[.ca] Ho Chi Minh: A Life (ISBN 078688701X)

From Amazon.com:
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) fought for half a century to free Vietnam from foreign domination, and the story of his life illuminates the ongoing struggle between colonialism and nationalism that still shapes world history. William J. Duiker, who served in Saigon's U.S. embassy during the Vietnam War, spent 30 years delving into Vietnamese and European archives, as well as interviewing Minh's surviving colleagues, in order to write this definitive biography. The son of a civil servant from a traditionally rebellious province, the future president of North Vietnam was known for more than 20 years as Nguyen That Thanh. It was under this name that he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party, having concluded after reading Lenin's analysis of imperialism that revolutionary Marxism was the most effective tool to achieve Vietnam's independence. He spent 30 years in exile, cementing his communist ties in Moscow and working with Vietnamese rebels from a base in China, before assuming the name Ho Chi Minh in 1942, when the forces unleashed by World War II seemed to be clearing the way for Vietnamese liberation. French intransigence and American anti-communism would delay the emergence of an independent, united Vietnam for another 30 years, but Ho became an icon who inspired the communist North and the Southern Vietcong to keep fighting. Focusing almost exclusively on political events and ideological debates, Duiker depicts Ho as a nationalist first and foremost, but also as a convinced (though pragmatic) Marxist who believed socialism would help his country modernize and correct ancient inequities. This long, very detailed biography is not for the casual reader, but anyone with a serious interest in modern history will relish a dense narrative that fully conveys the complexities of the man and the issues with which he grappled. --Wendy Smith

Most reliable and balanced biography of Ho Chi Minh:
Dr. William Duiker's book is exceptional. A five-star book with an asterisk for special consideration. It is arguably the most reliable and balanced biography of Ho Chi Minh ever published. First of all, please note the book was dedicated "To the Vietnamese people," similar in many ways as to how Ho Chi Minh himself, amid critics, dedicated his life's work to the Vietnamese people. Regardless of how you feel about this important 20th century political leader, Duiker correctly places him from the most significant point of view -- that is to say, from the Vietnamese people's perspective first, and only then the world. The biography beautifully melds historical gaps with hard facts. Anyone who was ever presented with such a dilemma would truly appreciate the genius with which the author was able to craft Ho Chi Minh's character and personality. Simply outstanding. Duiker does not deceive the reader into believing that his biography will answer all questions, but it does indeed illuminate one's understanding of how Ho Chi Minh operated and perhaps how he would have acted under different circumstances. A mysterious person becomes less mysterious, albeit not completely understood. As readers, we can't help but be grateful for the opportunity to learn and benefit from 30 years of research. So impressive was Dr. Duiker's biography that we at Sonshi.com asked the author for an interview. He was open to any and all questions about Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh. From our experience, this is a mark of a true expert, someone who is on top of his or her field of study. Anyone who would like to learn more about Vietnam or Ho Chi Minh will certainly benefit from Duiker. In fact, anyone who is interested in how the 20th century was shaped should read this book, for Ho Chi Minh's influence was not relegated to only Indochina, but it was felt in the top industrialized nations as well. We highly recommend William Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life.

Uncle Ho's Mask:
I have this theory about the state examinations in Confucian countries. The few who pass these grueling ordeals, which often take years of study at great expense, become autocrats. And those, who fail become revolutionaries. Nyugen Tat Thanh, or Ho Chi Minh or Nguyen Ai Quoc, never even sat for those examinations. According to William J. Duiker, in Ho Chi Minh: A Life, he was a pragmatist amongst Marxist-Leninists. In 577 pages of narrative, Duiker follows Ho all over French Indo-China, over the oceans, to France and across the Eurasian continent to the Soviet Union and China, until Uncle Ho returns to a liberated, yet embattled North Vietnam. Through multiple languages, more than a few aliases, 93 pages of notes, maps, and photographs, the question of who Ho is becomes a game of mirrors. Remarkably, when Ho died, he was the only Vietnamese, whom most people in the world who knew anything about the southeast Asian country, could (and can) still identify. Not that his family was not famous in his central Vietnamese district, or that his performance at school was not excellent, but Ho spent most of his life in hiding, fleeing, using an alias, or in prison. He never ceased, though, being a nationalist, which is why Duiker does not call him an unprincipled opportunist, like some of Ho's enemies described him. At the end of the life, Ho told a young Party member, that he had become a Communist because the Communist party had earned his loyalty, unlike the French or other capitalists. On board a ship for Marseilles in 1911, he glimpsed images of privation and brutality in the colonial ports at which the vessel docked. Ho did not need to learn Lenin's theories, because he saw the proof before he had even read them. Later, when the Soviets welcomed him and schooled him, he repaid them by becoming a student of Lenin. But Ho never followed Lenin's theories consistently, nor did he always obey Stalin's or Mao's frequent dogmatic shifts. At every point of his life, there was always some hack willing to accuse him of some unorthodox idea or action. Ho, however, had his charm and energy to impress the doubtful. Whrever he went, Paris or Hanoi, he always seemed an attractive and uniquely intelligent person. Beneath whatever mask Ho was wearing, there was a self-conscious man whose only mission began and ended with Vietnamese nationhood. Ho knew many people in his lifetime, and he requested help from many governments in the name of his cause. Duiker spends some time and arguments about Ho's relationship with the United States. He dismisses those who argue, that if Washington had cultivated a better relationship with Ho, two decades of war would have been averted. He downplays Ho's influence, which waned greatly in the 1960s. But he then talks about Ho's loyalty to the Communists for giving him a forum for his cause. He misses a deeper point, that Ho, and his contemporaries and younger colleagues, probably shared this sense of loyalty, if not so consciously and articulately. The answer to the question of how these Vietnamese revolutionaries once emulated American ideals enough to draft a Declaration of Independence in 1945, but then fought a long, bitter war against the United States, is one of lost opportunities and misunderstandings. And, Duiker really does not answer that question, because he is too busy following Ho around the world. Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life is very detailed and versatile. There are more insights into Vietnamese and Chinese culture, France during the inter-war years, Soviet Russia, and a lifetime of international party politics and diplomacy to keep me busy in dozens of follow-on books. But at times Ho just disappears from the narrative, or is plotting some maneuver while he lets the character take center stage. One can fully appreciate Ho's versatility and endurance, but most of what Duiker gives us is offical history. There are still gaps in the history, filled only with competing propaganda narratives. Like Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh is elusive.

The best biography of Ho, but that's not saying much at all:
First, one should be very clear that there are really no other serious scholarly works on Ho. There are accounts by journalists and Vietnamese who knew Ho, but these are usually very shallow and involve little or no research. This book is a good general introduction to Ho Chi Minh and Vietnamese history, but lacks crucial insight into Ho's life after World War 2, which is very disappointing. Ho Chi Minh was a remarkable person if only for the number of languages he spoke (French, English, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese) and the breadth of his knowledge and experience. He is very unlike the grim, close-minded communist stereotype. Ho's globe-trotting life, however, makes the biographer's job tremendously difficult, as he frequently went from one corner of the world to another, often living in secrecy or in remote jungles with a small group of colleagues. Conducting interviews with people who knew Ho and his colleagues is probably not possible today. Those still living who knew Ho would be very reluctant to speak candidly about him, especially with a stranger from overseas, now that he is such a politicized figure in Vietnam. And those willing to speak about him (usually derogatorily) are usually members of the Vietnamese diaspora who have an axe to grind. Reading this book, you can really sense the difficulty of finding records of Ho's life in Russia, China and Vietnam. His life in France and Hong Kong is well researched, but there are gaping holes in the biography at the most critical junctures, especially after his return to Vietnam. Ho's decision to return to Vietnam after over 30 years abroad is not explained. Nor is his relationship to important figures such as Stalin, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Also, the biography suffers from a rigid chronological structure, which is very confusing given Ho's complex life. Broader trends and patterns are rarely explained. Sometimes you feel the author is just trying to move you along to a period where he has done some research or has materials to draw upon. I suppose it is most telling that the author often cites extremely unreliable Vietnamese propaganda and Ho's own autobiographies as the sole source for some aspects of Ho's life. Well, I still believe this book is good, and I can't blame the author for not being able to spend a decade doing research in Vietnam, China and Russia to dig up scarce sources on Ho's life. Maybe Robert Caro will one day become interested in writing about Ho, and will spend 20 years researching his life, as he did with Lyndon Johnson's. Of course, he'd have to learn Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese along the way... The sad fact is that Ho, like most figures in history will only be known in an incomplete way. It's so sad that we have complete biographies of the boring buffoons who are in power today, but are in the dark about much more interesting figures.

History as it should be written:
Students and friends of East Asian studies will admire and respect the amount of work William Duiker put behind this great biography. Duiker's expertise in the field of Vietnamese History was showcased and pushed to the forefront after the release of this book. This is a must have reference material for anyone studying East Asian History or Modern American History. Duiker's pages went fast but I can see periods of dry times for the average reader less familiar with Vietnam. I found the early years of Ho and his pleas for nationalistic assistance equally interesting to that of the more popular French and American conflicts. Like many reviewer opinions, this is not a book about Vietnam but rather the evolution of a legend, one who has defined a country, and a man of either self-serving ideals or nationalistic pride. Duiker's prose are smooth; however information and citations do come in a little choppy thus making transitions a little difficult to follow. In addition, it seems that the connectivity between Ho and the much larger key events surrounding Vietnamese history with the French and Americans are missing. This is especially true in the later pages. Ignoring this minor flaw the book still deserves 5 stars. I would also recommend his book, "Sacred War". Though it reads more like a text, it does capture the North's perspective during the war with the U.S. .

Excellent Book-Stunning Detail:
This book is really very good. It goes into excellent detail on each facet of Ho Chi Minh's life and gives good interpretations of why he did what he did. Beware though, this is not for the faint of heart. It's 700 pages. I used it for a high school biography paper and read it over the summer--it's very interesting to read. It ranks right up there with Lenin by Robert Service. It really is worth the money.