Ho Chi Minh (19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyen Sinh Cung and later known as Nguyen Tat Thanh, was the President of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969, preceding Ton Duc Thang. He led the Viet Minh liberation movement in Vietnam during World War II and the First Indochina War, and he came to lead the communist northern half of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He died in 1969, but North Vietnam would go on to reunify the country in 1975 after defeating the United States and South Vietnam.
Biography[]
A young Ho Chi Minh
Nguyen Sinh Cung was from Kim Lien, Nghe An Province, French Indochina. He was raised in a family that adhered to Confucianism, and he mastered Chinese script and was renamed "Nguyen the Accomplished" (Nguen Tat Thanh) on his 10th birthday. He attended lycee in Hue City with Ngo Dinh Diem, Vo Nguyen Giap, and Pham Van Dong, and he later studied in southern France and the United States, where he worked as a baker and was inspired by the beliefs of nationalist Koreans. After taking part in demonstrations for Indochinese independence, Tat Thanh left Paris for Moscow to study in the Soviet Union. He lived in exile in China until 1941, when he returned to his homeland to fight for independence against Japan. During the aftermath of World War II, Decolonization in Southeast Asia led to many wars in former European colonies, and he led the Viet Minh in a rebellion against France as "Ho Chi Minh" (meaning "Enlightened One"). Vo Nguyen Giap, whom Ho Chi Minh had met in school as a child, led the Viet Minh to several victories that included the famous Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the last battle of the war. The 1954 Geneva Accords gave Vietnam its independence, but it was split between the communist north and the capitalist south. Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam as its first president.
In the late 1950s, a road to warfare between the two states began. In 1954, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower sent MAAG advisors to South Vietnam; in 1956, the Viet Cong was formed in opposition to Ngo Dinh Diem's dictatorship in the south; in 1959, North Vietnam invaded Laos to assist the communist prince Souphanouvong in his civil warfare against two other princes claiming the leadership of the Kingdom of Laos. This led to the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, with 30,000 Pathet Lao guerrillas building supply trails through Laos to help in the moving of weapons and supplies to the Viet Cong fighting against the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) and US Marine Corps (USMC), the latter of which became involved in the war in 1962. Ho Chi Minh's friendship with the People's Republic of China allowed for 320,000 Chinese volunteers to contribute to the North Vietnamese war effort as the North Vietnamese male population was mobilized to fight South Vietnam and America. In 1964, USS Maddox fought North Vietnamese PT boats in the Gulf of Tonkin in a warzone, provoking US involvement in the war.
Ho Chi Minh led North Vietnam against the United States, which later gained the support of Thailand, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan during the Vietnam War. In 1965 he officially stepped down from power due to health problems, but he continued to inspire the communist forces fighting for North Vietnam and the Viet Cong during their war with the USA. On 2 September 1969 he died at the age of 79 from heart failure, the anniversary of the foundation of North Vietnam, and the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was renamed to "Ho Chi Minh City" after its fall in 1975.