Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

It was at this spot on September 2 1945 that Ho declared independence for Vietnam from the French under the approving watch of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen and women and a handful of US officials with whom his Viet Minh forces had collaborated against the Japanese. His Declaration of Independence borrowed heavily from the American version.

Ho assumed that the climate of self determination of the post war period would extend to his people. He also assumed that the strong resistance mounted by his men against the common Japanese enemy in World War II put his cause on the right side of history with Allied victors. Soon after though, he and his forces were back in the mountains fighting for their independence once again. The French, who had handed their colony to the Japanese during the war, now wanted it back. It took almost thirty more years and millions of lives for Ho's dream of a united Vietnam to be realised.

When President Ho Chi Minh died in September 1969, it was his wish to be cremated. The clique that succeeded him had other ideas however. They wanted the enduring endorsement from the nation's father that only a grand authoritarian symbol would provide. So, in the tradition established with Lenin's Tomb in Moscow and with the help of experts from the Soviet Union, they embalmed Ho and created  an imposing edifice at the city's heart.  The dissonance of such a heavy tribute sitting within metres of Ho's humble cottage seemed not to attract the attention of the country's leaders - at the time ensconced in war with American and South Vietnamese troops.

The Mausoleum opened in 1975 and is hallowed ground for Vietnamese. They line up in the hundreds each day for a glimpse at the suspiciously wax like corpse. The Vietnamese text inside the mausoleum recites one of Uncle Ho's most oft quoted sayings - "Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty". And the large green boards on either side of the mausoleum exterior read - "Socialist Republic of Vietnam forever" and "President Ho Chi Minh lives forever in our vocation".