Ho was in Versailles during the Peace Conference negotiations to end WW I. He tried to get to the powers that be (Wilson) at that conference to facilitate Vietnam’s independence or at least resolve it’s status under the French. He was turned away as a nobody pretty much. He was, by that time, a committed Socialist.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-09-18/little-known-story-vietnamese-communist-leader-ho-chi-minh-s-admiration-us
in Paris in 1918-19, Ho Chi Minh hooked up with other Vietnamese nationalists â remember, thousands of Vietnamese and other subjects from France’s colonies had been brought to Europe for the first time to assist with World War I.
US President Woodrow Wilson had put forth a list of 14 points as a basis for a peace settlement and one of these was the principle of self-determination. It’s likely he was directing this at Europe, but colonial peoples everywhere were inspired by this to seek independence from their European colonial masters.
So, Ho Chi Minh and his fellow Vietnamese nationalists petitioned Wilson when he came to France for the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. They wanted help to get their freedom from France, but were ignored.”
“...
A complete lie, the Comintern instructed their agents to deceive. But they wanted to forment the worldwide Revolution, and that was what Ho was committed to.