By: Jon Lind Ho Chi Minh was born on May 19, 1890, in the Nghe An province as Nguyen Sinh Cung.Vietnam was but a colony of France at the time. Life was hard under French rule as the people were just puppets for french pleasure and gain. It was at this young age that thoughts of rebellion and nationalism were in ho chi minhs mind.
Ho Chi Minh got his education at a private school ran by the French. These French schools were intended to erase the identity of the Vietnamese and to instill a loyalty to the country. Even history of French origin had to be suppressed so as to prevent any idealism. Although Ho was a talented student, he was also a rebellious one. It was because of this that he was dismissedfrom school. Those who knew Ho chi minh would say that even at his young age, he was full with political ideas that the French didn't approve of.
in 1906, Ho would have his first fight with the enemy. The French governor ordered all the mayors in the district to appear before him. His intention was to interrogate them to find out the identities and whereabouts of Vietnamese rebels. Ho went in place of his mayor, eager to stand against the French. He tossed all his fears to the side, and castigated the governor vehemently. The governor, who wielded great power, could have easily sent Ho to prison, but he was caught off guard by ho chi minhs courage, and was really impressed by it.
In 1912, Ho would become a cooking assistant aboard a French merchant ship. He would then become a cook at the Carlton, an expensive London hotel. Here he would see a society much like his own, with two classes of people; the wealthy and the poor. World War 1 would erupt in 1914. Ho signed up to work abord ships delivering supplies between England and the United States.
Ho Chi Minh returned to Europe in 1917 during the days of World War 1. living in Paris, he found himself surrounded by many French workers and thinkers that regarded him as being on an equal footing./ He was struck by the similitarities between a European worker and that of the exploited people of the colonies, which he wrote write about in one of his articles.
fn france, in 1918, Ho Chi Minh tried to win independence from French colonial rule and was ignored. In 1919, he petitioned the powers at the Versailles peace talks for equal rights in Indochina. He soon helped form the Communist Party and spent a lot of time in Moscow. He later moved to Hong Kong, where he founded the Indochinese Communist Party.
After adopting the name Ho Chi Minh, or "He Who Enlightens," he returned to Vietnam in 1941 and declared the nation's independence from France. He led the independence movement in 1941, directing successful military action against the Japanese occupation forces and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946-1954). He then became president of the democratic republic of vietnam.
In 1954, he signed an agreement with france which recognized Vietnam as an independent state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. On March 6, 1946, he led a force in trying to re-unite North Vietnam with South Vietnam through invasion during the 1960s. Ho led a nearly continuous war against the French and, later, the American s of South Vietnam until his death in 1969.
My resources and information for this paper have come from the following websites/books:
http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hochiminh.html http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhochiminh.htm http://www.vietquoc.com/0007VQ.HTM http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/ho-chi-minh/biography.htm http://www.paralumun.com/warhochiminh.htm http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/h/ho/ho_chi_minh.html http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNhotrial.htm http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hochi.htm World Leaders Past and Present: Ho Chi Minh