President Ho Chi Minh was worldwide known as a legendary leader when he was alive. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) honoured President Ho Chi Minh as hero of national liberation and great man of culture. So, what make the greatness of Ho Chi Minh?
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President Ho Chi Minh meets with Northern teachers in 1958 (File photo) |
1. Crystallizing the spirit of the times and sublimating the Vietnamese nation from-traditional-to-modern values
Many politicians and scholars abroad have had nice words and respect of utmost degree for Ho Chi Minh’s life and cause. That figure was the crystallization of the most perfect quintessence of human kind and Vietnamese nation, which made Ho Chi Minh’s soul, morality, ideology, and eminent wit. He converged the qualities of Jesus Christ’s fraternity, Buddha’s altruism, and Marx and Lenin’s wit. He also had the same thought of secured and promoted people as Nguyen Trai, a great Vietnamese humanist of the 15th century, and the soul of great poet Nguyen Du who shared the human world’s pain in his masterpiece named “The Tale of Kieu”. Then, that figure led a victorious life full of hardships, sacrifice, extremely sublime and varied, pure and beautiful, devoting his whole life to the cause of revolution, for independence, freedom, and happiness of the Vietnamese and world people.
In his revolutionary cause, Ho Chi Minh was sensitive and wise to realize that the first thing a revolution needed was a political Party, and he creatively applied V.I. Lenin’s doctrine on the new type of party into Vietnamese reality to found the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), educating and training our Party into a true revolutionary one.
Having rich and profound revolutionary experience, he found out the development rule of the Vietnamese revolution in the new era, which is national independence associated with socialism, indicating a historical inevitability for socialism and the path to socialism without capitalist development in Vietnam. In a simple but profound way, he wrote: since nobody can stop the sun from rising, nobody can stop nations from moving forward socialism and communism. It was him who laid the theoretical base for socialism in Vietnam. He was also a reformer who had a view on reform and international integration to develop the country very soon; devoting all of his life and effort to the making of a pure and strong Party, especially when it became a ruling one.
His practical, simple but profound instructions have helped the Party become increasingly stronger and more developed. The Party lives on and sacrifices for the People; in turn, the People put their trust in the Party and follow its ideal and path to independence, freedom, and socialism, national independence associated with socialism. Therefore, the People proudly call the CPV their Party. The Party’s sound leadership is the leading factor for the victory of Vietnamese revolution, opening the Ho Chi Minh era that has been the most glorious one in thousands of years of national history. This is of great significance, sublimating the Vietnamese nation, from-traditional-to-modern values.
2. Turning points in his life and cause
In summer 1911, the young man Nguyen Tat Thanh, aged 21, left Nha Rong Port, and began to place himself in seeking the way to save his country and people. The journey lasted over 30 years across Asia, Europe, Africa, and America including more than 30 countries. In nearly a decade (1911-1920) experiencing the reality, Nguyen Ai Quoc, from a nationalist and a patriot, became a communist, spending his life fighting for the victory, objective and ideal of communism. In 1919, Nguyen Ai Quoc sent the eight-point petition of the Vietnamese people to the Versailles Conference to demand freedom and independence for his people. Thereafter, Duong Cach Menh (The Revolutionary Path) was shaped, later developed into a theoretical book, laying a theoretical foundation and proposing measures for the doctrine of revolution-based liberation, directly preparing for the birth of a new-type revolutionary political party in Vietnam.
The case in which Nguyen Ai Quoc, as a man of 30 from a colony, became one of the founding members of the Communist Party in the mother country was recorded to be seldom in history. At the same age as his, K.Marx and F.Engels wrote the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” with the political slogan “Workers of the world, unite!”, supplemented by V.Lenin (“Workers and Oppressed Peoples and Nations of the World, Unite”), then developed by Nguyen Ai Quoc into “Working Men of All Countries, Unite”, with his ideology of great vision and independent, creative and free thinking. 10 years later, in 1930, at 40, Nguyen Ai Quoc founded our Party, and was the author of the first Political Plaform in the history of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Those steps contributed to the forming of Ho Chi Minh era. Lenin’s theses on the self-determination of nations was accessed and grasped by Nguyen Ai Quoc (in 1920), which was a turning point in his process of finding and selecting the way, like the “Verdict on the French colonial regime” which was a great theoretical work written by Nguyen Ai Quoc in 1925. 20 years later (in 1945), he wrote and delivered the Declaration of Independence in the historical square of Ba Dinh, Ha Noi. He not only gave birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, but also announced the end of French colonialism, bringing the Vietnamese nation to freedom and democracy.
Ho Chi Minh’s greatness and legend was also marked as an unforgettable turning point when he wrote the Testament for his people and comrades, 20 years after the Declaration of Independence. This sacred historical document was first written in May 1965 when he was at 75. For every year later on, he contemplated the correction of each sentence and word, putting all his trust in us. Most of his Testament was written about the People, Country and Party. Only 79 out of 1,000 words he wrote were about himself. Even those very few 79 words were plentiful of love and care for his people. People’s happiness is his life ambition and desire. This makes his greatness and nobility. His death day (September 2nd, 1969) coincided with the country’s Independence Day. At that moment before, he had been writing and correcting his Testament, reading newspapers, treasuring and nurturing “good people did good deeds” examples for us.
20 years after the “Calling for National Resistance” which was seen as the country’s proclamation “We'd rather sacrifice everything than lose the country and be enslaved”, he made another call for a resistance war against the U.S. (1966) with a historical message “Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”. That message is the greatest truth of the history, being the best choice, forever brightening Vietnamese strongwill and dignity with the most perfect typical example- Ho Chi Minh. His 79 year life was closely linked with the people, the country and the times. All of which converge on “Patriot”-his name.
3. His pure revolutionary ethics, simple life, and stance to stand aside reputation and interests, wholeheartedly serving the people and country make the greatness of Ho Chi Minh
Ethics and practising ethics are predominant and consistent issues in the ideology and moral example of Ho Chi Minh. He required very high standards for revolutionary ethics. According to him, a revolutionary person must be perfect in four characters, including: diligence, thrift, honesty, and righteousness. It was him who set a bright example for party members and cadres to follow.
Ho Chi Minh’s greatness, which is extremely truthful, touching, impressive, is manifested in his humility, love, thoughtfulness, compassion, simple life, and natural but subtle manner.
In the last moments of his life, he still cared about his compatriots and comrades, waited for announced victories, worried about people’s life in flooded areas, reminded education sector about schools and teaching. He refused being awarded an order, explaining that when the South was liberated, he would eager to get one from the Southerners. And the truth is that he left us without any orders. From the bottom of his heart, he said that “I have not finished what I started”. That was why he found himself not deserving to be honoured. He lived for the people, only wishing to witness the victory in the South.
The greatness of Ho Chi Minh is also menifested, first and foremost, in the way that he is Human, and finally he is still Human. Though honoured to be a god, and admired as a god, he was not surreal; he lived in people’s mind and life.
History is always explicit. The truth is always simple. The love, emotion, and glorification the country and the world give him forever the encouragement and spiritual motivation for development. What has deeply imprinted on people’s heart and mind will live forever. Ho Chi Minh is such a case which will live forever with Vietnamese people and human kind.
Prof, PhD. Hoang Chi Bao
Central Theoretical Council