Hồ Chí Minh (19 May 1890–2 September 1969), commonly referred to as Uncle Ho (Bác Hồ), was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until he died in 1969 and as its first prime minister from 1945 to 1955. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and its successor, the Workers’ Party of Vietnam (later the Communist Party of Vietnam), in 1951, serving as the party’s chairman until his death.
Where Was Ho Chi Minh Born?
He was born in the province of Nghệ in French Indochina and learned French. From 1911 to the present, he worked in several foreign countries, and in 1920 he was a co-founder of the French Communist Party in Paris. After studying in Moscow, Hồ founded the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1925, which he transformed into the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930.
What is Ho Chi Minh known for?
On his return to Vietnam in 1941, he founded and led the Việt Minh independence movement against the Japanese, and in 1945 led the August Revolution against the monarchy and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the French returned to power, Hồ’s government retreated to the countryside and began guerrilla warfare in 1946.
What is the connection of Ho Chi Minh with Britain?
Thành (Hồ) had lived in West Ealing between 1913 and 1919, according to his various claims, then later in Crouch End, Hornsey. He allegedly worked as either a chef or dishwasher (accounts differ) at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing. Allegations that he was apprenticed as a pastry chef to Auguste Escoffier at the Carlton Hotel in Haymarket, Westminster, are not borne out by any surviving documents. Nevertheless, the façade of New Zealand House, which is the home of the New Zealand High Commission and now occupies the site of the Carlton Hotel, bears a blue plaque. In 1913, Thành was also working as a pastry chef on the Newhaven–Dieppe ferry route.
Political Education in France
Hồ Chí Minh, 1921, under the alias Nguyễn Ái Quốc, attending a Communist congress in Marseille, France. Thang (Ho) developed some interest in politics between 1919 and 1923, especially when staying in France, under the influence of his friend and comrade Marcel Cachin, from the French Section of the Workers’ International. Thành stated he had traveled to Paris from London in 1917, but French police records show only documentation of his entry to France in June 1919. Citing the principle of self-determination before the peace accords, they asked the allied powers to end French colonial rule of Vietnam and ensure the formation of an independent government.
What is the role of Ho Chi Minh in the independence movement?
In 1941, Hồ Chí Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement. Hồ and ICP founded a communist-led united front to oppose the Japanese. The Japanese occupation of Indochina that year, the first step toward an invasion of the rest of Southeast Asia, created an opportunity for patriotic Vietnamese. The so-called “men in black” were a 10,000-member guerrilla force that operated with the Việt Minh.
He oversaw many successful military actions against Vichy France and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely yet clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946–1954). He was imprisoned in China by local authorities of Chiang Kai-shek before he was rescued by Chinese Communists.
Election as president
The Geneva Conference in 1954 ended the war between France and the Việt Minh. The latter’s forces could regroup in the North, while anti-Communist groups settled in the South. Hồ’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam moved to Hanoi and became the government of North Vietnam, a Communist-led one-party state. After the Geneva Accords, there was supposed to be a 300-day period in which people could move freely between the two regions of Vietnam, later known as South Vietnam and North Vietnam.
In the 300 days, Ngô Đình Diệm and CIA adviser Colonel Edward Lansdale mounted a campaign to persuade Northerners to move to South Vietnam. The campaign was specifically targeted at Vietnam’s Catholics, who would provide Diệm’s power base in his later years through the use of the slogan “God has gone south.” Between 800,000 and 1 million people migrated to the South, most of whom were Catholics. In early 1955, French Indochina was dissolved, leaving Diệm in temporary control of the South.
Personal Life
Hồ Chí Minh was a politician, writer, journalist, poet, and polyglot. His father was a scholar and teacher who received a high degree in the Nguyễn dynasty Imperial examination. Hồ was taught to master Classical Chinese at a young age. Before the August Revolution, he often wrote poetry in Chữ Hán, the Vietnamese name for the Chinese writing system.
One of those is Poems from the Prison Diary, composed when he was incarcerated by the police of the Republic of China. This poetical chronicle is Vietnam National Treasure No. 10 and has been translated into many languages. It is used in Vietnamese high schools. Upon gaining independence from France, the new government favored only Chữ Quốc Ngữ (the Vietnamese writing system in Latin characters) to eradicate illiteracy.
How did Hồ Chí Minh’s time in exile shape his life?
As he was in exile for nearly 30 years, Hồ could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in several different languages, including French, Russian, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, as well as his mother tongue, Vietnamese. In addition, he was reported to speak conversational Esperanto.
In the 1920s, he was bureau chief/editor of many newspapers that he established to criticize the French Colonial Government of Indochina and serve communist propaganda purposes. Examples are Le Paria (The Pariah), first published in Paris in 1922, and Thanh Nien (Youth), first published on 21 June 1925 (21 June was named by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Government as Vietnam Revolutionary Journalism Day).
Death
With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Hồ Chí Minh died of heart failure at his home in Hanoi at 9:47 on the morning of 2 September 1969; he was 79 years old. His embalmed body is currently on display in the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ba Đình Square in Hanoi, despite his will, which stated that he wanted to be cremated.