Product Description

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) fought for half a century to free Vietnam from foreign domination, and the story of his life illuminates the ongoing struggle between colonialism and nationalism that still shapes world history. William J. Duiker, who served in Saigon's U.S. embassy during the Vietnam War, spent 30 years delving into Vietnamese and European archives, as well as interviewing Minh's surviving colleagues, in order to write this definitive biography. The son of a civil servant from a traditionally rebellious province, the future president of North Vietnam was known for more than 20 years as Nguyen That Thanh. It was under this name that he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party, having concluded after reading Lenin's analysis of imperialism that revolutionary Marxism was the most effective tool to achieve Vietnam's independence. He spent 30 years in exile, cementing his communist ties in Moscow and working with Vietnamese rebels from a base in China, before assuming the name Ho Chi Minh in 1942, when the forces unleashed by World War II seemed to be clearing the way for Vietnamese liberation. French intransigence and American anti-communism would delay the emergence of an independent, united Vietnam for another 30 years, but Ho became an icon who inspired the communist North and the Southern Vietcong to keep fighting. Focusing almost exclusively on political events and ideological debates, Duiker depicts Ho as a nationalist first and foremost, but also as a convinced (though pragmatic) Marxist who believed socialism would help his country modernize and correct ancient inequities. This long, very detailed biography is not for the casual reader, but anyone with a serious interest in modern history will relish a dense narrative that fully conveys the complexities of the man and the issues with which he grappled. --Wendy Smith

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214653 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

From Amazon.com
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) fought for half a century to free Vietnam from foreign domination, and the story of his life illuminates the ongoing struggle between colonialism and nationalism that still shapes world history. William J. Duiker, who served in Saigon's U.S. embassy during the Vietnam War, spent 30 years delving into Vietnamese and European archives, as well as interviewing Minh's surviving colleagues, in order to write this definitive biography. The son of a civil servant from a traditionally rebellious province, the future president of North Vietnam was known for more than 20 years as Nguyen That Thanh. It was under this name that he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party, having concluded after reading Lenin's analysis of imperialism that revolutionary Marxism was the most effective tool to achieve Vietnam's independence. He spent 30 years in exile, cementing his communist ties in Moscow and working with Vietnamese rebels from a base in China, before assuming the name Ho Chi Minh in 1942, when the forces unleashed by World War II seemed to be clearing the way for Vietnamese liberation. French intransigence and American anti-communism would delay the emergence of an independent, united Vietnam for another 30 years, but Ho became an icon who inspired the communist North and the Southern Vietcong to keep fighting. Focusing almost exclusively on political events and ideological debates, Duiker depicts Ho as a nationalist first and foremost, but also as a convinced (though pragmatic) Marxist who believed socialism would help his country modernize and correct ancient inequities. This long, very detailed biography is not for the casual reader, but anyone with a serious interest in modern history will relish a dense narrative that fully conveys the complexities of the man and the issues with which he grappled. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly
It's difficult to think of someone more qualified to write this biography than Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam), the retired Penn State University historian who has specialized in the Vietnam War for more than three decades. In his massive, thoroughly researched andDin the mainDquite accessible new biography, Duiker succeeds extremely well in illuminating the life and times of Ho Chi MinhDlong North Vietnam's leader, a man Duiker calls a "master motivator and strategist" and "one of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century." Covering both the personal and political life of the revolutionary leader, Duiker fascinatingly traces Ho's early travels to New York, Boston and Paris, as well as his many years in exile in France, China, Thailand and (during WWII and the war against the French of 1945 to 1954) in the rugged mountains of northern VietnamDeras in Ho's life for which documentation has only recently become available. Duiker's detailed recounting of the momentous and extremely complicated events that took place in 1945 following the Japanese surrender, when Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh revolutionary party seized power in northern Vietnam, is riveting. And his account of the not-always-harmonious relations between Ho and the Communist leaders of China and the Soviet Union probes a subject that has long been overlooked by Western scholars. In the end, Duiker portrays Ho Chi Minh as a fervently anticolonial nationalist who, though a committed Marxist, honestly thought he could count on the United States, which had promised to oppose French colonization after WWII. Referring to a long-raging debate about Ho, he says, "The issue is not whether he was a nationalist or a CommunistDin his own way he was both." 32 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Neither the cryptic, diabolical enemy nor the icon of the Left, "Uncle Ho" is now the subject of this objective historical study. Vietnam expert Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam) here writes the first biography of Ho to use critical sources in Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Russian, and English. His narrative encompasses the last days of the Vietnamese monarchy, in which Ho's father was an official; the French conquest of and attempt to dominate Indochina; the anti-imperialist struggle, aided by Russian and Chinese national and Communist interests; and the career of Ho, who died in 1969, revered by some as the Father of the Revolution and reviled by others as a murderous tyrant. The author carefully sorts out the intricate, often ambiguous evidence, supplying enough background for the interested general reader and enough detail, especially in the extensive notes, for the demanding specialist. Highly recommended for larger collections.DCharles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most reliable and balanced biography of Ho Chi Minh
Dr. William Duiker's book is exceptional. A five-star book with an asterisk for special consideration. It is arguably the most reliable and balanced biography of Ho Chi Minh ever published. First of all, please note the book was dedicated "To the Vietnamese people," similar in many ways as to how Ho Chi Minh himself, amid critics, dedicated his life's work to the Vietnamese people. Regardless of how you feel about this important 20th century political leader, Duiker correctly places him from the most significant point of view -- that is to say, from the Vietnamese people's perspective first, and only then the world.

The biography beautifully melds historical gaps with hard facts. Anyone who was ever presented with such a dilemma would truly appreciate the genius with which the author was able to craft Ho Chi Minh's character and personality. Simply outstanding. Duiker does not deceive the reader into believing that his biography will answer all questions, but it does indeed illuminate one's understanding of how Ho Chi Minh operated and perhaps how he would have acted under different circumstances. A mysterious person becomes less mysterious, albeit not completely understood. As readers, we can't help but be grateful for the opportunity to learn and benefit from 30 years of research.

So impressive was Dr. Duiker's biography that we at Sonshi.com asked the author for an interview. He was open to any and all questions about Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh. From our experience, this is a mark of a true expert, someone who is on top of his or her field of study. Anyone who would like to learn more about Vietnam or Ho Chi Minh will certainly benefit from Duiker. In fact, anyone who is interested in how the 20th century was shaped should read this book, for Ho Chi Minh's influence was not relegated to only Indochina, but it was felt in the top industrialized nations as well.

We highly recommend William Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life.

Uncle Ho's Mask
I have this theory about the state examinations in Confucian countries. The few who pass these grueling ordeals, which often take years of study at great expense, become autocrats. And those, who fail become revolutionaries. Nyugen Tat Thanh, or Ho Chi Minh or Nguyen Ai Quoc, never even sat for those examinations. According to William J. Duiker, in Ho Chi Minh: A Life, he was a pragmatist amongst Marxist-Leninists. In 577 pages of narrative, Duiker follows Ho all over French Indo-China, over the oceans, to France and across the Eurasian continent to the Soviet Union and China, until Uncle Ho returns to a liberated, yet embattled North Vietnam. Through multiple languages, more than a few aliases, 93 pages of notes, maps, and photographs, the question of who Ho is becomes a game of mirrors.

Remarkably, when Ho died, he was the only Vietnamese, whom most people in the world who knew anything about the southeast Asian country, could (and can) still identify. Not that his family was not famous in his central Vietnamese district, or that his performance at school was not excellent, but Ho spent most of his life in hiding, fleeing, using an alias, or in prison. He never ceased, though, being a nationalist, which is why Duiker does not call him an unprincipled opportunist, like some of Ho's enemies described him. At the end of the life, Ho told a young Party member, that he had become a Communist because the Communist party had earned his loyalty, unlike the French or other capitalists. On board a ship for Marseilles in 1911, he glimpsed images of privation and brutality in the colonial ports at which the vessel docked. Ho did not need to learn Lenin's theories, because he saw the proof before he had even read them. Later, when the Soviets welcomed him and schooled him, he repaid them by becoming a student of Lenin.

But Ho never followed Lenin's theories consistently, nor did he always obey Stalin's or Mao's frequent dogmatic shifts. At every point of his life, there was always some hack willing to accuse him of some unorthodox idea or action. Ho, however, had his charm and energy to impress the doubtful. Whrever he went, Paris or Hanoi, he always seemed an attractive and uniquely intelligent person. Beneath whatever mask Ho was wearing, there was a self-conscious man whose only mission began and ended with Vietnamese nationhood.

Ho knew many people in his lifetime, and he requested help from many governments in the name of his cause. Duiker spends some time and arguments about Ho's relationship with the United States. He dismisses those who argue, that if Washington had cultivated a better relationship with Ho, two decades of war would have been averted. He downplays Ho's influence, which waned greatly in the 1960s. But he then talks about Ho's loyalty to the Communists for giving him a forum for his cause. He misses a deeper point, that Ho, and his contemporaries and younger colleagues, probably shared this sense of loyalty, if not so consciously and articulately. The answer to the question of how these Vietnamese revolutionaries once emulated American ideals enough to draft a Declaration of Independence in 1945, but then fought a long, bitter war against the United States, is one of lost opportunities and misunderstandings. And, Duiker really does not answer that question, because he is too busy following Ho around the world.

Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life is very detailed and versatile. There are more insights into Vietnamese and Chinese culture, France during the inter-war years, Soviet Russia, and a lifetime of international party politics and diplomacy to keep me busy in dozens of follow-on books. But at times Ho just disappears from the narrative, or is plotting some maneuver while he lets the character take center stage. One can fully appreciate Ho's versatility and endurance, but most of what Duiker gives us is offical history. There are still gaps in the history, filled only with competing propaganda narratives. Like Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh is elusive.

Excellent Book-Stunning Detail
This book is really very good. It goes into excellent detail on each facet of Ho Chi Minh's life and gives good interpretations of why he did what he did. Beware though, this is not for the faint of heart. It's 700 pages. I used it for a high school biography paper and read it over the summer--it's very interesting to read. It ranks right up there with Lenin by Robert Service. It really is worth the money.