851G.01/6–3049: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in India 1
458. For info and for such use as you may deem appropriate in conversations with officials govt to which you accredited, official organs of USSR have on at least three different occasions since end war referred to Ho Chi Minh as a Communist—once in official Sov publication and twice in Sov radio broadcasts beamed to Far East.
15 Dec 1947 issue Soviet periodical Bolshevik contained art “The Crisis of the Colonial System” in which fol para appeared:
“The Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 26 Aug 1945 at the moment of the fall of Japanese imperialism. Progressive, democratic forces arose to lead the young republic. These forces were rallied and strengthened in stubborn guerrilla warfare with the Japanese occupation forces and the French colonizers. The Communist Ho Chi Minh, a leader in the fight against the Japanese, was elected President and headed the Govt of Vietnam.”
23 June 1948, Radio Moscow in Jap language broadcast on IC situation declared “Ho Chi Minh, who is respected by the Vietnamese masses, is the only Communist (representative) in the Govt”.
1 Apr 1949 Sov Radio Khabarovsk (Siberia), in broadcast to Korea re Vietnam, gave gen review accomplishments and present status Vietnam Gov and declared: “The Communist Party is headed by Mr. Ho Chi Minh.”
Dept sending additional info next few days.2
- Repeated as 2349 to Paris, 374 to Bangkok, 2247 to London, 786 to Manila, 151 to Rangoon, and 115 to Saigon.↩
- This was done in telegram 471, July 5, 7 p. m., to New Delhi (repeated to 6 other posts), not printed. It noted that “to Dept’s knowledge no Commie propaganda organ has ever attacked Ho Chi Minh or has ever referred to him in terms other than praise.” (851G.01/6–2249)↩