Exactly 56 years ago, on September 2, 1969, Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh passed away. Although the date of his death was intentionally changed by the ruling party to September 3, the truth was finally made public.
However, more than 50 years after the day Ho Chi Minh passed away, the Communist Party of Vietnam has not yet carried out his wish to cremate his body, causing fierce debate about the ethics and respect for his will.
On August 19, 2025, on the Facebook page of former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Dinh Bin, he emphasized: “The wish to cremate his body, according to the most civilized procedures, still exists.” His statement is heating up social networks about this sensitive issue.
In his Will written in 1968, Ho Chi Minh clearly wrote: “I request that my body be burned, that is, cremated… Because that is good for the living in terms of hygiene and does not waste land.”
At the same time, he suggested dividing the ashes into three ceramic boxes for the three regions of North – Central – South to demonstrate the idea of national unity.
However, for political purposes, the ruling communists decided to embalm and preserve his body at Ba Dinh Mausoleum, in order to turn him into an “immortal” political symbol associated with the fate of the party.
This decision, according to experts, was against Ho Chi Minh’s will, but because it was propaganda, along with the purpose of controlling historical memory.
Analysts have pointed out that, like the bodies in mausoleums such as Lenin’s and Mao Zedong’s, the body is no longer intact but is only the remaining rotten body, patched together to serve political purposes. However, this is considered barbaric, violating the Eastern beliefs of rest and reincarnation. According to Buddhism, “torturing” the dead can be considered as preventing reincarnation, contrary to traditional morality.
The metaphor “Head without grave, body without grave” has now been applied by the public to Ho Chi Minh to imply that his body is “confined” in a glass coffin, not allowed to return to the motherland as a normal person would wish.
Should the Communist Party of Vietnam and General Secretary To Lam fulfill the wish to honor Ho Chi Minh, or continue to maintain the extremely “offensive” symbol of Ba Dinh Mausoleum?
Hong Linh – Thoibao.de
