Ho's Communist government controlled the area north of the lineknown as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam or North Vietnam. A U.S.-supported government under Ngo Dinh Diem controlled the area south of the lineknown as the Republic of Vietnam or South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was born in on May 19, 1890, in central Vietnam. Biographers have estimated that he used over fifty aliases during his career. Duiker, William J. Kim Lien - the home village of President Ho Chi Minh When the child was 4, his father passed the exam and received a grant of land, which improved the family's financial situation. "There is an important difference here. Late in 1923 Ho went to Moscow, where he absorbed the teachings of Marx and Lenin. However, Ho made it clear to Johnson that North Vietnam would never negotiate. Diem renamed these Communists the Viet Cong. Both sides advocated the liberation of their former colonies in order to win those colonies over and make them allies in the Cold War struggle for domination. Our people's struggle against U.S. aggression for national salvation is sure to win a total victory.". Furthermore, this war which is replete with horrible crimes, has not only infringed upon the freedom and independence of our compatriots in South Vietnam, but also besmeared the good reputation and good traditions of the American people. He also helped organize the peasants of Guangdong Province, teaching them the basic principles of communism. In his book Dragon Ascending Henry Kamm noted that historians may never know the truth behind Ho's motivations: "What is certain is his singleminded passion for the independence of his people, by peaceful means if possible, by war if necessary. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. His father, Nguyen Sinh Huy, was a teacher. (1966). The Cold War was an intense political and economic rivalry between the world's two superpowersthe United States and the Soviet Unionthat lasted from 1945 to 1991. In 1923 Ho traveled to Moscow, where he received training to become a revolutionary leader. 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. and the Ming Dynasty in the fifteenth century. "Biography of Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam." New York: Arcade, 1996. wounded American soldiers rose, the American people grew weary of the war and pressured the government to end its involvement. Vietnam War Reference Library. They received support from the Soviets and from the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong after the Chinese Communists' victory over the Nationalists in 1949. . The First Vietnamese in America - JSTOR Daily Ch Ln consists of the western half of District 5 as well as several adjoining neighborhoods in District 6 and . The war ended in July 1954 with a humiliating French defeat. Situated in the Southeast region of Vietnam, the city surrounds the Saigon River and covers about 2,061 km 2 (796 sq mi).. Saigon was the capital of French Indochina from 1887 to 1902, and again from 1945 until its cessation in 1954. Ho Chi Minh had gone overseas 13 years earlier as a naive and idealistic young man. As the antiwar feeling mounted in the United States and other countries, Ho stalled, intent on obtaining from the conference table what he had failed to get on the battlefield. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Ho fought to make Vietnam a united, independent, and Communist country. . Ho Chi Minh - Wikipedia His role in the North Vietnamese government gradually decreased. After 13 months in jail Ho offered to put his organization at the Chinese service in return for his freedom. In November 1946, the French fleet opened fire on the port city of Haiphong in a dispute over customs duties, killing more than 6,000 Vietnamese civilians. Ho Chi Minh: A Life by William J. Duiker | Goodreads North Vietnamese leaders then took steps to reunite the country as an independent nation under Communist rulethe mission that Ho Chi Minh had set out to accomplish thirty years earlier. The French colonized Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) primarily for its rice and rubber resources. The Cold War rivalry would eventually lead to the collapse of colonialism. In addition, they would blame the Viet Cong guerillas for much of the violence that did occur in South Vietnam during these years. They were able to gain the support of many peasants in the South by encouraging them to view the Americans as foreign invaders, like the Chinese or the French. Embree, Aislie T., ed. Ho Chi Minh. From 1954 until his death on September 2, 1969, he held the twin positions of head of state and chairman of the party in North Vietnam. (May 25, 2023). Marrin, Albert. The following year, Ho returned to Vietnam for the first time in many years. Emergency Contact - All Locations; International Parental Child Abduction; Arrest or Detention of a U.S. Citizen in Vietnam; . He claimed to have lived in New York in 1912. In October 1923 he was elected to the 10-man Executive Committee of the Peasants' International Congress. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty. Where was Ho Chi Minh born? | Homework.Study.com Ho Chi Minh also served as the prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. to 939 c.e. Hammer, The Struggle for Indo-China (1954); Donald Lancaster, The Emancipation of French Indochina (1961); Patrick J. Honey, ed., North Vietnam Today: Profile of a Communist Satellite (1962); Robert A. Scalapino, ed., The Communist Revolution in Asia: Tactics, Goals, and Achievements (1965; 2d ed. But he remained a beloved symbol of patriotism and freedom to the North Vietnamese people. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 19201966. The deeper their interference, the more powerful are our solidarity [unity] and our struggle. His mother was Hoang Thi Loan; his father, Nguyen Sinh Sac, was a teacher and a Confucian scholar who opposed France's presence in Vietnam. Two years later he arrived in Canton as adviser to Soviet agent Mikhail Borodin, who was then adviser to the Chinese Nationalists. The United States recognized Bao Dai and his government as the legitimate leaders of Vietnam. In spite of his shrewdness, the frail, little Ho looked like an old peasant with a gaunt face, an expression of simplicity and gentleness, and nothing surprising except his amazingly lively eyes. Of the 8,000 strategic hamlets already set up (which are in fact fascist-like concentration camps) over 80 percent have been destroyed. 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. These Communist supporters mingled with the South Vietnamese people and encouraged them to rise up against Diem and force him to hold elections. (At this time Ho adopted the name Ho Chih Minh"Enlightened One.") During World War I (191418), Ho worked in London, England, and Paris, France. "Ho Chi Minh . But the final communist triumphthe capture of Saigon, South Vietnam's capital city, in 1975was the result of Ho Chi Minh's lifelong revolutionary efforts. Ho Chi Minh Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Their patience finally paid off in 1975, when North Vietnamese Communist forces captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to win the Vietnam War. 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. The Viet Minh used hit-and-run tactics and their superior knowledge of the terrain to keep the French at a disadvantage. The truth is that we have wrested [taken] our independence from the Japanese and not from the French. France's problems enabled Japan to occupy Vietnam and set up military bases there in 1940. In November-December 1922 Ho attended the Fourth Comintern Congress in Moscow. . Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 into a relatively well-off family in relative terms to other families in Indo-China. The district is designated as a Hui ethnic district . The Liberation Armed Forces have shot down hundreds of aircraft and captured tens of thousands of U.S.-made weapons of various kinds. (May 25, 2023). They felt that this situation would threaten the national security of the United States by increasing the strength of the Soviet Union. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Vo Nguyen Giap 25 May. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. The Vietnamese people, like the Chinese, place their surnames first and their given names second. Halberstam, David. ." Ho Chi Minh's epic life helped shape the twentieth century. After his introduction to communism in Paris, Ho Chi Minh went to Moscow in 1923 and began to work for the Comintern (the Third Communist International). Kamm, Henry. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved May 25, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ho-chi-minh-3. "Our compatriots in the North and in the South shall be reunited under the same roof," he wrote in his final statement. He also emphasized his nationalism as he tried to gain the support of democratic nations like the United States. He eventually resigned in protest against French involvement in Vietnamese affairs. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). But U.S. government officials worried that holding free elections in Vietnam Communism is a system of government in which a single political party, the Communist Party, controls nearly all aspects of people's lives. Many nationalists, while aware of the Communist nature of Ho's government, nevertheless supported it against France. The French reacted violently to one such protest, sending fighter planes to fire upon a crowd of demonstrators. Ho, who had hoped that a larger population under his control, a Communist-supervised election in the North, and a more or less free election in the South would produce an outcome favorable to his regime, became greatly frustrated. These . Ho soon became involved in the political debates surrounding the negotiations to end World War I. What would it be like to give birth in a slaughterhouse? 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/ho-chi-minh-195778. In 1923 Ho Chi Minh moved to Moscow and began a career as an agent of the Communist Third International (or Comintern). Ho. In August 1942 Ho went back to China to ask for Chinese military assistance in return for intelligence about Apprehensive that his lifework might be destroyed and anxious to spare North Vietnam from further devastating air attacks, Ho finally agreed to send his representatives to peace talks in Paris. Over a hundred Vietnamese people were killed. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Ho Chi Minh (bornNguyen Sinh Cung; May 19, 1890September 2, 1969) was a revolutionary who commanded the communist North Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War. They dump their goods in Indochina to prevent the development of local handicrafts. He announced that the nation would be known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with a capital in the northern city of Hanoi. In 1923, he visited Moscow for training at Comintern, an organisation created by Lenin to promote worldwide revolution. . In his letter Ho claims that between 1954 and 1964 the American and South Vietnamese forces killed 160,000 people and either tortured or arrested over one million others. Ngo Dinh Diem served as the president of Sout, Sihanouk, Norodom This decision infuriated Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh. At that time, Paris had become the worldwide center for anticolonial groups to debate the issue of colonialism. Regular troops from the North infiltrated the South in increasing numbers. He took that name around the time of the August Revolution in 1945. The Americans also took steps to reduce the support for the Viet Cong in the countryside. . He declined to have a national election to unify the country as called for in the Geneva Accords. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. As a relatively small player in the global Cold War drama, France did not stand to gain much by liberating its colonies. Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, 19191941. ." He did not live to see the unification of Vietnam that occurred six years later when North Vietnam and South Vietnam joined together to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. The French, however, disregarded all their agreements with Ho. It lies on the west bank of the Saigon River, having Bnh Ty Market as its central market. Faced with a French resolve to reoccupy Indochina and determined to stay in power at any cost, Ho acquiesced in France's demands in return for French recognition of his regime. It is common knowledge that in 1954, the Vietnamese people and army defeated the forces of the French colonialist aggressors in the Dienbienphu battle. In 1919, as Nguyen Ai Quoc, he presented a petition to democratic leaders at the Versailles Peace Conference. Even as the war physically destroyed his country, Ho remained committed to Vietnam's independence. It was built with Russian help between 1973 and 1975, on the site where Ho Chi Minh presented the Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945. Encyclopedia.com. They finally achieved Ho's dream of reuniting the two parts of Vietnam under one Communist government. World Encyclopedia. Ho Chi Minh | Biography, Presidency, & Facts | Britannica World Encyclopedia. @PressDept_MoFA #BanCatMeat . His most important work, French Colonialization on Trial, was also written during this period. He was President of North Vietnam from 1954 until his death. He lived in London and Paris, and was a founding member of the French communist party. The outbreak of World War II and the Nazi invasion of France created a powerful distraction, allowing Ho Chi Minh to evade French security and reenter Indochina. His birth name was Nguyen Sinh Cung; he went by many pseudonyms throughout his life, including "Ho Chi Minh," or "Bringer of Light." Tan Son Nhat International Airport has its origins in the early 1930s when the French colonial government constructed a small airport with unpaved runways, known as Tn Sn Nht Airfield near the village of Tan Son Nhut. The United States, correspondingly, increased military assistance, sent combat troops into South Vietnam, and began a systematic bombing of North Vietnam. and we abolish all the special rights the French have unlawfully acquired in our Fatherland. Omissions? Although Ho reached a settlement agreement with the French in March 1946, calling for the creation of a Vietnamese "free state" within the French Union, the French changed their minds. The French had established the colony through force in the first place in the 1850s and 1860s and maintained it with force. That is the reason why the movement of struggle of the American people for the ending of the dirty war of aggression in South Vietnam is gaining momentum. They also realized that he had connections in the Soviet Union and enjoyed great popularity across Asia. He repeatedly attempted to present a petition calling for independence in Indochina to the French representatives and their allies but was rebuffed. In July an agreement was reached calling for a truce and division of Vietnam into a Communist north and a non-Communist south. . The North Vietnamese were equally determined to continue fighting until they achieved their goal of an independent, unified Vietnam under Communist rule. Dragon Ascending: Vietnam and the Vietnamese. Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyen Sinh Cung on May 19, 1890, in Nghe An province in central Vietnam. How Significant Was Ho Chi Minh's Role In The Vietnam War? 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 fact, he says that the United States is simply planning to turn Vietnam into a new colony to replace the one abandoned by the French ten years earlier. He led the movement for Vietnamese independence and unity through struggles with France and the United States. Ho Chi Minh (originally Nguyen That Thanh) was born on 19 May 1890 in Hoang Tru in central Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution: Selected Writings, 19201966. Fenn, Charles. (May 25, 2023). In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson (see entry) authorized U.S. bombing missions over North Vietnam and sent American combat troops to South Vietnam. At its Tours Congress in 1920, the French Socialist party split on the colonial issue: one wing remaining indifferent to the problems of the colonies and another advocating their immediate emancipation in accordance with Lenin's program. Fearing the spread of communism, the United States provided increasing levels of support to South Vietnam. But the U.S. Government has trampled underfoot the Geneva Agreements . Nevertheless, President Lyndon Johnson (19081973) used reports of this incident to convince the U.S. Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave him broad authority to wage war in Vietnam. 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. Using tactics of guerilla warfare, the Viet Cong gradually gained control of large areas of the South Vietnamese countryside. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. During his absence, the league began to split into different factions, or groups. He was one of the shrewdest, most callous, dedicated, and self-abnegating leaders, a man apart in the international Communist movement. . Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. Early life and rise to power Ngo Dinh Diem Ho's critics, on the other hand, refused to overlook his long record as a follower of Joseph Stalin (18791953; see entry), the brutal communist dictator of the Soviet Union. The U.S. government responded by sending in Army Special Forces units, known as the Green Berets, to confront the guerillas and help Diem maintain control. His father, Nguyen Sinh Sac, was a gifted scholar and was academically successful. ." At sea for two years, he visited ports in Europe, Africa, and the United States and began to develop his language skills, eventually learning Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Thai in addition to his native Vietnamese. 2002. North Vietnamese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh often characterized the war as a revolution to overthrow the U.S.-sponsored government in South Vietnam and thus free the country from foreign control. 3 minutes After English and Spanish, the third-most-spoken language in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia is Vietnamese. He died of a heart attack on September 3, 1969, almost six years before the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government was defeated and Vietnam was unified. Distressed by the Western powers' indifference toward the colonies both during and after the Versailles Conference in spite of the Fourteen Points of U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, Ho, whose only interest up to that time had been Vietnam's independence, began to drift toward Soviet Russia, the champion of the oppressed peoples. Some people in South Vietnam felt the same way, especially after Diem's government began restricting their personal freedom and using violence to