Ho Chi Minh was the communist leader of North Vietnam from the end of World War II until his death in 1969 Born in a village in central Vietnam, his original name was either Nguyen Sinh Cung or Nguyen Tat Thanh (sources vary) and he was educated in Hue and apprenticed to a technical institute in Saigon He left for Europe in 1911 and was in England when World War I began After the war he moved to Paris and was active in socialist organizations into the 1920s He visited the Soviet Union to study revolutionary tactics and was sent to China to spread communism throughout Asia; he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and spent the rest of the decade living in China and the Soviet Union During World War II he was in Vietnam, where he organized the League for the Independence of Vietnam, called the Viet Minh He was jailed briefly (1942-43) by the anti-communist Nationalist Chinese, during which time he took the name Ho Chi Minh ("He Who Enlightens") After World War II Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with himself as president He led the Viet Minh through eight years of underground resistance against French colonial forces (1946-54), then turned to guerilla warfare against the anticommunist government in South Vietnam By the time the United States became involved in the fight against the Viet Minh (and its successor, the Viet Cong), Ho Chi Minh was in failing health and not as active in directing his forces He was, however, "Uncle Ho," the symbol of the communists' willingness to sacrifice and to endure a war of attrition He died in 1969, six years before the U.S withdrew from South Vietnam After the fall of South Vietnam, the city of Saigon was renamed Thanh Ho Chi Minh, or Ho Chi Minh City He was also called Nguyen Ai Quoc ("Nguyen the Patriot") nguyen quoc WebNewsImagesShopping Page Tools ▼ Print this page Send to friend Translate this page Personalize Library Arts Business Entertainment Food Government Health Legal Leisure Military People Reference Religion Science Shopping Sports Travel Words Zoology More Military History Companion: Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), leader of the Vietnamese communists and of the independence movement in that country in the decades following WW II Ho was born Nguyen Tat Thanh in the Annam province, and was educated in Hué In the 1920s and 1930s Ho operated in the murky underworld of the Vietnamese independence movement, and was a founding member of the Communist Party in Vietnam During WW II, Ho and his communist group, which included the military leader Vo Nguyen Giap, formed a base near the Chinese border and acted, with American support, against the Japanese occupation force Ho also took the opportunity to solidify the position of the communists as the leaders and dominant force of the independence movement, which became widely known as the Vietminh The Vietminh was able to exploit the chaos which descended upon Vietnam at the end of WW II to seize power, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed by Ho on September 1945 However, the situation was far from stable Kuomintang troops had flooded the city less than two weeks before, and the French government, recently restored to Paris, was already making plans to reassert control The fragility of Vietminh control was quickly exposed in 1945-6, and Ho was forced to return to the communist stronghold near the Chinese border The following eight years witnessed a monumental struggle on the part of the Vietnamese, to create an army and a logistical network capable of defeating the French, and to use that force effectively against the French forces in Indochina Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 delivered such a victory, but Ho was disappointed by the peace conference which followed, and which granted the Vietminh control over only North Vietnam In spite of this setback, Ho was prepared to be patient ‘If we have the people, ’ Ho had once remarked, ‘we will have everything.’ In the years following Dien Bien Phu he set up a communist state apparatus in the north, and allowed communists in the south to agitate for reunification of the country When war broke out again in the early 1960s Ho was already too ill to perform an active role, but remained an inspiration to those fighting the South Vietnamese and American forces He died in Hanoi six years before the unification of Vietnam under the regime he had created Bibliography • • Fenn, Charles, Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction (New York, 1973) Matthews, Lloyd J., and Brown, Dale E (eds.), Assessing the Vietnam War (McLean, 1987) — Andrew Haughton US Military History Companion: Ho Chi Minh (1890?–1969), international Communist and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) The son of a scholar‐official, Ho was born in Nghe An, central Vietnam, and went to a Franco‐Vietnamese school He moved to France in 1911 and thereafter used over 100 aliases A sailor for two years, Ho worked between Le Havre, London, and New York During World War I, he lived in London, working as a domestic Back in France, he became a founding member of the French Communist Party in 1920, and, in Moscow from 1923, a Comintern (Communist International) expert on colonial and Asian questions During long periods in China Ho was instrumental in forming the proto‐Communist Vietnamese Youth League in Canton (1925) and the Indochinese Communist Party in Hong Kong (1930) Ho returned to Vietnam in 1941 and emerged at the head of the Vietnamese Independence League (Viet Minh) Using the code name “Lucius,” he supplied anti‐ Japanese intelligence to American authorities in Kunming, China, in 1944–45 As he led the Viet Minh to power in Vietnam in the August 1945 revolution, Ho's attempts to gain American support against a resumption of French rule continued, but failed During the thirty‐year war for independence against French rule and American intervention, he remained president of the DRV until his death Although he wanted to be cremated, the myth of the “Uncle‐President” became so central to Vietnamese political culture that Ho's body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum [See also Vietnam War: Causes; Vietnam War: Military and Diplomatic Course.] Bibliography • • Jean Lacouture, Ho Chi Minh, A Political Biography, 1968 Charles Fenn, Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction, 1973 US Military Dictionary: Ho Chi Minh (1890?-1969) international Communist and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam until his death Ho spent many years in Europe and Russia where he was active in communist circles He returned to Vietnam in 1941 and led the Vietminh (Vietnamese Independence League) to power in the 1945 revolution, remaining at the helm during the ensuing decades of fighting for independence against French rule and American intervention Despite the more repressive and totalitarian quality of his rule in the North following the partition established by the Geneva Agreement on Indochina (1954), Ho remained immensely popular with the Vietnamese people See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details Biography: Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) was the most famous Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman of his time He was one of the shrewdest, most callous, dedicated, and self-abnegating leaders, a man apart in the international Communist movement The Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam, the little Asian country that held two leading Western powers - France and the United States - at bay after the end of World War II, was founded and proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh in 1945 In spite of his shrewdness, the frail, little Ho looked like an old peasant with a gaunt face, an expression of simplicity and gentleness, and nothing surprising except his amazingly lively eyes His familiar garb consisted of a linen work suit and rubber sandals made of discarded tires Ho was born Nguyen That Thanh on May 19, 1890, in the village of Kim Lien, province of Nghe An, central Vietnam, into a family of scholar-revolutionaries, who had been successively dismissed from government service for anti-French activities At the age of Ho and his mother, who had been charged with stealing French weapons for the rebels, fled to Hue, the imperial city His father, constantly persecuted by the French police, had left for Saigon After a year in Hue, his mother died Young Ho returned to Kim Lien to finish his schooling At 17, upon receiving a minor degree, Ho journeyed to the South, where he spent a brief spell as an elementary school teacher At the news of the first Chinese revolution, which broke out in Wuchang, the fiercely patriotic Ho left for Saigon to discuss the situation with his father It was then decided that Ho should go to Europe to study Western science and survey the conditions in France before embarking upon a revolutionary career Unable to finance such a trip, Ho nevertheless managed to obtain a job as a messboy on a French liner Years in Europe By the end of 1911 Ho began his seaman's life, which took him to the major ports of Africa, Europe, and America As World War I broke out, Ho bade farewell to the sea and landed in London, where he lived until 1917, taking on odd jobs to support himself It was here that Ho cultivated contact with the Overseas Workers' Association, an anticolonialist and anti-imperialist organization of Chinese and Indian seamen In 1917 Ho departed for France He settled in Paris, working successively as a cook, a gardener, and a photo retoucher Ho spent half his time reading, writing, trying to gain French sympathy for Vietnam, and organizing the thousands of Vietnamese, who were either serving in the French army or working in factories He also joined the French Socialist party and attended various political clubs Distressed by the Western powers' indifference toward the colonies both during and after the Versailles Conference in spite of the Fourteen Points of U.S president Woodrow Wilson, Ho, whose only interest up to that time had been Vietnam's independence, began to drift toward Soviet Russia, the champion of the oppressed peoples At its Tours Congress in 1920, the French Socialist party split on the colonial issue: one wing remaining indifferent to the problems of the colonies and another advocating their immediate emancipation in accordance with Lenin's program Ho sided with the latter faction, which seceded from the parent organization and formed the French Communist party In 1921 Ho organized the Intercolonial Union, a group of exiles from the French colonies which was dedicated to the propagation of communism, and published two papers, one in French, Le Paria, and one in Vietnamese, the Soul of Vietnam, which carried emotional articles denouncing the abuses of colonialism His most important work, French Colonialization on Trial, was also written during this period In November-December 1922 Ho attended the Fourth Comintern Congress in Moscow In October 1923 he was elected to the 10-man Executive Committee of the Peasants' International Congress Late in 1923 Ho went to Moscow, where he absorbed the teachings of Marx and Lenin Two years later he arrived in Canton as adviser to Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin, who was then adviser to the Chinese Nationalists Early Organizing Efforts Passing for a nationalist, Ho brought the Vietnamese émigrés in Canton into a revolutionary society called Youth and organized Marxist training courses for his young fellow countrymen The Youth members were the nucleus of what was to be the Indochinese Communist party Those who refused to obey Ho's orders were severely punished; Ho would forward their names to the French police force, which was always eager to put them behind bars Ho also set up the League of Oppressed Peoples of Asia, which was to become the South Seas Communist party In April 1927, as the Chinese Nationalists broke with their Soviet advisers, Ho had to flee to Moscow Subsequently, he received a brief assignment to the Anti-Imperialist League in Berlin In 1928, after attending the Congress against Imperialism in Brussels, Ho journeyed to Switzerland and Italy, then turned up in Siam to organize the Vietnamese settlers and direct the Communist activities in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies Early in 1930 Ho went to Hong Kong, where on February he founded the Indochinese Communist party A year later Ho was arrested by the Hong Kong authorities and found guilty of subversion Thanks to a successful appeal financed by the Red Relief Association, Ho regained his freedom He immediately left for Singapore, where he was again arrested and returned to Hong Kong Ho obtained his release by agreeing to work for the British Intelligence Service Back in Moscow in 1932, Ho underwent further indoctrination at the Lenin School, which trained high-ranking cadres for the Soviet Communist party In 1936 Ho returned to China to take control of the Indochinese Communist party Return Home In February 1941 Ho finally crossed the border into Vietnam and settled down in a secure hideout in a remote frontier jungle With a view to bringing all resistance elements under his control, winning power, then eliminating all competitors and creating a Communist state, Ho founded an independence league called the Viet Minh, whose alleged program was to coordinate all nationalist activities in the struggle for independence (At this time Ho adopted the name Ho Chih Minh - "Enlightened One.") While the Viet Minh included many nationalists, most of its leaders were seasoned Communists In August 1942 Ho went back to China to ask for Chinese military assistance in return for intelligence about the Japanese forces in Indochina The Chinese Nationalists, who had broken with the Communists and been disturbed by the Viet Minh activities in both Vietnam and China, however, arrested and imprisoned Ho on the charge that he was a French spy After 13 months in jail Ho offered to put his organization at the Chinese service in return for his freedom The Chinese, who were in desperate need of intelligence reports on the Japanese, accepted the offer Upon his release Ho was admitted to the Dong Minh Hoi, an organization of Vietnamese nationalists in China which the Chinese had set up with the hope of controlling the independence movement Ho repeatedly offered to collaborate with the United States intelligence mission in China, hoping to be rewarded with American assistance The Statesman As the war approached its end, Ho made preparations for a general armed uprising Following Japan's surrender, the Viet Minh took over the country, ruthlessly eliminating their nationalist opponents On Sept 2, 1945, Ho proclaimed Vietnam's independence In vain he sought Allied recognition Faced with a French resolve to reoccupy Indochina and determined to stay in power at any cost, Ho acquiesced in France's demands in return for French recognition of his regime The French, however, disregarded all their agreements with Ho War broke out in December 1946 Many nationalists, while aware of the Communist nature of Ho's government, nevertheless supported it against France The war ended in July 1954 with a humiliating French defeat An agreement, signed in Geneva in July 1954, partitioned Vietnam along the 17th parallel and provided for a general election to be held within years to reunify the country Because of mutual distrust, absence of neutral machinery to guarantee freedom of choice, and opposition of South Vietnam and the United States, the scheduled election never took place Ho, who had hoped that a larger population under his control, a Communist-supervised election in the North, and a more or less free election in the South would produce an outcome favorable to his regime, became greatly frustrated He ordered guerrilla activities to be resumed in the South Regular troops from the North infiltrated the South in increasing numbers The United States, correspondingly, increased military assistance, sent combat troops into South Vietnam, and began a systematic bombing of North Vietnam Ho refused to negotiate a settlement, hoping that American public opinion, as French public opinion had done in 1954, would force the United States government to sue for peace Apprehensive that his lifework might be destroyed and anxious to spare North Vietnam from further devastating air attacks, Ho finally agreed to send his representatives to peace talks in Paris As the antiwar feeling mounted in the United States and other countries, Ho stalled, intent on obtaining from the conference table what he had failed to get on the battlefield While the talks were dragging on, Ho died on Sept 3, 1969, without realizing his dream of bringing all Vietnam under communism Further Reading Of the several biographies of Ho Chi Minh, the most comprehensive, and critical is N Khac Huyen, Vision Accomplished?: The Enigma of Ho Chi Minh (1971) A short and sympathetic biography is David Halberstam, Ho (1971) A short, quasi-official, and highly propagandistic biography was published by the government of North Vietnam: Tru'o'ng-Chinh, President Ho-chi-Minh: Beloved Leader of the Vietnamese People (1966) The following books contain enlightening chapters on Ho: Harold R Isaacs, No Peace for Asia (1947); Frank N Trager, ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia: A Study of Four Countries (1959); Bernard B Fall, The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis (1963; rev ed 1964); Hoangvan-Chi, From Colonialism to Communism: A Case History of North Vietnam (1964); and Joseph Buttinger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled (2 vols., 1967) Recommended for general historical background are Ellen J Hammer, The Struggle for Indo-China (1954); Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina (1961); Patrick J Honey, ed., North Vietnam Today: Profile of a Communist Satellite (1962); Robert A Scalapino, ed., The Communist Revolution in Asia: Tactics, Goals, and Achievements (1965; 2d ed 1969); and Frank N Trager, Why Vietnam? (1966) Political Dictionary: Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) Vietnamese revolutionary and politician Leader of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party, and the League for the Independence of Vietnam Gains a place in this dictionary more for the idealized vision of him held by many followers of the new left in the West in the 1960s than for his actual contribution to political institutions or theory As his regime was successfully opposing the United States, and as the United States was the fount of all that was evil, Ho became the symbol of all that was good Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ho Chi Minh (click to enlarge) Ho Chi Minh, 1968 (credit: Marc Riboud/Magnum) (born May 19, 1890, Hoang Tru, Viet — died Sept 2, 1969, Hanoi) President (1945 – 69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) Son of a poor scholar, he was brought up in a rural village In 1911 he found work on a French steamer and traveled the world, then spent six years in France, where he became a socialist In 1923 he went to the Soviet Union; the next year he went to China, where he started organizing exiled Vietnamese He founded the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and its successor, the Viet Minh, in 1941 In 1945 Japan overran Indochina, overthrowing its French colonial rulers; when the Japanese surrendered to the Allies six months later, Ho and his Viet Minh forces seized the opportunity, occupied Hanoi, and proclaimed Vietnamese independence France refused to relinquish its former colony, and the First Indochina War broke out in 1946 Ho's forces defeated the French in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu, after which the country was partitioned into North and South Vietnam Ho, who ruled in the north, was soon embroiled with the U.S.-backed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the south in what became known as the Vietnam War; North Vietnamese forces prevailed over the south six years after Ho's death For more information on Ho Chi Minh, visit Britannica.com Columbia Encyclopedia: Ho Chi Minh (hô chē mĭn) , 1890–1969, Vietnamese nationalist leader, president of North Vietnam (1954–69), and one of the most influential political leaders of the 20th cent His given name was Nguyen That Thanh In 1911 he left Vietnam, working aboard a French liner He later lived in London and in the United States during World War I before going to France near the end of the war There he became involved in the French socialist movement and was (1920) a founding member of the French Communist party He studied revolutionary tactics in Moscow, and, as a Comintern member, was sent (1925– 27) to Guangzhou, China While in East Asia, he organized Vietnamese revolutionaries and founded the Communist party of Indochina (later the Vietnamese Communist party) He also established a training institute that attracted many Vietnamese students, where he taught a unique blend of Marxism-Leninism and Confucian-inspired virtues In the 1930s, Ho lived mainly in Moscow and China He finally returned to Vietnam after the outbreak of World War II, organized a Vietnamese independence movement (the Viet Minh), and raised a guerrilla army to fight the Japanese Ho proclaimed the republic of Vietnam in Sept., 1945, and later agreed that it would remain an autonomous state within the French Union Differences with the French, however, soon led (1946) to an open break Warfare lasted until 1954, culminating in the French defeat at Dienbienphu After the Geneva Conference (1954), which divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, Ho became the first president of the independent republic of North Vietnam The accord also provided for elections to be held in 1956, aimed at reuniting North and South Vietnam; however, South Vietnam, backed by the United States, refused to hold the elections The reason was generally held to be that Ho's popularity would have led to reunification under Communist rule In succeeding years, Ho consolidated his government in the North He organized a guerrilla movement in the South, the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, which was technically independent of North Vietnam, to win South Vietnam from the successive U.S.-supported governments there (see Vietnam War) Bibliography See biographies by J Lacouture (1968), D Halberstam (1971), J Sainteny (1972), C Fenn (1974), D O Lloyd (1986), and W J Duiker (2000) History Dictionary: Ho Chi Minh (HOH CHEE MIN) A Vietnamese revolutionary leader of the twentieth century Ho Chi Minh led the communists of Vietnam in their efforts to drive out the forces of Japan in the 1940s (see World War II), France in the 1950s (see Dienbienphu), and the United States in the 1960s (see Vietnam War) He died in 1969  Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist victory there Wikipedia: Ho Chi Minh The neutrality of this article is disputed Please see the discussion on the talk page Please not remove this message until the dispute is resolved For the city named after him, see Ho Chi Minh City Hồ Chí Minh Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam In office 1945 – 1955 President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam In office 1946 – 1969 Born Died Nationality Political party May 19 1890 Nghệ An Province, Vietnam September 1969 (aged 79) Hanoi, Vietnam Vietnamese Vietnam Workers' Party Hồ Chí Minh listen?(name pronounced as [hò cí mɪɲ]) (May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969) was a Vietnamese revolutionary, who later became Prime Minister (1946–1955) and President (1946–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) Ho is most famous for leading the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu He led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War until his death; six years later, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, and Vietnamese unification followed The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor Early life Hồ Chí Minh was born, as Nguyễn Sinh Cung, in 1890 in Hoàng Trù Village, his mother's hometown From 1895, he grew up in his paternal hometown of Kim Liên Village, Nam Đàn District, Nghệ An Province, Vietnam He had three siblings, his sister Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army, his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist, and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) who died in his infancy Following Confucian traditions, at the age of 10 his father named him Nguyễn Tất Thành (Nguyễn the Accomplished) Poster art of Hồ Chí Minh in Hanoi Ho's father, Nguyễn Sinh Sắc, was a Confucian scholar, teacher and a civil servant in the imperial palace He was later dismissed from his office for refusing to serve at the court From his father, Ho received a strong Confucian upbringing During his childhood he developed a sense that the Vietnamese were not treated well by the French colonizers and the monarchist government Ho also received a modern secondary education at a Frenchstyle lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Ðồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp He later left his studies and chose to teach at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết First sojourn in France On June 1911, Hồ Chí Minh left Vietnam on a French steamer, Amiral LatoucheTréville, working as a kitchen help Arriving in Marseille, France, he applied for the French Colonial Administrative School [1] but his application was rejected During his stay, he worked as a cleaner, waiter, and film retoucher Hồ spent most of his free time in public libraries reading history books and newspapers to familiarize himself with Western society and politics In the USA In 1912, as the cook's helper on a ship, Hồ Chí Minh traveled to the United States From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston He worked in menial jobs and later claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918, and during this time he may have heard Marcus Garvey speak in Harlem It is believed that while in the United States he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.[2] This part of his life is contested by some historians, who argue that he spent little time in the US.[citation needed] In England At various points between 1913 and 1919, Hồ lived in West Ealing, west London, and later in Crouch End, Hornsey, north London He is reported to have worked as a chef at the Drayton Court Hotel[1], on The Avenue, West Ealing It is claimed that Ho trained as a pastry chef under the legendary French master, Escoffier, at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster, but there is no evidence to support this.[2] However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a Blue Plaque, stating that Hồ worked there in 1913 as a waiter.[3] Political education in France Leaving the French Indochina where he had a French education, Nguyễn Ái Quốc (later called Ho Chi Minh) followed his studies in London and Paris during the 1910s He came to communism in France through his friend Marcel Cachin (SFIO) who was sent to Russia in 1917 during World War I Cachin was a pro-bolshevism politician, a fierce supporter of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and became the director of the popular communist newspaper L'Humanité ("The Humanity") From 1919-1923, while living in France, Hồ Chí Minh embraced communism Ho claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917 but French police only have documents of his arrival in June 1919.[2] Following World War I, under the name of Nguyễn Ái Quốc (Nguyen the Patriot), he petitioned for equal rights in French Indochina on behalf of the Group of Vietnamese Patriots to the Western powers at the Versailles peace talks, but was ignored Citing the language and the spirit of the U.S Declaration of Independence, Ho petitioned U.S President Woodrow Wilson for help to remove the French from Vietnam and replace it with a new, nationalist government His request was ignored In 1921, during the Congress of Tours, France, Nguyen Ai Quoc became a founding member of the Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party) and spent much of his time in Moscow afterwards, becoming the Comintern's Asia hand and the principal theorist on colonial warfare It was at this time that Nguyễn Ái Quốc took the name of "Hồ Chí Minh", a Vietnamese name combining a common surname (Hồ) with a given name meaning 'enlightened will' (Chí meaning 'will', and Minh meaning 'light') During the Indochina War, the PCF would be involved with antiwar propaganda, sabotage and support for the revolutionary effort In China and the Soviet Union In 1923, Hồ moved to Guangzhou, China During 1925-26 he organized the 'Youth Education Classes' and occasionally gave lectures at the Whampoa Military Academy on the revolutionary movement in Indochina He stayed there in Hong Kong as a representative of the Communist International In June 1931, he was arrested and incarcerated by British police until his release in 1933 He then made his way back to the Soviet Union, where he spent several years recovering from tuberculosis In 1938, he returned to China and served as an adviser with Chinese Communist armed forces In Thailand Nachok is the village where Hồ Chí Minh stayed in 1928-29 during the early days of revolutionary struggle for national independence and freedom Nachok has 127 farming and trading households and today is much as it was then: A home for Thai people of Vietnamese origin who speak both languages Independence movement In 1941, Hồ returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement He oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy French and Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely but clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services, and also later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946-1954) He was also jailed in China for many months by Chiang Kai-shek's local authorities After his release in 1943, he again returned to Vietnam He was treated for malaria and dysentery by American OSS doctors After the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Việt Minh, Hồ became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) Though he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country He petitioned American President Harry Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, but was rebuffed due to French pressure on the U.S and his known communist activities In 1945, in a power struggle, the Viet Minh killed members of rival groups, such as the leader of the Constitutional Party, the head of the Party for Independence, and Ngo Dinh Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Khoi [4] Purges and killings of Trotskyists, the rival anti- Stalinist communists, have also been documented [5] In 1946 when Ho traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 25,000 non-communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee [6] Hundreds of political opponents were also killed in July that same year [7] All rival political parties were banned and local governments purged [8] to minimise opposition later on Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam On September 2, 1945, after Emperor Bao Dai's abdication, Hồ Chí Minh read the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam [9], under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam With violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces spiraling, the British commander, General Sir Douglas Gracey declared martial law On September 24, the Viet Minh leaders responded with a call for a general strike[10] On September 1945, a force of 200,000 Chinese Nationalists arrived in Hanoi Ho Chi Minh made arrangement with their general, Lu Han, to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election which would yield a coalition government When Chiang Kai-Shek later traded Chinese influence in Vietnam for French concessions in Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on March 6, 1946 in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union The agreement soon broke down The purpose of the agreement was to drive out the Chinese army from North Vietnam Fighting broke out with the French soon after the Chinese left Ho Chi Minh was almost captured by a group of French soldiers led by Jean-Etienne Valluy at Việt Bắc, but was able to escape In February 1950 Ho met with Stalin and Mao in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government They all agreed that China would be responsible for backing the Viet Minh [11] Mao's emissary to Moscow stated in August that China planned to train 60-70,000 Viet Minh in the near future [12] China's support enabled Ho to escalate the fight against France According to a story told by Journalist Bernard Fall, after fighting the French for several years, Ho decided to negotiate a truce The French negotiators arrived at the meeting site, a mud hut with a thatched roof Inside they found a long table with chairs and were surprised to discover in one corner of the room a silver ice bucket containing ice and a bottle of good Champagne which should have indicated that Ho was ready to negotiate One demand by the French was the return to French custody of a number of Japanese military officers who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces, in order for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II Ho replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray Then he walked out, to seven more years of war (From Last Reflections on a War, Fall's last book, published posthumously.) In 1954, after the important defeat of French paratroopers at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, France was forced to give up its empire in Indochina Becoming president In 1955, Ho Chi Minh became president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), a Communist-led single party state Ho Chi Minh's House behind the Presidential Palace in Hanoi The 1954 Geneva Accords required that a national election would be held in 1956 to reunite Vietnam under one government However, the government of South Vietnam, now under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem, refused the proposed election and instead prepared for war Some contemporary observers consider that if an election had been held in the 1954-55 period, around 80% of the Vietnamese population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh.[13] Even "President Eisenhower is widely quoted to the effect that in 1954 as many as 80% of the Vietnamese people would have voted for Ho Chi Minh, as the popular hero of their liberation, in an election against Bao Dai "[14] However, the United States remained fearful of the prospect of losing its influence in Indochina, which would be valuable as a military base in a future conflict with Communist China Main article: Operation Passage to Freedom Following the Geneva Accords, there was to be 300 days in which people could freely move between the zones of the two Vietnams Some 900,000 to million Vietnamese, mostly Catholic, left for South Vietnam, while a much smaller number, mostly communists, went from South to North [15] [16] This was partly due to propaganda claims by a CIA mission led by Colonel Edward Lansdale that the Virgin Mary had moved South out of distaste for life under communism Some Canadian observers claimed that some were forced by North Vietnamese authorities to remain against their will [17] During this era, Ho, following the communist doctrine initiated by Stalin and Mao, started a land reform in which hundreds of thousands of people accused of being landlords were summarily executed or tortured and starved in prison This also caused millions of people to flee to South Vietnam [2] In 1959 Ho's government began to provide active support for the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which escalated the fighting that had begun in 1957 [18] In late 1964 North Vietnamese combat troops were sent southwest into neutral Laos [19] During the mid to late 1960s, Ho permitted 320,000 Chinese volunteers into northern North Vietnam to help build infrastructure for the country, thereby freeing a similar number of North Vietnamese forces to go south [20] Death A historical photo of Ho Chi Minh lying in state in his mausoleum His body is now displayed in a larger display case Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi Ho Chi Minh statue With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Ho Chi Minh died on the morning of September 2, 1969, at his home in Hanoi at age 79 from heart failure Many in North Vietnam tearfully mourned his death Santiago Álvarez's 1969 documentary film 'Seventy-Nine Spring Times Of Ho Chi Minh' (much of which was based on found footage) documents some of this, with powerful scenes depicting crying school children and weeping mourners His death day was initially reported to be September 3[21] as not to coincide with the National Day Recently the government changed his official death day to September 2[22][23] The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City on May, 1975 shortly after its capture which officially ended the war His embalmed body was put on display in a granite mausoleum modeled after Lenin's Tomb in Moscow This was consistent with other Communist leaders who have been similarly displayed before and since, including Mao Zedong, Kim Il-Sung, and for a time, Josef Stalin, but the "honor" violated Ho's last wishes He wished to be cremated and his ashes buried in urns on hilltops of Vietnam (North, Central and South) He wrote, "Not only is cremation good from the point of view of hygiene but also it saves farmland." In Vietnam today, he is regarded by the Communist government with almost god-like status in a nationwide personality cult, even though the government has abandoned most of his economic policies since the mid-1980s He is still referred to as "Uncle Ho" in Vietnam Ho's image appears on the front of every Vietnamese currency note, and Ho is featured prominently in many of Vietnam's public buildings In 1987, UNESCO officially recommended to Member States that they "join in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of President Ho Chi Minh by organizing various events as a tribute to his memory", considering "the important and many-sided contribution of President Ho Chi Minh in the fields of culture, education and the arts" and that Ho Chi Minh "devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress"[24] To the Vietnamese overseas, who fled communist rule after 1975, Ho is considered a murderer and traitor who ruined Vietnam by starting a war The mere mention of his name or placing his picture publicly has caused protests.[3] Quotes This section is a candidate to be copied to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process If the content can be changed to be more encyclopedic rather than just a list of quotes, please so and remove this message Otherwise, you can help by formatting it per the Wikiquote guidelines in preparation for the duplication • • "Nothing is more valuable than independence and freedom." "I follow only one party: the Vietnamese party." • • • • • • • • • • "You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win." - referring to France and America in their wars in Vietnam "It is better to sacrifice everything than to live in slavery!" "The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man." "We have to win independence at any cost, even if the Truong Son mountains burn." "In (Lenin's Theses on the National and Colonial Questions) there were political terms that were difficult to understand But by reading them again and again finally I was able to grasp the essential part What emotion, enthusiasm, enlightenment and confidence they communicated to me! I wept for joy Sitting by myself in my room, I would shout as if I were addressing large crowds: "Dear martyr compatriots! This is what we need, this is our path to liberation!" Since then (the 1920s) I had entire confidence in Lenin, in the Third International!" "When the prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out." "It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me." "Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability." "My only desire is that all of our Party and people, closely united in struggle, construct a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic and prosperous, and make a valiant contribution to the world Revolution." (Hanoi, May 10 1969.) “Better to eat the French dung for 100 years than the Chinese dung for 1,000.” [25] Notes ^ Hồ applied for the French Colonial Administrative School ^ a b c Sophie Quinn-Judge, Hồ Chí Minh: The Missing Years pp 20-21, 25 ^ http://www.londontourist.org/attractions.html ^ Joseph Buttinnger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, vol (New York: Praeger, 1967) ^ See: The Black Book of Communism ^ Cecil B Currey, Victory At Any Cost (Washington: Brassey's, 1997), p 126 ^ Spencer Tucker, Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history (vol 2), 1998 ^ John Colvin, Giap: the Volcano under the Snow (New York: Soho Press, 1996), p.51 ^ http://coombs.anu.edu.au/%7Evern/van_kien/declar.html 10 ^ Stanley Karnow, Vietnam a History 11 ^ Luo Guibo, pp 233-6 12 ^ Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Chronology," p 45 13 ^ Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, p 6; Marcus Raskin & Bernard Fall, The VietNam Reader, p 89; William Duiker, U S Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina, p 212 14 ^ http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent11.htm 15 ^ Pentagon Papers: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent11.htm 16 ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, State of the World's Refugees, Chapter 4, "Flight from Indochina" 17 ^ Thakur, p 204 18 ^ Lind, 1999 19 ^ Davidson, Vietnam at War: the history, 1946–1975, 1988 20 ^ Chen Jian, "China's Involvement in the Vietnam Conflict, 1964-69," China Quarterly, No 142 (June 1995), pp 366–69 21 ^ http://www.cpv.org.vn/english/archives/? topic=14&subtopic=99&leader_topic=39 22 ^ http://www.cpv.org.vn/leader.asp?topic=3&subtopic=91 23 ^ http://www.vietnam.gov.vn/portal/page? _pageid=33,173168&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL 24 ^ http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0007/000769/076995E.pdf 25 ^ http://www.mfh.org/newsandevents/newsletter/MassHumanities/Fall2004/intervie w.html Further reading Essays • Bernard B Fall, ed., 1967 Ho Chi Minh on Revolution and War, Selected Writings 1920-1966 New American Library Biography • • • • • • William J Duiker 2000 Ho Chi Minh: A Life Theia Jean Lacouture 1968 Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography Random House N Khac Huyen 1971 Vision Accomplished? The Enigma of Ho Chi Minh The Macmillan Company David Halberstam 1971 Ho Rowman & Littlefield Hồ chí Minh toàn tập NXB trị quốc gia Sophie Quinn-Judge 2003 Ho Chi Minh: The missing years C Hurst & Co ISBN 1-85065-658-4 The Viet Minh, Viet Cong & the Democratic Republic of Vietnam • • • William J Duiker 1981 The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam Westview Press Hoang Van Chi 1964 From colonialism to communism Praeger Truong Nhu Tang 1986 A Viet Cong Memoir Vintage The War in Vietnam • Francis Fitzgerald 1972 Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam Little, Brown and Company American Foreign Policy • • • Christopher Hitchens 2001 The Trial of Henry Kissinger Verso Henry A Kissinger 1979 White House Years Little, Brown Richard Nixon 1987 No More Vietnams Arbor House Pub Co External links Wikisource has original works written by or about: Ho Chi Minh Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ho Chi Minh Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ho Chi Minh • [4] • Obituary in The New York Times, September 1969 • TIME 100: Hồ Chí Minh • Hồ Chí Minh's biography • Hồ Chí Minh Biography from Spartacus Educational • Hồ Chí Minh Archive at Marxists.org • Hồ Chí Minh pictures as slides • Satellite photo of the mausoleum