Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh , 18901969, Vietnamese nationalist leader,
president of North Vietnam (195469). His given name was
Nguyen That Thanh. In 1911 he left Vietnam, working aboard a
French liner. He later lived in London and in the United States
during World War I before going to France near the end of the
war. There he became involved in the French socialist movement
and was (1920) a founding member of the French Communist party.
He studied revolutionary tactics in Moscow, and, as a Comintern
member, was sent (192527) to Guangzhou, China. While in
East Asia, he organized Vietnamese revolutionaries and founded
the Communist party of Indochina (later the Vietnamese Communist
party). In the 1930s, Ho lived mainly in Moscow and China. He
finally returned to Vietnam after the outbreak of World War
II, organized a Vietnamese independence movement (the Viet Minh),
and raised a guerrilla army to fight the Japanese. He proclaimed
the republic of Vietnam in Sept., 1945, and later agreed that
it would remain an autonomous state within the French Union.
Differences with the French, however, soon led (1946) to an
open break. Warfare lasted until 1954, culminating in the French
defeat at Dienbienphu. After the Geneva Conference (1954), which
divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, Ho became the first president
of the independent republic of North Vietnam. The accord also
provided for elections to be held in 1956, aimed at reuniting
North and South Vietnam; however, South Vietnam, backed by the
United States, refused to hold the elections. The reason was
generally held to be that Ho's popularity would have led to
reunification under Communist rule. In succeeding years, Ho
consolidated his government in the North. He organized a guerrilla
movement in the South, the National Liberation Front, or Viet
Cong, which was technically independent of North Vietnam, to
win South Vietnam from the successive U.S.-supported governments
there (see Vietnam War).
See biographies by J. Lacouture (1968), D. Halberstam (1971),
J. Sainteny (1972), C. Fenn (1974), and D. O. Lloyd (1986).
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