Above all, DO show respect for the country's most illustrious leader. No, you won't be militarily escorted out of Vietnam for stating your personal opinion on Ho Chi Minh, but you certainly won't make many friends by showing disrespect for this national hero. It's one thing to criticize your own leaders but quite a different one to have strangers come to your country and criticize its leaders, ideology, and institutions. It invariably arouses mistrust and negative reactions. DO take time to find out a bit about Ho Chi Minh's life. He is undoubtedly an important political figure and, above and beyond the portrait that was relayed to us by our own media (the evil-eyed, long-nailed, never-to-be-trusted enemy of the free world), lies an interesting flip-side story. Books and museums abound depicting the long struggle of the Vietnamese towards independence from colonial powers, starting with Hanoi Ho Chi Minh Museum, entirely consecrated to the life of Uncle Ho.
