HỒ CHÍ MINH MYTHS AND MASKS II * MYTH OF A PATRIOT

Chapter II

MYTH OF A PATRIOT

History of Vietnamese Communist party wrote that on June 3rd, 1911, using the pseudonym Nguyen Văn Ba, Nguyễn Tất Thành,  found employment on a French passenger liner Amiral Latouche-Tréville as a kitchen help.He said he went abroad to find the way to save his country.(HCM, I)

  Under the mask of Trần Dân Tiên, Nguyễn Tất Thành wrote that I want to go abroad to examine how  France and other countries live, and I will come back to help my country. (HCM, X,7)

Trần Dân Tiên said that Tất Thành went directly to the director of the a French passenger liner Amiral Latouche-Tréville and asked for a job in this ship.

I. THE DEPARTURE

I thought he could not do that. In Vietnam, at that time, each citizen over 18 year must get an Identity Card issued by the French authorities. Văn Ba was the name of a false ID. This false ID perhaps was made in Phan Thiết by the help of Hồ Tá Bang, who had a close relationship with Denier .(Quế Hà- Hải Yến.HCM, IX).  It was impossible, Hồ Tá Bang was a famous person in Phan Thiết, he never did that foolish thing. Perhaps it was made in Saigon.
With this false ID, Nguyễn Tất Thành must enter  the ship secretly. Maybe the hypothesis of Nguyễn Xuân Tới was right when he said that Nguyễn Tất Thành  entered secretly the ship by a line dropping from the ship  to the small boat where Tất Thành sat in a basket, and men of the organization would  pull him up. ( Nguyễn Xuân Tới.HCM, XVIII)

II. NGUYỄN TẤT THÀNH WAS AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT NOT A KITCHEN HELP

In "The stories of the active life of President Ho "(1948), Trần Dân Tiên wrote about his days on the ocean:

One time, Văn Ba nearly died. The waves from ocean  rose so highly like a mountain then fell upon the ship. Everybody was seasick. As usual, Văn Ba went from the hold to the kitchen to bring the baskets of vegetables.But he could not do that because the ship moved quickly and strongly. he had to use an iron wire to pull the heavy baskets.

Unfortunatly, a high wave rose anf fell upon the ship and swept everything to the sea including  the basket  and Văn Ba. Thanks to the chain and the mast, Văn Ba survived. (HCM, X,)

-Only the small ship can be wrapped by the waves but the big ship can not. The French passenger liner Amiral Latouche-Tréville had a tonnage of 6.000 tons. It was a big ship.

-When the ship moved strongly, why Văn Ba could pull the baskets on the stair to stair from the hold to the kitchen?
-A help kitchen worked in the kitchen, why did he go to the deck? He could pull the baskets from the hold to the kitchen, but he did not need to pull the basket from the hold to the deck.

-Văn Ba did not know how to cut the asparagus, he also did not know everything. Why he could be a kitchen help?

This was an imaginative story made by an illegal immigrant, who lurked in the container in the hold, he was not a kitchen help.

Trần Dân Tiên also created another story. 
 Each day, a worker must cleaned the restaurant. After serving food to customers, the servants must put dishes, bowls and  food  waste into a lift that would run to the kitchen where the worker must classify them into two kinds: dishes and food.  Văn Ba worked carefully. Instead of putting food into a cask, he cleaned food and brought them back to the kitchen.(HCM X, 16 )

This story proved that Tất Thành did not work in a restaurant, because he did not know the rules in the restaurant and the custom of the Europeans.The waste must be put in the cask as garbage, and the Europeans never  sell and eat that food.
 By the help of the organization of illegal immigrants, he entered secretly into the ship. When the policemen left the ship, he became a servitor of  the workers on the ship, he had to do odd job for his living. He received only 10 francs when the others $100 or 200 francs.

III. LIFE OF AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN THE COLD EUROPE

Tất Thành was an illegal immigrant, lived outlaw.
Tất Thành always took the train without tickets and permission. Tất Thành confessed his usual trick when he went to Russia:

-According to the captain, do you take the train without permission?

-Yes. I go secretly.

-And you have no permission?

-Yes, I have no permission. (HCM X,37)

Trần Dân Tiên did not tell the truth. After a long time living outlaw, by the help of Communist party, he also had the legal papers. Lawyer Nguyễn Văn Chức  stated that Tất Thành worked for the French Communist Party, they hired him to spread the pamphlets, but the French policemen hunted him. The French Communist Party hold him to escape France to Germany then to Russia  with a passport number 1829, signed  by the Russian Ambassador in Germany  on June16,1925 for Chen Wang, a photographer, born on January15,1895 in Indochina. (HCM, CXXXII)

In London, Tất Thành lived in a small hotel. It was very cold in winter in London.
"In cold winter , each day before going to work, he  laid a brick into the oven of the hotel. In the evening, he picked the brick up, and covered it with a journal then put it under the mattress."(HCM. X,21)

It was also an imaginary story. How could he bring a 1000 degree hot brick with a newspaper?
What happened if  the mattress was burnt? If the brick was not hot enough, he was still cold.

IV. THE MASK OF A PATRIOT

Trường Chinh, the first General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party praised Ho Chí Minh that "Ho reconized that the French Schools always produced the lackeys for the French colonialists, as a result, he went abroad to find the way to save his country".
If the French schools in Vietnam produced the lackeys, how about the schools in France?
Vietnamese Communists tried to create a myth of a patriot, but Nguyễn Thế Anh and Vũ Ngự Chiêu unmasked Ho Chi Minh.
 About 1983, Nguyễn Thế Anh and Vũ Ngự Chiêu
found  Nguyễn Tất Thành's two letters  dated on September 15, 1911, sending to the President of France and Minister of Colony begging the permission of entrance the School of Colony as intern student.

Marseille le 15 Septembre 1911
Monsieur le Président de la République
J’ai l’honneur de solliciter de votre haute bienveillance la faveur d’être admis à suivre les cours de l’Ecole Coloniale comme interne.
Je suis actuellement employé à la Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis “Amiral Latouche Trévile” pour ma substance.Je suis entièrement dénué de ressources et avide de m’instruire. Je désirerais devenir utile à la France vis à vis de mes compatriotes et pouvoir en même temps les faire profiter des bienfaits de l’Instruction.
Je suis originaire de la province de Nghê An, en Annam.
En attendant une réponse que j’espère favorable, agréez, Monsieur Le Président, l’assurance de ma reconnaissance anticipée.
Nguyễn Tất Thành, né à Vinh en 1892, fils de Mr. Nguyễn Sinh Huy (sous docteur ès- lettres). Etudiant Francais, quốc ngữ, caractère chinois.

Marseille le15 Septembre 1911
À Monsieur le Ministre des Colonies
Monsieur le Ministre

J'ai l'honneur de solliciter de votre bienveillance la faveur d'être admis à suivre les cours de l ' École Coloniale comme interne .
Je suis actuellement employé à la Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis pour ma substance à soi de l'Amiral Latouche Tréville.

Je suis entièrement dénué de ressources et avide de m' instruire . Je désirerais devenir utile à la France vis à vis de mes compatriotes et pouvoir en même temps les faire profiter des bienfaits de l' instruction .
Je suis originaire de la province de Nghê-an, en Annam.
En attendant votre réponse que j ' espère favorable, agréez, Monsieur le Ministre , mes plus respectueuses hommages et l ' assurance de ma reconnaissance anticipée .
Nguyễn-tất Thành,
né à Vinh, en 1892 ,fils de Mr Nguyễn sinh Huy, sous docteur es-lettre
Étudiant Francais , quốc ngữ, caractère chinois
(HCM, CXXXV)

Those letters proved that the first time in France,  Nguyễn Tất Thành had dreams of being a mandarin, a civil servant under the French colonialist regime, he did not struggle against French colonilalist as Phan Bội Châu, Nguyễn Thượng HIền, Tạ Thu Thâu, Nguyễn An NInh.

We also have Nguyễn Tất Thành's letters  founded by Sophie Quinn Judge. On November 1911, in Clayton, Tất Thành sent money to his father with a letter. On December 1912 in New York, Tất Thành sent a letter to the  French Resident Superior  in Central Vietnam asking for the information of his father.( Sophie Quinn Judge,Ho Chi MInh, The MIssing Years).

D. Hémery (1), Thu Trang (2), Document of Vietnamese Communist party (3), Trần Gia Phụng (4) ,Lữ Phương (HCM, XLII), Khuất Văn Nga (HCM CXXXV) also depicted the letters sent to French Resident Superior  in Central Vietnam, and his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm working at the French Resident Palace in Huế dated on 31 October, 1911 when Tất Thành came back to Saigon. In this letter, he insisted his brother asked for the French authorities accepting his demand.Duiker and Thu Trang also recited his letter to his sister (CXXXV).

By the letter dated on December 1911, Nguyễn Tất Thành sent to the Governor General Albert Sarraut , then  the  Governor General Albert Sarraut forward this letter to French Resident Superior  in Central Vietnam by the official correspondence N0 236; and on May 25, 1912, the French Resident Superior  in Central Vietnam sent an official correspondence N0 R28 to the Governor General Albert Sarraut, answering Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm's letter demanding the entrance of the Colonial School for Nguyễn Tất Thành,  (CXXXV) we can see that the French regime is very good because they truly served people, although  we are the natives. Communists are bureaucratic, they never glance to the letter of  people.
We also noticed the French Resident Superior  in Central Vietnam 's official correspondence N0 R28 to the Governor General Albert Sarraut. Why in Lữ Phương's essay , the answer was no (HCM,C) but Thu Trung Trang yes? (CXXXV)

Those letters affirmed Nguyễn Tất Thành's longing of becoming a mandarin, a civil servant in the French colony.
It was Tất Thành 's ruse when he wrote the second letter to the French authorities asking about his father and sending money to his father.

He knew that his brother working in Huế, why did he ask the French resident  but not his brother? It was a way he reminded the French authorities about his demand for the School of Colony. It was also his trick to show off his filial piety. But it was a stupid trick that could not touch  the heart of the French authorities. Nguyễn Tất Thành  had a strong ambition but he did not know his situation. How he could enter the Colonial School with an unfinished elementary education? How he could enter the Colonial School when his father was not a good mandarin?

Anyway, his letters denounced his ambition to become a lackey to French colonialist. He was not a patriot as he and his men said.

Those letters also let us see clearly the real faces of the Vietnamese communists. Vietnamese always covered the truth, so did the French and American Communists and pro-communists.Vũ Ngự Chiêu said that Hémery, Brocheux had founded these letters before Nguyễn Thế Anh and Vũ Ngư Chiêu but they did not tell the truth. So did William A. Williams and anothers scholars because of their sympathy for the communism. (HCM CXXXIV).
Trần Thị Hồng Sương expressed sincerely her ideas about the French Intellectuals and philosophers when she wrote:

At the 20th Soviet Communist Party Congress, Khrushchev  delivered the "Secret Speech" ,  condemned the cult of individualism" with the serious mistakes of Stalin . This event shocked Sartre and the pro communists who diđ not know the reality on the other side of the "Iron Curtain". Like the Vietnamese communist, J.P. Satre still covered the truth. He criticized Khrushchev of condemning Stalin so early when Soviet crowd was not ready to receive (Trần Thị Hồng Sương. HCM, LXXXIV).

In a word, we can conclude that around 1911-1916, Nguyễn Tất Thành always had the dreams of becoming a servitor of the French colonialists. About 1922, due to the communication with the French Communists, he  became a member of Comintern. From then on, he had another dreams, the dream of becoming a Vietnamese communist party leader  although he had to burn all the mountains and forests in Vietnam.