Ho Chi Minh's Life From Essay

Vietnam was ripe for revolution by the time Ho Chi Minh returned to Indo-China. In 1929, he thought the time was ripe to form a cohesive Communist group, so he traveled to Hong Kong and urged three split parties there to form one group, the Indochinese Communist Party, who stood for independence and a proletarian government for Vietnam. Eventually he was arrested by British police, and jailed, but he persuaded an employee to say he was dead. He escaped to China and then to Moscow. He did not return to Vietnam until 1941, and he sided with the United States during World War II, because he felt they would defeat Japan, who had taken over the country, and return it to the Vietnamese when the war ended. However, France regained the country, and that made Ho Chi Minh even more determined to take back his country. In 1945, he drafted a statement about Vietnamese freedom, and hoped to inspire the United States to give back the country, but eventually, the U.S. recognized France's presence and the country took over again after the war.

Ho Chi Minh was incredibly popular with the Vietnamese people because he appealed to their sense of nationalism and outrage over the foreign intervention. The French were often cruel and unfair, and Minh played on this, along with appealing to the people. They called him "Uncle" and respected that he had always spoken out for independence. Author Karnow says, "Children scurried everywhere, and even Buddhist monks in saffron robes and black-gowned Catholic priests appeared, all for a single purpose -- to see the mysterious Ho Chi Minh" (Karnow 1997, 146). He was a legend because of his writing and speeches long before he returned to Vietnam, and he gained public support because he understood the Vietnamese people and their culture.Minh formed the Vietminh army, which began to attack French forces with great success, and that only added to his popularity in the country. More people joined his organization, and tensions in the country mounted when the Japanese stopped people from growing rice. Millions starved to death and as Japan retreated, the Vietminh began to take over. Minh grew even more popular as his troops took more control, because the people were tired of foreign domination and Minh promised a Vietnamese government that would favor the people. What ultimately drove him was his love for his country and his people, and his determination to gain independence from foreign intervention. He was a strong leader, but he always appealed to the people for support and popularity, and they loved him for his stance and his stability. He ended up losing control over South Vietnam, and eventually the area would erupt in the Vietnam War in an attempt to control Communism, but the people loved Ho Chi Minh because he fought for them throughout his life, and because he desperately loved his country enough to fight for it.

References

Karnow, Stanley. 1997. Vietnam: A history. New York: Penguin Books.

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