"'All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.' This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free." Ho Chi Minh, 2 September 1945

Today we explore the influence of the American Declaration of Independence on Vietnamese Independence, as seen in Ho's explicit references to the American Declaration in his own Declaration.

Topics include the following:

-a brief history of Vietnamese and Confucian history, politics, and culture

-the slow introduction of Western ideas into Vietnam, first via Catholic missionaries in the 1640s

-French imperialism in Vietnam during the 19th and 20th centuries

-contradictions between French political ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and their imperial subjugation of the Vietnamese people

-the simultaneous emergence of both communist and non-communist independence movements in Vietnam

-the early life of Ho Chi Minh, his travels, and his presence at the founding of the French Communist Party in 1919

-Ho's training in Moscow as a Comintern agent and the founding of the Vietnamese Communist Party in Hong Kong in 1930, with Ho as its leader

-an exploration of the different competing visions of a post-imperial and independent Vietnam

-World War II and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam

-Ho's long absence from Vietnam--from 1911 to 1941--and his return during the Japanese occupation and his founding of the Viet Minh movement for independence

-the entry of the OSS into Vietnam with the goal of allying with anti-Japanese forces, including the Viet Minh

-OSS accounts of Ho's interest in the language and ideas expressed in the US Declaration of Independence

-the events leading to Ho Chi Minh's Vietnamese Declaration of Independence Speech on 2 September 1945

Prof. Zinoman's books can be found here:

The Colonial Bastille, A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940

Vietnamese Colonial Republican, The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung

Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of Vietnamese Independence

The cover image features a 1945 photo of Ho Chi Minh with members of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.