Uploaded July 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Simply put, Ho Chi Minh and most Vietnamese didn't want any colonial masters over them, be they Japanese, French, American, or Chinese, for that matter. Archimedes Patti was an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) intelligence operative during World War II. He was tasked to collect intel and help the Vietnamese Resistance fight against the Japanese. Patti would serve the rest of his life at senior levels in the U.S. government, working in the system to attempt to change a policy he knew to be wrong. But no one listened. He would finally go public with his story in 1980, 4 years after the war ended. This is a good argument for whistleblower protection.
Why Viet Nam?: Prelude to America's Albatross
books.google.com/books?id=e8EpyU3-2zwC&dq=archimedes+patti&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Ho Chi Minh was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Archimedes Patti from the U.S. Office of Strategic Intelligence (OSS) relied upon Viet Minh intelligence and logistics to track and disrupt Japanese activities in Vietnam. Once the Japanese surrendered, Patti was invited by Ho Chi Minh to attend and comment upon the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence.
Excerpts from 1981 Interview by Martin Smith (WGBH) with former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Major Archimedes Patti, who, during World War II, provided support to the Vietnamese Resistance (Viet Minh) under the command of Ho Chi Minh, fighting the Japanese occupation.
If you want to see the complete 1981 interview by Martin Smith with Archimedes Patti
openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-bf3262-interview-with-archimedes-l-a-patti-1981
" had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving into the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam."
(The OSS and Ho Chi Minh, Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan. Dixee R. Bartholomew-Feis http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/baross.html)
For more on Archimedes Patti, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_Patti
"In my opinion, the Vietnam War was a great waste. There was no need for it to happen in the first place. At all. None whatsoever. During all the years of the Vietnam War, no one ever approached me to find out what had happened in 1945 or in '44. In all the years I spent in the Pentagon, the Department of State, and the White House, never was I approached by anyone in authority. However, I did prepare a large number, and I mean about over fifteen position papers on our position in Vietnam. But I never knew what had happened to them. Those things just disappeared. They just went down the dry well." —From Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti, 1981
Also, see a Vietnamese interpretation of these events nghiencuulichsu.com/2014/11/24/mot-co-hoi-bi-bo-lo-o-viet-nam-nam-1945 Thiếu Tá Patti - Người Bạn Mỹ Trong Dịp Khai Sinh Nước Việt Nam 02/09/1945 Vietnam's Proclamation of independence by Ho Chi Minh in 1945, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Archimedes Patti (former OSS operative) on WW II alliance with Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese
Simply put, Ho Chi Minh and most Vietnamese didn't want any colonial masters over them, be they Japanese, French, American, or Chinese, for that matter. Archimedes Patti was an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) intelligence operative during World War II. He was tasked to collect intel and help the Vietnamese Resistance fight against the Japanese. Patti would serve the rest of his life at senior levels in the U.S. government, working in the system to attempt to change a policy he knew to be wrong. But no one listened. He would finally go public with his story in 1980, 4 years after the war ended. This is a good argument for whistleblower protection.
Why Viet Nam?: Prelude to America's Albatross
books.google.com/books?id=e8EpyU3-2zwC&dq=archimedes+patti&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Ho Chi Minh was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Archimedes Patti from the U.S. Office of Strategic Intelligence (OSS) relied upon Viet Minh intelligence and logistics to track and disrupt Japanese activities in Vietnam. Once the Japanese surrendered, Patti was invited by Ho Chi Minh to attend and comment upon the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence.
Excerpts from 1981 Interview by Martin Smith (WGBH) with former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Major Archimedes Patti, who, during World War II, provided support to the Vietnamese Resistance (Viet Minh) under the command of Ho Chi Minh, fighting the Japanese occupation.
If you want to see the complete 1981 interview by Martin Smith with Archimedes Patti
openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-bf3262-interview-with-archimedes-l-a-patti-1981
" had America continued to champion the anti-colonials and their quest for independence, rather than caving into the French, we might have been spared our long and very lethal war in Vietnam."
(The OSS and Ho Chi Minh, Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan. Dixee R. Bartholomew-Feis http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/baross.html)
For more on Archimedes Patti, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_Patti
"In my opinion, the Vietnam War was a great waste. There was no need for it to happen in the first place. At all. None whatsoever. During all the years of the Vietnam War, no one ever approached me to find out what had happened in 1945 or in '44. In all the years I spent in the Pentagon, the Department of State, and the White House, never was I approached by anyone in authority. However, I did prepare a large number, and I mean about over fifteen position papers on our position in Vietnam. But I never knew what had happened to them. Those things just disappeared. They just went down the dry well." —From Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti, 1981
Also, see a Vietnamese interpretation of these events nghiencuulichsu.com/2014/11/24/mot-co-hoi-bi-bo-lo-o-viet-nam-nam-1945 Thiếu Tá Patti - Người Bạn Mỹ Trong Dịp Khai Sinh Nước Việt Nam 02/09/1945 Vietnam's Proclamation of independence by Ho Chi Minh in 1945, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Archimedes Patti (former OSS operative) on WW II alliance with Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese
