Ho Chi Minh

Born May 19, 1890
Nghe An Province, Vietnam
Died September 2, 1969
Hanoi, North Vietnam

President of North Vietnam, 1945–1969

Ho Chi Minh is probably the most influential figure in modern Vietnamese history. A committed revolutionary throughout his life, Ho led Vietnamese Communist forces fighting for the independence of his country. He became the first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (which later became known as North Vietnam) in 1945, when the Communist-led Viet Minh revolutionary group took control of Vietnam following World War II. He continued to lead the Viet Minh against French colonial forces during the Indochina War. He remained president of North Vietnam during the early years of the Vietnam War, when Communist forces fought for control of U.S.-supported South Vietnam. Ho died in 1969, six years before North Vietnam finally won the war, but many people still consider him the father of Vietnamese independence.

Becomes a revolutionary leader

The man who became known around the world as Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19, 1890, in the small village of Kim Lien in Nghe An province in central Vietnam. According to many reports, his name at birth was Nguyen That Thanh, which means "Nguyen Who Will Be Victorious" in Vietnamese. He went by a variety of other names during his career as a revolutionary, but he became best known under the name Ho Chi Minh, which means "He Who Enlightens."

At the time of Ho's birth, Vietnam was a colony of France known as French Indochina. His father, Nguyen Sinh Sac, was a local government official who resigned from his job in protest against French colonial policies. The youngest of three children in his family, Ho inherited a strong patriotic spirit from his father. In fact, he began carrying messages for an anti-French resistance group at the age of nine.

Ho received his education at the National Academy in Hue, which was known as one of the top schools in Vietnam. After teaching and studying in Saigon for a short time, he left Vietnam around 1912. By this time, he had begun to feel threatened by the colonial government due to his anti-French activities. He also hoped to gain firsthand knowledge of political systems around the world. He would not return to Vietnam for thirty years.

Ho spent several years at sea, working as a cook's helper on a French steamship. After visiting New York, London, and other cities, he settled in Paris around 1917. Ho soon became involved in the political debates surrounding the negotiations to end World War I. Calling himself Nguyen Ai Quoc ("Nguyen the Patriot"), he wrote a petition demanding self-rule for the colonies held by European nations. He attempted to deliver this petition to American President Woodrow Wilson at the peace conference, but he was unsuccessful.

Over the next few years, Ho's reputation in political circles continued to grow. In 1920 he joined the French Communist Party. He also wrote a series of pamphlets and articles protesting French rule in Indochina. He demanded that the Vietnamese people be allowed to elect their own leaders and receive representation in the French government. Some of these works were published under the name Nguyen O Phap ("Nguyen Who Hates the French"). When copies of his writings made their way to resistance leaders in Vietnam, Ho was hailed as a hero in his homeland.

In 1923 Ho traveled to Moscow, where he received training to become a revolutionary leader. The Communist government of the Soviet Union supported his plans to organize groups of Vietnamese nationalists (people with strong feelings of loyalty for their country) to fight for Vietnam's independence from France. Toward this end, Ho and other young anticolonial activists formed the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1925.

Leads the Viet Minh fight for independence

In 1930 Ho met with a group of fellow Vietnamese revolutionaries in Hong Kong, including future North Vietnamese political leaders Le Duc Tho (see entry) and Pham Van Dong (see entry). They joined forces to create the Indochinese Communist Party. Some members of the party returned to Vietnam, where they encouraged peasants to protest against the French colonial government. The French reacted violently to one such protest, sending fighter planes to fire upon a crowd of demonstrators. Over a hundred Vietnamese people were killed. Ho used such instances of French brutality to attract support to the Indochinese Communist Party. In 1931 Ho was arrested in Hong Kong and spent some time in prison. Upon his release, he continued organizing uprisings against the French from hideouts in southern China.

During World War II (1939–45), France suffered a series of military defeats and surrendered to Germany. Unable to protect its colonies in Indochina, the French government allowed Japan to occupy Vietnam and set up military bases there in 1940. The following year, Ho returned to Vietnam for the first time in many years. He and other nationalists viewed the Japanese occupation as an opportunity to regain control of the country from France.

At this time, Ho and his supporters formed the Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoa (League for the Independence of Vietnam). This Communist-led nationalist group, usually known by the shortened name Viet Minh, was determined to fight for Vietnamese independence from both the French and the Japanese. In order to attract support from the broadest range of people, they downplayed their Communist roots and instead emphasized the ideals of patriotism and freedom from foreign control. The Viet Minh helped the American forces that were fighting against the Japanese during World War II. They hoped that the U.S. government would reward their efforts by supporting their bid for independence.

In 1945 the Allied forces (which mainly consisted of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) defeated both Germany and Japan to win World War II. As soon as Japan was defeated, the Viet Minh launched a revolution to regain control of Vietnam. This so-called August Revolution was successful, as the Viet Minh took control of large areas of the country. In September 1945 Ho formally declared Vietnam's independence from both the French and the Japanese. He announced that the nation would be known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with a capital in the northern city of Hanoi. He also stated that he would serve as the first president of the newly independent nation.

But it soon became clear that France—which had suffered a great deal of damage to its land, economy, and reputation as a world leader during World War II—was not willing to give up its former colony. After a year of negotiations between Ho and the French government, war erupted between the French and the Viet Minh in late 1946. Nine years later, the Viet Minh finally defeated the French. The Geneva Accords of 1954, which ended the Indochina War, divided Vietnam into two sections. Ho Chi Minh and his Communist government led the northern section, which was officially known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam but was usually called North Vietnam. The southern section, which was known as the Republic of South Vietnam, was led by a U.S.-supported government under Ngo Dinh Diem (see entry).

The peace agreement provided for nationwide free elections to be held in 1956, with a goal of reuniting the two sections of Vietnam under one government. But U.S. government officials worried that holding free elections in Vietnam would bring power to Ho and the Viet Minh, who had led the nation's war for independence from France. They felt that a Communist government in Vietnam would increase the power of China and the Soviet Union and threaten the security of the United States. As a result, South Vietnamese President Diem and his American advisors refused to hold the elections.

Encourages his people during the Vietnam War

Ho and the other North Vietnamese leaders grew very angry when the elections did not take place as scheduled. They remained determined to reunite the two parts of the country under a Communist government, by force if necessary. Within a short time, a new war began between the two sections of Vietnam. North Vietnam's main weapon during the early years of this war was a group of South Vietnamese Communist rebels known as the Viet Cong. Using tactics of guerilla warfare, the Viet Cong gradually gained control of large areas of the South Vietnamese countryside.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the U.S. government sent money, weapons, and military advisors to help South Vietnam defend itself against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson (see entry) authorized U.S. bombing missions over North Vietnam and sent American combat troops to South Vietnam. But deepening U.S. involvement failed to defeat the Communists. Instead, the Vietnam War turned into a bloody stalemate.

During the 1960s Ho's health began to fail. His role in the North Vietnamese government gradually decreased. But he remained a beloved symbol of patriotism and freedom to the North Vietnamese people. In the early years of the Vietnam War, "Uncle Ho" repeatedly expressed his determination to fight on until the Communists gained a complete victory. He characterized the war as a fight for Vietnamese independence from foreign control. He claimed that the U.S. government was controlled by imperialists (people who seek to extend their power or influence over others) who were interfering in the national affairs of Vietnam. Many Vietnamese rallied around Ho and found him to be a source of inspiration in their struggles.

Ho Chi Minh died of a heart attack on September 2, 1969, exactly twenty-four years after he had declared Vietnamese independence following World War II. He still expressed confidence in the Communists' mission at the time of his death. "Our compatriots in the North and in the South shall be reunited under the same roof," he wrote in his final statement. "We, a small nation, will have earned the unique honor of defeating, through a heroic struggle, two big imperialisms—the French and the American—and making a worthy contribution to the national liberation movement."

Ho's death in the middle of the war was a difficult blow for North Vietnam. But the Communists continued fighting. In 1975 North Vietnamese forces captured the South Vietnamese capital city of Saigon to win the Vietnam War. They finally achieved Ho's dream of reuniting the two parts of Vietnam under one Communist government. Many Vietnamese people view Ho Chi Minh as the father of Vietnamese independence, and historians have recognized his gifts as a leader, organizer, and motivator in the Vietnamese revolutionary movement.

Sources

Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh. New York: Hyperion, 2000.

Fall, Bernard B., ed. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920–1966. New York: Praeger, 1967.

Fenn, Charles. Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction. New York: Scribner's, 1973.

Halberstam, David. Ho. New York: Random House, 1971.

Ho Chi Minh. Against U.S. Aggression, for National Salvation. Hanoi, Vietnam: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1967.

Sainteny, Jean. Ho Chi Minh and His Vietnam: A Personal Memoir. Chicago: Cowles, 1972.

Ho Chi Minh Complains about U.S. Interference in Vietnam's Affairs

In 1950 the United States provided military aid to France in its war against the Viet Minh. This decision infuriated Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh. In the following excerpt from a 1950 interview, Ho charges that America's decision was part of a U.S. plot to gain control of Vietnam and the other nations of Indochina (Cambodia and Laos):

The U.S. imperialists [people who try to establish authority over other nations] have of late openly interfered in Indochina's affairs. It is with their money and weapons and their instructions that the French colonialists have been waging war in Viet-Nam, Cambodia, and Laos.

However, the U.S. imperialists are intensifying their plot to discard the French colonialists so as to gain complete control over Indochina. That is why they do their utmost to redouble their direct intervention in every field—military, political, and economic . . . . The U.S. imperialists supply their henchmen [thugs] with armaments [weapons] to massacre the Indochinese people. They dump their goods in Indochina to prevent the development of local handicrafts. Their pornographic culture contaminates the youth in areas placed under their control. They follow the policy of buying up, deluding [fooling], and dividing our people. They drag some bad elements into becoming their tools and use them to invade our country . . . .

To gain independence, we, the Indochinese people, must defeat the French colonialists, our number one enemy. At the same time, we will struggle against the U.S. interventionists. The deeper their interference, the more powerful are our solidarity [unity] and our struggle. We will expose their maneuvers before all our people, especially those living in areas under their control. We will expose all those who serve as lackeys [servants] for the U.S. imperialists to coerce, deceive, and divide our people . . . . We are still laboring under great difficulties but victory will certainly be ours.