The Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh was born in the year 1890 in a remote village in Vietnam. His parents gave him the name Nguyen That Thanh. He was the youngest of three children. Nguyen’s father was a peasant with some education. Even in his boyhood he learnt to hate the French colonial masters who ruled the country. Nguyen’s sister and brother were guerilla fighters dedicated to winning freedom from French domination.
Nguyen was educated at home by his father first. Next he enrolled in the Lycee Quocttoc, the famous high school in Hue, then the capital of French Vietnam. There he met Vo Nguyen Giap and Pham Van Dong who later became leaders of the anti-French movement. His next school was another higher college at Vinh, but before long, he was expelled because of his anti-French views.
Next he became a teacher in the fishing village Phan Thiet for some time.
In 1911 he learnt cooking in a vocational school in Saigon.
A little later, he joined the staff of a French steamer as a kitchen helper. For three years he sailed the seas visiting London, Boston, New York, and other famous cities of the world.
In his spare time on board, he read the works of Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Emile Zola and Karl Marx, voraciously.
At the time of the World War I he lived in London working as a street sweeper and next he became a kitchen helper in the famous Carlton Hotel, London.
In 1917 he moved to Paris and worked as a gardener, laundryman, a waiter, a cook, and a photo retoucher respectively, for 6 years. During the period he went to the U.S.A. and stayed at Harlem, a town where black Americans lived a miserable life.
He became convinced that the true path of freedom could be found only in a Communist Revolution, so he joined the Communist Party.
Then he started a newspaper ‘Le Paria’ (The Outcast) in French demanding the end of colonialism around the world. At that time he took the name Nguyen Ai Quoc (Nguyen The Patriot) and he was known to most of the revolutionary communist leaders in France. The people of Vietnam who heard of his activities regarded him as a hero.
Late in 1923, he travelled to Russia. There he met the members of the communist International. During the two year stay in Moscow Ho wrote to ‘Pravda’, the communist party newspaper, met Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky. He joined the University of Toilers of the East, learning techniques of using them in propaganda and political agitation.
In 1925, Ho went to Canton, China with the Soviet Official Mikhail Borodin and there he met Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomingtang party turned against the communists and started to kill as many of them as possible, Ho managed to escape to Moscow, where he engaged in planning against conservative governments in China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.
In 1929, he formed the Indochinese Communist Party aimed at independence for Vietnam. When the authorities in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos found out what he was doing they passed a death sentence on him. While in Moscow he attended the Lenin School there to study colonial matters.
During the 1930 s suffering from tuberculosis Ho travelled disguised from city to city in Southeast Asia and China organizing people for revolution. By that time he was fluent in French, Russian, English, German, Japanese and Chinese.
After Japan attacked China in 1937, Ho journeyed to China and met Mao Tse-tung who himself was preparing for a revolution.
In 1940 Ho returned to Vietnam and started working with his former colleagues Giap and Dong and along with them, he organized the League for the Independence of Vietnam. It is then that Ho took on the name Ho Chi Minh (He who Englishtens).
When Ho visited China with the hope of helping Chiang Kai-shek to fight the Japanese, Kai-shek suspected him and had him arrested and threw him into prison. After 18 months he was released. While in prison he wrote a moving collection of poetry tittled ‘Notebook from Prison’, which was later published.
In August 1945 Japan surrendered bringing World War II to an end. Both the Japanese and the French were removed from Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his comrades proclaimed the independence of Vietnam.
On the 2nd September 1945, in the North Vietnamese city of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh read a statement based largely on the American Declaration of Independence.
After few days Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese forces invaded North Vietnam. Charles de Gaulle of France sent French troop to Saigon. France persuaded the Chinese to leave Vietnam and when they did so, French forces once again occupied the country.
In June 1946, Ho went to Paris to have talks with the French government. Though Ho expressed willingness to be a free nation within the French Union, the talks ended up in smoke.
By the end of 1946, the French and the Vietnamese were fighting each other. A French cruiser anchored at Haiphong, a port city, Vietnam, opened fire on civilians and killed 6,000 unarmed people. Next open and fierce warfare broke out between France and Vietnam.
Once the French planned a trap to draw the elusive Viet Minh guerrillas from the jungle and kill them wholesale, hoping to put an end to the war. But General Giap took the French by surprise at Dienbienphu and defeated them.
In 1954, when the Geneva treaty was signed, France at last agreed to withdraw from Vietnam. Russia, China and France persuaded Ho to settle only for the control of North Vietnam. Thus the country was partitioned as South and North Vietnam until the elections scheduled for 1956.
The South Vietnam again and again postponed the promised election. They feared that Ho Chi Minh would win the election and unite the country under communist rule. Soon guerilla supporters of Ho known as Viet Cong, were launching regular raids against the troops of the South Vietnamese leader, Ngo Dinh Diem.
In 1961 the American President Eisenhower began to supply South Vietnam with modern weapons, helicopters, tanks and artillery along with some eleven thousand American military men and millions of dollars.
In early 1964, a large number of American soldiers arrived in Vietnam to destroy the Viet Cong guerrillas. American bombers attacked North Vietnamese cities as Hanoi and Haiphong regularly. The Americans killed perhaps as many as a million of Viet Cong troops and an even number of civilians.
Still Ho Chi Minh would not surrender. As years passed, opposition to war steadily began to grow in the U.S.A. As more and more bags with bodies of American soldiers arrived there, the protests grew louder in the halls of congress.
In February 1968, Ho Chi Minh launched what became known as ‘Tel Offensive’, featuring massive attacks on South Vietnamese cities like Hue.
When the demand for peace became too loud American President Johnson announced that he would end bombing of North Vietnam. Yet the new president Nixon pledged that the U.S.A. would never give up. Ho Chi Minh on the other hand, declared that even after 10 years of war Vietnam would win.
Ho Chi Minh then close to eighty, always wore a simple mandarin style cotton suit, and on his feet, rubber sandals made from used tyres. Small and frail, his cheeks sunken by disease and old age, his beard scraggly than ever, he still spoke with deep feeling about the need for Vietnamese independence.
On the 3rd September 1969 Ho Chi Minh died.
As President Nixon began to withdraw American troops from Vietnam, the North Vietnamese easily conquered the South Vietnamese city of Saigon. It was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam - North and South at last were united as one nation.
@juanmanuellopez1 @coolguy222 @newageinv @gowealth @blessed-girl @cruis @lexymaine @alokkumar121 @aceandnotes @darlenys01 @rafique1953 @marvyinnovation @wems @ajks @alaisguineasis @amnlive @kimmysomelove42 @praditya @tommyl33 @samryan @vickykarma @brightsun @oppongk @kryp70kn1gh7 @hobo.media @theticket @royer94 @mentalhealthguru @bradley028 @nummulshrma @maxijgcomm @maikelblogo @mrblu @nancymj @petervi @mcoinz79 @missabigail @saludoalalma @mcnestler @moarafatshow @gargi @luis402 @sumon-ar-vines @naijauser @yantrax @josema.saborido @khan.dayyanz @shapescooper @aceofhearts @marcocosta @rvag5 @fusroj @cashlane @borrowedearth @michaeljn @kchitrah @mitchhunter @nataliaeline @cherlianny @unknownphoton @unclefz @gardengranny @bettyamv @ghostwriter9 @nancybriti @missladybug @shirophantomhive @rvag5 @ankitjnv @marvyinnovation @tommyl33 @gowealth @ustaadonline @daio @brightsun @mzubairch @amit1995 @starapple @treodecimo @edinhazard @maxijgcomm @wasito @mariita52 @maroni55 @nataliaeline @ajtech2596 @keithf @wesleyvanderstel @grainsofsand @mariita52 @naijauser @castleirwell @juanmanuellopez1 @coolguy222 @newageinv @gowealth @blessed-girl @cruis @lexymaine @alokkumar121 @aceandnotes @darlenys01 @rafique1953 @marvyinnovation @wems @ajks @alaisguineasis @amnlive @kimmysomelove42 @praditya @tommyl33 @samryan @vickykarma @brightsun @oppongk @kryp70kn1gh7 @hobo.media @theticket @royer94 @mentalhealthguru @bradley028 @nummulshrma @maxijgcomm @maikelblogo @mrblu @nancymj @petervi @mcoinz79 @missabigail @saludoalalma @mcnestler @moarafatshow @gargi @luis402 @sumon-ar-vines @naijauser @yantrax @josema.saborido @khan.dayyanz @shapescooper @aceofhearts @marcocosta @rvag5 @fusroj @cashlane @borrowedearth @michaeljn @kchitrah @mitchhunter @nataliaeline @cherlianny @unknownphoton @unclefz @gardengranny @bettyamv @ghostwriter9 @nancybriti @missladybug @shirophantomhive @rvag5 @ankitjnv @marvyinnovation @tommyl33 @gowealth @ustaadonline @daio @brightsun @mzubairch @amit1995 @starapple @treodecimo @edinhazard @maxijgcomm @wasito @mariita52 @maroni55 @nataliaeline @ajtech2596 @keithf @wesleyvanderstel @grainsofsand @mariita52 @naijauser @castleirwell @isabelpereira @nulifeiq @royer94 @yaleal @ushmil @nisiryan0522 @reveurgam @certain @kkins @nurseanne84 @hemi @amar @supportweku-io @whitelist