1931
Nguyen Ai Quoc, - Nguyen the Patriot, an early alias of Ho Chi Minh, had been arrested a day earlier at 186 Tam King Street in Hong Kong under the pseudonym Tong Van So.
The British defense counsel Frank H. Loseby visited him, while he was in temporary detention at a police station in Hong Kong
In 1960, while visiting Vietnam, Loseby narrated the meeting between himself and Nguyen Ai Quoc, “I went to the prison to meet Tong Van So. He told me he had been sentenced to death by the French government in Indochina. From what he’d said, I learnt that the French government in Indochina had asked the Hong Kong government to arrest him.
“After the meeting,” added Loseby, “I went to see the Lawyers’ Council to get their advice on what I needed to do for adequate preparation of paperwork.”
1946
In a diary about his journey to France, Ho Chi Minh's secretary wrote, “It is about 1,386 kilometers between Habagna, Iraq, and Cairo, capital of Egypt. When we were in Jerusalem, the plane flew around the capitol so that everybody could see the tomb of Jesus Christ. When we arrived in Cairo, the French ambassador came to the airport to meet us. We stayed there for three days.”
Cuu Quoc (National Salvation) newspaper published an article, “Planning combat strategies,” by Ho Chi Minh under the name Q. Th.
Uncle Ho analyzed Sun Tzu’s Art of war in a practical way, “Knowing the situation of the enemy, knowing the situation of yourself, compare the situation of the enemy with yours to find out your advantages and disadvantages, as well as your enemy’s advantages and disadvantages. Based on this, plan your combat strategies.
“Nowadays, we not only confront the enemy in battlefields. We must also try our strength to fight against them in economic, political and psychological fronts, otherwise we will lose.”
1948
In response to the French colonialists’ establishment of a puppet government for the entire country in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh said, “The French colonialists have set up a puppet government to bring calamity to the country and the people, we will punish the traitors based on the law of our country.”
1968
Uncle Ho invited a number of high-ranking officials to work on the publication of the series of books “Good man, good deed.”
He said, “We always pay attention to outstanding feats of arms and achievements but think nothing about humble, beneficial deeds to the country and the people. This is just like people, when visiting a palace, who just praise its splendid chambers but rarely recognize that its existence would not be possible without firm and solid foundations.
“Always remember, countless of drops of water will make an ocean,” Uncle Ho added.
By Duong Trung Quoc* and co-writers
*The author is a historian and member of the National Assembly
