Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh, original name Nguyen That Thank (1890-1969). Vietnamese political leader. During his early years he worked as a seaman and as a labourer in France. After studying in Moscow, he founded the Indochinese Communist party in 1930 and led the Viet Minh guerrillas against the Japanese from 1941. The subsequent Indochinese War against the French (1946-54) left him in control of northern Vietnam. Following the partition of the country he became president of North Vietnam in 1954. He continued the guerrilla struggle to unite Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s. The southern capital of Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after its fall to communist guerrillas in 1975.
