[ThanhPhero]

Uncle Hô said a lot of things to impress the Americans while he was trying to get American guns and recognition. Hô was never really the head Red among the Communists. That would be Lê Duẩn and Lê Đức Thọ. Nguyễn Tất Thành/Hồ Chí Minh was a Party founder and its public face. He and Võ Nguyễn Giáp were less radical than the other two but Lê Duẩn and Thọ were the brains of the Party and the movers. They all wanted the US to support Independence but they wanted for it to be Independence, not freedom for the people.

Hô's desire for American friendship and sponsorship faded away, or rather, went into the closet while the Americans were the Enemy. By 1985 it re-emerged and after that the rulers in Hà Nội became more and more amenable to making adjustments to their rule to please the Americans. One prime minister in the late nineties(not the head guy like the PM in Britain or France) was openly pro American and tried to institute some form of local political choice and more formally recognized freedoms. He was not visibly successful but he served out his term and left office with ceremony.

[kearnyirish2]

In 1919 I doubt Ho was a communist at all, but he was given the cold shoulder at Versailles because “freedom” was for white people - colonies remained colonies (and Germany’s were distributed among the victorious allies). At that point someone like Ho had to work outside the system.

I don’t see why Vietnam today is treated any differently than Cuba; both governments repress their people, and neither has any use for us outside of money. We are ENABLING them.