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BERLIN e@ ROME e WASHINGTON e CAIRO HAVANA e@

TOKYO e

BUENOS AIRES

PRESIDENT HO CHI MINH

- Communist

Chi Minh

flame of Vietnam's independence

Ho Chi Minh was born
Nguyen-van-Thanh in the village
of Kim-Lien, in Nghe-An pro-
vince, central Vietnam, on May
19, 1890. E

From the days of his early
youth he hated French colonial-
ism and pledged himself to fight
against it.

When 20 he left Indochina,
worked as a cook’s helper on a
French. ship, the Latouche-Tre-
ville, and travelled to Algeria,
Tunisia, the Congo, Europe and
then to London. ~ i

In London he worked shovel-
ling snow and washing dishes at
the Carlton Hotel. :

He went to the Conference of
Versailles to defend the rights
of the Vietnamese people.

He participated in the Social-
ist Congress of Tours in 1920. It
was at this time that he dis-
covered Marxism, the key to the
apparent riddle of social deve-
lopment.

He attended the founding of
the French Communist Party,
and was one of its first mem-
bers. He was the very first Viet-
namese Communist.

While a photographer in Paris,
he founded and directed the
Inter-Colonial Union and pub-
lished its official paper, Exile.

He was simultaneously the
editor, director, administrator,
treasurer and distributor. He
sent it into Indochina through
many secret channels, with
French seamen and Indochinese
lads, unnamed heroes.

It was forbidden for the Viet-
namese to read the printed page,
but permitted to learn by heart
at school: “Our forefathers the
Gauls were tall, blond and had
blue eyes...”

In 1924 he was in Moscow
for the fifth congress of the
International, and
then went to Canton to be close
to his own country where the

colonialist savagery was making

conditions of revolt among his
people.

’ He escaped in 1927 when
Chiang Kai-shek began killing
‘Communists, both Chinese and
others.

He went to the USSR, Bel-
gium, again to France, Switzer-
land, Germany and Italy.

He returned to Asia, this time
to Siam, where he founded an-
other paper for the Vietnamese
at home and abroad.

He went to Hong Kong and
Macao where, in 1929, the Asso-
ciation of Revolutionary Youth
held a congress. There were
three different groupings of
Communists, and he led them to
unification. And so, in 1930,
they formed the Communist
Party of Indochina.

He led the party from Hong
Kong, where the police arrested
him and prepared to hand him
over the French (who had al-
ready condemned him to death).
With the help of a friendly Bri-
tisher he escaped.

He re-entered Vietnam in
December 1940, after 30 years
of exile.

From a cave in the mountains
of Cao Bang he directed the
formation of the first political
and military headquarters, and
the foundation of the League of
Independence, the Vietminh.

He set out for China to meet
the Chinese revolutionaries, but
was arrested by Chiang’s men
and held for two years. He was
moved continuously from one
-prison to another. He was in
30 jails in 24 months. :

‘When freed, he immediately
returned to Vietnam to begin
the battle to beat the Japanese
invaders and the former French
colonialists who collaborated
with them.

On Sept. 2,-1945, on the Da
Dinh square in Hanoi, he could
proclaim to the world the birth

of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam.

“Vietnam,” he said, “has the
right to be free and independent
and, in fact, has become free
and independent.

“The Vietnamese people have
decided to mobilize all their
own lives and wellbeing to safe-
guard this right to liberty and
independence.”

But in November 1946 the
French attacked and occupied
Haiphong and. Langson (with a
terrible massacre) and on Dec.
17 opened fire on Hanoi.

On Dec. 19 began the national
resistance with a proclamation
by President Ho.

The same words could be used
today about the situation crea-
ted in the south and in the
north by American aggression.

“We want peace, we have
made some concessions. But for
every concession that we make
the French colonialists profit
from them more by infringing on
our rights. They have decided
to reconquer our country. We
will sacrifice everything rather
than lose our independence and
live as slaves.

“Compatriots! Whoever has a
rifle, use the rifle; whoever has
a spade, use the spade. And if
you have no spade, use your hoe
and clubs. :

“We must sacrifice our last
drop of blood to defend our
country. We are prepared to
make every sacrifice.”

The French were finally rout-
ed and hurled out of the country

-at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It

cannot be any different with the
Americans because the Vietna-
mese people are the same and
with the same traditions.

At 75, Ho Chi Minh can look
back and think honestly that he
has played a big role in the his-
tory of his country and the his-
tory of the world.

On ee

Key sections of the Geneva
Conference Agreement of

1954, relating to Vietnam,
Were:

4. The conference takes
Rote of the clauses in the
agreement on the cessation
a hostilities in Vietnam pro-
hibiting the introduction into
Vietnam of foreign troops and

- Military personnel as well as
all kinds of arms and muni-
tions,

(This clause has been
Proken by the introduction
Into Vietnam by the U.S. of

180,000 or more troops with

s € most advanced types of
arms and munitions).

Se,

ae rs no military bases
under the control of a foreign

state may be established in.

the regrouping zones of the
two parties. ..

(The “two parties” mention-
ed were France and the De-
mocratic Republic of Viet-
nam. The “regrouping zones”
referred to have now become
known as North and South
Vietnam. This article was
breached by the U.S. when it
established military bases
under its control in South
Vietnam and formed a mili-
tary alliance with it.)

6. The Conference recog-
nizes that the essential pur-
pose of the agreement relat-
ing to Vietnam is to settle

military questions with a view
to ending hostilities and that
the military demarcation line
is provisional and should not
in any way be interpreted as
constituting a political or ter-
ritorial boundary. « -

(This provision specifically
ruled out the claim, now made
by the U-S., that the Geneva
agreement set up “South Viet-
nam” as a sovereign state
with the 17th parallel as its
“political or territorial boun-
dary.” The parallel was
meant to be nothing more
than a line separating the
French and Vietnamese
patriotic forces, pending. the
evacuation of: the French.)

7, The conference declares

Key sections of the Geneva Agreement of 1954

that so far as Vietnam is con-

~ cerned, the settlement of poli-

tical problems, effected on the
basis of respect for the prin-
ciples of independence, unity
and territorial integrity shall
permit the Vietnamese people
to enjoy the fundamental
freedoms . . . general elections
shall be held in July, 1965,
under the supervision of an
international commission.

(The U.S. tore this provi-
sion to shreds when, in 1955,
it instigated and armed Ngo
Dinh Diem to seize power in
Saigon and make himself dic-
tator. Diem and his succeed-
ing U.S. puppets have refused
to allow any general elections
to be held.)

Countries participating
were: Cambodia, the Demo-
cratic Republic of Vietnam,
France, Laos, the Chinese
People’s Republic, the
(French - controlled) South
Vietnamse state, the USSR,
the United Kingdom and the
US.

The U.S. refused to sign
the agreement but gave an
undertaking that it would re-
frain from the threat or the
use of force to disturb the
Agreements in
with the provisions of the
U.N. Charter dealing with
the obligations of members to
refrain, in their international
relations, from the threat or
use of force.

accordance .

A

January 14, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5