| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Ho Chi Minh

Page history last edited by Ho Chi Minh 13 years, 6 months ago

 

Ho Chi Minh

 

 

Background

 

     Born May 19th, 1890, Ho Chi Minh grew to be Vietnam's first and one of their greatest communist leaders. The name given to him at birth was Nguyen Tat Thanh, meaning "he who will succeed". After being raised in the village of Kim Lein, Nguyen Tat Thanh traveled and worked for a short time in various countries in Europe. He ended up in France, where he joined the French Communist Party at its founding in 1920, where he remained for several years. After Europe, Nguyen Tat Thanh traveled to China, where he changed his name to Ho Chi Minh, meaning "he who enlightens". In China, Ho worked with various groups of Chinese communists before being arrested in China and jailed for over a year. In jail, he wrote a collection of poems known best today as Prison Diary.[1] In 1945, now back in Vietnam, he became the head of a Vietnamese government and declared Independence from France. A year later, in 1946, war broke out between France and Ho's troops, known as the Vietminh. After the war ended, Vietnam was divided into two parts. Ho Chi Minh became the president of North Vietnam. The final war in which his troops fought was the Vietnam War, a war between South and North Vietnam, during which, Ho Chi Minh died of heart failure on the morning of September 3rd, 1969 in Hanoi, Vietnam.[2] 

 

 

 

Importance to Vietnam

 

     Ho Chi Minh's first act towards helping his country was to declare independence from France, who at the time had power over Vietnam. After 8 years of fighting the French, in 1954, Vietnam defeated the French and gained their independence. Not long after they became an independent country, they split up, into North and South Vietnam, and the elected Ho Chi Minh as their North Vietnamese president. As president, he was Vietnam's first ever leader to bring a communist government into effect.[3] Only two years after becoming president, fighting broke out between North and South Vietnam over the communist government of North Vietnam. South Vietnam was against it, while North Vietnam wanted them to join as one counrty again and all be communist. This was the start of the Vietnam War. Ho's troops dominated so significantly that South Vietnam had over five other countries, including the U.S., helping them fight, while North Vietnam received no aid. In 1969, in the midst of the war, Ho Chi Minh died in Hanoi due to heart failure on September 3rd, 1969, leaving his succeeding troops under the control of a new leader. Six years after his death, in 1975, Ho's troops conquered those of South Vietnam when they took over the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, causing South Vietnam to surrender. After the victory of North Vietnam, the two parts of Vietnam were reunited and to this day remain a communist government thanks to the introduction to communism by Ho Chi Minh.[4]

 

Footnotes

  1. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hochi.htm
  2. http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar258120&st=Ho%20Chi%20Minh
  3. http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar258120&st=Ho%20Chi%20Minh
  4. http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2000021800&type=hitlist&num=0

Comments (1)

Thalidomide said

at 6:13 pm on Sep 23, 2010

I think it is interesting how he died in the middle of a war with his country.

You don't have permission to comment on this page.