Overview
The magisterial and authoritative biography of one of the towering and mysterious figures of the twentieth century.Ho Chi Minh's epic life helped shape the twentieth century. But never before has he been the subject of a major biography. Now William Duiker has compiled an astonishing work of history that fills this immense void.
A New York Times Notable Book and one of the Los Angeles Times Best Books of 2000 -- now in paperback!
Synopsis
Ho Chi Minh's epic life helped shape the twentieth century. But until now, there has never been a major biography of this immensely important and elusive figure. Finally, William J. Duiker, a world-renowned authority on Vietnam, has filled this gap with an astonishing work of history that takes full advantage of information and archives only recently declassified. What emerges is a riveting portrait of a man who went from a tiny village to the heady environment of London and Paris during and after World War I; from years in prison and on the run to a place on the world stage alongside the key players of our time.
It is not possible to understand modern Vietnam and the roots of the lengthy conflict in Indochina without examining Ho Chi Minh's life. By accessing original documents in five languages, Duiker has been able to shed new light on the question of Ho's primary motivation: Was he simply a patriot bent on achieving Vietnamese independence, or a chameleon who constructed a deceptive nationalist image solely to win support, at home and abroad, for global proletarian revolution? Engrossing and impeccably researched, Ho Chi Minh is a revelatory portrait of one of the most towering and mysterious figures of our time, a charismatic leader whose legacy continues to inspire and confound.
Washington Post Book World
A major scholarly achievement . . . It is the most authoritative account of Ho's life we are likely to have for a long time to come.
Editorials
New York Times Book Review
... William J. Duiker's magnificent new biography... has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but to provide the best account of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist.Frances FitzGerald
Magnificent . . . Duiker has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but . . . of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist. —New York Times Book ReviewBooklist
An absorbing biography that never falters.Chicago Tribune
Sweeping . . . the first full-scale treatment of Ho from start to finish.Washington Post Book World
A major scholarly achievement . . . It is the most authoritative account of Ho's life we are likely to have for a long time to come.Los Angeles Times Book Review
Impressive . . . a welcome intrusion on the silence that has surrounded Ho Chi Minh.Publishers Weekly
It's difficult to think of someone more qualified to write this biography than Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam), the retired Penn State University historian who has specialized in the Vietnam War for more than three decades. In his massive, thoroughly researched and--in the main--quite accessible new biography, Duiker succeeds extremely well in illuminating the life and times of Ho Chi Minh--long North Vietnam's leader, a man Duiker calls a "master motivator and strategist" and "one of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century." Covering both the personal and political life of the revolutionary leader, Duiker fascinatingly traces Ho's early travels to New York, Boston and Paris, as well as his many years in exile in France, China, Thailand and (during WWII and the war against the French of 1945 to 1954) in the rugged mountains of northern Vietnam--eras in Ho's life for which documentation has only recently become available. Duiker's detailed recounting of the momentous and extremely complicated events that took place in 1945 following the Japanese surrender, when Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh revolutionary party seized power in northern Vietnam, is riveting. And his account of the not-always-harmonious relations between Ho and the Communist leaders of China and the Soviet Union probes a subject that has long been overlooked by Western scholars. In the end, Duiker portrays Ho Chi Minh as a fervently anticolonial nationalist who, though a committed Marxist, honestly thought he could count on the United States, which had promised to oppose French colonization after WWII. Referring to a long-raging debate about Ho, he says, "The issue is not whether he was a nationalist or a Communist--in his own way he was both." 32 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Library Journal
Neither the cryptic, diabolical enemy nor the icon of the Left, "Uncle Ho" is now the subject of this objective historical study. Vietnam expert Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam) here writes the first biography of Ho to use critical sources in Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Russian, and English. His narrative encompasses the last days of the Vietnamese monarchy, in which Ho's father was an official; the French conquest of and attempt to dominate Indochina; the anti-imperialist struggle, aided by Russian and Chinese national and Communist interests; and the career of Ho, who died in 1969, revered by some as the Father of the Revolution and reviled by others as a murderous tyrant. The author carefully sorts out the intricate, often ambiguous evidence, supplying enough background for the interested general reader and enough detail, especially in the extensive notes, for the demanding specialist. Highly recommended for larger collections.--Charles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\Frances Fitzgerald
Other Western historians have come closer to Ho as a person and to the cultural context of his revolution, but Duiker has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but to provide the best account of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist.—New York Times Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
A masterful, balanced biography of the charismatic Communist leader. Toproduce this rich, layered life of a man who has achieved mythic status
among the Vietnamese, Duiker draws on his years in the Foreign Service (one
of his postings was to the US Embassy in Saigon during the Vietnam
War)…Required reading for students of the 20th century ñ and for all who
want to understand how a man can come to epitomize a cause and sire a
nation.