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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
 
 

 

Vietnam, Hanoi, The living quarter and working place of president Ho Chi Minh

(Photos and texts are from the official guide "The living quarter and working space of president Ho Chi Minh", published by Cultural and Information Publishing House, 1997. Text by Dr. Tran Viet Hoan. Photos from official archives and Do Hoang Linh. We recommend to read at least the text about the fishpond!
       
The Presidential palace's Mirror Hall.   The Fishpond.
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The Presidential Palace is where President Ho Chi Minh received many heads of state, high-ranking delegations of various Parties and Governments from socialistic countries, delegations of communist and workers' parties.  

As President Ho Chi Minh arrived to live in the Presidential Palace, the original pond was dredged, deepened and blanked, looking more beautiful. Then upon the President's initiative, it was used for fish culture as that was very economically beneficial. President Ho Chi Minh called upon people to promote production and develop husbandry and he himself would practice whenever conditions permitted.

Annually, on his birthdays, the President would sent the fish to other leaders, the old and children. He would also send them to various localities for stocking to encourage aquaculture. Thanks to his due attention, aquaculture in Vietnam has developed  rapidly with sufficient economic efficiency.
      
House #54.   Uncle Ho's study in house #54.
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In December 1954, President Ho Chi Minh came to the area of the Presidential Palace. He refused to reside in the then Indochina General Governor's Palace and stayed in a small house where the Palace's electrician had lived.   President Ho Chi Minh often reminded Party members and cadres to study Marxism and Leninism, consolidate proletarian position, wash out bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideologies as well as individualism, heighten revolutionary moral standards, nurture the sense of collectivism and disciplines, try to improve knowledge of culture, science and technology to make active contributions to national construction. All of these teachings formed the substantial content of his famous book "Revolutionary Ethics" written in house #54.
       
His meals   Uncle Ho's car'

 

His meals would be without any delicacy. The dishes were very common in all other Vietnamese family: a bowl of soup, some pickled aubergines, a plate of vegetable and a piece of stewed fish or pork. Former Premier Pham Van Dong recalled, "I dined with him hundreds of times but I never saw him drop any rice, for he valued the hard work of farmers in producing rice."   One day, as the worn-out plastic cover of Uncle Ho's car's steering wheel smelt bad, his bodyguard sprayed some perfume inside the car. Getting on the car, he smelt perfume and was displeased, "It's not that I don't like perfume but our people are still poor, how could a President of the poor feel pleasant wearing perfume?". 
      
The House on Stilts.   The sleeping room in the house on stilts.

 

In order to provide President Ho Chi Minh a residence and working place more convenient than house #54 but still harmonious with his simple way of living, a wooden, tiled house on stilts was build for him in the garden of the Presidential Palace on may 17, 1958.   

For the President, a simple house on stilts was enough for himself. He refused to live in comforts and luxury when his people remained poor and had to muster all their efforts for national construction and reunification.
       
House #67.   Meeting place of the Political Bureau in house #67.

 

In order to ensure the President's safety during fierce bombardment, the Political Bureau had repeatedly suggested to build a small anti-ammunition house, but he turned down the suggestion. In 1967, however, as President Ho Chi Minh was away on a working trip to China the Political Bureau decided to build a small bomb-proof concrete walled house behind his house on stilts. Nevertheless he refused to use it for himself. In the end he spent only the last ten days of his life in house #67.