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Ho Chi Minh Facts
for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting information, history and
facts on Ho Chi Minh for kids. The Americans nicknamed the
Truong Son Road the 'Ho Chi Minh
Trail' after the communist leader of the North Vietnamese.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts for kids
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 1: Ho Chi Minh was
born Nguyen Sinh Cung, aka Nguyen Ai Quoc, but in later life adopted the name
of Ho Chi Minh meaning "He Who has been enlightened".
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
2: He was born on May
19, 1890, in Kim Lien, a small village in Annam in
Central Vietnam. The country of Vietnam had been under
French control since 1862 and had divided the country
into three separate states consisting of Cochin China
(South Vietnam), Annam (Central Vietnam), and Tonkin
(North Vietnam).
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 3: He was educated at a local
school and then in 1907 went on to study at the Franco-Vietnamese
academy in Hue. After graduating he briefly worked as a
schoolteacher in the town of Phan Thiet.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 4: In 1911 Ho left Vietnam. He had decided to travel
and made his way to Marseille, France. He visited various cities in
Europe, including London, where he witnessed the outbreak of World
War I (1914 - 1918). Moving back to Paris, France in 1917 he became
became involved in anti-colonial and communist activism.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 5: Ho helped to found the Association for Annamite
Patriots, composed of Vietnamese living in France who opposed the
colonial rule of Vietnam by the French.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 6: After WW1, Ho
wrote a petition for the independence of Vietnam at the
Paris Peace Conference in January 1919 at Versailles
and, although the petition was failed to be recognized,
his patriotic efforts gained recognition in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 7: Ho became a
founding member of the newly created French Communist
Party, founded in December 1920, supporting the ideas of
Vladimir Lenin following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
He strongly supported to the principles of Communism,
that was based on the collective ownership of property and the organization of labor.
He admired the efforts of
Joseph Stalin who was transforming the USSR peasant society into an
industrial and military superpower.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 8: In 1923 Ho
traveled to the USSR and met with influential
communists, including Stalin and Trotsky, and was
trained in revolutionary and organizational techniques
as an agent of the Comintern. (Comintern advocated world
communism and promoted the spread of revolution and
communism abroad).
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
9: In 1925 Ho
traveled to China with Mikhail Borodin, a prominent Comintern agent, to promote the Chinese Nationalist
revolution. During this time Ho formed the Thanh Nien,
the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League, composed of
Vietnamese exiles living in China and dedicated to
revolution in Vietnam. WhilST operating in China, Ho was
known by the Chinese name of Sung Man Cho.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 10: In 1927 Chiang
Kai-shek, a nationalist party leader, launched a violent
anti-communist purge. In response
Mao Zedong, a founding
member of the Chinese Communist Party led the Autumn
Harvest Uprising, the first armed uprising by the
Communists. The uprising failed and Ho Chi Minh was
forced to leave China.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
11: Ho fled to the
Soviet Union but, as an agent of the Comintern, made
frequent trips back to China to recruit Vietnamese
exiles as members for Thanh Nien. The Thanh Nien, the
Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League, was designed to
prepare the ground for a revolutionary armed struggle
against the French occupation in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 12: Ho Chi Minh arrived in Hong
Kong in 1929 in a bid to organize communist revolutionaries across
Asia. In 1930, whilst in Hong Cong, Ho founded the Communist Party
of Vietnam (CPV), later called the Communist Party of Indochina (ICP).
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 13: In 1930 and 1931 the first
Vietnamese peasant revolts, organized by communists, erupted in
Vietnam but were suppressed by French forces in collaboration with
Ngo
Dinh Diem.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 14: In 1931 the British
authorities in Hong Cong, tipped off by the French, arrested Ho Chi
Minh for his involvement in revolutionary activities. After a
twenty-month prison term at Victoria Prison in Hong Cong, Ho was
released and returned to Moscow.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 15: In 1937 China was subjected to
attacks by the Japanese and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
broke out. In 1938 Ho Chi Minh, again acting as a Comintern agent,
traveled to China to serve as a military advisor for the Chinese
Communist Party.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 16: In September 1940,
the Japanese invaded French Indochina, the federation of
states controlled by the French consisting of the
countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In the same
year Germany invaded France. The Second World War (1939
- 1945) drastically weakened the grip of France on
Indochina making colonial governance from France
impossible.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 17: As the Japanese
forces moved into Vietnam in 1940, the French colonial
authorities agreed to allow Japanese occupation under
the condition that the French colonial administration
not be dismantled.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 18: Ho Chi Minh
returned to Vietnam in 1941 and formed the communist
Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) to
counter the Japanese invasion of Vietnam. It was around
this time that he adopted the name 'Ho Chi Minh meaning
"He Who has been enlightened".
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 19: The Viet Minh (League
for the Independence of Vietnam) was formed in 1941 to counter the Japanese invasion of Vietnam.
The Viet Minh, led by Ho, were totally committed
to Vietnamese independence
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 20: In July 1942 he
returned to China to meet the Nationalist leader Chiang
Kai-shek in attempt to gain support against Japan. Just
after he entered China he was arrested by the
Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) authorities in China and
briefly imprisoned before he was rescued by Chinese
communists. He then returned to Vietnam.
Continued...
Ho Chi Minh
Facts for kids
Facts
about the Ho Chi Minh for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about Ho Chi Minh.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts for kids
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 21: In July and August
1945, the Allied Powers met in Berlin for the Potsdam
Conference and agreed to partition Vietnam into a
Northern and a Southern region.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 22: At the end of WW2
in 1945 Japan
handed Vietnam to the Viet Minh. French troops arrived back in Vietnam
to re-establish French rule.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts - 23: In September 1945
Ho Chi Minh declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
and became its first prime minister
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
24: In 1946 war broke out between the French and
the Viet Minh.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
25: Between 1946 and
1954, Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Minh to fight against the French
for control of Vietnam, known as
the Indochina War. In 1949
Communist China was established and following
negotiations with Ho Chi Minh allowed the Viet Minh to train in China, away from French attacks.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
26: The Battle of Dien
Bien Phu (March 13, 1954 – May 7, 1954) ended the French
effort to retain Vietnam in the
Indochina War.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
27: The Geneva Accords
of 1954 were designed to secure peace in Vietnam and
organize an interim government in Vietnam pending
elections in 1956 to reunify the country and Vietnam’s
transition to independence
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
28: Ho Chi Minh became the first president of
communist North Vietnam (1954-1969) and the leader of the People's Army of
Vietnam (PAVN or North Vietnamese Army) and
Ngo
Dinh Diem proclaimed the formation of the
Republic of Vietnam and became President of South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
29: The United States
promised $100 million worth of aid to the anti-communist
Vietnam, in line with the
US Policy of Containment
to restrict the spread of communism.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
30: Ngo
Dinh Diem
cancelled the General Election that had been agreed in
the Geneva Accords, Ho Chi Minh and
his followers began their mission to reunify
Vietnam. Ho organized a guerrilla army known as the
Viet Cong who formed armed guerrilla groups to fight in
the jungles of South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
31: The Viet Cong were
Vietnamese supporters of the communist National
Liberation Front (NLF or National Front for the
Liberation of the South) who used guerrilla warfare in
South Vietnam between 1959 and 1975 in an attempt
to topple President
Ngo Dinh Diem and his American
backers.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
32: The
Vietnam
War (1955 - 1975) started
on November 1, 1955. Fighting began between Diem's
forces in South Vietnam against the communist North
Vietnamese and the Viet Cong guerrillas.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
33: President Dwight
D. Eisenhower increased aid and sent hundreds of
military advisors to train South Vietnam's army in order
to keep South Vietnam from falling under the control of
communism.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
34: Despite the
assistance to South Vietnam from the United States, the
Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong gained more power and
influence because many Vietnamese opposed
Ngo Dinh Diem's corrupt,
anti-communist government and its anti Buddhist laws.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
35: The 'Buddhist
Crisis' started on June 11, 1963 in which Buddhist monks
committed suicide by burning themselves to death as a
public protest to the persecution of Buddhists by the
South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
36: The 'Buddhist
Crisis' and Diem's brutal dictatorship convinced
President Kennedy that Diem would never be able to unite
the South Vietnamese against communism. Vietnamese
generals launched a US-backed military coup and seized
power on November 1, 1963.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
37: On November 2,
1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. Diem was replaced
by Nguyen Van Thieu, the chief of staff of the Armed
Forces of South Vietnam. The new government grew
increasingly weak and unstable and the USA became even
more involved in the Vietnam War.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
38: The Gulf of Tonkin
Incident occurred on August 2, 1964 when the American
destroyer USS Maddox came under attack by three North
Vietnamese torpedo boats. Lyndon B. Johnson signed
Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, on August 10, 1964, giving President
Johnson a free hand to escalate the war in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
39: The first US
combat troops were sent to Vietnam in March 1965 and
began a full military campaign against the Viet Cong in
South Vietnam. Direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam
War would last until 1973.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
40:
On January 30, 1968, during Tet the Vietnamese new year,
a massive surprise attack, master-minded by Ho Chi Minh,
was launched by the Vietnamese. The surprise attack
became known as the 'Tet Offensive'
in which the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla
forces began a coordinated series of ferocious attacks
on more than 100 south Vietnamese towns.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
41:
On March 16, 1968, the
My Lai Massacre saw the mass
killing of unarmed South Vietnamese people most of whom
were old men, women and children. When news of the
massacre emerged in November 12, 1969, together with
details of a US cover-up and attempted whitewash, public
opinion in America shifted against fighting in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
42:
Ho Chi Minh did not live to see the end of the
Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh died on September 2, 1969 at
the age of seventy-nine years old.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts -
43: In 1975, North
Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of South Vietnam
and toppled the South Vietnamese government. Vietnam was
officially united under a communist government in 1976.
Ho Chi Minh
Facts for kids
Ho Chi Minh Biography and Facts
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Facts about Ho Chi Minh for kids and schools
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Summary of Ho Chi Minh in US history
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The Ho Chi Minh, a major
event in US history
● Biography of
Ho Chi Minh
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Fast, fun facts about Ho Chi Minh
● Ho Chi Minh biography and facts
● Biography of
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