HCM - The Missing Years (Eng)
HCM - The Missing Years (Eng)
SOPHIE QUINN-JUDGE
ABBREVIATIONS
ACP: Annam Communist Party
AOM Archives d'Outre-Mer
BNTS: Ho Chi Minh: Bien Nien Tien Su (Ho Chi Minh: A Year-by-year
Biography)
CC: Central Committee
CCP: Chinese Communist Party
CYL: Communist Youth League
DDCSD: Dong Duong Cong San Dang (Indochinese Communist Party)
ECCI: Executive Committee of the Communist International
FCP: French Communist Party
FEB: Far Eastern Bureau
GMD: Guomindang
ICP: Indochinese Communist Party
MAE: Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres
NCLS: Nghien Cuu Lich Su (Historical Research)
NXB: Nha Xuat Ban (publishing house)
OMS: Otdel Mezhdunarodnoi Sviazi (International Communications Section)
RC: Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Modern
History
SHAT SLOTFOM: Service de Liaisons avec les Originaires des Territoires de
la France d'Outre-Mer
SMP: Shanghai Municipal Police Files
SPCE: Service de Protection du Corps Expeditionnaire
VNQDD: Vietnam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnam Nationalist Party or Vietnam
GMD)
VNTNCMDCH: Vietnam Thanh Nien Cach Mang Dong Chi Hoi (The
Comrades Association of Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth, Thanh Nien)
***
PLACE-NAMES
I have retained the English forms of Canton for Guangzhou, Swatow for
Shantou and Whampoa for Huangpu because these terms are so strongly associated
with the events of the first united front in China, and/or occur frequently in the
documents from which I cite. Otherwise I have converted all Chinese place names to
the Pinyin form, unless the older form occurs in a direct quote. I refer
interchangeably to Tonkin or Bac-ky, Annam or Trung-ky, and Cochinchina or Nam-
ky throughout the text. The use of the administrative terms imposed by the French
does not imply a recognition of the French divisions of Vietnam, but simply reflects
the terminology which was current during the colonial period.
INTRODUCTION
Ho's journalistic efforts seem to have been receiving only lukewarm support
from his socialist friends. The draft pamphlet on French colonialism which he had
completed in 1920 was still without a publisher. Marcel Cachin gave evasive replies
about the possibility of having it published by L'Humanite - he explained that the
paper's circulation had dropped since the Socialist schism at the Tours Congress and
that he could not afford to pay an advance. 92 Still Ho did publish the odd article: one
in Charles Rappoport's monthly Revue Communiste of 14 April 1921, and another in
L'Action Coloniale of 10 June. The first of these, buried on page 133, was a variation
on what was to become his constant refrain - the failure of communist parties to act
on the colonial question. This inactivity was astonishing, he wrote, 'especially now
that there is no longer an internal debate in the purified party...' His article in Action
Coloniale made a comparison between the relatively liberal colonial policy of Japan
in Korea and French policies in Indochina. The Japanese had decreed in August 1919
that their colony would have autonomy and that her citizens would enjoy equal rights
with Japanese. 'The French government', Ho wrote, 'still has the naivete to believe
that in Indochina, to win the attachment of the natives, it is enough to dupe them
indefinitely with official speeches...'
In the summer of 1921, as the Group of Vietnamese Patriots seemed to be
drifting apart, M. Deveze's informers reported frequent, noisy discussions at 6 Villa
des Gobelins. In early July, the two Phans and Ho held a 'violent discussion' from 9 in
the evening until the early morning hours. 93 In September more of these exchanges
were recorded. In October Phan Chu Trinh moved out to rue Pernety. We have no
way of knowing what the group discussed or whether there were major political
disagreements among them. The break-up of their communal living arrangement and
their future political course must have provided plenty of meat for arguments,
however. But it was clearly not the case that Ho Chi Minh had a serious falling out
with his two colleagues, as has often been assumed in the past. 94 Although Phan Chu
Trinh's letters of 1922 and 1923 make clear that he disagreed with Ho's attachment to
Marxism, he maintained an open-minded interest in Ho's activities and often attended
political meetings with him. Phan Van Truong seems to have taken greater offence at
Trinh's behaviour, which
became somewhat erratic after his son's death.95 But Truong himself
remained, in the eyes of the Sûreté, a political extremist. As late as February 1922
they still suspected that Nguyen Ai Quoc may have been acting on his behalf, as his
'conscious or unconscious agent'.96
The topics of debate among the Vietnamese activists probably included the
invitation to join an Intercolonial Union, from a Malagasy lecturer at the School of
Oriental Languages, with the elegant name of Stephany Oju Oti.97 Stephany was
already involved with the journal Action Coloniale. The Union held its inaugural
meeting in October 1921, after several months of preparation. A number of the other
members were supporters of the Third International, and the Union was openly
affiliated with the French Communist Party. The new organization defined its
function as the study of colonial politics and economics, but it also came to play the
role of a mutual aid society. Ho attended the first meeting with Phan Van Truong and
a nephew who had moved into 6 Villa des Gobelins. He spoke with his usual
vehemence against French colonial policy and bureaucrats. (The Sûreté, also true to
form, had an anonymous informer there, most likely Nguyen Van Ai, known as
Agent de Villier.)98 Ho joined the executive committee, along with six others, lawyers
and small businessmen, from Reunion, Dahomey, Guadeloupe, the Antilles,
Martinique and Guyana. He was made one of the treasurers who collected the
members' dues every four months. The Union was soon dependent on him to man
their office in the heart of the Latin Quarter at rue du Marche des Patriarches. The
group also relied on him to get out their newspaper he Paria, which started to appear
in April 1922.99
The Intercolonial Union became Ho's new base, replacing the Group of
Vietnamese Patriots and the perhaps non-existent 'Revolutionary Group of
Vietnamese' (the Group of Vietnamese Patriots joined the Union en masse). Aside
from the communist party, he now had an officially recognized organization, one
with legal statutes and dues-paying members, to back his journalistic efforts and even
to provide an office. Le Paria began with a subscription list of 103 names, 100 and soon
reached a print run of 2,000 copies. (In April 1923 it had to be temporarily cut back
to 1,000 copies and a single sheet, as advertising revenues were nonexistent.) 101 By
June 1922 Ho claimed to have found 150 Indochinese subscribers - but three of these
belonged to the Service de Renseignements in Marseille.102 Some issues of the
simple, mimeographed paper did get back to Vietnam - two subscriptions came in
from Vietnamese interpreters at the Residence Superieur in Hanoi. Ho suspected,
however, that these too were from the intelligence services. 103 He was soon spending
less time on photo-retouching, and more on his journalism and political life. In 1922
he chose to ignore his current employer's threats and attended a May Day
demonstration, with the result that he lost his job. 104 After that he made some money
by painting decorations on fans and window blinds, but he may also have received a
subsidy for his work at he Paria. Journalism would become both his profession and
cover during his years as an underground communist agent.
By 1922 Nguyen Ai Quoc had become a full-time communist publicist, with
colonial questions and Indochinese independence as his fields of interest. He attended
the French Communist Party's (FCP) First Congress in Marseille in December 1921,
as well as the second, held in Paris in October 1922. On the latter occasion he may
have been noticed by one of the guests from Moscow, Dmitry Manuilsky. 105 In April
1922 he attended a meeting of the newly-formed Committee for Colonial Studies
which the FCP had established at its First Congress.106 He may by this time have
developed friendships with Chinese student activists in Paris, where in 1921 Zhou
Enlai and Deng Xiaoping collaborated to publish a Chinese language paper known as
Youth from a flat near the Place d'ltalie, not far from Villa des Gobelins. Ho is said to
have introduced some of the better French speakers among the Chinese into the FCP,
including the two sons of CCP leader Chen Duxiu.107 We do not know if Ho belonged
to their Communist Youth League at this point. By 1921 the Chinese communists in
France had established their own links to Berlin and Moscow. As a large proportion
of the 2,000 Chinese students in France were involved in work-study schemes, many
lived in the provinces or in working-class suburbs of Paris such as Billancourt. 108 Ho,
on the other hand, was heavily involved with his fellow colonial subjects and FCP
activities.
How effective Ho was as a propagandist is difficult to judge. There is little
evidence regarding the circulation of he Paria within Vietnam, especially before
1925. Getting his message out to his countrymen was becoming increasingly
complicated. The number of Vietnamese troops and workers in France was dropping
off - by June 1920 there were 19,000 Indochinese left, down from 60,000 the
previous July. By 1926 there would be only 2,670 officially resident in France. 109 The
Ministry of Colonies and its Marseille watchdog, Léon Josselme, had become adept
at intercepting mail which went by sea (although they could be deceived by items
hidden inside other publications). Ho's audience was more and more one of left-wing
Europeans and colonial fellow-travellers. Thanks to Albert Sarraut's image as a
reforming Governor General, some Frenchmen who might otherwise have been
sympathetic to Ho's exposes felt that his criticisms of French policy were overstated.
In November 1921, a search of Ho's room by the Service de Renseignements
produced a revealing (but undated) letter from an official of the Human Rights
League, Gabriel Seailles. He was writing to acknowledge a copy of the 'Vietnamese
Demands' which had been sent to the League's Central Committee. Their response
was based on consultations with Sarraut's office. 'They say that you haven't taken into
account the reforms accomplished by M. Sarraut,' Seailles wrote. 'There must be a
misunderstanding here. Your proposals are formulated in too general a manner. It
would be in your interest to communicate your complaints with more precision.' In
any case, the writer believed, reform of the colonial justice system had already been
carried out; liberty of the press had been granted; liberty of education was something
which Sarraut was occupying himselfwith.110 In reality Sarraut's reforms were slow to
take shape, and the freedoms which Vietnamese enjoyed remained those of second-
class citizens. In March 1926 a list of demands presented at a public meeting in
Saigon by Nguyen An Ninh repeated several of the key points from the Group of
Patriots' 1919 petition.111
Phan Chu Trinh, himself frustrated at being unable to return to Vietnam, came
to the conclusion in early 1922 that it was time for Ho Chi Minh to return home.
Trinh had been given employment as a photographer at the Colonial Exhibition in
Marseille, thanks to his supporters in the Socialist Party. But the letter which Trinh
wrote to Ho in February 1922 reveals that he had no rosy illusions about French
intentions towards his country, or about his own potential to bring about change. Ho's
knowledge would be wasted, the old scholar believed, if he remained in France. The
time had come to take the lessons of Marxism-Leninism back to Vietnam to try them
out. He wrote in a spirit of reconciliation:
Because of our disagreements you have called me a 'conservative and
backwards scholar'...I'm not the least bit angry about this label, because I read French
poorly and I can't understand perfectly the works produced in this civilized land. I am
an exhausted horse who can no longer gallop; you are a fiery stallion...But I'm
sending this letter because I hope you will listen and prepare your grand design. From
East to West, from Antiquity to the present day, no one has acted as you have, in
staying abroad on the pretext that your country is full of traps...To awaken the people,
so that our compatriots will engage in combat against the occupiers, it is
indispensable to be there...Following your method you have sent articles to the press
here to incite our compatriots to mobilize their energy and spirit. But this is vain.
Because our compatriots can't read French or even quoc ngu; they are incapable of
understanding your articles!112
Whether the old-fashioned Phan Chu Trinh, who himself still wrote mainly in
Chinese, had any influence on Ho is hard to tell - but one senses that after his
criticism, Ho worked harder than ever to keep the colonial issue in the public eye.
Intelligence reports in 1922 describe him as 'indefatigable'. 'Nguyen Ai Quoc is
engaged in active communist propaganda in Vietnamese circles in Paris,' Pierre
Guesde wrote to Hanoi in July; 'and he is putting all his energy into attending
meetings in the capital and the suburbs.' 113 Guesde noted that Ho had been admitted
into the Freemasons. He listed the meetings which Ho had attended within the last
week:
- Two meetings of the Directing Committee of the Socialist Party-
Communist;
- A public meeting organized by the Communist Party in FJagnolet, to
support the Russian Revolution;
- Two meetings of the Club du Faubourg, Salle Printania, Ave. de Clichy;
- An evening at the Masonic Lodge at 94 Ave. de Suffren.
In addition, he made approaches to the editorial offices of various
newspapers, notably L'Humanite, Journal du Peuple and La Bataille Syndicaliste.
Not long afterwards the Vietnamese activists and Ho started to examine ways
of approaching the non-intellectual members of their community. Articles in Le Paria
and L'Humanite were a means to draw in educated Vietnamese, but Phan Chu Trinh
was right to point out that these would reach only a small proportion of their potential
supporters. The views of the Comintern and the FCP on mass organizing may also
have influenced their actions. In February and May 1923 the core group of
Vietnamese activists began to discuss new initiatives. They had been joined towards
the end of 1921 by a young northern intellectual named Nguyen The Truyen, who
quickly became one of Ho's closest collaborators. The son of a district official from
Nam Dinh, Truyen had received a French diploma in chemistry, but clearly had a
stronger interest in writing and journalism. In 1922 he had become the latest resident
of 6 Villa des Gobelins and at the end of the year began to work on Le Paria.114
In February 1923 Phan Van Truong, Ho and Tran Tien Nam discussed
recreating the old 'Fraternal Association' which Truong and Phan Chu Trinh had
started in 1912. The goal would be to unite the poorer Vietnamese manual workers in
France, who as Truong said, 'were badly paid, badly nourished, badly housed and
sometimes scorned by their employers...'115 Phan Van Truong was advised not to take
the presidency of the group, as his political notoriety might scare off potential
members who would be frightened of reprisals. At a recent gathering of the
Intercolonial Union, in fact, Truong had given a talk on Vietnam, in which he stated
that 'national liberty of self-determination could exist only when all peoples had
understood the necessity of communism, which would end the exploitation of man by
man and place all races on an equal footing.116 At an April meeting, Phan Chu Trinh
was proposed as president, but Phan Van Truong protested, saying that he
categorically refused to work with his former collaborator. 117 How this difficulty was
solved is not clear.
In May Ho himself sent out a subscription advertisement for a new quoc ngu
bi-monthly newspaper, to be called Viet Nam Hon (The Soul of Vietnam). His
announcement promised 'Asia, Europe, India and America all summarized in one
paper. Women and children will be able to understand.' It would be a paper 'in our
language, which my brothers will be able to read.' The first issue was to be of 100
copies. The subscription forms were to be returned to 3 rue du Marche des
Patriarches, the offices of Le Paria.118 This may be a sign that Ho had taken to heart
the reproaches of Phan Chu Trinh regarding his elite-oriented journalism. He seems
to have run out of time for this new project, however. On 13 June 1923 he would
suddenly disappear from his home in Paris, and would not be spotted again by the
French authorities until autumn, when his name would appear in the Moscow press.
Nguyen The Truyen would become the editor of Vietnam Hon.
How his voyage to Moscow was organized and who the instigator was not
known. The idea that he was spotted by a Comintern talent scout such as Manuilsky
at the French Party's 1922 Congress is plausible, but it does not appear, as the next
chapter will show, that he went to Moscow as someone who had already been picked
out for long-term Comintern service. It is equally plausible that he and the members
of the Intercolonial Union desired direct contact with the Comintern so that they
could provoke more action within the the FCP on colonial issues. Ho himself may
have initiated the trip in order to explore ways of getting back to Indochina with
Comintern support (the next chapter explores Ho's early contacts with the
Comintern). But it would appear that the Vietnamese patriots in France were
preparing some kind of concerted action. By June the Sûreté had heard that Phan Chu
Trinh was trying to return to Paris from Castres, where he had gone after his
unannounced departure from the Colonial Exhibition in Marseille. 119 Trinh wrote to
Ho to ask for a loan of 340 francs to pay for his travel and living expenses until he
could find work in Paris. But as Ho himself was short of money, and none of the
other Vietnamese were inclined to advance this sum, it may be that Ho Chi Minh and
Phan Chu Trmh missed this last chance to meet.120
Ho's departure from Paris was a carefully organized operation. In early June
he put out the word that he would be going on an eight-day holiday in the Savoie
region with the Club du Faubourg. He had confessed to the concierge at 6 Villa des
Gobelins that he would have liked to go to the Swiss Alps, but that he didn't want to
face the humiliation of being refused a passport. Then on 15 June Agent 'Desire'
reported that on the 13th Nguyen Ai Quoc had left his residence without any luggage.
His friends seemed to think that his holiday would be a brief one. The office hours at
the Union were covered by Monnerville from Martinique; at a meeting of the Paria
group at the end of June, none of the six people present, including Phan Van Truong
and Nguyen The Truyen, volunteered to get the paper ready for the printer. 'They
decided to wait for the return of Nguyen Ai Quoc for that,' reported Desire. 121 At the
end of the summer Phan Chu Trinh wrote to Nguyen Van Ai, a.k.a. Agent de Villier,
to accuse him of foul play in Quoc's disappearance. (Ai had become a vital member
of the Paria collective, but his role of informer had somehow become known to
Trinh.)
Even though Nguyen Ai Quoc is young and he doesn't act on mature
reflection, this is not important because he really has the heart of a patriot. He left his
family and travelled to Europe and America, working miserably to educate himself,
without any help from anyone... If he makes mistakes or not, that is not the question,
because all the Vietnamese repect his ardent heart... Let those who want to follow
him follow, and those who don't can leave him alone to get on with his work.
Why did you betray him, with your cowardly and underhand methods? He
trusted you like a brother... why did you try to make trouble for him? I ask you for the
truth, where did you incite him to go?122
It was Albert Sarraut himself who signed the secret telegram sent on 11
October 1923 to the Governor General in Hanoi, to inform him that Nguyen Ai
Quoc's tracks had been picked up in Moscow. Bloncourt, his colleague from
Dahomey, had paid his passage with funds from the Intercolonial Union, an informer
revealed.123 By November the rumour began to get around that Ho would soon be
returning to Paris.124 Phan Van Truong was booked to return to Vietnam in mid-
December, but he put off his departure once in the hope that Ho would return with
news from Moscow, the French believed. Finally on 23 December, apparently having
given up waiting, Truong sailed, carrying with him a number of issues of Le Paria. 125
Ho Chi Minh and the two Phans had seen the last of each other.
In Ho Chi Minh's new political life opening before him in Moscow, the basic
elements would remain those which had served him in his months of campaigning in
Paris. One of these was the Marxist-Leninist framework for his attack on colonialism.
This is discussed in detail in the next chapter. But one should remember that
alongside this radically modern outlook he retained the ethos of Confucian patriotism
and duty which had driven his father's contemporaries to oppose the French. Ho was
moving into the Comintern world of internationalism, yet he remained rooted in the
traditions of Vietnamese patriotism - the family and regional ties which linked him to
Phan Chu Trinh, to Cuong De and Phan Boi Chau in China and perhaps, still, to his
father, who had become an itinerant eccentric, wandering from pagoda to pagoda in
Cochinchina.126 When he left Paris his ties to the leftists Phan Van Truong and
Nguyen The Truyen were as strong as ever, and he would rely on such connections
when he became a Comintern agent based in Canton.
Was the Ho Chi Minh of 1923 someone with firmly fixed political ideas? I
would argue that in many ways his world view was already formed by his teenage
experience with the French, his failures at the Paris Peace Conference, and his early
exposure to Lenin's theories on imperialism. Yet he had also begun to demonstrate
the tactical flexibility of a pragmatic politician. Although he joined the Freemasons,
for example, in an effort to broaden his contacts in influential segments of French
society, he later accepted the Fourth Comintern Congress recommendation that party
members cut their links to the Masons and the French League of Human Rights. 127
This lack of ideological rigidity, which some would come to see as a Machiavellian
streak, was a trait which undoubtedly helped Nguyen Ai Quoc/Ho Chi Minh survive
his long years with the Comintern.
New assignments
On 13 February Ho Chi Minh left Hong Kong for Shanghai, where he wrote
out by hand, in English, his account of his doings since his arrival in Siam in 1928.
The report reveals a preoccupation with relations with the CCP. He discusses not
only connections with the Singapore section, but also mentions that he has asked the
CCP for a letter with addresses of'some leading comrades (Chinese) in Siam, in order
that Annam comrades in that country can work with Ch. [sic] comrades.' He also says
that he has asked the CCP to 'send some leading comrades' to Saigon, where he notes
that there are around 200 Chinese comrades, but who are lacking an able leader. He
suggests that a bureau be created, with one or more representatives from each side, to
coordinate the work of the two parties when the interests of the Chinese and
Annamese masses are involved.64 At the time, he was planning to go on to
Vladivostok to meet his correspondent, who remains unidentified. His report (dated
18 February) shows that he had not yet met Tran Phu. He wrote that he had had no
news from the French and 'the two Annam comrades' at that point. I have found no
proof that he actually went on to Vladivostok after writing this report.
Vladivostok had become the site of a short-term training school established
for Chinese party members to update their communist knowledge and technique. The
CCP CC had suggested in May 1929 that such a training facility be set up, because
they could not spare the cadres or the workers whom the Comintern wanted to train in
Moscow. The Chinese saw it as a place to develop 'those elements from the
intelligentsia and peasantry, who had attained military experience in the red armed
forces and who had fled after the defeat at Hai-lu-feng.'65 Several Chinese-speaking
Vietnamese including Le Quang Dat, Ho Tung Mau and his wife Ly Phuong Thuan
are believed to have travelled there in 1930 to attend a three-month propaganda
course.66 By 1930 the Pan Pacific Trade Union also had a full-time secretariat there. 67
But Ho Chi Minh may have been exempted from this retraining and prevented
altogether from going to Vladivostok, as he was pulled into service by the FEB in
Shanghai. They reported on 3 March that Ho had appeared 'a few days ago'. They
explained: 'We are enclosing his letter, in which he relates everything which he has
reported to us orally. We have decided to use him for liaison work and have given
him several assignments regarding organization and the continuation of work in-
country.' The reason he was put to work in this ad-hoc way may be the fact that
Thibault had disappeared. Moreover, neither Rylski, who had already departed for
Moscow, nor Eisler spoke Chinese. So Ho could have served as a much-needed
linguistic go-between and perhaps as a source of information about Chinese politics.
The FEB did not mention in this letter that Ho was being made head of a Southern
Bureau (it is unclear whether he ever had such a precise title), or that he was being
sent to the Malayan party conference due to be held in Singapore in mid-April. They
noted that one Chinese comrade would attend this conference 'with instructions from
us'.68 It was only in May that they would reveal that they had sent Ho to Singapore to
the MCP conference.
Ho returned to Hong Kong by mid-March, where he finally made contact
with, first, Tran Phu and then, Ngo Duc Tri. After landing briefly in Saigon, Tran Phu
had gone ahead to Hong Kong so that he could meet Thibault. Tri waited in Saigon
three weeks without news, and then decided to sail to Hong Kong to find Tran Phu.
Before leaving, however, he met Bui Lam, a fellow Moscow trainee who had just
returned from Paris on 9 March. Bui Lam was carrying a set of instructions entitled
The Immediate Tasks of the Indochinese Communists, which had been translated into
French in Paris (Tri does not explain whether this was a version of the letter he had
brought from Berlin, or whether it was an additional or more complete set of
instructions). In early March Tri sailed to Hong Kong, where he eventually tracked
down Tran Phu at the YMCA. Tran Phu had missed his appointments with Thibault,
and had been unable to proceed to Haiphong because of the French crackdown
following the Yen Bay mutiny. He had not met Ho Chi Minh until the latter returned
from Shanghai in March. He told Tri about his meeting with Ho and news of the
communist party's unification in January. 'We had nothing more to do but return to
begin our work, given that Ho Chi Minh was in charge of relations with the
Comintern,' Tri told the French.69
Ho later met Ngo Duc Tri and explained: 'At the end of 1927 I received an
order from the Comintern to make propaganda for the formation of an Indochinese
communist party. I was ill in Siam for more than a year and was not able to undertake
anything.' Ho then described the unification and said the FEB had given its approval.
'After the fusion', he concluded, 'all the Chinese communists living in Indochina
would join the Indochinese communist party.'70 At this point, Ho had enough
authority to assign Ngo Duc Tri to return to Saigon, while Tran Phu was sent to work
in Hanoi. Tri's declaration reveals nothing more of Ho's instructions or his own plans.
Back in Saigon by early April 1930,71 Ngo Duc Tri was taken to meet Ngo
Gia Tu. Tu assigned him to work on propaganda, but failed to give him any concrete
tasks. He announced that, for the time being, 'we are still too occupied by a number
of things which have not been finished'. After that Tri was brought to Cholon to stay
in the house which served as the office of the communist cell of the Cholon power
station. He was not invited to join in the cell meetings, and no position was offered to
him other than as translator of the 'Resolution' he had brought from Berlin, as well as
of the letter carried by Bui Lam. Towards the end of April, Tri was told that he would
be producing propaganda for a strike in the towns and country. But only after the
May Day strike at the electrical plant and a move to a new lodging, was he put in
charge of the paper Red Flag. Only after Ngo Gia Tu's arrest at the end of May was
Ngo Duc Tri invited to join the southern Provisional Executive Committee, and then
the Central Committee itself.
The important role assigned to Ngo Gia Tu in this account is underscored by
the description given by Nguyen Nghia (Nguyen Thieu) in the second part of his
memoir on the unification process. Nghia's memoir explains that the two communist
groups in the south had selected two workers to serve on the Provisional Central
Committee: Sau (Hoang Quoc Viet) and Lo (Pham Huu Lau). 72 Yet he describes Ngo
Gia Tu, who was chosen head of the southern Provisional Executive Committee, as
the chief decision-maker. It was Ngo Gia Tu who assigned work in the provinces to
Nghia and Chau Van Liem, the two delegates from the Unification Conference sent
by Ho Chi Minh to oversee the party's creation in the south, in the name of the
Comintern.73 Thus, as in China, the Comintern's power appears to have been much
weaker on the ground than its staff in Moscow supposed.
Nguyen Nghia's article also raises the problem of assimilating Chinese party
members into the Vietnamese party. As Nghia points out, the Chinese group in
Cochinchina was larger than either of the Vietnamese communist factions there, with
many experienced activists who had fled Guangdong after the Canton Commune.
They were unenthusiastic about delegating members to join the new Vietnamese
party's Central Committee, for a variety of reasons: they claimed that the Chinese
lacked legal papers, were not familiar with the political situation, or did not speak the
language. They preferred to select someone to serve on the southern Provisional
Executive Committee.74 Eventually, another Hanoi source says, two Chinese
comrades were selected to the central body: Luu Lap Dao (A Lau) and A Duyen
(Duy).75
It is not surprising that the Chinese were slow to join the new party, given that
it was not to be a sub-branch of the CCP's Central Committee. As Ngo Duc Tri
reported to the French, the tension over the new party's alignment continued in the
spring. He learned from Ngo Gia Tu that a Chinese delegate from the FEB had
passed through Saigon on his way to Singapore from Shanghai. The delegate showed
his disapproval of the Vietnamese party's direct links to the FEB, and remarked that
the Indochinese communists should be answerable to the 'Secretariat of the
Federation of Communist Groups of Indonesia' (apparently meaning the Singapore-
based Federation or League). The Sûreté believed that in April a meeting was held in
Saigon with 'a Chinese inspector from the FEB' who was coming from Siam and who
had not learned of the 'independence given to the Vietnamese party by the FEB'. He
held a meeting to unite the Chinese and Vietnamese communists on 19 April.76 The
CCP thus does not appear to have been enthusiatic about the loss of authority over a
Southeast Asian party.
The prisoner
On 8 June 1931 the Governor General in Hanoi, Rene Robin, cabled the
Ministry of Colonies to announce the arrest of Ho Chi Minh two days earlier. 1 Ho had
been found thanks to the discovery of Joseph Ducroux's address-book in Singapore,
where the French agent had been caught exchanging documents with local
communists. Robin's cable announced that Ho's arrest was due to 'the liaison
established by the Sûreté Generale with the British police in Hong Kong and
Singapore, and the police of the French concession in Shanghai.' These links had
enabled the French to capture Ho Tung Mau, Nguyen Huy Bon, a Moscow returnee,
the worker Phan Duc who had attended the Fifth Profmtern Congress in Moscow, and
most of the Vietnamese communists working in Shanghai. (Nguyen Thi Minh Khai,
arrested 29 April in Hong Kong, had been deported to a Canton prison, on the
assumption that she was Chinese. There she joined Truong Van Lenh and three other
Vietnamese who had been arrested earlier in 1931.) Ho Tung Mau's wife Ly Ung
Thuan was arrested along with Ho. The greatest blow to the Comintern's operations
would come on 10 June, when their OMS agent Hilaire Noulens and his wife were
traced via a Shanghai post-box address found in Ducroux's notebook. Although for
many years they were thought to be the Swiss citizens Paul and Gertrude Ruegg, they
have now been identified as the Russian couple Jakov Rudnik and Tatiana
Moiseenko-Velikhaya.2
Robins dispatch was full of self-congratulation. The arrest of'all communist
leaders in Vietnam', including nine Moscow returnees and the majority of
Vietnamese activists in China, was 'the fruit of investigations skillfully carried out by
the competent services', he wrote; they 'give us absolute mastery of the political
situation.' However, he did not anticipate Ho Chi Minh's extradition to Indochina.
The French consul in Hong Kong had already warned him that the Vietnamese
arrested in Hong Kong might well be set free. Robin proposed that the best solution
might be to persuade the British to intern Ho in some 'distant possession', as a
reciprocal gesture for the detention of any Indian or Burmese communists who might
be captured on French territory.3 By late June the Sûreté detective Neron was
considering how to allocate the reward money for these arrests ($15,000 for Ho and
$10,000 each for Ho Tung Mau and the activists arrested in Shanghai) 4. But the
course of British justice would run counter to French designs.
Ho Chi Minh's fate hinged on the nature of the deportation order which would
be handed down in Hong Kong. Neron believed that the documents found at Ho's
address would serve as evidence to have him deported for communist propaganda,
with Shanghai as the probable destination. Not only had the British found an
unfinished circular in Ho's typewriter denouncing French imperialism, they had also
found letters demonstrating that he had played an active role in abetting the
communist movement in Malaya. Yet some of the British legal advisers who
commented on the case in the Colonial Office's dossier advocated a strict
interpretation of the detainee's civil rights. He had committed no offense against
Hong Kong law, and thus the only grounds for deporting him was the fact that he was
a communist. One Walter Ellis wrote, for example: 'We cannot, it seems to me, insist
on his going to Indochina any more than if we had occasion to deport an ex-official
of the Tsarist government [illegible] insist on his going to a Soviet republic' Ellis
explained that if the French had had evidence that Ho had committed 'any
extraditable crime', they would have made a formal appeal for extradition.5
Ho did not admit to any name other than Sung Man Cho, the name on the
Chinese passport he had received in Singapore. In contradiction to his claim to be
Chinese, though, he portrayed himself as a nationalist fighting for king and country,
with a death sentence hanging over his head in Vietnam.6 As Dennis Duncanson has
pointed out, this contradictory testimony may have been a defensive tactic advocated
by the Comintern.7 By July 1931 he was receiving what appears to have been highly-
skilled legal counsel, apparently arranged by the International Red Aid organization,
from a team of lawyers led by Frank Loseby. His lawyers argued that deportation to
Shanghai would be the equivalent of a disguised extradition to Indochina. 8 (Ho Tung
Mau and his companions were in fact deported to Shanghai at the end of June,
without a formal identification having been made. They were arrested in the French
concession and shipped back to Vietnam.9)
The defense strategy was to demand Ho's rights as a political detainee under
the Deportation Ordinance, which required that he be allowed to chose his destination
and depart in secret. If this right was not guaranteed, the defendant would 'attack the
proceedings in every possible manner and by every known step,' his lawyer Mr.
Jenkin told the court.10
Thanks to the application of this strategy Ho's case would drag on until
January 1933. The mobilization of world-wide left-wing support for the mysterious
Noulens probably gave Ho's plight more attention than it would have received had he
been arrested on his own. To judge by the press accounts, he also made a good
impression in court, speaking in English without a translator, projecting sincerity in
his declaration of his nationalist beliefs. The Colonial Office would clearly have liked
to have handed him over to the French; one official referred to him as being 'one of
the worst agitators who was put into the bag in the round up following the Lefranc
[Ducroux] seizure.'11 After the Hong Kong judiciary rejected a defense appeal for a
writ of Habeas Corpus, the French grew confident that they would finally get their
man. On 24 August 1931 the Sûreté in Hanoi had cabled Saigon to announce that Ho
Chi Minh would leave Hong Kong on 1 September on the General Metzinger bound
for Saigon. Two French policemen had been delegated to escort Ho back to
Vietnam.12 But with just days to go before the deportation, Ho's solicitors appealed to
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. They claimed that the
deportation order was not valid under Hong Kong law. Thus on 23 October 1931 the
Secretary of State announced that there would be no deportation until the results of
the appeal to the Privy Council were known. 13 Given the length of time needed to
prepare the briefs, the appeal was not scheduled to be heard until November 1932.
In the meantime the Sûreté began to pressure Lam Duc Thu to gather
information on the Vietnamese who had been arrested in Canton, and perhaps to
make contact with Ho. After Ly Ung Thuan's release in late August 1931 on the
grounds that she was a Chinese national, she went to stay with Thu for a time. In
November 'Agent Pinot' claimed to have received a request from Ho, for aid in
getting the Vietnamese imprisoned in Canton released, as well as for help in carrying
on the party's work until the new activists due from Russia arrived. Ho was
particularly eager that Truong Van Lenh be released to take over the party's affairs in
China, according to Lam Duc Thu; Ho may also have been concerned about the
welfare of Minh Khai.14 It is indeed strange that he would have contacted a known
informer at this point - perhaps he believed that there was no more damage that Thu
could do, with the party's work so badly disrupted. These contacts may have resulted
in criticism of Ho's conduct after his release. They do not appear to have lasted very
long in any case. From a report which Lam Duc Thu sent on 16 May 1932 we
discover that Thu was getting information regarding Ho indirectly, from Loseby's
office.
Toward the end of 1931 Ho Chi Minh was transferred to hospital, where he
stayed under guard. In December Prince Cuong De sent him a letter, in response to
the news that he was gravely ill. The Prince sent 300 yen towards his medical
expenses, and advised him to take good care of himself, for 'the sake of the country'. 15
(At this stage the Vietnamese communists such as Le Hong Son maintained their
links to Cuong De, perhaps for purely pragmatic and financial reasons. 16) Dennis
Duncanson's assertion that Ho was not ill during his imprisonment thus appears to be
incorrect.17 As we have seen, Ho claimed to have suffered a severe TB attack in
September 1930; the French consul in Hong Kong, Soulange Teissier, in 1932
confirmed in a letter to his foreign minister that he was suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis of a slow-developing, controllable form. In the summer of 1932 press
accounts of'the little Vietnamese, with his body debilitated by consumption and the
soul of a chief began to appear.18 Later the communist press would announce that Ho
had died of TB in August 1932.19 The French were never taken in by these reports,
however. Their Hong Kong consulate kept the authorities in Hanoi informed of each
stage in Ho's efforts to leave the British colony.20
His departure would finally take place in late January 1933, after one false
start. On 27 June 1932 the appeal to the Privy Council was withdrawn, when Ho's
lawyers agreed with the counsel for the Hong Kong government on new terms for his
deportation. Ho was eventually put on a ship to Singapore, where he arrived on 6
January 1933. The Straits Settlements authorities refused to allow him to remain,
however, so he was sent back to Hong Kong where he was re-arrested as he
disembarked on 19 January. The Hong Kong governor William Peel decided against
imposing the one-year prison term meted out to illegal immigrants; he also refused to
inform Teissier of the details of Ho's subsequent departure. 21 Loseby this time
convinced the authorities to play a more active role in implementing their
undertaking to help Ho depart for a destination of his choice. As Peel himself
explained in his dispatch, he arranged for Ho to be taken by a 'non-government
launch' to SS Anhui lying at a berth outside the Hong Kong harbour late on 22
January.22
Return to Moscow
Ho Chi Minh did not get back to Moscow, by his own account, until July
193445 There is no information about how he spent the autumn of 1933 and the first
months of 1934. He returned to a Moscow which must have been quite changed from
the place he had known in 1923-24 and again briefly in 1927. It was no longer the
free-wheeling city of the NEP which he had experienced on his first visit; nor was it
the politically charged communist capital where the final battles for control of the
Soviet party were about to be played out in 1927. Stalin's cult of personality and
control of all Soviet institutions was creating a deadened political climate dominated
by paranoia and a siege mentality towards the outside world.
By 1930 purges (chistki, literally 'cleansings') in Comintern institutions such
as the Sun Yatsen School, closed that year, and the International Lenin School had
become a feature of Comintern life. A purge of the French section of the Lenin
School, where Ho Chi Minh would enrol in October 1934, was held in October 1933,
presided over by Andre Marty of the Romance Secretariat. An essay by one of the
students with the pseudonym 'Bretane' gives some idea of what was required during
these 'cleansings'. Even among those who had not committed any political errors, or
were not threatened with expulsion from the party, a high degree of self-abasement
was required. In his essay titled, 'Purging as a Factor of Bolshevization' Bretane
writes: 'What is important is to lay bare the weaknesses which remain in order to
eliminate them. We have been able to see, via various biographies, that at the bottom
of these weaknesses lie social origin and the foreign influence which is imprinted on
the militant when he is working abroad.' 46 Yelena Bonner, whose stepfather Gevork
Alikhanov was a top official in the Comintern's Cadres Department, watched from
behind a curtain in her home at the Lux Hotel as he and others were investigated by a
troika in 1933. They were expected to bare their souls and reveal even their most
personal secrets, down to past romantic liaisons and any resulting children.47
When Ho Chi Minh turned up in the summer of 1934 there is reason to
believe that he expected to be the object of an investigation of some sort. Vera
Vasilieva's daughter, then a girl of ten, has a memory of him sleeping on the couch in
the wooden house where her family then lived in central Moscow, as though he were
trying to keep a low profile.48 Ho had, after all, been involved in a series of arrests
which had been a major blow for both the Far Eastern Bureau and the Chinese CP in
1931. Vasilieva, a naive and perhaps unimaginative Bolshevik, is known to have
defended friends accused of political misdeeds, as well as her own husband Mark
Zorky.49 But there is no record of any political difficulties for Ho in the Comintern
files, until the lead-up to the Seventh Congress the following year. He recounts in his
autobiographical questionnaire that he spent several months recuperating from his
illness in Crimea in 1934, then enrolled in the Lenin School in October. 50 At that time
he was the only Indochinese registered at the school, although the Comintern planned
to admit twelve Indochinese students for a short-term course for the 1935-6 term. 51 It
does not appear that these places were filled. The school was described at this time by
its director, Kirsanova, as 'the only forge of cadres for the Communist International' 52
and was viewed as a training institute for foreign communist leaders. Still, there was
an element of disgrace for such leaders as Li Lisan and Ho who were sent there. The
fact is that (in Li's case in particular) they had earlier served in the top ranks of their
parties and might have expected to be given work in the ECCI, had their status
remained intact.
On 1 December 1934, as preparations for the Seventh Congress were
underway, the Leningrad Party chief, Sergei Kirov, was shot by an intruder in his
headquarters at the Smolny Institute. This murder provided Stalin with a pretext to
begin a man-hunt for enemies of the state.53 As the era of the Popular Front was
dawning, then, a new round of suppression of Stalin's political enemies, real and
imagined, was about to begin. When on 8 December the three Congress delegates
sent by the ICP arrived in Moscow, a mini-crisis erupted at the Stalin School.
Because the OMS failed to meet them at the train station, the three had had to make
their own way to the hostel where the Vietnamese were housed - this was viewed as a
major lapse in conspiratorial technique. Three people filed reports on the incident:
Vera Vasilieva, Kotelnikov of the Eastern Secretariat, and 'Kan Sin' (Kang Sheng),
whose position is not given on his report.54
The three Vietnamese delegates were Le Hong Phong, the senior member of
the Overseas Bureau; a member of the Tay minority who went by the name Cao-bang
or Van-Tan in Moscow, whose real name was Hoang Van Non; and Nguyen Thi
Minh Khai, referred to in a letter from Ha Huy Tap to the Comintern as 'Quoc's wife'.
Ho would also be designated as a Congress delegate by the ICP plenum held in
March 1935.55 On the autobiographical form which Minh Khai filled in after her
arrival, she wrote that she was married and gave her husband's name as 'Lin', Ho's
latest alias.56 This would seem to show that theirs was more than a fleeting liaison, in
spite of the French suspicion that she had been the mistress of Tran Ngoc Danh 57 (Ho
Chi Minh, however, never mentioned a wife on any of his official Comintern forms).
In Moscow she took the name 'Fan Lan'.
Between December 1934 and the end of March 1935 several reports on the
situation of the ICP arrived in Moscow from Vietnam. In addition Le Hong Phong
wrote a long account in Russian of his activities since his return to Southeast Asia in
February 1932.58 Ho wrote his own critique of the ICP's failings during the
'revolutionary upsurge' of 1930-1.59 (He undoubtedly wrote other accounts of his
activities in 1930-4, but these are not available in the archives.) With the Comintern's
policy now shifting back to where it had been in 1924-7, Ho apparently felt safe in
criticizing the ICP's generally low level of theoretical understanding, and in particular
the fact that 'the majority of comrades - even those in charge - do not understand the
meaning of "the bourgeois democratic revolution". [...] They repeat words without
understanding their meaning,' he wrote, 'and very often find themselves caught out in
their propaganda and agitation work.' He also criticized the mechanistic way in which
workers had been trained to organize a strike, without being encouraged to make
decisions based on their own judgment of the situation. Another danger which he
raised was that the workers who had been brought into the leading party organs,
'always allow themselves to be influenced by the intellectual elements, because they
have read everything in the theses or in books'. 'This is what had happened in 1930-
31,' he said, 'when our comrades were old and experienced militants. Now, all or
almost all of these comrades are in prison or have been killed. The comrades today
are younger and less experienced, and are as a result likely to make more serious
errors.'
The remedy which he proposed was the production of a series of short
brochures in simple language on themes starting with The Communist Manifesto and
Comintern history, moving to 'the national question' and 'the agrarian question', and
ending with 'how to form a united front' and 'the Comintern's theses and resolutions
on the colonial question'. He had learned to quote Stalin at the appropriate moment -
'Stalin is a thousand times right', Ho wrote, 'when he says "Theory gives the
comrades...the power of direction, clarity of perspective, faith in their work and
confidence in the victory of our cause.'" 60 One can assume that Ho realized that the
prevailing theory had changed since 1928-9, but was intelligent enough not to point
this out in writing. His attitude as a teacher and student at the Stalin School, as we
shall see, would seem to show that he did not take Moscow's approach to theoretical
training terribly seriously.
Le Hong Phong's report of his activities from the end of 1931 until his return
to Moscow at the end of 1934 is a factual, almost a-political account of his successes
and failures. The reports which Ha Huy Tap (Sinitchkin in Moscow) sent back to
Moscow between December 1934 and April 1935 have quite a different tone. 61 They
show that he began to take a more active, even dictatorial role in shaping the ICP
after Le Hong Phong's departure for Moscow. A slight man known by the nickname
'Sniffles' (Khit) in Saigon and as 'Mr Short' in China, Ha Huy Tap seems to have gone
back to Asia with the full trust of the Comintern in mid-1933. One Sûreté report
refers to him as a "renifleur", a "sniffer" or 'bloodhound', perhaps a play on his
nickname.62 He was for a time the only one in the Overseas Bureau whom the
Comintern trusted with the cipher code for the radio messages which it was beginning
to use for communications in 1934-35.63 The security obsession induced in the
Comintern by the Kirov murder would have made the Moscow apparat appreciative
of someone with Ha Huy Tap's penchant for detailed reporting. Moreover, for the
Eastern Secretariat security had become a major preoccupation after the destruction
of the CCP's Shanghai Bureau in December 1934. At that time the Comintern lost its
only radio link with the CCP, which was in the middle of its Long March. (After that
the ICP was instructed to cut off all contact with the CCP and the Soviet Consulate in
Shanghai.)64 In any case, Ha Huy Tap would eventually have the distinction of
denouncing Tran Van Giau, Ho Chi Minh, and a number of other ICP members,
including one of Ho's liaison agents, Nguyen Van Tram (Cao Van Binh). 65 During the
lead-up to the Seventh Congress (which originally had been scheduled for 1934, then
for March 1935 and finally opened in July) Ho Chi Minh was perhaps the one who
suffered the most dramatic loss of trust.
The ICP's 27-31 March 1935 Congress in Macao passed a 30-page political
resolution, selected a new Central Committee and permitted Ha Huy Tap to take
control of the ICP in Le Hong Phong's absence. What it did not do, however, was
reflect the currents of change in Moscow, which would only be articulated at the
Seventh Comintern Congress in the summer. At the end of 1934 Tap had reported
that the party had around 600 members, including those in Laos and Cambodia. 66
Thirteen had managed to attend the Congress, he claimed. It selected a Central
Committee headed by the absent Le Hong Phong, including eight workers, one poor
peasant from the Tay minority, three intellectuals and one member from Annam still
to be selected (profession unknown).67 Ho Chi Minh was listed number 13 as a
candidate member. The Moscow trainees in the CC included the worker 'Din-Tan'
(Tran Van Diem), head of the party committee in Tonkin; and 'Svan' (Nguyen Van
Dut), then head of the Inter-regional Committee in Cochinchina. Ha Huy Tap
reserved for himself a position in the Overseas Bureau, which at this point had the
power to give political guidance to the CC.68
At the end of his report on the Congress, Tap brought up the issue of Ho Chi
Minh. He said that the Congress had designated Comrade Line as the ICP's
representative to the Comintern. But at the same time he wrote:
In Siam and in Indochina the communist organizations are carrying out an
open struggle against the remnants of the national-revolutionary ideology, mixed
-with reformism and idealism, of the Thanh Nien association and of Comrade
Nguyen Ai Quoc. These remnants are very strong and constitute a very serious
obstacle to the development of communism. This pitiless struggle against the old
opportunist theories of Quoc and Thanh Nien is indispensable. The two party
committees in Siam and in Indochina will write a brochure against these tendencies.
We propose that Comrade Line himself write a brochure to criticize himself and his
past failings.69
By the end of April 1935 Ha Huy Tap felt obliged to make his criticisms
clearer. As the final point of a four-page letter hand-written in French, which dealt
with various cases of suspected treachery in the ICP, he informed the Eastern
Secretariat that several delegates to the Macao Congress had discussed Ho's
responsibility for the arrest of over 100 former Thanh Nien members trained in
Canton. Tap listed their reasons as follows:
(a) Quoc knew that Lam Duc Thu was a provocateur, yet continued to use
him; (b) Quoc was wrong to demand 2 photos of each student, his real name, address,
the names of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents...; (c) in the country, in
Siam and in the prisons, they continue to talk about Quoc's responsibility,
responsibility which he could never deny; (d) the photos demanded by Quoc and Lam
are now in the hands of the police; (e) gradually as the party's line becomes clearer to
party members and to the masses, they are criticizing more severely the policy
followed by Com. Quoc. The general secretary of the Siam CP, formerly a convinced
follower of Quoc, is one of those who says that before 1930, Quoc was not a
communist!(70)
In response to the ICP proposal that Ho become their representative to the
Comintern, Vasilieva gave a definite 'no'. 'Quoc will have to study seriously for the
next two years and will not be able to undertake anything else,' she explained; 'after
his studies we have special plans to make use of him.' 71 We do not know whether she
had received the April denunciation when she wrote these remarks. The April letter
appears to have affected Ho's role at the Seventh Congress, however. On one list of
Congress delegates, giving the nature of their mandate, someone wrote, 'necessary to
refuse' next to Ho's name.72 Most lists of Congress delegates show three
representatives from Indochina, one of whom was a woman - all three of these were
listed as having full votes. The two Siamese delegates received consultative votes
(soveshchatelniie golosy), which in communist practice meant that their votes did not
count.73 But it seems that Ho did not even receive that. One can argue that he was
kept away from the public Congress proceedings to preserve secrecy, but then one
has to ask why any Vietnamese, all of whom were expected to return to active
political work in Indochina, should have been given public roles.
If a commission was organized to investigate the latest charges against Ho, it
is likely to have taken place just before the Seventh Congress. Given the concern with
security lapses in the wake of the Kirov murder, it would be strange if no action at all
had been taken. One account given many years later by a former staff member of the
Soviet Central Committee's International Department, Anatoly Voronin, has it that
Ho was investigated by a troika composed of Dmitry Manuilsky, Kang Sheng and
Vera Vasilieva. According to this version, Manuilsky was neutral, while Kang Sheng
called for Ho's execution. Vasilieva is said to have defended him, on the grounds that
his mistakes in security procedure were made out of inexperience. 74 In 1935 it would
have been more likely that Kang Sheng called for Ho's expulsion from the party than
for his execution, if he believed that Ho shared the guilt for the 1931 arrests. But
without some kind of documentary evidence, which may well be hidden in the
archives of the former KGB, we have no idea as to how seriously Ha Huy Tap's
accusations were taken. The Vietnamese communists themselves, though, were well
aware that their party had been penetrated by the Sûreté. At the end of 1934, Ha Huy
Tap had sent a list to Moscow which analyzed the record of the thirty-seven
Vietnamese students who had left Moscow for France or Asia. Of these twelve were
classified as having turned traitor or provocateur. Only ten were listed as
'professional revolutionaries'.75
Some light is shed on the Comintern's handling of cases such as Ho's by
Joseph Ducroux's report of his treatment in Moscow, when he returned in January
1934. Ducroux wrote in 1970 that the OMS chief Abramov had been keen to lay the
blame for his Singapore arrest on Ducroux's own technical errors. He was not treated
as a returned hero, and was only authorized to eat in the common dining hall at the
Lux Hotel, not with the political leaders. He was summoned to a meeting in the
ECCI, at which Manuilsky, Lozovsky, Piatnitsky and Bela Kun were present.
Manuilsky made a 'violent attack' against him, and called for his expulsion from the
party. Lozovsky showed more understanding of the difficult conditions he had
worked in. After two days he was informed that he could stay in Moscow to work as
a translator for the bulletin Communist International. Instead, Ducroux asked to be
sent back to France. Permission was granted, but he was forbidden to take on any
work connected with the FCP's Central Committee.76 Ho Chi Minh would in a similar
fashion be removed from work that involved political decision-making. Ho faced the
added complication of involvement in the affairs of the Chinese CP, in particular in
the difficult days of 1930. It is possible that Kang Sheng had a grudge against him, as
someone who knew what his role had been in the period of Li Lisan's ascendancy, or
as someone who may have known about the failures of his special security
organization in 1933. After the Kirov murder, Kang is said to have begun to agitate
for a new purge of the Chinese party in Moscow. 77 But again, without more
documentary evidence there is very little that one can say with certainty about the
relationship between Ho and Kang Sheng.
8. SUMMING-UP
The Introduction alluded to the way in which Cold War attitudes have
influenced our understanding of Ho Chi Minh and his efforts to develop a communist
party in Vietnam. The use of sources slanted towards propaganda has led many
authors to see Ho Chi Minh as either an all-important national saint or as an evil
genius. Not only was he the paramount leader of North Vietnam - he was seen as an
influential communist from the moment he joined the FCP. Yet Ho's stature within
the Comintern and Asian communism before 1945 was, as this study has tried to
show, less marked than was later supposed. He did not emerge as an influential
communist on the world stage in 1920 or 1930, and he had a good deal of difficulty
in getting the ICP's attention in 1939-40. His ascendancy in 1945 as the symbol of the
Vietnamese independence movement was by no means an inevitable development.
Robert Turner was right in maintaining that Ho Chi Minh should share much of the
credit for bringing Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam.1 But we should remember that his
approaches to the Russians were not immediately successful. Moreover, there were
other sources of leftist and Marxist influence in Vietnam by the 1920s - it seems safe
to say that a Chinese Communist Party branch was in existence in southern Vietnam
by 1927-28. This organization's role in the development of Vietnamese communism
has yet to be explored, but in view of its name - the Cochinchina-Cambodia
Committee - we can guess that it played an early role in promoting the idea of a
unified Indochinese communist movement, as opposed to a purely Vietnamese party.
Ho's efforts to create a Vietnamese communist party with Comintern support
must be understood within the context of French repression and the long Vietnamese
search for aid from abroad. The failure of the Vietnamese campaign at the Paris
Peace Conference in 1919 turned the nationalists' attention towards Russia. It was
Lenin's views on the obligation of the Western proletariat to support nationalist
revolutions within colonial countries which persuaded Ho to join the Third
International. He had no romantic attachment to violent revolution or personal
heroism - in fact he demonstrated a strong attachment to self-preservation throughout
his political career. He was not a henchman of Stalin and may never have had a
personal audience with him until 1950. His attitude towards the use of violence and
class warfare was seemingly too cautious to please some of his younger fellow
communists.
There is no denying the fact that the early Comintern theory on national and
colonial questions was an important intellectual tool for Ho Chi Minh. It gave him a
strong framework within which to combine his anti-colonialism and his desire for
social justice. However, Leninist ideas on imperialism and colonial questions were
not just an analytic tool - his discovery and transmission of these ideas was an
important source of his legitimacy within the Vietnamese communist movement.
When these ideas were supplanted by the new analytical framework of 1928-29, Ho's
leadership was called into question. As mentioned in the Introduction, rival claimants
to power regularly tried to show that they possessed a superior grasp of ideology and
the Comintern line. This line may at times have been a barely comprehensible
pastiche of ideas taken from Marx, Plekhanov, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and other pre-
communist thinkers, but that did not lessen its importance as a means to gaining
legitimacy. As Arno Mayer says, 'Ideology is the lifeblood of revolution.' 'It is tied to
the need of a [new] social group to project an image of itself.' 2 The importance of
theoretical expertise in establishing oneself as a leader may also have been connected
to the Confucian tradition, which valued the ability to compose a classically orthodox
text above any practical skills.
These early conflicts over ideology within Vietnamese communism would
continue throughout Ho's political career. While in the West Ho's post-Second World
War efforts to project himself as a nationalist were met with scepticism, within the
ICP his lack of commitment to 'proletarian communism' continued to be viewed as a
shortcoming. As in the period from 1931 to 1935, when first Tran Phu and then Ha
Huy Tap called into question Ho's ideological credentials, there was renewed
criticism of Ho's nationalist outlook from other party members beginning in 1948-49,
if not earlier. By this time the Comintern's successor, the Cominform, had taken
shape and the world was dividing into two blocs. The hope for US support of Ho Chi
Minh's new government was all but dead.
For the left-wing ICP view of Ho's nationalist policies during the Second
World War and his dissolution of the communist party in November 1945, we can
turn to Tran Ngoc Danh, the DRV representative in France from 1945 to 1948 (as
well as a Moscow trainee and the younger brother of Tran Phu). He abruptly closed
the Paris representative office in late 1948 and fled to Prague. 3 From there he sent at
least two letters to Moscow. In one of these he writes the following:
After the Cominform's criticism, I am at present in total disagreement with the
opportunist and nationalist line followed by my party since its official dissolution.
This dissolution, which goes against the will expressed several times by our
comrades, could not have been carried out without the energetic intervention of
comrade Ho Chi Minh, at present President of the DKV. The authority of comrade
Ho with the Vietnamese people is without question very great; they consider him as
the symbol of the anti-imperialist struggle and the main promoter of our democratic
attainments. This confidence is reinforced by the fact that the Vietnamese
communists still see him as the former delegate of the ECCI; or to use a Vietnamese
expression, 'He is the International's man'. And the current degenerate policy was
inspired by his doctrine, which dates from the time of the Tours Congress in 1921.4
In another letter of 10 January 1950 addressed to 'Comrade Iudin' (who after
Zhdanov's death had become the chief ideologist in Stalin's retinue) Danh wrote that
the ICP was dominated by its 'nationalist, petty-bourgeois element', which 'lacked
faith in the revolutionary force of the proletariat. The decisive, divisive element is the
personality of Ho Chi Minh. To have an idea, it is enough to refer to the ICP's policy
of 1941, that is to say at the moment when he entered the Indochinese political arena
directly.'5
Ho Chi Minh's rivals - from the original ICP faction of 1929 to Tran Ngoc
Danh - all tried to show his inadequacy for leadership by pointing out his theoretical
'mistakes'. According to Tran Ngoc Danh's chronology, these mistakes began with
Ho's adherence to the Theses on National and Colonial Questions, which Danh dates
to 1921 but which seems to have become a. fait accompli by late 1920, even before
the Tours Conference in December 1920. Quoc himself remained more in tune with,
if not committed to, the line of 1920-27 and enjoyed another period of being
'ideologically correct' from 1938-47, when the Soviet-led communist movement
opted for nationalist communism and a degree of self-determination for individual
parties. By 1949-50, however, Stalin had re-imposed his ideological control over
most of the world communist movement and advised the Vietnamese communists to
turn to the victorious CCP for guidance. When Ho visited Moscow in 1950 as part of
Mao Zedong's entourage, Stalin gave him very half-hearted support.6
When his biography first appeared in 1948 (in a handwritten Chinese
manuscript) Ho may well have been attempting to shore up his political position. This
little book would accentuate both his proletarian virtue - his life as a sailor and
labourer - and his exploits as a nationalist leader. Thus it seems to have been intended
to serve a dual function: to win over nationalist sentiment throughout Vietnam, but at
the same time to convince sceptical communists such as Tran Ngoc Danh that Ho
was a true proletarian.
While attempting to delineate the factions which made up the ICP in 1941 or
1948 is risky, one can see the sources of opposition to Ho's leadership developing in
the early proletarianization movement, which originated in Tonkin in 1928. Of the
leaders of this group who went to Canton for training in the 1920s, almost all were
there after Ho's departure for Moscow. Thus they had no personal ties to Ho, either
by geographical region or as his students. One of the unresolved problems which
arises from this study is how to pinpoint the influences which shaped this Tonkin
group between 1927 and 1929. But the circumstantial evidence points strongly
towards some sort of connection between the Tonkin ICP faction and the Nanyang
Committee of the CCP from 1928 to 1930.
However, as we have seen, a number of the Vietnamese trained in Moscow
also rejected Ho's policies. After the Comintern's Seventh Congress in 1935, young
ideologues such as Ha Huy Tap found it difficult to reconcile themselves to the
nationalist coalition which first Le Hong Phong and later Ho advocated. A key
dividing line between Ho and his rivals, as this study has repeatedly pointed out, was
their attitude towards class conflict. When Ho started his political career in Europe,
Vietnam was just in the initial phases of industrial development; it was only
beginning to develop a proletariat. Yet Ho classified the vast majority of Vietnamese
- peasants and poor intellecutals as well as urban labourers - as workers exploited by
imperialism. Perhaps because Ho knew Vietnam as a relatively homogenous society,
he had no qualms about class collaboration to defeat the French. By 1929-31, of
course, his lack of emphasis on the issue of class struggle would make him, in the
eyes of the younger Moscow trainees, an outdated remnant of the united front in
China.
We are still a long way from being able to make a final judgment about Ho's
years in power. There is simply too little hard evidence about decision-making
processes in Hanoi. But during the years under examination here, there can be little
doubt that he was a dedicated and skilled campaigner for independence who did
much to put the issue of decolonization on the French political agenda. From the
Paris Peace Conference until his 1945 declaration of independence, he was motivated
by sincere patriotism and a deep resentment of French imperialism. Yet he was not
some sort of communist holy man. He lived with women at various times, made
compromises and infiltrated other nationalist parties. He was not always
straightforward - in many situations he would have regarded it as foolhardy to be
honest about his political beliefs. The depth of his attachment to communism is
difficult to gauge - the one thing one can say is that he had little interest in dogma.
The path he followed was often chosen from a range of options narrowed by events
outside his control.
Ironically, in the 1990s the Vietnamese party maintained its claim to
legitimacy after the East European communist parties had been thrust from power, by
claiming to represent 'Ho Chi Minh Thought'. A 1995 publication on Ho's Thought
from the Ho Chi Minh Institute of Politics (Hoc Vien Chính trị quốc gia Ho Chi
Minh) defines it as a new development of Marxist-Leninist theory. 7 This claim has
been met with a certain amount of cynicism, however, as many Vietnamese are aware
that Ho Chi Minh left behind no body of theoretical writing. He can with more justice
be seen as a consummate politician and diplomat, who bequeathed to his country a
model of coalition building and compromise which any modern nation state would
value.
Documentary evidence in both Moscow and France shows that the Comintern
was far from being the efficient tool for spreading communist power which Cold War
political science and history would have had us believe. It was also inconsistent in its
support for anticolonial movements. But the connection which Ho established with
the Comintern played a major role in developing communism, as well as the national
independence revolution, in Vietnam. The Comintern provided Ho and his comrades
with a methodology and financial support for the training of propagandists and
organizers; it gave them an analysis to make sense of their predicament at the hands
of the French. Even though its advice and intervention were not always accepted,
during its existence it remained the ultimate arbiter of internal political quarrels,
which helped the communist party to remain more-or-less unified. It also provided
sanctuary in Moscow for communist trainees, who were able to rebuild the ICP on
their return to Vietnam in the early 1930s. Even Ho's unwelcome sojourn in Moscow
from 1934 to 1938 kept him alive to fight another day. But to view Ho Chi Minh and
the ICP as purely the creations of the Comintern would be a great distortion. They
existed simultaneously within many spheres - traditional Vietnamese society, the
French empire, the Nanyang and a world community which in the 1920s and 1930s
was already being shrunk by modern communications, travel and economic
interdependence. It was Ho Chi Minh's ability to move between these different
realms which finally secured his place as the most successful leader of the
independence struggle.
NOTES
Introduction
1. This characterization is in part drawn from the story of Ho Chi Minh's
supposed betrayal of nationalist leader Phan Boi Chau in 1925. This episode is
discussed in Chapter 3.
2. Tran Ngoc Danh, Tieu-su Hồ chủ tịch (The Biography of Chairman Ho),
Paris: Chi Hoi Lien-Viet tại Pháp, 1949, p. 6.
3. Cited in Thai Quang Trung, Collective Leadership and Factionalism,
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1985, p. 20.
4. Nguyen Nghia, 'Cong cuoc hop nhat cac to chuc cong san dau tien o Viet-
Nam va vai tro của dong chi Nguyen Ai Quoc' (The Unification of the First
Communist Organizations in Vietnam and the role of Comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc),
NCLS, no. 59, February 1964.
5. Judith Stowe, 'Revisionism in Vietnam', paper for AAS conference,
Washington, DC, March 1998; authors conversation with Hoang Minh Chinh, Feb.
1995: Chinh claims that by 1963 Ho Chi Minh had been made politically
ineffective (bi vo hieu hoa).
6. Truong Chinh, Hồ chủ tịch, Lanh Tu Kinh Yeu Cua Giai Cap Cong Nhan
va Nhan Dan Viet-Nam (Chairman Ho: Beloved Leader of the Workers and People of
Viet Nam), Hanoi: N.X.B. Su that, 1973, p. 66.
7. See, e.g. Pierre Brocheux, Ho Chi Minh, Paris: Presses de Sciences Po,
2000, pp. 55-71.
8. Jean Lacouture, Ho Chi Minh, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968, p. 33.
9. Branko Lazitch, A Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern, Stanford,
CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973, p. 378.
10. William J. Duiker, Ho Chi Minh, Hyperion: New York, 2000, p. 102.
11. Charles B. McLane, Soviet Strategies in Southeast Asia: An Exploration
of Eastern Policy under Lenin and Stalin, Princeton University Press, 1966, p. 137.
12. Charles Fenn, Ho Chi Minh, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973, p.
59.
13. Ton That Thien, 'Verites et mensonges: le voyage clandestin de Ho Chi
Minh en Russie en 1923 et sa disgrace Au Komintern en 1933-1939' in Ho Chi Minh.
L'homme et son heritage, Paris: La Voie Nouvelle, 1990, pp. 51-2.
14. Lacouture, op. cit., p. 48.
15. William Duiker, The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam, Boulder,
CO: Westview Press, 1996, pp. 21-3; Huynh Kim Khanh, Vietnamese Communism:
1925-1945, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982, pp. 168-70.
16. A. Neuberg, Armed Insurrection, London: NLB, 1970, trans, by Quentin
Hoare from the German edition of 1928 and French edition of 1931.
17. Titarenko, Leutner et ah, VKP, Komintern I Kitai (dokumenti), (The
Soviet Communist Party, the Comintern and China, Documents) vol. III: 1927- 1931,
part 1), Moscow: Russian Center, 1999, p. 355, Protocol of a Meeting of the Eastern
Secretariat's Military Commission.
18. Titarenko et al., op. cit, p. 572-4, Letter from Berzin and Sudakov to
Shifres.
19. Tran Dan Tien, Nhung man chuyen ve doi hoat dong của Hồ chủ tịch,
Hanoi: NXB Chính trị quốc gia, 1994. The attribution of the 1949 Paris edition to
Tran Ngoc Danh, a Moscow-trained militant, is curious. As Danh was
expelled from the ICP in 1949, the attribution may have been a way of quelling
rumours of dissent within the party.
20. Yevgeny Kobelev, Ho Chi Minh, Moscow: Progress, 1989, trans, from
1983 Russian edition.
21. Hong Ha, Ho Chi Minh v Strane Sovetov (Ho Chi Minh in the Land of
Soviets),
Moscow: Polit. Literatury, 1986; trans, from Vietnamese edition titled, Ho
Chi Minh tren dat nuoc Lenin (HCM in the Land of Lenin), Hanoi: NXB Thanh Nien,
1980.
22. See Nguyen The Anh, 'How Did Ho Chi Minh Become a Proletarian?
Reality and Legend', Asian Affairs, vol. 16, part II; Thu Trang Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh
a Paris (1917-1923), Paris: L'Harmattan, 1992; and Daniel Hemery, 'Jeunesse d'un
colonise, genese d'un exil, etc.', Approches Asie, no. 11,1992.
23. In 2001 this archive was renamed 'The Russian State Archive for Social-
Political History'.
24. The first of these women, known as 'Tuyet Minh', was a Cantonese
student of midwifery who started living with Ho as his wife in October 1926. She is
not mentioned in Chapter 3 on Canton, since the relationship ended when Ho fled
from China in the spring of 1927. (See AOM, SPCE 367, Renseignements fournis par
Lesquendieu au sujet de Tuyet Minh, femme chinoise, maitresse de Nguyen Ai Quoc,
Hanoi, 28 Oct. 1931.) The second relationship, with Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, was
politically more significant (see Chapters 5, 6 and 7).
25. His personnel forms are in RC, 495 201/1. The most likely date for his
birth is 1892 or 1893, supplied by his sister when she was questioned by the French
in 1920 (SPCE 364, Note conf. 711, Hue, 7 May 1920). Ho's official Hanoi birthdate
is 1890.
26. John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997, esp. final chapter, 'The New Cold War History'.
Chapter 1 The Emergence of Nguyen Ai Quoc (1919-23)
1. AOM, SPCE 364, e.g. tel. officiel, Saigon, le 22 juillet 1919/Chef Sûreté a
Directeur S.G., Hanoi.
2. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi 25 S.R., 19 Jan. 1920, NAQ letter of 7 Sept. 1919
to Sarraut.
3. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi 270 S.R. Paris du 29 novembre 1921 (cumulative
report).
4. AOM, SPCE 364, Pierre Guesde, note pour M. le Ministre, piece annexe
no. 2, Paris, 12 Oct. 1920.
5. See Historique de AOM, SLOTFOM in C.A.O.M.
6. These reports form the bulk of AOM, SPCE files 364 and 365.
7. AOM, SPCE 364, tel. officiel Hanoi 8 Sept. 1919, no. 869 S.G.
8. AOM, SPCE 364, S.R. Dec. 1919, Paris.
9. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, 'Les Dossiers rapportant a la question
Allemagne'.
10. AOM, SPCE 364,28 Dec. 1920: Pierre Guesde felt it was 'regrettable' that
the case ended in a non-lieu.
11. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, Gouvernement Militaire de Paris, Proces
Verbal d'Interrogatoire, piece 56, p. 4.
12. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, letter of Ct. Roux, 20 Feb. 1915.
13. AOM, SPCE 372,1911-2, see letter ofj. Foures.
14. AOM,SLOTFOMIII,29,DeclarationdeCaoDacMinh,22mail915, p. 5.
15. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29 Proces-verbal d'Interrogatoire de Nguyen Nhu
Chuyen, p. 3.
16. AOM, SPCE 372, folder 1911-12, letter ofj. Foures 5 Aug. 1911.
17. See AOM, SPCE 371, note de 1'Agent Desire, 21 Feb. 1924.
18. Quoted from Ho Huu Tuong, Bon muoi mot nam lam bao (Forty-one
Years in Journalism), by Dang Huu Thu in Than The va su nghiep nha cach mang
Nguyen The Truyen, Melun, France: 5 Boulevard des Carmes, Melun, 1993, p. 29.
19. AOM, SPCE 364, Declaration de Jean, 3 Nov. 1919
20. AOM, SPCE 364, Paris, 20 Dec. 1919, pp. 1-2.
21. AOM, SPCE 364, loc. cit., p. 6.
22. AOM, SPCE 364, Paris, 20 Dec. 1919, p. 6.
23. Ibid.
24. Tran Dan Tien, op. cit., p. 32.
25. AOM, SPCE 364, note de Jean, 1 Jan. 1920.
26. Thu Trang Gaspard quotes extensively from this interview in Ho Chi
Minh a Paris, 1917-1923, Paris: L'Harmattan, 1992.
27. AOM, SPCE 372, note no. 12 du S.R. de Pekin.
28. Ibid., p. 3.
29. Ibid., p. 4.
30. Ibid. This French note mentions that the Beijing edition of Yishibao was
'under the direction of American missionaries' until it was closed down.
31. AOM, SPCE 364, Note pour M. le Ministre, piece annexe no. 2, Paris 12
octobre 1920, signe: Guesde.
32. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi 49/SR, 12 March 1920.
33. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi de SR 19, Jan. 1920. Thu Trang and most other
Vietnamese authors accept that Quoc settled in Paris in 1917. The evidence from
Michel Zecchini which she cites seems to be transposed from 1921, as Zecchini talks
about helping Quoc move to Impasse Compoint, which happened in 1921. (Gaspard,
op. cit., pp. 71-5).
34. AOM, SPCE 15, 1-2; printed as Document No. 9 in appendix to Daniel
Hemery, 'Jeunesse d'un colonise, genese d'un exil. Ho Chi Minh jusqu'en 1911',
Approches Asie, no. 11,1992.
35. 495,201,1, p. 132. His mother died in 1901.
36. David Dellinger, 'Conversations with Ho', Liberation, Oct. 1969, pp. 3-4.
37. Inprecor, no. 74, 1924, pp. 827-8.
38. AOM, SPCE 364, note conf. 711,7 May 1920.
39. AOM, SPCE 364, declaration de Nguyen Tat Dat a la Sûreté de Hue,
March 1920.
40. AOM, SPCE 364, e.g. Extrait d'un cablegramme, 5 Dec. 1919.
41. AOM, SPCE 364, note conf. 291, Hue 13 Feb. 1920.
42. AOM, SPCE 364, note conf.-Edouard, 17 Nov. 1919, p. 3.
43. Daniel Hemery, op. cit., p. 116.
44. AOM, SPCE 364, lettre de Nguyen Sinh Huy au Resident Superieur de
l'Annam.Jan. 1911.
45. AOM, SPCE 364, note de Delegue a l'lnterieur de la Susse.
46. AOM, SPCE 364, note de la Sûreté de l'Annam, 8 March 1911.
47. AOM, SPCE 364, note 571 S, Hue, 5 May 1911, signed H. Sestier; there
was a small group of activists in Quang Ngai which maintained contact with Phan
Boi Chau's partisans via Siam, see David Marr, Vietnamese Anticohnialism, p. 232.
40. Hemery, op. cit., p. 118.
49. AOM, SPCE 364, Declarations de Nguyen Tat Dat, March 1920.
50. Hemery, op. cit., pp. 118-19; Thu Trang Gaspard, Những hoạt động
củaPhan Chu Trinh tại Pháp 1911-1925, Paris: Sudestasie, 1983, p. 91.
51. Hemery, op. cit.,printed as Document no. 6, from Fonds de I'Ecole
Coloniale, carton 27, dossier 11, letter of 15 Sept. 1911.
52. Nguyen The Anh, 'How Did Ho Chi Minh Become a Proletarian? Reality
and Legend', Asian Affairs, vol. 16, part II, p. 165.
53. Hemery, op. cit., Document no. 8, Fonds de la Resident Sup. de l'Annam,
r. 28, 6971, 25 May 1912.
54. AOM, SPCE 364, Lettre de Nguyen Tat Thanh au Resident Sup. de
l'Annam, 31 Oct. 1911.
55. See note no. 34.
56. Copy of postcard on display at Ho Chi Minh Museum, Saigon; Thu Trang
Gaspard cites this card in Ho Chi Minh a Paris, pp. 57-8, giving Hong Ha (Thời
Thanh Nien của Bac Ho) as her source; she translates the word Tay (literally
'Westerner') to mean Frenchmen, whereas in the context I assume it refers to
Englishmen.
57. Thu Trang Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh a Paris, p. 60. This letter apparently
comes from the French archives, but as Thu Trang did her research before the
colonial archives had been organized in their present system, she does not always
give coherent references. She mentions in her earlier work, Những hoạt động của
Phan Chau Trinh tại Phap, Paris: Sudestasie, 1983, p. 100 that she 'presented' this
letter to Hong Ha. Alain Ruscio in Ho Chi Minh. Textes gives source as AOM,
SLOTFOM III, 29, p. 21.
58. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, Proces-verbal d'information (interrogation de
Cao Dac Minh), 22 May 1915.
59. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, Proces-verbal d'interrogation, 8 April 1915,
Interrogation of Nguyen Nhu Chuyen, p. 3.
50. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, Gouvernement Militaire de Paris, Traductions
d'Extraits de lettres et de carte-lettres.
61. AOM, SLOTFOM III, 29, Interrogation of Nguyen Nhu Chuyen, p. 4.
62. PRO: FO 372/668F; this document is cited by Nguyen The Anh, op. cit.
63. AOM, SPCE 364, Paris 19 Nov. 1919, Note 2157: Note fournie par M.
Petette de la S.G.
64. The Dong du movement (literally the Eastern Travel movement, but often
referred to as the Eastern Studies movement) started by Phan Boi Chau in 1905,
encouraged Vietnamese students to travel to Japan for their education.
65. Tran Ngoc Danh, Tiểu sử Hồ chủ tịch, Paris: Chi Hoi Lien Viet tại Pháp,
1949, p. 24
66. Both the 1949 and subsequent versions of this book include this reference.
See Tran Dan Tien, op. cit., 1994 ed., p. 29. As the Thai Nguyen rebellion did not
begin until August 1917, the author seems to be telescoping events for dramatic
effect.
67. AOM, SPCE 364, notes de Jean, 4 May 1920.
68. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi du 12 mars 1920, signed Jean.
69. AOM, SPCE 364, rapport de Jean, 8 Jan. 1920.
70. AOM, SPCE 364, rapport de Jean, 8 Jan. 1920.
71. AOM, SPCE 364, notes de Jean, 4 Jan. 1920.
72. AOM, SPCE 364,9 Jan. 1920, signed P. Arnoux.
73. AOM, SPCE 364, notes de Jean, 16 Jan. 1920.
74. AOM, SPCE 364, notes de Jean, 21 Jan. 1920.
75. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi 34/S.R., 13 Feb. 1920.
76. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi 113 S.R., signed Deveze, 17 Sept. 1920.
77. AOM, SPCE 364,10 August 1920.
78. AOM, SPCE 364, signed Deveze, 14 Nov. 1921.
79. AOM, SPCE 364, Guesde note pour M. le Ministre, 12 Oct 1920.
80. AOM, SPCE 364, note au sujet du tel. no. 1466 du Controleur General des
Troupes Indochinoises au sujet de NAQ.
81. AOM, SPCE 364, 28 Dec 1920.
82. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi no. 160 S.R. Paris, 15 Jan. 1921.
83. Branko Lazitch and Milorad Drachkovitch say in their Biographical
Dictionary of the Comintern, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973, p. 150,
that Ho became a militant in the 18th Section of Socialist Youth in Paris, and then
joined the Ninth Section of the SFIO, whose members were newspapermen. After his
move to Impasse Compoint in July 1921, he seems to have joined the 18th Section,
but I have seen no archival evidence for the other affiliation.
84. AOM, SPCE 364,13 Dec. 1920.
85. AOM, SPCE 364,signe: Deveze, 12 Jan. 1921.
86. AOM, SPCE 364,Josselme report of press coverage of Tours Conf, 12
fev. 1921.
87. AOM, SPCE 364, Deveze, 28 March 1921.
88. AOM, SPCE 364, Pierre Guesde to Gov. Gen. in Hanoi, Feb. 1921.
89. AOM, SPCE 364, signed Deveze, 27 Dec. 1920.
90. AOM, SPCE 364, Deveze, 29 April 1921.
91. AOM, SPCE 364, note of 29 July 1921.
92. AOM, SPCE 364, Deveze, 12 Jan. 1921.
93. AOM, SPCE 364, Deveze, 13 July 1921.
94. See, e.g., Kobelev, p. 39; Fenn, op. cit., p. 25.
95. AOM, SPCE 365, note de l'agent Desire, 25 Sept. 1922, on Truong's letter
to Ng. The Truyen.
96. AOM, SPCE 365, rapport etabli par la Dir. de la Sûreté Generale, Paris,
21 Feb. 1922.
97. AOM, SPCE 364; invitation was received 7 March 1921.
98. AOM, SPCE 364, Guesde, 9 Nov. 1921.
99. AOM, SPCE 365, note conf. no. 315 S.R., 23 Jan. 1923; this note
explained that Paria was formed as a cooperative society, as the propaganda organ of
the Intercolonial Union.
100. Gaspard, Nguyen Ai Quoc a Paris, p. 204.
101. AOM, SPCE 365, note de l'Agent de Villier, 27 March 1923.
102. AOM, SPCE 365, lettre 217 de l'Agent John, Marseille, 6 June 1922.
103. AOM, SPCE 365, Agent de Villier, 25 Dec. 1922.
104. AOM, SPCE 365, Controle general des Indochinois en France, note
conf. no. 389 S.R., 16 May 1922.
105. see Ton That Thien, 'Verites et mensonges', pp. 51-2; or Kobelev, op.
cit., p. 57.
106. AOM, SPCE 365, note conf. no. 389, S.R., Paris 16 May 1922, Guesde.
107. Hoang Tranh, Ho Chi Minh vox Trung Quoc, (Ho Chi Minh and China),
Vietnamese trans, of Chinese work, Beijing: New Star, 1990, p. 23.
108. MAE, Asie: Chine 492, Agitation Revolutionnaire Chinoise en France a
Paris, 1922-9, lists eight suspected communists in France; Han Suyin, Eldest Son,
1994, mentions Zhou and Deng's activities, p. 55.
109. From the Introduction to AOM, SLOTFOM Inventaire, CAOM.
110. AOM, SPCE 364, envoi no. 270 S.R., Paris, piece no. 57, 29 Nov. 1921.
111. AOM, SPCE 371, note de Sur. Gen. on meeting held 21 March 1926.
112. Marseille, letter of 18 Feb. 1922.1 have a Vietnamese translation of this
letter, originally in Chinese, from the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Ho Chi Minh City; it is
printed in French in Gaspard, Ho Chi Minh a Paris, pp. 181-7. Thu Trang discovered
it in the archives of the Ministry of Colonies before these were transferred to Aix-en-
Provence and gives no precise reference.
113. AOM, SPCE 365, note conf. no. 409 S.R., Paris, signe Pierre Guesde, 7
July 1922.
114. Dang Huu Thu, Tlian The va Su Nghiep Nha Cach Manh Nguyen The
Truyen (The Life and Times of the Revolutionary Nguyen The Truyen),Melun,
France: 5 Blvd. des Cannes, 1993, p. 42.
115. AOM, SPCE 365, note de l'Agent de Villier, 27 Feb. 1923.
116. AOM, SPCE 365, note de la Prefecture de Police, 18 Feb. 1923.
117. AOM, SPCE 365, note de l'Agent de Villier, 4 April 1923.
118. AOM, SPCE 365, envoi S.R. Paris no. 695,30 May 1923.
119. AOM, SPCE 372, telegramme n. 244, De Guesde, 20 March 1923.
120. AOM, SPCE 365, envoi S.R. Paris 728,14 June 1923.
121. AOM, SPCE 365, notes de Desire, 15 June and 6 July 1923.
122. AOM, SPCE 372, signe Trinh, envoi du S.R. Paris, 5 Sept. 1923.
123. AOM, SPCE 365, Paris, Colonies a Gouverneur General a Hanoi, signe
Sarraut, 11 Oct. 1923.
124. AOM, SPCE 365, note de l'agent Desire, Nov. 1923.
125. AOM, SPCE 365, folder 1923, no. 992/S.R., Paris, 26 Dec. 1923.
126. AOM, SPCE 365, Saigon 13 Nov. 1923.
127. AOM, SPCE 365, note conf. no. 479 S.R., folder 1922.
Chapter 7 The Return of Ho Chi Minh and the Path to the Eighth Plenum
(1937-41)
1. Charles McLane, Soviet Policy and the Chinese Communists 1931-1946,
New York: Columbia University Press, 1958, p. 129.
2. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., pp. 98-9.
3. RC, 495, 10a, 140, p. 106 (HCM's own rendering of his directives as he
remembered them in July 1939).
4. R.C., 495,201,35, Ankieta (Questionnaire) for Fan-Lan, 14 Dec. 1934-
written across the top are the words, 'Left for her country 2 Feb. 1937'.
5. RC, 495,10a, 140, pp. 23-7, French translation of letter of 10 Sept. 1937.
6. What appear to be extracts from this letter can be found in the French
military archives in Vincennes, SHAT, microfilm 15H, 'Annexe II au Bulletin de
Renseignements no. 33, 31 July 1937, Troupes de l'lndochine, Service des
Renseignements Central. My thanks to Chris Goscha for providing a copy of this
document.
7. AOM, SPCE 384, note no. 2057-S, Cochinchine, Iere Section; ultra-secret,
14 April 1938.
8. AOM, SPCE 384, Police de Cochinchine, premiere section, note of 20
Sept. 1937.
9. Vincennes, SHAT 15H, Troupes de l'lndochine, Annexe I au Bulletin de
Renseignements no. 36, p. 1.
10. Ibid., p. 4.
11. AOM, SPCE, 383, Note Confidentiel, no. 5701, S.G., Hanoi, 26 Nov.
1938; from document found in a police raid on Phung Chi Kien's Kowloon residence
on 25 Oct. 1938.
12. AOM, SPCE 384, note conf. no. 144-ss; Hue, 14 April 1938.
13. R.C., 495,10a, 140, p. 68, report dated Saigon, 6 April 1938.
14. AOM, SPCE 384, note. no. 2246-S, Iere Section, Information provenant
de la police de Saigon, 23 April 1938.
15. R.C., 495,10a, 140, p. 72, report dated Saigon, 6 April 1938.
16. Daniel Hemery, op. cit., p. 415; Huynh Kim Khanh, op. cit., p. 227.
17. R.C., 495,10a, 140, pp. 70-70b, 'Proposals and requests'.
18. Ibid., p. 33, undated report signed 'Sinitchkin'.
19. Ibid., 'Letter from Kan', 13 November 1937.
20. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., p. 108.
21. AOM, SPCE 384, Police de l'Indochine/Annam, Service de la Sûreté, note
conf. n, 144-ss, 14 April 1938.
22. R.C., 495,10a, 140, p. 102, Lin report in French sent July 1939 from
Guilin.
23. Hoang Tranh, op. cit, p. 94.
24. Thomas Kampen, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and the Evolution of the
Chinese Communist Leadership, Copenhagen: NIAS, 2000, pp. 93-8.
25. R.C., 495,10a, 140, pp. 123-39, report written in Chinese dated 12 July
1940, translated into Russian on 27 Feb. 1942.
26. King C. Chen, Vietnam and China, 1938-1954, Princeton University
Press, 1969, p. 34.
27. Ibid., pp. 34-5.
28. Hoang Tranh, op. cit., pp. 95-9.
29. RC, 495,10a, 140, p. 102.
30. Tran Huy Lieu, Hoi Ky (Memoirs), Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1991,
p. 216. The other leading writer (cay but chinh) was Phan Boi, also known as Hoang
Huu Nam, a former prisoner from Quang Nam.
31. AOM, SPCE 377, Note conf. no. 7964-S, signed P. Arnoux, Hanoi, 22
June 1937.
32. AOM, SPCE 383, PROCGAL Saigon a DIRJUST Hanoi, telegramme off.
N. 335-Pg, 30June 1939.
33. Hoang Tranh, op. cit., pp. 97-8. The purchase of this typewriter is one of
those events which has taken on symbolic importance in accounts of this period. Vu
Anh, in his memoir Tu Con-Minh ve Pac Bo, in Bac Ho-Hoi Ky, p. 148, says that the
typewriter was purchased by Phan Boi, the journalist on Notre Voix mentioned in
note 30.
34. Marr, Tradition on Trial, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981,
p. 394, identifies Tri Binh as Le Hong Phong.
35. Notre Voix, 9 April 1939.
36. The details of these publications appear in the introduction to Tu Chi
Trich, republished in Hanoi in 1983 by the Nhà xuất bản Sự Thật Publishing House.
The latter pamphlet is the only one which I have had access to. Tran Huy Lieu
explains that after the closure of Tin Tuc in late 1938, two members of the Tin Tuc
group opened a bookshop which published books and pamphlets with the Dan Chung
imprint (Tran Huy Lieu, op. cit., p. 215).
37. Tu Chi Trich, p. 18.
38. Ibid., p. 24.
39. Ibid., p. 28.
40. AOM, GGI 65459, activites politiques en Annamjune 1939.
41. Notre Voix, 'Lettre de Chine', 9 April 1939.
42. Notre Voix, 'L'activite des Trotskystes en Chine', 11 August 1939.
43. See Huynh Kim Khanh, op. cit, p. 250. Khanh cites arrest figures from
Tran van Giau, Giai Cap Cong Nhan, 3.
44. See Sud Chonchirdsen, 'The Indochinese Communist Party in French
Cochin China (1936-1940)', unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1995,pp.
261-5.
45. Hoang Tranh, op. cit., p. 102.
46. AOM, SPCE 385, translation of a letter seized during a search made on 21
April 1940 in the home of Nguyen Van Cho, Hoc Mon, Gia Dinh. A photostat of the
Vietnamese original is in this file, along with the French translation.
47. AOM, SPCE 385, note no. 5819-S, Activite communiste Rev. en Cochin-
chine, Saigon, 6 Sept. 1937, signed 'Campana'.
48. Nhung Nguoi Cong San, p. 63. Tran Huy Lieu says that Nguyen Van Cu
was a member of the Tin Tuc group in Hanoi. Tran Huy Lieu, op. cit., p. 201.
49. Ngo Nhat Son, Dong Chi Phan Dang Luu (Comrade Phan Dang Luu),
Nghe Tinh: NXB Nghe Tinh, 1987, p. 46. Le Duan (Le Van Nhuan), First Secretary
of the Vietnam Workers Party, then the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1960
until his death in 1986, was a native of Quang Tri. Arrested in 1931, he was released
from Con Son prison in 1936. He may have been a candidate from Quang Tri to the
Chamber of Peoples' Deputies in the spring of 1937. He moved to Saigon in 1939,
where he joined the Central Committee.
50. Nguyen Chon Trung et al., Con Dao ky su va tu lieu, p. 164.
51. 'Chu truong của nguoi cong san doi voi viec bat linh' (The Communist
Position on Forced Recruitment), 30 Dec. 1939, Van Kien Dang, II: 1930-1945, p.
389.
52. Ibid., pp. 394-5.
53. Nhung nghi quyet co ban dan den thang loi cach mang thang tarn (Basic
Resolutions Leading to the Victory of the August Revolution), Hanoi: NXB Nhà xuất
bản Sự Thật, 1983, p. 8.
54. Ngo Nhat Son, op. cit., p. 46. Other sources, such as Nhung Nguoi Cong
San, place his arrest in 'mid-year'.
55. AOM, GGI 65461, Annamjune 1940.
56. Hoang Tranh, op. cit., pp. 105-6.
57. McClane, Soviet Policy and the Chinese Communists, p. 144.
58. BNTS, p. 88.
59. RC, 495,10a, 140, p. 68b; report of 6 April 1938.
60. Le Tung Son, Nhat Ky Mot Chang Duong (A Stage in the Journey),
Hanoi: NXB Van Hoc, 1978, pp. 42-3.
61. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., p. 108.
62. Vo Nguyen Giap, Nhung Chang Duong Lich Su (Historic Journies),
Hanoi: NXB Chính trị quốc gia, 1994, pp. 14-8.
63. AOM, SPCE 369, Yunnan fou 13 May 1940, Dirsurge Hanoi, n. 104.
64. AOM, SPCE 385, Fiche de Reference, Sûreté Cochinchine, no. 7624-S, 5
December 1940.
65. Ibid.,pour M. le Commissaire de Police Speciale, Langson, en
communication a Mess. Le Chef des Services de Police de Tonkin, Hanoi, les
Commissaires de Police speciale Laokay, Caobang, Moncay, Hanoi, 9 June 1940.
66. Ibid., Activites communistes/arrestations d'agitateurs, signe Castrueil,
chef local des services de Polices; in May 1940 the French arrested a Nguyen Duc
Hung, who confessed that he worked as a liaison agent between several organizations
in Cholon and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, 'member of the CC of the ICP and head of the
Saigon-Cholon Committee.'
67. RC, 495,10a, 140, p. 134: quoted from a Feb. 1942 Russian translation of
the 1940 Chinese-language document.
68. Ibid., pp. 135-6.
69. Ibid, pp. 137-8.
70. Ibid, p. 138.
71. King C. Chen, op. cit., p. 41; whether there really were plans to form an
'Asian Information Bureau' at this date is uncertain.
72. Vo Nguyen Giap, op. cit., p. 24.
73. Sud Chonchirdsen, op. cit., p. 282, citing AOM, Direction des Affaires
Politiques, rapports sur les mouvements subversifs de Cochinchine et d'Annam, Nov.
1940-May 1941.
74. Chonchirdsen, op. cit., p. 283, citing AOM, note sur l'activite des intrigues
politiques pendant le mois de juillet 1940, Sûreté 7F 27.
75. SPCE 385, note postale, conf., Gouverneur Cochinchine a Gouverneur
General de l'lndochine (Direction des Affaires Pol), Hanoi, 21 August 1940.
76. Chonchirdsen, op. cit., p. 284, citing CAOM, Sûreté 7F 27, July 1940.
77. Ngo Nhat Son, op. cit., pp. 52-3. Cited by Chonchirdsen, op. cit., p. 284-5.
78. Chonchirdsen, op. cit., pp. 300-1, citing AOM, Sûreté 7F 27, Nov and
Dec. 1940.
79. Tran Huy Lieu, Cac Cuoc Khoi Nghia Bac Son, Nam Ky, Do Luong (The
Uprisings in Bac Son, Nam Ky and Do Luong), Hanoi: NXB Van Su Dia, 1957,pp.
19-20.
80. Ngo Nhat Son, op. cit., p. 47, says the ICP grew by 66 per cent in the
period leading up to the insurrection.
81. David G. Marr, Vietnam in 1945: The Quest for Power, Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1995, p. 19.
82. Tran Huy Lieu, Cac Cuoc Khoi Nghia, pp. 12-5.
83. William J. Duiker, The Communist Road to Power, p. 66. For more
discussion of this issue see Stein Tonnesson, The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945,
Oslo: PRIO, 1991, pp. 115-16.
84. The author saw a copy of this pamphlet on a visit to Ho Chi Minh City in
February 1995.
85. AOM, SPCE 385, fiche de ref., Sûreté Cochinchine, no. 7624-S, 5 and 12
December 1940.
86. Nhung Nguoi Cong San, p. 135.
87. AOM, SPCE 385, Projet Telegramme d'Etat a Colonies Vichy, signed
'Decoux', 17 May 1941.
88. Tran Huy Lieu, Cac Cuoc Khoi Nghia, p. 124.
89. Cecil B. Currey, Victory at any Cost, Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1997, p.
37, quoting two Western sources; this date appears probable, as a Sûreté document of
Jan. 1938 lists Giap as a member of a peasant organizing committee of the Tonkin
ICP Executive Committee. (SPCE 377, Note conf. 1533-S, 28 Jan.1938.) Vu Thu
Hien in Dem Giua Ban Ngay (Darkness at Noon), Germany:Thien Chi XB, 1997, p.
120, presents the view that Pham Van Dong was notconsidered a party member until
1940, when he underwent a training courseon the Chinese border led by NAQ (I am
grateful to Judy Stowe for bringingthis to my attention). However, he may well have
become an ICP memberduring his time on Con Son, when he served as one of the
prisoners' officialspokesmen.
90. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., pp. 112-13.
91. Ibid., p. 114.
92. King Chen, op. cit., p. 46, from information based on an interview with
Zhang Fakui.
93. King Chen, op. cit., p. 147; from Report of Zhang Fakui dated 23 Jan.
1944.
94. Vu Anh, 'Tu Con-Minh ve Pac-Bo' (From Kunming to Pac Bo) in Bac Ho-
Hoi Ky (Memories of Uncle Ho), Hanoi: Van Hoc, 1960, p. 152.
95. AOM, SPCE 369, report of informer 'Ursule', 10 June 1941.
96. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., p. 119.
97. King Chen, op. cit., p. 49.
98. Ibid., p. 49.
99. AOM, SPCE 369, note conf., no. 3392-C, Sûreté Annam, 5 June 1941.
100. AOM, SPCE 369,Gougal a Colonies, Vichy, no. 4061 a 4067, Hanoi 28
July, 1941. report of informer 'Ursule'.
101. E.g. Marr, Vietnam, 1945, p. 168.
102. AOM, SPCE 369, note conf., n. 3392-C, Sûreté Annam, Hue, 5 June
1941.
103. Lich Su Dang Cong San Viet Nam (History of the Vietnamese
Communist Party), vol. 1: Truong Dang Cao Cap Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi: NXB Sach
Giao Khoa Mac-Le-nin, 1983.
104. V.V. Marina, 'Dnevnik G. Dimitrova' (Dimitrov's Diary), Voprosy Istorii
(Problems of History), 7/2000, p. 44.
105. Adibekov et al., op. cit., p. 228.
106. Ibid., p. 232.
107. See David Marr, op. cit.; Pierre Brocheux, 'Les senders de la revolution'
in Saigon 1925-1945, Paris: Editions Autrement, 1992; Stein Tonnesson, op. cit.
8. Summing-up
1. Robert Turner, Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development,
Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1975, p. 1.
2. Arno Mayer, The Furies, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 35; he quotes
Paul Ricoeur, Du Texte a Vaction. Essais d'hermeneutique, vol. 2, Paris: Seuil, 1986,
p. 306.
3. Hoang Van Hoan, op. cit., pp. 252-3.
4. Christopher Goscha, 'Le Contexte asiatique de la Guerre franco-
vietnamienne. Reseaux, relations, et economic d'aout 1945 a mai 1954', these de
doctorat, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (IV section), Paris, 2000, pp. 678-9, citing
Archives of Czech CP CC, collection 100/3, vol. 207.
5. Goscha, op. cit., p. 680, citing doc. 89357/425, letter received 14 April
1950 in Moscow, Archives of the CP USSR.
6. Nikita S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Tapes, trans,
by Jerrold Schechter, Boston: Little, Brown, 1990, p. 155.
7. Hoc Vien Chính trị quốc gia Ho Chi Minh, Tu Tuong Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi:
NXB Chính trị quốc gia, 1995, p. 8.
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
Bui Cong Trung (Giao, Jia-o), 1905-77. Native of Thua Thien province,
began his revolutionary activity in 1924, participated in student demonstrations in
1926; in Saigon became a member of the Jeune Annam group; went to Paris in late
1926, from where he was sent as a youth delegate to the Congress of the Anti-
Imperialist League in Brussels. Went to Moscow in May 1927 to attend University of
the Toilers of the East (Stalin School), where he completed a three-year course. At
the end of 1929 returned to Asia and sent to work in Saigon until his arrest in April
1931. Imprisoned on Con Son Island until 1938, when he returned to Saigon and
became active as a journalist and literary critic, often writing on nationalist themes.
During the anti-French resistance served as Minister of the Economy; after 1954
Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Committee; elected to Central Committee
at Third Party Congress in 1960. Lost influence after the 'Anti-party Affair' in 1968;
regarded as a 'revisionist', he was eventually stripped of his Party positions and held
under house arrest in Hanoi until his death in 1977.
Bui Duc Minh. One-time VNQDD member from Tonkin, former student at
Buoi School; recruited to join the ICP in 1935, when he was in an officer training
school in Kunming. In 1940 served as ICP liaison between Yunnan and Hanoi.
Bui Lam (Min-khan, Nguyen Van Gi, Nguyen Van Xich), 1896-?. From
My Loc district in Nam Dinh; went to Paris where he helped Ho Chi Minh print Le
Paria. Later became print-shop worker and sailor based in Haiphong, returned to
France, where he worked as typesetter at L'Humanite and in 1925 became candidate
member of FCP. Entered Stalin School in 1926, returned to Paris in 1928. In early
1930 returned to Vietnam, where he became involved in trade union organizing in
Saigon. Arrested in 1930, sent to Con Son; released in 1936. Played an active role in
workers' movement until re-arrest in 1939. Imprisoned in Son La until 1945. During
Resistance War became judge of military tribunal in Region III; after 1954 became
Special Ambassador to Germany.
Bui Quang Chieu, 1873-1945. From Mo Cay District, BenTre, received
degree in agriculture in France; after return to Vietnam established the
Constitutionalist Party of Indochina, published La Tribune Indochinoise. Served as an
Indochinese representative to the 'Conseil Superieur des Colonies' in France. On 29
September 1945 was sentenced to death by a 'People's Court' in Cho Dem, Saigon.
Cao Hoai Nghia. Ho Chi Minh's liaison agent between Siam and Hong Kong
in 1929; one of the few Vietnamese who knew where Ho was living in late 1928 and
1929. Seems to have undertaken a fact-finding trip for Ho or the Thanh Nien
leadership within Vietnam in late 1929.
Cao Hong Lanh, Linh. From Hoi An in Quang Nam, probably of Sino-
Vietnamese origin. Early revolutionary career unknown, perhaps received military
training at Whampoa or some other Chinese military academy. Played an important
role in the formation of the Viet Minh in 1940-1; one of liaison agents to Yan'an.
Travelled south with Hoang Quoc Viet in 1945 after the August revolution.
Organized logistics between Vietnam and Thailand in 1945-6. Went to Bangkok in
1948 to establish links with the CCP, then started an Overseas Bureau for the Party in
Hong Kong in 1949. Became head of the DRV consulate in Canton from 1950 on.
Chau Van Liem (Viet), 1902-30. From O Mon in Can Tho; from a poor
family, received scholarship to Teachers' Training College in Saigon, went to teach in
Long Xuyen. In 1926 helped students organize mourning for Phan Chu Trinh. Joined
Thanh Nien, elected to Southern Regional Committee in 1928. Was one of the
Southern representatives at Thanh Nien Congress in May 1929 in Hong Kong;
returned to Saigon to start work of building the Annam Cong San Dang. Went back
to Hong Kong in December 1929 to participate in the unification of the communist
groups in February 1930. Killed on 4 May 1930 by the French, as he was leading a
peasant demonstration in Duc Hoa.
Cuong De, 1892-1951. Royal claimant to the Vietnamese throne, a direct
descendant of Gia Long (founder of the Nguyen dynasty), chosen by Phan Boi Chau
in 1903 as the figurehead for his anti-French Duy Tan Hoi. Lived in Japan with Phan
Boi Chau, travelled in Europe in 1913 to seek German support for Vietnamese
independence. Living in Japan in the early 1920s, he sometimes supplied refuge and
funds to Ho Chi Minh's partisans, in particular Le Hong Son. During the Second
World War headed the pro-Japanese Phuc Quoc Dong Minh Hoi (Vietnam National
Restoration League). Was groomed by the Japanese to take the Vietnamese throne,
but in the end they decided not to use him.
Dang Thai Mai (Vo Mai?, pen-name Thanh Tuyen), 1902-84. From Thanh
Chuong district in Nghe An, his father, Dang Nguyen Can, was among the scholars
exiled to Con Son in 1908. His uncle was Dang Thuc Hua, a leader of the Vietnamese
community in Siam. Graduated in 1924 from higher school in Vinh, went to Hanoi to
study at School of Pedagogy. Graduated in 1928 and sent to teach at Quoc Hoc
School in Hue. Joined the Tan Viet party, arrested with suspended sentence; arrested
again in 1930. After his release, moved to Hanoi; in 1936 became member of the
Society to Propagate Quoc ngu. Replaced Phan Thanh when the latter died in 1938 as
a deputy from Quang Nam. Worked as a legal activist and journalist. One of the first
Vietnamese to write about theory of culture from a Marxist point of view. Minister of
Education in Viet Minh government from 1945-6. Father-in-law of Vo Nguyen Giap.
Dang Xuan Khu, see Truong Chinh
Diep Van Ky, 1895-1945. Born in Hue; through his mother was cousin to the
Emperor Thanh-Thai. His father was professor of French to Emperor Dong Khanh.
Studied Chinese with Ho Chi Minh s father in Saigon, later went to France to study
law. On his return lived in Sa Dec province in the town of Cao Lanh, where Ho's
father settled in 1926. Founded and edited the nationalist paper Dong Phap Thoi Bao
and later the paper Than Chung. May have been a financial contributor to Ho Chi
Minh's projects in Canton.
Do Huy Liem (Phuong Si Hung, Dong Son), 1907-?. From Nam Sach
district in Hai Huong. Studied Chinese characters with his father. In 1921 sent to
private school in Hanoi, then in 1923 entered the Buoi School (Lycee du Protectorat).
In 1926 he and classmates held a strike, when the school director refused to let them
wear mourning for Phan Trinh. Many of them were expelled afterwards. In October
1926 a recruiter persuaded him to travel to Canton for further studies. In January
1927 entered Whampoa Academy, where at the time there were two Vietnamese
instructors, Dinh The Dan and Ngo Thanh. During this period he never saw Ho Chi
Minh. A member of Thanh Nien, 'Luong' (Ho Tung Mau) instructed him to return to
Vietnam in Dec. 1928, to carry out propaganda work. From January 1929 headed the
financial section of Haiphong committee, later sent to Uong Bi mine to work.
Arrested in mid-1930.
Do Ngoc Du (Phiem Chu), 1907-38. Born in Hai Duong, in the province
centre, son of a minor civil servant. In 1922 finished his primary studies and entered
the Buoi School, the 'Lycee du Protectorat' in Hanoi. Like several of his
contemporaries, was expelled from the school, following the boycott of classes
organized at the time of Phan Chu Trinh s death. In the autumn of 1926 went to
Canton to take part in the second or third Thanh Nien training course led by Ho Chi
Minh. At the end was initiated into the select 'Cong San Doan', the inner communist
core of Thanh Nien members. Returned to work in the port of Haiphong in early
1927. Posed as a well-off building contractor, while he recruited workers for Thanh
Nien. In 1928 elected to Northern Ky Bo (regional committee) of Thanh Nien, while
serving as secretary of the Haiphong province comm. To avoid detection he was
moved to Hanoi at the end of 1928, where he took charge of finances and
communications.
In March 1929, along with Ngo Gia Tu, Nguyen Duc Canh and others, met in
Hanoi to establish the first communist cell in the country, to prepare for the founding
of a communist party. In June this group established the Dong Duong Cong San Dang
(ICP). Do Ngoc Du became secretary of the Northern party committee, as well as of
the Hanoi committee; fled Vietnam in the spring, and assigned by Ho to carry out
propaganda aimed at French and Vietnamese military men stationed in Shanghai.
Arrested in June 1931 and expelled to Vietnam. Sent to Con Son in 1933, released in
1936. Died of tuberculosis.
Duong Bach Mai (Bourov), 1905-64. From Ba Ria, studied in Saigon, then
went to Paris, joined Nguyen The Truyen's Annam Independence Party. Later joined
the FCP along with Nguyen Van Tao and in 1929 went to Moscow to study at the
Stalin School. Returned to Saigon in 1932. One of the 'Stalinists' in the La Lutte front
in 1936-7 and was elected to the Saigon Municipal Council on their slate. For a time
was expelled to Cantho. In prison in Saigon at the time of the Nam ky Uprising;
afterwards sent to Con Son until 1943. Lived under house arrest in Bien Hoa until
1945. After August Revolution was for a time in charge of security for the
Provisional Committee in the South. Made a mark as an outspoken delegate to the
Dalat Conference in 1946, then member of delegation to Fontainebleau Conference
the same year. Afterwards worked in the Central Committee. From 1954 was Deputy
Chairman of the DRV National Assembly until 1964, when he became ill and died
just before he was due to deliver a speech.
Duong Hac Dinh (Nguyen Van Truc, Hac), 1906-?. Thanh Nien Canton
trainee from Bac Ninh province; one of the members of the breakaway group which
advocated transforming Thanh Nien into a communist party in May 1929. Switched
allegiance to the Thanh Nien leadership at the May congress, and stayed in Hong
Kong to work with Central Committee. At end September 1929 was sent to Saigon to
organize a branch of the Annam CR Returned to Hongkong in November, then
returned to Saigon as delegates were gathering for the Unification Conference.
Arrested in Saigon at end of May 1930, along with Ngo Gia Tu. Made a long
statement to the French; identified in some sources as a long-time Sûreté informer.
Duong Van Giao, 1894-1945. Southern Vietnamese, relative of Bui Quang
Chieu; studied law in France in the 1920s. Associated with Constitutionalist Party,
went on anti-colonial speaking tour in southern France in 1927 with Nguyen The
Truyen and Trinh Hung Ngau. In 1940 became the head of a Japanese-supported
independence movement. Assassinated in Saigon after the August Revolution.
Ha Huy Giap, 1906-95. From Huong Son district in Ha Tinh, from a scholar's
family, younger brother of Ha Huy Tap. Received a scholarship to the Buoi School in
Hanoi. In 1926 joined the mourning for Phan Chu Trinh. Went to Saigon in 1927,
where he was recruited into Thanh Nien by two graduates of Ho Chi Minh's Canton
training course. In 1928 he went to Sadec to teach in the progressive private school
where Chau Van Liem and Pham Van Dong were employed. In 1929 joined the
Annam Cong San Dang. In 1930 became secretary of the Special Committee for Hau
Giang, as well as serving on the Southern Regional Committee. Arrested in 1931,
sent to Con Son in 1933. Released in 1936, but sent to Ta Ke prison camp. At Second
Party Congress in 1951, elected to CC. From 1960 to 1976 secretary of the Party
group within the Ministry of Culture; in 1960s also served as Minister of Education.
From 1970 he was responsible for the construction of the Ho Chi Minh museum, and
headed the museum until his retirement in 1987.
Ha Huy Tap (Sinitchkin, Joseph, Khit, Marat, Hong The Cong, Hong
Qui Vit, Mr Short), 1902-41. From Huong Son district in Ha Tinh, studied at Quoc
Hoc school in Hue at same time as Tran Phu, joined Tan Viet party and became a
schoolteacher in Vinh. Organized evening courses for workers. Removed from his
teaching post in 1927, went to Saigon. Worked for a time at sugar plantation in Ba
Ria, where he organized workers. Living in same house as members of Thanh Nien
Regional Committee at time of rue Barbier murder, so had to flee to southern China
with Tran Ngoc Ranh, Tran Phu's younger brother. Unable to find Ho Chi Minh,
went to Shanghai and enrolled in university there for a time. Received permission
from Soviet consul in Dairen to travel to Moscow. Studied at Stalin School from
1929 to 1932; went to Paris with Tran Van Giau, but arrested and deported. Returned
to Moscow until April 1933. With Le Hong Phong established an Overseas Bureau
for the ICP in Hong Kong in the summer of 1934. While Le Hong Phong attended the
7th Comintern Congress, Tap held a First ICP Congress in Macao in March 1935,
which in theory established an in-country Central Committee. However, as most
members were arrested in mid-1935, there was no in-country CC until Ha Huy Tap
returned to Saigon in August 1936, following election of Popular Front in France.
Tap headed CC, in spite of Comintern wish that Le Hong Phong would take that
position. Stalled on implementing a united front in Vietnam until the late summer of
1937, when an extended party conference was held in Hoc Mon. Removed as General
Secretary in March 1938 on grounds of sectarianism; arrested in Saigon shortly
thereafter. After the Southern Uprising in 1940, executed with other party leaders in
August 1941.
Hai Trieu, see Nguyen Khoa Van
Ho Hoc Lam (Hoang Van Loi), P-1942. Uncle of Ho Tung Mau, from
Quynh Luu district in Nghe An. In 1906 joined the Duy Tan movement, went to
Japan to study; after the Vietnamese were expelled from Japan went to live in China.
Studied at military academy in Beijing; after graduation served in Chinese armed
forces. Joined Phan Boi Chau in Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi. Lived in Nanjing for
many years, where he provided lodging for Vietnamese emigres. Served as colonel in
Chiang Kaishek's general staff, but may have been providing information to the
ICP/CCP at the same time. In 1936 was among those who formed the first Viet Minh
association in Nanjing. Helped Ho Chi Minh in forming ties with GMD in 1941. Died
in Guilin.
Ho Tung Mau (Luong), 1896-1951. Born in Quynh Luu district of Nghe
Anh to a family with an impressive anti-French pedigree. His grandfather Ho Ba On
died resisting the French in 1883; his father Ho Ba Kien was killed after breaking out
of Lao Bao prison in 1915. His uncle was Ho Hoc Lam (q.v.). In 1920 Ho Tung Mau
went with a small group of friends, including Le Hong Son, to Siam. Lived in Ban
Dong village near Pichit until the money was raised to send the young men on to
Guangzhou. Lived with Ho Hoc Lam in Hangzhou while he studied Chinese. In 1923
formed the anti-French society Tan Tam Xa with a small group of exiles in Canton
who were influenced by the anarchist Chinese revolutionaries. After Ho Chi Minh
arrived in Canton from Moscow in November 1924, Mau became one of his closest
collaborators. In June 1925 they formed the League of Oppressed Peoples and began
to publish the newspaper Thanh Nien. Travelled to Siam that year to organize the
Vietnamese exiles there and create branches of what by the end of the year had
become known as the Association of Revolutionary Vietnamese Youth, or Thanh
Nien. Does not seem to have received military training, but worked with Ho in
Canton during the Thanh Nien training courses of 1926. In March 1926 joined the
CCP. Imprisoned for a few months in 1927 at the time of Chiang Kaishek's anti-
communist putsch, but after release continued to oversee Thanh Nien in Ho's
absence. Arrested at the end of 1928 and held until September 1929, when he once
again took charge of Thanh Nien and founded the Annam Cong San Dang in Hong
Kong. Towards the end of 1929 journeyed to Vladivostok for a short-term political
training course, then returned to work with the new VCP, then ICP, until his arrest in
June 1931 in Hong Kong. Deported to Vietnam and held in a series of prisons (not
Con Son) until March 1945. From 1946 chairman of the IV Interzone Resistance
Committee; in 1949 designated government Inspector General. Elected at 1951
Second Party Congress to the CC; also became head of the Vietnamese-Chinese
Friendship Association. Died in July 1951 as result of a bombing attack.
Hoang Quoc Viet (real name Ha Ba Cang, Sau) 1905-?. From Vo Giang
district in Bac Ninh (Ha Bac), from an artisan's family. Studied at a technical school
in Haiphong from 1922-5, but was expelled following the demonstrations and strikes
connected to protests over Phan Boi Chau's sentencing. Then worked in various coal
mines until he took a job at Caron machinery works in Haiphong. Joined Thanh Nien
in 1928, and as a result was removed from his job. Went to Saigon to organize
workers for DDCSD in mid-1929. Was arrested in Haiphong in May 1930 on his way
to a CC meeting. Sent to Con Son until late 1936, after which he joined the legal
movement in Hanoi. Attended Extended Party Conference outside Saigon in August
1937, when he joined CC. Left Hanoi to avoid arrest in late 1939, so was able to
attend the seventh and eighth Party Plenums in 1940 and 1941. Remained in Party
underground during Second World War. Travelled to Saigon after August Revolution
in 1945 to oversee creation of Viet Minh organs. In 1950 became president of
General Confederation of Labour; also served as president of Fatherland Front after
reunification.
Hoang Tuyen (Nao). A southerner who studied at Whampoa Academy; was
sent with Duong Hac Dinh to Saigon to form branch of Annam CP in September
1929.
Hoang Van Hoan, 1905-91. Born in Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province.
Attended third Thanh Nien training course in Canton in late 1926, then sent to Siam
in 1928 to develop Thanh Nien infrastructure and training. Learned Thai in addition
to Chinese, was active in formation of first Siam Communist Party in 1930. In 1935
returned to southern China, lived with Ho Hoc Lam in Nanjing and became active in
united front in China in 1936, when first Viet Minh organization was formed.
Working in Overseas Bureau with Phung Chi Kien in 1939 in Kunming, when Ho
Chi Minh returned. Active in Viet Minh in China until 1945. After August
Revolution named Dept. Secretary for National Defense. In 1948 joined ICP CC and
was sent to Thailand to direct party relations with all of Asia. From 1950 to 1957 was
DRV ambassador to China. In Politbureau until Fourth Party Congress in 1976;
defected to China in 1979.
Hoang Van Non (Van Tan, Cao Bang, Tu Huu), 1904-?. An ethnic Tay
born in Cao Bang province. Studied Vietnamese and Chinese and for one year in a
Franco-Vietnamese school. First revolutionary contacts in 1924-5, travelled to China
in 1928. Led a peasant demonstration against military recruitment. In 1930 organized
a communist cell, then in 1932 became chairman of Cao Bang party committee.
Arrested and held for five months that year. In 1934 selected to join Vietnamese
delegation to Seventh Comintern Congress. Studied at the Stalin School from 1935 to
early 1937, when he returned to Vietnam with Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. Worked in
northern party organization. After 1945 became a writer and historian.
Hoang Van Thu, 1906-44. Brother of Hoang Van Non from Cao Bang,
studied at primary school in Lang Son. In 1927 went to China. Worked in Nam Hung
mechanical repair shop run by group of revolutionary Vietnamese in Guangxi
province. A communist cell organized in this workshop became the Interprovince
Committee for Cao Bang-Lang Son, with Hoang Dinh Giong at its head. Thu went to
Longzhou to start another cell near the border in Lung Nghiu village, which served as
a cross-border liaison point. Worked with Le Hong Phong when he came to Guangxi
in 1932. For a time worked in weapons factory in Longzhou, where Le Hong Phong
also held a job. In 1937 returned to Cao Bang to lead the movement there; at end of
year went to Hong Kong to receive latest instructions from Phung Chi Kien and Le
Hong Phong. Elected secretary of Bac ky Regional committee in autumn of 1939. At
Seventh Plenum in November 1940, elected to CC Standing Committee, placed in
charge of the armed uprising in Bac Son-Vu Nhai. His position in CC was confirmed
at Eighth Plenum. Arrested in August 1943 on way to a meeting in Hanoi, executed
in 1944.
Khanh Ky (Nguyen Van Xuan?). Member of the Vietnamese Patriots
Association in Paris at end of the First World War, ran a photographic supply
business in occupied Germany in 1919-20 which provided funding for the group
living at Phan Van Truong's house, Villa des Gobelins. Returned to Vietnam, helped
Phan Chu Trinh on his return. Ho Chi Minh mentioned him as a potential funder of
his work in Canton in 1925. Associated with Constitutionalists in mid 1930s. In late
1930s ran a photographic business in Hanoi; worked with Anti-Illiteracy League in
1938.
Lam Duc Thu (real name apparently Nguyen Cong Vien, also known as
Nguyen Chanh Dong). Son of Nguyen Huu Dan, who studied with Ho Chi Minh's
father in Hue. A lieutenant of Phan Boi Chau in China, studied at military academy in
Beijing and became an instructor in the Canton army. His role as key informer to the
Sûreté on the Vietnamese revolutionaries in Canton is now evident from the files of
the SPCE, in which he is often referred to as 'Agent Pinot'. He was an early member
of Ho Chi Minh's Canton group which developed into Thanh Nien; was removed
from his responsibilities at Congress held in his home in May 1929. After that he was
no longer allowed into the group's inner councils, but Thanh Nien members
continued contacts with him until 1932. In 1931 pictures which he had taken of
Thanh Nien recruits were said to have been used to arrest many ICP members.
Lam Van Tu (Joseph Thanh). A southern supporter of Prince Cuong De,
student in England during the First World War who may have had contacts with Ho
Chi Minh there. Returned to South Vietnam, where he was involved in nationalist
journalism, worked with Nguyen An Ninh's Hope of Youth movement in 1928.
Le Duan (Le Van Nhuan), 1907-86. From Hau Kien village, Trieu Phong
district, Quang Tri. Joined Thanh Nien in 1926 and the newly-formed communist
party in 1930. Held jobs in railway company. Arrested in Haiphong in 1931, sent to
Con Son. Released in 1937, became a member of the Trung ky regional committee;
brought into the CC in 1939 when he went to work in Saigon. Took part in Sixth
Plenum, which adopted the policy of anti-imperialist front. Re-arrested in early 1940
and sent back to Con Son until September 1945. Became secretary of the Southern
Regional Committee. At the 1951 Second Party Congress elected to CC, became
secretary of the Central Office for South Vietnam. Remained in the South after the
Geneva agreement, went north in 1957 and joined the CC secretariat. Elected First
Secretary of the Party in 1960. His title became General Secretary in 1976. Remained
in this post until his death in 1986, before the Sixth Party Congress. In the 1970s
became closely identified with pro-Soviet policies, although in 1963 at time of the
Ninth Plenum he had been considered a supporter of the Chinese line.
Le Duc Tho (real name Phan Dinh Khai), 1911-90. Born in Dich Le
village, Nam Tru district near Nam Dinh, son of a mandarin family. Expelled from
school in Hanoi in 1926 for protesting Phan Boi Chau's arrest. In 1929 joined Thanh
Nien, then the DDCSD in 1930. Arrested in 1930, sent to Con Son in 1931. Served as
a medical orderly there, so was able to carry messages from the Party leadership on
the island to the different camps. Released in 1936, became a legal activist and
journalist in Nam Dinh, joined the Nam Dinh province committee. Re-arrested in
1939, sent to Son La and Hoa Binh prisons, released in 1943. In 1945 attended the
Tan Trao meeting in Thai Nguyen in August; then became a member of the ICP
Standing Committee. In 1948 was sent South to oversee the Party there. In 1951
ordered to set up a separate party in Cambodia. In 1954 regrouped to the North and
became Secretary for Party Organization after 1956; position confirmed at Third
Party Congress in 1960. Served in Politbureau until Sixth Party Congress in 1986,
when he became a special adviser to the CC. After negotiating the Paris Peace
Agreement with Henry Kissinger in 1973, he was offered the Nobel Peace Prize, but
declined the award.
Le Duy Diem (Le Loi). From Nghe An, recruited by Tran Phu to make
contact with Thanh Nien in Canton in 1925, returned at the end of the year as a
Thanh Nien member and recruiter. Organized second group of Thanh Nien trainees
which went to Canton from Nghe Tinh/Thanh Hoa. Student at Whampoa. Returned to
Vietnam in 1927 with authority to arrange a merger with the Revolutionary Party
(Tan Viet). As he prepared to go in search of Ho Chi Minh in autumn of 1929, was
sent to Siam in disgrace for alleged affair with Le Hong Son's wife. Said to have been
murdered there by the Vietnamese for his mistreatment of the local women.
Le Duy Dung. Whampoa cadet, may have been brother of Le Duy Diem.
Le Hong Phong (Le Huy Doan, Litvinov, Hai An), 1902-42. From Hung
Nguyen district in Nghe An, son of a failed scholar and farmer. " Finished primary
education, then became a mechanic in Vinh. Travelled to Siam in 1924 with Pham
Hong Thai; from there the Vietnamese community sent them on to Canton. They
joined Tam Tam Xa and soon after their arrival Pham Hong Thai was killed, after
attempting to assassinate Gov. Merlin. Le Hong Phong studied at Whampoa
Academy, took part in East River campaign. For first nine months of 1926 studied at
aviation school in Canton, where he joined CCP. Sent to Leningrad to study first at
Military School (October 1926-December 1927), then at Borisoglebsk Aviation
Academy. Enrolled at Stalin School in December 1928, in 1929 joined the Soviet CP.
In 1932 returned to southern China, from where he worked to rebuild northern party
structures and make contacts with exiles in Siam. In summer of 1934 established an
Overseas Bureau, with Ha Huy Tap and Nguyen Van Dut. Returned to Moscow in
late 1934 to attend Seventh Comintern Congress, where elected to Comintern
Executive Committee. At First Congress of ICP in 1935 designated as First Secretary,
but Ha Huy Tap took charge of party in his absence. In the spring of 1936 returned to
China, where he began to construct a united front with other Vietnamese emigres.
Held a meeting with Ha Huy Tap in Shanghai in mid-1936 to establish united front as
official ICP policy; Tap then went to Saigon, where he formed a new CC and took
position of First Secretary. Phong moved to Saigon from Hong Kong at end of 1937
to serve as representative of the Comintern. Was arrested in Saigon in mid-1938, held
for ten months, then sent to Nghe Tinh under restricted residence. Re-arrested in
September 1939, held in Saigon, then sent to Con Son, where he died in 1942. Hanoi
biographers say he was married to Nguyen Thi Minh Khai.
Le Hong Son (real name Le Van Phan, a.k.a. Tan Anh, Le Thieu To, Vu
Hong Anh, Vu Nguyen Trinh, Do etc.), 1899-1932. Born in Nam Dan district of
Nghe An, in 1920 went with Ho Tung Mau and Dang Xuan Thanh to Siam and from
there to China. From Canton went to Hangzhou to meet Phan Boi Chau and Ho Hoc
Lam. In 1921 went to Japan and met Prince Cuong De. The Prince gave him the
assignment to assassinate Phan Ba Ngoc, a son of the deceased nationalist leader
Phan Dinh Phung, who was then living in Hangzhou and who, the emigres believed,
had gone over to the French. Entered Whampoa academy in 1924 along with Le
Hong Phong, Quyet Uyen and Le Quang Dat. In early 1925 joined campaign in East
River area against Chen Jiongming, then returned to Whampoa until the late summer
of 1925. Met Nguyen Ai Quoc on his return from the East River and joined The
League of Oppressed Peoples. Also joined the CCP in the summer. Became an
instructor at Whampoa and in 1926 helped to escort a group of trainees from the
Vietnamese border to Canton. Imprisoned in April 1927 until end of 1928. On his
release took charge of Thanh Nien, which moved to Kowloon; led the May 1929
Thanh Nien Congress, where Tonkin group left early to form a communist party.
After unification of communist groups in early 1930, went to Japan to raise money
from Cuong De; then to Yunnan to propagandize among Vietnamese there. Arrested
in late 1932 with Tran Ngoc Danh in Shanghai. Executed in 1933.
Le Huu Lap (Hoang Lun). Thanh Nien member from Thanh Hoa, in first
training course, 1925; sent to Siam in disgrace (for unknown transgression) in 1928.
Le Manh Trinh, 1896-1983. Born in Nghe An, trained in Canton. Worked
for Thanh Nien in Siam from 1928. Became one of most important Vietnamese
cadres in Thailand before and after the Second World War.
Le Quang Dat (Le Van Chinh, Hoang Cao). Born in Nam Dan district of
Nghe An, emigrated to Siam and then in 1924 to Canton, with aid of Vietnamese
community near Pichit. Studied Chinese, then took the entry exam for Whampoa in
1925. Met Ho Chi Minh and joined Thanh Nien group, also the CCP at the end of
1925. Accompanied Thanh Nien trainees from border to Canton; in 1927 helped train
two groups of students from Cochinchina. In prison from January to August 1929;
delegated by Thanh Nien leaders to consult Far Eastern Bureau in Shanghai on
formation of CP. Became liaison between Shanghai and Hong Kong, worked on
Vietnamese paper aimed at military personnel stationed in Shanghai. Arrested 5 June
1931 in Shanghai, repatriated to Saigon, where he seems to have surrendered to the
French along with his wife, Ly Phuong Duc.
Le Thiet Hung (Luu Quoc Long, Le Nhu Vong). One of the Canton
emigres who moved from the Yunnan army to train at Whampoa Academy in 1925.
Worked in GMD army, married daughter of Ho Hoc Lam. In 1930-1 joined the
propaganda group targeting French and Vietnamese military personnel stationed in
Shanghai. In later 1930s continued to work within the GMD in logistics, although he
had joined the CCP. Became a Viet Minh organizer and later rose to the rank of
general in the VPA.
Le Tung Son. A trainee from the Kunming officer's training school who was
recruited for the ICP in 1935 by Vu Anh. Became an important Viet Minh cadre in
China. Published memoirs in 1978, Nhat ky mot chang duong (A Stage in the
Journey).
Le Van Luong (real name Nguyen Cong Mieu), 1911-95. From Van Lam
district in Hai Hung, completed his baccalaureate at the Buoi. School in Hanoi. Along
with schoolmates Ngo Gia Tu and Nguyen Van Cu participated in mourning for Phan
Chu Trinh. Joined Thanh Nien, then the ICP in 1929, when he was sent to Saigon.
There organized a cell at Nha Be refinery. In 1930 arrested at May Day
demonstration during which a soldier was killed; sentenced to death along with seven
others, but sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Sent to Con Son in May
1933, where he remained until 1945. Worked in Interior Ministry; became Party's
specialist on rectification from 1952 to 1956 as chairman of Party's Central
Organization Committee. Dismissed from Politbureau in 1956 for leftist errors, but
remained in Central Committee. In 1976 rejoined Politbureau and at the Fifth Party
Congress became Party Secretary for Hanoi.
Le Van Phat (Lang, Dau, My). A practitioner of traditional medicine from
Ben Tre, sent to Canton for Thanh Nien training course in 1927, after Ho Chi Minh's
departure. Assigned to head Southern Regional Committee in mid-1928, became a
rival of southern labour leader and fellow Canton trainee, Ton Duc Thang. Executed
on Thanh Nien orders in December 1928, on grounds that he had forced a young
female recruit to become his mistress.
Le Viet Thuat. From a village outside the city of Vinh in Nghe An province,
believed to have come from a poor peasant family and become a labourer in Vinh.
One of the leaders of Nghe Tinh Soviet Movement in 1930-1, became secretary of
Nghe Tinh committee in April 1931. Arrested in May 1931 and executed by the
French.
Luong Ngoc Can (Luong Van Can), 1854-1927. Native of Thuong Tin
district in Ha Dong, now Hanoi. In 1874 passed the cu nhan exam. In 1908 was one
of the founders of the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc school, the Dong Kinh Free School.
After the 1914 bomb incident at the Hotel Hanoi, he was exiled to Phnom Penh. He
was permitted to return to Hanoi in November 1921, but his wife maintained a home
in Phnom Penh. His daughter-in-law, the widow of Luong Ngoc Quyen (see below),
was a businesswoman in Phnom Penh who gave financial support to the anti-French
movement. Ho Chi Minh's father visited Can in Phnom Penh.
Luong Ngoc Quyen (Luong Lap Nham), 1890-1917. Son of Luong Ngoc
Can, in 1905 joined the Dong Du movement to Japan, then moved to China. In late
1915 arrested by the British, who handed him over to the French. Imprisoned in Thai
Nguyen, where he was able to proselytize among Vietnamese soldiers in French
troops. Freed during the uprising of August 1917, but committed suicide when it was
put down.
Luu Hong Khai (Mr Sau, Vo Tung). Born in Quang Ngai province, worked
with Phan Boi Chau in China and became an officer in the GMD army, then joined
Ho Chi Minh and Thanh Nien, which sent him to Siam to develop Thanh Nien
infrastructure. By 1929 was head of the Thanh Nien committee in Siam. Arrested in
1930.
Luu Quoc Long, see Le Thiet Hung
Ly Phuong Duc (Nguyen Tri Duc). Daughter of Vietnamese emigres in
Siam; her father Nguyen Tri Minh (Cuu Tuan) worked as a village official. Educated
first in Thai, then in Chinese and English in Chieng Mai. Sent with her brothers, Ngo
Chinh Quoc and Ly Tri Thong, to Canton in 1925 for schooling, aged around 14.
Attended Trung Son School, joined League of Oppressed Peoples, later helped to edit
Thanh Nien. Married Le Hong Son in August 1927, against her wishes. Divorced him
in 1929 to marry Le Quang Dat, another Nghe An revolutionary and Whampoa
graduate. Worked in Shanghai in 1930-1 with Vietnamese group proselytizing among
French and Vietnamese sailors and soldiers stationed there. Arrested in May 1931,
deported to Saigon, where she seems to have rallied to the French.
Ly Tri Thong. Brother of Ly Phuong Duc and Ngo Chinh Quoc, Whampoa
cadet, spent time in Japan with Prince Cuong De.
Ly Tu Trong (Nguyen Hui), 1915?-31. Son of Cuu Tuan, a Vietnamese
emigre living in Sakhon Nakhon. Sent to Canton for schooling at age often, with his
sister Ly Phuong Duc. Studied at the Trung-son School, became proficient in Chinese
and English. In autumn of 1929 was sent to Saigon to help create a communist youth
movement. He also carried out liaison work with 'other parties', probably the CCP in
the main, as he knew both Cantonese and Mandarin. At a demonstration in February
1931, to commemorate the Yen Bay uprising, he shot the French police detective
Legrand, who was attempting to arrest one of the speakers. Was captured almost
immediately and sentenced to death.
Ly Ung Thuan. One of the young Vietnamese sent from Siam to study in
revolutionary Canton. Sometimes referred to as the wife of Ho Tung Mau, she
became a member of CCP. She was living in Ho Chi Minh's house at the time of his
arrest in June 1931, posing as his niece. She remained a communist activist in China.
Manh Van Lieu, see Phung Chi Kien
Ngo Chinh Hoc (Tang). From an emigre family in Siam, went to China for
studies in early 1920s, attended a special English language school in Hangzhou and
became proficient in English and Chinese. His sister Ngo Khon Duy married Ho Hoc
Lam. Along with Ngo Chinh Quoc became one of leaders of the first Siamese CP, or
according to other sources, of the Vietnamese section of the Siam branch of the
Malayan CP. Unclear what his relations with the CCP were.
Ngo Chinh Quoc. Born in region of Nakhon Phanom in Siam to Vietnamese
village official, brother of Ly Phuong Duc, went to China for training around 1925.
First fought with Yunnan troops under Nguyen Hai Than; after their defeat
transferred to Whampoa Academy. Became one of leaders of Siam CP/Vietnamese
section of Siam CP.
Ngo Duc Ke (Tap Xuyen), 1878-1929. Born in Can Loc district, Ha Tinh,
son of a court mandarin. Passed his metropolitan exams in 1901, the same year as
Phan Chu Trinh and Nguyen Sinh Huy, Ho Chi Minh's father. Along with Phan Chu
Trinh, became an advocate of reform in education, and for the development of
indigenous Vietnamese enterprises. Sent to Con Son after the disturbances of 1908
for thirteen years. Father of Ngo Duc Tri.
Ngo Duc Tri (Le Man, Van), 1902/40s. Son of the well-known scholar and
Con Son prisoner, Ngo Duc Ke, from Can Loc district in Ha Tinh. After studying
Chinese, attended the 'College de Vinh' from 1920 to 1925. Among his friends there
were Ton Quang Phiet and Dang Thai Mai. In October 1925, enrolled in the Hanoi
Higher School of Commerce, but left in February 1926 due to lack of funds. In March
1926 took a job with the Yunnan railway, but fired after the mourning for Phan Chu
Trinh, which his father helped to organize. In April 1926
Vuong Thuc Oanh, who had been in France, suggested he go to France to
work with Nguyen The Truyen. In August 1926 in Paris, Nguyen The Truyen
introduced him to a French member of the FCP's Colonial Commission, who agreed
to send him to Moscow for studies. Thus he joined a French language course at the
Stalin School in December 1926, which included Chinese and Greek students. The
third year course, which he and Tran Phu followed, was in Russian. Returned to
Vietnam via France and Hong Kong between November 1929 and February 1930.
Missed the Unification Conference in early February. Arrived in Saigon in April
1930; in June joined the Central Committee. Went to Hong Kong in October 1930 for
first party plenum, but spent the two weeks in hospital with appendicitis. Claims to
have opposed the uprisings of 1930, on the grounds that they were premature, as the
party was just being constructed. Arrested in Saigon at end March 1931, after the
close of the second plenum. After a few weeks in prison, made a long confession to
the French.
Ngo Gia Tu (Quyet, Bach), 1908-35. From Tam Son village, Tu Son district
in Bac Ninh Province. Studied at Buoi School, but expelled after taking part in
funeral demonstrations for Phan Chu Trinh. Returned to his village where he became
a teacher; also became involved in secret political activities. Attended a Thanh Nien
training course in Canton in mid-1927; on return joined Thanh Nien committee for
Bac Ninh, formed a Thanh Nien cell at the army base in province. In early 1928
joined Tonkin committee of Thanh Nien and that September organized a meeting
which called on party members to 'proletarianize' themselves. Established a
communist cell in Hanoi in March 1929. That May was one of the three delegates to
the Thanh Nien Congress in Hong Kong who left the Congress early, to mark their
disapproval of the leadership's refusal to move immediately to form a communist
party. With his fellow Thanh Nien leaders in Tonkin formed the DDCSD
(Indochinese Communist Party) in June. He went to Saigon to oversee party
formation in the South, where he worked as a coolie. The ICP developed cells on the
Phu Rieng rubber plantation, in the Cholon electric plant, Ba Son shipyard, and in
Vinh Kim village in My Tho. Became head of the Provisional Executive Committee
of the ICP in South, a position which he continued to hold after the Party's unification
with other communist groups in February 1930. Arrested in early June 1930 after
series of demonstrations in May. Sent to Con Son Island; died at sea during an escape
attempt in 1935.
Ngo Khon Duy. Wife of Ho Hoc Lam, sister of Ngo Chinh Hoc, mother-in-
law of Le Thiet Hung (Luu Quoc Long).
Nguyen An Ninh (Nguyen Tinh), 1900-43. From Hoc Mon district, Gia
Dinh (now Ho Chi Minh city), son of a landowner. Went to France to study law,
received degree in 1920. Worked with the Vietnamese Patriots. In 1922 returned to
Saigon, where a speech he delivered titled 'The Hopes of Youth' became a call to
action for the intelligentsia. Started La Cloche Felee in December 1923. In March
1926 arrested and held for ten months before being amnestied. After another spell in
France, returned in 1928 to Saigon and organized the Nguyen An Ninh Secret
Society. At end of 1928 sentenced to three years in prison; released in 1930. Worked
with La Lutte, became a Popular Front activist in 1936, when he wrote the proposal
to start the Indochina Congress Movement which appeared in La Lutte. Arrested
again in July 1937, held until January 1939; then re-arrested in October 1939. Sent to
Con Son, died August 1943.
Nguyen Chi Dieu (Trong), 1911-39. Completed four years of primary
schooling in Hue, Expelled from school for participating in funeral observances for
Phan Chu Trinh in 1926. Joined Thanh Nien, worked as teacher and journalist. In
autumn of 1929 joined the Annam CP, sent to Saigon, where he was placed in charge
of the provinces of Gia Dinh and Cholon. Arrested in 1930; in 1933 sent to Con Son
Island. Released in 1936, joined ICP CC and became the Party secretary for the
Central Region. Died 1939 of tuberculosis.
Nguyen Cong Mieu, see Le Van Luong.
Nguyen Cong Thu (Xuan). Brother of Lam Duc Thu, Thanh Nien recruiter
for Tonkin.
Nguyen Cong Vien, see Lam Duc Thu.
Nguyen Danh Doi (Dien Hai), 1905-43. From Kien Xuong District in Thai
Binh. His grandfather had led anti-French troops in Nam Dinh in 1883. His father
was a member of Phan Boi Chau's Quang Phuc Hoi, who died for the cause in 1913.
While a student at the Thanh Chung School in Nam Dinh, became friendly with
Nguyen Duc Canh, Truong Chinh, and Nguyen Van Nang. After joining in mourning
for Phan Chu Trinh, went to Thanh Nien training course in Canton. On return to
Vietnam became secretary of Thanh Nien's Bac Ky regional committee and the party
secretary in Hanoi. Worked to convince the Northern Publishing Society to join
Thanh Nien. Arrested in February 1929, sent to Con Son for five years. Convinced
some VNQDD prisoners to join the communists. When sentence up in 1934 returned
to Thai Binh. From 1936 worked on Le Travail, participated in legal struggle
movement. In June 1940 was re-arrested, imprisoned in Bac Me prison camp, where
he died August 1943.
Nguyen Dinh Kien (Tu Kien). One of the Nghe An scholars arrested
following the 1908 disturbances and deported to Con Son. Escaped in 1918, made his
way to Hanoi, but was rearrested and imprisoned in Saigon. On release in 1926,
returned to Nghe An where he joined the Revolutionary Party, later called Tan Viet.
Set up a shop in Saigon as a front; according to the French, served as a one of key
contacts between Thanh Nien in Canton and southern revolutionaries. Arrested again
after the Rue Barbier affair in mid-1929, released with Nguyen Duy Trinh in 1930,
but died shortly thereafter. One of the links between the First World War era
nationalists and the communist movement.
Nguyen Duc Canh (Trong), 1908-32. Born in Thuy Anh district in Thai
Binh, father a scholar who refused to serve the French. Studied at upper school in
Nam Dinh, together with Truong Chinh. Following the movement to demand Phan
Boi Chau's release and to mourn Phan Chu Trinh, he was expelled in 1926. Went to
Hanoi and became a typesetter. Joined the Southern Publishing Society, which sent
him to Canton in September 1927 to hold discussions with Thanh Nien. After a
Thanh Nien training course, joined their group. On return to Vietnam went to
Haiphong to work with the Thanh Nien branch there. In 1928 became a member of
the Bac Ky Thanh Nien committee. Working in Haiphong he oversaw the recruitment
of miners and other labourers. In September 1928 joined Ngo Gia Tu in a campaign
to 'proletarianize' Thanh Nien. Then in March 1929 they organized a communist cell
in Hanoi. On 17 June 1929 with the other Tonkin leaders of Thanh Nien formed a
communist party, the DDCSD or first ICP. Late in July Canh formed the Bac Ky
General Labour Union; attended the unification conference in Hong Kong in
February 1930. After the arrests following the April-May strikes in the North, in the
summer of 1930 the party Executive Committee sent him to Nghe Tinh to strengthen
the leadership of the Soviet movement. Joined the Standing Committee for Trung Ky,
and wrote a manual on armed resistance in 1931 before his arrest. Arrested at end of
April 1931, executed in July 1932.
Nguyen Duy Trinh, 1912-?. Born in Dien Chau (or Nghi Loc?) district in
Nghe An, joined Tan Viet; arrested in Saigon party headquarters at end 1928, but
released in July 1930 when he returned to Nghe Tinh to join party leadership in Nghi
Loc, then the seat of the ICP regional committee. Arrested again in spring of 1931,
sent to Banmethuot prison, and then to Con Son in 1933. Released in 1936. After
1945 became secretary of the Zone V party committee during first Indochina War.
CC member from the 1951 Second Party Congress; head of DRV State Planning
Commission until 1965. Foreign Minister and Polit-bureau member from 1965 to
1979. Signed the Paris Peace Agreement for DRV.
Nguyen Hai Than (Nguyen Cam Giang, Vu Hai Thu), 1879-1955. Son of a
mandarin, from Ha Dong, near Hanoi. Joined Phan Boi Chau in Japan in 1905, after
passing the tu tai (baccalaureate degree). Lived in China from 1909 to 1945. Joined
Quang Phuc Hoi, trained in one of Chinese military academies; an officer in Yunnan
army in 1925 until its defeat by Whampoa troops. Then worked with Ho Chi Minh in
League of Oppressed Peoples, but moved away from Thanh Nien group in early
1927. Served in GMD army, worked with nationalist exiles in Guangdong. Probably
cooperated with Le Hong Phong in 1936 to form a Vietnamese united front among
emigres in China. Elected to council of the Dong Minh Hoi in 1942; after Dong Minh
Hoi's collapse, joined again when it was reorganized in 1944. In September 1945
entered Vietnam with Hsiao Wen's troops, negotiated with Ho and was appointed
Vice President of the Provisional Coalition Government in January 1946; later in year
resigned and went to Canton. In March 1947 tried to form a new anti-Viet Minh
united front in Hong Kong. Returned to Canton in autumn of 1947 and retired from
active politics.
Nguyen Hoi, 1909-33. Born in Haiphong, introduced to revolutionary
literature in 1927 by Do Ngoc Du. At the end of 1921 went to Canton for political
training by Thanh Nien. Returned to Haiphong, where his assignment was to make
propaganda and to print revolutionary materials for his province committee. In 1928
moved to Hanoi, and in March 1929 was assigned to work as secretary of the Nam
Dinh committee. After the first ICP was formed in June 1929, became the province
secretary for Nam Dinh, as well as a member of the Bac ky Regional Committee.
Remained province secretary after unification of the Communist groups in February
1930. A major strike broke out at the Nam Dinh textile mill in March-many of the
workers' demands were met, but the owners rounded up the communist activists and
destroyed most of their cells within a short time. Nguyen Hoi was arrested on 6 May
1930. From Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi he was sent to Con Son. At end of 1932 a party
cell was created on Con Son, and Nguyen Hoi was one of the leaders. Drowned in an
escape attempt at end of 1933.
Nguyen Huu Can (Nguyen Vinh Xuyen, Phi Van, Min, Philippe). From
Bac Ninh province, went to Canton for training in late 1926. Joined DDCSD, then
ICP. Went to Moscow in 1930 and studied at Stalin School until end 1933, at same
time as Tran Van Giau. Studied radio technology-when he returned to southern China
in 1934 was assigned to handle the radio communications of the Overseas Bureau.
Before the First Party Congress in 1935 fell out with Ha Huy Tap and may have
given information to the French. In 1938 in Nanjing was among the founders of the
first Viet Minh association. Imprisoned in Son La during the Second World War.
Nguyen Huu Tien (Giao Hoai, Que Lam), 1901-41. From Duy Tien district
in Ha Nam (now Nam Ha), family of poor scholar; became a teacher in his home
district, encouraged students to join movement to free Phan Boi Chau. Joined Thanh
Nien in 1927, DDCSD in 1929. Arrested in May 1931; sent to Con Son in February
1933. Escaped from prison in April 1935 with Ta Uyen and Tong Van Tran.
Remained in south to organize the inter-province committee for western Nam Bo in
Chau Doc, Long Xuyen, Ha Tien and Rach Gia. Arrested in Saigon with Nguyen Thi
Minh Khai in July 1940. In March 1941 sentenced to death for alleged role in
organizing Nam Ky Uprising. Executed along with a group of party leaders on 28
August 1941.
Nguyen Huy Bon (Bui Van Minh, Bui Van Bon, Barsky). Born in 1901 in
Tonkin, from peasant family. Became a ship-board cook, based in Le Havre. Then
went to Paris to make laquerware. Became FCP member in 1924, studied in Moscow
in 1928 on a three-month course. May have returned to Vietnam for a time, but in
1934 was back in Moscow, where suspected of being a provocateur. Sent to work at a
factory in Samara; unknown when able to return to Moscow or Vietnam.
Nguyen Khanh Toan (Minin, Robert, Hong Linh), 1905-93. Born in Vinh,
Nghe An, in the family of a civil servant. Graduated from University or Pedagogical
Institute in Hanoi in 1926, then moved to Saigon where he participated in Jeune
Annam movement with Tran Huy Lieu, Bui Cong Trung and others. Went to Paris
and from there to Moscow, where he studied at the Stalin School from 1928 to 1931,
and then as a graduate student in the same school. In 1931 he may have come under
suspicion as an associate of Nguyen The Truyen. In 1933 became a teacher in the
Indochinese section, which later was part of the Institute of National and Colonial
Questions. While in Moscow wrote a number of studies of politics and history in
Vietnam, including, Groups and Parties in Indochina which could be drawn into a
United National Movement (1936). Also authored the first Vietnamese language
textbook in Russia in 1933. In 1939 travailed to China and spent Second World War
in Yan'an. Served as chairman of the DRV's Committee of the Social Sciences for
many years.
Nguyen Khoa Van (Hai Trieu), 1908-54. From An Cuu, outside of Hue; in
1927 joined Tan Viet; in June 1930 joined the VCP in Thua Thien province, then
went to Saigon and became a member of the Saigon city committee in August 1930.
Arrested in 1931, taken back to Hue, released in mid-1932. After release worked as a
legal activist, journalist and writer on culture. Arrested in August 1940, held until
March 1945. Took part in August Revolution in Hue, afterwards worked as head of
propaganda in Central Vietnam. Died in 1954 after prolonged illness.
Nguyen Kim Cuong, 1904-94. Born in Dien Chau district, Nghe An
province, joined Thanh Nien in 1926; travelled to Guangzhou to attend a training
course, but was arrested at the border and given a one-year suspended sentence. In
February 1927 went to Saigon, where he ■worked with Pham Van Dong for a time,
then at the end of the year went to Sadec, teaching at a private progressive school,
along with Chau Van Liem, Ha Huy Giap, and Dong. In 1928 selected to join the
Thanh Nien committee for the South, along with Le Van Phat and Nguyen Thieu. In
July 1929 arrested in connection with the Rue Barbier affair and sent to Con Son
island until 1936. After release went to work as a journalist and legal activist in
Hanoi-said to have worked with Vo Nguyen Giap on Notre Voix. After the August
1945 revolution became deputy chairman of committee for training and propaganda
in Nam Bo. In 1954 became deputy to Pham Hung on the Joint Military Commission
for the South in Saigon. In 1960 undersecretary in the Prime Minister's office. Fluent
in French and English.
Nguyen Luong Bang (Ba, Nhan, Pham Dinh Tiep, Sao Do), 1904-79. From
Thanh Mien district in Hai Duong; worked in Canton as a servant where he was
recruited by Ho Chi Minh to form a union of domestic workers and join the Thanh
Nien association. In 1930-1 worked with Vietnamese group proselytizing among
soldiers and sailors in Shanghai. After August 1945 served as head of the CC's
Inspection Committee, General Director of the Bank of Vietnam, a special
ambassador to the USSR, General Government Inspector and, after reunification,
Deputy Chairman of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Nguyen Ngoc Ba (Nhan). A student of Tran Phu who accompanied him to
Canton for Thanh Nien training in 1926 and became a member of the secret
communist youth group within the association. Moved to the South in 1927 to recruit
for Thanh Nien and was a member of the Cochinchina committee of Thanh Nien in
1929, according to Le Hong Son.
Nguyen Phong Sac (Thanh, Thinh, real name Nguyen Van Sac), 1902-31.
Born in what was Bach Mai village, now a street in Hanoi, son of an artisan. Entered
Buoi School on scholarship, after graduating worked in the finance office of the
colonial civil service. Became a teacher at the private Thang Long school. Joined the
Hanoi branch of Thanh Nien. After the decision to 'proletarianize' the party in late
1928, became secretary of the Hanoi Committee. After June 1929 founding of
DDCSD sent to Trung ky to recruit members from the existing Thanh Nien
organization. Took responsibility for the Vinh-Ben Thuy industrial area. Worked as a
truck-taxi driver which allowed him to travel freely around Nghe Tinh. Credited with
the direction of the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement by many sources, became secretary
of the Trung ky committee either in the summer of 1930 or at the October first
plenum in Hong Kong (which he did not attend). Arrested on 3 May 1931 in Hanoi;
unknown when or where executed by French.
Nguyen Si Sach (Phong). Teacher from provincial elementary school in Ha
Tinh who became early Thanh Nien and Tan Viet member; propagandized among his
students such as Nguyen Van Loi; may have studied at Whampoa. Returned from
China to Nghe Tinh in February 1928 with a party programme and instructions to
form a regional committee for Thanh Nien. In June 1928 designated one of three
leaders of the Trung ky Executive Committee. One of three Thanh Nien
representatives of Central Vietnam at the Thanh Nien Congress in Hong Kong in
May 1929. (Not clear if he can be identified with Nguyen Dinh Tu, who was listed by
the Sûreté as one of the three delegates from Trung Ky, along with Vo Mai and
Nguyen Thieu.) Arrested after return to Nghe Tinh from Congress, held in Lao Bao
prison, shot dead during a prison protest in December 1929.
Nguyen Sinh Huy (Nguyen Sinh Sac), 1862-1929. Father of Ho Chi Minh,
from Kim Lien village in Nam Dan district of Nghe An. Married Hoang Thi Loan,
the daughter of his teacher and adopted father. In 1894 passed the cu nhan
examination, then in 1901 gained a second-rank (pho bang) diploma at the national
level, along with Phan Chu Trinh. In 1902 took up the post of Hanh Tau (a low-
ranking official) in the Ministry of Rites in Hue, and was probably assigned to teach
at the Quoc Tu Giam academy there. Served as an examiner for regional
examinations. In 1909 assigned the post of district mandarin in Binh Khe district of
Binh Dinh, removed on grounds that by caning a petty criminal he had caused his
eventual death. Most Vietnamese sources claim he was removed for opposition to
French administration in Binh Dinh. Protested his demotion, but lost means of
livelihood and had to move to the South to make his living. Worked as tutor of
Chinese, overseer of a French rubber plantation, and itinerant traditional doctor.
French believed his travels to different pagodas and visits to exiled nationalists
connected to anti-French conspiracies. In 1927-8 settled in Cao Lanh in Sadec
province, an early centre of communist organizing in the South. Died in November
1929.
Nguyen The Ruc (Fanshon, Fonshon, Nguyen Duong Ruc), 1902(5)-37.
From clan of Nguyen The Truyen, born in Hanh-Thien village in Nam Dinh, also the
birthplace of Truong Chinh. Went to France in 1923 and studied in Montpellier at a
commercial college. Nguyen The Truyen enabled him to go to Moscow in 1925,
where he studied at the Stalin School until the end of 1929. Returned to Vietnam via
France in early 1930, worked in Hanoi with the Bac ky party committee. Arrested in
1931, released in 1936. Worked as a legal activist in the Le Travail group, died of
tuberculosis in 1938.
Nguyen The Truyen, 1896 (or 1898)-1969. From a well-off family in Hanh-
Tien Village, Nam Dinh, son of a district mandarin, outstanding scholar. From 1916
to 1920 studied science in Toulouse and received his Bachelors degree. Received a
scholarship to study at the Sorbonne where he completed a License in Philosophy in
1922. In 1922 went to live in Phan Van Truong's house at Ave. des Gobelins and by
end of year was working on Le Paria. Became editor of Paria after Nguyen Ai Quoc's
departure for Moscow, and started publication of Viet Nam Hon. Became the FCP's
link for Vietnamese who wanted to study in Moscow in 1926, but not clear whether
he joined the party. In 1927 founded the Annamese Independence Party in Paris,
became linked with the Anti-imperialist League. At end of 1927 returned to Vietnam,
where he travelled up the coast making contacts with revolutionaries, including Phan
Boi Chau and Ho Chi Minh's sister in Hue. By 1928 seems to have fallen out with the
communists. Had developed close contacts with Chinese GMD in Paris, and travelled
to China in 1928. Not known if he was involved in the VNQDD uprising in 1930-at
the time he was living with his family in Hanh Tien. Returned to France from 1934 to
1938, where he became involved with Popular Front anti-colonial activities in 1936-
7. Returned to Vietnam in 1938, arrested by French in May 1941. Deported to
Madagascar until 1946. Moved to South in 1954, stood unsuccessfully as presidential
candidate in 1967. Died shortly after Ho Chi Minh in 1969.
Nguyen The Vinh (Thang or Tap Hy Hien), 1904-45. One of more
controversial of Nguyen The Truyen's relatives, also from Hanh Thien (Nam Dinh).
Studied at Hanoi Lycee (later Lycee Albert Sarraut), then went to France and studied
at the Commercial College in Montpellier from 1922-24. Worked on Le Paria and
Viet Nam Hon; went to Moscow in late 1925 or 1926. Studied at Stalin School for
almost two years, but was hospitalized with tuberculosis for thirteen months during
that period. Was given permission to return to France in the autumn of 1927, around
the same time that Ho Chi Minh returned to Paris. In mid-1928 he escorted two
Vietnamese delegates from the FCP to the Sixth Comintern Congress in Moscow, but
he and one of the delegates, Bui Thien Ban, were asked to leave before the Congress
closed when they criticized the Colonial Commission of the FCP. Vinh returned to
Vietnam with Nguyen The Ruc at the end of 1929. Attempted to set up businesses in
Saigon, but when these failed he returned to Hanh Thien. In July 1930 he renounced
his political involvements and surrendered to the French authorities, who gave him
work as chief clerk of the Resident Superieur. Returned to revolutionary activities
during the Popular Front, but remained suspect within the party. Executed by Viet
Minh in late 1945.
Nguyen Thi Minh Khai (Duy, Fan Lan, Tran Thai Lan, Ba Vai), 1910-41.
Born in Vinh to mother from Nghe Tinh scholars family, father from Tonkin who
worked as station master in Vinh. Studied for French primary certificate from age ten
to fifteen; while at school recruited into a patriotic student group. In 1927 became a
Tan Viet activist and by 1928 was in the Central Committee. Organized women
labourers in Vinh and Ben Thuy. In 1929 left home to avoid arrest, became Tan Viet
liaison agent. Sent to Hong Kong to work in VCP headquarters after Party
unification. Living in Ho Chi Minh's house during first plenum in October 1930,
moved out to carry on liaison work with the CCP. May have 'married' or started a
relationship with Ho at this time. Arrested May 1931 in Hong Kong, deported to
Canton. Released 1932 and returned to Hong Kong to rebuild party communications.
In 1934, after she contacted the Overseas Bureau, assigned to go to Moscow for the
Seventh Comintern Congress. Studied at Stalin School until February 1937. Returned
to Hong Kong with instructions on construction of united front. Le Hong Phong,
whose efforts to construct a united front in Vietnam had thus far failed, then sent her
to Saigon to deliver these instructions to Party plenum. She remained in Saigon to
play role as an illegal activist. Became secretary of Saigon Party committee, and by
1940 she may have joined the CC. Seeitis to have played a role in bringing Ho into
contact with the CC in 1940, although this has not been officially recognized.
Arrested in Saigon in July 1940, executed in August 1941. Her younger sister was the
first wife of Vo Nguyen Giap.
Nguyen Thieu (Nguyen Nghia). Thanh Nien recruit from Cochin-china,
attended the May 1929 Thanh Nien Congress in Hong Kong as one of Central
Vietnamese delegates. Avoided arrest after his return to Vietnam, but had to flee to
Hong Kong in autumn of 1929. There he took part in the Unification Congress in
February 1930. His memoirs published in Nghien Cuu Lich Su in 1964 form the
major official source on this process.
Nguyen Tuan (Kim Ton). A Canton-trained member of Thanh Nien from
Tonkin, was a member of its Tonkin committee in 1929. Joined what has become
known as 'the first communist cell' in Vietnam in early 1929 in Hanoi and walked out
of the May Thanh Nien Congress with those who wanted to form a communist party
on the spot. A founding member of the DDCSD, arrested by French when acting as a
liaison agent between Canton, Hanoi and Saigon in late 1929. Provided the Sûreté
with letters which the feuding communist groups were exchanging.
Nguyen Van Cu (Tri Cuong), 1912-41. Born in Tu Son (now Tien Son)
district of Bac Ninh province, in family of a poor scholar. Studied Chinese at home,
then went to district school to learn Quoc ngu; at sixteen entered the Buoi School
outside of Hanoi. Forced to leave due to his political activities, returned to his district
and opened a school. Came into contact with Ngo Gia Tu, another former Buoi
School student, and Thanh Nien. At beginning of proletarianization movement, went
to work in the mining area north of Haiphong. In June 1929 joined new DDCSD, and
took on more responsibilities for organizing miners. After party unification in 1930
became secretary of Hon Gai-Uong Bi Special committee. Arrested in spring of 1930,
sent to Con Son in 1932. Increased his knowledge of communist theory in prison.
After 1936 release, returned to Hanoi; in 1937 elected to the CC and its Standing
Committee. Replaced Ha Huy Tap as First Secretary in March 1938, but soon
expelled to Tonkin. In summer of 1939 published his pamphlet Self-criticism to
analyze the ICP's loss in Saigon municipal elections. Returned to Saigon in
November 1939 for Sixth Plenum, at which the Anti-imperialist United Front was
formed. Arrested in Saigon in January 1940. Executed August 1941.
Nguyen Van Dut (Svans, Svan), 1909. Born in well-off family from Long
An province, Cochinchina. Studied in Saigon at Lycee Chasseloup-Laubat. Went to
France for studies, where he joined the FCP in 1928. Secretary of Vietnamese student
group in Toulouse. After May 1930 demonstration in Paris to protest sentencing of
Yen Bay prisoners, expelled to Vietnam. Sent to Moscow to Stalin School by FCP in
August 1931. Remained until April 1933. Present at First ICP Congress in Macao in
early 1935, elected to CC and to head Southern Regional Committee. Arrested in
June 1935. After release returned to Cantho, worked as teacher. Became secretary of
his provincial branch of Lien-Viet Front during anti-French war.
Nguyen Van Linh (real name Nguyen Van Cuc, aka Muoi Cuc), 1914-98.
From My Van district in Hung Yen, now Hai Hung province. Studied in Haiphong,
joined a student political group early on. Arrested at age sixteen in 1930, sent to Con
Son in 1931. Pursued his political studies while in prison. After release in 1936
worked with Luong Khanh Thien in Hanoi to organize secret workers' groups within
legal movement. In 1937 was sent to Saigon to help organize a provisional city
committee. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai became secretary of this committee in 1938.
After Sixth Plenum in 1939 he carried the resolutions to the Center and North.
Arrested in Vinh at the start of 1941. Sent to Con Son until September 1945. Worked
in western Nam Bo, then joined Saigon city committee as secretary. After Geneva
Agreement he remained in the South. At the Third Party Congress in 1960 he joined
the CC. Became Deputy Secretary of the Central Office for the South. In 1975 joined
Politbureau and became Saigon City Committee Sec; in 1986 elected General
Secretary, until the following congress.
Nguyen Van Loi (Loc, Map Den, Dung), 1907-?. Born in Thach Ha district
in Ha Tinh. In 1924 entered the elementary course in the provincial school; failed
exam for primary school certificate; influenced by one of his teachers, Nguyen Si
Sach, member of the Thanh Nien committee for Trung ky. Probably attended second
or third Thanh Nien training course in Canton. Became a Tan Viet cadre and went to
Saigon in 1928. There became a recruiter, apparently for both Tan Viet and Thanh
Nien. Lived with Tran Ngoc Danh, Tran Phu's brother, in Saigon. Worked as
apprentice at an aircraft repair facility in Bien Hoa, then for telegraph agency in Phu
Tho. Joined the reunified party in Saigon in February 1930. Elected to the new party's
Provisional Executive Committee (Lam thoi chap uy) for Cochinchina. Also made a
member of the Saigon City Committee, led by Ngo Gia Tu. In his police confession,
stated that he resigned from this committee after two months and was demoted in his
responsibilities, after he made known his opposition to the demonstrations being
organized in the South. Arrested in early 1931.
Nguyen Van Tao, 1905-70. From Phuoc Loi in the former Cholon province.
Organized a student strike at his school in Saigon in 1926; travelled to France for
studies. Joined FCP in 1928, attended Sixth Comintern Congress in Moscow with
French delegation, after which he joined the French CC. Edited Vietnamese papers
Lao Dong and Vo San in Paris. Expelled from France in 1930, returned to Saigon
where he organized workers. In 1933 elected to Saigon Municipal Council. Worked
with La Lutte front, organized Indochinese Congress movement in 1936. Elected
again to Municipal Council with La Lutte slate in 1937. Arrested, then released
during 1937, then arrested again in 1939. Sent to Con Son until 1945. Worked with
Tran Van Giau in Provisional Executive Committee for the South. In 1946 became
Minister of Labour, a post he held until 1968.
Nguyen Van Tram (Trong, Cao Van Binh). A northerner working as a key
liaison agent for ICP between Siam and southern China in 1933. At end of 1934,
when working in the ICP Overseas Bureau in Hong Kong, accused by Ha Huy Tap of
raping a woman working in the Bureau. Fled with $1,500 to Hong Kong, Ha Huy Tap
claimed; fate unknown.
Nguyen Van Tran (Prigorny), 1914-98. Born in Cho Dem, Long Xuyen
province, son of a wealthy rice merchant. Educated at Petrus Ky Lycee in Saigon.
Studied at Stalin School in Moscow from November 1927 until 1929. After a brief
arrest in Saigon, from mid 1930s worked as a legal activist and journalist on La Lutte
and Dan Chung. After Nam Ky Uprising in 1940 fled to the Central Highlands. In
1945 returned to Saigon and worked with Tran Van Giau to organize the Viet Minh
takeover there. Elected member of National Assembly for Saigon in 1946; then sent
to be Party secretary in Khu 9. Late in 1949 travelled north with Ung Van Khiem;
attended 1951 Second Party Congress in Hanoi and afterwards was sent to China for
ideological training. Elected full member of CC in 1960. On return to Hanoi held
various teaching posts. Retired to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.
Pham Huu Lau (Lo), 1905-59. Born in Hoa An village, Cao Lanh district in
Dong Thap Province, where Ho Chi Minh's father lived at the time of his death in
1929; from a poor family, gave up studies early to work as lacquer craftsman.Joined
Thanh Nien in 1928, then the Annam CP in late 1929. Around that time went to work
in railway repair yard at Di An. Became member of the Southern Region Committee
after the February 1930 unification of communist groups; also made a member of the
Provisional CC that spring. One of leaders of the Cao Lanh peasants' 1 May
demonstration to demand tax reductions. Arrested in Haiphong in July 1930 on his
way to a CC meeting; sent to Con Son that year. Released in 1936, went to Saigon
where in 1937 became an active member of the Dan Chung newspaper collective
until he was expelled to Cao Lanh. In 1939 returned to underground work in Rach
Gia; in 1940 re-arrested and sent back to Con Son. Released in 1945. In 1954 became
member of the Standing Committee for the South, remained working clandestinely
until death in 1959.
Pham Van Dong (Nam, Lam Ba Kiet, Lin Pai-chieh), 1906-2000. From
Mo Duc village, Duc Pho district, Quang Ngai province, son of a high-ranking
mandarin at the Hue court. Educated in Hanoi at the Higher Commercial College.
Attended Ho Chi Minh's third Thanh Nien training course in Canton in late 1926.
Moved to the South in 1927, worked for a time as a teacher at a progressive school in
Sadec. Following the Rue Barbier murder of Le Van Phat he was assigned to
investigate on behalf of the Thanh Nien CC. After attending a Thanh Nien Congress
in Hong Kong in May 1929, returned to Saigon as member of preparatory committee
to form a communist party, but was arrested almost immediately in the sweep of
activists caught up in the rue Barbier affair. Sent to Con Son in June 1930. Became
one the prisoners' representatives to prison authorities. Not known whether officially
made an ICP member while in prison. Released in 1936, returned to Quang Ngai,
then Hanoi where he joined the Le Travail newspaper collective until expelled to
Quang Ngai. In May 1940 went with Vo Nguyen Giap to Kunming to meet Ho Chi
Minh. Worked to construct a United Front with the help of the Guomindang; became
one of key members of the Viet Minh. Present at Tan Trao conference in August
1945; became Minister of Finance in the new government after the August
Revolution. Led the Vietnamese delegation at the Fontainebleau Conference in 1946.
With return to war at the end of 1946, became the government's representative in
Lien Khu V until 1948, then Deputy Prime Minister. At the Second Party Congress in
1951, elected to Polit-bureau. In 1954 led the Vietnamese delegation at the Geneva
Conference. From signing of peace agreement with France, became Prime Minister, a
post he retained until the Sixth Party Congress in 1986.
Phan Boi (Hoang Huu Nam), 1911-47. From Dien Ban district in Quang
Nam; known as revolutionary intellectual, took part in 1925-6 movement to demand
release of Phan Boi Chau and to mourn Phan Chu Trinh. In 1928 joined Thanh Nien,
then in 1929 the Annam CP; sent to Saigon where he joined the DDCSD in 1930.
During a February 1931 demonstration in Saigon to commemorate the Yen Bay
uprising, he was captured by French police as he was giving a speech. In 1933 sent to
Con Son; released in 1936, when he went to Hanoi to work as a journalist. Worked
with Vo Nguyen Giap on newspaper of the United Democratic Front, Notre Voix. In
1939 re-arrested, sent to Bac Me prison camp, then to Madagascar. In 1943 the Allies
sent him to India for training. In 1944 believed to have parachuted into the Viet Bac
to make contact with the ICP. After August revolution worked as head of President's
office. After evacuation of Hanoi at end 1946, became Minister of the Interior. Died
in a flash flood in Tuyen Quang province in April 1947.
Phan Boi Chau, 1867-1940. The best-known of the pre=communist
Vietnamese anti-colonial leaders. From Nam Dan district in Nghe An province, the
same district as Ho Chi Minh's family. Son of scholar and teacher, passed his regional
exams in Nghe An with highest honours in 1900; in 1904 formed the Duy Tan
(Modernization) Association. Selected Prince Cuong De as the royal figure-head of
his resistance movement. Travelled to Japan in 1905 in search for support and ideas
from abroad; encouraged Vietnamese students to join him in Japan for studies and
military training, what became known as the Dong Du or Eastern Travel movement.
In 1907 forced to leave Japan; lived for a time in Siam, then returned to southern
China in 1911, after the first Chinese revolution. His attempts to foment uprisings
during the First World War were costly failures and after three years in prison (1914-
17) retired to Hangzhou to make his living as a writer. Made contacts with envoys of
Soviet Russia in 1920; in 1924 formed the skeleton of the Vietnamese Quoc Dan
Dang (Peoples' Party), patterned on the Chinese GMD but did not have time to
develop this organization. In July 1925 arrested by the French on way from Shanghai
to Canton; deported to Vietnam; life sentence converted to house arrest in Hue after
mass protests. Lived in Hue for rest of life. His patriotic writings, such as Viet Nam
Vong Quoc Su (History of the Loss of Vietnam) strongly influenced other
Vietnamese anti-colonialists in both form and content.
Phan Chu Trinh (Hi Ma), 1872-1926. Born in Tay-Loc Village, Tien-Phuoc
district of Quang Nam, to wealthy scholar-gentry family, father a military official
who joined Can Vuong anti-French movement, killed 1885. Began training in
Chinese classics in 1887, passed the regional exam in 1900 and in 1901 received the
second-rank (pho bang) diploma in the metropolitan exams in Hue, along with Ho
Chi Minh's father. Worked at Ministry of Rites in 1903, then in 1904 broke with
mandarin system. Began to promote Western ideal of democracy, the ending of the
Chinese exam system, construction of modern schools and commercial development.
Helped to found the Duc Thanh school of modern learning, along with a nuoc mam
factory, in Phan Thiet, where Ho Chi Minh became a teaching assistant in 1909.
Became a popular lecturer at the Dong Kinh Free School in 1907. But after 1908 anti-
tax protests in Hue and Quang Nam, he was arrested as one of the spiritual fathers of
the revolt and sent to Con Son. Amnestied in 1911 and allowed to travel to France,
officially as part of government-sponsored Indochina students' group. Wrote an
account of anti-tax protests and heavy-handed French reactionjoined Phan Van
Truong to form a Vietnamese association which met in cafes for discussions.
Imprisoned with Phan Van Truong after outbreak of First World War, on charge that
he had been seeking German support for Vietnamese independence. Released a year
later, but lost French government stipend. Began photography and photo retouching
to make a living. At end of war he and Truong began the Vietnamese
Patriots'Association, which Ho Chi Minh joined when he returned to France in 1919.
According to Sûreté reports became despondent and erratic following death of only
son from tuberculosis in 1920. Argued with younger members of Vietnamese group,
but remained in touch with Ho Chi Minh. Remained at least overtly a supporter of
non-violent reform and the French socialist party. Finally permitted to return to
Vietnam in 1925 when socialists came to power. Died in March 1926, when the
funeral commemorations organized by Vietnamese activists resulted in many young
people being expelled from school and starting them on path of underground
activism.
Phan Dang Luu, 1902-41. Born in Yen Thanh district in Nghe An (now in
Ha Tinh) in a scholars family. Finished elementary education in Vinh, transferred
from secondary school in Hue to an agricultural college. Sent to work at a sericulture
station in Vinh Phu, then in 1925 returned to work in Vinh. There met Tran Phu and
was recruited into the Phuc Viet party, later known as Tan Viet. With other activists
started evening classes for workers. Lost government job due to his activities. Sent to
Hue to produce literature for party. In July 1928 chosen by the Tan Viet Congress to
join their central committee. At end of year the party sent him to Canton to discuss
uniting with Thanh Nien, but the Thanh Nien headquarters had moved from Canton.
Tried to return to Guangzhou in September 1929, arrested in Haiphong. In 1930 sent
to Banmethuot prison. After release in 1936, joined the Central Regional Committee
and worked as a legal activist in Hue. Then joined the CC; present at the Sixth
Plenum in Saigon, when United Anti-imperialist Front established. Probably went to
Kunming in May-June 1940 to meet Ho Chi Minh at same time as Vo Nguyen Giap
and Pham Van Dong, after which returned to Saigon, where plans for an uprising
discussed in July. Went to Tonkin in early November to consult on plans for uprising
in South. The newly-formed CC advised against uprising, but Phan Dang Luu was
arrested in Saigon before the plans could be halted. Executed by a firing squad on 28
August 1941.
Phan Trong Binh. One of trainees from Central Vietnam (Ha Tinh) in 1926
second Thanh Nien training class. From the clan of patriotic leader Phan Dinh Phung.
At end of course inducted into the Vietnam Communist Youth Group. After training
went to Cochinchina to recruit new members for Thanh Nien.
Phan Trong Quang. One of the 1926 Thanh Nien trainees from Central
Vietnam, inducted into the communist youth group at the end of the training course.
His memoir of this training course is one of the main sources on the early
organization of Thanh Nien.
Phan Van Truong, 1875-1933. From Tu Liem district,Ha Dong (now
Hanoi), he trained as an interpreter in Hanoi. Received law degree in Paris. With
Phan Chu Trinh he founded the Association of Vietnamese Patriots in France;
arrested on outbreak of the First World War, on suspicion of plotting against French
with Germans. After release drafted to serve as interpreter for French in Toulouse
arsenal; after war worked in occupied Germany mainly as a defense lawyer. In 1919
helped Ho Chi Minh draft the Vietnamese Demands to the Paris Peace Conference.
Joined Intercolonial Union in 1921, became member of the FCP. Returned to Saigon
at end 1923, became editor of L'Annam, in which he printed the Communist
Manifesto, also worked with Nguyen An Ninh on La Cloche Felee. Arrested by the
French in 1928, died in Saigon 1933.
Phung Chi Kien (Nguyen Vi, Manh Van Lieu, Kan or Can), 1901-41.
From Dien Chau district in Nghe An, poor peasant family. In 1926 attended a Thanh
Nien training course, then enrolled in Whampoa Academy under name of Manh Van
Lieu. Took part in Canton Commune; arrested in Canton in 1929 and after release
went to join guerillas in East River area of Guangzhou. Joined CCP in December
1929 and became a company commander. In 1931 sent to Moscow for studies- but a
few months' imprisonment on the Manchurian border delayed arrival until 1932. In
1934 returned to Hong Kong/Macao to work with Le Hong Phong and Ha Huy Tap in
Overseas Bureau. Elected to CC at 1935 Party Congress. Travelled to Saigon for
1937 party conference and plenum, after which returned to Hong Kong to direct the
Overseas Bureau. Expelled from Hong Kong at end of 1938, then went to join
guerilla training course in China. At end of 1939 re-established Overseas Bureau in
Kunming, where Ho Chi Minh met him in 1940. In 1941, following the 8th Plenum,
accompanied Truong Chinh to Cao Bang to take military control of Bac Son base
area. Caught by the French in early August and executed on 21 August 1941.
Ta Thu Thau, 1906-45. Born in Tan Binh, Long Xuyen province. His father
was a scholar of Chinese as well as a carpenter. Attended College Chasseloup-
Laubat, received baccalaureate in 1925. Went to France in late 1927 where he
enrolled to study for a degree in mathematics; did not complete studies. Became
active in Vietnam Independence Party and the Anti-Imperialist League. Expelled
from France in May 1930. Became a teacher in Saigon and one of pillars of La Lutte.
Elected several times to Saigon Municipal Council. Became involved with pro-
Japanese independence movement at end of Second World War; executed by Viet
Minh in Quang Ngai province in August 1945.
Ta Uyen (Chau Xuong, Thanh, Dong). Born in Ninh Binh district, Ninh
Binh. Joined Thanh Nien in 1927, DDCSD in June 1929. Arrested in November
1929, sent to Con Son in April 1930. Escaped from prison in May 1935, to Soc
Trang; assigned by ICP to work in Tra Vinh. From 1936 to 1939 successively a
provincial committee member in Can Tho, inter-province committee member for Can
Tho-Vinh Long, secretary of Hau Giang Inter-province comm., member of the Nam
Ky Standing Committee, then secretary of the Nam Ky committee as well as
secretary of the Saigon city committee. Arrested in October or November 1940 was
just before the Nam Ky uprising. Died in police custody on 10 December 1940 in
Saigon.
Ton Duc Thang, 1888-1980. From a peasant family in My Hoa Hung village,
Binh Thanh District, Long Xuyen province, now An Giang. In 1906 went to Saigon
to study to become an electrician, completed course in 1910. Worked at Ba Son naval
shipyard, then sent to France where he worked as a repairman at the Toulon naval
yard. Probably not stationed with the French Black Sea fleet during 1919 mutiny, as
rumoured, but may well have participated in labour movement which surged in
France after war. Returned to Saigon in 1920, barred from working at Ba Son yard,
took job as car mechanic at a garage in Phu Nhuan. Began organizing workers at Ba
Son, where a strike in 1925 may have been organized in support of strike movement
in Hong Kong and Canton. Joined Thanh Nien in 1926, went to Canton for training in
1927, returned to Saigon to become member of the Saigon municipal committee and
a representative of Thanh Nien leadership in the South. In 1929 arrested in
connection with the rue Barbier murder of a rival Thanh Nien leader, sent to Con Son
in June 1930, where remained until September 1945. After release first worked in
party's Southern Committee and Southern administrative committee. In 1946 went
North to join National Assembly Standing Committee. From 1951 became a member
of Party Central Committee, which he remained until his death. After Ho's death in
1969, Thang replaced him as Chairman of the government.
Ton Quang Phiet. An early member of the Revolutionary Party (later Tan
Viet), who represented the party in Hanoi. Arrested at the Chinese border on his way
to the Thanh Nien training course in 1926. In 1928 may have influenced the VNQDD
to re-write their statutes, which made the latter very similar in organization to Tan
Viet and Thanh Nien. At time of August Revolution was principal of a private school
in Hue and an underground ICP member. Became chairman of Thua Thien province
people's committee at that time.
Tran Huy Lieu, 1901-69. Born in Vu Ban district in Nam Dinh, now Nam
Ha province. Moved to Saigon after his secondary schooling to become a journalist,
from 1925 to 1927 was the leading writer on Dong Phap Thai Bao. Wrote on
Buddhism, nationalism; one of founders of the Jeune Annam party in 1926. In 1929
joined VNQDD cell in Saigon; arrested that year and sent to Con Son prison until
1935; in prison became sympathetic to ICP. Became legal party activist and journalist
in Hanoi, said to have officially joined the ICP in 1936. Re-arrested in 1939, sent to
Son La, then to Nghia Lo prison camp, from which he escaped in March 1945. Joined
ICP leaders outside of Hanoi, became a journalist on Cuu Quoc. Attended Tan Trao
conference in August and elected deputy chairman of the united front committee
which was to lead the national uprising. Became Minister of Information in
provisional government; received Bao Dai resignation in Hue. In 1946 became a
secretary of the Viet Minh Central Committee, chairman of the Cultural Association
for National Salvation, member of Standing Committee of National Assembly. From
1948-50 was member of Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Association for
Study of Literature. In 1954 returned to Hanoi, served as head of the Institute of
History, edited The Journal of Historical Research. Oversaw compilation of the major
Vietnamese historical study of the pre-power communist party. Remained member of
Standing Committee of National Assembly.
Tran Ngoc Danh, Ranh (Blokov, Maurice, Thach), 1908P-5?. Probably
born in Quang Ngai province, like older brother Tran Phu; family originally from Ha
Tinh. Completed secondary studies in Hanoi. Joined Thanh Nien in 1927, lived in
Saigon with Ha Huy Tap in 1928 and had to flee to China in 1929 after the rue
Barbier murder was discovered. Arrived in Moscow in mid-1929, enrolled in Stalin
School but in 1930 may have transferred to the Lenin School. Joined Komsomol in
Moscow. Returned to China in 1932, where linked up with Nguyen Thi Minh Khai to
rebuild Vietnamese party structures in Hong Kong. Arrested in Shanghai in late 1932,
then transferred to Saigon and Con Son until 1936. Probably re-arrested in 1939 and
held until 1945. Became a candidate CC member in 1945 and the DRV representative
in Paris from 1946 to 1949. Fled from Paris to Prague in late 1949 or early 1950;
from there sent at least two letters to the Soviet CP criticizing Ho Chi Minh's
leadership. Removed from Party in 1950; died early 1950s.
Tran Phu (Ly Quy, Likvei, Ly Viet Hoa, Nam), 1904-31. Born in Duc Pho
district of Quang Ngai province, where his father was assigned as district mandarin.
(Family came from Ha Tinh province.) In 1908 his father committed suicide rather
than cooperate with the French to repress anti-tax demonstrations. Studied at Quoc
Hoc in Hue for four years, graduated in 1922; assigned to teach at Cao Xuan Duc
primary school in Vinh. In 1925 was one of founders of the Phuc Viet (Restoration
League), which later became the Revolutionary Party and in 1928, Tan Viet. Went to
Canton to meet Thanh Nien leaders in 1926, along with a group from Central
Vietnam. After training course led by Ho Chi Minh, Tran Phu joined Thanh Nien and
the communist group within it. Returned to Vinh briefly, but was sent back to Canton
to avoid arrest. Ho Chi Minh sent him to Moscow to study at the Stalin School.
Enrolled at school from February 1927 until his departure via France in November
1929. At that time, he was given assignment with Ngo Duc Tri to return to Vietnam
and form communist party from existing revolutionary groups. Met Ho Chi Minh in
Hong Kong in March 1930, following reunification of communist groups, and went
to Tonkin to oversee movement. Collected data for his Political Theses which were
presented at the first plenum, in Hong Kong in October 1930. At that time he and
Ngo Duc Tri were made CC secretaries and Ho Chi Minh's provisional party
programme was dropped. Went to Saigon at end of 1930 to take charge of ICP, held
second plenum in March. Arrested in late April and died in Saigon Central Prison of
tuberculosis in the autumn.
Tran Tu Binh. From Ha Nam, attended Catholic seminary, then was
recruited by Thanh Nien. Signed up to work on Phu Rieng rubber plantation in
Cochinchina, where he became one of the founders of a DDCSD cell and leader of
the strike there in February 1930. After fleeing the plantation he was arrested in 1931
and sent to Con Son. Released in 1936 and became secretary of the Ha Nam party
committee, and a member of the northern regional committee. After 1945 he joined
the military and became one of the first Vietnamese brigadier generals. Served as
Inspector General in the military. At Third Party Congress in 1960 he entered the CC,
and served as ambassador to China. Died in Hanoi.
Tran Van Cung (Quoc Anh, Thai Van Anh), 1906-77. born in Nghe An, an
early Thanh Nien member, in Canton at time of Canton Commune after which he was
imprisoned briefly. Returned to Tonkin in 1929 to become head of Tonkin Regional
Committee and one ofmembers of secret communist cell which promoted idea of
immediateformation of a CP at Thanh Nien Congress in May 1929. Imprisonedin Lao
Bao prison after arrest in mid-1929. After August Revolutionbecame secretary of the
Nghe An - Ha Tinh joint province committeeand then a member of the National
Assembly's Standing Committee. Died in Hanoi.
Tran Van Diem (Din-Tan). A southern communist who took refuge in China
in early 1930s and then accompanied Phung Chi Kien to Moscow in 1932 for studies
at Stalin School. Returned to China in 1934 or 5 and attended Macao Party Congress,
where made a member of the CC.
Tran Van Diep (Tran Ngoc Diep, Ho, Lieu, Hoa), 1908-?. From Cantho,
studied at the College de Cantho, expelled in 1926 after boycotting classes at time of
Phan Chu Trinh's funeral. Went to Canton for Thanh Nien training in July 1927 with
eight others; returned to Saigon in late November 1927. In 1928 found work teaching
in Sadec Hoc-Duong, a school run by Chau Van Liem, where Ha Huy Giap and Pham
Van Dong were also teaching. Recruited to join new VCP in February 1930 by a
fellow Canton trainee, Nguyen Van Tay (Nguyen Thanh Son). Arrested in 1931.
Tran Van Giau (Ho Nam, Jean le Rouge), 1911-. Born in Tam Vu district
in Tan An province, now Long An, in a peasant family. Studied at College
Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon from 1925 until 1928, when he departed for France.
Became student activist in Toulouse, participated in demonstration to protest
repression of Yen Bay uprising in 1930 and expelled from France. Managed to return
from Saigon to France, and from there to travel to Moscow, enrolled in Stalin School
1930. Comintern sources show he was author of treatise 'Organizational Principles of
Bolshevism', based on Piatnitsky's lectures; also helped to edit the 1932 ICP Political
Programme which was written in Moscow. In autumn of 1932 travelled to Paris with
Ha Huy Tap, where Tap was arrested and eventually returned to Moscow. On return
to Saigon in early 1933, began the work of rebuilding the ICP in the South. He was
arrested in 1934 for around four months; in late 1934 travelled to Macao to meet Ha
Huy Tap, where criticized for ultra-leftism and straying from the ICP Programme.
Returned to the south without attending the Macao Party Congress to continue party-
building, but after his arrest in mid-1935, almost all the committees he had
established were wound up. Sent to Con Son in 1935, released in 1936 but re-
imprisoned in the Ta Lai prison camp until 1941, when he and a group of other
prisoners managed to escape. In the summer of 1945 worked with Pham Ngoc
Thach's youth movement and created a mainly urban movement called Thanh Nien
Tien Phong (Avant-garde Youth). In August-September 1945 organized a Southern
Resistance Committee including a variety of religious and nationalist groups, which
was belatedly integrated into the Viet Minh and took power in Saigon briefly. Sent to
Thailand later in 1945 to organize logistics and relations with Thais, Laos and
Cambodians. Recalled to northern Vietnam in 1948. Thereafter worked as a journalist
and historian. His history of the southern working class has been a standard source
for many years.
Tran Van Kiet (Remy, Le Min), 1912-?. Born in Vinh Long in peasant
family. Finished middle-level education in Vietnam, then by 1930 was living and
working in France, first in Toulouse, then in Marseille in an oil refinery. Joined the
FCP in 1931, was secretary of Vietnamese party group in Marseille. Arrived in
Moscow in 1931 and entered Stalin School. Trained as printer and was expected to
bring printing equipment to Saigon for the ICP, which never arrived. In 1937 again
living in France with a French wife when FCP sent him to Saigon to help run the
newspaper Dan Chung after the ICP's 1937 re-alignment.
Tran Van Lan. A northern activist and worker who was a member of the
Provisional Central Executive Committee in 1930-1, based in Hanoi.
Tran Van Minh (Nam), 1909-?. Born in well-off peasant family in Tra Vinh,
studied at local school, then at lycee in Mytho. Expelled for participating in mourning
for Phan Chu Trinh and protests for Nguyen An Ninh's release, but allowed to return
to his studies in 1927. In 1929 his family paid for him to go to France to continue his
studies. When money ran out in 1929 found work in Toulouse, where met
Vietnamese communists and joined the Komsomol. Arrested in December 1931 and
held for six months; after release joined FCP in Marseille. In 1932 the FCP Colonial
Commission sent him to Moscow. Returned to Vietnam in 1934 or 35.
Tran Van Thach, 1903-?. From a well-off Cholon family, father was a
Customs official. Studied at College Chasseloup-Laubat, then received his License in
Philosophy in Toulouse. Became politically active while studying in France. Between
1927 and 1929 published Le Journal des etudiants annamites. In 1930 repatriated to
Saigon with Nguyen Van Tao as a result of his political activities, where he became a
leading Marxist activist. First elected to the Colonial Council in 1933, although that
result was annulled; elected Saigon Municipal councillor in 1935. One of founders of
La Lutte, became a Trotskyist in 1936.
Trinh Dinh Cuu (Chi). An original member of DDCSD (first ICP) who
attended the Lycee du Protectorat (Buoi School) before joining Thanh Nien. Joined
the first communist cell in early 1929 and in February 1930 represented the ICP
group at the unification congress in Hong Kong. Member of the Provisional Central
Committee, but left position in summer of 1930. One of the few communists who
appears to have avoided arrest in 1931 by escaping to China.
Trinh Hung Ngau. Southern activist and journalist associated with the Jeune
Annam group and Nguyen An Ninh; writer for La Lutte.
Truong Boi Cong. A long-time emigre in Canton and graduate of Beijing
military academy, served in GMD army at Nanjing. In Nanning in Guangxi was a
senior staff officer of military academy. In 1941 put in charge of training Vietnamese
exiles by Zhang Fakui. Giap and Dong worked with him to organize a united front,
but he always opposed Viet Minh leadership.
Truong Chinh (real name Dang Xuan Khu, Xuyen, Nhan, Song Hong),
1907-88. Born in Hanh Thien village, Nam Dinh, also home of Nguyen The Truyen s
clan. Was schoolmate of Nguyen Duc Canh in Nam Dinh, later studied at Higher
Commercial School in Hanoi. Probably joined Thanh Nien in 1927 or 1928, then first
ICP in summer of 1929. Worked on Lao Dong, newspaper of the Bac ky General
Labour Union founded by Nguyen Duc Canh in mid-1929. After VCP founding in
February 1930, worked with Northern Committee. Arrested in late 1930, released in
1936, went to Hanoi to work as journalist, legal activist. One of leaders of Le Travail
collective; in- 1938 edited Tin Tuc until its closing. Member of Northern Regional
Committee; voted ICP First Secretary at seventh plenum in November 1940; this
position was confirmed by the eighth ICP Plenum in May 1941. Remained First
Secretary until 1956, when the excesses of the Land Reform resulted in his demotion
to simple Politbureau member. Remained politically influential as member of Party
Secretariat, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, and head
of the Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School. Regained the position of General Secretary
after Le Duan's death in 1986 until Nguyen Van Linh's election; gave formal
approval to the set of reforms known as 'Doi Moi'.
Truong Phuoc Dat (Kha, Ly Minh Son, possibly also the Malayan
communist leader Lai Teck). Son of a customs official from Phan Rang, trained as
naval mechanic in Saigon, where he came in contact with Thanh Nien and DDCSD
organizers. Recruited by DDCSD to form a trade union in Saigon in late 1929.
Imprisoned in 1930 but escaped with connivance of his military guard and was
smuggled out to Hong Kong. There he met Ho Chi Minh who sent him to work in
Shanghai with the Vietnamese group working to recruit converts and sympathizers in
the military. Departed for Moscow with Phung Chi Kien, but they were arrested on
the Manchurian border and held for three months, after which they returned to
Shanghai. Dat did not make another attempt to go to Russia, but stayed on in
Shanghai working on propaganda in the military. Established good relations with the
CCP and avoided arrest in 1931. When a group of ICP members tried to reestablish
links with the CCP CC in 1932-3, he refused to vouch for them, he told the Silrete in
his confession. Arrested in late 1933 and did not re-appear in Vietnam, but his early
biography is very similar to that of the British agent who became head of the
Malayan CP, Lai Teck, as published by Yoki Akashi, based in part on British
sources.
Truong Van Lenh (Linh, Thanh), 1902-45. From Nghi Loc district in Nghe
An, from a Catholic family. Studied at seminary in Vinh, went to Siam in 1923, then
to China. Studied at Whampoa academy, joined Thanh Nien and CCP. Became a
company commander in GMD army, then a police sergeant in Canton, thus helped to
protect Thanh Nien after anti-communist coup in April 1927. Brought Ho Chi Minh
back to Hong Kong in 1929 to reunify party, served as liaison agent in 1930. In
December 1930 expelled from Hong Kong and imprisoned for a time in Canton.
Arrested in Shanghai in 1932, imprisoned in Lao Bao and Banmethuot. In 1942
escaped to Thanh Hoa and went to Thai Nguyen, where he helped train military
cadres for Viet Minh. In 1945 given responsibility for a military training school in
Hanoi, but died in November that year.
Ung Van Khiem (Uan, Huan), 1910-91. From Cho Moi, An Giang province.
Peasant family; father joined anti-French resistance of Truong Dinh. Studied at
Cantho lycee, expelled due to conflict with head. Recruited for Thanh Nien by Chau
Van Liem. Went to Canton for training in 1928; on return became secretary of special
committee for Hau Giang. Joined Nam ky regional committee when unified party
formed in 1930. Replaced Ngo Gia Tu as committee head after his arrest at end of
May 1930. In 1931 arrested and sent to Con Son. Released in 1935, returned to Cho
Moi, became involved in Indochina Congress Movement. In 1945 member of Nam
Bo committee; 1946 elected to National Assembly from Long Xuyen. During anti-
French resistance worked in Khu 9 (western Nam Bo). Joined CC in 1951. In 1954
regrouped to North; in early 1960s worked briefly as Minister of Interior, and then
Minister of Foreign Affairs until 1965. Expelled from Party after Hoang Minh Chinh
affair (1967?).
Vo Nguyen Giap (Van, Duong Hoai Nam, Yang Huai-nan), 1910-. At the
time of writing, one of the last surviving intimates of Ho Chi Minh; born in An Xa
village, Quang Binh province in central Vietnam. Studied at Quoc Hoc school in
Hue, influenced by his schoolmaster Dang Thai Maijoined the Tan Viet party before
being arrested in 1930. Released 1932, returned to Hue and then moved to Hanoi,
where he studied at the Lycee Albert Sarraut and passed baccalaureate. After that he
studied law. Became a history teacher at the private Thang Long School, and a
leading legal activist and journalist in popular front politics. Married the younger
sister of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Ho Chi Minn's one-time companion. Worked with
Le Travail collective, then was a leading writer for the United Democratic Front
organ, Notre Voix, in which Ho's letters from China were published. Travelled to
Kunming with Pham Van Dong in spring 1940 to meet Ho and the Overseas Bureau
of the ICP. Became one of the main war-time organizers of the Viet Minh and in
1944 organized the Armed Propaganda Brigade for National Liberation, one of the
forerunners of the Vietnam People's Army. After the August Revolution was Minister
of the Interior; in 1946 became head of the DRV's Military Committee. During the
anti-French resistance he was Minister of Defense and commander-in-chief of the
VPA; credited as one of main organizers of the victory at Dien Bien Phu. Joined the
Politbureau in 1951 at Second Party Congress and was a vice-premier from 1955 to
1976. Increased his already great popularity when he made a speech in 1956
apologizing for the excesses of land reform and began the process of correction of
errors. Dropped from the Politbureau at Fifth Party Congress in 1982, he became a
sponsor of Vietnamese science and technology. Still living in Hanoi. Second wife the
daughter of Dang Thai Mai.
Vo Van Tan (Gia, Bay), 1894-1941. From Duc Hoa district in what used to
be Cholon province, now in HCM City. Joined Nguyen An Ninh secret society, then
Thanh Nien. Created a Thanh Nien cell in Duc Hoa; in late 1929 joined the Annam
CP. Organized anti-tax demonstration in Tan Phu Thuong Village in Duc Hoa on 4
June 1930; as two officials were 'punished' by demonstrators, French repression was
severe. Avoided arrest and became party secretary for Cholon, then in 1932 of Gia
Dinh province. Established ICP party headquarters in Hoc Mon-Ba Diem. Joined the
Nam ky Regional Committee and in 1937 became the secretary. Also joined the ICP
CC. Present at the Sixth Plenum in Hoc Mon when the Anti-imperialist United Front
was established. Arrested in spring 1940 and executed along with other southern
leaders in August 1941.
Vu Anh (real name Trinh Dinh Hai). Appears in the late 1930s as an
important overseas communist and seems to have been one of the recruits who came
from the VNQDD in Guangxi. In memoirs describes himself as a worker (is
sometimes confused with Le Hong Son, who used the pseudonym Vu Anh and Vu
Hong Anh when he studied and taught at Whampoa). In memoirs takes credit for
finding the cave at Pac Bo which the Viet Minh used as one of their hide-outs.
Vuong Thuc Oanh (Chat or Chac Tong). Son-in-law of Phan Boi Chau, in
1925 became a Thanh Nien member and recruiter in Central Vietnam. Went to
France in 1926 or 27 to work with Nguyen the Truyen. After return to Vietnam in
1928 believed to have resisted merger of Thanh Nien with the Tan Viet party.
END
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