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Ho Chi Minh

Hồ Chí Minh[a] (born Nguyễn Sinh Cung;19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969[c]), commonly known as Bác Hồ ('Uncle Hồ') or simply known as Bác,[d] also known as Hồ Chủ tịch ('President Hồ'), Nguyễn Tất Thành, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, Người cha già của dân tộc ('Father of the people'), was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and as President from 1945 until his death in 1969. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he served as Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam.

Hồ Chí Minh was born in Nghệ An province, in Central Vietnam. He led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward. Initially, it was an umbrella group for all parties fighting for Vietnam's independence, but the Communist Party gained majority support after 1945. Hồ Chí Minh led the Communist-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, defeating the French Union in 1954 at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, ending the First Indochina War, and resulting in the division of Vietnam, with the Communists in control of North Vietnam. He was a key figure in the People's Army of Vietnam and the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975. Ho officially stepped down from power in 1965 due to health problems and died in 1969. North Vietnam was ultimately victorious against South Vietnam and its allies, and Vietnam was officially unified in 1976. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.

The details of Hồ Chí Minh's life before he came to power in Vietnam are uncertain. He is known to have used between 50[8]: 582 and 200 pseudonyms.[9] Information on his birth and early life is ambiguous and subject to academic debate. At least four existing official biographies vary on names, dates, places, and other hard facts while unofficial biographies vary even more widely.

Aside from being a politician, Ho was also a writer, a poet, and a journalist. He wrote several books, articles and poems in Chinese, Vietnamese and French.

Early life

A 1920 security report by the French Indochinese government on Nguyễn Tất Thành listing his aliases, places of residence, his father's occupation, as well as other information.

Hồ Chí Minh was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung[3][b][4] in 1890 in the village of Hoàng Trù (the name of the local temple near Làng Sen), his mother's village in Nghệ An province, Central Vietnam. Although 1890 is generally accepted as his birth year, at various times he used four other birth years:[11][page needed] 1891,[12] 1892,[e] 1894[f] and 1895.[13] From 1895, he grew up in his father Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (Nguyễn Sinh Huy)'s village of Làng Sen, Kim Liên, Nam Đàn, and Nghệ An Province. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận), who died in infancy. As a young child, Cung (Ho) studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. He quickly mastered Chữ Hán, a prerequisite for any serious study of Confucianism while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing.[8]: 21 In addition to his studies,

His father was a Confucian scholar and teacher and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after having received 102 strokes of the cane as punishment for an infraction.[8]: 21 His father was eligible to serve in the imperial bureaucracy, but he refused because it meant serving the French.[14] This exposed Thành (Ho) to rebellion at a young age and seemed to be the norm for the province. Nevertheless, he received a French education, attending Collège Quốc học (lycée or secondary education) in Huế in Central Vietnam. His disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp, also attended the school, as did Ngô Đình Diệm, the future President of South Vietnam and political rival.

Personal life

In addition to being a politician, Hồ Chí Minh was also a writer, journalist, poet[128] and polyglot. His father was a scholar and teacher who received a high degree in the Nguyễn dynasty Imperial examination. Hồ was taught to master Classical Chinese at a young age. Before the August Revolution, he often wrote poetry in Chữ Hán (the Vietnamese name for the Chinese writing system). One of those is Poems from the Prison Diary, written when he was imprisoned by the police of the Republic of China. This poetry chronicle is Vietnam National Treasure No. 10 and was translated into many languages. It is used in Vietnamese high schools.[129] After Vietnam gained independence from France, the new government exclusively promoted Chữ Quốc Ngữ (Vietnamese writing system in Latin characters) to eliminate illiteracy. Hồ started to create more poems in the modern Vietnamese language for dissemination to a wider range of readers. From when he became president until the appearance of serious health problems, a short poem of his was regularly published in the newspaper Nhân Dân Tết (Lunar new year) edition to encourage his people in working, studying or fighting Americans in the new year.

Because he was in exile for nearly 30 years, Hồ could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin as well as his mother tongue Vietnamese.[8] In addition, he was reported to speak conversational Esperanto.[130] In the 1920s, he was bureau chief/editor of many newspapers which he established to criticize French Colonial Government of Indochina and serving communism propaganda purposes. Examples are Le Paria (The Pariah) first published in Paris 1922 or Thanh Nien (Youth) first published on 21 June 1925 (21 June was named by The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Government as Vietnam Revolutionary Journalism Day). In many state official visits to the Soviet Union and China, he often talked directly to their communist leaders without interpreters, especially about top-secret information. While being interviewed by Western journalists, he used French.[citation needed] His Vietnamese had a strong accent from his birthplace in the central province of Nghệ An, but could be widely understood throughout the country.

As President, he held formal receptions for foreign heads of state and ambassadors at the Presidential Palace, but he did not live there. He ordered the building of a stilt house at the back of the palace, which is today known as the Presidential Palace Historical Site. His hobbies (according to his secretary Vũ Kỳ) included reading, gardening, feeding fish (many of which are still[when?] living), and visiting schools, and children's homes.

Hồ Chí Minh remained in Hanoi during his final years, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of all non-Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. By 1969, with negotiations still dragging on, his health began to deteriorate from multiple health problems, including diabetes which prevented him from participating in further active politics. However, he insisted that his forces in the South continue fighting until all of Vietnam was reunited regardless of the length of time that it might take, believing that time was on his side.

Ho Chi Minh's marriage has long been swathed in secrecy and mystery. He is believed by several scholars of Vietnamese history, to have married Zeng Xueming in October 1926, although only being able to live with her for less than a year. Historian Peter Neville claimed that Ho (at the time known as Ly Thuy[33]) wanted to engage Zeng in the communist movements but she demonstrated a lack of ability and interest in it. In 1927, the mounting repression of Chiang Kai-shek's KMT against the Chinese Communists compelled Ho to leave for Hong Kong, and his relationship with Zeng appeared to have ended at that time. In addition to the marriage with Zeng Xueming, there is a number of published studies indicating that Ho had a romantic relationship with Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai. As a young and high-spirited female revolutionary, Minh Khai was delegated to Hong Kong to serve as an assistant to Ho Chi Minh in April 1930 and quickly drew Ho's attention owing to her physical attractiveness. Ho even approached the Far Eastern Bureau and requested permission to get married to Minh Khai even though the previous marriage with Zeng remained legally valid. However, the marriage was unable to take place since Minh Khai had been detained by the British authorities in April 1931.

Death

With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Hồ Chí Minh died of heart failure at his home in Hanoi at 9:47 on the morning of 2 September 1969; he was 79 years old.[5][139] His embalmed body is currently on display in a mausoleum in Ba Đình Square in Hanoi despite his will which stated that he wanted to be cremated.

The North Vietnamese government originally announced Ho's death on 3 September. A week of mourning for his death was decreed nationwide in North Vietnam from 4 to 11 September 1969. His funeral was attended by about 250,000 people and 5,000 official guests, which included many international mourners.

Among the dignitaries to attend were:

North Vietnam Leader Lê Duẩn of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam President Nguyễn Hữu Thọ of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam

Cambodia Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia

Kingdom of Laos Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma of Laos

Cuba Minister of Defense Juan Almeida Bosque of Cuba

Soviet Union Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin of the Soviet Union

Czechoslovakia General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Gustáv Husák

Poland Deputy Premier Ignacy Loga-Sowiński of Poland

East Germany Politician Erich Mückenberger of East Germany

Socialist Republic of Romania Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Maurer of Romania

China Vice President Li Xiannian of China

Japan General Secretary of the Communist Party Kenji Miyamoto of Japan

North Korea President of the Presidium Choe Yong-gon of North Korea

Representatives from 40 countries and regions were also presented. During the mourning period, North Vietnam received more than 22,000 condolences letters from 20 organizations and 110 countries across the world, such as France, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Zambia, and many others, mostly Socialist countries.

It was said that Ho's body was hidden and carried a long way among forests and rivers in a special-designed coffin until Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was built.

He was not initially replaced as president; instead, a "collective leadership" composed of several ministers and military leaders took over, known as the Politburo. During North Vietnam's final campaign, a famous song written by composer Huy Thuc [vi] was often sung by PAVN soldiers: "Bác vẫn cùng chúng cháu hành quân" ("You are still marching with us, Uncle Ho").

During the Fall of Saigon in April 1975, several PAVN tanks displayed a poster with those same words on it. The day after the battle ended, on 1 May, veteran Australian journalist Denis Warner reported that "When the North Vietnamese marched into Saigon yesterday, they were led by a man who wasn't there".

Courtesy-wikipedia
- Ho Chi Minh

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