Not true...He always was a Soviet agent.
If Vietnam had been left a French possession, eventually, like all other colonial possessions of other European countries, it would have achieved its independence and free-market economy. But without the millions of deaths and oppression thanks to the communists. Ho Chi Minh was a villain.
Archimedes Patti, “Why Viet Nam?: Prelude to America’s Albatross” (1982) and William J Duiker, “Ho Chi Minh: A Life” (2001)
...and from having been there, 1968-69, and again in 2000, including Hanoi.
Vietnam is like a sieve where Liberty percolates from South to North, where by the time it gets there it’s state totalitarianism again. Yet the North allows this, under the illusion that communism works.
But I still say Ho was malleable at Vietnam’s initial independence. And that 55,000+ Americans would have otherwise led normal lives.
But then, for history, I would never have known Vietnam, which as been one of the great privileges of my life.
I know it sounds crazy in today’s world, but I still have great hope for the Vietnamese.