21. Bac Ho thai nien thieu, pp. 85–86. Pham Ngoc Tho was the father of Pham Ngoc Thach, who would later became a prominent member of the Indochinese Communist Party and a close associate of Ho Chi Minh. Thach later recalled family remarks that Thanh had arrived in Qui Nhon shortly after he was born. According to Ho Chi Minh’s longtime colleague Ha Huy Giap, Ho once told the American journalist Anna Louise Strong that he wandered along the coast in an effort to find a port from which to sail to Europe—see Trinh Quang Phu, Tu Lang Sen, p. 51.
22. The principal of the school was Nguyen Gui Anh, a teacher from Nghe An province. The sponsor was the Lien Than Thuong Quan, a manufacturer of nuoc mam, the famous Vietnamese fermented fish sauce. See Bac Ho thoi nien thieu, pp. 90–91, and Nguyen Dinh Soan, “Uncle Ho’s Former Student,” To Quoc, no. 5 (May 1970), translated in Vietnam Documents and Research Notes (U.S. Mission in Vietnam, Saigon), document 100, pp. 28–32. Trinh Quang Phu discusses the origins of the school in Tu Lang Sen, pp. 53–55.
23. Cited in Kobelev, p. 23. For additional information, see Nguyen Dinh Soan, “Uncle Ho’s Former Student.”
24. Ho Chi Minh, Hu Zhi Ming zhuan [A biography of Ho Chi Minh] (Shanghai: Ba Ywe, 1949), p. 10; Bac Ho thoi nien thieu, p. 86; Ton Quang Duyet, “From the Nha Rong pier to Pac Bo Cave,” Tap chi Cong san (February 1980); BNTS, vol. 1, p. 44; Kobelev, p. 23.
25. For Sac’s request to travel to Cochin China, see dossier labeled “1920,” in SPCE, Carton 364, COAM. Also see Bac Ho thoi nien thieu, pp. 82–85; Glimpses/Childhood, p. 97. The French intelligence report is Document no. 3780, dated March 8, 1911, in the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
26. According to the résident supérieur of Annam, Sac had bypassed French authorities to obtain from a local mandarin permission to travel to Tourane.
27. BNTS, vol. 1, p. 43; Trinh Quang Phu, Tu Lang Sen, pp. 79–82. That Thanh feared that French authorities were aware of his presence at the Duc Thanh school is suggested by a letter he wrote to a friend there after his departure for Europe in June 1911. In the letter he declared that he could not tell his friend when he had left the country, since it must be kept a secret. See Ton Quang Duyet, “From the Nha Rong pier,” p. 33. According to a French report, Thanh left the school in anger after being chastised for a minor infraction. See Annex 475, February 4, 1928, Sûreté Générale, Saigon, in SPCE, Carton 368, CAOM.
28. Avec l’Oncle Ho, pp. 15–16. The Chasseloup-Laubat school was a prestigious lycée established by the French for children of the elite.
29. For information on his stay in Saigon, see Ton Quang Duyet, “From the Nha Rong pier …”; Bac Ho thoi nien thieu, p. 95; BNTS, vol. 1, p. 44; and Kobelev, p. 24. The latter says he gave his name as Van Ba, or “Van the third.” Presumably Thanh was identifying himself as the third oldest child in his family. Van is a familiar name for males in Vietnam, meaning “literature.” The French captain’s skepticism is understandable. According to contemporary accounts, Thanh may have weighed less than 100 pounds.
30. Both comments are quoted in BNTS, vol. 1, pp. 47–48. According to the historian Trinh Quang Phu (see Tu Lang Sen, pp. 82, 97–98), Nguyen Sinh Sac played an important role in encouraging his son’s desire to go abroad to serve his country, but Phu’s tendency to dramatize events during this period in Ho Chi Minh’s life and to fabricate conversations raises questions about his credibility. I have therefore treated his evidence with extreme caution.
II | The Fiery Stallion
1. Glimpses/Life, p. 6. In this source, Ho claimed that the ship held 700 to 800 passengers and crew, which seems very unlikely for such a small vessel. In fact, it held 40 first-class passengers and 72 officers and seamen.
2. Report of Paul Arnoux September 21, 1922, in SPCE, Carton 365, CAOM. Also see Daniel Hémery, Ho Chi Minh: De l’Indochine au Vietnam (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), p. 37.
3. Glimpses/Life, p. 8.
4. See Hémery, Ho Chi Minh, p. 40, for a copy of the letter to the president. He apparently sent an identical message to the minister of colonies in Paris. See Nguyen The Anh and Vu Ngu Chieu, “Tu mong lam quan den duong cach menh, Ho Chi Minh va Truong Thuoc dia” [From mandarinal dream to road to revolution, Ho Chi Minh and the Colonial School], Duong Moi, no. 1 (June 1983), p. 14. A copy of the letter is also available in the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi. For a critical interpretation of Thanh’s motives, see ibid. For a more favorable one, see the article by Daniel Hémery titled “La bureaucratie comme processus historique,” in Georges Boudarel, ed., La bureaucratie au Vietnam (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1983), pp. 26–30, and Thu Trang Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1992), pp. 55–56. It is also possible that he hoped to gain entry into the school to help his father regain his position in the bureaucracy. It is worthy of note that he specifically mentioned his father in the letter. Thanh’s letter to his sister is mentioned in Police de l’Indochine, Note Confidentielle no. 711, May 7, 1920, in dossier labeled “1920,” in SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM.
5. Thanh evidently left Saigon shortly after writing the letter, for he gave a return address of Amiral Latouche-Tréville, Colombo, The letter is included in Nore Confidentielle, April 28, 1920, SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM. Also see Glimpses/Childhood, p. 97. On his father, see “Père de Ho Chi Minh,” undated note, in dossier labeled “Ho-Chi-Minh année 1949,” in SPCE, Carton 370, CAOM. According to one recent source, Sac had now begun to establish contact with patriotic elements in Cochin China, partly out of a desire to obrain news of his son. See Trinh Quong Phu, Tu Lang Sen den Nha Rang [From Lang Sen to the Nha Rong pier] (Ho Chi Minh City: NXB Van Hoc, 1998), pp. 98–99.
6. Many years later, Ho Chi Minh told a French acquaintance that he had first visited Paris at the age of twenty. See Thu Trang, Nguyen Ai Quoc tai Pari (1917–1923) [Nguyen Ai Quoc in Paris] (Hanoi: Thong tin ly luan, 1989), p. 20. With regard to his application to the Colonial School, under interrogation by a French official many years later, Thanh’s older brother (then known as Nguyen Tat Dat) recalled that his brother had written him that any application for entry into the school had to be countersigned by the authorities in Indochina. Dat thereupon wrote a letter to Governor-General Albert Sarraut on Thanh’s behalf, but apparently without result. Dat was himself under suspicion for taking part in rebel activities; see Note Confidentielle, April 28, 1920, SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM. For the rejection letter from the Ministry of Colonies, also see Nguyen The Anhand Vu Ngu Chieu, “Tu mong”, p. 15. On his sray in Le Havre, see Nguyen Thanh, Chu tich Ho Chi Minh o Phap [Chairman Ho Chi Minh in France] (Hanoi: Thong tin ly luan, 1988), p. 23, and Hong Ha, Thoi Thanh Nien [The Childhood of Uncle Ho] (Hanoi: Thanh nien, 1994), p. 28. He himself recounted his experiences in Le Havre in Glimpses/Life, pp. 7–8. Also see Tran Ngoc Danh, Tieu su Ho Chu tich [A short biography of Chairman Ho] (Lien Viet, 1949), in SPCE, Carton 370, CAOM. According to the author, a member of the Indochinese Communist Party who knew him in France, Thanh lived in Sa in te-Adresse for about six months. Several sources state that he left the ship in Le Havre after his first arrival in Marseilles in 1911. This seems very unlikely, since it is clear that he remained on the ship and returned to Saigon at that time. It is more likely that his stayovet in Le Havre came during his second visit to France the following year. Also see BNTS, vol. 1, p. 52.
7. Glimpses/Life, pp. 8–9; A biography of Ho Chi Minh (Shanghai: Ba Ywe, 1949). According to both sources, the ship was carrying wine from Algeria and Bordeaux to the French colonies. Many of the seamen were able to attach rubber hoses to the barrels and drink to their heart’s content. Thanh apparently did not imbibe and advised his colleagues (presumably with little success) to abstain as well.
8. Information in this paragraph comes from a variety of sources, including Charles Fenn, Ho Chi Minh. A Biographical Introduction (New York: Scribner’s, 1973); Tran Thanh, ed., “Bien nien Chu tich Ho Chi Minh voi nuoc My” [A chronicle of Chairman Ho Chi Minh’s relarions with the United States] (Hanoi: 1994, mimeographed); an article by David Dellinger (title unknown) in Libération (
October 1969); an excerpt from Anna Louise Strong, Letter from China (reported in Nhan Dan, May 18, 1965); and an oral interview of Robert F. Williams by Archimedes L. Patti, contained in the Patti archives at the University of Cenrtal Florida in Otlando. Williams was a member of the peace delegation that visited Hanoi in November and December 1964. In remarks to Williams at that time, Ho recommended that “black Americans become more serious about the liberation of their race.” In Ho’s view, blacks in the United States had become seduced by material possessions and avoided personal sacrifice.
9. Thanh’s letrer to Annam dated December 15, 1912, contained a moving appeal to the résident supérieur to provide Nguyen Sinh Sac with meaningful employment, or at least to send Sac’s address so that his son could provide him with material support. The letter is contained in SPCE, Carton 367, CAOM. Henry Prunier, who served in Indochina with the OSS at the end of World War II, recalls that Ho Chi Minh told him briefly about his experiences in Boston. See Raymond P. Girard, “City Man Helped to Train Guerrillas of Ho Chi Minh,” Worcester (Mass.) Gazette (May 14, 1968). Recent inquiries to the management of the Omni Parker House Horel have turned up no concrete information on Ho’s alleged employment there. There is also no information in the records of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on Ho Chi Minh’s presence in the United States. I am grateful to A. Thomas Grunfeld, who researched this issue in connection with a Ford Foundation project on “Ho Chi Minh in America” in 1993, for providing me with this information. See Grunfeld, “On Ho Chi Minh’s Trail,” untitled report dated May 1, 1994.
10. For a French-language version of the letters, see Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, pp. 57–60. Also see Alain Ruscio, ed., Ho Chi Minh: Textes, 1914–1969 (Paris: L’Harmattan, n.d.), p. 21. For a Vietnamese version of both lettets, see Toan Tap, vol. 1, pp. 477–78. Another indication that Thanh left the United States in 1913 is the fact that his letter to the résident supérieur from New York City in December 1912 gave the address 1 Rue Amiral Courbet in Le Havre as poste restante, suggesting an imminent return to France. Under interrogation many years later, his sister mentioned that in 1915 she received a letter from a Vietnamese court official stating that his son had gone to London with Thanh. She could not remember the name of the official, nor her brother’s address in London: Police de l’Indochine, Note Confidentielle no. 711, May 7, 1920, in SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM.
11. Glimpses/Life, pp. 10–12. Escoffier did not mention the incident in his memoirs. Ho Chi Minh may have suffered some physical damage from his experience as a laborer in London. Many years later, a member of the French Socialist Party recalled that when he first met Ho in Paris after World War I, his hands were disfigured because of their exposure to the cold. See Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, p. 72.
12. Avec l’Onde Ho, pp. 26–27; Grunfeld report, “On Ho Chi Minh’s Trail,” pp. 16, 21; Hémery, Ho Chi Minh, p. 41; Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, p. 73. The latter cites a remark by one of Ho’s later acquaintances in France that he had been involved in a labor disturbance on board the French ship La Tamise. A search of labor union records in Great Britain provides no information on any organization called the Overseas Workers’Association. Vietnamese sources cite unconfirmed reports that Thanh may have visited Scotland and the city of Liverpool. Many years later, Ho Chi Minh remarked to young colleagues that it took him six months to learn the English language in Great Britain—see Mai Van Bo, Chung toi Hoc Lam Ngoai giao voi Bac Ho [I studied diplomacy with Uncle Ho] (Ho Chi Minh City: Tre, 1998), p. 15.
13. Toan Tap I, vol. 1, p. 479.
14. The reports from London are contained in the Public Record Office, Foreign Office records (FO) in London. For the original inquiry, see FO 83562, June 23, 1915 and June 24, 1915. The results of the surveillance are contained in FO 372/668, September 8, 1915. For the reference to Thanh’s promise to carry out Trinh’s work, see “Nguyen A. Quoc den Pa-ri nam nao” [When did Nguyen A. Quoc arrive in Paris], unidentified news report, Patti archive. A number of researchers have apparently concluded that one of the two men under surveillance was Nguyen Tat Thanh, noting that Tat Thanh had been apprenticed to the Igranic Electric Co. in Bedford and was on friendly terms with the daughter of his landlord. Despite the coincidence in names, however, there is nothing specific to link the Tat Thanh under surveillance with Ho Chi Minh. For example, see Hémery, Ho Chi Minh, p. 41.
15. Even his harshest critics concede that he probably visited England at one time or another, although some maintain that he may have made only short visits while at sea—see Nguyen The Anh, “La prolétarisation de Ho Chi Minh: Mythe ou réalité,” Duong Moi (July 1984); and Huy Phong and Yen Anh, Nhan dien Ho Chi Minh: thuc chat gian manh cua huyen thoai anh hung [partly translated into English as Exploding the Ho Myth] (San José, Calif.: Van Nghe, 1988), pp. 18–19. His sister, who had been arrested in 1918 on the charge of smuggling weapons and sentenced to nine years of hard labor, recounted under interrogation in 1920 that she had received a letter indicating that he had gone to Great Britain sometime before the war and settled in London—see Note Confidentielle no. 711, May 7, 1920, in Police de l’Indochine, Dossier labeled “1920,” in SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM. That same year, French authorities reported that sometime in 1917 he had sent a letter to Governor-General Sarraut through the British consul in Saigon asking for a message to be sent to his father. The Sûreté were unable to locate him. The fact that he wrote through the British consul suggests that he might have sent the message from Great Britain. See Note, December 27, 1920, in GGI, Feuillet no. 116, S.G. Minute 1, in ibid. I am grateful to researcher Bob O’Hara for making exhaustive researches into the Public Record Office in an effort to locate materials related to Ho’s life in Great Britain.
16. Note Confidentielle no. 1967, May 29, 1931, in SPCE, Carton 365, CAOM; Avec l’Oncle Ho, pp. 31–32; Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, pp. 61–63; BNTS, vol. 1, p. 59; Toan Tap, I, vol. 1, p. 545; Hémery, Ho Chi Minh p. 42. Christiane Pasquel Rageau, author of Ho Chi Minh (Paris: Editions Universitaires, 1970), declares (p. 30) that she has located an advertisement in a French newspaper placed by a photo retoucher by the name of Nguyen Ai Quoc—Thanh’s pseudonym in Paris—sometime in 1918.
17. Rageau, Ho Chi Minh, p. 27, speculates that he may have decided to return to France after an abortive mutiny broke out in the French army in 1917. Also consult Dennis Duncanson, “The Legacy of Ho Chi Minh,” Asian Affairs 23, part 1 (February 1992). There is a brief and enigmatic reference in the French archives to someone who remembered meeting him in a hospital for wounded soldiers in Limoges where both were undergoing treatment and taking a course in dictation. See Note of Secretary General A. S. de Drujon, in SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM. Also see “Man Behind a War: Ho Chi Minh,” in Esquire, 1967, which alleges that at the end of World War I he traveled through France visiting barracks and housing developments for Vietnamese workers.
18. Boris Souvarine, “De Nguyen Ai Quac en Ho Chi Minh,” Est et Ouest (Paris), March 1–15, 1976, pp. 567–568. Souvarine, who first joined and later left the Communist movement, eventually became one of Ho Chi Minh’s most bitter critics.
19. Karnow describes his interview with Léo Poldès in Paris in the Fifties (New York: Random House, 1997), pp. 216–17. He also mentions Thanh’s interest in mysticism and other topics, noting on one occasion that he challenged the psychologist Emile Coue, “whose formula for self-perfection lay in repeating the mantra, ‘Every day in every way I am getting better and better.’” See Hong Ha, Thoi thanh nien, p. 78, and Karnow, p. 217. Apparently Thanh also wrote for a movie magazine and made an application to join the Freemasons.
20. Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, p. 76. It is difficult to trace his movements during the early stages of his return to France. According to various reports he lived in a residence on the Rue de Charonne, near the Place de la Bastille, and later shared a flat with a Tunisian, but soon moved out because the latter was under surveillance. So far as I can determine, his first verifiable address was at a hotel f
or transients (now known as the President Wilson Hotel) at 10 Rue de Stockholm sometime in early June 1919. Its location adjacent to the Gare St. Lazare suggests that he may have just arrived from a trip out of the city. See BNTS, vol. 1, p. 65, citing an unnamed French police report. For other sources, see Nguyen Thanh, Chu tich Ho Chi Minh, p. 34; Toan Tap I, vol. 1, p. 545; and Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, pp. 71–73.
21. The French authorities originally felt that Phan Van Truong was the mastermind behind the Association of Annamite Patriots, with Nguyen Tat Thanh as his tool, but eventually began to focus the bulk of their attention on the latter. See Ministre des Colonies à Gouvernement générale, no. 1735, December 5, 1919, in SPCE, Carton 364, CAOM. The Vietnamese title for the organization was the Hoi nhung nguoi Viet Nam yeu nuoc.
22. Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh à Paris, pp. 64–65; Avec l’Oncle Ho, p. 33; Hémery, Ho Chi Minh, p. 44. The building on rue Monsieur-le-Prince is today the fashionable Hotel Le Clos Médicis. The management has no record of his residence there, although it confirms that the building was a hotel at that time. Perhaps it served as temporary lodgings for students at the Sorbonne. In the petition, Thanh used the spelling “Quac,” but soon changed it to the more common usage “Quoc.”
23. Kobelev, p. 31, tells the story of Thanh ringing the doorbell at the home of Jules Cambon, a member of the French delegation at Versailles. Also see Hong Ha, Thoi thanb nien, pp. 70–71. The latter source contends that Phan Chu Trinh and Phan Van Truong had just returned from a trip to Germany when the petition was delivered and were angry with Thanh for promoting his radical views. For the charge that Thanh was not the original Nguyen Ai Quoc, see, among others, Huy Phong and Yen Anh, Nhan dien Ho Chi Minh, p. 22. One fact that suggests that Thanh was indeed the author is that advertisements had appeared in local French newspapers such as La Vie Ouvrière since 1918 publicizing the work of a certain photo retoucher by the name of Nguyen Ai Quoc (see note 16, above); I have not seen a copy of this ad.
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