Friends of Ho > Development Trip 

 The development trip consisted of various meetings with former friends of Uncle Ho and officials with the Ministry of Culture and the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Audio interviews were done with over 20 of Uncle Ho’s friends, both famous and not so famous. The focus of these interviews was to help flesh out unique aspects of his personality that helped him mold his nation. His sense of humor is an important characteristic and one rarely covered in other media.

 The following are brief summaries and photos of four of the people that Director Mickey Grant visited.

 After two months of meetings with various officials, I finally realized I had permission to do the film when a jeep picked me up and I was driven to the private residence of one of the most influential military men of the 20^th Century, General Vo Nguyen Giap. We were able to chat for hours about Uncle Ho. He told me that Uncle Ho often visited his house and played with his children. I felt these kinds of stories would be very revealing. He indicated that he would be happy to talk on camera about these visits. Most important, he told me of his first military excursion against the French. He had next to no weapons but plenty of potential soldiers in the war against the Colonist French. With a handful of men, they disguised themselves as French soldiers returning to their garrison at dinnertime. During dinner, the French soldiers would stack their guns in a weapons room before sitting for their meal and wine. The fort doors were opened for what appeared to be some French soldiers, and General Giap and his men overwhelmed them, immediately taking over the weapons room and then the dining hall. They repeated this trick in another French fort that night, capturing over 1,000 French soldiers and their weapons. I plan to take General Giap back to this site to tell the story with some re-creation interspersed with archival footage. I expect to shoot hours of material with General Giap.

Mr. Chau submitted the painting to Uncle Ho who at first chastised him, saying not waste his blood but save it for the battlefield. Nevertheless, it got Uncle Ho’s attention and he requested for young Mr. Chau to come join him. Mr. Chau told me a story of how he, Uncle Ho, a body guard and some others traveled through the mountains north of Hanoi. Uncle Ho had a dog named “Black” and a monkey he had trained. Often they had to traverse streams and Uncle Ho had trained the monkey to ride on the back of the dog. Mr. Chau has many stories about their travels in the mountains. They always had to pick locations for their encampments that backed to caves in case the French found their location and sent aircraft to attack them. One day they were looking for an encampment and Mr. Chau felt he had found a perfect location with a cave. He called to Uncle Ho who came to where he was standing. When Mr. Chau asked Uncle Ho what he thought of the location, Uncle Ho stared off toward the horizon and responded, “not good enough view!” Mr. Chau looked very depressed as they had been looking hard all day. Suddenly, Uncle Ho started laughing very hard. Of course it was a fine location. Mr. Chau has hundreds of stories to help reveal Uncle Ho’s personality.

I first met Mr. Ta Quang Chien toward the end of my interview with General Giap. They are both very good friends. Mr. Chien worked very closely as Uncle Ho’s bodyguard and his assistant since 1945. I asked him to write me something about Uncle Ho as I was departing Hanoi the following day. He wrote the following: 

 Another major leader that I wasn’t able to interview when I was in Hanoi was Pham Van Dong, Vietnam’s first Prime Minister, was treated by Alan Hinerfeld as Phang Van Dong Health was bad and continues to be so. Alan is a doctor, photographer and co-producer of this project. Health permitting, hopefully we’ll be able to gain much insight into Uncle Ho’s personality through him.

  There were many other people interviewed during this development trip. A critical person in making this project possible is Mr. Vu Ky who was Secretary to President Ho Chi Minh for many years (1945-1969). After Ho Chi Minh’s death he became the Director of the Museum of Ho Chi Minh Historical Relics. Mr. Vu Ky is likely the most knowledgeable of Uncle Ho. He recommended that I meet with the previous mentioned persons as well as General Van Tien Dung and Mr. To Huu, poet and politician. He has also encouraged the inclusion of Ho’s foreign friends, which include Americans, British, French, Indians, Chinese and others. Mr. Vu Ky encourages Mickey Grant to include interviews with Vietnamese Buddhist and Christians who knew Uncle Ho.

 Mickey Grant would like to add the following:

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