Words: 1201
Ho Chi Minh; was a leading figure for not only his people but also the nation of Vietnam, he was a tireless figurehead for Vietnam’s struggles for freedom. He was a committed nationalist and communist whose main goal was to achieve a united and independent Vietnamese nation. Ho Chi Minh; born Nguyen Sinh Cung (one of his many alias’) on May 19th, 1890, to very loyal parents; and proud son of Nguyen Sinh Huy; a Vietnam nationalist and teacher, employed under French rule ??? Ho’s father was an extremely influential figure in his life.
Huy (Ho’s Father), a nationalist was completely opposed to French rule and Ho’s nationalistic roots were grown from his father; Huy refused to teach his children the French language himself and was committed into turning his children into committed communists and soldiers to fight for the independence of Vietnam.
As Ho’s secondary schooling in a French school had concluded; (Ho’s father believed sending his children to French schools would better equip them in the struggle with the French colonisation of Vietnam) he followed his father an became a teacher ??? however his nationalistic views found him expelled in 1908 and by 1911, Ho believed it was time he left Vietnam to experience the conditions of colonisation on a more wide spread scale and found himself a job as a kitchen hand on a steamboat.
Ho’s travels lead him around the world; to India, the USA and England where he was able to forge a greater understanding and stance on colonisation. It was not until 1917 Ho managed to settle in Paris, he began to read books by Karl Marx, and from these Marxist readings Ho was convened to communism. Ho’s newly found following; communism, lead him to be one of the founding members of the French communist party in 1920. By 1924, Ho chi Minh became a true communist as he travelled to Moscow the capital of communism to receive training from the Soviets.
With the knowledge that he would most likely be arrested by the French authorities if he returned to Vietnam, Ho was sent to China as a Russian Spy in late 1924 and resided in the city of Guangzhou on, however he spent a majority of his time organising a revolt of oppressed Vietnamese workers, and from this uprising the “Vietnam Revolutionary League” was born. Ho continued his travels and his strong building of Vietnamese revolutionary groups throughout the late 1920s and found himself in Hong Kong in 1930.
Ho chi minh attended the Thanh Nein conference that saw the merger of the two competing communist factions in Indochina; the Indochinese communist party and the communist party of Annam to form the unified ICP. The communist Ho chi Minh was still residing in Hong Kong until 1931 until he was arrested by the British; however he managed to escape and spent the majority of the next 4 years exiled in China until he relocated to Moscow where he spent the next 4 years studying and teaching at the Lenin institute. 1939 saw the outbreak of WWII and in 1940 the Japanese army invaded and occupied Indochina.
Ho Chi Minh saw the French were extremely weak at this stage as Paris had been occupied and saw this as an opportunity to liberate his nation from French control. Under the watchful eye of himself and fellow nationalist; military leader General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietminh was a formed. After long turmoil with the Japanese troops, the Vietminh finally gained the upper hand as Japan had surrendered in 1945 after the US atomic bomb drops in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and by August of the same year the Vietminh took over Hanoi and Saigon to what is known as the ‘August Revolution’.
A little over a month later, Ho Chi Minh announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, however Ho’s dream of a free Vietnam was only short lived as the US did not support Ho’s bid for freedom; as the US had already decided what would occur with Vietnam at the post war conference at Potsdam. It had been agreed that the country would be divided into two, the northern half under the control of the Chinese and the southern half under the British.
The French, in 1946 attempted to re-establish control over Vietnam. Britain agreed to remove their army and later that year, China left Vietnam and both handed over their territories to France, destroying everything that Ho and his Vietminh had worked for. This blatant attack on Ho’s plans by the French resulted in large scale fighting between the Vietminh and the French forces leading to the first Indochinese war. By 1953 the Vietminh controlled large areas of North Vietnam.
The situation of the Indochinese war began to settle, however France recognised they were being dragged into a long war and tried to negotiate with the Vietminh and Ho, promising that Vietnam will eventually gain independence ??? Ho did not compromise and continued with the war – After years of guerrilla fighting the Vietnamese Army led by General Giep launched a huge operation that lead to the siege of the French fort at Dien Bien Phu, that led to the down fall of the French rule.
A month after the French defeat major leaders decided to meet in Geneva for the Geneva Accords to see if a peaceful solution could be created for the Vietnam conflict, Ho was not happy with the results, as the division at the 17th parallel still left Vietnam divided.
After the Geneva convention, Ho’s prime focus was on the development and reconstruction of North Vietnam; however there was growing hatred from Ho of the South Vietnamese leader, Diem as he had no intention of holding elections for a united Vietnam ??? from this extreme dislike Ho decided an armed resistance needed to be assembled and encouraged different armed guerrilla group to join to create a more powerful resistance, and in 1960 a merge occurred, creating the NLF (National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam) most commonly known as the Vietcong.
Fighting soon broke out in, The Northern Vietnamese Vietcong start to filter into South Vietnam to establish liberated zones and the 2nd Indochinese war started to slide out of control. The US started to become involve as they directly supported the Diem regime with millions of dollars of equipment to fight the northern communists. Three months after being voted, the US president in 1964, Johnson; launched ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’ and this continued the 2nd Indochinese war or otherwise known as the American War.
The arrangement was to annihilate the Northern Vietnamese economy and to force Ho to stop the aid of guerrilla fighters in the south. The 2nd Indochinese war; promised by Johnson to only last 8 weeks, lasted many years, outliving the very man that somewhat begun this war to stand for what he truly believed and achieve his goal – Ho Chi Minh died of heart failure on the 2nd of September in Hanoi, 1969, six years before the end of the war and the reunification of the country and the defeat of South Vietnam by the very ideals he lived for ???Communism.