Makers of the Twentieth Century: Ho Chi Minh 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi
Minh' was the chant of radicals in the 1966s and 1970s,
idolising the Communist leader who led Vietnam's Revolutionary
struggle first against French colonialism and then against the
United States' involvement in Vietnam. An article by Milton
Osborne. More than a decade has passed since Ho Chi Minh died.
With that passage of time it is already difficult to remember
the passion his name generated in the West as he led Vietnam,
first in the struggle for independence against France and then
in the war against a rival Vietnamese state backed by the vast
power of the United States. Even his bitterest opponents found
it hard not to accord him grudging respect for his single-minded
pursuit of the goal of Vietnamese independence and unity. Among
students in both Europe and the United States in the turbulent
1960s he became a rather unlikely cult figure, so that the chant
‘Ho, Ho, Ho, Chi Minh’, was as much part of radical
demonstrations as the singing of the