These extracts come from a pamphlet produced by the British Foreign Office
in August 1953.
The full title of the pamphlet was 'Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Movement
in Indo China - A study in the Exploitation of Nationalism'.
At the time Ho Chi Minh was leading the struggle in Vietnam to get the French
out of the country. His forces were known as the Viet Minh.
These struggles were taking place in many parts of the world as countries
which had been colonies wanted to become independent. In some cases the transition
was relatively peaceful eg the British withdrawal from India (although this
was not completely peaceful). In other cases there were violent struggles,
eg in British run Kenya, or French owned Algeria.
Ho Chi Minh was a Communist, and never tried to deny it. He helped to set
up the French Communist party when he was a young student there. He also visited
Moscow and studied there. However, he always maintained that his main aim
was independence for Vietnam rather than making Vietnam Communist.
In South Vietnam there was a lot of tension between peasants and landlords.
Landlords were mostly Christians. They generally treated the peasants badly
by exploiting them and by not respecting their Buddhist religion.
Another important point to bear in mind is that China became a Communist
state under Mao Tse Tung in 1949. This alarmed Britain and the USA and made
them particularly worried about Communism spreading in South East Asia.
