Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:18:34.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Establishing Hồ Chí Minh's Cult: Vietnamese Traditions and Their Transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2016

Olga Dror
Get access

Abstract

After Vietnam's August Revolution in 1945, Hồ Chí Minh was venerated as the center of a newly created political religion that eventually became part of the Vietnamese religious landscape. This article traces the origins of Hồ Chí Minh's veneration and his own role in cementing his image not only as the leader of the nation but as the Uncle, the head of the Vietnamese national family. Through an examination of Hồ Chí Minh's first (auto)biography, it explores some of the means employed to achieve these results. Hồ Chí Minh's cult transformed the nation and altered Vietnamese cultural traditions. It served to acquaint people with the new order and to create and perpetuate people's loyalty to the newly formed state entities. This article looks at how Hồ Chí Minh went from being the master of his own cult to losing control over it and becoming its employee.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 433 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Archers, Jules. 1971. Ho Chi Minh: Legend of Hanoi. New York: Crowell-Collier Press.Google Scholar
Blanc, Marie-Eve. 2005. “Vietnamese in France.” In Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, eds. Ember, Carol R., Ember, Melvin, and Skoggard, Ian A., 1158–68. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Brocheux, Pierre. 2000. Ho Chi Minh. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.Google Scholar
Brocheux, Pierre. 2003. Hô Chi Minh: Du révolutionnaire à l'icône [Ho Chi Minh: From revolutionary to icon]. Paris: Éditions payots.Google Scholar
Brocheux, Pierre. 2007. Ho Chi Minh: A Biography. Translated by Duiker, Claire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, Jeffrey. 2000. Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Soviet Public Culture from Revolution to Cold War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, Jeffrey. 2003. “Stalin's Politics of Obligation.” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 4(1):47–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tín, Bùi. 1995. Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel. Translated by Stowe, Judy and Van, Do. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Burchett, Wilfred. 1972. Ho Chi Minh, an Appreciation. New York: Wilfred Burchett Fund in association with the Guardian.Google Scholar
Chính luận [Political discussion]. 1965. “Ngày 19-5-65, miền Bắc cộng sản đã dàn cảnh sinh nhật họ Hồ để che dấu sự xâu sé nội bộ” [May 19, 1965, communist north stages Hồ Chí Minh's birthday to conceal internal rupture]. May 20 or 21 (dates on the microfilm are cut off), 1, 3.Google Scholar
Costello, Francis J. 1995. Enduring the Most: The Life and Death of Terence MacSwiney. Dingle, Kerry, Ireland: Brandon.Google Scholar
Cứu quốc [Salvation of the country]. 1946a. “Điện văn mừng Hồ Chủ-tịch của vệ quốc đoàn Hà-nội” [Telegram congratulating President Hồ from the National Army]. 244. May 20.Google Scholar
Cứu quốc [Salvation of the country]. 1946b. “Nhân ngày sinh-nhật Hồ Chủ-tịch hầu khắp đại biểu các giới và toàn thể thiếu-niên, nhi-đồng của Hà-nội đã đến mừng thọ Hồ Chủ-tịch” [On the occasion of President Hồ's birthday representatives of almost all groups and of all youth and children came to wish longevity to President Hồ]. 244. May 20.Google Scholar
Daily News. 1948. “Vietnam Workers Arrested in Marseilles.” February 4.Google Scholar
Daum, Pierre. 2009. Immigrés de force: Les travailleurs Indochinois en France (1939–1952) [Force of immigrants: Indochinese workers in France (1939–1952)]. Paris: Actes sud.Google Scholar
De Tréglodé, Benoît. 2000. “Les relations diplomatiques Hanoï-Moscou-Pékin à travers les documents (1950–1954)” [The diplomatic relations of Hanoi-Moscow-Beijing through documents (1950–1954)]. Revue Historique des Armées 4:55–62.Google Scholar
Duiker, William. 2000. Ho Chi Minh. New York: Hyperion.Google Scholar
Fenn, Charles. 1973. Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Figuères, Leo, and Fourniau, Charles, eds. 1970. Ho Chi Minh, notre camarade [Ho Chi Minh, our comrade]. Paris: Éditions sociales.Google Scholar
Gaspard, Thu Trang. 1992. Ho Chi Minh à Paris, 1917–1923 [Ho Chi Minh in Paris, 1917–1923]. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Gentile, Emilio. 2006. Politics as Religion. Translated by Staunton, George. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gill, Graeme. 1980. “The Soviet Leader Cult: Reflections of the Structure of Leadership in the Soviet Union.” British Journal of Political Science 10:167–86.Google Scholar
Goscha, Christopher. 2003. “La survie diplomatique de la République Démocratique du Vietnam: Le doute Soviétique effacé par la confiance Chinoise (1945–1950)?” [The diplomatic survival of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam: Soviet doubt erased by Chinese trust (1945–1950)?]. Approches Asie 18:19–52.Google Scholar
Goscha, Christopher. 2006. “Courting Diplomatic Disaster? The Difficult Integration of Vietnam into the Internationalist Communist Movement (1945–1950).” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1(1–2):59–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregor, A. James. 2012. Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hà Minh Đức. 1985. Tác phẩm văn của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh [Literary works of Hồ Chí Minh]. Hanoi: Nxb khoa học xã hội.Google Scholar
Hà Văn Tấn, . 1993. Chùa Vietnam Buddhist Temples. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản khoa học xã hội.Google Scholar
Halberstam, David. 1971. Ho. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Handache, Gilbert, ed. 1970. Ho Chi Minh: L'homme et son message [Ho Chi Minh: The man and his message]. Paris: Le nouveau planète.Google Scholar
Hannigan, Dave. 2010. Terence MacSwiney: The Hunger Strike that Rocked an Empire. Dublin: O'Brien Press.Google Scholar
Hémery, Daniel. 1990. Ho Chi Minh: De l'Indochine au Vietnam [Ho Chi Minh: Indochina in Vietnam]. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Hémery, Daniel. 1992. “Jeunesse d'un colonisé, genèse d'un exil, Ho Chi Minh jusqu'en 1911” [Youth of a colonized, genesis of an exile: Ho Chi Minh until 1911]. Approches-Asie 11:83–155.Google Scholar
Hồ Chí Minh, . 1978. Về vai trò và nhiệm vụ của thanh niên [On the role and the tasks of youth]. Hanoi: Nxb sự thật.Google Scholar
Hồ Chí Minh, . 1989. Di chúc của Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh [Testaments of President Hồ Chí Minh]. Hanoi: Ban chấp hành trương ương, Đảng cộng sản Việt Nam.Google Scholar
Hồ Chí Minh: Tên phản quốc số 1 [Hồ Chí Minh: No. 1 traitor of his country]. 1965. Saigon: Nha tác động tâm lý, Bộ Thông tin tâm lý chiến án hành.Google Scholar
Ho Tai, Hue-Tam. 1995. “Monumental Ambiguity.” In Essays into Vietnamese Pasts, eds. Taylor, Keith Weller and Whitmore, John K., 272–88. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications.Google Scholar
Hoàng Kim Đáng. 2007. “Bác Hồ bắt nhịp bài ca kết đoàn” [Uncle Hồ conducts the solidarity song]. Nhân dân, May 15. http://www.nhandan.com.vn/vanhoa/di-san/item/3915902-.html (accessed February 15, 2016).Google Scholar
Nguyên, Hoàng. 1991. “Tôi tham gia đoàn cán bộ đối ngoại đầu tiên đi Đông Nam Á” [I participated in the first delegation of foreign service cadres to go to Southeast Asia]. Nghiên cứu Đông Nam 1:51–56.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1983. “Introduction: Inventing Traditions.” In The Invention of Tradition, eds. Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, 1–15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
L'Humanité. 1947. May 21.Google Scholar
Đức, Huy. 2012. Bên thắng cuộc [The winning side]. 2 vols. Los Angeles, Calif.: OsinBook.Google Scholar
Huỳnh Kim Khánh, . 1982. Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Japan and America. 1902. “Tencho-Setsu: The Emperor's Birthday.” 2(8):25–26.Google Scholar
Kalgoorlie Miner. 1948. “Delegate Arrested in Paris.” February 3.Google Scholar
Keene, Donald. 2002. Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kirkus Review. 1971. “Ho.” March 1. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-halberstam/ho/ (accessed July 28, 2014).Google Scholar
Kobelev, Evgeniy V. 1979. Ho Shi Min [Ho Chi Minh]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardia.Google Scholar
Kun, Miklós. 2003. Stalin: An Unknown Portrait. Budapest: Central European University Press.Google Scholar
Lacouture, Jean. 1967. Hô Chi Minh. Paris: Éditions du seuil.Google Scholar
Lacouture, Jean. 1968. Hô Chi Minh: A Political Biography. Translated by Wiles, Peter. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Lan, T. 1961. Vừa đi đường vừa kể chuyện [Stories told on the trail]. Nhân dân (2602–10, 2685–86, 2688, 2691–94).Google Scholar
Leese, Daniel. 2007. “The Mao Cult as Communicative Space.” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8(3–4):623–39.Google Scholar
The Life of Stalin: A Symposium. 1930. New York: Workers’ Library Publishers.Google Scholar
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by Bennington, Geoff and Massumi, Brian. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Marouda, Marina. 2013. “The Unending Death of an Immortal: The State Commemoration of Hồ Chí Minh in Contemporary Việt Nam.” South East Asia Research 21(2):303–21.Google Scholar
Marr, David G. 1995. Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marr, David G. 2013. Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946). Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitter, Rana. 2008. “Maoism in the Cultural Revolution: A Political Religion?” In The Sacred in the Twentieth-Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne, eds. Griffin, Roger, Mallett, Robert, and Tortorice, John, 143–65. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mohan, S. Das. 1951. Ho Chi Minh: Nationalist or Soviet Agent? Bombay: Democratic Research Service.Google Scholar
Monefiore, Simon Sebag. 2004. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
New York Times. 1964. “Planes Scatter Nehru Ashes.” June 13.Google Scholar
Ngô Sĩ Liên, . 1993. Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư [Complete historical annals of Great Việt]. Hanoi: Nxb Khoa học xã hội.Google Scholar
Nguyễn Khôi. 2013. “Trần Dân Tiên thực là ai?” [Who is the real Trần Dân Tiên?]. September 26. http://nguyentrongtao.info/2013/09/26/tran-dan-tien-thuc-la-ai/ (accessed February 20, 2016).Google Scholar
Nguyen, Lien-Hang. 2012. Hanoi's War: An International History of War for Peace in Vietnam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Nguyễn Thế Anh, . 1983. “Du rêve mandarinal au chemin de la révolution: Hô Chi Minh et l'École Coloniale” [From mandarinal dream to the path of revolution: Ho Chi Minh and the Colonial School]. Ðường Mới 1:8–25.Google Scholar
Nguyễn Thế Anh, . 1990. “L'intinéraire politique de Hô Chi Minh” [The political path of Ho Chi Minh]. In Ho Chi Minh: L'homme et son heritage [Ho Chi Minh: The man and his heritage], ed. Bénichou, Marcel, 12–38. Paris: Ðường mới.Google Scholar
Van Cuong, Nguyen. 2013. “Mavzolei Ho Shi Mina – Tvorenie Vietnamo-Rossiyskoi druzhby” [Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum – Creation of the Vietnamese-Russian friendship]. In Rossiysko-Vietnamskie otnoshenia: Sovremennost’ i istoria [Russian-Vietnamese relations: Modernity and history], eds. Kobelev, E. V. and Mazyrin, V. M., 396–406. Moscow: Institute of Far Eastern Studies.Google Scholar
Nhân dân [People]. 1955. “Điện mừng sinh nhật Hồ Chủ-tịch” [Congratulatory telegrams on the occasion of President Hồ's birthday]. 448. May 25.Google Scholar
O'Callaghan, Antóin. 2000. The Lord Mayors of Cork: 1900 to 2000. Cork, Ireland: Inversnaid Publications.Google Scholar
Pelley, Patricia M. 2000. Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1923. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1926. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1927. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1928. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1929. December 21.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1935. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1939a. December 21.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1939b. December 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1940. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1941. December 18.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1942. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1944. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1945. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1946. April 22.Google Scholar
Pravda [Truth]. 1947. April 22.Google Scholar
Quinn-Judge, Sophie. 1993. “Hô Chi Minh: New Perspectives from the Comintern Files.” Việt Nam Forum 14:61–81.Google Scholar
Quinn-Judge, Sophie. 2002. Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, 1919–1941. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Radzinsky, Edvard. 1997. Stalin. Moscow: Vagrius.Google Scholar
Rageau, Christiane Pasquel. 1970. Ho Chi Minh. Paris: Éditions universitaires.Google Scholar
Ramesh, Randeep. 2008. “60 Years On, Gandhi's Ashes Laid to Rest.” Guardian, January 31. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/31/india.international (accessed June 29, 2015).Google Scholar
Renaud, Jean. 1949. Ho-Chi-Minh, Abd-El-Krim et cie [Ho Chi Minh, Abd El Krim and company]. Paris: G. Boussac.Google Scholar
Rettig, Tobias. 2012. “From Subaltern to Free Worker: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty among Indochina's Subaltern Imperial Labor Camp Diaspora in Metropolitan France, 1939–1944.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 7(3):7–54.Google Scholar
Rous, Jean. 1947. Le conflit Franco-Vietnamien [The Franco-Vietnamese conflict]. Paris: Les documents populaires.Google Scholar
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History. 1950. “Pismo V. G. Grigoriana na imia I. V. Stalina po povodu 60-letia Ho Shi Mina” [Letter from V. G. Grigorian to I. V. Stalin regarding Hồ Chí Minh's sixtieth birthday]. May 1. Ossobaya Papka [Special dossier]. File 17, op. 163, d. 1549.Google Scholar
Sainteny, Jean. 1970. Face à Ho Chi Minh [Faced with Ho Chi Minh]. Paris: Édition seghers.Google Scholar
Sainteny, Jean. 1972. Ho Chi Minh and His Vietnam: A Personal Memoir. Translated by Briffault, Herma. Chicago: Cowles Book Company.Google Scholar
Selivanov, Igor N. 2014. Stalin, Ho Shi Min i “delo” Chan Ngok Dana: Fakty, hipotezy, arhivnye dokumenty [Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, and the “affair” of Tran Ngoc Danh: Facts, hypothesis, archival documents]. Kursk, Russia: Kursk State University.Google Scholar
Stuhlmann, Manfred. 1960. Ho-chi-Minh: Ein leben für Vietnam [Ho Chi Minh: A life for Vietnam]. Berlin: Dietz verlag.Google Scholar
Tagliazucchi, Pino. 2004. Ho Chi Minh: Biografia politica (1890–1945) [Ho Chi Minh: Political biography (1890–1945)]. Torino, Italy: L'Harmattan Italia.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1949. Hu Zhiming zhuan 胡志明傳 [Stories about Hồ Chí Minh]. Translated by Nianshi, Zhang and Thức, Trương Niệm. Shanghai: Bayue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1955. Những mẩu chuyện về đời hoạt động của Hồ Chủ tịch [Vignettes of President Ho’s life and activities]. Hanoi: Nxb văn nghệ.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1958a. Glimpses of the Life of Ho Chi Minh, President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1958b. Rasskazy o zhizni i deiatelnosti Prezidenta Kho Shi Mina [Stories about the life and activities of President Hồ Chí Minh]. Translated by Karpov, V. I.. Moscow: Izdatelstvo inostrannoy literatury.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1959. Nukilan dari kehidupan Ho Chi Minh, presiden Republik Demokrasi Vietnam [Vignettes from the life of Ho Chi Minh, president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam]. Jakarta: Pembaruan Publishing House.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1960. Anekdotoj pri la vivo de Prezidanto Ho Chi Minh [Stories of President Hồ Chí Minh's life]. Translated by Nguyen Minh Kinh. Hanoi: Fremdlingva Eldonejo Publications.Google Scholar
Trần Dân Tiên, . 1972. Avec l'Oncle Ho [With Uncle Ho]. Hanoi: Éditions en langues étrangères.Google Scholar
Trần Đương. 2014. “Tấm ảnh Bác Hồ bắt nhịp bài ca Kết đoàn” [Uncle Hồ's picture of conducting the Solidarity Song]. Nhà xuầt ban chinh tri quoc gia, http://www.nxbctqg.org.vn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4504:tm-nh-bac-h-bt-nhp-bai-ca-kt-oan&catid=120:hc-tp-va-lam-theo-tm-gng-o-c-h-chi-minh&Itemid=603 (accessed February 15, 2016).Google Scholar
Trần Ngọc Danh. 1949. Tiểu sử Hồ Chủ tịch [Biography of President Hồ]. Paris: Chi-hội Liên-Việt tại pháp. Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, fonds du Haut Commissariat de l'Indochine: SPCE, carton 370.Google Scholar
Lộc, Vương and Kính, Vương. 1965. Về quê Bác [Going to Uncle's native place]. Hanoi: Nxb Kim Đồng.Google Scholar
Vương Lộc and Vương Kính. 1970. Về quê Bác [Going to Uncle's native place]. 2nd ed.Hanoi: Nxb Kim Đồng.Google Scholar
Worthing, Peter. 2001. Occupation and Revolution: China and the Vietnamese August Revolution of 1945. Berkeley, Calif.: Institute of East Asian Studies.Google Scholar