Ho CHi Minh - 1890 to 1969
Ho Chi Minh, otherwise known as Nguyen Tat Thanh, was a well known communist leader in Vietnam. He was born on May 19, 1890 in Kimlien in central Vietnam. Earlier in his life, Ho Chi Minh attended school in Hue Vietnam and taught a little in Phan Thiet. Ho Minh’s attachment to Communism began when he started participating in radical movements and founding the French Communist Party shortly after World War I. After being forced to leave China for leading Communist revolutions in 1924, Ho Chi Minh returned to create the Indochinese Communist Party or (ICP) during the year of 1930. Ho Chi Minh was later arrested in 1931 by British Police for serving as a representative for the Communist International.. After being released in 1933, Ho Chi Minh began fighting for a new goal; freeing the Vietnamese from the colonial influence such as Japanese, American and French Forces. To accomplish this goal, Ho Chi Minh gathered Guerilla troops and formed the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh stared by attacking Japan with weapons supplied by neighboring countries. Japan had easily surrendered to the Guerilla members due to the loss of WWII in 1945. Later, France came in to fight with the Viet Minh in the first Indochinese war until they realized that they could not afford to continue fighting in Vietnam. France was forced to surrender on May 7, 1954 since they had been out-strategized and had few allies that were willing to assist. The last problem with Ho Chi Minh was that he supplied and gave rise to the organization of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF) or Vietcong. This organization with it’s military tactics from Mao Zedong, was known as the Guerilla Warfare. The only way to stop this force was to initiate operation Rolling Thunder which was used to destroy Vietnam economy to stop them from aiding the NLF and this plan also issued many bombs to Vietnam for three whole years. It is evident that Ho Chi Minh’s devotion to communism lead to the Vietnam War. He played a huge part in the war through his influence on many Vietnamese armies.