Ho Chi Minh

Autograph "Diary Outline Indo-China 1944" by Rudolph Shaw, dated from 11 November through 26 November, 11 "pages" (7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.; 183 x 138 mm) written on 3 sheets of larger, folded but unseparated paper; separations, chips and small losses at folds and some margins, large loss to lower blank margin of third sheet, paper browned and brittle. — A manuscript letter and a manuscript note, in English, written by Ho Chi Minh, or on his behalf to Lt. Shaw. — An invitation to a formal dinner party at which the local commissioner will be present, signed by five officers in the army of the Republic of China — A snapshot photograph of Shaw in an outrigger canoe. — A formal portrait photograph of Ho Chi Minh with copyright stamp of P. N. Sharma, New Delhi. — 6 small slips of paper, mostly with manuscript names and addresses, evidently of Chinese officials and border agents; most slips browned, 2 split in half.

cf. William Duiker, Ho Chi Minh: A Life (New York, 2000); Charles Fenn, Ho Chi Minh, A Biographical Introduction (New York, 1973)

see cataloguing
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At the beginning of World War II, Vietnam was still a colony of France, although Japan had already begun extending its military occupation of northern Vietnam. The United States established intelligence operations in Indochina and, through the 1st American Volunteer Group (more popularly known as the Flying Tigers) began air operations against Japan. In March 1943, the Flying Tigers were replaced by an official U.S. Army Air Force combat unit at Kunming. About two dozen American pilots went down over Vietnam during this period but none had a more consequential survival adventure than Lt. Rudolph Shaw, a P-51 pilot whose plane developed engine probalems and crashed over Vietnam.

Shaw's diary entries, which may have been written slightly retrospectively, describe his being sheltered and fed by a group of Vietnamese—whom he refers to as "anamites"—including "some anamite 'Regional Big Wheel' [who] wanted to meet me." Shaw's rescuers were in fact members of the Vietminh, a nationalist group with strong communist leanings, and the "Big Wheel" was Ho Chi Minh. Ho personally saw that Shaw was shepherded across the border and back to his base at Kunming, which laid the groundwork for cooperative operations between the Vietminh and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.