Ho Chi Minh and the Success of Vietnamese Communism Essay

The French were highly involved with Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) due to the abundant harvesting riches that were favorable with their own economy. Historically, Vietnam first established the communist party through the influence of China after their conversion into a Communist country in 1949. Ho Chi Min, a nationalist leader, had

The Fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, marked the end of nearly two decades of fighting between the Russia and China backed communist North Vietnam and the US backed right wing South Vietnam. When the North Vietnamese army entered Saigon, the free world was horrified at what it believed to be major drawback in its attempt to defeat communism around the world. In accordance with the domino theory, that same year, the capitals of neighboring former french colonies, Cambodia and Laos, both of which were also run by right wing regimes supported by the US, fell to communist insurgencies Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao respectively. It took the communists three decades, millions of lives, and the destruction of billions of dollars in infrastructure and assets overthrow these western backed governments. So what gave these people, especially in Vietnam, incentive to sacrifice so much to “free” themselves from those governments and embrace communism as their system of governance? As this question is answered, it is important to identify aspects of the communist ideology that appeal to the general population, as well as how it goes along with Vietnamese culture, the actual practice and execution of the ideology.

Throughout reading multiple different sources, it was very difficult to fully assess Ho Chi Minh’s role in the Geneva Accords negotiation. The Geneva Accords allowed for a national election to determine the destiny of Vietnam in 1956. This was an election that Ho was heavily favored to win because he had a large following, and northern Vietnam was more densely populated than southern Vietnam. South Vietnam recognized this and refused to allow the election to happen, so Ho Chi Minh created the National Liberation Front for southern Vietnam. This began the second war in an attempt to unify Vietnam once again (Kirkpatrick). To his people Ho Chi Minh was known as “Uncle Ho”. He remained as a strong symbol for Vietnam’s unification (History.com Staff). While in the midst of a second war, the Vietcong, know as Guerrillas, were conducting strong revolt against the U.S. aided regime in South Vietnam. Later, Ho Chi Minh conceded his position as the party’s secretary-general; however, he remained chief of state. Since this point on, the majority of his undertakings were behind-the-scenes. Ho still continued to have an immense amount of influence in the government. His old followers dominated this. He focused on becoming more and more of a symbol to the people of Vietnam. His public personality is best symbolized by his popularly known name; Uncle Ho. Uncle Ho symbolized the idea of unification in a divided Vietnamese nation (Ho Chi

The Vietnam War was a conflict, which the United States involved itself in unnecessarily and ultimately lost. The basis of the conflict was simple enough: Communism vs. Capitalism, yet the conduct of the Vietnam War was complex and strategic, and brought repercussions which had never been seen before. The struggle between North and South had an almost inevitable outcome, yet the Americans entered the War optimistic that they could aid the falling South and sustain democracy. The American intentions for entering the Vietnam conflict were good, yet when the conflict went horribly wrong, and the resilient North Vietnamese forces, or ‘Viet Cong' as they were known, refused to yield, the United States saw they were fighting a losing battle.

Two very different leaders, one liked by many and one despised by many, are Ho Chi Minh and Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s hatred of communists completely opposes Ho Chi Minh’s ideas. However, both Minh and Hitler wanted liberation and independence for their countries to be able to function independently. They both spent their lives attempting to gain their wishes of attaining the government they viewed as best for the countries. Minh’s goal was to get Vietnamese independence from the French and to blend Communism with Nationalism. When Minh was forced to leave China because the nationalists wanted to get rid of left wing radicals, he decided to go to Russia, joined the Comintern, but continued travelling back and forth. He became the leader of the Vietnamese communist party and started a revolution with the end goal of the independence of Indochina. Like Hitler, he was placed in prison for his wishes that went against the governmental ideas that he hoped would result in freedom. After his time in prison, he founded the Viet Minh in order to finally gain independence for Vietnam. The Japanese gave up Northern Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh established himself as president of the Democratic state of Vietnam. Hitler also established himself as a leader and decided to take matters into his own hands. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong were then able to defeat the anti communist French controlled South Vietnam in the battle Dien Bien Phu. Minh fought for the freedom of others, did not let his power get to his head, and was able to get the people what they wanted, and was not fighting on behalf of himself, rather for others.

2...Ho Chi Minh was a vietnamese communist who main goal was to to gain independence: French colonization the United Sovereign and communist Vietnam wanted otherwise. he had led the North Vietnamese in an

Ho was determined to achieve independence for the region. The French wanted to regain power and took badly to Ho's proclaiming the former Indochina as 'The Democratic Republic of Vietnam' in September, as the British had persuaded the allies to return power to the French in October (Palmer, 1984). At this time bi-polarity was not yet fully entrenched and Ho appealed to the U.S. in his September speech to the masses, drawing on The American Declaration of Independence (ibid.). America influenced the celebrations and professed its friendship to the new state.

Vietnamese people wanted freedom and communist Ho Chi Minh wanted freedom for Vietnam therefore people supported him. But they all know that Vietnam belong to the French. Ho fought with French his army was in the north and he tried to get US to help him but US didn’t because he was communist and were afraid that communism would spread throughout South

Since the late 1800s, Vietnam has struggled with maintaining independence. Vietnam was under the French control but the Vietnamese wanted to break free of the harsh rules put in place by the French, so Ho Chi Minh created the Indochinese Communist Party in 1940. After the Japanese conquered Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh created the Vietminh in order to gain independence from all foreign rule. Although the Vietnamese defeated the Japanese in 1945, the French had no thoughts of pulling out of Vietnam. By the end of 1945 the French had already reentered into Vietnam and conquered the southern cities.

Assess the importance of nationalism to the Vietnamese up to 1965. A clear desire for nationalism and self-nationalism in Vietnam was evident as early as the 15th century, when historian Nguyen Trai stated “although we have been at times strong, and at times weak, we have always been Vietnamese and this will never change.” The importance and significance of nationalism and establishing a sense of self-determination was of vital concernment to the Vietnamese, in both the North and South of the country. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North) and the Republic of Vietnam (South) were both driving forces in the ambition of self-determination and their established sense of nationalism regardless of the

This investigation will answer the question, “How significant was Ho Chi Minh’s role in the Vietnam War?” This investigation is important because it describes how a leader can affect the outcome of a war. This investigation will focus on the years 1955 to 1975 and analyze Ho Chi Minh’s leadership of the Viet Minh independence movement and role as an inspirational symbol to the Vietnamese people.

For centuries Vietnam had been under Chinese rule. The Vietnamese people were an oppressed society and were exploited by the Chinese. Forced labour was brought upon the Vietnamese people, and there were many tyrannical Chinese governers along with constant demands of tribute for the Chinese rulers. There had been many revolts by

Communist activist Ho Chi Minh secretly returns to Vietnam after 30 years in exile and organizes a nationalist organization known as the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League). After Japanese troops occupy Vietnam during World War II, the U.S. military intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (OSS) allies with Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh guerrillas to harass Japanese troops in the jungles and to help rescue downed American pilots.

In an effort to answer the first question asked was Ho Chi Minh a communist I would have to say no. However there is a caveat and that is he was pushed into becoming a communist, because in his and his countrymen’s opinion they were disrespected by the West after WWII. They supported the allies, they even had a sector to monitor and maintain in Germany during WWII, but when asked to be treated equally, by the West they were cast a side by the Western leaders.

Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh was a Communist, who had announced Vietnam independent. He was a Marxist and believed in “national Communism ". Throughout the war with the French, Ho Chi Minh took refuge in northern Vietnam and settled there with his followers. He founded the Indochina Communist Party and the Viet Minh. North Vietnam was a deprived area and was cut off from the agricultural profit of South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was forced to ask assistance from main Communist allies, the Soviet Union and China. Both aided North Vietnam before and during the war. (Dong Si Nguyen, Duong xuyen Truong son: hoi uc.  Hanoi: Nha Xuat Ban Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 1999). Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. This had been a tremendously significant event in world history perhaps the most important event since the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. It marked the first occasion in human history in which a radical national movement under Communist leadership had succeeded in overthrowing the influence of a colonial state and establishing and maintaining its own new, independent form of social and political system. However, Ho’s type of communism was markedly different than that of Marxist ideology that had been the metaphorical icon of the October Revolution. alike to Jose Antonio’s fascist movement, the hierarchical communist party (later renamed the Vietminh) conformed intimately to the ideas of the person at its head, but unlike Antonio’s movement, did not