Ho Chi Minh served as Prime Minister of Vietnam from 1945 to 1955, and as President of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969.
61 Facts About Ho Chi Minh
2.
Ho Chi Minh was one of the founding members of the French Communist Party.
3.
The Viet Minh defeated the French Union in 1954 at the Battle of, ending the First Indochina War, and resulting in the division of Vietnam, with the Viet Minh in control of North Vietnam, and anti-communists in control of South Vietnam.
4.
Ho Chi Minh was a key figure in the People's Army of Vietnam and the during the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975.
5.
Ho Chi Minh is known to have used between 50 and 200 pseudonyms.
6.
Ho Chi Minh wrote several books, articles, and poems in Chinese, Vietnamese, and French.
7.
Ho Chi Minh lived in his father Nguyen Sinh Sac's village of Lang Sen in Kim Lien until 1895 when his father sent him to Hue for study.
8.
Ho Chi Minh had three siblings: his sister Bach Lien, a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyen Sinh Khiem, a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother, who died in infancy.
9.
Ho Chi Minh quickly mastered Chu Han, a prerequisite for any serious study of Confucianism while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing.
10.
Ho Chi Minh's father was a Confucian scholar and teacher and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe.
11.
Ho Chi Minh 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.
12.
Ho Chi Minh's father was eligible to serve in the imperial bureaucracy, but he refused because it meant serving the French.
13.
Ho Chi Minh instead decided to begin traveling the world by working on ships and visiting many countries from 1911 to 1917.
14.
Ho Chi Minh was influenced by Pan-Africanist and black nationalist Marcus Garvey during his stay, and said he attended meetings of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
15.
Ho Chi Minh reportedly worked as either a chef or dishwasher at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing.
16.
Many authors have stated that 1919 was a lost "Wilsonian moment", where the future Ho Chi Minh could have adopted a pro-American and less radical position if only President Wilson had received him.
17.
However, at the time of the Versailles Conference, Ho Chi Minh was committed to a socialist program.
18.
Hoang Van Ho Chi Minh argued that in June 1925 he betrayed Phan Boi Chau, the famous leader of a rival revolutionary faction and his father's old friend, to French Secret Service agents in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres.
19.
Ho Chi Minh then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland, and Italy, where he sailed to Bangkok, Thailand, arriving in July 1928.
20.
In June 1931, Ho was arrested in Hong Kong as part of a collaboration between the French colonial authorities in Indochina and the Hong Kong Police Force; scheduled to be deported back to French Indochina, Ho was successfully defended by British solicitor Frank Loseby.
21.
Ho Chi Minh subsequently returned to the Soviet Union and in Moscow studied and taught at the Lenin Institute.
22.
Ho Chi Minh was the senior Comintern agent in charge of Asian affairs.
23.
Ho Chi Minh worked extensively in Chongqing and traveled to Guiyang, Kunming, and Guilin.
24.
Ho Chi Minh was using the name Ho Quang during this period.
25.
In 1941, Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Viet Minh independence movement.
26.
Ho Chi Minh oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy France and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely yet clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country.
27.
Ho Chi Minh was jailed in China by Chiang Kai-shek's local authorities before being rescued by Chinese Communists.
28.
Ho Chi Minh's new name was a tribute to General Hou Zhiming, Chief Commissar of the 4th Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army, who helped release him from a KMT prison in 1943.
29.
The OSS agreed to this and later sent a military team of OSS members to train his men and Ho Chi Minh himself was treated for malaria and dysentery by an OSS doctor.
30.
Ho Chi Minh repeatedly petitioned President Harry S Truman for support for Vietnamese independence, citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded.
31.
In 1946, future Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Ho Chi Minh became acquainted when they stayed at the same hotel in Paris.
32.
Ho Chi Minh offered Ben-Gurion a Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam.
33.
Ho Chi Minh made a compromise with their general, Lu Han, to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election that would yield a coalition government.
34.
Mus was a supporter of French colonialism in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh believed there was no danger of Chinese troops staying in Vietnam.
35.
The Vietnamese at the time were busy spreading anti-French propaganda as evidence of French atrocities in Vietnam emerged while Ho Chi Minh showed no qualms about accepting Chinese aid after 1949.
36.
On 19 December 1946, after the Haiphong incident, Ho Chi Minh declared war against the French Union, marking the beginning of the Indochina War.
37.
Ho Chi Minh replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray, therefore he walked out to seven more years of war.
38.
Arthur Dommen estimates that the Viet Ho Chi Minh assassinated between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians during the war.
39.
The 1954 Geneva Accords concluded between France and the Viet Ho Chi Minh, allowing the latter's forces to regroup in the North whilst anti-Communist groups settled in the South.
40.
Recently appointed Viet Ho Chi Minh acting foreign minister Pham Van Dong proposed elections under the supervision of "local commissions".
41.
The Viet Ho Chi Minh never accepted ICC authority over such elections, insisting that the ICC's "competence was to be limited to the supervision and control of the implementation of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities by both parties".
42.
In 1959, Ho Chi Minh began urging the Politburo to send aid to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam; a "people's war" on the South was approved at a session in January 1959, and this decision was confirmed by the Politburo in March.
43.
Ho Chi Minh nevertheless maintained considerable influence in the government.
44.
In 1963, Ho purportedly corresponded with South Vietnamese President Diem in hopes of achieving a negotiated peace.
45.
The bombing of North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh trail was halted, and American and Vietnamese negotiators held discussions on how the war might be ended.
46.
Ho Chi Minh's father was a scholar and teacher who received a high degree in the Nguyen dynasty Imperial examination.
47.
Ho Chi Minh's Vietnamese had a strong accent from his birthplace in the central province of Nghe An, but could be widely understood throughout the country.
48.
Ho Chi Minh ordered the building of a stilt house at the back of the palace, which is today known as the Presidential Palace Historical Site.
49.
Ho Chi Minh's hobbies included reading, gardening, feeding fish, and visiting schools, and children's homes.
50.
Ho Chi Minh remained in Hanoi during his final years, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of all non-Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam.
51.
Ho Chi Minh's marriage has long been swathed in secrecy and mystery.
52.
Ho Chi Minh 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.
53.
However, the marriage was unable to take place since Ho Chi Minh Khai had been detained by the British authorities in April 1931.
54.
Ho Chi Minh's funeral was attended by about 250,000 people and 5,000 official guests, which included many international mourners.
55.
Ho Chi Minh was not initially replaced as president; instead, a "collective leadership" composed of several ministers and military leaders took over, known as the Politburo.
56.
Ho Chi Minh's image is featured in many public buildings and schoolrooms, and other displays of reverence.
57.
Ho Chi Minh then founded the Peace Society of Heavenly Mediums.
58.
The Vietnamese government's attempts to immortalize Ho Chi Minh was met with significant controversies and opposition.
59.
Many authors writing on Vietnam argued on the question of whether Ho Chi Minh was fundamentally a nationalist or a Communist.
60.
Ho Chi Minh is considered one of the most influential leaders in the world.
61.
Ho Chi Minh's thought and revolution inspired many leaders and people on a global scale in Asia, Africa and Latin America during the decolonization movement which occurred after World War II.