Ho Chi Minh - Becoming President

Becoming President

The 1954 Geneva Accords, concluded between France and the Viet Minh, provided Vietminh forces would regroup in the North and the anti-communist & pro-democracy forces regroup in the South. Ho's Democratic Republic of Vietnam relocated to Hanoi and became the government of North Vietnam, a communist-led single party state. The Geneva accords also provided for a national presidential election to reunify the country in 1956, but this was rejected by Diem's government and the United States as they feared that Ho's government would probably win considering the slightly larger population of North Vietnam. The U.S government committed itself to contain the spread of communism in Asia beginning in 1950, when they funded 80% of the French effort. After Geneva, the U.S became the replacement for France as Republic of Vietnam's chief sponsor and financial backer, but there was never a written treaty between the United States and South Vietnam.

Following the Geneva Accords, there was to be a 300-day period in which people could freely move between the two regions of Vietnam, later known as South Vietnam and North Vietnam. Some 900,000 to 1 million Vietnamese, mostly Catholics, as well as many anti-communist intellectuals, former French colonial civil servants and wealthy Vietnamese, left for the South, while around 250,000 people, mostly former Vietminh soldiers, went from South to North. Some Canadian observers claimed many were forced by North Vietnamese authorities to remain against their will. With the backing of the U.S., the 1956 elections were canceled by Diem, Vietnam's premier, and later the first president of Republic of Vietnam. Diem formed another election, which he won by fraud.

In North Vietnam during the 1950s, political opposition groups were suppressed; those publicly opposing the government were imprisoned in hard labor camps. Many middle-class, intellectual Northerners had been lured into speaking out against Ho's communist regime, and most of them were later imprisoned in gulags, or executed, known as the Nhan Van-Giai Pham Affair. Prisoners were abused and beaten atop of labor-intensive work forced upon them. Many died of exhaustion, starvation, illness (who often died without any medical attention), or assault by prison guards. The government engaged in a drastic land reform program in which more than 100,000 perceived "class enemies" were executed. Some estimates range from 200,000 to 900,000 deaths from executions, camps, and famine. Torture was used on a wide scale, so much so that by 1956 Ho Chi Minh became concerned, and had it banned.

At the end of 1959, Le Duan was appointed by Ho to be the acting party leader, after becoming aware that the nationwide election would never happen and Diem's intention to purge out all opposing forces (mostly ex-Viet Minh). Ho began requesting the Politburo to send aid to the Vietcong's uprising in South Vietnam. This was considered by Western's analyzers as a loss of power by Ho, who is said to have preferred the more moderate Giap for the position. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was established in late 1959 to allow aid to be sent to the Vietcong through Laos and Cambodia, thus escalating the war and tipping the balance, turning it to their favor. Duan was officially named party leader in 1960, leaving Ho a public figure rather than actually governing the country. Ho maintained much influence in the government, To Huu, Le Duan, Truong Chinh, and Pham Van Dong would often share dinner with him, and later all of them remained key figures of Vietnam throughout and after the war. In 1963, Ho purportedly corresponded with South Vietnamese President Die in the hopes of achieving a negotiated peace. This correspondence was a factor in the U.S. decision to tacitly support a coup against Diem in November later that year.

In late 1964, PAVN combat troops were sent southwest into officially neutral Laos and Cambodia. According to Chen Jian, during the mid-to-late 1960s, Le Duan permitted 320,000 Chinese volunteers into North Vietnam to help build infrastructure for the country, thereby freeing a similar number of PAVN personnel to go south. However, there is no sources from Vietnam, US or Soviet confirmed about the number of Chinese troops stationed in Northern Vietnam. By early 1965, U.S. combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam, first to protect the airbases around Chu Lai and Danang, later to take on most of the fight, as "More and more American troops were put in to replace Saigon troops who could not, or would not, get involved in the fighting".

As the "quick victory" promises by Ho failed and fighting escalated, widespread bombing all over North Vietnam by the U.S. Air Force and Navy escalated Operation Rolling Thunder. Ho remained in Hanoi during his final years, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops in Southern Vietnam. In July 1967, Ho and most of the Politburo of Workers Party of Vietnam met in a high profile conference where they all concluded the war had fallen into a stalemate, since the United States Army presence forced the People's Army of Vietnam to expend the majority of their resources maintaining the Hochiminh Trail instead of reinforcing their comrade's ranks in the South. With Ho's permission, the Viet Cong planned to execute the Tet Offensive to begin on January 31, 1968, gambling on taking the South by force and defeating the U.S. military. The offensive came at great cost and with heavy casualties on NLF's political branches and armed forces but achieving a fundamental change in the attitudes of people in the South. Up until Tet, many inner city South Vietnamese civilians still favored the Vietcong; in the wake of mass executions in the Hue Massacre and looting at Hue, popular support evaporated away from the Vietcong. It appeared to Ho and to the rest of his government that the scope of the action had shocked the American public on a global scale, that up until then had been assured just before Tet that the Communists were "on the ropes". The overly positive spin that the U.S. military had been attempting to achieve for years came crashing down. The bombing of Northern Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh trail was halted, and U.S and Vietnamese negotiators began to discuss how to end the war.

From then on, Ho and his government realized that instead of trying to face the might of the U.S. Army, which would ultimately wear them down, merely prolonging the conflict would lead to eventual acceptance of Hanoi's terms. By 1969, with negotiations still dragging on, Ho's health began to deteriorate from multiple health problems, including diabetes which prevented him from participating in further active politics. However, he insisted that his forces in the south continue fighting until all of Vietnam was reunited under his regime regardless of the length of time that it might take, believing that time and politics were on his side.