41. The date of Minh Khai’s return to Asia has been a matter of disagreement. Sophie Quinn-Judge places Minh Khai’s date of departure from Moscow as February 1937, According to Ton Quang Duyet, she returned in 1936—see “Mot vai y kien bo sung ve lich su hai dong chi Tran Phu va Nguyen Thi Minh Khai” [Some opinions on the history of comrades Tran Phu and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai], in NCLS, no. 139 (July-August 1971). For the wedding, see Kobelev, pp. 116, 118. There has been supposition that she may have identified herself as Quoc’s wife during the Comintern Congress to divert suspicions over her identity, but the argument is not convincing. Vera Vasilieva’s daughter recalls that Nguyen Ai Quoc occasionally visited her morher’s apartment in the company of a young woman called Phan Lan—see Quinn-Judge, “Ho Chi Minh,” p. 76. For reports of Quoc’s “temporary wife” and child in the USSR, see Hoang Van Chi, From Colonialism, p. 51; Bao Dai, Le Dragon d’Annam (Paris: Plon, 1980), p. 134; and China News Analysis, December 12, 1969. Sources in Moscow today add credence to the rumor.
42. Kobelev, pp. 118–19. For Quoc’s role at the Congress, see Tu Huu, Di bop Quoc te Cong san [At a meeting of the Comintern] (Viet Bac: NXB Dan toc, 1964), and Hong Ha, Bac Ho tren dat nuoc Lenin [Uncle Ho in the country of Lenin] (Hanoi: NXB Thanh nien, 1980), pp. 313–15.
43. BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 56–59; also see Sokolov, Komintern, pp. 85–89.
44. Letter dated June 6, 1938, quoted in Sokolov, Komintern, pp. 89–90. According to Sokolov, the official to whom he had written was probably Manuilsky. Also see BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 56–59.
VIII | A Cave at Pac Bo
1. Wu Xiuquan, Wodi Licheng [My historical journey] (Beijing: Liberation Army Press, 1984), p. 61. In 1950, Wu met Ho Chi Minh again during Ho’s visit to China and for the first time realized who his “important Asian” really was.
2. Sources in Hanoi report that Ho Chi Minh did not meet Mao Zedong during his short visit toYan’an, explaining only that Mao Zedong was not there at the time. According to one Vietnamese source, during a visit to the People’s Republic of China after the Geneva Conference of 1954 Ho Chi Minh remarked that he had visited Yan’an before Mao Zedong’s arrival, and that he had closest contact at that time with Ye Jianying. For his brief visit, see Nguyen Khanh Toan, “En URSS avec ‘Uncle Ho,’” in Souvenirs, p. 134, and BNTS, vol. 2, p. 63. For Ho’s recollections, see T. Lan, Vua di duong, vua ke chuyen [Walking and talking] (Hanoi: Su that, 1976), pp. 65–66.
3. Kobelev, p. 125; Nguyen Khanh Toan, “Avec ‘Uncle Ho,’” p. 132; T. Lan, Vua di duong, p. 66.
4. Quotations in HZYZ, pp. 53–55.
5. These articles appear in Vietnamese in Toan Tap I. See “Nguoi Nhat-Ban muon khai hoa Trung-Quoc nhu the nao” [How the Japanese hope to civilize China], and two letters, all titled “Thu tu Trung-Quoc” [Letter from China], in vol. 3, pp. 60–96.
6. In attendance at this July 1936 meeting were Le Hong Phong, Phung Chi Kien, Vo Van Ngan, Hoang Dinh Giong, and General Secretary Ha Huy Tap. There are apparently no documents still existing from the meeting, so reports on the results are based on memoirs of participants and documents issued by the Party after the close of the plenum. For information on the meeting, see Vu Thu, “Mot so van de lich su Dang thoi ky 1936–1939” [Some problems in Party history in the period 1936–1939], in NCLS, no. 85 (April 1966), and Tran Huy Lieu, Tat lieu tham khao lich su cach mang Can dai Viet Nam [Historical research marerials concerning the revolution in modern Vietnam] (Hanoi: n.p., 1958), vol. 7, p. 57.
7. Others in attendance at the meeting were Nguyen Chi Dieu, Phan Dang Luu, Hoang Quoc Viet, and a rising young party cadre named Le Duan. Interview with Nguyen Thanh, Hanoi, December 3, 1990; interview with Pham Xanh, Hanoi, December 12, 1990. Sometime in early 1939, Nguyen Van Gu, known to the Sûreté as “one eye” (le borgne), wrote a piece titled “Tu chi trich” [A self-criticism], which indirectly criticized Le Hong Phong for adopting an overly trusting attitude toward counterrevolutionary elements in Indochina. See Van kien Dang (1930–1945) [Party Documents (1930–1945)], vol. 2, (Hanoi: Ban nghien cuu lich su Dang trung uong, 1977), pp. 402–31.
8. Toan Tap II, vol. 3, pp. 114–16. I have slightly revised the familiar translation by Bernard Fall in Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920–1966 (New York: Praeger, 1967), pp. 30–31. According to Vo Nguyen Giap, who was then a reporter with Notre Voix, the group at the newspaper were indeed convinced that P. C. Line was Nguyen Ai Quoc—see Giap’s “Ho Chi Minh: Père de l’armée révolutionnaire du Vietnam,” in Souvenirs, p. 179.
9. “Tinh hinh chinh tri o Dong duong tu 1936 den 1939” [The political situation in Indochina from 1936 to 1939], in Toan Tap II, vol. 3, pp. 117–44. Nguyen Ai Quoc received much of his information about conditions in Indochina from copies of Notre Voix and other newspapers sent to him by the editor of Notre Voix. See his letter to a friend in the Comintern, dated April 20, 1939, in BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 72–76.
10. According to Li Beiguan, who served as his CCP escort on the journey, the envoys from inside Indochina had been been cheated out of their money in Longzhou. See “Li Beiguan Huiyi” [The recollections of Li Beiguan], cited in HZYZ, p. 58. Also see Vu Anh, “De Kunming à Pac Bo,” in Souvenirs, pp. 152–53. For Quoc’s activities in Hengyang, see T. Lan, pp. 67–68, where Ho recounts that he had never operated a shortwave radio before, and stayed up five nights before he located the London channel. Also see HZYZ, p. 55, and BNTS, vol. 2, p. 69. The latter appears to be in error in stating that he took part in both classes.
11. There has been some confusion as to when and why he went to Chongqing. Vietnamese sources place the visit earlier in the year. I have concluded from the evidence that it took place at this time and that Quoc’s purpose was to seek Chinese assistance in restoring contact with the ICP Central Committee. See interview with Liu Ang in HZYZ, pp. 59–60. Also see BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 70, 86–87. In his Vietnam and China, 1938–1954 (Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 34, King C. Chen reports that while in Chongqing Quoc made the acquaintance of an American professor named Franklin Lien Ho. In a letter to Chen, Professor Ho declared that he had met Quoc (wearing a Sun Yat-sen suit and using the name Hu, a comrade visiting from Vietnam) on several occasions at Zhou Enlai’s residence.
12. Vu Anh, “Kunming,” p. 154. For this comedy of errors, see Dang Van Cap, “Con duong dan toi den voi Bac” [The road that led me to Uncle], in Bac Ho ve nuoc [Uncle Ho returns home] (Cao Bang: n.p., 1986), p. 48, cited in BNTS, vol. 2, p. 87; and Hoang Van Hoan, A Drop in the Ocean: Hoang Van Hoan’s Revolutionary Reminiscences (Bejing: Foreign Languages Press, 1988), p. 108.
13. Hoang Van Hoan notes that “Mr. Tran” was very helpful in improving his comrades’ journalistic work, lecturing them on the need to use simple language (write so that Hai—i.e., Vu Anh, who was from a working-class family—can understand, he said) and suggesting that the name of the journal be changed to D.T., which could stand for several things, including Dang Ta [Our Party], Dau Tranh [Struggle], Dan Tay [Defeat the Westerners], as well as Dong Thanh, its existing name. For an account of Nguyen Ai Quoc’s activities along the Kunming rail line, see Hoang Quang Binh, “Au Yunnan,” in Souvenirs, pp. 135–52. Binh, in whose house Quoc stayed, repeats the by now familiar stories of Quoc’s rigid daily regimen and modest behavior. He paid rent to his host and took part in household chores, but he also lectured Binh on one occasion for striking his wife. According to BNTS, vol. 2, p. 91, in Kunming Quoc lived at the house of a Tong Minh Phuong, an overseas Vietnamese from a family that had taken part in leftist causes for a decade. The house was located on Kim Bich Road.
14. The policy statement is contained in Van kien Dang (1930–1945), vol. 3, pp. 26–88. Besides Nguyen Van Cu and Le Duan, the other attendees were Phan Dang Luu and Vo Van Tan.
15. Giap recounts the story in his “Ho Chi Minh,” pp. 173–74. Also see his Tu nhan dan ma ra [From the people] (Hanoi: Quan doi Nhan dan, 1964), p. 28.
16. BNTS, vol. 2, p.98, citing Vu Anh, “Nhung ngay g
an Bac” [Days near Uncle], in Bac Ho ve nuoc, p. 15.
17. According to a Chinese acquaintance who was living with him at a bookstore at 67 Huashan Nan Lu at the time, Nguyen Ai Quoc received a telegram from Zhou Enlai—just returned from a conference in Yan’an—to come to Chongqing for consultations. According to this source, Quoc often met with students at Southwest United University to discuss world affairs—see HZYZ, p. 66. Also see BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 98–100. The information on the mission to Yan’an is from Chen, Vietnam and China, p. 41. I have been unable to confirm the existence of this mission, although it was reported in a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to the State Department on June 14, 1954. The envoy’s name was Tran Van Hinh.
18. The Party’s nationality policy had first been adopted at the plenum in October 1930. For a discussion, see Le Van Lo, “Ba muoi nam thuc hien chinh sach dan toc cua Dang” [Thirty years of creating a nationality policy for the Party], in NCLS, no. 10 (January 1960), pp. 69–71. Also see Phan Ngoc Lien, “Cong tac van dong giao duc quan chung cua Ho Chu Tich trong thoi gian Nguoi o Pac Bo” [The Agitprop work of Ho Chi Minh during his stay at Pac Bo], in NCLS, no. 149 (March–April 1973), p. 20.
19. Giap, “Ho Chi Minh,” pp. 180–81; Hoang Van Hoan, Drop in the Ocean, pp. 110–11.
20. See Hoang Van Hoan, Drop in the Ocean, p. 86. For the discussion over the selection of a name for the new front, see Vo Nguyen Giap, “Ho Chi Minh,” pp. 182–83.
21. Hoang Van Hoan, Drop in the Ocean, pp. 113–15. While in Guilin, Nguyen Ai Quoc wrote a number of articles, under the alias of Binh Son, for the CCP newspaper Jiuwong Daily. See BNTS, vol. 2, p. 105.
22. In Party histories, this meeting is labeled the Seventh Plenum of the ICP, but sources in Hanoi confirm the fact that it had originally been a meeting of the regional committee. For a description of the meeting, see Hoang Tung, Dong chi Truong Chinh [Comrade Truong Chinh], vol. 1 (Hanoi: Su that, 1990), pp. 27–44.
23. See the accounts of the insurrection in René Bauchar, Rafales sur l’Indochine (Paris: n.p., 1946), and Phillippe Devillers, Histoire du Viet Nam de 1940 à 1952 (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1952). For an official report, see telegram Bombay to Department of State, February 18, 1946, in U.S. Department of State, Central Files, RG 59, UPA. The cable contained information from a Sûreté report titled “Le Patti Communiste Indochinois,” which had been obtained by a U.S. journalist in Indochina.
24. Vo Nguyen Giap, “Ho Chi Minh,” p. 182.
25. Vu Anh, “Kunming,” p. 160.
26. See Chiang Yung-ching, Hu Chih-ming tsai Chung-kuo [Ho Chi Minh in China] (Taipei: Nan T’ien Publishing Co., 1972), pp. 119–22. For the stated objectives of the new organization, known as Vietnam as the Viet Nam Dan toc Giai phong Uy vien Hoi, see HZYZ, p. 75. Also see BNTS, vol. 2, p. 121.
27. Vo Nguyen Giap, “Ho Chi Minh,” p. 188. Giap joined other Party members at Pac Bo after the Eighth Plenum of the ICP in May.
28. Vu Anh, “Kunming,” pp. 163–65; BNTS, vol. 2, p. 128, n. 2. Whether the plenum was held in the cave is unclear. According to a French source, a two-story thatch hut was constructed for the occasion, with the Central Committee meeting on the upper floor, and the regional committee for Tonkin convening on the floor below—see Service de la Sûreté au Tonkin à Résident Supérieur Tonkin, no. 12234–S, June 10, 1941, in dossier labeled “1116 Nguyen Ai Quoc,” in SPCE, Carton 369, CAOM.
29. The document is contained in Lich su Dang Cong san Viet Nam: Trich van kien Dang [History of the Vietnamese Communist Party: A Selection of Party Documents], vol. 1 (Hanoi: Marxist-Leninist Institute, 1979), p. 358. Also see Van kien Dang (1930–1945), vol. 3, pp. 177–221. There is also a tantalizing but unconfirmed report that Nguyen Ai Quoc may have linked the Vietnamese struggle for independence with the prospect of a global revolutionary wave led by the Soviet Union that would take place at the end of the war—see the report of R. Perroche, May 30, 1941, in Archnote/410530–410531 and 410612, in CAOM. According to this source, in his speech at the Eighth Plenum, Quoc criticized the internal Party leadership for its failure to adapt itself to the rapidly evolving events. I am grateful to Stein Tonnesson for providing this information.
30. See Van kien Dang (1930–1945, vol. 3, pp. 199–200.
31. As David Marr points out, not all of Ho Chi Minh’s predictions were destined to come true. Workers in Germany and Japan did not rise up against their rulers, nor did the Soviet Union play a major role in the defeat of Japan. For his comments, see David G. Marr, Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1995), p. 168, fn 54.
IX | The Rising Tide
1. Quang Trung, “Dom lua chien khu,” in Pac Bo que toi [My village of Pac Bo] (Hanoi: Quan doi Nhan dan, 1967), pp. 69–78, cited in BNTS, vol. 2, p. 130. Vu Anh, “De Kunming à Pac Bo,” in Souvenirs, pp. 129–31.
2. The pamphlet is contained in Toan Tap I, vol. 3, pp. 163–209.
3. See ibid., p. 156. Also see Vo Nguyen Giap, “Ho Chi Minh: Père de l’armée révolutionnaire du Vietnam,” in Souvenirs, pp. 188–89. During Têt celebrations, Nguyen Ai Quoc would often provide villagers with a gift of a few pennies, and then ask them to use it to purchase the journal. Some of the articles were signed Ho Chi Minh. See Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, and de Gaulle in a World at War (London: Sage, 1991), p. 34.
4. Toan Tap I, vol. 3, pp. 214–24. Originally written sometime in 1941, the pamphlet was published in 1942. For “The Wotld War and Out Duty,” see ibid., pp. 160–61. Also see Vu Anh, “Kunming,” p. 167.
5. Vu Anh, in “Kunming,” p. 169.
6. Vo Nguyen Giap, “Ho Chi Minh,” p. 192. For the quote on revolution, see ibid., p. 195, and Bang Giang, Bac Ho o Viet Bac [Uncle Ho in the Viet Bac], cited in BNTS, vol. 2, p. 147.
7. Le Quang Ba, “Bac ve tham lai Pac Bo,” in Uong nuoc ngo nguon (Hanoi: Quan doi Nhan dan, 1973), p. 153, cited in BNTS, vol. 2, p. 157. Also see Vo Nguyen Giap, “Mot manh dat tu do” [A fragile slice of freedom], in Bac Ho ve nuoc [Uncle Ho returns home] (Cao Bang, 1986), p. 78, cited in BNTS, vol. 2, p. 153. On Phung Chi Kien, see Giap’s “Ho Chi Minh,” p. 193. For Ho Chi Minh’s instructions to undertake the March to the South and related movements to the east and west, see also Nhung su kien lich su Dang [Events in the history of the Party], vol. 1 (Hanoi; Su that, 1976), pp. 552–53.
8. Report by General Zhang Fakui, January 23, 1944, cited in HZYZ, pp. 82–83. According to this report, Ho was arrested in Jiezhang village in the district of Debao. See also Zhang Fakui Oral History, held in the Columbia University Library, New York City, Additional information on Ho’s trip is contained in BNTS, vol. 2, pp. 161–65, and Glimpses/Life, p. 47.
9. In his memoirs, Hoang Van Hoan stated that Ho intended to solicit an audience with Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Qingling—see A Drop in the Ocean: Hoang Van Hoan’s Revolutionary Reminiscences (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1988), p. 193. Christiane Pasquel Rageau, however, speculates that his real purpose was to get in touch with comrades of the CCP—see her Ho Chi Minh (Paris: Editions Universitaires, 1970), p. 103. Vu Anh agreed—see “Kunming,” p. 168. One reason to stress the point that he intended to contact Chiang Kai-shek, of course, was to emphasize his wish to establish a good relationship with Chongqing. Ho Chi Minh’s own comment on the issue is in Glimpses/Life, p. 47.
10. On the road from Debao to Jingxi with a squad of Chinese soldiers, Ho had accidently encountered Xu Weisan’s sister, who returned home to report the news to het family—interview of Wang Xiji dated June 24, 1981, in HZYZ, pp. 83–84.
11. Translation by the author, from “Nhat Ky trong Tu” [Prison Diary], from Toan Tap I, vol. 3, pp. 242–371. Ho may have benefited from the fact that one of the prison guards was acquainted with members of Xu Weisan’s family and tried to make things easier for him—see Wang Xiji interview, in HZYZ, pp. 83–84.
12. The complexity of Ho Chi Minh’s case is indicated by a report from Zhang Fakui’s headquarters dated
January 23, 1944. As described in this document, the case was originally sent from the local authorities at Teyuan to the district office in Debao, and thence to the provincial government in Guilin, which then forwarded it to the special commissioner’s office in the same city. The latter bumped it up to the local branch of the National Military Council, which thereupon forwarded it to Zhang’s Fourth Military Command in Liuzhou for disposition. Zhang Fakui Oral History, p. 684. Also see Chiang Yung-ching, Hu Chih-ming tsai Chung-kuo [Ho Chi Minh in China] (Taipei: Nan t’ien Publishing Co., 1972), p. 148, and HZYZ, p. 84. BNTS, vol. 2, p. 180, implies that Ho arrived in Guilin in early January—that appears to be an error. See the report by Chang Fa-k’uei [Zhang Fakui] to Wu T’ieh-ch’eng, December 27, 1942, cited in Chiang Yung-ching, Hu Chih-ming, p. 146.
13. Chiang Yung-ching, Hu Chih-ming, pp. 147–49. Ho was identified in Chinese as Hu Tzu-ming in the November 9 cable. Also see Hoang Van Hoan, Drop in the Ocean, pp. 193–97; Also cf. Chu tich Ho Chi Minh voi cong tac ngoai giao [Chairman Ho Chi Minh and foreign relations] (Hanoi: Su that, 1990), p. 28; the Cao Bang group included a book titled Doc lap Dac san in their messages to the press agencies; the book stated that “representative Ho is a great leader of the Vietnamese revolution and a representative of the Anti-Aggression League.”
14. The cadre was apparently Dang Van Cap. See Vo Nguyen Giap, in “Ho Chi Minh,” pp. 196–97. Vu Anh recounts a slightly different version: after heating the news of Ho’s death, Party leaders dispatched a second emissary to confirm the news, who returned with the report that Ho was still alive—the misunderstanding had been caused by Cap’s mistaking “the prisoner’s companion is dead” for “the prisoner is dead.”
15. For an account of his accommodations, see the interview with Peng De, in HZYZ, p. 93. On his means of communicating with colleagues, see Vu Anh, in “Kunming,” pp. 168–69. In one case he said simply, “keep on working hard, I’m okay”—see Chiang Yung-ching, Hu Chih-ming, p. 147.
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