British historian highlights significance of President Ho Chi Minh’s trip to London

London (VNA) – President Ho Chi Minh’s three-year trip to London more than a century ago had an important meaning to his revolutionary career, British historian John Callow, former Director of Archives, Marx Memorial Library, has said.

Talking to Vietnam News Agency, Callow held that London was a destination for Ho Chi Minh after a long journey to many other places because that was known as the workshop of the world. It was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, the centre of the greatest empire in terms of land mass that the world had ever known, and the world's top financial centre. His journey is intensely practical and a way to discover the politics, the economics and the cultures of very different civilisations, the scholar stated.

He stressed that it was a brave step for Ho Chi Minh to leave his homeland with a desire to learn, to witness with his own eyes the fast changing world, and to see for himself the bases of the imperial power.

“During his tour, he got a sense of change, a possibility and the power of an organised working class to make progressive change. He could take certain lessons back home with him to change the lives and the realities of the Vietnamese people for the better. But from London, he had some weed,” he said.

 

In Thailand, Nguyen Thi Xuan Oanh, a member of the management board of the Ho Chi Minh Monument Site in Udon Thani province said President Ho Chi Minh is admired and respected among overseas Vietnamese youngsters.

 

Speaking to Vietnam News Agency in Thailand on the occasion, Oanh said that older generations of Vietnamese community in the province have worked to maintain Vietnamese language for their offspring, ensuring that they know well about Vietnam and the late President. She expressed her hope that the Party and State will coordinate with the Vietnamese community in Thailand to teach Vietnamese language to the third and fourth generations of overseas Vietnamese in Thailand, thus maintaining and promoting the national tradition in the country.

Udon Thani, the largest province in the northeastern region of Thailand, is hosting the largest number of overseas Vietnamese in Thailand.

President Ho Chi Minh arrived in the province in July, 1928. During his stay until 1929, the leader used the name of “Thau Chin” and resided in Nong Bua area, which is near the train station of Udon Thani province today. He then moved to Nong Om hamlet in Chiang Phin commune, Muang district, which is 12km from Udon Thani.

With the support of overseas Vietnamese and locals of Thailand, the leader worked to reinforce the “Hoi Viet Nam Cach mạng Thanh nien” (Vietnamese revolutionary youth union) in the country. Despite his short time in the locality, the President won deep sentiments from the Vietnamese and local communities there. In 2002, the local administration and the Vietnamese Association in Udon Thani coordinated to build a 10,000sq.m monument site commemorating the Vietnamese national leader.

Meanwhile, to mark the 132rd birthday of President Ho Chi Minh, a contest themed “rich and beautiful Vietnamese language” was held for Vietnamese students in Kazan city, the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The contest aims to create an interesting playground for students to explore the beauty of the Vietnamese language, thus promoting traditional culture and the Vietnamese language among the Vietnamese community./.