Pres. Obama praises Communist dictator, mass murderer Ho Chi Minh

Didn’t one of Pres. Obama’s closest advisers, Anita Dunn, praise Mao?

From American Catholic:

That President Obama praised dead Communist dictator Ho Chi Minh will come as a surprise only to Americans who haven’t been paying attention, which, alas, is a large segment of the population. For the benefit of those people, historian Ronald Radosh in The Wall Street Journal gives some background to Ho:

During World War II, Vietnam—a French colony—was taken over by Japan, and toward the end of the conflict, with Japan in retreat, a power vacuum developed. Ho Chi Minh, leading the Viet Minh communist guerrilla group, saw a chance to seize power before the French could restore colonial rule. He needed allies and knew that the American president, Franklin Roosevelt, had a reputation for being anti-French and anti-colonial. Thus began Ho’s courtship of the U.S. by citing the Declaration of Independence and appealing to the American ideal of liberty.

His aim, according to Ho’s biographer, William Duiker, was to “induce the United States to support the legitimacy of his government, rather than a return of the French.

In reality, Ho was a “disciplined Communist, who had “proved time and again his profound loyalty to Communism,” according to the ex-communist German revolutionary Ruth Fischer, writing in Foreign Affairs in 1954. She had known him in Moscow in the 1920s when he was receiving his training.

Ho didn’t get the U.S. support he sought, but he still succeeded in his national takeover, proclaiming himself president of a provisional government in what he called the Vietnam Democratic Republic. In October 1945, just how democratic the republic would be became clear: Ho ordered the slaughter of his political opponents, including 50,000 of the then-powerful Trotskyist communists. During a trip to Paris in late 1945, Ho told the French Socialist leader Daniel Guerin, “All those who do not follow the line which I have laid down will be broken.”

In his own writings during the war, Ho Chi Minh stressed that the revolutionaries had to have a “tactical, flexible attitude towards the national bourgeoisie,” but as for the Trotskyists, “there can be no compromise, no concession.” [Rather like the IRS with conservative groups?]

Ho’s posturing as a Jefferson-inspired lover of independence failed to dupe the U.S. in the 1940s. [An I’ll bet Ho’s posturing doesn’t dupe Pres. Obama either, if you get my drift.] Let’s be generous and assume that antiwar protesters in the 1960s and early 1970s didn’t know any better when they bought into his fiction. Let’s give President Obama the same benefit of the doubt. [Noooo… let’s not.] But let’s also retire the idea that Ho Chi Minh had the slightest interest in the Declaration of Independence except as a tool he once deployed hoping to achieve his communist goals.

Go here to read the rest. Ho Chi Minh was a fairly typical Communist ruler in that he had absolutely no compunction about ordering mass executions to eliminate anyone who would stand against his regime. That Obama repeats the old bromides of the “anti-war”, actually pro-Communist, left of the Sixties that attempted to paint Ho as some sort of Jeffersonian Democrat either betrays immense ignorance or something far, far worse.

Shall we forget…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwaAVJITx1Y&feature=player_embedded

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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27 Comments

  1. Supertradmum says:

    What does one expect from a Chicago-weaned follower of Chomsky, Alinsky and the Marxist grass roots organizers? He can be open about his leanings in his second term, but even in 2004 in Illinois, this love of the hard-line Marxist, atheist discipline was there.

    Cohen, Alex; Horwitt, Sanford (January 30, 2009). “Saul Alinsky, The Man Who Inspired Obama”. Day to Day. NPR. Retrieved April 17, 2011. “about his book Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky His Life and Legacy” You can click on the link and listen to the broadcast.

    Here is that link. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100057050

    Gramsci won, mark two.

  2. Supertradmum says:

    May I add that the reference to Ho Chi Minh follows a tense week of whipping up racial violence. [RIGHT!] I call POTUS a man looking for anger and ready to use anger of any kind for his own purposes.

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  3. Mariana2 says:

    Words fail me. How have the Americans elected this man? And how has Mr. Obama made it up through the ranks of his party?

  4. Mariana2 says: how has Mr. Obama made it up through the ranks of his party?

    Seriously? He is the logical next step of his party’s evolution.

  5. benedetta says:

    Judging from the behavior of the abortion activists in Texas, irrational, left wing knee jerk, mob mentality and plain old threatening thuggery is at the core of Obama’s base. Remember, these same abortion activists are close to Obama’s heart. He loves NARAL. He desired that “God bless” Planned Parenthood. Did he or Holder or Biden ever denounce or even distance themselves from those who brought in bricks to throw at democratically elected legislators in the TX statehouse? An Obama society is like thug and mob rule, hands down. He is no statesman, not a public servant. His agenda is vicious and depends upon threats just the same as Ho Chi Minh did. The fear factor is what makes their agenda run.

  6. The Masked Chicken says:

    “Thus began Ho’s courtship of the U.S. by citing the Declaration of Independence and appealing to the American ideal of liberty.”

    …and the Devil can cite Scripture. He also has his own idea of liberty.

    Really, they used to say that Steve Jobs had a Reality Distortion Field surrounding him that would make anybody listening to him think as he did. Obama must own the patent.

    The Chicken

  7. The Masked Chicken says:

    I, also, feel that I must apologize to every American who fought and suffered in the U. S. war with Vietnam. They, certainly, did not deserve this slap in the face from the President. Obama is just a few years too young to have been drafted to fight there, but I guarantee that if he had, he would never have turned out as he has. I wish he had a dream, just once, where he were a peasant living under Communist rule. If he could know the reality of Communism, he would reform in sackcloth and ashes, but, no, he will never know that misery. He is all about avoiding that misery. In that sense, he is like the Party leaders who talk about the suffering of the people and then go out and kill a thousand before lunch. I, also wish he could have a dream that he were a string on a marionette, unable to move without the consent of another. I wish, that is, that he would learn what it is to be under obedience. How can one rightly command who has never been commanded? On the other hand, I suppose, one could say that most people in politics, these days, are mice dancing to a butcher’s tune, cutting and hacking up history into dead men’s bones.

    It says in the movie, Karate Kid III, “Never trust a monk who can’t dance.” One might say, likewise, “Never trust a President who can’t suffer.”

    The Chicken

  8. Priam1184 says:

    For all who are acting all shocked by this statement I have only one question: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS????!!!!!

  9. Jean Marie says:

    The sociopaths are in control of our country with Obama at the summit. They very much want to drop the hammer, declare Martial Law, and rule Obamastan like dictators. Has it come to the point that we need a Pinochet? One of the reasons why I’m going to confession today is because I still feel so much anger for the people who put this guy in office. What were they thinking? I believe when all is said and done, Obama will go down as one of history great Monsters.

  10. wmeyer says:

    Let’s give Obama what he has earned: impeachment. Biden is not smart enough to be as dangerous.

    That said, neither party has shown much faith to the Constitution. There are days when I think it might be better for Obama to get what he wants — the sooner the collapse, the sooner we can begin the reconstruction.

    The country is too far down the road to destruction for a recovery. And the people (too many of them quite ignorant of fiscal reality) will not get over their indoctrination without witnessing the utter failure of O’s policies, and the collapse which must inevitably result.

  11. acardnal says:

    I wonder how much Obama’s former pastor of some 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, helped to foster Obama’s views?

    http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/13/video-jeremiah-wright-and-god-damn-america/

    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/DemocraticDebate/story?id=4443788&page=1#.UWbdkaK7KHc

  12. Mariana2 says:

    “Seriously? He is the logical next step of his party’s evolution.”

    Well, yes, Father, seriously. I don’t know too much about the American political parties, but I thought communism was anathema to both of the major ones. And now we have praising of a communist leader. From a European perspective it is astonishing.

  13. jhayes says:

    Since the article “American Catholic” is commenting on is behind a paywall at the Wall Street Journal, it took a while to find what President Obama said that provoked the article. Turns out it is one of those stock affairs after a visit by a head of state where each makes a brief statement about how great a meeting ti was.

    President Sang, of Vietnam, had brought a copy of a letter from Ho Chi Min to Harry Truman. President Obama mentioned the letter from Ho and that they had discussed Ho’s “inspiration” by Jefferson and the U.S. founding documents

    That is factually correct. The Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, prepared by Ho in 1945, starts:

    “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 m 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.

    http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/van_kien/declar.html

    Seems like much ado about nothing. [So you believe that Ho Chi Minh was “actually inspired” by the US Founding Fathers and documents. Got it.]

    What President Obama said was

    We discussed the challenges that all of us face when it comes to issues of human rights, and we emphasized how the United States continues to believe that all of us have to respect issues like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. And we had a very candid conversation about both the progress that Vietnam is making and the challenges that remain.

    So I just want to say to President Sang how much I appreciate his visit. I think it signifies the maturing and the next stage of the development between the United States and Vietnam. As we increase consultation, increase cooperation, increase trade, and scientific and education exchanges, ultimately, that’s going to be good for the prosperity and opportunities of the people here in the United States, as well as good for the opportunities and prosperity of the people of Vietnam.
    […]
    At the conclusion of the meeting, President Sang shared with me a copy of a letter sent by Ho Chi Minh to Harry Truman. And we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson. Ho Chi Minh talks about his interest in cooperation with the United States. And President Sang indicated that even if it’s 67 years later, it’s good that we’re still making progress.

    Thank you very much for your visit. And I look forward to continued work together.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/25/remarks-president-obama-and-president-truong-tan-sang-vietnam-after-bila

  14. Bob B. says:

    Notice that Truman didn’t fall for it, [Exactly.]
    Obama obviously has (wonder if Hanoi Jane was there?).
    Facts don’t seem to matter to this president. North Vietnam’s history doesn’t, the atrocities the NVA and the VC committed don’t, either.
    Vietnam’s persecution of Catholics is well known, as is China’s (both of which are UN members and have freedom of religion mentioned in their constitutions) – that’s it! Obama is just following the last communist countries example in attempting to rid the country of we pesky Catholics!

  15. jhayes, “Seems like much ado about nothing. ”
    when it’s obama don’t give him such a nice little pass. Everything he does and says is infected by his radical ideology.It doesn’t matter that it’s behind a paywall from the WSJ. What does that have to do with what Obama is up to?
    Jean Marie said,”One of the reasons why I’m going to confession today is because I still feel so much anger for the people who put this guy in office. What were they thinking? ”
    if i had to go to confession every time i get angry about this i would have to go every single day. Not sure we have to. I’d let Fr Z inform us. IMHO it’s justifiable anger. The only consolation i have is that the people who elected him MIGHT wake up and smell the coffee. It will once his policies affect them personally. Other than that i wonder that they could care less. They think he’s just wonderful and things are improving. Not sure what world they’re living in.He’s still got some people dazzled with his meaningless rhetoric. Obama is anti Christian.Period. His attacks on the Catholic Church are deliberate. His first 4 yrs he could have focused on the economy. Instead he shoved through Obamacare then pushed things like gay marriage,LGBT ‘rights’,abortion,contraception for kids(to name a few). I still think he stole the election with the help of George Soros but i’m not sure anyone would do enough investigation to prove it.Either that or a majority of the American people just didn’t bother to be informed. I worry about those voters. They’re still out there. What can we DO? i hope NONE of them are Catholic.

  16. Jean Marie says:

    Boxerpaws1952
    A few things:
    ~I think it probably is for the most part justifiable anger, but it sometimes gets to the point that it eats me up inside which is ultimately self-destructive. I need to feel the Lord’s peace and trust again in his providence.
    ~There’s no doubt in my mind that he stole the election – but how do you prove it.
    ~Most of the people I know who work for the Church voted for Obama. And people I love in my immediate family. In my local environment sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who still has commonsense. Their blindness just astounds me.
    ~The most agonizing thing is watching how he and the evil cabal that pulls his strings are succeeding in deliberately and maliciously destroying this country. And no one is stopping them. Our Lady of America, pray for us and save us.

  17. TomD says:

    @jhayes: “And we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.”

    The “. . . FACT that Ho Chi Minh was ACTUALLY inspired . . .” is, actually, a counterfactual statement. He couldn’t have been “actually” inspired by those documents and words, as his actions immediately after 1945, against those millions Vietnamese who opposed him, so brutally betrayed the very principles in those documents. He may have used those documents for propaganda purposes, but, by his actions, he demonstrated that he didn’t “actually” believe them.

    When it comes to events in history, and especially for those who have been personally affected by that history, the President must, at the very least, be more precise and accurate in his characterizations.

  18. EXCHIEF says:

    Mariana2
    Unfortunately both major political parties in the USA, Obama’s more than the other, have largely abandoned the principles upon which this nation was founded. On the whole our elected officials are a herd of secular humanists. Without the foundation of God and His teachings it is very easy for our politicians to veer to the left. They also lack real world experience and fail to recognize the downsides of the utopia they “think” and “feel” communism represents. Our representatives who are the most outspoken against communism have families that recently immigrated from countries such as Cuba where the grand communist experiment has been a complete failure.

    Our elected officials have failed to learn the top two lessons which would benefit them. #1 to quote a great President “a nation no longer under God is a nation gone under” #2 the lessons of history. For supposedly being the smartest guys in the room our leftist politicians are as dumb as rocks.

  19. EXCHIEF says:

    Mariana2
    Unfortunately both major political parties in the USA, Obama’s more than the other, have largely abandoned the principles upon which this nation was founded. On the whole our elected officials are a herd of secular humanists. Without the foundation of God and His teachings it is very easy for our politicians to veer to the left. They also lack real world experience and fail to recognize the downsides of the utopia they “think” and “feel” communism represents. Our representatives who are the most outspoken against communism have families that recently immigrated from countries such as Cuba where the grand communist experiment has been a complete failure.

    Our elected officials have failed to learn the top two lessons which would benefit them. #1 to quote a great President “a nation no longer under God is a nation gone under” #2 the lessons of history. For supposedly being the smartest guys in the room our leftist politicians are as dumb as rocks.

  20. Supertradmum says:

    acardnal, obviously, you did not read my blog in 2007-2009, as many, many of my posts leading up to the election were on the Black Liberation and Marxist links of Obama. But, why look to the past? Obama just used Wright to position himself in Chicago and Illinois as a step to the White House. He dumped Wright, even after sitting in the front pew for 17 years, when the pastor became a liability. The man has no god, per se, except the one he sees in the mirror. And, if anyone is shocked, you should have been paying attention to politics in Illinois in 2004-and the Dem National Convention, where he was the keynote speaker-Hey, does that smell fishy?
    But we must move on and try to overcome the onslaught of evil and get holy, really holy. Personally, I think this Ho Chi Minh statement is probably one of the most honest things he has said, as he is not playing to any audience except the Marxists on the World Stage-which, imo, is his real base, not Americans.

    End of persecution stage four-passing laws which criminalize target group, and moving into persecution stage five, persecution of target group was known to Ho, Mao, Hitler, Stalin. And, as Gramsci knew, the only real enemy of Marxism has been since 1848, the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

  21. jhayes says:

    [So you believe that Ho Chi Minh was “actually inspired” by the US Founding Fathers and documents. Got it.]

    I didn’t say that.

    He quoted Jefferson’s language from the Declaration of Independence in the Vietnamese Declaration and praised it. I suppose he would have claimed at that time that he was inspired. It didn’t affect what he actually did after that, so it was either pretense or he lost his inspiration very quickly.

    As President Obama said in that same session, the results weren’t delivered and Vietnam needs to do better:

    “We discussed the challenges that all of us face when it comes to issues of human rights, and we emphasized how the United States continues to believe that all of us have to respect issues like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. And we had a very candid conversation about both the progress that Vietnam is making and the challenges that remain.

  22. jhayes says:

    When it comes to events in history, and especially for those who have been personally affected by that history, the President must, at the very least, be more precise and accurate in his characterizations.

    I’ll bet he wishes he had said “And we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh included Jefferson’s words ‘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’ as the first sentence of Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence”

  23. Jean Marie, “Most of the people I know who work for the Church voted for Obama. And people I love in my immediate family. In my local environment sometimes I feel like I’m the only person who still has commonsense. Their blindness just astounds me.
    ~The most agonizing thing is watching how he and the evil cabal that pulls his strings are succeeding in deliberately and maliciously destroying this country. And no one is stopping them. Our Lady of America, pray for us and save us.”
    I’m certain we’re not alone. A lot of us are thinking the same thing.However,i would not let it eat you up inside. It is disturbing. If you didn’t care for these people,our country and the Church in our country you wouldn’t feel that way. Know that there are a lot of us with you.Our Lord and Our Lady are watching out for us. We can do what we’re able to fight the evil cabal. Any way God provides. The worst thing we could do is get discouraged and quit the battle. When it gets difficult we take time out to pray.You’re not alone.

  24. Mariana2 says:

    EXCHIEF,

    Thank you for explaining!

    “They…. fail to recognize the downsides of the utopia they “think” and “feel” communism represents.”

    That sounds like the 70s here in Scandinavia. Today, only old or former communists who haven’t really repented, and who think communism wasn’t inplemented as it should have been, talk like Mr. Obama. This, coming from the president of the US, is beyond belief.

  25. Mariana2 “This, coming from the president of the US, is beyond belief.” what’s worse than Obama is the fact that so many Americans actually voted for him. [For that matter so many Catholics. ]That’s the really scary part. Look at everything he’s done to our country and everything he’s trying to do to it. The Republicans are only slightly better.They lack the courage to stand up to him.
    Three things SHOULD have sent chills up people’s spines: when Obama had the religious symbol covered for an address he gave at Georgetown university(the name of Jesus Christ)when they booed the mention of God at the Democratic Convention and his refusal to attend the National Day of Prayer service and a Catholic prayer breakfast the morning after.

    Think those might have been signs of his antipathy towards the Catholic Church?
    Yet,Reuters reported this after he was elected for his 2nd term: Catholics – the country’s largest religious group with one-quarter of the population – have supported the winner of the popular vote in every election since 1972.

    Reuters/Ipsos exit polling found that 51 percent of Catholics favored President Barack Obama, compared with 48 percent for Republican contender Mitt Romney. A report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life had a similar finding, with 50 percent of Catholics for Obama and 48 percent for Romney, the same as the popular vote in the general population.

    Hispanic Catholics were far more likely to favor Obama – by 76 percent to 23 percent – than white Catholics, who favored Romney by 56 percent to 43 percent, according to the Reuters poll.
    Another words, we would not have this evil cabal in the WH were it not for the Catholic vote. I wish they had stayed home. :(

  26. EXCHIEF says:

    boxerpaws —and that, obviously, explains why open borders and amnesty (even more future democrat voters) are so essential to the long term goal of single party (socialist) rule in the USA

  27. Kathleen10 says:

    Boxerpaws, yes, it WAS Catholics who put him in the White House. The over 50% vote from Catholics is true. Amazing, isn’t it. Not many days go by without my reflecting on this factoid, sadly. Of course this is tragic for what it says about Catholics these days. No wonder Baptists look at us sideways. Who can blame them? So do I!
    But the media deserves alot of the blame. Pretty much everybody I know is a “low information voter”, if they vote at all. I live in Connecticut, and it’s filled with loyal liberals, despite it being a horrible state, and it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it’s true. Our governor is horribly liberal, our legislature is horribly liberal, our taxes are horribly high, and the cost of living here is also high. But Connecticut residents are loyal Democrats, no matter what, and I don’t hear ANYBODY seriously criticizing Obama. I get various encouragements to contact my legislator about this and that and I barely bother. Our legislators do what they darn well want to do with very little resistance. The most powerful ones are open homosexuals and they seem to have gone into office to advance their cause. Good strategy because it worked. One group stands in their way, and it is not our Catholic Church, although they make a tiny squeak once in awhile (we put out some roars when we had Bishop Lori but he was yanked out of Connecticut). The group that is a thorn to our liberal state is the Family Institute of Connecticut. God bless them.
    I blame the media! The media is so completely and totally complicit about Obama and of course always has been. You take the average American who still gets their news from the newspaper and local TV stations? They know only what they are told, and in Connecticut, they are told that Obama = GOOD and Republicans = BAD. They aren’t going to look any further than that. Our local media never, ever, presents news in a way as to make Obama look anything but wonderful. That is no exaggeration. It’s a whitewash, all the time. The endless bias in news reporting creates a stupid populace. We’ve got that. If you are not versed in truth i.e. have a well-formed conscience, you are going to be utterly run over by liberalism and a godless society that is going to vote for the “nice man with the great smile”.
    That media problem crops up in other ways. A recent hate crime may just have happened in New Haven, CT., thanks in large part to our president and Eric Holder whipping up anger and resentment. A poor business owner in New Haven was test-driving a scooter and stopped at a red light in New Haven. It has been next to impossible to get information about this crime, so hard facts are thus far tough to find, but what it sounds like is a mob of 6 to 10 black “youth” pulled him off the scooter, beat him so badly he required 30 stitches and 8 staples to his head, broke his nose and I think, collarbone, and just left him stunned sitting in the middle of the street, broken and blood streaming. It is being heard that this was “for Trayvon”, but, the media in Connecticut is not reporting this story. I have been on so many blogs trying to get someone’s attention to what certainly sounds like a hate crime to me, but, virtually no reporting in Connecticut on this incident. I can’t get anyone to pay any attention. The man doesn’t remember the beating, that’s how bad it was. Connecticut is a small state. To have this not be reported is unbelievable. I am hearing about other incidents, but it seems the media is covering these up.
    The current administration scares me to death. I knew they would be horrible, and they have far exceeded my worst fears. I would never have thought we would see and hear what we have since this horrible man has taken our highest office. In my opinion, he is a megalomaniac, and very dangerous. I hope we can make it to 2016, but I don’t know. I cannot imagine him leaving office as a president would at the end of a term. Can’t see it.

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