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

Early life
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'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 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.

1946 appeal from Hồ Chi Minh to U.S. President Harry Truman, asking Truman for aid in fighting French.

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 communisty 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 (led by Nikita Krushchev and then Leonid Brezhnev) and the People's Republic of China (led by Mao Zedong) 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.


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