On September 16, 1946, the dispatch ship Dumont Durville was preparing to leave Toulon for Indochina. The captain received an unexpected order to remove all passengers and cargos for another mission.
The French Government had decided to use this ship to take President Ho home. Accompanying him, besides his assistants, were some overseas Vietnamese.
On the morning of September 18, the warship weighed anchor and sailed out into the Mediterranean.
A French warship flying a red flag with a golden star was indeed an unusual sight for the people of Africa. She passed through the Suez canal and entered the Red Sea. On the way, several ports fired salutes in honour of the first Head of State of a free Viet Nam. Uncle Ho vistited Djibuti at the invitation of the French Governor General who had been informed by the French Government and had made preparations for his reception. The ship called at Colombo on its way through the Indian Ocean. Uncle Ho came ashore to visit Ceylon for a day. Gandhi and Nehru sent envoys to the Ceylonese capital to meet Uncle Ho and present him with a banner of the Indian parliament. The previous month, the Indian people had celebrated Gandhi’s 77th birthday. On that occasion, Uncle Ho had sent a cable wishing him a happy life, twice as long as his present age.
The warship sailed at a rather low speed. The French seemed to be deliberately prolonging President Ho’s return trip. She once stayed in a port for several days for “maintenance”. She even conducted shelling exercises on the sea, supposedly part of her “routine drill”. In face of this procrastination, Uncle Ho maintained his calmness and composure.
As his companions recounted, the crew on the ship were amazed at the utmost simplicity of the President of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. He travelled to France without any luggage. He took with him just one change of clothes and said he would do the washing himself. The French sailors assigned to serve him found themselves seldom called on. President Ho spent much time in conversation with the officers and men, inquiring after their families. Through his talks, they got a better understanding of the Vietnamese people’s struggle for independence.
Throughout the voyage, he chatted with the overseas Vietnamese almost every day, in the morning, afternoon and evening. Later, they realized in retrospect that they had attended a special study course tutored by President Ho himself.
There were four “students”. They were intellectuals who had been living away from the country for a long time. They were the luckiest among the many Vietnamese residents in France who had wished to go back to Viet Nam with Uncle Ho and our delegation to serve their country. Each country that the ship passed by became a subject for a talk. In Djibuti, Uncle Ho spoke of the French colonialists’ exploitation in Africa, the life of the black people and their struggle. In Colombo, he spoke of the difference in the policies applied by the French and the British in their colonies, and the Ceylonese people’s struggle for liberation. When the ship was sailing on the Indian Ocean, he talked of the collusion between the British imperialists and the French colonialists in the repression of the Indian people’s struggle for independence. In some places, he predicted the revolutionary movement’s eventual strong growth despite its present immaturity. Every day, he talked of the struggle for independence at home. He told many stories about the August Revolution. He cited the examples of poor labouring people who had joined the revolution, been tempered and grown up in the struggle and who had now become outstanding cadres having achieved glorious successes.
He paid attention not only to their knowledge but also to their life style and habits. Having nothing to do on the ship, they often got up very late. Once he came in the early morning when all of them were still in bed. He asked if they had slept well. From then on, they rose with the sun. He always urged them to mix with the masses. This was a new sort of work which they found very difficult. He took them to see the sailors and talked with them so that they could learn from it.
Once he asked comrade Pham Quang Le:
“Back at home, you’ll have the opportunity to do good work, but there’ll be many difficulties and hardships. Can you bear them?”
“I can, Uncle.”
“A resistance war may break out. Our material basis is still beset with difficulties. Do you have the determination to overcome them?”
“I do.”
A few months later, Comrade Le became director of the Armaments Department of our Army.
Before the ship arrived in Hai Phong, the study course had been completed. As a result, though they had been living far from the country and from the revolutionary movement at home, the intellectuals felt much better informed and were all eager to begin their work.
One month after her departure from Toulon, the dispatch ship entered the sea off central Viet Nam. Admiral d’Argenlieu, for the second time, gave a welcoming ceremony for President Ho on the sea.
The Dumont Durville entered Cam Ranh bay. D’Argenlieu and Morlière, the latter having just arrived from Hanoi, were present on the Cruiser Suffren to welcome President Ho. Several journalists were also invited on board.
French sailors, lined up on the ship’s deck, cheered repeatedly as President Ho came aboard. The Admiral walked up to greet him. President Ho inspected the guard of honour and went into the banqueting room.
D’Argenlieu toasted President Ho’s health and asked about his trip. President Ho said:
“Excuse me, Admiral, for my poor French, but I assure you that I’m speaking in all sincerity. I put much hope in the negotiations that will soon take place. The French people, including the press circles, have come to understand us better. There were a few papers which attacked me but that didn’t do me much harm...”
President Ho talked with the High Commissioner for two hours on the implementation of the September 14 Modus Vivendi. He requested d’Argenlieu to organize immediately the joint commissions to settle the conflict in southern Viet Nam, as provided for by the Modus Vivendi. D’Argenlieu agreed with him on the appointment of a Vietnamese government representative to work by the side of the High Commissioner.
After the talk, President Ho and the High Commissioner met the press. President Ho urged the journalists to work for the cessation of the current clashes and for the implementation of the provisions of the Modus Vivendi with a view to making a good preparation for the negotiations which would be continued the following January. Following President Ho’s address to the journalists, the High Commissioner added with a persuasive smile: “I believe that a real step forward has been made on the road to cooperation.”