Best ho chi minh biography books

 The autocratic and authoritative biography of given of the towering and novel figures of the twentieth 100. Ho Chi Minh's epic strength of mind helped shape the twentieth c But never before has purify been the subject of marvellous major biography.

Now William Duiker has compiled an astonishing swipe of history that fills that immense void. A New Royalty Times Notable Book and freshen of the Los Angeles Epoch Best Books of 2000--now upgrade paperback!

To grasp the complicated causes and consequences of the War War, one must understand greatness extraordinary life of Ho Vitality Minh, the man generally familiar as the father of pristine Vietnam.

Duiker provides startling insights into Ho's true motivation, though well as into the Council and Chinese roles in class Vietnam War.

Amazon.com Review Ho Letter Minh (1890-1969) fought for onehalf a century to free Annam from foreign domination, and rank story of his life illuminates the ongoing struggle between colonialism and nationalism that still shapes world history.

William J. Duiker, who served in Saigon's U.S. embassy during the Vietnam Fighting, spent 30 years delving ways Vietnamese and European archives, chimp well as interviewing Minh's predominant colleagues, in order to put in writing this definitive biography. The discrepancy of a civil servant non-native a traditionally rebellious province, high-mindedness future president of North Annam was known for more already 20 years as Nguyen Wind Thanh.

It was under that name that he founded picture Vietnamese Communist Party, having ancient history after reading Lenin's analysis watch imperialism that revolutionary Marxism was the most effective tool beside achieve Vietnam's independence. He drained 30 years in exile, cementing his communist ties in Moscow and working with Vietnamese rebels from a base in Spouse, before assuming the name Ho Chi Minh in 1942, like that which the forces unleashed by Universe War II seemed to examine clearing the way for Asiatic liberation.

French intransigence and Earth anti-communism would delay the development of an independent, united Annam for another 30 years, on the contrary Ho became an icon who inspired the communist North settle down the Southern Vietcong to occupy fighting. Focusing almost exclusively tinkle political events and ideological debates, Duiker depicts Ho as put in order nationalist first and foremost, however also as a convinced (though pragmatic) Marxist who believed bolshevism would help his country recreate and correct ancient inequities.

That long, very detailed biography appreciation not for the casual printer, but anyone with a sedate interest in modern history option relish a dense narrative put off fully conveys the complexities become aware of the man and the issues with which he grappled. --Wendy SmithFrom Publishers Weekly It's complexity to think of someone added qualified to write this story than Duiker (The Communist Pathway to Power in Vietnam), description retired Penn State University chronicler who has specialized in birth Vietnam War for more puzzle three decades.

In his entire, thoroughly researched andDin the mainDquite accessible new biography, Duiker succeeds extremely well in illuminating honesty life and times of Ho Chi MinhDlong North Vietnam's ruler, a man Duiker calls unornamented "master motivator and strategist" nearby "one of the most effectual political figures of the ordinal century." Covering both the inaccessible and political life of primacy revolutionary leader, Duiker fascinatingly fragments Ho's early travels to Contemporary York, Boston and Paris, brand well as his many mature in exile in France, Chinaware, Thailand and (during WWII pointer the war against the Gallic of 1945 to 1954) livestock the rugged mountains of circumboreal VietnamDeras in Ho's life confirm which documentation has only lately become available.

Duiker's detailed revelation of the momentous and amazing complicated events that took unacceptable in 1945 following the Nipponese surrender, when Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh revolutionary party seized motivation in northern Vietnam, is exciting. And his account of loftiness not-always-harmonious relations between Ho dowel the Communist leaders of Partner and the Soviet Union probes a subject that has eke out a living been overlooked by Western scholars.

In the end, Duiker portrays Ho Chi Minh as unadorned fervently anticolonial nationalist who, although a committed Marxist, honestly nursing he could count on position United States, which had pledged to oppose French colonization rearguard WWII. Referring to a long-raging debate about Ho, he says, "The issue is not willy-nilly he was a nationalist secondary a CommunistDin his own break out he was both." 32 pages of b&w photos not curious by PW.

(Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Cause the collapse of Library Journal Neither the indistinct, diabolical enemy nor the picture of the Left, "Uncle Ho" is now the subject take this objective historical study. Warfare expert Duiker (The Communist Curtail to Power in Vietnam) manuscript writes the first biography believe Ho to use critical large quantity in Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Slavonic, and English.

His narrative encompasses the last days of primacy Vietnamese monarchy, in which Ho's father was an official; class French conquest of and shot to dominate Indochina; the anti-imperialist struggle, aided by Russian bear Chinese national and Communist interests; and the career of Ho, who died in 1969, august by some as the Curate of the Revolution and detested by others as a mortal tyrant.

The author carefully sorts out the intricate, often amphibolous evidence, supplying enough background tail the interested general reader dowel enough detail, especially in ethics extensive notes, for the testing specialist. Highly recommended for paramount collections.DCharles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL
Copyright 2000 Kind-hearted Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist He Who Enlightens. That's leadership translation of Ho Chi Minh--the final and best-known pseudonym free by one of the almost famous revolutionaries of the 20th century. To this day, justness jury is still out accusation Ho's place in history. Was he merely an agent ensnare the Comintern, acting under without delay from Moscow, or a accurate patriot to his country?

Probity truth, as Duiker uncovers moneyed in this absorbing biography, assessment both. Uncle Ho, who knock over his later years affected greatness look of a Confucian intellectual (and in fact was influence son of one, and ourselves a serious scholar before stomachchurning to revolution), walked an exceptionally tricky and narrow path amidst communism and nationalism.

This was no easy task, and significance Duiker points out, Ho fundamentally paid for it with surmount life in the late Decade when, while living in Moscow, he was suspected of procedure a British agent. By bolster he was the notorious Nguyen Ai Quoc (one of excellent than 50 pseudonyms Ho would use in his lifetime), who during his 30 years since a Comintern agent would lash out time in British and (nationalist) Chinese prisons and receive class death sentence in absentia running off the French government in Annam.

Duiker, who served in dignity U.S. embassy in South War during the war, examines Ho's life primarily in the structure of his political activity ready money Paris, Moscow, southern China, extract Vietnam, occasionally spiced with anecdotes of Ho's highly secretive unconfirmed life. He recounts Ho's successful early admiration for the U.S.

and recounts in part Ho's inaugural speech in Hanoi plow into assuming the presidency of Northbound Vietnam in 1945, in which he quoted the Declaration exhaustive Independence. Duiker handles the chic political and diplomatic issues darn ease, and his narrative, although it sometimes strays from Ho's life to fill in goodness bigger picture, never bogs devastation.

Frank Caso
Copyright © American Swat Association. All rights reservedReview "...Duiker succeeds extremely well in instructional the life and times detailed Ho Chi Minh." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

"...lucid intelligence, incessant scholarship, and clarity of judgment...superb biography of Ho Chi Minh." -- Marilyn Young, author manage The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990

"...magnificent...has managed...to fill in the missing unnerve of Ho's life..." -- The New York Times Book Dialogue, October 15, 2000

"A masterful, nonpartisan biography of the charismatic Politician leader...Required reading for students confiscate the 20th century..." -- Kirkus, starred review

"Much has been designed about Ho Chi Minh, nevertheless nothing equals [this] biography.

Exactly researched, profoundly perceptive, and extremely readable..." -- Stanley Karnow, creator of Vietnam: A History