Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh was the leader of North Vietnam and a proponent for Vietnamese independence. He lived in France during World War I and was later inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution. He traveled extensively to the Soviet Union and declared himself a communist. He eventually helped develop the Indochinese Communist Party and the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh).

In 1941, Viet Minh forces took Hanoi in the North of Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh would become the president of North Vietnam, leading his forces in the long war against South Vietnam and the United States.

Ho Chi Minh means "Bringer of Light," and he adopted this name as a way to support the Vietnamese nationalist cause. After Japanese forces withdrew from Vietnam in 1945, Vietnamese forces seized the French-educated emperor, Bao Dai, in Hanoi. These forces announced that the region was the Democratic State of Vietnam, which is commonly known as North Vietnam. At a speech in Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent. He said that "All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life liberty, and happiness!"

Although this was ironically similar to the US Declaration of Independence, his message stood and became widely known throughout North Vietnam. Obviously, the relations between the US and North Vietnam were strained. The US was fighting against the Viet Minh and the northern-backed Viet Cong. This war led to a massive amount of casualties on both sides, and relationships remained tense throughout the remainder of the twentieth century.

Ho Chi Minh, despite the US's highly unfavorable opinion of him, has left a huge legacy. Although Americans viewed him as a communist, to the Vietnamese he was a revolutionary who fought for Vietnam and the nationalist cause. Today, Vietnam's largest city is Ho Chi Minh City, named after him. He was one of the leading national communists of the twentieth century, and he emphasized the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary struggle. His legacy is even more far-reaching as Vietnam has held on to many communist ideologies today.

Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/ho-chi-minh-1
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ho-Chi-Minh/The-Geneva-Accords-and-the-Second-Indochina-War
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/evolution-us-vietnam-ties
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/ho_chi_minh.shtml
https://www.biography.com/political-figure/ho-chi-minh