Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietnamese nationalist movement that fought against the Japanese as well as the French colonialists. Until his death, he was the President of North Vietnam (BBC History, 2014, para. 1).
First Response
In my opinion, the service Ho Chi Minh mentions in his Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is the help the Vietnamese population offered to the French. With the furthering conflict in the World War II between France and Japan, Vietnam also became involved. He examined the issue by saying that in the battle between the two countries over the territory, the republic of Vietnam paid a deadly price.
Furthermore, he states that despite the suffering and misery of the Vietnamese population, the country still helped the French in the battle for supremacy: “Even after the Japanese putsch of March 1945, the Vietminh League helped many Frenchmen to cross the frontier, rescued some of them from Japanese jails, and protected French lives and property” (Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, n.d., para. 18).
Ho Chi Minh put forward an argument that the sovereignty of Vietnam is closely linked to the context of World War II. He makes it clear that the issues and principles that gave a start to the WWII are also applicable to the problem of the independence of Vietnam (Kannan, 2016, para. 3). According to his Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (n.d.), “A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than eight years, 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” (para. 25).
An assertion is made that because the State’s participation in WWII was grounded on self-proclamation, the same can be said about Vietnam and its freedom. Moreover, he outs forward an argument that if the Allied nations came together to battle against Fascism for the right of the nation for self-determination, then the independence of Vietnam should not be even reconsidered.
While addressing the harm the French caused to the Vietnamese population, Ho Chi Minh reflects on the events of the World War II, including the “autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists violated Indochina’s territory to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists went down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them” (Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, n.d., para. 13).
Lastly, Ho Chi Minh started his Declaration of Independence with quotes from Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, n.d., para. 2). Thus, he states that the issue of independence of Vietnam is equal as the freedom of American population from the British.
Second Response
I agree that the services the Vietnamese gave to French included the help during the World War II. However, Ho Chi Minh used some deception methods so that everyone perceived him as a patriot. For instance, in 1945, when he returned to Vietnam and began to lead the revolutionary organization to free the country from French Invaders, his methods were far from humanism. He purged the leaders of the movement to elevate himself to the top position in the country, thus, when the Vietnamese defeated the French in 1954, Ho Chi Minh was the one who received the praise (Ho Chi Minh: The Man Who Deceived the World, n.d., para. 3).
As Ho Chi Minh ruled in Vietnam, he deemed the military forces the protectors of the country at the same time with attacking the South under the cover of the liberation from the American colonialists and invaders. For gaining support from the working class, he used the Labor Party name instead of the Communist party. Such a strategy worked brilliantly when it comes to the relationships both inside and outside the country, including the French.
Ho Chi Minh can be called a political genius who was able to trick the international Allies to support him. Via the means of propaganda and betrayal of the partners, he formed a Communist movement disguised under the Labor Party name and put himself on the top of the ruling pyramid (Ho Chi Minh: The Man Who Deceived the World, n.d., para. 7). However, even at times when Ho Chi Minh was committing crimes against the Vietnamese population, he made sure that the Western countries agreed with his opinions. The only thing that the Western countries like France saw was on the surface. The American experts deemed him ‘saint’ and compared his public speeches to the ones of Martin Luther King.
Nowadays, with all the evidence that support Ho Chi Minh’s crimes, the creation of the National Liberation Front as an illusion of the rebellion alongside with the land reforms that caused the death of thousands Vietnamese, there is no doubt that his struggle for the Vietnamese freedom was created to fulfill personal ambitions rather than care for the nation.
References
BBC History. (2014). Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969).
Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. (n.d.).
Ho Chi Minh: The Man Who Deceived the World. (n.d.).
Kannan, A. (2016). Ho Chi Minh Declaration of Independence. Web.