Ho Chi Minh

• SOURCE: WSJ
  7-26-13
  

  Ron Radosh: Ho Chi Minh Gets White House Praise

  Ron Radosh is an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and a columnist for PJ Media. President Obama on Thursday received Vietnam's president, Truong Tan Sang, at the White House. The Vietnam War that once caused bitter division among the American people is long over. There is a strong case for continuing the reconciliation between the U.S. and Vietnam, and for cooperating, as Mr. Obama said, on trade, military-to-military dealings, disaster relief and other matters.But continuing to repair relations with Vietnam shouldn't extend to the U.S. president reviving a favorite line of attack by Vietnam War protesters from half a century ago: that North Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh was inspired by America's Founders in his wars to take over the country. Yet in the White House news release after Thursday's meeting, Mr. Obama is quoted saying that "we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson."One can imagine the wily Ho Chi Minh laughing from his grave. Once upon a time, antiwar activists in America called him "the George Washington of Vietnam." Now the U.S. president is taking a similar line....

• SOURCE: NYT
  4-18-13
  

  Henry A. Prunier, 91, U.S. Soldier Who Trained Vietnamese Troops, Dies

  Henry A. Prunier taught Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese general who withstood the armies of France and the United States, how to throw a grenade.The lesson came in July 1945, after Mr. Prunier and six other Americans had parachuted into a village 75 miles northwest of Hanoi on a clandestine mission to teach an elite force of 200 Viet Minh guerrillas how to use modern American weapons at their jungle camp.The Americans, members of the Office of Strategic Services, the United States’ intelligence agency in World War II, wanted the guerrillas’ help in fighting the Japanese, who were occupying Indochina. The Viet Minh welcomed the American arms in their struggle for Vietnamese independence....