Status Updates From Ho Chi Minh: A Life

Mostly just skimming through bibliography and notes b/c am interested in how the book was put together — have been done w/ the actual book for about a week or so now.

nice

- Last then back to reading (late 1944-1945 in Vietnam near the Chinese border) — HCM wins American military support and uses it to procure equipment for the Viet Minh, takes advantage of the alliance between the US + USSR vs. Germany/Japan (who kicked out the French), consolidates the Viet Minh + army in the countryside, declare a national insurrection against the Japanese and seizes government power in the cities

- *another note: interesting that HCM isn't too active (at least relative for revolutionary standards of the time) in military affairs — that's left mostly to Giap, Pham Van Dong, etc. — he's more of a diplomatic emissary type
- Around 1944 at the border — he's basically lobbying for American military support for the Viet Minh, playing politics and brokering tactical alliances with US military intelligence...

- *additional note to his time in Guangzhou with the KMT and the Vietnam Nationalist Revolutionary League (Dong Minh Hui) — learns to sort of fight and do military stuff also a la the Hobbits being trained by Boromir in basic combat prior to the journey to Mt Doom...
- spent the latter half of 1943-44 on the Chinese-Vietnamese border, observing and preparing the VCP to seize power from the French as WW2 dragged on...

- gets himself in the good graces of high ranking KMT generals to get released, does and spends some time hanging around pro-nationalist but not Communist Chinese-KMT sponsored revolutionary groups
- makes himself useful, is given more free reign over org (and if not makes it pro-Communist, at least makes it not anti-Communist) to clean it up, then finally dips back into Vietnam as the war is about to end...

- ...in and around Kunming + Viet border, coordinating closely with Zhou Enlai et al to prepare to get back to Vietnam for "revolution", plus reorganize leadership that was purged/killed by French + plagued by infighting
- around this time, reasserts control and establishes the Viet Minh
- once that got settled, headed back towards Chongqing, got arrested (?) by Chiang-led KMT/warlord forces...

- *correction again — sort-of but wasn't directly INVOLVED in settling intra-party and movement disputes in Vietnam, was mostly stationed as Comintern rep. in China, but wrote articles/memos and kept in contact with select VCP/ICP leaders, was more of a general admin support guy + diplomat
- took him up to 1940 to reestablish FORMAL contact with his VCP colleagues in China, meets Vo Nguyen Gap, Pham Van Dong here...

- [1938-39, cont.]...nationalist groups, communists, pursue tactical alliances to combat Japanese and fascist-aligned opposition given again, WW2, helped re-organize the embattled VCP/ICP post-French crackdown and sort-of again mediate between pro-Stalin conservative left hardliners such as Ha Huy Tap and non-USSR elements of the antifascist movements
- same time was also working w/ Zhou Enlai, Whampoa Academy

- [mid-1930s, Moscow]...pro-USSR local party members in Vietnam (not that HCM wasn't, more of that he was more of an old school Lenin-allied independent type), continuing to keep a low profile b/c Stalin purges, presumably
- [1938-39, outbreak of WW2, USSR and China]...joined up with a delegation to assist the CCP under Mao in fighting the Chinese Civil War + the Japanese b/c WW2, helped broker alliances between...