Ho Chi Minh

Excerpt from a letter to the editor of
the American magazine Minority of One

Published in the May 1964 issue

"The Vietnamese people thank the workers', youth, students', and women's organizations, as well as progressive intellectuals, congressmen, and clergymen in the United States who have courageously raised their voices, staged demonstrations, exposed the criminal policy of aggression pursued by the U.S. government."

Vietnam has a long history of being controlled by other countries. For example, it was ruled by neighboring China during ancient times, it was a colony of France during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it was occupied by Japan during World War II. All through their nation's history, the Vietnamese people have struggled to gain their independence from foreign powers. Some historians consider the Vietnam War to be another example of the Vietnamese fighting to achieve independence and self-rule. In that war, the historians argue, the foreign country that was using its power to control Vietnam was the United States.

North Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh often characterized the war as a revolution to overthrow the U.S.-sponsored government in South Vietnam and thus free the country from foreign control. "For the defense of the independence of the fatherland and for the fulfillment of our obligation to the peoples struggling against U.S. imperialism [the practice of extending power or influence over other countries], our people and army, united as one man, will resolutely fight until complete victory, whatever the sacrifices and hardships may be," he stated. "In the past we defeated the Japanese fascists [brutal dictators] and the French colonialists . . . . Our people's struggle against U.S. aggression for national salvation is sure to win a total victory."

Some people believe that this view of the war as a fight for independence explains why North Vietnam fought with such patience and determination. The United States and the South Vietnamese government it supported had superior weapons and equipment during the Vietnam War. But the North Vietnamese were strongly motivated by their desire to reunite the country and bring independence to their people. They were able to gain the support of many peasants in the South by encouraging them to view the Americans as foreign invaders, like the Chinese or the French.

North Vietnamese leaders knew that U.S. military involvement in Vietnam could not last forever, because the American people would eventually pressure the government to bring the troops home. As a result, North Vietnam was determined to continue fighting as long as necessary to achieve its goals of independence and self-rule. "Your mission is to fight for five years or even ten or twenty years," Ho told his people. Their patience finally paid off in 1975, when North Vietnamese Communist forces captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to win the Vietnam War.

A first bid for independence

Vietnam almost succeeded in becoming an independent nation thirty years earlier, in 1945. During World War II, Japanese forces moved into Vietnam, which was then a colony of France. In fact, France had controlled all of Indochina (the region of Southeast Asia that included Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) for nearly a century. But during World War II Germany seized control of France. As a result, the French were unable to protect their colonies in Southeast Asia. France's problems enabled Japan to occupy Vietnam and set up military bases there in 1940.

In 1945, however, the Allied forces (which mainly consisted of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) defeated both Germany and Japan to win World War II. As soon as Japan was defeated, Vietnamese Communists under Ho Chi Minh—known as the Viet Minh—launched a revolution to regain control of Vietnam. "The hour is decisive for the destiny of the nation," Ho Chi Minh told his people. "Let us all arise and bend all efforts to liberate ourselves."

This so-called August Revolution was successful, as the Viet Minh took control of large areas of the country. In September 1945 Ho formally declared Vietnam's independence from both the French and the Japanese. He announced that the nation would be known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with a capital in the northern city of Hanoi. In his speech Ho used quotes from the American Declaration of Independence. Some people felt that this proved that Ho's main motivation was securing the freedom of his people, rather than creating a Communist state. But others claimed that Ho was only trying to gain the support of the United States by quoting from the famous American document. "Was it admiration for the ideals of the United States? Only a pragmatic [practical] gesture to enhance his bid for American support? The legend of Ho Chi Minh permits either answer," Henry Kamm wrote in Dragon Ascending.

In any case, it soon became clear that France—which had suffered a great deal of damage to its land, economy, and reputation as a world leader during World War II—was not willing to give up its former colony. After a year of negotiations between Ho and the French government, war erupted in Vietnam in late 1946. During this conflict, which became known as the First Indochina War, two different Vietnamese governments emerged to compete for the support of the people. One was Ho's Communist government, based in Hanoi. The other was a French-supported government led by Bao Dai, based in the southern city of Saigon. The United States recognized Bao Dai and his government as the legitimate leaders of Vietnam.

The Geneva Accords

But Ho and his Viet Minh forces continued fighting to gain Vietnam's independence from French rule. The war continued until 1954, when the Viet Minh finally defeated the French at the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Afterward, representatives from Vietnam, France, the United States, and other nations met in Geneva, Switzerland, to negotiate a peace agreement to end the Indochina War. The Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into two sections along the 17th parallel. Ho's Communist government controlled the area north of the line—known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam or North Vietnam. A U.S.-supported government under Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the area south of the line—known as the Republic of Vietnam or South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords also provided for nationwide free elections to be held two years later, in July 1956, with the goal of reunifying Vietnam under a single government.

In the meantime, however, the United States and the Soviet Union had become involved in an intense rivalry known as the Cold War. Both nations competed to spread their political philosophies and influence around the world after the end of World War II. For this reason, the U.S. government began to worry about the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. It believed that if a Communist government came to power in Vietnam, then Communist forces would soon take control of other nearby nations as well. They felt that this situation would threaten the national security of the United States by increasing the strength of the Soviet Union.

U.S. government leaders knew that Ho held strong Communist beliefs. They also realized that he had connections in the Soviet Union and enjoyed great popularity across Asia. As a result, American officials feared Ho and became determined to prevent him from establishing a Communist government over all of Vietnam. Instead, the United States government provided financial aid and military advisors to Diem's government in the South. When it became clear that Diem would lose a national election to Ho, the United States and its South Vietnamese allies refused to hold the elections that were required under the Geneva Accords.

Ho and the North Vietnamese Communists became very angry when the deadline for free elections passed and no action was taken. They felt that by refusing to honor the Geneva Accords, the United States was interfering with the internal affairs of their country. Some people in South Vietnam felt the same way, especially after Diem's government began restricting their personal freedom and using violence to silence its enemies. In addition, some people who had supported the Viet Minh during the war against France had remained in the South afterward. These Communist supporters mingled with the South Vietnamese people and encouraged them to rise up against Diem and force him to hold elections. Diem renamed these Communists the Viet Cong.

In 1960 the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed in order to organize the various groups that opposed Diem's government. By that time the Viet Cong had entered an armed struggle against Diem and his American military advisors. As opposition to Diem grew, the Communist guerilla fighters were able to gain control of large areas of the South Vietnamese countryside. The U.S. government responded by sending in Army Special Forces units, known as the Green Berets, to confront the guerillas and help Diem maintain control. The Americans also took steps to reduce the support for the Viet Cong in the countryside. For example, they moved peasants into fortified compounds known as Strategic Hamlets. But this program uprooted the peasants from their traditional lands and forced them to depend on the Americans. In fact, some people claim that this plan actually increased support for the Communist rebels.

The United States continued increasing its financial and military support for South Vietnam over the next several years. "By the middle of 1964, the United States had formed in South Vietnam the largest military and civilian [non-military] advisory team ever assembled abroad in 'peacetime,'" Sanford Wexler wrote in The Vietnam War: An Eyewitness History. The U.S. government was more determined than ever to prevent the Communists from gaining control of Vietnam. But Ho refused to negotiate any settlement that did not include a complete withdrawal of American forces and Communist participation in the South Vietnamese government. The North Vietnamese were equally determined to continue fighting until they achieved their goal of an independent, unified Vietnam under Communist rule.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from Ho Chi Minh's letter:

• In his letter Ho Chi Minh characterizes the situation in Vietnam as a "war of aggression" by the United States against the Vietnamese people. Throughout the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese leaders often claimed that they were involved in a nationalist movement to liberate their country from foreign invaders. Ho says that by refusing to honor the Geneva Accords, the U.S. government is interfering with the natural process of reunifying his country under one government. He claims that the American actions endanger not only Vietnamese independence, but also the United States' reputation in the world.
• Ho makes a distinction between the American people and the U.S. government. He is aware that many Americans oppose U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He asks these people to demand that the U.S. government withdraw its forces and allow his country to move toward independence and self-rule. Throughout the Vietnam War many U.S. political leaders criticized the American antiwar movement. They claimed that it limited their ability to fight the war and added to the strength and determination of North Vietnam. Ho's statement makes it clear that he did feel some hope that a strong antiwar movement in the United States could eventually help him achieve his goals.
• Ho refers to the South Vietnamese government and army as agents of the United States. He claims that U.S. and South Vietnamese leaders are working together to dominate the Vietnamese people against their will. In fact, he says that the United States is simply planning to turn Vietnam into a new colony to replace the one abandoned by the French ten years earlier. At the same time, Ho refers to the Viet Cong guerilla fighters and South Vietnamese people who support the Communists as "heroic" and "patriotic." He even makes it seem as if the people of South Vietnam are fighting to end U.S. aggression on their own. In reality, however, the Viet Cong enjoyed broad support from North Vietnam throughout the war. In addition, many people in South Vietnam did not support the Communists, and some strongly favored the U.S. presence in their country.
• In May 1964, when Ho wrote this letter, the U.S. presence in Vietnam consisted of about 25,000 military advisors and some helicopters and other equipment. The United States did not send combat troops into Vietnam to wage an all-out ground war until later in 1964.
• In his letter Ho claims that between 1954 and 1964 the American and South Vietnamese forces killed 160,000 people and either tortured or arrested over one million others. These figures are hotly disputed by the other side. The South Vietnamese government and its American military advisors would argue that nowhere near this many people had been victims of the war. In addition, they would blame the Viet Cong guerillas for much of the violence that did occur in South Vietnam during these years.

Excerpt from Ho Chi Minh's letter to the editor of Minority of One:

Dear Mr. Editor,

I sincerely thank your paper for affording me an opportunity to talk with the American people on the present situation in South Vietnam. From Vietnam, some ten thousand miles away from the United States, I wish to convey to our American friends greetings of friendship together with this earnest appeal.

I hope that you will more clearly realize the bitter truth about South Vietnam which constitutes one half of our fatherland. An extremely atrocious war is raging there, a war which turns out to be the biggest, the most protracted, and the bloodiest one now going on in the world. This so-called "special war" is actually a war of aggression waged by the U.S. Government and its agents, a war which is daily causing grief and suffering to our fourteen million compatriots in South Vietnam, and in which thousands of American youths have been killed or wounded. This "special war" is reducing to ashes our villages, destroying our fields, and devastating one half of our country; it has cost the American people thousands of millions of dollars. Furthermore, this war which is replete with horrible crimes, has not only infringed upon the freedom and independence of our compatriots in South Vietnam, but also besmeared the good reputation and good traditions of the American people.

The Vietnamese people are well aware that the American people want to live in peace and friendship with all other nations. I have been to the United States, and I understand that the Americans are a talented people strongly attached to justice.

The Vietnamese people never confuse the justice-loving American people and the U.S. Government which has committed numerous crimes against them in the past ten years. Those very saboteurs of our nation's independence and freedom are also the people whohave betrayed the Declaration of Independence of the United States which highlights the truth that "all men are created equal," and the unalienable Rights of man, viz. "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

It is common knowledge that in 1954, the Vietnamese people and army defeated the forces of the French colonialist aggressors in the Dienbienphu battle. Subsequently, the 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina was held with the participation of nine countries including the United States. The Geneva Accords were concluded and the participating countries, the United States included, solemnly undertook to respect the unalienable national rights, namely independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity [completeness] of the Vietnamese as well as the Lao and Cambodian peoples. The Agreements also stipulate that the 17th Parallel is to be only a provisional [temporary] military demarcation line between the Northern and Southern zones of Vietnam and that in 1956 the administrations of the two zones should hold general elections to bring about the peaceful reunification of the country.

Loyal to the interests of peace and to the supreme national interests of the fatherland, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ever since the signing of the Geneva Agreements has been unswervingly standing for respect and correct implementation of the said Agreements, and it firmly demands that the other parties should do the same.

After the Geneva Conference, the Vietnamese people should have been in a position to live in peace and to devote themselves to national construction. But the U.S. Government has trampled underfoot the Geneva Agreements . . . . Early in 1962, it openly established in Saigon a U.S. military command to take into its hands the reins directing the war in South Vietnam. It has more and more brazenly intervened in that part of our country where it has fostered [encouraged] a gang of henchmen [followers] to carry out its policy and massacre our compatriots. They have sabotaged the Geneva Agreements, prolonged the partition of our country, and thus caused heart-rending sufferings to an entire people.

Over the past ten years, our people in North Vietnam, having become masters of their own life, have been in a position to live in peace, to develop economy and culture and to build up a new life of welfare and happiness. Meanwhile, our compatriots in South Vietnam, who had, together with the whole nation, gone through nine years of hard and heroic resistance war against the French colonialistinvaders, have had to undergo ten more years of an atrocious war unleashed by the U.S. imperialists and their agents. It is due to the latter that over 160,000 compatriots of ours in South Vietnam have been killed, 680,000 tortured to infirmity and 370,000 others jailed. The victims include many old folk, women, and children.

At present, this horrible war of aggression has become fiercer under the impulse [driving force] and command of 25,000 U.S. officers and servicemen with the use of U.S. aircraft, tanks, arms, ammunition, and chemical poisons, and of the over 600,000 strong mercenary army of the South Vietnam administration, agent of the United States.

For ten years now, U.S. Governments and their agents have tried to crush the resistance of a heroic people by the use of brutal force. They want to turn our fourteen million compatriots in South Vietnam into slaves, and the southern part of our country into a new-type colony and a military base with a view to menacing the independence of the Indochinese and other Southeast Asian countries and attacking North Vietnam . . . .

But facts have shown that the path of aggression followed by the U.S. imperialists in South Vietnam is only a dark "tunnel" as admitted by the late President John Kennedy.

The heroic people of South Vietnam are resolved not to balk at the guns of the aggressors and traitors. Our compatriots would rather sacrifice everything than live in slavery. So far, under the leadership of the National Front for Liberation, the patriotic forces in South Vietnam have daily grown in strength and enjoy an increasing prestige at home and abroad. More than half of the population and over two-thirds of the territory of South Vietnam have been liberated. Over the past three years alone, the South Vietnam Liberation Armed Forces and people have wiped out or disintegrated hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, thousands of U.S. officers and servicemen have been killed or wounded. The Liberation Armed Forces have shot down hundreds of aircraft and captured tens of thousands of U.S.-made weapons of various kinds. All the strategies and tactics applied by the United States in South Vietnam have completely failed. Of the 8,000 strategic hamlets already set up (which are in fact fascist-like concentration camps) over 80 percent have been destroyed. All these victories of the patriotic forces in South Vietnam amply show that the people of South Vietnam by themselves are fully in a position to thwart [defeat] all aggressivemaneuvers and plans of the U.S. imperialists, and that the war of aggression now being waged by the U.S. Government and its agents is a hopeless war doomed to defeat. Such signboards as "anticommunism," "for democracy and freedom," and slanderous allegations about "intervention" or "aggression" by the North in South Vietnam which they resort to as a cover to their crimes, can deceive no one. And in spite of several "changes of horses," the U.S. imperialists cannot help being increasingly bogged down in South Vietnam, nor can they conceal their repeated setbacks from the American people who have come to be more and more aware of the truth.

That is the reason why the movement of struggle of the American people for the ending of the dirty war of aggression in South Vietnam is gaining momentum. And among the U.S. ruling circle themselves, more and more voices are being raised against the policy of blindly pursuing this hopeless war. From the bottom of their hearts, the Vietnamese people thank the workers', youth, students', and women's organizations, as well as progressive intellectuals, congressmen, and clergymen in the United States who have courageously raised their voices, staged demonstrations, exposed the criminal policy of aggression pursued by the U.S. government, and expressed their support for the just struggle of the patriotic forces in South Vietnam.

I wish to add the following for our American friends: Not only do we suffer because of the hardships and sacrifices imposed on our compatriots in South Vietnam, we also feel pity and sympathy for the American mothers and wives who have lost their sons or husbands in the unjust war carried out in South Vietnam by the U.S. militarists.

One cannot allow the U.S. Government and its agents to go on indefinitely perpetrating [carrying out] their dark designs. It is high time to stay [stop] their bloody hands. Of course, first of all our compatriots in South Vietnam must fight to the end for their own liberation.

But you, American people, are also victims of the U.S. imperialists, so together with the Vietnamese people, you should resolutely struggle against the bellicose and aggressive militarists in your own country. Demand an immediate end to the dirty war in South Vietnam! Demand the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops of aggression and all U.S. arms from South Vietnam!

Demand that the U.S. Government let the Vietnamese people decide themselves their own internal affairs. The provisions of the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Vietnam recognizing the unalienable national rights of the Vietnamese people must be strictly respected. That is the only solution to the South Vietnam question which does not involve face-losing for the United States.

I hope that this urgent appeal will reach the American people. Once again I wish to thank all American progressive intellectuals and people who, for the sake of justice and freedom, peace and the friendship between our two peoples, have valiantly opposed the U.S. Government's policy of aggression in South Vietnam.

I send you my best greetings.

What happened next . . .

The situation in Vietnam continued to escalate into war after Ho wrote his letter in 1964. In August of that year North Vietnamese patrol boats allegedly fired upon American ships in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Vietnam. Today, most historians believe that this attack never occurred. Nevertheless, President Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) used reports of this incident to convince the U.S. Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave him broad authority to wage war in Vietnam. Under this authority Johnson launched a large-scale bombing campaign against North Vietnam and sent U.S. combat troops into Vietnam in early 1965. In the meantime, Ho decided to send regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces into South Vietnam in order to help the Viet Cong fight the Americans.

Over time, the Vietnam War became a source of heated debate within the United States. As the number of killed and wounded American soldiers rose, the American people grew weary of the war and pressured the government to end its involvement. In 1973 President Richard Nixon (1913–1994) withdrew the last American troops from Vietnam. Two years later, North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon to win the war. North Vietnamese leaders then took steps to reunite the country as an independent nation under Communist rule—the mission that Ho Chi Minh had set out to accomplish thirty years earlier.

Did you know . . .

• Ho Chi Minh's name at birth was Nguyen That Thanh, which means "Nguyen Who Will Be Victorious" in Vietnamese. He went by a variety of other names during his career as a revolutionary, but he became best known under the name Ho Chi Minh, which means "He Who Enlightens."
• Ho Chi Minh spent much of his life outside of Vietnam. He sailed to Europe in 1908, at the age of eighteen, as a cook's helper on a French steamship. He spent the next thirty years studying Communist political ideas in London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, and other major cities. He even spent some time in the United States. He finally returned to Vietnam in 1941, just in time to lead his people in a revolution to overthrow French colonial rule.
• Ho Chi Minh died before he could see his dream of Vietnamese independence come true. North Vietnam captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon in 1975—six years after Ho's death in 1969—to win the Vietnam War. Ho's successors then reunited the two parts of the country as an independent nation under Communist rule.

Sources

Buttinger, Joseph. The Smaller Dragon: A Political History of Vietnam. New York: Praeger, 1958.

Duiker, William J. The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.

Fall, Bernard B., ed. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920–1966. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.

Ho Chi Minh. Against U.S. Aggression, for National Salvation. Hanoi, Vietnam: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1967.

Kamm, Henry. Dragon Ascending: Vietnam and the Vietnamese. New York: Arcade, 1996.

Marrin, Albert. America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Wexler, Sanford. The Vietnam War: An Eyewitness History. New York: Facts on File, 1992.

Wiegersma, Nancy. Vietnam: Peasant Land, Peasant Revolution. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.

The Vietnamese Declaration of Independence

In 1945, after the Allied forces defeated Japan to end World War II, Ho Chi Minh took advantage of the opportunity to declare Vietnam's independence from foreign control. He knew that Japan would be forced to end its occupation of Vietnam. He hoped that the Allies would then support Vietnam's bid for independence rather than allowing France to regain control over its former colony. As a way of appealing to the United States and other democratic nations, Ho quoted from the American Declaration of Independence in his statement. The following is an excerpt from the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, issued by Ho Chi Minh on September 2, 1945:

All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights."

Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity [brotherhood], have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty. . . .

In the field of economics, they have fleeced [cheated] us to the backbone, impoverished [reduced to poverty] our people and devastated our land.

They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials. . . .

In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese fascists [brutal dictators] violated Indochina's territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists [people who seek to extend their power or influence over others] went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them. . . .

After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain our national sovereignty [independence and self-rule] and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The truth is that we have wrested [taken] our independence from the Japanese and not from the French.

The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated [surrendered], Emperor Bao Dai has abdicated [given up claim to the throne]. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have fettered [restrained] them and have won independence for the Fatherland. Our people at the same time have overthrown the monarchic regime [a government ruled by a king or queen] that has reigned supreme for dozens of centuries. In its place has been established the present Democratic Republic.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government, representing the whole Vietnamese people, declare that from now on we break off all relations of a colonial character with France . . . and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland.

The whole Vietnamese people, animated [energized] by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country.

We are convinced that the Allied nations, which at Teheran and San Francisco [sites of peace negotiations following World War II] have acknowledged the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to acknowledge the independence of Vietnam.

A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent.

For these reasons, we, members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, solemnly declare to the world that Vietnam has the right to be a free and independent country—and in fact it is so already. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.

Ho Chi Minh: Nationalist or Communist?

Experts on the Vietnam War have often debated the question of whether Ho Chi Minh was motivated primarily by nationalism (an intense feeling of loyalty to a country) or communism. There is little doubt that Ho believed strongly in the Communist political system, in which the government controls all resources and means of producing wealth. By eliminating private property, this system is designed to create an equal society with no social classes. But Ho also felt a deep passion for Vietnam and truly wanted to bring independence to his people. He often downplayed his Communist beliefs in order to appeal to the patriotic feelings of the Vietnamese people. He also emphasized his nationalism as he tried to gain the support of democratic nations like the United States.

In his book Dragon Ascending Henry Kamm noted that historians may never know the truth behind Ho's motivations: "What is certain is his singleminded passion for the independence of his people, by peaceful means if possible, by war if necessary. Rightly or wrongly . . . he convinced himself . . . that Vietnam's road to independence could only be Communist." But other experts claim that Ho's main goal was to institute a Communist government in Vietnam, and that his nationalist feelings were of secondary importance. "Ho was a Vietnamese Communist, not a Communist Vietnamese," Albert Marrin wrote in America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger. "There is an important difference here. Being a Communist Vietnamese would have meant patriotism came first. Ho certainly loved his country, but patriotism was no longer his chief concern. It had become a means to an end, a way of uniting people. . . . His chief loyalty, however, was to communism."

By many accounts, both nationalism and communism played important roles in determining Ho's actions before and during the Vietnam War. Perhaps a more important factor in causing the war was the U.S. government's view of Ho's motivations. If American leaders had not believed that Ho was first and foremost a Communist, they may not have tried to prevent him from gaining control over Vietnam. Nationwide elections might have taken place in 1956, as outlined in the Geneva Accords, and the United States might never have become involved in Vietnam. "If Ho was sincere [in telling U.S. officials that he was motivated by nationalism], then Washington's later actions were both foolish and unnecessary," Marrin stated. "Indeed, next to the Civil War, they produced the worst tragedy in our nation's history."