Thomas’s analysis was wrong, or at least incomplete. If the Viet Minh stood for independence and against French repression, their core leadership that summer also remained staunchly Communist. But Ho in particular among top strategists wore the ideology lightly, so much so that even Soviet officials questioned his Communist credentials. In Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party too, analysts wondered where the Viet Minh, should they win the right to rule a free Vietnam, would take the country.
