Word: ho
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Toward the end of 1946, events moved decisively toward war. The talks in France broke down and Ho returned to Indo-China. There was a sharp, unexpected encounter at Haiphong, where French naval units, claiming that they had been attacked, bombarded the city. Ho prepared with guile for the onset of war. On Dec. 15 he congratulated the new French Premier Leon Blum (an old Socialist friend), and Ho's Interior Minister expressed a "sincere desire for fraternal cooperation." On Dec. 19 Ho ordered the Viet Minh army to attack the unsuspecting French army and civilian population in Hanoi...
...nowhere; the Viet Minh lost friends by their brutal emphasis upon forced labor, and by further purges of their nationalist element. But for the Indo-Chinese people, the war was an unrelenting horror: at war's end a staggering 2,000,000 Indo-Chinese civilians were homeless. Ho's patient preparation was finally rewarded last spring, when the Communists struck characteristically on two fronts 5,000 miles apart: with Red China field guns and Russian rocket launchers, they crumbled the valiant French garrison at Dien-bienphu; with Chou En-lai and Molotov, they crumbled Western resolution at Geneva...
...Winning!" With victory, Ho Chi Minh's prestige reached a new high in Asia. Nationalists of many lands, for all their objection to Communism, could not help taking pride in the exploits of an Asian army against their old masters from Europe. Indo-China's wait-and-seeists no longer needed to wait and see. "We are winning! Why stay with the losers?" cried Viet Minh women, urging Vietnamese soldiers to desert. "Do you want your sons to curse your names...
...solid political organization. Ho Chi Minh has destroyed the Viet Minh's Nationalist elements, and he is unquestioned master of the Viet Minh Politburo...
...Membership in the Communist empire and expert guidance. Red China officers swarm, and Red China goods are turning up in Hanoi. Seven of eleven top Viet Minh leaders were trained in Moscow. Ho Chi Minh, according to the best evidence, reports direct to Moscow, not through Peking...