Hồ Chí Minh

Hồ Chí Minh (Chữ quốc ngữ: Hồ Chí Minh; Hanzi: 胡志明; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and Marxist–Leninist politician who served as the 1st President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969. He is colloquially known in Vietnam as Uncle Ho. During his life, he used between 50 and 200 pseudonyms in order to conduct his revolutionary activities. Aside from being a revolutionary, Ho Chi Minh was also a writer, a poet and a journalist highly critical of colonialism and imperialism. He wrote many books, articles and poems in French, Chinese and Vietnamese and was also a polyglot. Ho Chi Minh is famous for his 30 years of traveling around the globe, learning from western bourgeois regimes and finally discovering Marxism–Leninism.

Ho Chi Minh joined the Communist Party of France in 1920, studied in the Soviet Union in 1923, joined the Communist International in 1924, and carried out revolutionary activities in China from 1924 to 1927. In 1930, he founded the Communist Party of Indochina, and in 1941 he initiated the establishment of the Vietnam Independence League, which led the struggle against both French colonialism and Japanese imperialism.

Ho Chi Minh was elected President and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in March 1946, Chairman of the Central Committee (CC) of the Vietnam Labor Party (now the Communist Party of Vietnam) from February 1951 to 1969, and led the war against the French colonialists from 1945 to 1954, and the war against the United States and its lackeys in the 1960s. He passed away in Hanoi on 2 September 1969, at the age of 79. In 1976—one year after the Liberation of Saigon—the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honour of the former revolutionary and father of the nation.

Life

Early life in Vietnam

Kim Liên - family

In 1890, Ho Chi Minh was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung and raised in Kim Liên village, in the province of Nghệ An as a child of a rural teacher named Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (his father) and of a weaver named Hoàng Thị Loan (his mother). At that time, Vietnam was suffering from French colonialism stemming in 1858. Despite many struggles of resistance, the French colonialists consolidated its occupation by 1884. However, many uprisings of rebels seeking to re-establish the feudal system still persisted including those of Phan Đình Phùng (1885 - 96) and of Hoàng Hoa Thám (1884 - 1913).

He was the third child in the family. The eldest sister was born in 1884, named Nguyễn Thị Thanh and his older brother, born in 1888 was named Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm.

He and his family lived in the village of Hoàng Trù where his grandparents would teach Confucianism and writing to the children of the village. There, Ho Chi Minh was exposed to the Vietnamese stories, songs and fairytales.

Huế and the death of his mother

In 1895, his father took the family to Huế by foot through the rural countryside. They would lived in an army barrack near the Governor's building as his father was preparing for an entrance examination to become a Mandarin. 3 years later, in 1898, his father would move the family to Dương Nỗ village, 7km from Huế, to teach children and Ho Chi Minh himself to write in Chinese characters. The family would live in the abandoned home of Nguyễn Sĩ Khuyến.

In 1901, as Ho Chi Minh had moved into Huế again with his mother while his father and brother had gone to Thanh Hóa to attend the entrance exam, his mother gave birth to the fourth child - Xin. Unfortunately, Xin would died due to malnutrition and his mother would soon died as well. Devastated, he would moved to Kim Liên with his grandmother for a little while. Not long after, he was informed that his father had passed the entrance exam as a Phó bảng "Junior Doctor". As per Confucian tradition, his father gave him a new name: Nguyễn Tất Thành.

Young student

By now, Ho Chi Minh was attending formal classes with the scholar Vương Thúc Quý, a son of a rebel who fought the French, and then had gotten good with Chinese characters. The scholar was also regionally famous and had intellectuals visiting him, chief among them was the infamous Phan Bội Châu whom Ho Chi Minh would take inspiration from to fight for an independent Vietnam.

In September 1905, Ho Chi Minh was admitted into the French-Native primary school in Vinh city (12.5km from his birth place). Here, he was introduced to the ideals of the French Revolution. Not long after in June of 1906, he went to Huế again with his father. Ho Chi Minh began to attend a cours préparatoire at the French-Viet primary school in Thừa Thiên province.

By the time he was attending the higher cours élémentaire, protest and unrest were rampent in Huế due to high taxes on the Peasants. Ho Chi Minh, now an 18-year-old, joined the protestors. The demonstration however, was brutally repressed and hundreds of weaponless peasants were massacred by the colonialist troops. Ho Chi Minh was subsequently expelled from the primary school and was closely monitered by the French colonialist afterwards. He then attended the higher cours moyen at the prestigious Quốc Học - Huế highschool by the alias of Nguyễn Sinh Côn. He has by now, became very conscious of the oppression dealt by the colonialists on the native Vietnamese and is also inspired by the rebelious acts against the French by king Thành Thái and Duy Tân.

Teacher

In the summer of 1909, Ho Chi Minh moved to Quy Nhơn province (400km from Huế) to study the cours supérieur at the French-Viet primary school in Quy Nhơn province by his new teacher - Phạm Ngọc Thọ. He would moved again to Saigon in 1910 but ran out of cash. This prompted him to teach physical education at the privately owned Dục Thanh School in Phan Thiết (175km from Saigon).

In February 1911, Ho Chi Minh finally embarked on his journey towards Saigon and beyond. He invited a friend to join him but was refused so he applied to work as a kitchen assistant for the merchant ship Amiral Latouche Tréville which was going to Marseille.

Activism abroad

First voyage

Ho Chi Minh, under the name of Văn Ba, had left from Saigon to travel to France. The purpose of his departure was only revealed to him more than ten years later when answering the Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam:

“For us, all white folks were French, said so the French. And from that time, I really wanted to get acquainted with their civilization, to find out what was hidden behind those words of “liberty, equality and brotherhood”.

Another time, when answering Anna Louise Strong in 1965, he said: “The Vietnamese people, including my father, at that time often asked among ourselves who would be the one to save Vietnam from French domination. Some people thought it would be the English, others thought it would be the Americans. I had to go abroad to see it for myself. After examining how they operate, I will return to help my compatriots”.

The Amiral Latouche Tréville would carried Ho Chi Minh to Singapore, Colombo, through the Suez Canel to Port Sa'id and finally reaching the harbour of Marseille on July 6, 1911 after a month at sea. Whilst waiting for the ship to unload its cargo Ho Chi Minh witnessed the poverty of the urban Proletariat. He realized that not all Frenchmen were the same and that the colonialists in Indochina didn't represent the French working class.

Second voyage

In mid July, Ho Chi Minh was on sea again, this time travelling towards the port of Le Havre, Dunkerque, and back to Marseille. In mid September, he would wrote a petition to the French President and the French Minister of Colonies expressing his wishes to study at the école Coloniale located in Paris but was refused.

Third voyage

Ho Chi Minh went back to Saigon on the Amiral Latouche Tréville in early November and sent the little money he had to his father.

Voyages of 1912

Throughout 1912, Ho Chi Minh would embark on a worldwide journey across the globe to places such as the continent of Africa, stopping at ports in several countries such as Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Tunisia, Congo, Dahomey, Senegal and Reunion. The sufferings of Colonialism were deeply felt by Ho Chi Minh and would leave a lasting impression on him.

In America

In late December, Ho Chi Minh arrived in the United States of America under the new name of Paul Tất Thành. He worked multiple jobs in New York City and at in Massachusetts. At Boston, he worked as a baker for the Parker House Hotel and witnessed the terrible conditions of African-American workers. It is also known that he visited Harlem and attended the meetings of the African-American activist Marcus Garvey. However, his stay in America was relatively short as he would leave for England in early 1913.

In England

Ho Chi Minh's ship stop at Le Havre and then to South Hampton. After arriving in England, in order to make a living, he worked as a snow shoveler for a school. He found another job as a furnace stoker. After two weeks off from his job as a furnace stoker due to a cold, Ho Chi Minh went to work at the Drayton Court Hotel, West Ealing in London.But his most important position was a pastry chef in the Carlton Hotel in London. Every day, early morning and afternoon, that is, before and after working hours to earn a living, he diligently studied by himself. Every week, on his day off, he studied English with an Italian professor. Ho Chi Minh also learned Esperanto between 1914 and 1917 in his stay in England.

Political life in France

At the end of 1917, Ho Chi Minh moved to France at the height of the First World War. His goal was to meet up in Paris with the Liberal revolutionary leader Phan Chu Trinh which he succedeed. He also joined the Groupe des Patriotes Annamites (The Group of Vietnamese Patriots). It was in France that Ho Chi Minh met Michele Zecchini, member of the Italian Socialist Party, which at that time represented the revolutionaries of the colonies alongside the French Socialist Party.

1918 - Patriot

According to Michele Zecchini, in 1918, Ho Chi Minh was the authorized representative of the Overseas Workers' Association and was hiding in a rented room on la rue de Charonne. At that time, his comrades in the Socialist Party had not yet found him legal papers. So Zecchini arranged for him to move to a new place, in the 13th Arrondisement, at the house of a Tunisian friend named Moktar. As the war was not over, and there were constant raids and arrests of deserting colonial soldiers. To ensure his safety, Ho Chi Minh had to limit his movement. When Moktar was not home, he was not allowed to light the lamp or make a fire. Every evening, Moktar would come home from work, make dinner for him, save some for the next day.

Ho Chi Minh later that year visited the island of Réunion to visit the former king Thành Thái who was under house arrest. He had left a good impression on King and recalling this, in 1947, he remarked:

“I am old now and have no intention of returning to political life. Moreover, Ho Chi Minh was a representative of the revolutionary movement of the Vietnamese people and to me he was no stranger. As early as 1918, when he fled abroad, he came to see me on Réunion. From that point on, I saw him as an enthusiastic and wise nationalist.”

1919 - Socialist Party

In 1919, he began to use his second best known name - Nguyễn Ái Quốc. When joining the Socialist Party, Ho Chi Minh had the opportunity to be close to and work with famous French political and cultural activists such as Marcel Cachin, Paul Vaillant Couturier, Leon Blum, Raymond Lefebvre, Jean Longuet, Gaston Monmousseau, etc. By now his activities were closely monitered by the French authorities. In fact, Nguyễn Quang Lâm, pseudonym “Jean,” was a French intelligence agent that acted as a Vietnamese intellectual to record the activities of Ho Chi Minh.

From June 7 to 11, Ho Chi Minh was living on 10 rue de Stockholm in the 8th Arrondisement.

Claims of the Annamite people

On June 18 1919, as he was staying at 56 rue de Monsieur de prince in the 6th Arrondisement, Ho Chi Minh petitioned for recognition of the civil rights and of the right to self-determination of the Vietnamese in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles peace talks and to President Woodrow Wilson.

Since the victory of the Allies, all the subjugated peoples tremble with hope at the prospect of an era of law and justice that must begin for them by virtue of the formal and solemn commitments made in front of the whole world by the various Allied powers during the struggle of Civilization against Barbarity. While waiting for the principle of Nationalities to pass from the realm of the ideal to that of reality through the effective recognition of the sacred right of peoples to self-determination, the People of the Former Empire of Annam, now French Indochina, present to the Noble Allied Governments in general, and to the honorable French Government in particular, the following humble claims:

(1) General amnesty for all native political convicts.

(2) Reform of the Indochinese justice system through the designation to the native people of the same judicial guarantees as to the Europeans, and the complete and definitive abolition of the Special Courts that are instruments of terror and oppression against the most honest section of the Annamite people.

(3) Freedom of the Press and of Opinion.

(4) Freedom of association and of assembly.

(5) Freedom of emigration and of traveling abroad.

(6) Freedom of education and the creation in all the provinces of technical and professional schools for the use of the natives.

(7) Replacement of the system of decrees by a system of laws.

(8) A permanent delegation of native people elected to the French Parliament to keep it informed of natives’ needs and wishes.

The Annamite people, in presenting the above-mentioned requests, count on the justice of all the Great Powers and command themselves in particular to the benevolence of the Noble French People who hold our fate in their hands and who, France being a Republic, are supposed to have taken us under their protection. By claiming the protection of the French people, the Annamite people, far from humiliating themselves, on the contrary honor themselves: for they know that the French people represent freedom and justice, and will never renounce their sublime ideal of universal brotherhood. Consequently, by listening to the voice of the oppressed, the French people will do their duty to France and to Humanity.

In the name of the Group of Annamite Patriots:

Nguyễn Ái Quốc

The petition failed but would lead to Ho Chi Minh's popularity back in Vietnam and cement his position as a figure head of the anti-colonial movement back home. He was now seen as a serious threat to the colonial government of French Indochina.

Journalist career

In July 1919, Ho Chi Minh moved to 6 Villa des Gobelins, 13th Arrondisement, to live with the lawyer Phan Văn Trường and Phan Chu Trinh. At around this point, he was an editor and publisher of many articles on L'humanité, Le Populaire, Courrier Colonial exposing the terrors of colonialism. Ho Chi Minh also had the opportunity to meet leaders of independence movements across the world that congregated in Paris.

In September, due to his popularity, Governor-General of Indochina Albert Saraut personally invited Ho Chi Minh to meet him which is recorded by the latter to the former the following day. Ho Chi Minh visited Germany for a few week at this time. Back in Paris, Ho Chi Minh wrote to exposed the lies and distorted arguments in discussions at the French Parliament by Outrey, September 18, 1919.He also met with Pierre Pasquier, an official of the French colonial ministry over the erecting of a memorial in Nogent to commerate the fallen Vietnamese soldiers of the war. Ho Chi Minh was a frequent visiter to the Sainte Geneviève library and the Jardin du Luxembourg.

In the last months of 1919, the Third International Committee of the French Socialist Party was established. The purpose of this committee was to mobilize the Party to join the Communist International and to defend the Russian revolution, which was being fiercely attacked by bourgeois governments, including the French government of Clemanceau.

Ho Chi Minh actively participated in the activities of this organization. He often went to the meeting room of the Society for the Dissemination of Knowledge in the Latin Quarter, the meeting room of the Musée near the Luxembourg Palace, the cinema on Chateau d’eau Street in the 10th Arrondisement, etc. to attend the meetings of the Third International Committee. During the meetings, Ho Chi Minh often informed his French friends about the situation in Vietnam and the crimes of the French colonialists there.

Ho Chi Minh and a number of members of the French Socialist Party went to collect money in the streets of Paris to help the Russian revolution overcome a famine, a consequence of the French Government and the governments of the Allied countries besieging the Russian SFSR. Along with collecting money, he also participated in distributing leaflets of the French Socialist Party calling on French Proletariat to condemn the French Government's armed intervention in Russia.

1920 - First Vietnamese Communist

On January 8 1920, Ho Chi Minh and a number of Vietnamese intellectuals attended a meeting of the French Geographical Society to discuss the right of self-determination of the Korean people, which mentioned the Indochina issue. 6 days later, Ho Chi Minh would spoke to the Camarades de la 14c jeunesse on the topic of the social progress of the peoples of Asia and the requests of Annam, at 3 rue du Château, with 70 people attending.

On February 11, Ho Chi Minh presented the topic of Bolshevism in Asia at the Conference of Communist Youths in the second Arrondisement. He also talked about the issue of common land in both China and Vietnam.

On International Workers' Day, Ho Chi Minh with the Socialist Party group in le Kremlin - Bicêtre. He took the stage and mentioned the issue being discussed in the newspaper L'Humanité: "The Socialist group's program of activities demands that the colonized be stopped from being sent to France."

On July 17 1920, Ho Chi Minh for the first time had accessed to Lenin's article Theses on the national and colonial questions, published in the periodical of L'Humanité. In this document, Lenin criticized all the erroneous arguments of the leaders of the Second International on the national and colonial issues and strongly condemned chauvinistic ideology, narrow-minded and selfish nationalism. At the same time emphasizing the task of the Communist Parties to aid the revolutionary movements of colonized nations, the solidarity between the proletariat of capitalist countries and the working masses of all nations to fight against the common enemy of imperialism and feudalism. It was at this crossroad that Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary path was forever changed. In mid August, Ho Chi Minh was sicked and had to stayed in Cochin Hospital.

On Christmas in the city of Tours (240km from Paris), Ho Chi Minh participated in the 18th Congress of the Socialist Party as a representative a the Indochinese people. When the Presidium introduced Ho Chi Minh, the entire Congress stood up and applauded for it was the first time a Vietnamese had participated in a congress of a French political party. He was also the only native among the colonial delegates present at the congress. Ho Chi Minh met with Clara Zetkin - the famous German revolutionary, member of the Standing Committee (CCSC) of the Comintern.

A journalist took a photo of him and printed it in Le Matin. The next day, the police came to Ho Chi Minh. Socialist Party members intervened, the secret police did not dare enter the meeting room and Ho Chi Minh still attended the congress properly.

At the afternoon session of the congress on the 26th, after the invitation of the President of the Congress Goude, Ho Chi Minh spoke. In his speech, he condemned French colonialism, which, for its own benefit, had used bayonets to conquer Indochina and that over the past half century, the Indochinese people had not only been oppressed and exploited humiliating manners. He also denounced the atrocities committed by the colonialists in Indochina, and argued that "the Socialist Party must operate practically to support the oppressed natives", that "the Party must propagate socialism in all colonial countries... correctly assess the importance of the colonial issue...".

Ho Chi Minh ended his speech with an passionated appeal: "In the name of all humanity, in the name of all socialists, both right and left, we appeal: Comrades, save us!"

On the 29th, the Tours Congress voted to decide whether the Party would stay in the Second International or join the Third International. When asked why Ho Chi Minh had voted to join the Third International, he replied: "I cannot comprehend what you implied by proletarian strategy, tactics, and many other points! But I do understand one thing clearly: the Third International pays great attention to the issue of colonial liberation... Liberation for my countrymen, independence for my homeland, that is all I ever desired, that is all I understand."

The next day, Ho Chi Minh and those who advocated joining the Third International announced the establishment of the French Section of the Communist International (SFIC). From that moment on, Ho Chi Minh became a communist. And as one of the founders of the French Communist Party, Ho Chi Minh was also the first Vietnamese communist.

At the end of 1920, Ho Chi Minh participated in a rally at the Wagram meeting room to protest against the United States government for illegally sentencing to death two Italian-American workers, Sacco and Valzetti, and demanded their freedom.

1921 - Active Propagandist

Early in 1921, Ho Chi Minh was admitted to Cochin Hospital to have an abscess in his shoulder removed. Many people visited, including Vigné d'Octon, a famous French naturalist and socialist. After 2 months, he was discharged.

During the year of 1921, Ho Chi Minh both worked as photographer and a journalist at multiple leftwing newspaper outlets, with articles that were even circulated in Indochina. On May 28, or Bloody Week (semaine sanglante), Ho Chi Minh participated in a demonstration organized by the SFIC at the Pere Lachaise cemetery to commerate the fall and masscre of communards during the Paris Commune. The police repressed the demonstration but luckily, Ho Chi Minh was able to escape.

Due to his efforts, he was held in high regards by the Vietnamese overseas communities in Paris. Not only with his countrymen but fellow brothers and sisters from colonized nations greatly admired him as a trustworthy comrade.In late Ho Chi Minh along with Algerian, Morrocan, Tunisian, Malagasy comrades created the Union intercoloniale – Association des indigènes de toutes les colonies to further strenghthen the solidarity between the oppressed nations. On Christmas, exactly a year after establishing the French Communist Party, the party held its First Congress in Marseille. Ho Chi Minh was elected as member of the Colonial Committee of the Executive Committee (EC) of the FCP. Howevever, 2 secret police agents in plain clothes were waiting and tried to apprehend him but Ho Chi Minh was able to get into the Meeting Hall in time. The congress adopted Ho Chi Minh's Draft Report "Communism and the colonies".

Exiting the hall, members of the city council and of the National Assembly gathered around and escorted Ho Chi Minh to safety infront of the plain-clothed secret agents. The next day, on Ami du peuple was the socialist's condemnation of the Marseille police: "The working class of France will not turn a blind eye to the dishonorable and illegal actions displayed by the gendarme against Nguyễn Ái Quốc. The Communist Party of France wholeheartedly stands in solidarity with Nguyễn Ái Quốc and the native proletariat - victims of colonial terror. If they desire to silence us or any member of the congress, they'll have to cross our dead bodies first before touching a hair on the Annamite representative."

1922 - Le Paria

In early January of 1922, Ho Chi Minh with the helps of the Union intercoloniale – Association des indigènes de toutes les colonies, created "Le Paria" - the newspaper of the colonies' oppressed. He was editor-in-chief of the mouthpiece.

On April 1, the first issue of Le Paria was printed. The front featured French, Arabic and Chinese writings. Le Paria denounced the political abuses of power, administrative despotism, and economic exploitation of which the people in the vast overseas territories were victims. It called on them to unite to fight for their own material and spiritual progress, exhorting them to organize for the purpose of liberating the oppressed from the forces of domination.

The next month, Ho Chi Minh would work as a photographer for Lainé on 7 Compoint, 17th Arrondisement. He asked to work in the morning so he'll have free time to write later. He later that day attended the May Day protest on 33 La Grange aux Belles.

An especially infuriating event for the Vietnamese occured in May at Marseille. The French organised the "Achievements of civilization" gallery to show off their so called "progress". One of the items displayed was the Nguyen dynasty king Khải Định, a head of state. Understandably outraged, Ho Chi Minh wrote the scathing story of "The Lamentations of Trưng Trắc" in which the soverain of Annam is visited by the spirit of the Vietnamese female rebel from the 1st century before his departure to the gallery.

Ho Chi Minh met with future leaders of the Chinese revolution including Zhou Enlai, Li Fuchun, Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Shiyan, Cai Hesen and Xiao San. After some convincing, he was able to coax them into joining the French Communist Party.

1923 - Soviet Union

On January 8, Ho Chi Minh opposed the occupation of the Ruhr region in Germany by the French army, saying:

"The proletariat of the world will never accept this!" He would spend the rest of his stay in Paris by writing for La Vie Ouvrière, handing out propaganda leaflets and attending communist meetings. By mid June, the secret police that followed him had discovered that Ho Chi Minh had completely vanished. In order to be able to leave safely, Ho Chi Minh went to work in early morning, going to the library in the afternoon, attending meetings in the evening, and went home at night, so that the French secret police could get used to his "modus operandi". He also monitered their steps: they only followed him from his boarding house to his workplace, to his reading room, to his meeting place. After that, confident that he had not gone anywhere, they left. On the evening of June 13, Ho Chi Minh boarded a bus to attend a meeting in the suburbs of Paris. About 30 minutes later, he quietly walked around to the train station. A trusted comrade was waiting there, handing him a first-class train ticket as luxury passengers were less likely to be suspected by the secret police and a small suitcase.

Under the new name of Chen Vang, Ho Chi Minh was given a safe permit by the Russian SFSR's ambassador in Berlin. He was also given a temporary residence permit by the German police to stay in Berlin. On June 25, Ho Chi Minh was given the visa to go to the USSR. With the help of the representative agency of the Russian SFSR in Berlin, he boarded the Soviet ship Karl Liebnek departing from Hamburg to Petrograd.

On June 30, Ho Chi Minh finally stepped foot in the Soviet Union. He then moved to Moscow after a short stay in Petrograd. From Moscow, Ho Chi Minh would still wrote in Le Paria and actively participated in the political life in the city. In October, he brifely met with Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Tailei.

1924

In January 1924, the news of Lenin's death shocked Ho Chi Minh. At around this time, he also met the Italian socialist Giovanni Germanetto and Indian revolutionary Manabendra Nath Roy.

In mid June, Ho Chi Minh attended the 4th Congress of the Communist Youth International. Two days later, he attended the 5th Congress of the Communist International as an advisory delegate. The Congress met at the Andreyevsky Palace in the Kremlin with the participation of 504 delegates from 49 Communist and Workers' Parties representing 1,319,000 communist party members worldwide. It was here in Moscow that he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.

Throughout his stay, Ho Chi Minh was frustrated that his trip to Guangzhou was delayed again and again. Finally, On September 25, he trip was finally approved by the Comintern.

On November 11, Ho Chi Minh stepped foot in Guangzhou as a interpreter for the Soviet delegation headed by Mikhail Borodin towards the Nationalist KMT. After the martyrdom of Phạm Hồng Thái in unsuccessfully assissinating the Gouvernor-General of French Indochina - Martial Merlin in Guangzhou 5 months earlier, there was intense revolutionary activity in the city.

1925 - Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League (VRYL)

Under the new name of Lý Thụy, and the mandate to promote the working class movement in Indochina, he opened a political training class. Under the Communist Youth Corps, most of the students were nationalist Vietnamese youth, students, intellectuals, and some of whom were Confucian scholars. To further strengthen the movement, he contacted Vietnamese exile groups in several southern Chinese cities. Along with other revolutionaries from parts of Asia, including China, Korea, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, he founded the League of Oppressed Peoples of Asia.

Ho Chi Minh was the main lecturer of the "Special Political Training Class". He took the name Vương. In addition, the lecturers also included a number of cadres from the Soviet advisory group working in China at that time and a number of cadres of the Communist Party of China such as Bang Bai (lecturing on agricultural mobilization work), etc. Each training session would last about 3 to 4 months. The class also published a "wall newspaper" posting students' articles. Sometimes, there are cultural activities or visits to the Whampoa Military Academy, visiting the graves of 72 martyrs on Huanghuagang Hill, who sacrificed their lives during the Xinhai Revolution (1911) in China.

On June 21 1925, the Revolutionary Youth League (VRYL) was officially established. The headquarters of the League was located in a rented three-story house on 13 Wen Ming Street, in downtown Guangzhou. The League published pamphlets and periodicals (in Vietnamese) on different political subjects. The Road to Revolution (Đường Kách Mệnh), a training manual for the League's members, was a collection of Ho Chi Minh's lecture notes for the training course.

Vietnamese independence movement

In early January of 1926, Ho Chi Minh was invited under the alias of Vương Đạt Nhân (王大仁) to the Presidium of the Second National Congress of the Chinese Nationalist Party to attend and speak at the 9th session of the congress.

Along side training cadres, Ho Chi Minh would write articles, correspondences, letters, essays, pamphlets to the Krestintern, Comintern and various revolutionary and nationalist organizations. In September, Ho Chi Minh assigned Nguyễn Lương Bằng (future vice president and first ambassador to the Soviet Union) to organize the movement of cadres, leaflets, papers from Haiphong to Hongkong.

In May 1927, the Republic of China government outlawed communists. Ho Chi Minh left Guangzhou for Hong Kong, then to Moscow, then went to Berlin, Brussels, attended the expanded session of the General Assembly of the Anti-Imperialist War League, then went to Italy and from there to Asia.

From July 1928 to November 1929, Ho Chi Minh worked in the patriotic overseas Vietnamese movement in Thailand, with the alias Thầu Chín (in Thai and Lao, "thầu" means an elderly person and shows respect).

Ho Chi Minh advocated agitation for overseas Vietnamese and organized them into fraternal associations, organized cultural activities, asked the Thai authorities to open schools for them, Ho Chi Minh traveled mainly on foot and campaigned in almost all areas with overseas Vietnamese in Thailand. Like in many places where he had operated, he published a newspaper - Thân ái.

At the end of 1929, Ho Chi Minh left Thailand, via Singapore to China. During the short period of time between 1929 and 1930, three communist organizations emerged in Vietnam, although newly established, had clear conflicts and competed for the support of the masses. The Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), the Annamese Communist Party (ACP) and the Indochinese Communist Federation (ICF).

On February 3, 1930, in Kowloon (九龍), Hong Kong, he unified the three communist party organizations into the Communist Party of Vietnam (later renamed after a few months into the ICP) in a conference held at a worker's house, with five other communist representatives besides himself.

In 1931, under the pseudonym Sung Man Cho (宋文初), Ho Chi Minh was arrested by the Hong Kong authorities with the intention of handing him over to the French in Indochina. The August 9, 1932 issue of L'Humanité reported that he had died of tuberculosis in a prison infirmary, and denounced this as a plot by the French colonialists in collusion with the British to assassinate the leader of the Indochinese communist movement.

In 1931, the Hong Kong police arrested Ho Chi Minh at the request of France.

In 1935, the first National Congress of CPV was established.

In September 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France by simply saying, "We are free".

See also

• Library works by Ho Chi Minh

References