British historian John Callow (Photo: VNA) According to the historian, as part of his greatjourney, in May 1914, President Ho Chi Minh, called Nguyen Tat Thanh at that time, came to London - the power centre of imperialism, the financialcentre of capitalism and the capital of a system that stretched to India throughAfrica. The UK, at that time, was still the workshop of the world, withenormous fleets and armies.
President Ho Chi Minh wanted to learn about secrets ofimperialism, and to have a sense of the developed industrial world. There hadbeen risings against imperialists, colonists and capitalism, but these had allfailed. President Ho Chi Minh wanted to understand reasons behind thosefailures and find out different patterns to development for Vietnamese peopleas a nation.
He arrived in London at time of great industrialunrest with a lot of strikes, such as the one in Liverpool and the Irishpeople’s rising in 1916 to fight for their own independence. According to Callow,this was a crucial period that affected President Ho Chi Minh enormously.
When in London, the President first took a jobshovelling snow in a school playground in the incredibly cold. He then moved toDrayton Court Hotel on the railway line, further to the east, before working atthe Carlton Hotel, where the President washed dishes, and later became askilled worker under the wing of the great pastry chefs. Here he saw the gulfthat separated the rich from the poor.
He was shocked at the waste that therich who ate here, throwing out whole chickens or whole sides of steak. Hecollected these together, and every night dispersed them to the poor who waitedat the back of the building here for something to eat. While being here, PresidentHo Chi Minh joined an organised labour association that brought togetherChinese, Lao and Vietnamese workers.
The British historian said much of what we know about PresidentHo Chi Minh in this period comes from the postcards he sent to his friends andcomrades in Paris, three of which had got intercepted.
The French police’s records also showed reports on aVietnamese worker in London joining the movement of trade unionists. Accordingto Callow, President Ho Chi Minh probably lived in a little flat just at theback of Tottenham Court Road as the French police intercepted some of hiswritings and had the English police raid the address. But he was long gone bythen.
At that time, the British labour movement was verywell developed with a lot of socialist writings. President Ho Chi Minh got alot of social socialism journals, so it was probably the first time heencountered the work of Karl Marx in London.
Callow pointed out that President Ho Chi Minh waswalking in the footsteps of the father of modern socialism.
What he got from Marx would be an explanation for allthe things he saw in this period, the historian said, adding this was thebedrock of the President’s political economy and thought.
But at the very same time, President Ho Chi Minh leftBritain just after the 1917 revolution in Russia and was also incrediblyinfluenced by Lenin's work on the colonial peoples.
Callow said the brilliance of President Ho Chi Minhwas looking at the founders of scientific socialism, of Marx and Angles, butthen updating what they were saying and combining with the new thoughts ofLenin that spoke directly to the peasant workers and peoples of the world anddirectly had an impact on a country like Vietnam which was colonised,brutalised under the thumb of the great trading companies.
The historian said the greatness of Ho Chi Minh washis ability not to follow ideas for their own sake, but to take ideas, tocreate and develop them, and to never lose sight of the need for the nationalliberation of the Vietnamese people to make their lives better, healthier,happier, more decent.
Speaking of President Ho Chi Minh’s thought, Callowsaid its greatness lied with its adaptability, its refusal to turn Marxism intoa dogma, into something to be worshipped, to be nodded at, but to make itapplicable in Vietnam, to never lose sight of the revolutionary conditions.
The President thought every day and every night aboutachieving his goal of revolution, and to have a revolution that would be reallyworthwhile to sweep away the empires that dominated the fates and the lifechances of the Vietnamese people and to put something better and brighter intheir place.
Callow noted that President Ho Chi Minh took the besttraditions of Vietnamese culture, of it's amazing ancient society that existedlong before the City of London, but put it within new times.
His thought gave the Communist Party of Vietnam theadaptability that led them to Doi Moi (Reform).
Speaking of personal qualities of President Ho ChiMinh that made him an outstanding leader, Callow said alongside his enormouspolitical qualities for organisation and inspirational leadership, there wasalso the essential simplicity of the President.
“He had an amazing intellect but he had never lost hiscontact with the people, whether it was the people of London or small farmersof Vietnam that he spoke to directly. He never lost sight of the peoplethemselves and did not let power go to his head. He did not set himself apartfrom the people. He understood the people and was a part of the people, but wasa leader of the world in the true sense,” the historian said.
“He was humble, quiet and unassuming, and brave andhad enormous dignity at the same time. His poetic Prison Diary gave a sense ofthe man himself. His humanity, his calmness under great stress, his creativitythat he used in jail turned out a work of art, a work of poetry and a work tofire the imagination of his comrades in the underground movement.”
The historian concluded that President Ho Chi Minh wasa great world figure who could combine intellect with passion, with decency,with the sense of a man who was absolutely incorruptible and put the people ofhis own nation before everything else in his life. And his work, while it isart or politics, was always there first and foremost at the service of thepeople./.
VNA
