What if Ho Chi Minh is alive?

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Izzy_Cool

If Ho Chi Minh was alive today, I think he'd be quite thrilled with the direction the country is going.

What most people refuse to understand is that Ho was a nationalist more than anything else. He made his deal with the communists AFTER the US and others refused to lift a finger to help them throw off the shackles of colonialism under the French.

Ho would have probably made a deal with the devil if it meant freedom for his people.

Pity it took this long and a lot of good lives on both sides to get to where we are today and it could have all been avoided if the US president at the time had decided to support freedom for Vietnamese.

All they were asking for at that time was the same thing that the Americans (of which I am one) did to the British.

Unfortunately, hypocrisy was big then just as today. Do as I say, not as I do, etc.

Needless to say, Vietnam is now a vibrant economy and about as "communist" as Cleveland.

Socialist yes, but a market-oriented socialism and they're on the right track. The people are thriving.

Yes, Uncle Ho would be happy.

MojaveDan

Those who believe that Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist would also refuse to believe that he was responsible for killing many thousands of his own people. Ho Chi Minh is also inaccurately personified as a true communist when he is more accurately a Stalinist.

Although Ho Chi Minh was a big fan of Thomas Jefferson, there is no mistake that Ho Chi Minh was a communist. Ho studied communism for years in France, Russia and China well before he had any significant political connections with the United States during World War II. Ho Chi Minh learned from the best in how to rally masses of people by making false promises of prosperity to the poor and undereducated while killing anyone who threatened his power or disagreed with him â€“ just like Stalin did.

All of my Vietnamese aunts and uncles wanted Vietnam to be free, but freedom did not come from being under communist control. Communists brought freedom to my Viet family by killing one of my uncles and imprisoning two others for years. One of my uncles had his eye ripped out of his skull by a caring, sensitive freedom loving communist prison guard. Thanks to communism, Vietnam became the third poorest country in the world within a decade after the Vietnam War ended while millions and millions of Vietnamese risked their lives fleeing the country seeking true freedom.

As bad off as things were for the Vietnamese back then, I bet Ho Chi Minh would have been the happiest guy in the world if he lived another 10 to 15 years. He would have been the most popular and most powerful man in all of Vietnam. He would have lived long enough to relish in his victory over the most powerful country in the world. Why wouldnâ€™t he be happy? The downside is todayâ€™s Vietnam would be much different than it is.

With exception of Doi Moi (reform), much of what happened after the Vietnam War ended would have happened if Ho Chi Minh were still alive. Ho would have stagnated economic growth and cause massive food shortage throughout the country as he did while president of North Vietnam. Renewing diplomatic and economic ties with the U.S. would be out of the question, which would leave Vietnam cut off from the worldâ€™s most important economy and any real possibility of economic expansion beyond substance farming.

Doi Moi is economic reform that transformed Vietnamâ€™s failed central controlled (communist) economy to market controlled (capitalist) economy starting in 1986. Ho Chi Minh had no knowledge of market economics. In fact, Ho has a track record of being a terrible economist. Ho would not have allowed Doi Moi no matter how bad off the country was and no one would challenge him on this issue, because he was the most powerful person in the country with a history of killing people who disagree with him.

All that in mind, I strongly believe Ho Chi Minh would have kept Vietnam as something like North Korea if he was alive today and he would have been very happy in doing so. God forbid Ho would have a psychotic son with a bad haircut to take over the country after he died as like what happened in North Korea.

kim n.

He's not. Trust me. A true Vietnamese answering this question..

Rain Kiss

Nice imagination. Then he'd be over a hundred years old, and Vietnam would probably keep on his socialism way and developed into another Cuba or North Korean.

Did I mention that you can't own a private cellphone in North Korean?

Robinson Cruz

Then he would be 118 years old. Happy birthday Ho. Hope your cake didn't set the house on fire.

Jeffrey R

Then he would'nt be dead.

flightmedicine

Well he isn't, saw him in HaNoi. He looks good but isn't breathing. He would be very happy with the way Vietnam is now and the way the future they can have. C

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