Foreign friends’ impressions of Ho Chi MinhTuesday, May 19, 2015 - 15:54:50

(VOVworld) – President Ho Chi Minh is a name that kindles respectful feelings among Vietnamese people and good

impressions among foreign friends. Around the world, especially in places he traveled to, people remember him as an

outstanding leader of the 20th century.  

A book by historian Pierre Brocheux

“From the bottom of my heart, I think Ho Chi Minh is a man of great humanity and strong determination to pursue his

goals.” said French historian Pierre Brocheux.

Pierre Brocheux is the author of two books about President Ho Chi Minh and several notable books on Vietnam’s

history. While he was studying Vietnam’s history and President Ho Chi Minh, Brocheux met a friend of Ho Chi Minh in

France. The man told him stories about Ho Chi Minh’s humanity. Brocheux told VOV reporter: “I met a typesetter

working for L' Humanité who was also a member of the Socialist Party together with Ho Chi Minh. At a referendum on

the establishment of the French Communist Party, President Ho voted to form the Communist Party from the Socialist

Party, which his friend was against. It didn’t affect their friendship. They maintained regular contact. When President

Ho Chi Minh died, his friend called him the most loyal friend he had ever met.” 

Foreign protesters against the war in Vietnam, who had met Ho Chi Minh, said he was friendly and warm. Raymond

Dien, a French woman who lay across the tracks to prevent a train from transporting weapons to Vietnam,

remembered the day she met President Ho Chi Minh in October 23, 1956. She was moved to tears when she

recalled her 15-day trip with Henri Martin from France to Hanoi to attend a National Youth Congress. “Prior to the

Congress, I saw President Ho Chi Minh. He called me to sit next to him. I was surprised because I didn’t think an

ordinary person like me could sit next to the great leader that the whole world admired. He was a warm, modest, and

dear man. I told him I was from Tours and he said he knew the city because he attended a Congress of the French

Socialist Party there. He gave me an ivory bracelet. The next day he invited us to his house and it was an

unforgettable day in my life.” 

Raymond Dien in an interview with VOV

Countless studies and international conferences on President Ho Chi Minh have been organized. American historian

William Duiker spent 35 years studying Ho Chi Minh and published a 300-page book entitled “Ho Chi Minh, a life”.

The book consists of interviews with several people who knew and worked with Ho Chi Minh, documents and

intelligence records of France, the UK, Russia, China, and the Communist International. It was a major biography of

Ho Chi Minh. Duiker said Ho Chi Minh impressed him as a modern revolutionary with noble goals for changing the

nation and a typical Vietnamese citizen.“The deepest impression that I have of his life is he’s a simple-minded and

particularly his talent of leadership. He was able to combine revolutionary trends while at the same time symbolizing

too many Vietnamese. He was able to appeal to all Vietnamese people almost like an uncle or a father.”

La Monde's special edition about Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts in the past struggles for national liberation, reunification, and socialism and in the

contemporary era have attracted young researchers. Galia Kolupaeva, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Oriental

Studies, St Petersburg University, Russia, is doing a thesis on the Communist International and President Ho Chi

Minh’s career. “Few young Russians know as much about Ho Chi Minh as I do. But his name is very popular among

people of my generation although they don’t study Asia. His name is regularly mentioned and a lot of Russian people

remember Ho Chi Minh.”

On his 125th birthday, foreign media are running many articles honoring President Ho Chi Minh and the value of his

thoughts in the new era.

President Ho Chi Minh in international friends’ eyesRead the original news Báo QĐND English - 43 month(s) ago 10 readings

PANO – Ho Chi Minh Museum has been a familiar venue of people in Vietnam and from various countries

around the world, where they could learn more about the life and the career of late President Ho Chi Minh,

who had devoted all his life for Vietnam’s independence.

Facebook Twitter 0 vote(s) Comment Save this news

The Museum is more crowded today, when the Vietnamese people are celebrating his 122 nd birth

anniversary, May 19 th . Not only Vietnamese but a large number of international tourist delegations

came to show respect to the late President – the hero in Vietnamese people’s heart.

Christian, a Scotsman, who has been living and working in Vietnam for years, said that he had read

about Ho Chi Minh when he was a student but not in detail. After living in Vietnam for years, he

actually knew what President Ho Chi Minh did for Vietnam and its people and why people around the

world, in general, and Vietnamese people, in particular, respect him. For him, President Ho Chi Minh is

one of the greatest heroes in the world.

Visiting Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Museum for the first time, Dale Roberts and his wife, from the

UK, confided that they knew about President Ho Chi Minh and his idealism through documents relating

to the communist movement. President Ho Chi Minh devoted his life to bring about equality for the

toiling class.

Roberts added that displayed photos and documents in the Ho Chi Minh Museum provided viewers

with further understanding about the Vietnamese people’s resistant wars led by President Ho Chi Minh

against foreign invaders.

Peter Cushman is visiting Ho Chi Minh Museum

Another foreign tourist, Peter Cushman, a Canadian engineer, said that through exhibits, he could feel

that Ho Chi Minh is very close to his people. This helped him understand the needs of the people. The

exhibits also explained why such a small nation like Vietnam could persevere against giant foreign

invaders, Cushman added.

Coming from China, He Yun, aged 33, was also very impressed with what he had learnt about the

history of Vietnam through visiting the Ho Chi Minh Museum.

For him the Vietnamese people have been excellently promoting and carrying out the idealism of

President Ho Chi Minh who had wholeheartedly worked for the cause of national liberation.

According to Duong Thi Hai Linh, the Deputy-Head of the Education Office of the Ho Chi Minh Museum,

in the first 18 days of May, the Museum received around ten thousand foreign visitors. Most of them

expressed their love and respect for the late President Ho Chi Minh as well as wanted to learn more

about his life and career.