[andyfox]

"The communists."

Ho Chi Minh had very little to do with other communists. What Tito did, what Stalin did, what Allende did, had nothing at all to do with the war in Vietnam. It was only the United States that saw the war as a fight against international communism. The Soviets and Chinese did not help Ho Chi Minh at all until after the United States got involved. And the only reason the United States got involved is that France successfully framed what was a colonial and civil war in Cold War terms that, after Mao took over in China, allowed the conservative elements in American foreign policy making to win out over the more liberal elements who didn't want to make a stand in Vietnam.

Interestingly, those liberal elements wanted to not support the French not because they wanted to do nothing about communism in Asia, but rather because they felt that coming to France's aid would abet the cause of communism in Asia. They were, of course, correct.

Communism is on the way out because it's an inefficient and inhumane way to manage a country. Even the supposedly hardline Chinese communists are capitalists now.

The communists won in Vietnam not because they were communists, but because they were nationalists.