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The Vietnamese money comes in different denominations, but all featuring the image of Ho Chi Minh (胡志明) as an old man with a kind-looking face and a long beard. Ho Chi Minh has long been dead, but still remains a hero for the Vietnamese.

He threw himself into the national movement in his 20s, and devoted the rest of his life, until his sudden death in 1969, to struggle for independence and politics. He was the one who supervised the foundation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which rules the country today, played a decisive role in driving off the French rulers and helping Vietnam gain independence, and laid the foundation for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is impossible to explain modern Vietnam without him. Therefore, the name Ho Chi Minh is one of the important keywords to understanding Vietnam today.

Ho Chi Minh was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung (阮生恭) in 1890 to a family of Confucian scholars near Hue, the capital of the last dynasty of Vietnam. By that time, his country was already doomed. In 1907, he entered a French school in Hue, thinking that understanding France would be necessary for him to fight France. Eventually, in 1911, at the age of 21, he boarded a ship bound for France.

Aspirating to the Liberation of the Vietnamese People

In 1919, when the Paris Peace Conference was held, following the end of World War I, he adopted the new name Nguyễn Ai Quốc (阮愛國) as he threw himself into struggle for the independence of Vietnam. In Paris, while leading the Alliance of Annam Patriots, he submitted the 'Annam People's Requests' to the participants of the Paris Peace Conference demanding that the Vietnamese people should be let to stand on their own feet. It was also around this time that he leaned toward socialism/communism. He knew that socialists were paying attention to resistance by the people of colonies, and realized that when the socialists of colonizing countries were connected with the national movements of colonies, it would open the path to Vietnam's independence.

When the Communist International (abbreviated as Comintern) had announced support for the national movements of colonies, he, without hesitation, headed to Moscow, where he developed qualities as a revolutionary for 18 months from 1923. In 1925, he returned to Canton (present-day Guangdong), close to the Chinese border with Vietnam, where he invited many Vietnamese youths to receive military education and develop abilities required for revolutionary activities. This provided the foundation for him to organize the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League, which served as a seed for him to organize the CPV, and wage large-scale struggles against France in 1930 and 1931. Whether Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist or a communist is sometimes debated, but with a look at his life, one can see immediately the futility of the question, because he was both a nationalist and a communist. For Ho Chi Minh seeking to liberate his colonized people, being a nationalist and being a communist were not separate but one.

The struggle of 1931 was suppressed ruthlessly. Ho Chi Minh himself also went through frustration for a number of years. But by 1938, he was back to the frontline of the Vietnamese independence struggle. His activities began in the Southwestern part of China, where he assembled like-minded people and connected with domestic figures in preparation for activities. Finally, in 1941, he crossed the border.

It was from this time that Ho Chi Minh showed who he really was, a great independence activist who would liberate his country. He felt in his bones that the decisive moment was near. And he established the League for the Independence of Vietnam (a.k.a. Viet Minh) as an organization transcending differences in thinking and ideology. He also organized guerrilla units and created liberated areas in the northern region of Vietnam. He established organizations in cities and villages in every corner of the country.

Eventually, opportunities came as World War II entered its final stages. The first opportunity came in March 1945. The relationship between France and Japan as the rulers of Vietnam in mutual consultation went sour, and the Japanese army defeated the French one. All of a sudden, the grip of colonial rule was loosened. Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh took advantage of this situation and rapidly expanded the organization. Japan finally surrendered on August 15. On cue, the Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh instigated a revolutionary revolt. There were large-scale demonstrations in Hanoi and many other cities. The Viet Minh figures took over power. And the Viet Minh army, raised with years of effort, also entered Hanoi. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in front of cheering crowds.

Leading the Victory of the Vietnamese People as a Leader

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum located in the
Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, Vietnam

But there were daunting challenges in store for the Republic. According to the agreement of the Allies, Vietnam was divided in half, with China occupying its territory north, and Britain south, of the 16th parallel, interfering with its independence project. To make things worse, France, which had been defeated and driven off by the Japanese army, was back to its old position as a ruler. The U.S. made it no secret that they were aiding Britain and France. The Republic had just managed to establish a government, but there was nothing much they could do, and the enemies they had to deal with were strong.

It was at this point that Ho Chi Minh played another important role. Armed with insight into the international situation, he made an objective assessment of the abilities of friend and foe, effectively maneuvering the double-faced tactic of war and negotiation. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh succeeded in driving China out of the border by joining forces with France. And he came up with the compromise, accepting some of France's requests, that Vietnam would become independent as part of the French Union. When the negotiation for this compromise had finally broken down, he was determined to organize the anti-French struggle.

Vietnam fought an almost all-out war of independence against France for eight years from 1946. In this struggle against a world power, the Vietnamese fully demonstrated their will to struggle for independence. In May 1954, the Vietnamese army won a decisive victory over France. No other colony had ever won a decisive victory before in a large-scale with the very country that colonized it. France left Vietnam, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam gained an unshakable status. It was a historic victory of the Vietnamese people with Ho Chi Minh as their leader.

Of course, the independence of 1954 was incomplete, achieved only on either side of the 17th parallel. And it was this division that made the Vietnamese people suffer from another war for the next twenty years or so. But that does not diminish the victory in the anti-French struggle. The same goes for the assessment of Ho Chi Minh. Some policies put forth by the CPV from 1954 onward were, and still are, very controversial. Land reform and collective farming are good examples. But aside from whether those policies failed or not, Ho Chi Minh was, and still is, precious to the Vietnamese People.