Ho's Communist Party example essay topic

Joel SnokeMrs. RonaneSenior English 1st 12/10/04 Thesis: The US involvement in the Vietnam War was justified. I. Background on Vietnam A. Vietnam pre WWII 1. French A. Colonialism B. Cruelty 2. USA A. Backing Ho Chi Minh B. War with Japan. Vietnam post WWII 1. Ho chi Minh A. Early years B. Political years 2.

Diem A. Anti-communism B. Brutal police II. Tet Offensive. Viet Cong 1. Miscommunication A. Delay of message B. Element of Surprise 2. Failure A. Gi apB.

Media. US 1. Prepared A. Break treaty B. Units on full alert 2. Fought a larger enemy A. Aggressive B. Reason for fighting. Justify 1. Humanitarian A. Troops B. Food 2.

Liberation A. From dictator B. From poverty The Vietnam conflict has been known for being the most unpopular war in the history of the United States. The war of 1812, the Mexican war and the Korean conflict of the early 1950's were also opposed by large groups of the American people, but none of them generated the emotional anxiety and utter hatred that spawned Vietnam. The Vietnam war caused people to ask the question of sending our young people to die in places where they were particular wanted and for people who did not seem especial grateful. Vietnam has a very rich and cultural diverse background dating all the way back to 1066 when William the Conqueror invaded and paved the way for English colonization.

The French had been colonizing since the 19th century. The French role in Vietnam history is critical; they started out by bringing these simple peasants to the latest technology of farming and hunting (Yancey 37). The French helped these people out greatly in the beginning, but like all stories of occupation go they just got worse. They started forcing rules and laws on the people of Vietnam. Thus started the First Vietnam War, also known as the Indochina War between France and Vietnam. 'The French possessed military superiority, but the Vietnamese had already the hearts and minds of the country.

(38). Even from the beginning the Vietnamese had the odds to there favor. The French looked at the wars in numbers and how many lost on each side. They gathered from all the battles that they were winning because the Vietnamese casualties far outweighed the French; nonetheless they were wrong. To a certain point the French were fighting a game that they could not win at any cost.

The French had the military superiority but the Vietnamese had the manpower and the Guerilla tactics. The Indochina War ended with French loosing terrible at Dienbienphu, where a whole French garrison was wiped out. When Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and his political organization, the Vietminh, seized control of their independence from France United States Politicians saw it as another communist take over. When really Ho was more a nationalist than a communist. All Minh wanted was for the United States to recognize its independence from France and to send aid to help it reach its nationalistic goals. 'Before the Cold War Ho and the Vietminh helped rescue downed American pilots, located Japanese prison camps, and provided valuable intelligence to the United States during World War two (Yancey 14).

All Ho Chi Minh was trying to gain from all this was aid and recognition from the United States, but Truman was afraid to give due to the fact he thought of ho as another puppet of the USSR. Ho Chi Minh was soon known by many people from Indochina as their main spokesman. They were amazed by a person who was not afraid to laugh at the French, yet stood up for the people of Indochina. Many people thought that Ho Chi Minh was no more then a legend. When Sun Yat-sen, leader of China's nationalist army, died in 1925, Chiang Kai-she of Moscow was put in charge with military strategist Mikhail Borodin. Chiang chose Ho to be Borodin's advisor and interpreter.

Ho took this position, but began to secretly plan Indochina's first communist organization, set in Canton (Dudley 45). Most of Ho's followers were young Annamese rebels who were sick of being in the Vietnamese Nationalist party and their leader, Pham Boi Chau. The group set up Chau by hurling a bomb at the governor of Indochina's car. Chau disappeared after this. Ho was soon accused of taking a bribe from the French, in exchange for revealing Chau's whereabouts. Chau was said to be executed, but really died naturally while in jail.

Pointing this out got Ho out of trouble for a while. Once Ho's Communist party got going, he set up a training camp for guerrilla techniques. It was called the Wham poa Military Academy. At the academy, the followers were trained in suicide missions. They did strikes on the schools, plantations and mines of Vietnam, hoping to stir up French authorities.

On 18 February 1930, Ho released the plans that his party had to overthrow the French colonist, to make Indochina free, to establish a group of government workers, to stop taxing on the wrong things, to have an eight hour working day, to restore the freedoms of speech and press and to provide educating and to have equality of the sexes. One plan that he did not have was to have freedom of election (45). He said that the French brought election to Indochina. On 12 September 1930, there was a march on the city on Vinh by the Indochina Communist Party. Ho managed to escape, but was sentenced to death, should he ever be caught. Ho hid out in Hong Kong for the next year, but heard the news of his father's death.

He stopped taking care of himself, since he was so saddened by the news. He was caught a year later but Sir Stafford Cripps, his defender in court, was able to bring his sentence down to imprisonment. The Years following his imprisonment are unclear but word came out that Ho Chi Minh was dead. There was nation wide anxiety and mourning. These claims were meet with others saying that they had seen him in many areas of Vietnam (Yancey 14). These rumors were true.

Somehow Ho had escaped, or secretly been set free. Ho was reunited with his party and laid low for a while. In February 1941, Ho finally returned to Vietnamese side of the Tonkin border, kissing the ground the second that he crossed. "On 10 May 1941, Ho met with a group of Communists on Marx Mt., to listen to his new plans to free the country (Yancey 16)".

He planned to form a new group, Vietminh, to fight for the independence of Vietnam. They spent nine days on Marx Mt., discussing their plans to make Vietnam independent. After his summit at Mt. Marx his political career is over and here on out is purely military.

The man who is at the center of the Vietnamese effort and who is also a center of controversy, President Diem of South Vietnam (Yancey 58). He came from an aristocratic Catholic family. This was two strikes against him because at the time the class of Aristocrats was known as greedy and corrupt and Catholics were the minority and unpopular. It was said by an old advisor of Diem that he was so anti-communist that he wasn't pro anything.

"Most villagers were like a leaf in the wind: When the Viet Cong enters, the population turns pro-Communist; when the Government troops arrive, sentiment shifts to the government (59). 'Between Midnight and 3 am, 30 January 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked six cities or towns in the middle section of South Vietnam' (Yancey 119). No other cities were attacked that night due to the fact that Gap, the general for the Viet Cong, had put a twenty-four hour delay on the attacks. The ones that had not gotten the message yet were the ones that attacked. The attacks that night sent a shock wave of demoralization to the Viet Cong, they had lost their element of surprise. The US and South Vietnam forces all prepared their defenses that night knowing that a second prong attack was eminent.

Almost all attacks the following day were fought of swiftly but attacks on Hue and Saigon lasted 2 weeks to a month. Overall the Tet offensive marked the last days of the Viet Cong. The Offensive had used all Viet Cong Soldiers instead of North Vietnamese Army, so their numbers were diminishing. On the home front the media had misconstrued the offensive and had painted it as an American defeat. This brought even lower moral to soldiers that all ready had a hard time fighting a war that was so miss managed. On January the thirtieth the American forces in Vietnam were put on full alert.

The US authorities had thought that the South Vietnamese should be put on alert also. Their leader at the time thought differently. It was Tet, the new years for Vietnam and all the South Vietnamese soldiers were on leave or partying. Almost all the soldiers of the South were never told. On one hand the South Vietnamese people believed that even a Communist dictator would not break the hallowed ness of Tet.

The people spent the night celebrating with parties and fireworks. The hours following the parties were utter chaos. Vietnamese civilians suffered heavy casualties. "The Great Offensive failed with enormous casualties for the communists" (Yancey 120). There were 85,000 men involved on the communist side and 45,000 of them died or where taken prisoner. The Viet Cong had planned on the ARV N (Army of the republic of Vietnam) troops surrendering, but they did not due to the fact that they had lost many a family members to the VC.

One of the greatest things to come out of the war was the humanitarian aid that we brought and the brief liberation. In early 1975, the communists launched a major offensive in the north of South Vietnam that resulted in the fall of Saigon on 30 April. In the previous month a RAAF detachment of 8 Hercules transports flew humanitarian missions to aid civilian refugees displaced by the fighting, and carried out the evacuation of Vietnamese orphans before finally taking out embassy staff on 25 April (Dudley 179). The US did the same exact thing except there were many people left behind that we could not transport due to the importance of emptying out embassy. Over fifty countries pooled resources together but out of all the United States had a much bigger sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of our young men. These men started coming into Vietnam as early as 1962.

The Vietnam War was a very mismanaged war but our involvement was very crucial. Some people believe that the side we were on was wrong, and the author of this completely agrees. Ho Chi Minh was really a quite conservative communist leader. He was fair and he was also was balanced. He treated his people very fairly.

The beliefs of the author are that if Truman would have not set the precedent of opposing all communist leaders than the Vietnam War would have been a lot different..