This trail dropped me off conveniently at the doorstep of the Ho Chi Minh museum, where homage was paid to “Uncle Ho’s revolutionary thought” on every wall & corner. I did read a lot of the captions, just to get an idea of what “Revolutionary thought & exemplary morality” means. I still don’t really know what they mean by that,,, and the museum is dedicated to those very things.

The definition was elementary enough for a 5th grader to come up with, and didn’t really say anything,,, other than repeat the words “revolutionary thought” and “exemplary morality” over & over. That’s how propaganda works, right?

Again, it feels strange to see a country hold a single man up on a pedestal like this. Maybe it’s just my American upbringing coming through. The funny thing is how Vietnamese appear to have been conditioned to take it in stride, as if this is normal everywhere. Uncle Ho, at a glance with my foreign eyes, appears to be revered on a level juuuuuuuust short of Jesus.

His thought was perfect. His leadership unquestioned. He never married. (one could draw conclusions that his love for the country made him not notice women,, or perhaps he took an oath to dedicate all his energy to the nation & had nothing left for taking a wife… but this is a country where many marriages are arranged- so falling in love wouldn’t be the same impediment you might expect in the west.) Of course- he was out of the country for 30 important years (from 21 years old until his 51st year).

I guess the thing that gets me is seeing National policy enforce training on Ho Chi Minh’s thought and exemplary morality. (Instruction #23 of the Party Central Committee, 17 May 2003).