Hồ Chí Minh and the War with America

This article is the last of a four-article series about the life of Hồ Chí Minh.

The first article explains the forces which influenced him and describe his early days as a young man discovering his purpose in life.

The second article explains his involvement as an agent of the Soviet Comintern and his navigating a civil war while trying to balance Communist and Western loyalties.

The third article discusses the events around the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, followed by the French attempt to re-colonize Indochina that triggered the first Indochina War, and ends in the 1954 Geneva Accords.

The Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into two countries along the 17th parallel; the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN) in the north and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) in the south. General elections were scheduled for July 1956, but never happened because both sides expressed concerns over election manipulation and could not come to an agreement on how to conduct the election, leaving Vietnam divided.

Mutual Build Up

After the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam, Ngô Đình Diệm seized control of the southern partition from the French and formed the forerunner State of Vietnam. Eisenhower disagreed with the partition and signaled his intention to support the southern state by sending equipment and funds previously intended for the French military to Diệm’s Army.

The U.S. attempted to support the French in 1953 as they battled the Việt Minh. President Eisenhower provided bombers and non-combat personnel but found himself hesitant to commit any troops to the French cause, because "this war would absorb our troops by divisions." Eisenhower agreed to send $1 Billion to support French forces in 1954, but French commanders seemed unwilling to cooperate with U.S. advisors.

Eisenhower seemed to have a change of heart after the French defeat when he championed the formation of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) Alliance, which mostly consisted of Western allies, for the defense of South Vietnam against communist expansion.

In February of 1955, Eisenhower started dispatching the first American military advisors to Diệm’s Southern Army. The difference between a military advisor and a soldier is advisors train local military or provide non-combat support so the local military can fight a war, while a soldier is the person doing the fighting. In the case of Vietnam, definitions blurred. The American “advisor” often took on the same role as a soldier. These semantic games were necessary to keep the Cold War from escalating.

In October, Diệm officially announced the formation of the Republic of Vietnam and Eisenhower immediately recognized the new state.

Hồ Chí Minh became synonymous with the DRVN as he transitioned into a statesman. Much of his job became trying to secure funding or military supplies for the upcoming war with the Americans. He traveled frequently to China and the Soviet Union to secure the much-needed supplies as North and South Vietnam’s preparations for war became an arms race.

In 1955, Hồ travelled to Beijing to receive $350 Million worth of Chinese foreign aid, which he used to strengthen the DRVN Army ¹.

The following year, Khrushchev delivered his "Secret Speech" at the 20th Party Congress starting what some in the west call the Sino-Soviet split. I prefer to call it “The Communist Civil War”. Hồ needed to juggle allegiances between the two to keep foreign aid coming in from both China and the Soviet Union at this crucial time in Vietnam’s development.

In 1957, under the leadership of Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, the North Vietnamese amassed troops in South Vietnam under the National Liberation Front to prepare for a guerilla operation in the south. ²

That July, Hồ went on a diplomatic tour, visiting Beijing, North Korea, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. In August, he spent five-days on a friendship visit in solidarity with Hungary, a year after the 1956 revolt.

Between October 1957 and the Summer of 1959, US military offices in the Saigon area were increasingly attacked with bombings and guerilla raids. These raids frequently injured American military advisors.

In 1959, Hồ visited Beijing for the 10th anniversary of the Chinese revolution and secured promises from Beijing and Moscow for more weapons and civilian aid. He is said to have rejected offers of military advisors for fear of escalating the war.

Officially China only sent advisors to North Vietnam to repair infrastructure. This was contradicted by a 2017 Washington Post article, stating that China had recently admitted to sending 320,000 soldiers and $20 Billion US dollars’ worth of aid to Việt Cộng guerrilla units in the 1960s.

In 1958-1959, North Vietnamese forces helped the Pathet Lao (also known as Lao People's Liberation Army) to fight against the Kingdom of Laos to replace the monarchy with a communist state. This action also created a supply route, parallel to the Vietnamese border, named the Hồ Chí Minh trail. The trail ran between North and South Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia, to support Northern guerilla soldiers with weapons, munitions, and other supplies.

In 1959, Hồ, concerned about his advancing age, chose Lê Duẩn as his replacement for General Secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party. Beginning in 1960, Hồ handed power over to Duẩn gradually, while Hồ retained the senior Chairman of the Workers' Party position. It was only after the death of Hồ Chí Minh that Lê Duẩn took full leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party and Hồ’s position as the Chairman of the Workers' Party dissolved.

Around the same time, Eisenhower prepared to hand over the US Presidency to John F. Kennedy. Eisenhower was increasingly concerned that Communist expansion seemed to be coming in from all directions and communicated these concerns to Kennedy in a briefing.

The War Escalates

Late in 1963, Kennedy became aware of the formation of the Hồ Chí Minh trail in neighboring countries and planned to send 23,000 U.S. military advisors to Vietnam by 1964. The U.S. communications network (Comint) discovered the trail based upon direction-finding and traffic analysis which allowed them to plot out North Vietnamese messaging stations along the trail.

Kennedy originally supported the policy of sending military advisers to Diệm, but by September 1963, Kennedy saw the ineptitude of the Saigon government and began to have a change of heart. He started distancing himself from Diệm. In response, Diệm agreed to meet with Polish diplomat and Holocaust survivor, Mieczysław Maneli in what became known as the "Maneli Affair" – a proposal to create a federation of both Vietnams that would remain neutral in the Cold War. ³

Before anything could be done, a group of South Vietnamese Army officers started a coup on November 1, 1963, resulting in the execution of Diệm and his brother / advisor Ngô Đình Nhu. The officers were displeased with the handling of the Buddhist protests during which monks would self-immolate, as well as the deteriorating situation with the DVRN.

Kennedy knew about the situation, and apparently did nothing to stop it. He appeared visibly shaken when he learned of the coup, blaming himself for his lack of action.

Only 21 days later, an assassin killed President Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson became President.

On August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the U.S.S. Maddox, resulting in minor damage with no U.S. casualties. On August 4th, faulty intelligence by the National Security Agency reported a second attack. Worried that the North Vietnamese were going on the offensive, President Johnson requested that Congress give him the authority to police Communist aggression in Vietnam. These events became known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident and led to increased U.S. involvement to assist any country whose government was considered in danger of Communist aggression in Southeast Asian. Although Congress never actually authorized war, most Americans still call it the “Vietnam War”, while the Vietnamese call it the American War or the Second Indochina War.

Johnson initially sent 184,000 troops, which eventually bloomed to half a million over the next couple years.

Revelations of Walter Cronkite’s TV Show, "The 20th Century"

In January 1966, Walter Cronkite asked Professor P. J. Honey to speculate on Hồ Chí Minh’s health. The professor revealed that Hồ had been in declining health for the past eighteen months. Honey mentions that Hồ only entertains official state guests on days when he is in “good form” to “impress them with his vitality”. British Journalist James Cameron however disagrees when he says Hồ is:

“…in uncommonly good form for a man rising 76. He's moved over without any sort of introduction and sat down and poured himself a bottle of beer and started to smoke, but, it must have been about two hundred cigarettes and well if indeed it is the case that he's paraded in his few lucid moments this must have been certainly one of them because he gave me the impression to be physically very active and certainly in no sense that he talked like a gaga old character, but, it is quite true to say he wouldn't talk about politics when he came over first of all he wouldn't be photographed properly since today I don't feel photogenic and he said that I said to him you know you're the most photogenic old man in Asia. Well, you know this, he said not today I'm not.”

On the same program, Cronkite asked Professor and War Correspondent, Bernard B. Fall, about Hồ Chí Minh. Fall replied, “Hồ Chí Minh personally told me, he says, while it took us eight years to lick view the French it'll probably take us ten years to deal with the Americans, but we’ll hold out.” In hindsight, Hồ’s prediction proved to be more accurate. Professor Fall explained that America would succeed where the French failed due to America being ten times as powerful as France. Fall died the next year, not living to see the failure of his predictions.

Vietnam Remains Strong

On February 8, 1967, President Johnson sent a letter to Hồ Chí Minh in which he proposed ending the conflict in Vietnam to avoid causing more suffering to both the Vietnamese and American people. Johnson said he would stop bombing North Vietnam and adding troops to South Vietnam as soon as the North stopped sending troops to the South.

A week later, Hồ replied to Johnson, accusing the United States of invading Vietnam, violating the commitments of the Geneva accords, and committing war crimes in both North and South Vietnam. He said Vietnam would defeat the United States at all costs and that talks would only be considered after the US stopped its bombing and withdrew troops from Southern Vietnam.

In July 1967, Hồ Chí Minh and most of the Politburo of the Communist Party met in a high-profile conference during which the Politburo agreed the war had come to a stalemate. The Politburo ordered implementation of the plans of General Nguyễn Chí Thanh, the commander of Communist Forces in South Vietnam. Carried out on January 31, 1968, this became known as the Tet Offensive. It came at a high cost, but put the DRVN into a better negotiation position because it weakened the American will to stay in Vietnam.

The U.S. Resolve and Hồ Chí Minh Weaken

Watching reports from the Tet Offensive, many in the news media, led by Cronkite, called for negotiations for the US to withdraw from Vietnam. The US stopped bombing North Vietnam and Hồ Chí Minh trail targets, and American and Vietnamese negotiators held discussions on how the war might be ended. Thirty-three days later, Johnson announced he would not be running again for another term.

January 20, 1969, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as President. He wanted to preserve some dignity while taking the U.S. out of the War.

In early 1969, Hồ suffered a heart attack, but seemed determined to settle the conflict with the U.S. before he would let himself rest.

In July 1969, Nixon sent a message to the North Vietnamese, relayed through Jean Sainteny, a former French official in Vietnam, that proposed working together to end this "tragic war", but also threatened "measures of great consequence and force" if North Vietnam made no concessions at the Paris Peace talks before November 1. Hồ's reply, received by Nixon on August 30, welcomed peace talks with the US, but made no concessions.

Death of Hồ Chí Minh

On September 2, just a few days after his letter to Nixon, Hồ Chí Minh died of heart failure. In a final act, Hồ summoned his team to prepare for peace talks in Paris where he is reported to have said to the delegation:

“[Do] not to humiliate the United States, [do not] touch the American people because we only fight against the hawks who rule the United States. He also said, in principle, not to give in but to the method, be firm yet improvisational.”

Hồ Chí Minh’s words showed an understanding of the quagmire the US found itself in and he would not extend the war longer than necessary. To get America to leave quickly, he wanted to give the American’s a dignified retreat.

These words remind me of the famous Bamboo Diplomacy used by former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (2011-2024), Nguyễn Phú Trọng, who recently passed away. The basic diplomatic philosophy is that one should remain firm yet flexible when navigating the complex relationships between much larger global powers. At the 29th diplomatic conference in 2016, he first sited this method as key for maintaining peace, preventing conflict, and growing international cooperation. He cites the inspiration for this method of diplomacy in the teachings of Hồ Chí Minh.

As word got out about the death of Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam received more than 22,000 condolence telegrams from 121 countries around the world. Vietnam declared a period of National Mourning from September 4-10, 1969. Various state delegates from surrounding countries as well as the Soviet Union and China came for the numerous state funerals and memorial services.

While at the funeral, ideological rivals temporarily dropped hostilities to exchange notes concerning a ceasefire between the Soviet Union and China in a conflict that started along the Sino-Soviet border. I wrote about this event in The Strange Forgotten History of the Communist Civil War. The resulting ceasefire endured until the Soviet Union fell.

The War with America Ends

The Paris Peace Accords that began in 1968 were not completed until the beginning of 1973. Both chief negotiators, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and the North Vietnamese Politburo member Lê Đức Thọ were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, but Thọ refused to accept it.

Instigated by both Northern and Southern forces, fighting broke out again a few months later. This time the US refused to participate in offensive actions as the Southern forces gradually gave up territory. Two years later, the US finally withdrew all forces in Vietnam after a massive North Vietnamese offensive overpowered South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. ⁴

Legacy of Hồ Chí Minh

Hồ wanted to be cremated and have his ashes placed in three areas around the country. Instead, the Politburo of Vietnam chose to preserve the body so that he could see the reunification of the country and people could visit him. General Secretary Lê Duẩn once said:

“Comrades know how sacred our Uncle Ho is to the Vietnamese people. Especially to the people of the South, they sacrificed their lives fighting for independence, unification and also to meet Uncle Ho to their satisfaction. Uncle Ho also really wanted to go to the South to meet the people of the South, but his health did not allow it. Therefore, we had to keep his body so that we, the people of the South, could see his face after the victory day.”

A mausoleum in Hanoi now displays Hồ Chí Minh’s body, similar to Lenin's body in Moscow.

To this day, the legacy of Hồ Chí Minh remains strong. His face is on all of the currency of Vietnam. Photos of him appear on every prominent wall in every government building and school. He is venerated with special shrines dedicated to him at most temples across the country. He is etched into the history of the country along with the Hùng kings, the Trưng sisters, and the Ngô dynasty, all of whom sought to free Vietnam from foreign rule.

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Footnotes:

1. Walter Cronkite, TV Show "The 20th Century"

2. Ibid

3. I received a comment which stated there were many peace plans in 1963 including a plan by French President Charles de Gaulle. That’s not true, there was only one. To clarify, de Gaulle was involved with the Maneli Affair, but Maneli receives the credit because he wrote the book. This is a controversial issue because some argue about who created the diplomatic proposal. I chose to go with the most common narrative since it is called the Maneli Affair. If you want to read about it, I provided a Wikipedia link in the original article to explain the full story.

4. I understand that using the word “forces” used in this paragraph can be misleading, so I wanted to clarify what I meant. Although the US did withdraw troops in 1973, they certainly did not leave. The US still maintained personnel to aid ARVN against the North. This included intelligence agents, aid workers, spy plane missions over Indochina, military aid to the ARVN, etcetera. The US simply transferred fighting from US troops to ARVN troops. The US actually increased funding for the war following the pullout of troops. In hindsight, it may have been better to use the word personnel instead of forces, but it didn’t pack the same punch so I decided to leave it alone.