Nguyen Ai Quoc - a great symbol of patriotism of the Vietnamese people

The patriotic young man Nguyen Tat Thanh

President Ho Chi Minh was the son of Mr. Pho Bang Nguyen Sinh Sac (1862-1929) and Mrs. Hoang Thi Loan (1868-1901). On May 19, 1890, he was born at his maternal home in Hoang Tru village, now in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province. In 1901, when he held a ceremony to enter Kim Lien village (his paternal home), also in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province, his father changed his name to Nguyen Tat Thanh.

In 1903, President Ho Chi Minh followedMr. Nguyen Sinh Sacto Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. During this time, Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac taught Chinese characters at Mr. Nguyen The Van's house. During the time he followed his father to study in Vo Liet, he had the opportunity to listen to current events of the scholars who came to discuss with his father.

In 1965, he recalled to American journalist Anna Louise Strong: “The Vietnamese people, including my father, often wondered who would help them escape from French rule. Some thought it would be England, others thought it would be America. I felt I had to go abroad to see for myself. After seeing how they were doing, I would return to help my people.”^[1].

Panorama of Sen Village, Kim Lien Commune (Nam Dan). Photo courtesy of Nguyen Sach

In 1905, President Ho Chi Minh was asked by Nguyen Sinh Sac to attend the preparatory class of the French-native primary school in Vinh city (Nghe An). It was at this primary school that he first came into contact with the slogan "Freedom - Equality - Fraternity". In the article "Visiting a Communist International soldier - Nguyen Ai Quoc" by Soviet writer Osip Mandelstam published in the magazine "Small Fire" (Ogoniok) No. 39 on December 23, 1923, President Ho Chi Minh recalled: "When I was thirteen years old, I first heard three French words: Freedom, Equality, Fraternity. For us, every white person is French. The French said so. And from that time on, I really wanted to get acquainted with French civilization, wanted to find out what was hidden behind those words."^[2].

Therefore, 110 years ago, on June 5, 1911, at Nha Rong Wharf (Saigon), President Ho Chi Minh, then 20 years old, boarded the French ship L'Admiral Latouche Trévill, a large cargo and passenger ship of the French company Chargeurs Réunis, and asked to be a kitchen assistant to begin his great ideal of saving the country and people.

Regarding this important event, the book “Stories about President Ho’s life and activities” by author Tran Dan Tien wrote: “An intellectual in Saigon told me: “While studying at Chasseloup-Laubat School, I met a young man from the Central region who came to Saigon to stay at a friend’s house. Because we were the same age, we immediately became close friends. I took him to the French café to see the electric lights, the cinema and the water machine. He had never seen those things before.

One day I invited him to eat ice cream. He was very strange. It was the first time he tasted ice cream.

After a few days, he suddenly asked me: "Mr. Le, do you love your country?"

I was surprised and replied: "Of course!".

“Can you keep a secret?”

"Have".

“I want to go out and see France and other countries. After I see how they do things, I will return to help our people. But if I go alone, it is actually risky, like when I get sick… Do you want to come with me?”

“But my friend, where do we get the money to go?”

“Here is the money,” said my friend, holding out his hands. “We will work. We will do anything to live and to go. Will you come with me?”

Fascinated by his enthusiasm, I agreed. But after thinking carefully about the adventure, I did not have enough courage to keep my promise. A few days later, I did not see my friend again. I guessed that he had gone abroad. How did he go? I did not know. Later, I only knew that the enthusiastic patriotic young man was Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc, our President Ho today.^[3].

The Admiral Latouche Treville (L'Admiral Latouche Treville), where Nguyen Tat Thanh worked as a kitchen assistant when he left the country to find a way to save the country (June 1911). Photo courtesy

Nguyen Ai Quoc - the patriotic flag of the Vietnamese people

Abovejourney to find a way to save the countryPresident Ho Chi Minh visited France, America, England... In these places, he studied some of the most typical bourgeois revolutions of modern times and realized the nature of the Western capitalist regime: "internally it deprives workers and peasants, externally it oppresses colonies."^[4]and concluded that "the capitalist revolution is a revolution that has not yet arrived"^[5]. Especially, in the United States, a country that was once a colony of the British and after independence became an advanced capitalist country, he commented: "Although the revolution in America has been successful for more than 150 years, workers and farmers are still suffering and still worrying about a second revolution."^[6].

At the end of 1917, President Ho Chi Minh visited France for the second time. When he first arrived in Paris, he was helped by comrades in the French Socialist Party's Reception Committee for Immigrant Workers. After that, he often met with Vietnamese people in France who had patriotic thoughts such as Phan Chau Trinh and Phan Van Truong. In 1918, President Ho Chi Minh visited the island of Reunion to visit the patriotic king Thanh Thai who was being exiled there. Recalling this, in 1947, when answering members of the royal family, King Thanh Thai said: "As early as 1918, when he escaped abroad, Uncle Ho Chi Minh came to see me on the island of Reunion. Since then, I have seen Uncle Ho Chi Minh as an enthusiastic and wise patriot" (Cuu Quoc Newspaper, No. 748, published on November 6, 1947).

As King Thanh Thai had predicted, President Ho Chi Minh spent a lot of time going deep into areas with a large number of overseas Vietnamese, promoting patriotism, denouncing the crimes of the colonialists and imperialists, gradually gaining the love and trust of the people and becoming one of the key leaders of the Association of Vietnamese Patriots in France. Then, representing the Association of Vietnamese Patriots in France, he used the name Nguyen Ai Quoc to send the "Petition of the Annamese People" to the Versailles Peace Conference on June 18, 1919, demanding that the French Government pardon political prisoners and implement the freedom, democracy and equality rights of the Vietnamese people. On the same day, June 18, 1919, he also sent the Petition to the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, hoping that he would "support it before those in authority". Woodrow Wilson then proposed 14 principles of conduct between nations after the Great War. In particular, Point 14 of this Declaration clearly states: “Establish a League of Nations to ensure independence for all nations in the world, large and small.” “Wilsonism” with its call for “the right to national self-determination” was later assessed by Him as “pie in the sky” and “a big hoax.”^[7].

The Annamese People's Petition sent to the Versailles Peace Conference. Photo courtesy

The petition was published in full in the newspaper “Nhan Dao” (L' Humanité) and in the newspaper “Dan Chung” (Le Populaire). In addition to the French version, the petition also had a Vietnamese version in verse, titled “Viet Nam Request” and a Chinese version titled “An Nam Nhan Dan Thinh Nguyen Thu” to be sent to overseas Vietnamese in France and secretly sent back to Vietnam. Another echo was that the petition was published in the newspaper “Nghi Xa” published in Tianjin (China). On August 2, 1919, President Ho Chi Minh’s article “The Native Issue” published in the newspaper “Nhan Dao” (L' Humanité) also reiterated the main contents of the petition and affirmed that the aspirations of the Vietnamese people were legitimate.

Five days after the Petition was sent, the French President ordered a thorough investigation into the Association of Vietnamese Patriots in France and the representative who sent the Petition under the name “Nguyen Ai Quoc”. While observing President Ho Chi Minh’s speech in Paris, French secret agent Paul Arnoux had a premonition: “This slender and energetic young man could be the one who will put an end to our rule in Indochina.”^[8]. On September 6, 1919, Albert Sarraut - Minister of Colonies (formerly Governor General of Indochina) personally met with Him at the headquarters of the Colonies. The very next day, He wrote a letter demanding that Albert Sarraut implement the Petition: “Following the discussion with you yesterday, I would like to send you herewith a presentation of the Annamese people's demands. Since you kindly told me that you always want to clarify all issues, I would like to ask you to let me know which of our 8 requests have been implemented, and which documents we should refer to to prove it. Because I would like to affirm that all 8 points are still intact and none of them have been satisfactorily resolved.”^[9].

From here, President Ho Chi Minh realized a profound thing: "In life,fight for independenceWe must rely on our own strength to liberate ourselves, never hope to wait for the "favor" of the bourgeois government.^[10]. Later, talking about the patriotism of the Vietnamese people - the driving force for the national liberation revolution, he concluded: “Our people have a passionate patriotism. That is a precious tradition of ours. From ancient times until now, every time the Fatherland is invaded, that spirit boils up again. It forms an extremely strong and huge wave, it overcomes all dangers and difficulties, it drowns all traitors and invaders.”^[11].

Important milestone on the journey to find a way to save the country

After 8 years of President Ho Chi Minh's search for a way to save the country, a major event of the world revolution occurred. In early 1919, Lenin and the Marxists who supported Lenin's stance held a congress in Moscow, the capital of Soviet Russia, and established the Communist International (the Third International). This event encouraged the world revolutionary movement, first of all the international communist and workers' movement in the West and the national liberation movement in the East.

Also in early 1919, President Ho Chi Minh joined the French Socialist Party. Talking about the reason for joining the French Socialist Party, he replied: “I joined the French Socialist Party simply because those “ladies and gentlemen” - that’s what I called my comrades at that time - showed sympathy for me, for the struggle of oppressed peoples.”^[12]. In the last months of 1919, the Communist International Committee of the French Socialist Party was established. The purpose of this Committee was to mobilize the French Socialist Party to join the Communist International and to defend Soviet Russia, which was being fiercely attacked by bourgeois governments, including the French government of Clemanceau.

Nguyen Ai Quoc speaks at the Tours Congress of the French Socialist Party, 1920. Photo: Archive

Therefore, during this time, President Ho Chi Minh always attended meetings of the French Socialist Party and the International Communist Committee of the French Socialist Party. During the meetings, he often informed his French friends about the situation in Vietnam and the crimes of French colonialism there. He also went with a number of members of the French Socialist Party to raise money in the streets of Paris to help the Russian revolution overcome the famine, a consequence of the French Government and the governments of the Allied countries besieging Soviet Russia. Along with raising money, he participated in distributing leaflets of the French Socialist Party calling on the French working people to condemn the armed intervention of the French Government in Soviet Russia and welcome the October Revolution.

Thus, 1919 was an important year in the revolutionary life of President Ho Chi Minh. At the beginning of the year, he joined the French Socialist Party, a left-wing party with a strong tradition of struggle in France. In the middle of the year, he became one of the key leaders of the Association of Vietnamese Patriots in France by signing the Association's representative in the "Demand of the Annamese People". At the end of the year, he actively participated in supporting Soviet Russia and began to have deep sympathy for V. Lenin. In the article “The Path That Led Me to Leninism” on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Lenin’s birth (1960), President Ho Chi Minh recalled: “I respect Lenin because Lenin was a great patriot who liberated his compatriots… At first, it was patriotism, not communism, that led me to follow Lenin and believe in the Third International. Step by step, in the struggle, while studying Marxist-Leninist theory and doing practical work, I gradually understood that only socialism and communism can liberate oppressed peoples and working people around the world from slavery.”^[13].

All these events would lead to a great event in 1920, when President Ho Chi Minh read the “First Draft of Theses on the National and Colonial Questions” by V.I. Lenin in the “Nhan Dao” Newspaper and then he found the right path to save the country for the Vietnamese people. As comrade Le Duan, First Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Workers’ Party, commented: “With a passionate love for the country, President Ho Chi Minh soon came toMarxism-Leninism, found in Marxism-Leninism the light to save the people, save the country... He is the symbol of the quintessence of the Vietnamese nation, of the indomitable will of the Vietnamese people throughout four thousand years of history"^[14].

Hue, June 2, 2021

[1]Nhan Dan Newspaper, May 18, 1965.

[2] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, Volume 1, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, p. 477

[3] Tran Dan Tien: Stories about President Ho's life and activities, Tre Publishing House - National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005, pp. 13-14

[4] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, Volume 1, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi. 2000, p. 268.

[5] Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, volume 2, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, p. 270.

[6] Ho Chi Minh: Complete works, volume 2, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, p. 270.

[7] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, volume 2, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995, p. 416.

[8] Hong Ha, “Uncle Ho's Youth”, Thanh Nien Publishing House, Hanoi, 1976, p. 81

[9] Thu Trang, “Nguyen Ai Quoc in Paris (1917 - 1923)”, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2002, p. 420.

[10] Tran Dan Tien: Stories about President Ho's life and activities, Truth Publishing House, Hanoi, 1975, p.33.

[11] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, volume 7, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2012, p. 38.

[12] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, volume 10, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, p. 127

[13] Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, volume 10, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, p. 127.

[14] Eulogy of the Central Executive Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party at the memorial service for President Ho Chi Minh on September 9, 1969.

Nguyen Van Toan