HO
CHI MINH
HO
CHI MINHBorn in 1890, as Nguyen Sinh Cung, Ho Chi Minh "grew up in a cradle of the patriotic movement". In 1894, his father obtained his Bachelor's degree and was invited by the Royal Court of Hue to work as an office employee at the School of Agronomy.
Below is a collage of recent photos from the Hue area.
When Nguyen was 10, his mother and youngest brother died. His father got his Master's Degree, and uninterested in serving with the royal government, he returned with his children to his home village, Kim Lien. This year Nguyen Sinh Cung was also renamed Nguyen Tat Thanh.
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The Vietnamese people, living under French colonial rule, were subjected to terrible living conditions, political and cultural oppression, economic exploitation, poverty, hunger and disease. Nguyen was particularly disturbed by the French practice of forcing all Vietnamese between 18-50 years old into unpaid labor squads. He went to school, attended political demonstrations, and eventually became a teacher himself.
In 1911, Nguyen went to Saigon. He applied to a school to learn to be a mechanic, in order to get in touch with modern technology and, more importantly, the working class. He didn't stay long, however.
Below are recent photos of Saigon.
Nguyen decided to go to France to observe how Western countries worked, and to study "the enemy" in their own backyard, in the hopes of finding a political solution for Vietnam..
In 1911, at the age of 21, Nguyen Tat Thanh left Vietnam for 10 years, and changed his name again to Van Ba.
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He spent WWI as a kitchen worker. At the end of the war he changed his name to Nguyen Ai Quoc.
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He became involved in workers' movements, and became a member of the French Socialist Party.
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In 1920, he read Lenin's thesis and eagerly absorbed Marxist-Leninist theory. He also voted for Lenin's Third International, and helped found the French Communist Party, along with the Vietnamese Patriots' Association, and the Intercolonial Association. He was involved in the publication of the Pariah newspaper, and he published "French Colonialism on Trial". He also wrote a novel, l'Humanite, and a play, "The Bamboo Dragon".
In 1925, Nguyen Ai Quoc decided to go back to Vietnam, with the express intention of organizing a revolution. He went to South China first though, where he organized and trained Vietnamese revolutionaries. He issued the propaganda newspaper, Youth.
In 1927, threatened with arrest by the Kuomintang, Nguyen went to Siam. He organized another group, the Vietnam Association of Mutual Assistance, and put out another weekly paper, Humanity.
In 1930, he went to Hong Kong, where he headed a conference of Vietnamese political parties which decided to unite against French colonialists. He was arrested by Hong Kong authorities. He was defended by a lawyer named Loseby, who also helped him escape.
When WWII broke out, things got much worse in Vietnam. There were uprisings and repressions. The French colonialists surrendered to Japan, prompting Nguyen to say that, "From now on our enemy number one is the Japanese fascists." While on his way to China to try to ally with them, Nguyen Ai Quoc changed his name to Ho Chi Minh to divert secret police agents.
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This tactic didn't succeed though. He was caught and arrested, and imprisoned for 14 months. Back in Vietnam after 2 years, Ho led the Viet Minh in a successful general uprising. Ho went to the capital, Hanoi, where he was elected president, and drafted and delivered a Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945.
Below are photos of old Hanoi.
On December 19, 1946 the war of resistance against the French colonialists broke out. The French surrendered in 1954 in Dien Bien Phu. The struggle then began to unite the north and the south and defeat the American Imperialists.
Below are recent photos of Hanoi.
This was Ho Chi Minh's house at one time.
Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, before the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
This is Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.
Bibliography
Pham Van Dong. Ho Chi Minh: a Man, a Nation, an Epoch, a Cause. Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Vietnam Courier, 1990.
?, ed. Uncle Ho. Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1980.
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