Ho Chi Minh: Nationalist or Communist First?

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Ho Chi Minh: Nationalist or Communist first? Was Ho Chi Minh a nationalist or a communist first? Would it have been possible for the U.S. to work with Ho despite his communism? Vietnam was the target of French colonialism many years before the rise of the Independence Movement, which emerged in the 1920’s. To the French, Vietnam was a key piece in expanding French international trade and capitalism. In 1941, Ho Chi Minh, together with other Vietnamese Communist and nationalists, created the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh was a national independence movement whose purpose was to “continue the fight against both Japan and France and to gain Vietnamese freedom” (Rotter, 2010). I think the establishment of a nationalist group which fought for the independence of the country was a means to an end, the end being a communist Vietnam. In order to achieve his political and economic ideal of the communist system, Ho needed an independent states which he could turn into a communist nation, but with the French and Japanese blocking his path to this ideal, he needed to take on a nationalist mindset before paving the way for his communist goals. The fact that Ho “expressed his readiness to permit the French to maintain their economic position in Vietnam if they recognized Vietnamese independence” (Rotter, 2010), could lead to the conclusion that Ho was a nationalist first in that building a strong economy is one of the phases leading up to communism. I, however, think that this proposal was just a minor part of his long-run strategy to creating a communist Vietnam. I believe that his intentions were to allow the French to stay so that Vietnam would have extra military support against Japan, for example, until Vietnamese forces were strong enough to deal with their issues without external aid. I think before the Cold War, the Americans were much more willing to aid Ho despite
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