The Beauty of Humanity Movement (29 page)

“What is this Atlantic Charter H
Chí Minh keeps speaking of?” H
ng remembers asking Ðạo.

“It’s an agreement between the Allies that nations have a right to self-determination. It’s the chairman’s way of convincing the Americans that they have to recognize our independence.”

“He’s very smart to use their language,” H
ng had said. “It’s just like he did when he began our Proclamation of Independence with the words of the American Declaration: ‘All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Uncle H
strengthens his case by appealing as much to their sentiments as to their political sensibilities.”

“Nicely put,” Ðạo said, eyebrows raised. H
ng had surprised them both with this first expression of opinion. “And good memory,” Ðạo added, tapping his temple.

“I’ve memorized many things,” H
ng said. “I know most of your poems by heart.”

“You honour me,” Ðạo replied.

Silence fell between them. H
ng had meant to honour, but Ðạo’s attention made him glow with embarrassment. He did not mean to boast.

There was so much H
ng did not know, leading him to study in even greater detail the essays contained in the pamphlets Ðạo shared with him. In part, he felt the need to compensate for the fact that he was not out there alongside the Vi
t Minh soldiers, risking his life in battle.

In 1954, the war was won. The French were finally defeated by the Vi
t Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. H
ng was prepared to give his soup away for free, to keep the shop open all day so that the men
could drink and play games in celebration, but they would not relax, would not linger, least of all Ðạo, who immediately turned the conversation to the realities of a free Vietnam and the role learned men like them would play within it.

It appeared the Workers’ Party had already given some thought to this question. In the days immediately after liberation, the Party issued a series of proclamations calling upon artists and intellectuals—people literate and educated in ideology—to lead the masses toward awareness of their enlightenment and teach and disseminate the principles of Lenin and Marx. Spokesmen sought to recruit them by shouting about revolutionary duty from rooftops; officials plastered posters onto the walls of H
ng’s shop.