Ha Noi wants to translate book on Ho, but censor texts about his sex life

15 August 2002 See full text at The AGE http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2002/08/14/1029113955533.htm

“Great 'Uncle Ho' may have been a mere mortal “

A biography on Vietnam's revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh reveals he had a steamy past, a far cry from his official image. Mark Baker reports from Singapore.

Was Ho Chi Minh the celibate hero of Vietnamese legend; a man married only to the cause of revolution - or did he have a roving eye and a cosmopolitan appetite for women? .. The Vietnamese censors are demanding substantial cuts to an official translation of William J. Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life, which reveals that the great man found time for a secret marriage and several passionate affairs ..

But the subject is so delicate that authorities in Hanoi cannot even bring themselves to spell out their concerns. And they have banned distribution of an issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine that carried a small item about the controversy.

In a letter to New York publisher Hyperion Books, the state-run National Politics Publishing House has said only that it wants from the Duiker biography that "do not conform with the information in our files". to remove certain passages .. Duiker's book, which includes substantial new material from French and Russian intelligence archives, says Ho was married briefly in 1927 to a "poorly educated but comely" Chinese woman in Canton and had an extended affair with prominent communist cadre Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, whom the French later executed.

The records also reveal that Ho had several affairs while living in France and Russia, including with a woman who was his instructor at the Stalin School in Moscow. Druiker, a former US foreign service officer based in Saigon during the Vietnam War, spent more than 20 years researching the subject and his book has won critical acclaim. A Washington Post reviewer called it "the most authoritative account of Ho's life we are likely to have for a long time".

The author says he did not set out to seek salacious material about Ho's private life, but was compelled to report what he found. Duiker said his editors at Hyperion were preparing to write to the authorities in Hanoi insisting that publication would only be approved if no substantial cuts were made.

But he predicted that the authorities might publish a sanitised version anyway. Duiker believes the government is losing the battle to preserve its idealised account of Ho's private life. ..

MOI BAN BAM VAO LINK !... Great 'Uncle Ho' may have been a mere mortal

-- Ho chi Minh Dam tac .. (vietnamcongsans Nuoi heo nhieu lam'' tieu doi nay mai @yahoo.com), October 29, 2004

Answers

.. Ha Noi sought permission to translate Duiker’s book on Ho Chi Minh, but wants to remove passes about his affairs .. Druiker won’t permit, but expects that Ha Noi will ignore him ..

Rumours persist about Communist Party general secretary Nong Duc Manh being an illegitimate son from Ho’s pleasures of the flesh

-- Ho chi Minh Dam tac .. (vietnamcongsans tieu doi nay mai @yahoo.com), October 29, 2004.

he` he` he` . cai' bo^. mat. nham nho? cua? ho chi minh da~ hie^.n nguyen hinh` he` he` he`. dit. me. bac' .khg ly' "bac'" an toan` do^` bo^?ma` lai. di thu? da^m hay sao?. neu' la` nguoi` thi` ai cung~ co' van' de^` sinh ly'.do' la` chuye^n. binh` thuong`. nhung ho chi minh thi` khac'. ho chi minh la` quy~ nen moi. chuyen deu la` doi' tra' lua` bip.dit me. cai' dang viet cong , tien su ca? lo` nha` chung' no'

-- thieuquan5870 (thieuquan5870@yahoo.com.au), October 30, 2004.