Friends of Ho

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Uncle Ho’s Early Life

As was earlier stated, much is unknown about most of his life, especially the early years. The Vietnam into which Ho was born in approximately 1890 was bitter land; the French ruled, but they ruled by force alone. What is of interest to me is to paint a picture of the area where he was born through the eyes of those who knew him when he was a child. Ho grew up in the province of Nghe Thinh, in central Vietnam, an area far from the lush delta of the north and the even more lush one of the south. This province was infertile, impoverished, and was known for its scholars. It was a very densely populated area of Vietnam, which meant peasants had very little land, usually only one fifth of an acre. This lack of land caused much discontent and the area was known as a breeding ground for dissatisfaction. Ho’s father, Nguyen Sing Huy, was in the tradition of many of those in this area who were dissatisfied and considered of the radical tradition. His father even participated in the Scholars’ Revolt of 1885.

This is very relevant history, but what I want the film to focus on and in a way also indirectly reveal this history, deals with the following questions to explore with the few childhood acquaintances that are still alive: What were the games he liked to play? What practical jokes did he play on his friends? Ho’s was a very hard childhood, but it was a time he saw and learned much. Still it was a childhood, but very contrasted to the childhood of the mandarins and Caucasians whose books he often read. In effect, this film will be an emotional journey through his life. Exact chronology will be of secondary importance. Other aspects to explore would deal with his family’s relationship with the French and any early events in his life that helped create his revolutionary spirit.

It is the way that people most often tell their stories and the likely contradictions between these stories which we hope to discover some revelation about Ho. Especially the stories about his childhood may reveal through flaws of the memories of those telling the stories many interesting contradictions.

Uncle Ho’s Years Abroad

In 1912, at the age of twenty-two, Ho decided to leave Vietnam for the West, to study the European world. Some French and Americans would later be puzzled as to how Ho, after spending so many years outside of Vietnam, could return to become such as immediately viable political force in his native land. The reason is that these were the right years to be our of Vietnam. Only by not being there could a Vietnamese have the full freedom to say what he felt, and what his countrymen longed to hear.

Ho began his travels as a mess boy on the French liner Latouche-Treville. He spent two years aboard the ship, touring all the ports of Africa and Europe. He finally left eh ship to work in England, during World War I. He was a pastry cook at the Carlton Hotel, living the darkest and poorest kind of life while working in the plushest kitchen and serving the richest people in the world. At this time he also had his first contact with exiled Asians, joining the Lao Dang Nagai, a Chinese group of expatriates.

As the First World War continued during its worst and darkest days, he traveled to France. It was here that the Ho Chi Minh that the world came to know truly emerged. It is also this period that the film will mostly explore in detail through people that knew him at that time.

Uncle Ho, the Father of the Revolution

This part of the film will explain his later years through the eyes of such people as General Giap and others such as the OSS Saigon station chief, Major Archimedes Patti. Mr. Patti, even during his subsequ3ent two decades in the CIA, remained a strong supporter of Ho and tried to constantly convince American president after president to listen to Ho. Again, the film will strive to reveal these elements but still focus primarily on what kind of person Ho truly was. Much has been done to reveal the history, but little has been done to reveal the man. In the end, the anonymity of Ho’s life will probably still exist but maybe, just maybe, the exploration of this anonymity will enhance our understanding of this man which Time magazine once called a “tubercular agitator who learned his trade in Moscow.” By understanding how this Vietnamese Everyman gained his strength by shunning monuments and marshal’s uniforms and overcame the greatest powers on Earth, this might help us, the former colonialist of the world, to learn how to best live with our brothers as well as ourselves. FRIENDS OF UNCLE HO is not a journalistic report about Ho’s life but the viewer will nevertheless gain a special insight into the culture and history that molded this extraordinary individual.