin and
Stalin knew vaguely. The Soviet Union
didn’t have enough money and compassion for such vague and useless political
acts.
1.
In 1924 Nguyen Ai Quac came to Moscow from
Paris to get training to become a Cominterchik.
He melted into tears when
learning of Lenin’s death. What a
surprise! Nguyen Ai Quac (Ho Chi Minh)
didn’t see Lenin once but he sobbed too much.
He didn’t hesitate to call Lenin father, teacher, great advisor. He didn’t have a drop of tear when
learning of his father and brother’s death!
He was indifferent when learning of Phan Boi Chau’s death in 1940. That means he didn’t have any repentance when
selling this respectable revolutionary to the French Secret Police.
2.
After
the training Nguyen Ai Quac (Ho Chi Minh) went to Guangzhou on the orders of
the Comintern in Moscow to serve Borodin.
In 1927 the Nationalist- Communist Alliance collapsed in China. The Chinese Communists were fatally repressed
by Chiang Kaishek's soldiers. Borodin
left Guangzhou by himself. Nguyen Ai
Quac (Ly Thuy- Ho Chi Minh) tried to seek for the way to return to Moscow to
avoid the Guomindang repression.
3.
In
1931 Nguyen Ai Quac (Ho Chi Minh) was jailed in Hong Kong by the British under
the pseudonym Tong Van So. In Vietnam he
was sentenced to death in absentia on account of the Soviet Nghe Tinh Movement
right after the birth of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. The French government in Vietnam asked the
British Authority in Hong Kong to extradite Tong Van So (Nguyen Ai Quac- Ho Chi
Minh) to Vietnam. In order to avoid
Franco- British diplomatic friction, the British Authority in Hong Kong spread
the news that Tong Van So (Ho Chi Minh) died of tuberculosis in the Hong Kong
prison. In reality Tong Van So (Ho Chi
Minh) was released and went to Vladivostok
by boat from Shanghai. Ho Chi
Minh returned to the Soviet Union for the second time.
4.
In
1938, on Stalin’s orders, Ho Chi Minh (this pseudonym appeared in 1942)
disguised himself as a blind beggar to cross the Soviet- Chinese border on the
way to the Yenan War Zone. The Chinese
Communists help Ho move to the South to attract the Japanese to move to the
South instead of attacking Northwestern China and Sino- Soviet border. Stalin prevented Japan from attacking the
Soviet Union.
All of the above details show that Ho
Chi Minh served the Soviet Union. Before
1941 he worked for the Comintern and the Soviet Union on Chinese soil (1927,
1929, 1938). He didn’t spend a day in
the colonial prisons in Viet Nam. But he
was prisoned twice in China (Hong Kong in 1931-1933; Liaozhou in 1942-43). Facing danger he returned to Russia but not
to his native country in which there were many Communist Party members
especially in Tonkin and Annam.
Receiving orders from Moscow Ho must return there to report the result
of his mission.
Stalin’s treatment to Ho Chi Minh was
bitter. In 1933 Ho Chi Minh (pseudonym
appearing in 1942) was at risk of purging due to his Trotskyite tendency
according to Maurice Thorez’ accusation.
As for Stalin, he suspected Ho of working for the British as a spy in exchange for his deportation to the Soviet
Union. More bitter Stalin didn’t
recognize Ho Chi Minh’s government in 1945.
He didn’t support Ho’s anti- French resistance at least from 1946 to
1950. He didn’t help Viet Nam Dan Chu
Cong Hoa (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) adhere to the UN in 1948. In Stalin’s eyes, France was a Western
capitalist country that had close diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union
(Franco- Soviet treaties in 1935, 1944.
France supported the adhesion of the Soviet Union to the League of
Nations in 1934). However, Ho Chi Minh
was always loyal to Stalin and the Soviet Union. The pictures of Lenin and Stalin were seen in
his office in the war zone during the anti- French resistance.
****
Three historic persons traveled to two
directions (East and West) and represented three revolutionary paths.
The Movement to the East headed by
Phan Boi Chau failed. Neither Japan nor
China helped Phan. Japan was in fatigue
after defeating Russia. It needed French
loan in exchange for the expel of Phan Boi Chau, Cuong De and Vietnamese
students from Japan. In China Sun
Yatsen’s power wasn’t stable facing general Yuan Shikai’s threat. It was impossible for Sun Yatsen to assist
Phan Boi Chau. What would happen if one
of these two countries helped Phan expel the French from Vietnam?
Phan Chau Trinh’ s modernization and
non- violence wasn't spectacular but it was pragmatic. Frankly speaking it isn’t realistic to ask
the pirate to fight another one in our house in search for security and
independence. Phan Chau Trinh failed but
he showed the path of national liberation that saved the people’s blood and
bones and marked something useful to the national development. Realizing the importance of the Modernization
Movement the French colonial authority in Vietnam closed Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc
School after 09 months of activity and repressed the anti- tax protesters in Annam mercilessly in 1908. Phan Chau Trinh was sentenced to death. He wasn’t executed but Dr. Tran Qui Cap
was. Some prestigious Confucian scholars
such as Tieu La Nguyen Thanh, Dr. Huynh Thuc Khang were banished to Poulo
Condore Islands.
In 1945 the United Nations
Organization was born.
The US granted independence to the
Philippines.
Great Britain granted independence to
India in 1947 then to Burma in 1948.
In 1949 due to the interference of the
UN the Netherlands granted independence to Indonesia.
Aung Sang of Burma, and Sukarno of
Indonesia were pro- Japanese in WWII.
How about Vietnam?
Viet Minh grabbed power on August 19,
1945. Ho Chi Minh’s government wasn’t
recognized by either the UN or any country in the world including the Soviet
Union. Because of Ho’s Communist
background? of the decision of the
Potsdam Conference in which Vietnam was likely divided with the 16th parallel
as the partition line? The Chinese
troops disarmed the Japanese in the northern half, and British troops accepted
the Japanese surrender in the southern
half. The Americans kept distance from
Ho Chi Minh, who was considered a dogmatic Cominterchik. The Soviet Union gave its cold shoulders to
Ho because it didn’t want to displease France, a Western capitalist country
that had good diplomatic relations with Moscow (treaties Franco- Soviet in 1935
and 1944. France supported the Soviet
Union to become permanent member of the League of Nations). We used this historical period to brighten
Phan Chau Trinh’s political perspective.
Could Vietnam be independent without the nine- year war led by Ho Chi
Minh?- Maybe. American president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was unfavorable to imperialism which was obsolete
after WWII. Great Britain granted
independence to Malaysia after defeating
the Communist guerrillas, who were mostly Chinese Malaysians. Until the early 1960’s many Afro- Asian
colonies became independent without resorting to armed struggle.
Ho Chi Minh succeeded in grabbing
power in 1945, leading the anti- French resistance, defeating the French in
1954, initiating and winning the Vietnam
War II in 1975. Compared to Phan Boi
Chau and Phan Chau Trinh , Ho Chi Minh was more successful. The ironical thing was that Ho Chi Minh’s
success and victory brought immeasurably worse consequences to Vietnam and its
people. Why so?
a.
Ho Chi Minh was corporally Vietnamese but
spiritually Russian. Every thing he did
aimed at serving Russia which recruited, trained and paid him. The French troops were defeated but Vietnam
was divided. It was a monstrous
political phenomenon in the world. The
Vietnamese suffered grave disadvantages for sacrificing their blood and bones
to have their country in partition. The
Soviet Union had the northern half in its orbit. The true winner in the anti- French war was
the People’s Republic of China. China
re-established its political influence in the northern half of Vietnam. It lost it to the French in 70 years (1884-
1954). Truong Chinh, general secretary
of Dang Lao Dong Viet Nam, was a fanatic Maoist. His pseudonym was inspired by the Long March
(Van Ly Truong Chinh) under Mao’s leadership in 1934. All the members of the Indochinese Communist
Party in Tonkin including Communist members from the minority peoples such as
Hoang Van Thu, Chu Van Tan were Maoists.
b.
In
1954 the French troops left the territory in the north of the 17th
parallel. In this northern half appeared
two new bosses, who are 60 times bigger than the French one. Sometimes Ho Chi Minh leaned toward the
Soviet Union. Sometimes he showed
himself pro- Chinese. The Soviet Union
turned him into a Comintern agent. He
received orders from Moscow. The
People’s Republic of China recognized Ho’s government of resistance before the
Soviet Union. In the Franco- Vietnamese
war the People’s Republic of China actively helped the Viet Minh with weapons,
food, medicine, politico- military advisors.
Wounded Viet Minh were hospitalized in Southern China. Beijing brought active aid to the Viet Minh
while Stalin abandoned Ho Chi Minh from 1946 to 1950. Ho was very thankful to Mao Zedong. The latter smiled silently. His afterthought was to put Vietnam in the
Chinese orbit like what happened in feudal time. Beijing didn’t have abundant money to help
Vietnam in its struggle for independence but it used the Vietnamese people’s
blood and bones to expel the French empire from Vietnam to facilitate Chinese
re-establishment of its political influence China lost to France there in
1884.
c.
Ho
Chi Minh, Tran Phu, Truong Chinh, Le Duan and their successors mercilessly
killed the intellectuals, rich landlords, local notables in the Soviet Nghe
Tinh Movement in 1930, the Autumn Revolution in 1945, land reform a la
Maoiste in North Vietnam (1953- 1956) and the Nhan Van Giai Pham Movement
(Nhan Van & Giai Pham Mua Xuan . Nhan Van:
Humanities; Giai Pham: Beautiful
Literary Works of the Spring) (1956- 1958).
In 1945 the recipients of the CEPCI (6th grade certificate) were
considered intellectuals! Ho Chi Minh
and his successors followed instructions from Moscow and Beijing to exterminate
valuable human resources necessary to national construction and development. The Soviet Union and China are big and
populous countries. They incited Ho Chi
Minh, Tran Phu, Truong Chinh…to kill the intellectuals, who, according to Mao
Zedong, were less useful than the manure.
The consequence of this stupid policy was visible. After seizing power in more than 60 years no
Vietnamese Communist engineer couldn't
build a safe bridge crossing a spring much less a bridge crossing the Red River
or the Mekong River while the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China
had brilliant success in the field of sciences and technology to become
industrial and military powers! Was
listening to Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong to massacre the intellectuals
mercilessly lucidity and smartness of Ho Chi Minh and his successors? Was it their smallness and jealousy? Fear of power competition? Was it right they did so to weaken and to
impoverish their country and its people to perpetuate their power, and to
accomplish their international obligation to be praised by Moscow and Beijing?
d.
The
country’s name of North Vietnam was Viet Nam Dan Chu Cong Hoa (Democratic
Republic of Vietnam). How was democracy
in North Vietnam? How was the slogan
stolen from San Min Chu I: Independence,
Freedom, Happiness implemented? The
country couldn’t be independent with the presence of two bosses: the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of
China. The pictures of Malenkov and Mao
Zedong beside that of Ho Chi Minh were seen everywhere. The State of Vietnam wasn’t perfectly independent. Its leaders needed support from France and
the United States but there were no pictures of French president Vincent Auriol
or of American president Harry Truman seen in Saigon and in other cities of
Vietnam under chief of State Bao Dai and president Ngo Dinh Diem. True independence wouldn’t exist with the
backward national economy. Citizens were
underfed. North Vietnam must import rice
from Burma. What kind of freedom did the
North Vietnamese enjoy? religious
freedom? ideological freedom? political freedom? freedom of moving from one place to another? Happiness?
The Communist cadres had right to 14 kilograms of rice, 01 kilogram of
meat per month, and to some meters of fabric
per year at the especially low price.
Farmers growing rice in the kolkhoz ate bad rice mixed with cassava or
corn. They cooked soup without either
bones or meat but with sodium glutamate C5 H8 NO4 Na. Tonkinese dwellers’ life under French rule
was much better than that of the North Vietnamese under the Communist regime. In general the Vietnamese enjoyed relative
freedom in the colonial regime. Their
material and moral life was much better than that of the North Vietnamese in
the Communist regime. Under French rule
many Tonkinese and Annamese went down South by train in the hope of having
freedom and better life. Nguyen Sinh
Sac, Nguyen Tat Thanh were among them.
Trinh Dinh Thao, Nguyen Phan Long, Phan Van Truong, Tran Quoc Buu,
Truong Dinh Dzu…were from Tonkin or Annam.
They moved to Saigon to practice law, and had journalistic, and
syndicalistic activities.
e.
Initiating
the Vietnam War II Ho Chi Minh, Truong Chinh, Le Duan destroyed human
resources, material force, financial
capacity of a poor country which underwent 30 years of carnage (1945-
1975). Ho Chi Minh always admired Stalin
although he was horrified by this Georgian dictator. He disliked Khrushchev’s revisionism and
peaceful co- existence with the West.
Khrushchev was Ukrainian. He
disliked Stalin, who was responsible for the Holodomor (man- made
famine) in Ukraine killing 07 to 10 million Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933). Personally Khrushchev was scolded and
threatened by Stalin during the bloody battle of Stalingrad. At that time Khrushchev was general and
political commissar. As general
secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Khrushchev returned Crimea to the
Soviet Republic of Ukraine and began his de- Stalinization. The Sino- Soviet diplomatic relations got
sour as Khrushchev was Head of the Kremlin.
Ho Chi Minh and Le Duan wished to use the people’s war to unify the
country under the Communist regime by liberating South Vietnam. Khrushchev was very cautious for fear of big
war when facing the United States. Mao
Zedong was proud of his people’s war. He
supported the Vietnamese Communists to start the liberation war in South
Vietnam. Mao’s ideology took deep root
in the Viet Nam Communist Part through two Vietnam Wars. The Vietnamese Communists killed their
compatriots with ardor in confronting with the world most powerful war
potential both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China were scared
of. Le Duan, general secretary of Dang
Lao Dong Viet Nam (Workers’ Party), was proud of fighting the Americans for the
Soviet- Chinese benefit with Vietnamese blood and bones, national resources and
debts. In 1970 Le Duan went to Moscow to
ask the Soviet Union to supply Ha Noi with missiles and modern weapons to shoot
down American aircraft in North Vietnamese sky and tanks in the South
Vietnamese battlefields. After the fall
of South Vietnam Le Duan leaned toward the Soviet Union. He opposed Deng Xiaoping with his new theory
regarding ‘the white and black cat’. No
matter the cat is black or white unless it can catch the mice. The Khmer- Vietnamese war broke out by the
end of 1978. It was the war between two
Communist countries. Khmer Rouge were
Maoist while Vietnamese Communists were Leninist. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991 the Vietnamese Communists had their cold feet. They were submissive to Beijing again. They had to accept many severe conditions
imposed by Beijing in order to maintain their power. Apparently Vietnam looks like a rotten house
with the big sign Vietnam. Its interior
is totally Chinese. The Chinese move to
Vietnam easier than they move inside their own country. Vietnam lost their territory along the Sino-
Vietnamese border. They lost their
marine and mineral resources, sea and islands.
Gradually they will lose their culture and their Vietnamese origin. At this point everyone seems to startle for
praising Ho Chi Minh’s clairvoyance and the light of leadership of the Vietnam
Communist Party.
f.
After
any success and victory of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam Communist Party the
Vietnamese tried their best to leave the country by sea or by land. In 1954 one million Northerners left their
birthplaces to move to the South in search for freedom and raison de
vivre. After 1975 03 million Vietnamese from North and South
Vietnam became boat people or walking people.
Over 500,000 people were buried in the sea bed because of typhoons, Thai
pirates. Some died for lake of food and
water. Some were arrested and tortured
to death by the Vietnamese Communist police.
Others found their death in the Cambodian jungles. They died of malaria, hunger and thirst, of
brutality from Khmer Rouge, the other Khmer warring factions and the Vietnamese
Communist troops on Khmer soil. If true
independence, freedom, happiness was implemented in Vietnam, only the mentally
ill people risked their life to leave their country by sea or by land. Nowadays even members of the Communist
leaders tried to have American green cards or foreign citizenship (France,
Australia, Canada etc.). Accumulating
dollars, gold, diamonds they can do whatsoever they like. They buy land, castles outside Vietnam. Their children study abroad. They are ready to leave the country to enjoy
their cozy life in the foreign countries before something bad happens to
them. What was the pre-eminence Uncle Ho
brought to Vietnam? Marxism- Leninism? Intermittent wars? extermination of intellectuals, landlords,
notables, rich men? Wasting national
resources and human resources through bloody carnage? undermining national
union? bringing the whole country and
its people to the brink of decadence?
adoring Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong?
Bao Dai wasn’t a good and devoted
king. Nobody praised him while Ho Chi
Minh received plenty of praises. Let’s compare Ho Chi Minh to Bao Dai.
1.
National union surrounded Bao Dai. Ho Chi Minh, Truong Chinh, Le Duan damaged
national union: division between the inhabitants in thee regions (Tonkin, Annam,
Cochinchina), erasing the names of Sai Gon and Gia Dinh on the map, changing
the names of many provinces in Nam Bo; conflict between the Trotskyites and
Stalinists, between pro- Chinese Communists and pro- Soviet in the Lao Dong;
distinction between the Communist cadres and the masses; distinction between
the rich and the needy; distinction between lettres and illiterates etc. No way to have national union in Communist
society in which there are 13 categories of citizens.
2.
Bao
Dai returned to power thanks to the support from France, Great Britain and the
United States. He didn’t call the French president, the British king,
and the American president ‘father’, ‘teacher’, or ‘great advisor’ like Ho in
1924 when learning of Lenin’s death. The
pictures of Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Mao Zedong were seen everywhere in North
Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh’s successors
erected statues of Lenin and Felix Edmundovich Dzerdovich, director of Cheka
(Secret Police), in Ha Noi.
3.
Bao
Dai never considered Vietnam a small thing in his pocket like Ho Chi Minh in
1946. Ho signed the modus vivendi
with Marius Moutet on the bed of the latter in a hotel on September 13, 1946
night. Bao Dai couldn’t do something
informal and undiplomatic like that.
4.
Ho
Chi Minh and Bao Dai. Who is more
patriotic?- Bao Dai. It’s understood
that Bao Dai’s ancestors build 60% of the shape of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh’s patriotism was doubtful. He was trained and paid by Moscow. Internationalism and Nationalism are
incompatible. A patriotic leader
couldn’t accept the country’s partition easily while winning the war in
1954? It’s absurd that a patriotic
leader didn’t dare to name a national hero of his while respecting and adoring
Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong.
It’s inconceivable for a true
patriot to listen to the Stalin and Mao Zedong to sharpen knives to kill the
intellectuals and the non- Communist patriots.
Didn’t he (Ho) realize they were a precious treasure for the country’s
future?- Of course, no.
Under Ho Chi Minh and his successors’
leadership and under the light of the Vietnam Communist Party, Vietnam can’t be
compared to any country in the world materially and morally. Besides Vietnam would be at risk of
disappearance; its people would be at risk of Chinese assimilation. This tragic historic picture we see today is
the disastrous consequence Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam Communist Party brought
to Vietnam.
Chancellor Bismarck (1815- 1898)
defeated the Austrian empire, unified Germany (1870), and defeated France to
occupy Alsace and Lorraine (1871). He
unified 39 incoherent states under Austrian rule to unify Germany under the
leadership of the Prussian king.
Bismarck turned agricultural Germany into one of three big industrial
countries in Europe in less than 20 years.
Garibaldi (1807- 1882) defeated the
Austrian empire and unified Italy (1866).
Prime Minister Churchill (1874- 1965)
led Great Britain to victory in WWII.
Yet, his Party (Tory) was defeated in 1945’s election a few months
before German capitulation. Attlee,
leader of the Labor Party, headed the government. This historic event didn’t mean the British
were unthankful to Winston Church. They
never forgot his great contributions to Great Britain but they realized that
Churchill served the country in war time.
It’s time for another person to serve the country in post bellum
time. Each statesman excels in certain
politico- historic problems in a certain period of time.
Ben Gurion (1886- 1973) was one of the
most active founders of the State of Israel in 1948. After leaving the public services he returned
to a kibbutz in the desert to grow vegetables, fruit trees and to raise sheep
with the farmers. He died and was buried
in this remote area.
Lee Kuan Yew (1923- 2015) turned
Singapore Island into a state in 1965.
Singapore is 650 km2 (0.2% of Vietnam’s area) but the annual income per
capita of this small country is the highest in Asia.
All of the above great persons were modest during their lifetime and after
their death as well. None of them
considered himself the Country’s Father.
Couldn’t the contributions of those important persons to their countries
compare to those of Ho Chi Minh? After
their death none of them turned his capital into a huge mausoleum like Uncle
Ho’s. It’s what our Vietnamese people
think about and to brood over to find a way to save ourselves and to save our
country. Uncle Ho didn’t see Lenin once
but he called him Father, Teacher, Great Advisor while he composed a poem in
which he called Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan, the national hero defeating the
Mongolian invaders twice by the end of the XIII Century, ‘bac’ (uncle or
brother). Uncle Ho didn’t hide his
admiration and respect for Lenin while he considered himself almost equal to
our national hero, Tran Quoc Tuan.
It’s time to interrogate the past, to
clean up all present dirtiness, and to put an end to seeing the huge mausoleum
in the center of the capital as a wonder, and people on earth listening to the
dead man in the bottom of the mausoleum in the purpose of saving the country’s
future and that of the Vietnamese people for the path Uncle Ho walked on has
been the tragic one.
Cám ơn Anh Lân và LTK's Stars.
Cho phép em phổ biến tài liệu nầy rộng rãi trong English Readers, Worldwide.
Kính
em.
Thưa Anh Lân & LTK's Stars.
Là người em út trong gia đình, mà phê bình, khen chê Người Anh của mình thì Em Là Vô Lễ. Càng Vô Lễ hơn nữa khi Anh đã ngoài 80, và Anh đã từng ngồi uống rượu bình thơ với Ba Em. Nếu Ba Má em mà còn sinh tiền, em Không dám viết đôi dòng nầy Cho Anh và LTK's Stars chia xẻ cùng những người mà em kính mến, trong và ngoài nước.
Thưa Anh Lân: Anh làm ơn Nhận nơi Em Sự Kính Trọng Ngưỡng Mộ, unconditional, unlimited vì Anh đã mang lại: Vui Vẻ, Bình An cho Cha Mẹ Em trong bối cảnh gia đình một con, sống trong vùng chiến tranh hận thù thay thế tình nghĩa xóm làng trong bối cảnh: "Tứ Hải Giai Huynh Đệ." mà Ba Má em luôn luôn dạy em: "Dù ai cho bạc cho vàng, không bằng ta thấy người làng của ta." (Ba Má Em người thành lập Hội Bắc Kỳ Tương Tế bao gồm ba xã Tân Khánh, Bình Chuẩn, Thuận Giao, và Chợ Búng.) Lời dạy hơn 60 năm qua nay sống dậy trong em với sự Tri Ân Công Đức Sinh Thành Dưỡng Dục của Cha Mẹ di cư từ Bắc Vào Nam cùng với Nguyễn Đình Quát. Cám ơn Anh.
Gia Bần Tri Hiếu Tử,
Quốc Loạn Thức Trung Thần.
Bàn về Ngữ Học, văn từ ngoại giao trong Bang Giao Quốc Tế, Anh đã làm cho em Vững Tin hơn trong cuộc sống hằng ngày đối đầu với nhóm trí thức Mỹ.
Trong chuyến công du Cuba năm 2010 thì phải, một Giáo Sư dạy luật tại Harvard cùng đi với em. Ông ấy dùng danh từ chuyên môn hỏi em: "Anh đi theo diện H.O. mấy.?" rồi: "You ở Mỹ bao lâu rồi.?"... Năm 2000 trong cuộc họp tại Slovania một người Trung Hoa gốc Mỹ khinh bỉ em ra mặt trước đám đông. Buồn lắm em nói bằng tiếng Quãng: "Xỉu Chẻ" người ấy chẳng hiểu gì? Em bảo "Cô em út của tôi!" Bà nầy bảo: "I am Chinese born in New York. I do not understand what you mean!."
Em đáp tôi: "Originally my ancestors were from (not in) China thousands of years ago, I was born in South Vietnam, has been living in the USA since 2/1979" Em sung sướng từ đó trở đi người người Mexicans, Germans đặt cho em PEN Name. Mr. Vietnam.
Chuyện đến đó, em không nên ghi ra đây. Em ghi ra đây là vì sau khi Anh Phạm Quang Trình được chọn Chủ Tịch Văn Bút VN Hãi Ngoại, thay cho Anh Thi Vân. Sir Trình, bới lông tìm vết bảo em: "Tá Tài, một tác giả mang bút hiệu là Việt Nam đang là writer ở VN." Hơn 20 năm qua rồi, nay em mới biết đó là Việt Nữ. Chị bị troke nay không còn đi lại như trước kia. Hôn phối của Chị là một Công Chức gốc QGHC.
Trong chuyến Công Tác trao đổi nghệ thuật giữa Mỹ và VN. Em giới thiệu một GS Mỹ thay vì mang sinh viên Mỹ sang Trung Cộng và Pháp. Em mời họ đi thăm VN trước. Em bảo: "You should visit VN, know the beauties of Vietnam first prior to working with Youth Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam." Ông ấy nhìn em với cái nhìn Hách dịch hỏi: "Cái đẹp của VN là gì. War Field! Is It?" Em đáp Yes Sir, nhưng đó không phải là Killing field as in Cambodia. Ông ấy giận em ra mặt. Sau nầy Ông mời em hợp tác, em cười: " Mới mấy tháng vừa qua Ông nhờ em làm leaders dẫn sinh viên Mỹ, Việt Nam đi thăm để Trao Đổi Văn Hoá & Giáo Dục với VN. Quả là "Tình Xưa Còn Đó, Nghĩa Cũ Mất Rồi."
Kính
