Vietnam has enlisted a team of Russian and local experts to help preserve the body of embalmed revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, whose corpse has lain in a sprawling concrete monument in central Hanoi since his death nearly 50 years ago. Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known in Vietnam, enjoys demi-god status in the country, revered as the communist hero who led his country to independence. Hanoi has now set up a state council of 11 specialists — four from Russia, the rest Vietnamese — to “evaluate the status of the body of president Ho Chi Minh”, according to a statement on the government’s official website.
