Word: minh
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VIETNAM was on the verge of drastic change at the end of World War Two. The Vietminh coalition, building on a tradition of anti-Japanese resistance, rallied around nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh to throw off French imperialism. An ally of the United States during the war and a communist, Ho issued a declaration of independence resembling our own and attempted to negotiate a French withdrawal. Peaceful efforts failed, and a revolution of liberation began. Instead of working for an independent Vietnam, Washington backed the renewal of French colonialism...
...government, José Rodriguez Ruiz, a member of the rebels' directorate, said ideology must be adapted to each country. As examples of Marxist adaptation he cited some of the most ideologically extreme, even repressive, regimes of modern times. Said he: 'There are parts of Ho Chi Minh, parts of Mao, parts of Kim II Sung [Premier of North Korea] that appeal...
...were trying to cope with the latest craze imported from Ho Chi Minn City (formerly Saigon): platform shoes. In contrast to 1980, when the markets held little except black-market cigarettes, the stores were packed with shoppers and a limited range of merchandise. Instead of exhortations from Ho Chi Minh, display windows at the Hanoi general department store contained wicker furniture...
There was no massive attack by regular units across a well-defined boundary in Indochina, but the seeping-in of hostile forces across trackless jungles. These forces were supplied from neutral countries that wanted only to be left alone. The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through Laos; North Vietnamese sanctuaries were established in Cambodia. By a weird inversion of logic, whenever we reacted by seeking to intercept the totally illegal supply lines, it was we who were accused of violating the neutrality of Cambodia and Laos...
...entanglement in Vietnam, the President informed the press corps that "North and South Vietnam had been, previous to colonization, two separate countries." (They were not--Vietnam had a long history of political unity before its division by Chinese and French colonialists.) According to Reagan, Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh "refused to participate in the elections slated for the divided nation by the 1954 Geneva Conference." (In fact, Ho frequently and vocally sought to participate in the aborted election.) And, said the President, it was former President John F. Kennedy '40 who first sent U.S. marines to Vietnam. (Actually, Lyndon...