Ho Chi Minh or Weak Courts Strong Rights

Ho Chi Minh: A Life

Author: William J Duiker

Ho Chi Minh's epic life helped shape the twentieth century. But until now, there has never been a major biography of this immensely important and elusive figure. Finally, William J. Duiker, a world-renowned authority on Vietnam, has filled this gap with an astonishing work of history that takes full advantage of information and archives only recently declassified. What emerges is a riveting portrait of a man who went from a tiny village to the heady environment of London and Paris during and after World War I; from years in prison and on the run to a place on the world stage alongside the key players of our time.

It is not possible to understand modern Vietnam and the roots of the lengthy conflict in Indochina without examining Ho Chi Minh's life. By accessing original documents in five languages, Duiker has been able to shed new light on the question of Ho's primary motivation: Was he simply a patriot bent on achieving Vietnamese independence, or a chameleon who constructed a deceptive nationalist image solely to win support, at home and abroad, for global proletarian revolution? Engrossing and impeccably researched, Ho Chi Minh is a revelatory portrait of one of the most towering and mysterious figures of our time, a charismatic leader whose legacy continues to inspire and confound.

New York Times Book Review

... William J. Duiker's magnificent new biography... has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but to provide the best account of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist.

Frances FitzGerald

Magnificent . . . Duiker has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but . . . of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist. —New York Times Book Review

Booklist

An absorbing biography that never falters.

Chicago Tribune

Sweeping . . . the first full-scale treatment of Ho from start to finish.

Washington Post Book World

A major scholarly achievement . . . It is the most authoritative account of Ho's life we are likely to have for a long time to come.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Impressive . . . a welcome intrusion on the silence that has surrounded Ho Chi Minh.

Publishers Weekly

It's difficult to think of someone more qualified to write this biography than Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam), the retired Penn State University historian who has specialized in the Vietnam War for more than three decades. In his massive, thoroughly researched and--in the main--quite accessible new biography, Duiker succeeds extremely well in illuminating the life and times of Ho Chi Minh--long North Vietnam's leader, a man Duiker calls a "master motivator and strategist" and "one of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century." Covering both the personal and political life of the revolutionary leader, Duiker fascinatingly traces Ho's early travels to New York, Boston and Paris, as well as his many years in exile in France, China, Thailand and (during WWII and the war against the French of 1945 to 1954) in the rugged mountains of northern Vietnam--eras in Ho's life for which documentation has only recently become available. Duiker's detailed recounting of the momentous and extremely complicated events that took place in 1945 following the Japanese surrender, when Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh revolutionary party seized power in northern Vietnam, is riveting. And his account of the not-always-harmonious relations between Ho and the Communist leaders of China and the Soviet Union probes a subject that has long been overlooked by Western scholars. In the end, Duiker portrays Ho Chi Minh as a fervently anticolonial nationalist who, though a committed Marxist, honestly thought he could count on the United States, which had promised to oppose French colonization after WWII. Referring to a long-raging debate about Ho, he says, "The issue is not whether he was a nationalist or a Communist--in his own way he was both." 32 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Neither the cryptic, diabolical enemy nor the icon of the Left, "Uncle Ho" is now the subject of this objective historical study. Vietnam expert Duiker (The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam) here writes the first biography of Ho to use critical sources in Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Russian, and English. His narrative encompasses the last days of the Vietnamese monarchy, in which Ho's father was an official; the French conquest of and attempt to dominate Indochina; the anti-imperialist struggle, aided by Russian and Chinese national and Communist interests; and the career of Ho, who died in 1969, revered by some as the Father of the Revolution and reviled by others as a murderous tyrant. The author carefully sorts out the intricate, often ambiguous evidence, supplying enough background for the interested general reader and enough detail, especially in the extensive notes, for the demanding specialist. Highly recommended for larger collections.--Charles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

New York Times Book Review - Frances Fitzgerald

Other Western historians have come closer to Ho as a person and to the cultural context of his revolution, but Duiker has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but to provide the best account of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist.

Kirkus Reviews

A masterful, balanced biography of the charismatic Communist leader. To

produce this rich, layered life of a man who has achieved mythic status

among the Vietnamese, Duiker draws on his years in the Foreign Service (one

of his postings was to the US Embassy in Saigon during the Vietnam

War)…Required reading for students of the 20th century ñ and for all who

want to understand how a man can come to epitomize a cause and sire a

nation.

What People Are Saying

Marilyn Young
The quality of lucid intelligence, indefatigable scholarship, and clarity of judgment that have marked all of William Duiker's studies of the Vietnamese revolution are realized in fullest measure in his superb biography of Ho Chi Minh. (Marilyn Young, author of The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990)

Stanley Karnow
Much has been written about Ho Chi Minh, but nothing equals William J. Duiker's biography. Meticulously researched, profoundly perceptive, and highly readable, it finally demystifies one of the most fascinating, enigmatic, controversial, and influential figures of the 20th century. (Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History)

Duong Van Mai Elliott
William J. Duiker has captured the essence of Ho's complex persona and mixed legacy. In lucid and eloquent prose, Duiker brings Ho to life с not only as a dedicated fighter for Vietnam's independence, as a committed revolutionary and a charismatic leader, but also as a fallible man. Anyone who wants to understand Ho both as the man and the myth, as well as the origin and history of the Vietnam War, should read this definitive biography. (Duong Van Mai Elliott, author of The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family)

See also: Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos or The Body Code

Weak Courts, Strong Rights: Judicial Review and Social Welfare Rights in Comparative Constitutional Law

Author: Mark Tushnet

Unlike many other countries, the United States has few constitutional guarantees of social welfare rights such as income, housing, or healthcare. In part this is because many Americans believe that the courts cannot possibly enforce such guarantees. However, recent innovations in constitutional design in other countries suggest that such rights can be judicially enforced--not by increasing the power of the courts but by decreasing it. In Weak Courts, Strong Rights, Mark Tushnet uses a comparative legal perspective to show how creating weaker forms of judicial review may actually allow for stronger social welfare rights under American constitutional law.

Under "strong-form" judicial review, as in the United States, judicial interpretations of the constitution are binding on other branches of government. In contrast, "weak-form" review allows the legislature and executive to reject constitutional rulings by the judiciary--as long as they do so publicly. Tushnet describes how weak-form review works in Great Britain and Canada and discusses the extent to which legislatures can be expected to enforce constitutional norms on their own. With that background, he turns to social welfare rights, explaining the connection between the "state action" or "horizontal effect" doctrine and the enforcement of social welfare rights. Tushnet then draws together the analysis of weak-form review and that of social welfare rights, explaining how weak-form review could be used to enforce those rights. He demonstrates that there is a clear judicial path--not an insurmountable judicial hurdle--to better enforcement of constitutional social welfare rights.

Table of Contents:

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xv
Strong-Form and Weak-Form Judicial Review
Why Comparative Constitutional Law?     3
Alternative Forms of Judicial Review     18
The Possible Instability of Weak-Form Review and Its Implications     43
Legislative Responsibility for Enforcing the Constitution
Why and How to Evaluate Constitutional Performance     79
Constitutional Decision Making Outside the Courts     111
Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights
The State Action Doctrine and Social and Economic Rights     161
Structures of Judicial Review, Horizontal Effect, and Social Welfare Rights     196
Enforcing Social and Economic Rights     227
Table of Cases     265
Index     269