Censors debate Uncle Ho's bio
What should Vietnam's citizens be told about Uncle Ho? That's the
question
bedevilling the state-run National Politics Publishing House, which
recently
completed a Vietnamese translation of William J. Duiker's 695-page
biography, Ho Chi Minh: A Life, first published two years ago by
Hyperion
Books in New York. Prior to release in Vietnam, the Hanoi publisher has
requested Hyperion's permission to delete materials that "do not match"
those in the local archives.
The main problem, according to Hanoi academic sources, is the
biography's
treatment of Ho's private life. For example, Duiker writes that Ho was
briefly married in 1927 to a poorly educated but comely Chinese woman in
Canton, and later pursued an "intimate relationship" with Vietnamese
communist comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. That contradicts the official
version that Ho remained single out of devotion to the revolution.
Duiker,
who assisted in the translation process, says that he would reject any
changes due to censorship. "Like any public figure, Ho Chi Minh's
private
activities cannot be divorced from his public career and his
international
reputation," he maintains. The Vietnamese publisher must obtain a
licence
from Hyperion before releasing the translation.
The Far Eastern Economic Review - August 1st, 2002.
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