Ho Chi Minh

**Hồ Chí Minh**, born **Nguyễn** **Sinh Cung**, (19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969) was the leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

## Early life

'Hồ Chí Minh', meaning 'Hồ with the will of light', was not his real name. He took that name around the time of the August Revolution in 1945. His real name was **Nguyễn Sinh Cung** when he was born. At age ten, he changed his name to **Nguyễn Tất Thành**, according to Confucian tradition.  He would later use many pseudonyms (false names). Other than 'Hồ Chí Minh', his most famous name was probably **Nguyễn Ái Quốc** meaning "Nguyễn (by far the most common Vietnamese last name) who loves his country." The Vietnamese people commonly refer to him as **Bác Hồ** (Uncle Hồ).

Nguyễn studied in Paris from 1919 to 23. In those years, he started following communism and began to believe that Vietnam- then a French colony-should be independent. During this time he wrote a letter, which was ignored, to United States President Woodrow Wilson, asking for U.S. military aid to help overthrow the French colonial rulers. He joined the French Communist Party, and started visiting Moscow regularly, as a member of the Asian branch of the Comintern.

## First Indochina War

Hồ led a revolution against the French rulers of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954. After overthrowing the French, a communist regime supported by the Soviet Union and China was set up in the northern half of the country, with himself leading the country as both president and prime minister. But, an anticommunist government supported by the United States, was set up in the southern half of the country because the United States did not want all of Vietnam to be communist during the Cold War.

## Second Indochina War (Vietnam War)

South Vietnam and America refused to hold an election and unite the two halves into one country because they feared a communist victory. Hồ then led Vietnam into a military and political struggle to bring the rice fields of South Vietnam under his communist rule. Two decades of war followed that killed millions of Vietnamese. The United States supported South Vietnam with military aid, and the Soviet Union
and the People's Republic of China continued to support North Vietnam's war effort.

In the end, North Vietnam won the war several years after Hồ Chí Minh had died.

## Death and legacy

Suffering from diabetes and heart problems, Hồ Chí Minh died on the morning of September 2, 1969, of a heart attack.

In his will, he said he wished to be cremated and have his ashes be buried in hills in the north, center, and south of Vietnam. However, his followers embalmed his body and put it in a tomb, the mausoleum, where he is still worshipped today.

In 1976, in the style of the Soviet Union, the victorious communists in North Vietnam renamed the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, to Ho Chi Minh City in honour of their leader.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Ho Chi Minh
- **office**: Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Workers' Party of Vietnam
- **image**: Ho Chi Minh - 1946 Portrait.jpg
- **predecessor**: _Position created_
- **successor**: _Position abolished_
- **office2**: General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Workers' Party of Vietnam
- **predecessor2**: Trường Chinh
- **party**: French Section of the Workers' International
<small>(1919–1921)</small>
French Communist Party
<small>(1921–1925)</small>
 Communist Party of Vietnam
<small>(1925–1969)</small>
- **successor2**: Lê Duẩn
- **birth name**: Nguyễn Sinh Cung
- **birth place**: Kim Liên, Nghệ An Province, French Indochina
- **death place**: Hanoi, North Vietnam
- **spouse**: Ho Chi Minh#Legacy and personality cult, none (disputed)
- **relations**: Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh) (Sister)
Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt) (brother)
 (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận) (brother)
- **parents**: Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (father)
Hoàng Thị Loan (mother)
- **alma mater**: Communist University of the Toilers of the East
- **profession**: Politician
- **term start**: 19 February 1951
- **term end**: 2 September 1969
- **term start2**: 1 November 1956
- **term end2**: 10 September 1960
- **office3**: List of Presidents of Vietnam, 1st President of Vietnam, President of the North Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
- **term start3**: 2 September 1945
- **term end3**: 2 September 1969
- **predecessor3**: Position established
Bảo Đại <small>(as Emperor)</small>
- **successor3**: Tôn Đức Thắng
- **office4**: List of Prime Ministers of Vietnam, 1st Prime Minister of Vietnam, Prime Minister of the North Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
- **term start4**: 2 September 1945
- **term end4**: 20 September 1955
- **predecessor4**: Position established
Trần Trọng Kim <small>(as Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam)</small>
- **successor4**: Phạm Văn Đồng


## Infobox (vietnamese)

- **title**: Vietnamese name
- **vie**: Hồ Chí Minh


## Infobox (vietnamese)

- **title**: Vietnamese birth name
- **vie**: Nguyễn Sinh Cung