Who was the first leader of North Vietnam during the Vietnam war?

Ho Chi Minh whose real name is Nguyen Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyen Tat Thanh and Nguyen Ai Quoc was a Vietnamese revolutionary leader following the path of communism.

He organized and led the Viet Minh to fight for Vietnamese Independence. He became more popular for his declaration of Vietnam independence from France, which paraphrased a part of the U.S declaration of independence that says “All men are created equal…” Since 1945, he became a prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). In the late 1950s, Ho Chi Minh organized another communist guerrilla movement widely known as Viet Cong in South Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh was the key figure and held the main leadership of North Vietnam during both wars in the country. He remained as a great source of inspiration for the Vietnamese who were fighting for a united Vietnam as in his wish after he officially stepped aside in 1965 and even after his death in 1969. The final offensive against Saigon – the capital of South Vietnam in 1975 was named after him (the Ho Chi Minh Campaign). Vietnam was reunified under the Communist rule after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, nearly 30 years after Ho’s declaration of independence and 6 years after his death. Soon after that, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh city in honor of his vast contributions to Vietnam.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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41 Comments

Kathryn Cavanagh

Ho Chi Minh first asked for help from western countries to rid Vietnam of the French, who were not treating the local people with any dignity at all. When no help was found ho chi Minh went to china for help. THAT is where the communism came into it.

dvdeaton

Terms like “communist “ or “Democratic “ are useless. Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese NATIONALIST who was more interested in what his people wanted, freedom from OUTSIDE RULE!! The US should have taken from the British: besides in a world war, don’t align oneself with the French!!! While some cities in Vietnam have prospered, so many bombs were dropped on that country and so many Vietnamese people, both North and South were killed, in a war we “lost,” that Vietnam invaded former ally Cambodia in 1979, that’s how economically devastated that country was left in a war it “won.” Kind of a “Pyrrhic “ victory for the Vietnamese..

Gustavo Aristizabal Tobon

"Uncle Ho", as he was called by his people, was a nationalist, who had to turn into communism to get the help he needed to get rid of the French. U. S's. biggest stupidity was to get involved in that war when Ho had become a communist instead of having helped him in getting rid of the French!!!

Cheryl McMeekin

Remember him from History class

Donna Smith

Got the correct answer

usha

Clicked known name and surprised to find it correct

Joanne Serin

GreedyJoel, I remember that and as a naive high school sophomore, I believed it for a year or 2.

GreedyJoel

It has always interested me how flawed the “Domino Theory” was. It predicted that all of Southeast Asia would become a Communist staging ground. I believe the Pentagon Papers debunked that theory.

mwhitedd

He was essentially a NATIONALIST much like TITO. His membership in the Communist Party was the only thing Communist about him. His methods of achieving nationalism were socialist. He died in 1969, Diem was assassinated in 1963 right before JFK.