Ho Undercover

This is the story of Ho Chi Minh’s adventurous journey across the mountains and jungles of northeastern Siam in 1928 and 1929. It narrates how cleverly Ho managed to evade his enemies wherever he went, through subterfuge, meticulous planning, and resourcefulness. At the Port of Bangkok, disguised as a Chinese businessman, he slipped past Inspector Arnoux of French security by the skin of his teeth. Little could the inspector, who was waiting to arrest him, have known how close he was to changing the course of history. For an arrest would have meant certain execution for Ho. The book also recounts Ho’s early revolutionary beginnings and the tumultuous times in which he lived. His mission in Siam was to build militant cadres of resistance from the Vietnamese immigrants, to one day join him in his struggle to fight the French colonial government. This is the untold story of Uncle Ho’s sojourn in Siam, a highly clandestine operation, and how his experience in the rough terrain of northeast Siam helped hone his political and revolutionary skills. It ends with the attainment of his dream: a free and independent Vietnam. It is also the story of Wong, a young Thai-Viet idealist who falls under the magnetic spell of Uncle Ho. We follow Wong’s progress from his home town of Phichit to the battlefields of Vietnam. On his travels, he meets several historical figures in the Free Thai movement and is trained to be a guerrilla. He ends up becoming Ho’s special political agent. Although Wong is a fictional character, the historical events that shaped his life are real.