Program Information

Fired by the dream of independence for his country, Ho Chi Minh spent a lifetime trying to find the right combination of forces necessary to get the French out of Vietnam.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: Fired by the dream of independence for his country, Ho Chi Minh spent a lifetime trying to find the right combination of forces necessary to get the French out of Vietnam.

Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: By the early twentieth century, the French had for the most part pacified Vietnam. France built roads, bridges, schools patterned along French lines, and opened the door to foreign investment. Two basic approaches informed the French in their rule of Vietnam. One group of French leaders, mindful of the national history of Vietnam which was centuries older than France itself, argued for association in which the French--like the British in India--would govern Indochina through existing native institutions. Another group advocated assimilation which presumed that nothing could be better for Asia than for its people to adopt the ideas and culture of France. This dispute would continue until the French left Vietnam in 1954 but, practically, France ended up ruling Indochina directly.

While most Vietnamese accommodated themselves to this foreign rule, many hoped for the day that France would be gone. One of these was Nguyen That Than, later to adopt the name Ho Chi Minh which meant, roughly, "bringer of light." Educated in French schools, in 1911 he signed on as a stoker aboard a French freighter in Saigon. He did not return for 30 years.

After a decade of wandering, including a year in the United States, Ho came into his element in post-WWI Paris. He became first a socialist and then a Communist, spending several years in Moscow absorbing techniques of organizing and propaganda and trying to get Stalin's government interested in Vietnam. Thereafter, Ho Chi Minh became a wanderer searching for allies and converts to Marxism and independence among the many Vietnamese scattered around southeast Asia. He thought his chance had come in 1940 when the Japanese invaded Indochina and crushed French colonial rule. Ever the pragmatist, Ho ignored the instructions of the Russians, who had just signed their pact with Hitler, and aligned himself with the Allies. The following year he slipped across the border and, in a cave near Pac Bo, formed a new organization dominated by Communists but appealing to nationalists of all stripes, the Vietminh. Uncle Ho had come home.

Next time: Harry Truman, Ho Chi Minh, and a tide in the affairs of men.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Virginia Standards