Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh[a][b] (né Nguyễn Sinh Cung;[c][d][e][3][4] 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969),[f] colloquially known as Uncle Ho (Bác Hồ) or just Uncle (Bác),[g][7] and by other aliases[h] and sobriquets,[i] was a Vietnamese communist revolutionary, nationalist, and politician. He served as prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and as president from 1945 until his death, in 1969. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he was the Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam, the predecessor of the current Communist Party of Vietnam.
For other uses, see Ho Chi Minh (disambiguation).
Hồ Chí Minh
- Trường Chinh
- Lê Duẩn (acting)
Position established
Position abolished
Trường Chinh
Lê Duẩn
Trần Văn Chương (Empire of Vietnam)
Nguyễn Tường Tam
Hoàng Minh Giám
2 September 1969 (aged 79)
Hanoi, North Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi
CPV (from 1924)
- French Section of the Workers' International (1919–1921)
- French Communist Party (1921–1925)
Tăng Tuyết Minh (m. 1926; estranged)
- Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh; sister)
- Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt; brother)
- Nguyễn Sinh Xin (brother)
- Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (father)
- Hoàng Thị Loan (mother)
- Politician
- revolutionary
- pastry chef
Hồ Chí Minh was born in Nghệ An province in the French protectorate of Annam. From 1911, he left French Indochina to continue his revolutionary activities. He was also one of the founding members of the French Communist Party. In 1930, he founded the Communist Party of Vietnam and in 1941, he returned to Vietnam and founded the Việt Minh independence movement, an umbrella group. Then, Hồ led the August Revolution against the Japanese in August 1945, which resulted in the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the French returned to power the following month, Hồ's government retreated to the Việt Bắc region and began guerrilla warfare. The Việt Minh defeated the French Union in 1954 at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, ending the First Indochina War, and resulting in the division of Vietnam, with the Việt Minh in control of North Vietnam, and anti-communists in control of South Vietnam. He was a key figure in the People's Army of Vietnam during the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975. Hồ officially stepped down from power in 1965 due to health problems and died in 1969. North Vietnam was ultimately victorious against South Vietnam and its allies. Vietnam was officially unified in 1976. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.
The details of Hồ Chí Minh's life before he came to power in Vietnam are uncertain. He is known to have used between 50[10]: 582 and 200 pseudonyms.[11] Information on his birth and early life is ambiguous and subject to academic debate. At least four existing official biographies vary on names, dates, places, and other hard facts while unofficial biographies vary even more widely.[12]
Aside from being a politician, Hồ was a writer, poet, and journalist. He wrote several books, articles, and poems in Chinese, Vietnamese, and French.
Early life
Hồ Chí Minh (胡志明) was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung (阮生恭)[3][e][4] in 1890 in the village of Làng Chùa or Hoàng Trù in Kim Liên commune, Nam Đàn district, Nghệ An province, in Central Vietnam which was then a French protectorate. Although 1890 is generally accepted as his birth year, at various times he used four other birth years:[13] 1891,[14] 1892,[j] 1894[k] and 1895.[15] He lived in his father Nguyễn Sinh Sắc's village of Làng Sen in Kim Liên until 1895 when his father sent him to Huế for study. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận), who died in infancy. As a young child, Cung (Hồ) studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vương Thúc Quý. He quickly mastered chữ Hán, a prerequisite for any serious study of Confucianism while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing.[10]: 21 In addition to his studies, he was fond of adventure and loved to fly kites and go fishing.[10]: 21 Following Confucian tradition, his father gave him a new name at the age of 10: Nguyễn Tất Thành.
His father was a Confucian scholar and teacher and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after having received 102 strokes of the cane as punishment for an infraction.[10]: 21 His father was eligible to serve in the imperial bureaucracy, but he refused because it meant serving the French.[16] This exposed Thành (Hồ) to rebellion at a young age and seemed to be the norm for the province. Nevertheless, he received a French education, attending Collège Quốc học (lycée or secondary education) in Huế in Central Vietnam. His disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp, also attended the school, as did Ngô Đình Diệm, the future President of South Vietnam and political rival.[17]
His early life is uncertain but there are some documents indicating activities regarding an early revolutionary spirit during French-occupied Vietnam, but conflicting sources remain. Previously, it was believed that Thành (Hồ) was involved in an anti-slavery (anti-corvée) demonstration of poor peasants in Huế in May 1908, which endangered his student status at Collège Quốc học. However, a document from the Centre des archives d'Outre-mer in France shows that he was admitted to Collège Quốc học on 8 August 1908, which was several months after the anti-corvée demonstration (9–13 April 1908).[e]
Overseas sojourn
In France
In Saigon, he applied to work as a kitchen helper on a French merchant steamer, the Amiral de Latouche-Tréville, using the alias Văn Ba. The ship departed on 5 June 1911 and arrived in Marseille, France on 5 July 1911. The ship then left for Le Havre and Dunkirk, returning to Marseille in mid-September. There, he applied for the French Colonial School but did not succeed. He instead decided to begin traveling the world by working on ships and visiting many countries from 1911 to 1917.[18]
In the United States
While working as the cook's helper on a ship in 1912, Thành (Hồ) traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he may have lived in New York City (Harlem) and Boston, where he claimed to have worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. The only evidence that he was in the United States is a single letter to French colonial administrators dated 15 December 1912 and postmarked New York City (he gave his address as the poste restante in Le Havre and his occupation as a sailor)[19] and a postcard to Phan Chu Trinh in Paris where he mentioned working at the Omni Parker House Hotel. Inquiries to the Parker House management revealed no records of his ever having worked there.[10]: 51 It is believed that while in the US he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook. Sophie Quinn-Judge states that this is "in the realm of conjecture".[19] He was also influenced by Pan-Africanist and black nationalist Marcus Garvey during his stay, and said he attended meetings of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.[20][21]
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.[5][150] 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.[10]: 565
Due to the sensitivity of 2 September being Independence Day, the North Vietnamese government originally delayed announcing Hồ's death until 3 September. A week of mourning for his death was decreed nationwide in North Vietnam from 4 to 11 September 1969.[151] His funeral was attended by about 250,000 people and 5,000 official guests, which included many international mourners.
Representatives from 40 countries and regions were also presented. During the mourning period, North Vietnam received more than 22,000 condolences letters from 20 organizations and 110 countries across the world, such as France, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Zambia, China, the USSR and many others, mostly Socialist countries.
He was not initially replaced as president; instead, a "collective leadership" composed of several ministers and military leaders took over, known as the Politburo. During North Vietnam's final campaign in 1975, a famous song written by composer Huy Thuc was often sung by PAVN soldiers: "Bác vẫn cùng chúng cháu hành quân" ("You are still marching with us, Uncle Hồ").
During the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, several PAVN tanks displayed a poster with those same words on it. The day after the battle ended, on 1 May, veteran Australian journalist Denis Warner reported that "When the North Vietnamese marched into Saigon yesterday, they were led by a man who wasn't there".[152]