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Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)Vietnamese revolutionary. Born on 19 May 1890, son of a local scholar in central Annam province, Nguyen Tat Thanh was educated at the National Academy of French-ruled Indochina. In 1911, he travelled to Europe as a ship's steward, worked in the kitchens of the Carlton Hotel in London during World War I and became a radical journalist in Paris in 1918. Two years later, he became a founding member of the French Communist party, but was expelled in 1923. After travelling through the Soviet Union and China, he formed the Communist party of Indochina in 1930. After an uprising in 1930-1 was savagely repressed, he was arrested and went into exile in China, forming the Vietminh Front in 1941. In 1943, after another spell in prison, he adopted the name Ho Chi Minh (Seeker of Light) and helped form Vietnamese guerrilla resistance to the invading Japanese during World War II. When the Japanese were defeated by the Allies, Ho proclaimed the birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on 2 September 1945. But France only accepted this after it was defeated in the Indochina War of 1946-54, which culminated in Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu. Ho's ability to inspire his people meant that, despite his authoritarian personality, he became an Indochinese version of Mao Zedong, familiarly known as 'Uncle Ho'. Much respected, he managed to persuade his more radical followers to accept the compromise Geneva Agreements of 1954, which divided Vietnam into two countries along the 17th parallel. In North Vietnam, Ho was president of a socialist regime that tried to undermine the government of South Vietnam, sending troops down the hidden jungle road that became renowned as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Despite heavy United States intervention, Ho retained the support of both the Soviet Union and China during the Vietnam War. He died on 3 September 1969, six years before the war was eventually won. Then, Saigon, the capital of the south, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. |
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