The life of President Ho Chi Minh is a pure and noble life of a great communist, an outstanding national hero, an outstanding international soldier. He fought tirelessly and devoted his whole life for the Fatherland, for the People, for the communist ideal, for the independence and freedom of nations, for peace and justice in the world.
President Ho Chi Minh, whose childhood name was Nguyen Sinh Cung, and when he went to school he was Nguyen Tat Thanh. During many years of revolutionary activities he used the name Nguyen Ai Quoc and many other aliases and pen names. He was born on May 19, 1890 in Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district, Nghe An province; he died on September 2, 1969 in Hanoi.
Sen Village in Kim Lien Commune, Nam Dan District (Nghe An) is the place where President Ho Chi Minh was born and also where he lived during his childhood. This place still preserves the rustic thatched house, lotus pond, sacred memories associated with Uncle Ho's family and childhood.
He was born into a patriotic Confucian family and grew up in a locality with a tradition of heroic patriotism and resistance to foreign invaders. Living in a country under the yoke of French colonialism, his childhood and youth witnessed the suffering of his compatriots and the anti-colonial struggles. He soon had the will to expel the colonialists, gain independence for the country and bring freedom and happiness to his compatriots.
On June 5, 1911, from Nha Rong Wharf, the patriotic young man Nguyen Tat Thanh boarded the ship Amiral Latouche Tréville, beginning his journey to find a way to liberate the nation and the country.
1911
With boundless patriotism and love for his people, in 1911, he left his homeland to go to the West to find a way to liberate the nation.
Nha Rong Wharf in the past, where the patriotic young man Nguyen Tat Thanh left to find a way to save the country.
From 1912 to 1917
From 1912 to 1917, Nguyen Tat Thanh visited many countries in Asia, Europe, America, and Africa, living among the working people. He deeply sympathized with the miserable lives of the working people and colonial peoples as well as their sacred aspirations. He soon realized that the struggle for national liberation of the Vietnamese people was part of the common struggle of the world's people. He actively worked to unite people of all nations to gain freedom and independence.
At the end of 1917 , he returned to France from England to continue his activities in the overseas Vietnamese movement and the French workers' movement. In 1919, taking the name Nguyen Ai Quoc, he represented Vietnamese patriots in France and sent to the Versailles Conference a petition demanding freedom for the Vietnamese people and also freedom for the people of the colonies.
Nguyen Ai Quoc attended and spoke at the 18th National Congress of the French Socialist Party in Tours city, December 26, 1920. Photo: Archive/VNA
December 1920
Under the influence of the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and Lenin's Theses on the National and Colonial Questions, in December 1920, Nguyen Ai Quoc attended the 18th Congress of the French Socialist Party and voted for the Party to join the Third International, the Communist International, and became one of the founders of the French Communist Party. From a patriot to a communist, he affirmed that the revolutionary path to national liberation in the new era was the path of Marxism-Leninism and the great Russian October Revolution.
1921
In 1921, together with a number of patriots from the French colonies, Nguyen Ai Quoc founded the Colonial Union. In April 1922, the Union published the newspaper “The Miserable” (Le Paria) to unite, organize and guide the national liberation movement in the colonies. Many of his articles were included in the work The Indictment of the French Colonial Regime, published in 1925. This was a research work on the nature of colonialism, awakening and encouraging the people of the colonies to rise up and liberate themselves.
1923
In June 1923, Nguyen Ai Quoc left France for the Soviet Union. He worked in the Communist International. In October 1923, at the First International Peasants' Conference, Nguyen Ai Quoc was elected to the International Peasants' Council. He was the only representative of colonial peasants elected to the Presidium of the Council. He attended the Fifth Congress of the Communist International, the Fourth Congress of the Communist Youth International, and the Congress of the Red Trade Union International. He persistently defended and creatively developed Lenin's ideology on national and colonial issues, directing the attention of the Communist International to the national liberation movement. Nguyen Ai Quoc was a standing member of the Eastern Department, directly in charge of the Southern Bureau of the Communist International.
November 1924
In November 1924, Nguyen Ai Quoc returned to Guangzhou (China) and selected a number of patriotic Vietnamese youth living in Guangzhou to directly open a training class for Vietnamese cadres. His lectures were compiled and printed into the book "The Revolutionary Path" - an important theoretical document that laid the ideological foundation for the Vietnamese revolutionary path.
"Thanh Nien" - Vietnam's first revolutionary newspaper
1925
In 1925, he founded the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association and published the newspaper "Thanh Nien", the first revolutionary newspaper in Vietnam to spread Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam, preparing to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam.
May 1927
In May 1927, Nguyen Ai Quoc left Guangzhou for Moscow (Soviet Union), then went to Berlin (Germany), went to Brussels (Belgium) to attend the expanded session of the General Assembly of the Anti-Imperialist War League, then went to Italy and from here to Asia.
1928 - 1929
From July 1928 to November 1929, he worked in the movement to mobilize patriotic overseas Vietnamese in Thailand, continuing to prepare for the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Conference to establish the Communist Party of Vietnam on February 3, 1930. (Painting by artist Phi Hoanh at the National Museum of History)
1930
In the spring of 1930, he chaired the Party Founding Conference, held in Kowloon near Hong Kong, which adopted the Brief Platform, Brief Strategy, and Brief Statute of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the Party Conference in October 1930 changed its name to the Indochinese Communist Party), the vanguard of the working class and the entire Vietnamese nation, leading the Vietnamese people to carry out the national liberation revolution. Immediately after its establishment, the Communist Party of Vietnam led the revolutionary movement of 1930-1931, culminating in the Nghe Tinh Soviet, the first general rehearsal of the August Revolution in 1945.
Victoria Prison, where Tong Van So (Nguyen Ai Quoc) was detained, in 1931. (Photo: baotanglichsu.vn)
June 1931
In June 1931, Nguyen Ai Quoc was arrested by the British government in Hong Kong. This was a turbulent period in Nguyen Ai Quoc's revolutionary life. In the spring of 1933, he was released.
October 1938
In October 1938, he left the Soviet Union for China to contact the Party organization to prepare to return home.
1941
On January 28, 1941, he returned home after more than 30 years away from his homeland. After so many years of longing and waiting, when he crossed the border, he was extremely moved.
Uncle Ho returned to Vietnam on January 28, 1941. Painting: Trinh Phong/qdnd.vn
In May 1941, he convened the Eighth Conference of the Party Central Committee, decided on the national salvation path in the new period, established the Vietnam Independence League (Viet Minh), organized armed forces for liberation, and built revolutionary bases.
1942 - 1943
In August 1942, taking the name Ho Chi Minh, he represented the Viet Minh Front and the Vietnam Branch of the International Anti-Aggression Association to China to seek international alliances and coordinate actions against fascism on the Pacific battlefield. He was arrested by Chiang Kai-shek's local government and imprisoned in Guangxi province. During his 13 months in prison, he wrote the book of poems "Prison Diary" with 133 poems in Chinese. In September 1943, he was released.
September 1944
In September 1944, he returned to Cao Bang base. In December 1944, he directed the establishment of the Vietnam Propaganda Liberation Army - the predecessor of the Vietnam People's Army.
Na Lua hut, Tan Lap village, Tan Trao commune, Son Duong district, Tuyen Quang province, where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked during the days of the National Conference of the Party and the National Congress (1945). Photo: hochiminh.vn
May 1945
World War II entered its final phase with the victories of the Soviet Union and its allies. In May 1945, Ho Chi Minh left Cao Bang for Tan Trao (Tuyen Quang). Here, at his request, the Party's National Conference and the National Congress met to decide on a general uprising. The National Congress elected the Vietnam National Liberation Committee (i.e. the Provisional Government) with Ho Chi Minh as President.
President Ho Chi Minh reads the “Declaration of Independence” at historic Ba Dinh Square. Photo: Archive
August 1945
In August 1945, he led the people in an uprising to seize power throughout the country. On September 2, 1945, at the historic Ba Dinh Square, he read the "Declaration of Independence", announcing the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He became the first President of an independent Vietnam.
Soon after, the French colonialists waged war, plotting to invade Vietnam once again. In the face of foreign invasion, President Ho Chi Minh called on the whole country to rise up to protect the independence and freedom of the Fatherland with the spirit: "We would rather sacrifice everything than lose our country and become slaves." He initiated a patriotic emulation movement, and together with the Party Central Committee led the Vietnamese people to conduct a comprehensive, long-term, all-people resistance war, relying mainly on their own strength, gradually gaining victory.
The Second National Congress of the Party (1951). Photo archive
At the 2nd Party Congress (1951), he was elected Chairman of the Vietnam Workers' Party. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and President Ho Chi Minh, the sacred resistance war of the Vietnamese people against the invading French colonialists achieved great victory, ending gloriously with the historic victory of Dien Bien Phu (1954), completely liberating the North.
Thai Binh farmers transport rice to pay taxes to the state at the Hoa Binh town warehouse, December 1960. Photo: VNA
Since 1954, he and the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party led the people to build socialism in the North and fight to liberate the South and unify the country.
President Ho Chi Minh delivered the opening speech of the 3rd National Congress of the Vietnam Workers' Party on September 5, 1960 in Hanoi. Photo courtesy of the Vietnam Workers' Party
At the 3rd Congress of the Vietnam Workers' Party, held in September 1960, he affirmed: "This Congress is a Congress to build socialism in the North and fight for peace and national reunification." At the Congress, he was re-elected as Chairman of the Party Central Committee.
1964
In 1964, the US imperialists launched a war of destruction by air strikes against North Vietnam. He encouraged all Vietnamese people to overcome difficulties and hardships, determined to defeat the American invaders.
President Ho Chi Minh visited a number of units, establishments and localities with many achievements in labor production. In the photo: President Ho Chi Minh visited the Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Complex Industrial Zone on the occasion of the first batch of iron produced by Blast Furnace No. 1 (January 1, 1964). Photo: Archive/VNA
He said: “The war may last 5 years, 10 years, 20 years or longer. Hanoi, Hai Phong and some other cities and factories may be destroyed. But the Vietnamese people are not afraid! Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom! When the day of victory comes, our people will rebuild our country to be more dignified and beautiful.”
1965 - 1969
From 1965 to 1969, together with the Party Central Committee, he continued to lead the Vietnamese people to carry out the revolutionary cause in the conditions of the whole country at war, building and protecting the North, fighting to liberate the South, and achieving national reunification.
On September 2, 1969 , he passed away at the age of 79. Before passing away, President Ho Chi Minh left the Vietnamese people his historic Will. He wrote: “My last wish is: Our entire Party and people unite to strive to build a peaceful, unified, independent, democratic and prosperous Vietnam, and make a worthy contribution to the world revolutionary cause.”
Carrying out his Will, the entire Vietnamese people united as one, defeated the destructive war by B52 aircraft of the American imperialists, forcing the US Government to sign the Paris Agreement on January 27, 1973, ending the war of aggression, and withdrawing all US and vassal troops from South Vietnam.
Liberation Army tanks crashed through the gate to enter the Independence Palace at noon on April 30, 1975. (Photo: Archive)
In the spring of 1975, with the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, the Vietnamese people completed the cause of liberating the South, unifying the country, and fulfilling the sacred wish of President Ho Chi Minh.
President Ho Chi Minh was the great leader of the Vietnamese people. He creatively applied and developed Marxism-Leninism to the specific conditions of our country, founded the Marxist-Leninist Party in Vietnam, founded the Vietnam National United Front, founded the Vietnam People's Armed Forces and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam). He always closely combined the Vietnamese revolution with the common struggle of the world's people for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress. He was a model of noble morality, diligence, thrift, integrity, impartiality, and extreme modesty and simplicity.
In 1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized Ho Chi Minh as a national liberation hero and great man of culture.
Today, in the cause of national innovation and integration with the world, Ho Chi Minh's thought is a great spiritual asset of our Party and people, forever illuminating the path for the struggle of the Vietnamese people to successfully complete the goal of bringing the country to socialism.
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