Ho Chi Minh struggled and fought for a free and independent Vietnam all his life. It is sad that he died at a time when the Vietnamese people are on the verge of inflicting one of the most crushing political and military defeats ever inflicted on an imperialist nation by a small country. We would have liked Comrade Ho to have witnessed the forces of the National Liberation Front marching into Saigon; to have seen the red flag flutter over Hue and over Danang; to have seen the first steps towards a reunification of Vietnam. This was his dream and it is tragic that he died just when this dream was being translated into a living reality by the heroism of the Vietnamese peasants and workers.
Ho's early life still remains shrouded in mystery but we know that he travelled a great deal in the first two decades of the twentieth century. He moved to London on the eve of World War 1 and worked as a cook at the Carlton; at the same time he was greatly inspired by the struggle taking place in Ireland and by working class struggles in Britain. It was in London that he understood the meaning of the word 'revolution'. Some days before the Bolsheviks seized state power in Petrograd, Ho made his way to Paris. Here he mingled freely with the revolutionary left and joined the Young Socialists. Like many others he was influenced by Lenin's theses on the colonial question and Ho himself wrote that:
"Initially it was patriotism, not Communism, which had prompted me to believe in Lenin and the Third International. Gradually, advancing step by step as the struggle developed, coupling a theoretical study of Marxism-Leninism with practical work, I had come to realise that only Socialism and Communism are capable of bringing freedom to the oppressed and to working people all over the world."
Ho participated in the founding conference of the French Communist Party in Tours; he spoke on the Indo-Chinese question and appealed to the comrades to pay some attention to the struggle in the colonies. He visited Moscow and participated in the Fifth Congress of the Comintern where free ranging discussions could still take place He wrote in L 'Humanite in 1922: *The French party has taken on a particularly awkward task: its colonial policy runs counter to the indifference of the metropolitan proletariat vis-avis the colonies... and to the prejudices of the French worker, to whom the native is an inferior being, quite without importance, whilst to the native the French, of whatever sort and condition, are wicked exploiters. " The French party would in later years become completely Stalinised and abandon this awkward task. There were two members of the French party in the French government when France decided to resume the war against Vietnam after World War 2. In those days anyone who criticised the party as Ho had done in the twenties would be labelled a 'trotskyite'.
Like Mao, Ho laid great stress on the role of the peasantry and argued that peasant rebellions had been drowned in blood owing to lack of organisation and leadership. In Vietnam this leadership was provided by Ho and the rest of the central committee of the Vietnamese party. The struggle against the Japanese and the French was completely successful and though the Vietnamese did not realise it at that time it was a dress rehearsal for the struggle against United States imperialism. In the late 1930's it was impossible to be anti-Stalin and a member of the Comintern. Ho became a loyal Stalinist but how far this was mere expediency it is impossible to say. Certainly in 1939 Ho followed the Comintern line in appealing for a united front with the bourgeoisie, but was for the Trotskyites — no alliances, no concessions. We must at all costs reveal their true role as pro-Fascist thugs." But despite this the struggle continued; efforts to get the French to withdraw peacably after the second world war were foiled by both British and French Imperialism. Ho returned from Fontainbleau in 1946 with nothing. The war continued and in 1954 the humiliating defeat inflicted on the French by General Giap convinced the French that there was no way out. Dienbienphu was a military as well as political victory for the Vietnamese.
Without doubt the struggle against United States imperialism marks the culmination of Ho's revolutionary career. This struggle is the most important and crucial struggle in the history of Vietnam because as the Prime Minister Pham van Dong said in Hanoi in 1967: "Tell the comrades in Europe that we are fighting for them as well. Internationalism is in our blood." The war in Vietnam exposed the bankruptcy of the theories of 'peaceful co-existence'. Peace with the capitalists at a time when the capital of a fraternal socialist country was being bombed? Even the left Khruschevites seemed a bit perturbed. However the way to attack peacetul co-existence was to accept the Vietnamese plea for a united front against imperialism. This would have been a much more effective way of combating reformism than by pious sloganmongering or the waving of books. Because in this way those who refused to aid the Vietnamese would have been exposed for all the world to see, but despite Vietnamese, Korean and Cuban appeals for a united front they remained unanswered.
The importance of the Vietnamese struggle in Western Europe was/is that it broke through the cold war barriers, had a revolutionising effect on young people and resulted in a massive reawakening of socialist consciousness. The Vietnamese inspired many of those who had become disillusioned and cynical after the revelation of Stalin's crimes and misdeeds. The chant of Ho-Ho-Ho Chi Minh resounded in the streets of London, Berlin, Paris, Washington, Brussels and Rome. In Latin America, Che Guevara issued his call for creating many Vietnams to extend and destroy American imperialism. Even today the Vietnamese struggle remains the highest ad form of struggle in the world, It has weakened world capitalism and has inspired urban rebellions in the very heart of the monster - America.
In expressing our sorrow at the death of Comrade Ho Chi Minh to our Vietnamese comrades we at the same time express our belief that the struggle will continue; that as Ho used to say the fighting will continue till the imperialists have been driven out of Vietnam by any means necessary. In saluting the memory of Ho we salute at the same time the Vietnamese Revolution and those who are waging it. Long live the Vietnamese workers and peasants. Long live a reunified VIETNAM.
On Reading 'Anthology of a Thousand Poets' The ancients used to sing about natural beauty:
Snow and flowers, moon and wind, mists, mountains and rivers.
Today we should make poems including iron and steel, And the poet should also know how to lead an attack.
HO CHI MINH "Unity of theory and practice is a fundamental principle of Marxism-Leninism. Practice without the guidance of theory is blind practice. Theory without integration with practice is mere theory. For that reason while stressing theory, Lenin repeated over and over again that revolutionary theory is not dogma but a guide to revolutionary action; that it is not something rigid but of a rich creative nature; and that is must be constantly improved by new conclusions drawn from living practice."
HO CHI MINH