Rome (VNA) - Dr. Sandra Scagliotti, a researcher on Vietnam and Honorary Consul of Vietnam in Italy’s Turin and Genoa cities, has shared her heartfelt reflections about the enduring legacy of President Ho Chi Minh on the occasion of the late Vietnamese leader’s 135th birthday.
In a recent interview with the Vietnam News Agency, she said what President Ho Chi Minh did for the Vietnamese people and oppressed nations has lived on in the minds and hearts of people globally.
His revolutionary life and career as well as monumental contributions to Vietnam and global movements for liberation carry immense significance. His legacy continues to guide generations of young Vietnamese as the country charts its path in a new era, that of the nation’s rise.
As a national liberation hero, a fighter, an outstanding leader of the Party and people, and a significant figure in the international communist and workers' movement, President Ho Chi Minh travelled globally, exploring the world and observing the living conditions of the poorest citizens. His moral and cultural legacy carries profound value not only in Vietnam but resonates on the international stage, influencing struggles against oppression worldwide while inspiring those fighting for freedom and independence.
Uncle Ho lived in France from 1917 to 1923 where he documented the colonial rule’s brutal realities, she said, adding he engaged in all struggles of the French people. In the 1930s, he also spent time in Italy, with cities like Rome, Milan, Florence, and Genoa bearing his footprints and locals continuing to speak of him with reverence and pride.
Scagliotti cited French historian Alain Ruscio who remarked that the Vietnamese revolutionary leader endured a hundred times the turmoil of an ordinary life. When he returned to his homeland in 1941 and declared Vietnam's independence on September 2, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh, through his actions, voice, and leadership, enabled a small nation lacking weapons and resources to challenge France, a major colonial power.
The Vietnamese people will forever bear in mind Uncle Ho, who guided the nation's liberation, illuminated the path for all oppressed peoples worldwide, and created an irreparable fracture in the dominance of the French colonialism and subsequently global imperialism.
The affection, respect, and admiration for President Ho Chi Minh have always occupied the most beautiful corner in the hearts of people and friends worldwide, including the people of Italy, where he lived and worked during challenging yet proud years as a revolutionary and international proletarian fighter./.
President Ho Chi Minh's image in the hearts of Mimasaka people
Hagiwara said Mimasaka is proud to host the statue “Ho Chi Minh reading a newspaper,” the first of its kind in Japan. Each year, the statue draws numerous visitors from both Japan and abroad who come to pay their respects to the late leader.
