Ho’s China Connection

Abstract

Chapter 1 details how Ho made China his revolutionary base from World War II to the French Indochina War. The Vietnamese and Chinese shared a common heritage and anticolonial experiences for more than a hundred years. The background narrative extends beyond the diplomatic activities and historical events between China and Vietnam and views their nationalist independence movements and Communist revolutions as an intertwined history, not as isolated or parallel phenomena. East Asia’s countries and peoples participated in the global Cold War of 1946–1991 for their own historical reasons in some specific ways that served their own political agenda, met their economic programs and security needs, and created their own development models. This chapter places Vietnam and China at center stage for exploring the anticolonial movements and transnationalism in East and Southeast Asia from 1800 to 1949 rather than treating them primarily as subordinate or dependent actors in a larger historical drama. As a result, by the early twentieth century, all of these areas saw the rise of new kinds of nationalism and Communism, which were adjusting to military confrontations with the West.