Director and People’s Artist Dao Trong Khanh has written an article
slamming a documentary film called “Truth about Ho Chi Minh” which was
recently produced overseas by a group of exiles, for distorting the
history of President Ho Chi Minh.
First of all
Khanh, a respected director of documentary films in Vietnam, affirms
that “Truth about Ho Chi Minh”, though a documentary, contains no
documentary value because of patchy and poor images which were used
carelessly just to illustrate their quotations.
“With music and the opening made in a theoretical manner, the film
quoted Stephane Coustois’s saying that, ‘People say history is the
science of human misfortune and the century of bloody violence in which
we are living has confirmed this saying broadly.’ But the truth is,
history is not just like that. Unceasing efforts and creativity, the
non-stop struggle for progress, and the pursuit of freedom and happiness
are basics of miraculous historical movements in the noble spirit of
humanity, including the sacrifice of revolutionaries worldwide. The
ambiguous and one-sided way of presenting an issue in a gloomy and
tragic manner inevitably results in a one-sided interpretation of the
content of the film,” writes the director.
Khanh
further points out that the images of massacres introduced in the film
are in fact pictures and documentaries of the crimes committed by the
French colonialists and US aggressors against the Vietnamese people. But
in this film, their real origins are ignored and they are attributed to
patriotic resistance fighters and communist soldiers. In addition, a
line-up of anti-communist maniacs are used to stage “radiofilm”
interviews - monologues without any illustrations.
He writes, “It makes no sense at all when one after another characters
speak in a serious manner about President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday and
death date – facts that Vietnam has officially announced. Vu Ngu Chieu
and Tran Gia Phung have laid stress on a letter from Nguyen Tat Thanh
(Ho Chi Minh) asking for enrolment at a French school in 1912. It should
not be forgotten that during this period it was necessary to seek all
possible ways to help the country and the people.”
“Sophie
Quinn Judge, who lives in a capitalist society and does not understand
anything about revolutionary activities, made a wild guess about the
relationship between President Ho Chi Minh and other women like famous
revolutionary Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. ‘There seems to have been an affair
between the two,’ said Quinn in the film. This is not the way
researchers do their work. Researchers do not use the word ‘seems’,” the
director says, adding how can one believe in a researcher like Vu Ngu
Chieu who has wrapped himself up in foreign archives for many years
to engage only in gossip and other people’s private affairs that are
unrelated to history.
People’s Artist Khanh, who
himself made a documentary about President Ho Chi Minh, says when
compiling documents about the President he had a chance to read the
original copy of the “Prison Diary” poem collection but did not pay
attention to Uncle Ho’s handwritings on the cover: 1923-1933. After many
years, when some people showed interest in this matter, the then Vice
Director of the Ho Chi Minh museum Nguyen Huy Hoan said the note just to
mark the 10-year “big misfortune” period according to Uncle Ho’s
calculation, not the time he penned the poems, adding that people do not
understand this so tend to speculate.
Khanh said he
also knew about the meeting between poet Pavel Antolkolski, who
translated the “Prison Diary” poem collections into Russian, and
President Ho Chi Minh, as well as the meeting between the President and
R. Bershatsky when this poet visited Vietnam. During this meeting, with
his openness and in his usual modest manner, the President made coffee
for his guest and said, “We write poetry when we have free time. In
Vietnam , everybody writes poems,” he recalled. The President did not
think of himself as a poet but the whole world is captivated by his
eloquent verses. Against this honourable history, the sabotage and
slandering campaigns of exile groups overseas are so mean, Khanh said.
According to the People’s Artist, researching Ho Chi
Minh heritage and learning about his thoughts and morality is not only a
long and huge scientific research project but also a conscious
evolvement of a nation towards “The true, the good and the beautiful”.
He stresses that hatred, slander and fabrications reflects the
degradation in personality which goes against human beings’ spiritual
evolution and advancement, binding oneself and losing the one’s root.
“It is true that the life of President Ho Chi Minh is
a legend. The legend is always beautiful. It contains the mystery of
romantic spirit and the transcendence of human awareness about the
world. US journalist William J. Duiler had written in his book about
Ho Chi Minh: “All great people have an implicit mystery”. He cited
President Ho Chi Minh as saying in an interview with journalist Bernard
Fall that, “The elderly like to have a small mystery about them. I would
like to keep a little bit of mystery about myself. I believe you
understand what I said.”
The legend of Ho Chi Minh
will forever be treasured by mankind and mankind will always try to seek
more understanding about it, Director and People’s Artist Dao Trong
Khanh concluded./.
