Visiting Uncle Ho

Hanoi, like most capital cities, is not without its share of monuments. However in Hanoi, the most unusual would be the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the great independence leader's body lies in state. The monument, is located in Ba Dinh Square, the site where in 1945 Ho Chi Minh read the declaration of independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the independence movement against colonial France from 1941 onward. Later he served as the first President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the struggle for reunification (The American War) until his death in 1969.

The embalmed body of the much revered “Uncle Ho'', is available for public viewing much like Mao Zedong in China, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in North Korea, and most famously Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in Moscow’s Red Square. I’m not quite sure I understand the obsession with preserving former communist leaders, however it was fascinating to join the thousands who line up between 8-11am for the opportunity to view the great leader. An astounding 6 to 8 thousand persons visit the mausoleum each day. On the morning we arrived at the site we were accompanied by bus loads of school children, monks, military units, tourists and ordinary Vietnamese citizens.

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As we exited we discovered that the Mausoleum is part of a much larger complex which includes another very popular 'great leader' pilgrimage site, the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The museum extols the glorious socialist revolutionary movements of the 20th century, and the great liberation of the Vietnamese people by the communist party under Ho Chi Minh.

A short walk from the Ho Chi Minh complex is the Vietnam Military History Museum, with numerous artifacts from the war of liberation from colonial France and the American war. Among the outdoor aircraft displays was this remarkable sculpture/monument consisting of recovered fragments of US aircraft shot down over Vietnam during the American War.