The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is gruelling: carefully-selected riflemen work around ...
HANOI: The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is gruelling: Carefully-selected riflemen work around the clock, watching over the communist nation's founding father who died 50 years ago.
"We have to have our eyes on everything to deal with any situation that may arise," the 41-year-old lieutenant colonel told AFP. Guards like Thang aren't the only ones tasked with looking after Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known in the country. Ahead of Ho's death in 1969 - and behind his back - his aides turned to allies in the Soviet Union to ask how they preserved their own communist founding father, Vladimir Lenin, who is still entombed in Moscow's Red Square.
Considered state secrets, the details of that arrangement cannot be publicly shared, not even with communist allies North Korea or China, which have both preserved former leaders for posterity.Ho Chih Minh's aides built a grand tomb, drawing inspiration from Lenin's mausoleum, the pyramids in Egypt and the Washington Monument AFP/Manan VATSYAYANA
"There should be no stone stele or bronze statue", but rather a small ceramic urn on three tree-lined hills for visitors, he wrote his will.However, eager to capitalise on the popularity of the north's communist leader, his aides chose instead to build a grand tomb, drawing inspiration from Lenin's mausoleum, the pyramids in Egypt and the Washington Monument.
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The protectors of Vietnam's embalmed leader Ho Chi MinhHANOI (AFP) - The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is gruelling: carefully-selected riflemen work around the clock, watching over the communist nation's founding father who died 50 years ago.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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The protectors of Vietnam's embalmed leader Ho Chi MinhHANOI (AFP) - The task of safeguarding the embalmed corpse of Vietnam's revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh is gruelling: carefully-selected riflemen work around the clock, watching over the communist nation's founding father who died 50 years ago.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
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