Protest Time Magazine selection of Ho Chi Minh as a freedom fighter.
Cong Thanh Do, author. by Viet-Am Review on Tue 23 Nov 2010 03:05 PM PST | ÐẢNG DÂN CHỦ NHÂN DÂN The People's Democratic Party of Vietnam dangdcnd@gmail.com www.ddcnd.org
November 22, 2010
TIME Magazine 1271 Avenue of the Americas, NY 10020 Attn: Managing Editor Email: Letters@Time.com Dear Managing Editor, We’re horrified to learn that TIME magazine has selected Ho Chi Minh as the 10th m ost prominent political prisoners and as a freedom fighter in an article by Josh Sanburn published on Monday, November 15, 2010. Had the editor conducted suffi cient research, he would not have made such a grossly incorrect conclusion. We’re requesting TIME to rectify the situation. It did not appear that the editor had read the stories written by Ho Chi Minh hi mself posing as T Lan or Tran Dan Tien, and other editorials by renowned interna tional historians like William J. Druiker and Sophia Quinn Judge. Ho Chi Minh was in jail for only 18 months as an agent for Comintern after the first Indochi nese Communist Party conference in Hong Kong in 1930. While most of Vietnamese revolutionaries like Phan Boi Chau and other communist comrades of his were rott ing in French prisons in Vietnam or sentenced to death, he enjoyed the freedom a nd financial support in Soviet Union and roamed around China and other Southeast Asian countries as an assistant and interpreter for Mikhail M. Borodin, a Sovie t Comintern chief agent in Asia stationed in China. He set his foot onto Vietna m in 1941 as the representative of the Comintern to preside over the Eight Plenu m of the Indochinese Communist Party at the Pac Bo. The legacy of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam as an agent for Soviet Union and Comintern, and later for Chinese Communist Party, can be summarized by the extermination o f Nationalist political opponents; the killings of landowners, including those who supported Ho during the French war, in the land reform in the North; the ab olishment of the people s property rights; the accumulation of people’s property into the hand of communist leaders; the imprisonment of intellectuals and write rs who called for freedom of speech; the eradication of people’s rights to amend the constitution; and the terroristic killings of innocent people during the Vi etnam war, including the Hue massacre during the Tet offensive. While it is correct if TIME listed Ho Chi Minh as one of those people who were j ailed for their beliefs, it is not right to put him in the same list with Gandhi , Mandela, Aung Sung Suu Ky. It is an insult to those who have sacrificed their lives to the great cause of freedom, democracy and human values. Ho Chi Minh, as well as Hitler, Stalin, and Sadam Hussein, have a common status: they were j ailed for their beliefs and are world renowned slaughterers. The selection of Ho Chi Minh as the 10th most prominent political prisoners and as a freedom fighter is an insult to the sacrifice of a million American freedo m fighters during the Vietnam war including 50,000 American and millions of Vie tnamese who had given their lives for the cause of freedom and democracy. Even though the communists have won the war in Vietnam, its victory has marked the be ginning of the collapse of the Communist empire as the most atrocious regime in the history of mankind. Should TIME decline to rectify the situation, it would clearly confirm that its editors have been influenced not by the historical facts, but by the defunct com munist propaganda. Sincerely Cong Thanh Do Spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party of Vietnam.