shall continue my blogging about my hanoi trip. on the last day, i visited ho chi minh mausoleum and ho chi minh museum.
while the mausoleum and the museum was nothing much compared the museums in europe, the experience was rather interesting.
the mausoleum is where ho chi minh's (hcm) embalmed body is kept, so that his admirers and supporters can pay their respects. apparently, lenin and mao (not me) have their own mausoleums too.
well, like what lonely planet described, the mausoleum had a long queue of visitors consisting of both locals and tourists, and the queue moved v fast (no thanks to unfrenly guards). But the reactions of the locals are not as exaggerated as the lonely planet described. but the sense of respect was strongly felt. ironically, it was shown thru the guards' apparent coarse behaviour. Glaring at visitors who talk or wore headdress. Pushing/pulling people who stopped too long to glance at the late leader. AND pulling out people to check their bags for cameras/handphones/waterbottles. Crystal and Claudine got pulled out many many times.
the museum was not bad. but a bit propagandistic, and sang lotsa praises for the leader. portrayed a v warm image of hcm, and certainly explained his nickname 'uncle ho'. there were tonnes of pictures of him interacting with the common pple and working with them (like at the fields, or carrying arms). at the third storey, there was an exhibition hall, with lotsa interesting art pieces, giving impressions of the communist regime and its leader. again, the pieces were rather biased. but they were rather good and abstract. had this impression that communist art will be straightforward and not v thought provoking, but the pieces showed otherwise.
also felt that history had not been fair to this great leader. to many of us, the americans lost the vietnam war, because of the media backlash and the prevalent public dissent. moreover, the war was seen as exposing the US military weakness. however, i feel that ho chi minh had played an integral role in the victory of the viet cong. he was certainly an inspirational figure, and had set clear moralistic goals for his followers. he had successfully motivated his people to fight and nurtured a strong sense of resilience against the americans.
read this article on times, which placed him as one of the top 100 in the last century. after visiting the museum and the mausoleum, i certainly appreciate the author's viewpoint.
while he stood for may be debatable, i think his qualities as a leader should nv be undermined by history.
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