Bringer Of Light
A Tale Of Missed Opportunities
Sometimes opportunity walks up to you and looks you in the face. Demands your attention. Sometimes you recognize the promise in a moment like that. Sometimes you are set on another path. Other times you fail to see the value this new opportunity and path present. This is about that. This is a tale of the tragedy that can unfold when you fail to take advantage of an opportunity.
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated with the American war in Vietnam. If you want to read on, you’ll understand why I don’t call it the Vietnam War. My childhood interest evolved and as a TV producer and writer, I’ve worked on over half a dozen shows about war. I’ve been to Vietnam twice, it is beautiful and worth the journey.
The point of this is my fascination with a man you would know as Ho Chi Minh. Depending on the translation it can mean a few things. I like, “Bringer of Light.”
How much do you know about Ho Chi Minh? You might know he was the leader of Vietnam, specifically the President from 1945 until he died in 1969. You might know he led the fight against the French occupation of Vietnam and the war against America. Did you know he once worked in New York City? And in London?
Did you know that Senator George McGovern likened him to George Washington? Why? Because Ho Chi Minh spent his life dedicated to a simple idea. A free and independent Vietnam.
In 1945 Vietnam had been a French colony for over 60 years. That year, on September 2nd, in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The first lines of his speech will sound familiar to many. They were, “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These are the same words found at the beginning of America’s Declaration of Independence. That’s your first clue about Senator McGovern’s take on the man known as “Uncle Ho.”
Now we travel back. To the end of World War One and The Paris Peace Conference. American President Woodrow Wilson had been praising notions like self-determination and the idealistic language motivated Ho Chi Minh to show up and ask about Vietnam’s place in this new world. When I interview a historian about this I was told “Uncle Ho” was shooed away, he was asking about a French colony. It’s seared in my mind, the professor I spoke with summed up the rebuff by saying, he was told President Wilson’s idealistic ideas were “for white people.” Missed opportunity number one.
Returning to the year Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese independence and the tale of an OSS operative named Rene Defournoux. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). I met Rene in Indianapolis, Indiana, at a reunion of veterans who survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (Side note; what a few days that was.). Rene and I talked about Vietnam and I was enthralled. You see Rene knew Ho Chi Minh.
During World War Two Vietnam, being a French colony, fell under Japanese control. Rene was part of a six-man team that parachuted behind Japanese lines and trained guerilla groups headed by Ho. These guerillas fought the Japanese who were occupying the French colony.
How close were our forces and Ho Chi Minh’s at this point in time? An example; in March of 1945, Ho Chi Minh escorted an American pilot, who had been shot down, back to the Fourteenth Air Force base. He refused a reward. Instead, he asked to meet the unit’s commander, Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault. He was the founder of the famed “Flying Tigers.” We were allies, in my estimation.
Standing amongst men who had survived the sinking of the Indianapolis. Rene told me about a conversation with Ho that occurred after the war. The Vietnamese leader asked Rene to get him in touch with the powers that be in DC. He wanted to be friends. Rene said the reply from Washington was curt. He said to me it read in part, “What are you doing in French territory?”
It’s important to note that Ho was a shrewd man, educated, and sophisticated. He was also a communist and much of his interaction with the US during World War Two might have been simple manipulation. A way to gain power within Vietnam in preparation for the fight for independence he knew was coming. But given what happens next I’m of the opinion this was a second glaring opportunity, missed.
What happened next was decades of warfare. First Ho Chi Minh fought the French and won. Then he fought the Americans and won. Vietnam taught us the irrelevance of body count as an indicator of success on the battlefield. But some numbers can’t be ignored. The low estimate is that the warfare in this part of the world between 1954 and 1975 took one and a half million lives. The high estimates approach four million, dead. Most were civilians.
The first time I was in Vietnam was for work, in 2006. That was about 10 years after the US and Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations. One day, as we drove from one spot to another we passed a billboard touting the opening of a car dealership. A Mercedes dealership, if I recall correctly. Someone said something like, “We could have opened that decades ago and avoided the whole damn mess.” The van full of Americans and Vietnamese laughed a sort of sad laugh. If only…
It’s important to note the state of the world at the end of World War One and World War Two, with the Cold War looming, made taking advantage of these opportunities a challenge. But we can do difficult things when we want to. We tend to do them when we need to. We just need to see the opportunity when it’s laid in our path.
“Tragedy strikes when the universe aligns an opportunity with our path, and we fail to recognize it or act upon it." - Unknown.
Martin,
I agree that Uncle Ho was a solid leader who was only trying to unify his country. I also will never understand how some of the most unqualified among us are elected. Most are just puppets and parasites who are "influenced" to vote a certain way without giving any thought to the down side of their vote. Their #1 concern is re-election and if it becomes obvious that there is nothing to be personally gained, they cease to really listen let alone consider a proposition. The decision to ignore or rebuke Ho was a result of the prevailing tunnel vision of Washington DC. However, I strongly disagree that the NVN defeated the Americans. I was there during TET 68 and many other major battles and we won every one. In fact the Americans never lost a major battle and the NVN came running with their tails between their legs after the 12 days of Christmas bombing campaign. A group of bureaucrats gave the store away at the negotiating table and then the democrat congress defunded the SVN government and broke our solemn promise to our allies. When those of us who fought in TET 68 came home and listened to Walter Cronkite's lies and misrepresentations, we were pissed and appalled. The media and gutless politicians turned a nation against a bunch of young Americans who had been through hell for that same nation. Fifty years later most of them are gone but trash like John Kerry are still spewing lies.
Jack McEncroe
Vietnam Veteran
jackmcencroe@reagan.com