We boys have all played that game – ‘which superhero would win in a fight?’ Would Spiderman’s webs be strong enough to tame Superman? Could The Silver Surfer out fly The Torch? Well my all time superheroes are the two gentlemen (literally) of the title. How do they stack up against each other? One -a six foot two, heavyweight champion boxer with lightning speed, against a five foot three, stick thin old man?
Though they never met, Muhammad and Uncle Ho had one power in common – the power of refusal. HCM refused to allow other nations to subjugate his country and people, or to run Vietnam for their own aims. When told by the USA that they would not tolerate the North Vietnamese marching into South Vietnam to reunite the country, Ho Chi Minh replied… “You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at these odds, you will lose and we will win.”
Muhammad refused to fight in the Vietnam War, resulting in a jail sentence, but he stood by his words explaining… “I ain’t going to fight the Vietnamese – no one there calls me a ‘niggah’ or treats me like a slave. They are my brothers.”
Despite the savage beatings Ali handed out and the fierce war waged by Ho Chi Minh against his foe, they were both pacifists fighting in cause of peace, equality and the right of people to live their own lives their own way.
On my recent trip to Hanoi I visited the Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and Museum. The mausoleum is an imposing piece, where the embalmed body of Uncle Ho is displayed; this despite his wish that it shouldn’t happen. The presence of Ho however, in an inanimate but visible state, was far too important for the solidarity of the newly reunited country for it not to happen.
In the museum I found this glass sculpture depicting one of Ho’s proclamations – difficult to photograph, but clear in its message. I’m sure that if Muhammad had been given the chance, he would have fought alongside Ho and proclaimed the same ambition as this. I agree with it wholeheartedly
All the peoples on earth are equal.
Each people has the right to life, happiness and liberty.
Ho Chi Minh.
So, which superhero wins? Both. The two of them would make mincemeat of anyone wearing a mask or their pants on the outside. They took on the mightiest nation on earth and both won.
howiecobb 