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At 75, Ho seems to be in remarkable health. Recent visitors to his presidential office—fully 20 tatami mats (360 sq. ft.) in area, as one Japanese describes it, and topped by a huge, sonorous fan—have found Ho ruddy-cheeked and cheerful. For a Communist boss, he has a lively sense of humor: once when Chou En-lai spoke in Hanoi, Ho sat on the stage beside the speaker, subtly aping Chou's every gesture and facial twitch, much to the audience's amusement—and Chou's puzzlement. As a carryover from his days of flight and subversion, he favors disguises, fooling even such close friends as Giap by merely rolling up his trousers to look like a country yokel.
As President, Ho pulls down a salary of $840 a year—nearly ten times the annual income of the average Vietnamese. He lives in a thatch-roofed house on the palace grounds of the former French Governor General, dresses simply in cream-colored, mandarin-style uniforms, and "Ho Chi Minh sandals" carved from automobile tires. For all the simple surface, his tastes are exquisite; he smokes American cigarettes (Philip Morris and Camels), and his favorite food is a rare delicacy called "swallow's nest"—a meringue of sea algae and swallow's saliva.
No such luxuries are available to the average North Vietnamese. Hanoi, once a comfortable colonial city, has fallen victim to the Marxist-Leninist muteness typical of Communist capitals. Its streets are virtually empty of automobiles. Instead fleets of bicycles hiss through town, pedaled silently by a silent people. "You hear the shuffle of feet," says a recent visitor, "but no squabbling of merchants, no squeals, no laughter. They don't even seem to talk to one another. You can hear the birds singing in downtown Hanoi at midday. It is strangely saddening."
Ghosts & Malaria. Things are even worse in the countryside, where most of North Viet Nam's populace makes a living. Hanoi (pop. 650,000) and Haiphong (pop. 375,000) are the only big cities in a country the size of Missouri. In the Red River delta, where 80% of the population nonetheless try to live, breathe, and grow enough food to eat, population density is 2,000 people per sq. mi. and growing at 3% a year. Ho has tried since 1954 to get the lowland Vietnamese up into the mountains behind Hanoi in the hope of developing new agricultural land, but the million who have been forcibly moved complain of ghosts and malaria. This year North Viet Nam will fall 2,500,000 tons short of its programmed rice-production level, forcing the people to eat corn, millet and manioc—hardly favorites of the Asian palate.
Rise & Shine. Rationing prevails everywhere, and Hanoi residents are permitted only 51 yds. of cotton cloth per year. Once girls in elegant silk ao dais strolled the shaded boulevards; their modern counterparts scrub the streets clad in floppy brown pajamas and gauze face masks. The only bar in town is in the former Metropole Hotel (now the Reunification), and it caters only to foreigners.