About Ho Chi Minh
Ho' Birth name Nguyen Sinh Cung. Ho Chi Minh translates to 'He Who Enlightens'.
Mini biography: Born 19 May 1890 in the village of Kim Lien in Annam, in central Vietnam.
1911 - He finds work as a kitchen hand on a French steamer travelling from Saigon to Marseilles.
1919 - Ho returns to France, taking the name Nguyen Ai Quoc.
1920 - Ho is a founding member of the French Communist Party
1922 - Ho travels to Moscow for the fourth congress of the Communist International
1923 - Ho returns to Moscow for training in Marxism and revolutionary techniques at the University of the Toilers of the East.
1924
- Ho travels to Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China, a stronghold of
the Chinese communists, to act as an interpreter for a Soviet mission
1927
- The communists are expelled from Guangzhou in April following a coup
by Chiang Kai-shek. Ho finds refuge in the Soviet Union.
1930 - Ho
presides over the founding of a unified Indochinese Communist Party
(ICP) at a conference of the Thanh Nein in Hong Kong on 3 February. A
program of party objectives drafted by Ho is approved by the conference.
The objectives include the overthrow of "French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary Vietnamese capitalist class"
In
September 1930 the French respond, sending in Foreign Legion troops to
suppress the rebellion. Up to 10,000 are killed. More than 1,000
suspected communists and rebels are arrested. Four hundred are given
long prison sentences. Eighty, including some party leaders, are
executed. Ho is condemned in absentia to death. He seeks refuge in Hong
Kong and again operates as a representative of the Comintern in
Southeast Asia.
By 1932 there are more than 10,000 political prisoners held in Vietnam's jails.
1931 - Ho is arrested in Hong Kong by the British police during a crackdown on political revolutionaries.
1932
- Ho is released from in prison. He flees Hong Kong and travels to
Moscow, where he will spend much of the next seven years studying at
Lenin Institute.
1938 - Ho returns to China and serves as an adviser to the Red Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
1939
- In August, on the eve of the Second World War, Germany and the Soviet
Union sign a nonaggression pact. The French Government immediately bans
the French Communist Party.
1939 - September 22, the Japanese troops invade Vietnam.
1941
- In January Ho enters Vietnam for the first time in 30 years and
organises the Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi (League for the Independence
of Vietnam), or Viet Minh.
At the same time, the Viet Minh begin a guerilla war against Japanese forces occupying Vietnam.
The
Viet Minh are initially armed by the Chinese nationalists. Funding and
assistance is subsequently provided by the Chinese Communist Party. In
1965 the Soviet Union also begins to provide military aid.
1942 -
In August, while in southern China to meet with Chinese Communist Party
officials, Ho is arrested by the Chinese nationalist government and
imprisoned for two years.
1944 - In September Ho is allowed to return to Vietnam.
During the year, and continuing into 1945, famine spreads across Vietnam. Between 1.5 and two million die of starvation.
1945
- In January, with the Second World War drawing to a close, Ho travels
to southern China to meet with US and Free French forces stationed
there.
*** The power balance in Vietnam takes a dramatic turn on
9 March when the Japanese disarm the French forces and seize full
administrative control of the country. The 1883 treaty establishing
Indochina (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) as a French protectorate is
revoked and Vietnam is declared independent under Japanese tutelage. The
ICP sees its opportunity and begins to plan for a general uprising.
However,
while the communists are able to secure most of the regional and rural
areas in the North, provinces around Saigon remain out of their control.
These areas are held by the Hao Hao, a Buddhist sect that favours
regional autonomy for the South over integration in a communist-led
national government.
On 6 August the US drops an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima in Japan. Nagasaki is bombed on 9 August. On 13 August the ICP
issues its order for a general uprising. Ho is elected head of a
National Liberation Committee created to serve as a provisional
government. Two days later Japanese Emperor Hirohito surrenders
unconditionally, ending the Second World War.
On 17 August Ho
appeals to the Vietnamese people to rise in revolution. The Viet Minh
take control of Hanoi the following day. Saigon falls to the Viet Minh
on 25 August.
*** On 28 August the Viet Minh announce the
formation of the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam (DRV - North Vietnam) with Ho as president and minister of
foreign affairs. Ho will remain as president of the DRV until his death
in 1969.
Japan formally surrenders on 2 September 1945. The same
day, half a million people gather in Hanoi to hear Ho read the
Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, based on the American
Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of
Man and the Citizen. However, the situation remains volatile.
In
the north, Chinese nationalist forces start to encroach. In the south,
the French begin to reassert control, taking Saigon in October. Within
three months they have reoccupied all of southern Vietnam.
On 20
November, following clashes between French and Vietnamese soldiers, a
French cruiser opens fire on the port of Haiphong, on the Red River
Delta 90 km east of Hanoi. Almost 6,000 Vietnamese are killed.
On
19 December the French order Viet Minh forces in the Hanoi area to lay
down their arms and relinquish their authority. The Viet Minh respond
with a counterattack, beginning the First Indochina War. The French soon
have control of Hanoi and most provincial capitals in northern and
central Vietnam. In 1947 they retake much of the DRV and consolidate
their position in the south.
1948 - The Viet Minh regroup, using
their estimated 250,000 troops to force the French from some captured
territory and to the negotiating table. The entire country is granted
nominal independence as an "associated state" within the French Union
but the underlying conflict remains.
1949 - On 1 July a French-sponsored Vietnamese Government is established in Saigon.
1950
- The US recognises the Associated State of Vietnam (ASV - South
Vietnam) and sends a group of military advisers to train the South
Vietnamese in the use of US weapons. China responds by recognising the
DRV and agreeing to provide it with limited assistance. Official
recognition of the DRV by the Soviet Union soon follows.
By the
end of the year the Viet Minh have taken complete control of the border
region with China and re-established a northern liberated zone.
1953
- Most of the North Vietnamese countryside is now under Viet Minh
control. In November the French launch a counteroffensive, capturing the
strategic town of Dien Bien Phu, close to the border with Laos, in the
northwest of the country. Ho indicates a willingness to consider a
French peace plan.
*** 1954 - A peace conference is scheduled
for 8 May, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, the European centre for
the United Nations (UN). In order to maximise their leverage at the
bargaining table, the Viet Minh decide to attempt to take a significant
French military post just before the conference begins. The target is to
be Dien Bien Phu. Over 100,000 Viet Minh troops and almost 100,000
transport workers descend on the area.
The siege of the town
begins on 13 March. By 27 March the 15,000 French troops inside have
been cut off from all support and supplies. The French surrender on 7
May, the day before the Geneva negotiations are set to begin. About
25,000 Vietnamese and more than 1,500 French troops have died during the
siege.
The Geneva peace conference begins on 8 May as planned,
continuing until 29 July when a compromise agreement is signed. Under
the agreement, a provisional demarcation line is established at the 17th
parallel. However, according to the agreement, the line "should not in
any way be interpreted as constituting a political territorial
boundary."
*** All French and South Vietnamese forces are to
move south of the demarcation line. All Viet Minh forces are to move to
its north. France will quit the country completely. National elections
to reunify the country under a single government are to be held in July
1956.
The agreement is endorsed by the DRV, France, Britain, China
and the Soviet Union. The US and the ASV withhold approval. The country
has been effectively partitioned into a communist North (governed by
the DRV) and a noncommunist South (administered by the Vietnamese
Government in Saigon). The French are gone.
*** Around 400,000
have been killed during the war, including about 75,000 from the French
Union, 200,000 Viet Minh and 150,000 civilians. Nearly a million North
Vietnamese, including much of economic class, have fled to the South to
escape the communists.
On 24 October US President Dwight D. Eisenhower offers South Vietnam direct economic aid.
1955 - Direct US aid to South Vietnam begins in January. US military advisers begin to arrive the following month.
Meanwhile,
the South Vietnamese Government launches a campaign against communist
groups inside its territory. Tens of thousands are arrested. Thousands
are killed. Buddhist sects in the South are also suppressed by the
government.
In August the South Vietnamese Government announces
that it will not participate in negotiations with the DRV over the
national elections scheduled for the following year. On 26 October South
Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam.
*** In the
North, the communists begin a campaign to reform land ownership and
eliminate landlords from rural society. The campaign, which the VWP
later admits included "a number of serious errors", will result in the
deaths of about 50,000 people.
The communists also become
increasingly intolerant of criticism from the intellectuals and members
of the bourgeoisie remaining in the North, eventually suppressing all
dissent.
*** 1957 - The communists begin to step up their
activities in the South. Armed communist "self-defence" groups start to
emerge. Several hundred government officials are assassinated, becoming
among the first in a long list. From 1957 to 1972 the communists will
assassinate over 35,000 civilians.
The government of the South
responds by arresting tens of thousands of suspected communists. Over
2,000 suspected communists are killed. The South and its allies also use
assassination to pursue their aims, killing over 20,000.
***
1959 - The country begins to slide into the Second Indochina War, or
Vietnam War. (Among the North Vietnamese the conflict will come to be
known as the 'American War'.)
*** Viet Minh troops that moved
north following the Geneva agreement filter back into the South to help
local communist guerrilla cells, known as the Viet Cong, establish
liberated zones.
*** 1960 - On 10 November the South Vietnamese
Government accuses the North of directly aiding the Viet Cong. The
following month, on 20 December, the opposition movement in the South,
including the Viet Cong, is united into the National Front for the
Liberation of South Vietnam (National Liberation Front - NLF). Led by
noncommunists, the NLF is a broad coalition of interest groups,
including communists, moderate political parties and religious groups.
***
1961 - US President John F. Kennedy decides to increase support for
the embattled government of South Vietnam, providing $US65 million worth
of military equipment and $US136 million in economic aid. By December
3,200 US military personnel are stationed in Vietnam. Within 12 months
the number has increased to 11,200.
The communists respond by
unifying all communist armed units in the South into a single People's
Liberation Armed Force (PLAF), numbering about 15,000. The NLF is also
expanded to include 300,000 members. Land reform programs are begun in
liberated areas. The Workers' Liberation Association of Vietnam is
established in the cities.
President Kennedy will later reverse
his decision and resolve instead to disentangle the US from Vietnam.
However, he is assassinated before his new program can be implemented.
His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, will further escalate the US
involvement.
1963 - In Saigon on 8 May troops from the Army of the
Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) fire into a crowd of Buddhists demonstrating
against the South Vietnamese Government, killing nine. The following
month a Buddhist monk self-immolates in protest. By the end of the year
he has been joined by six others. Student protest erupts at the Saigon
University on 24 August.
On 1 November the government is
overthrown in a US-sanctioned military coup in which the ousted
president and his chief adviser are assassinated. The communists respond
by calling for an escalation of the war.
*** 1964 - The
communist forces (North Vietnam) - control about half the total land
area and about half the population of the South. The PLAF now numbers
about 115,000 troops and is supported by troops from the People's Army
of Vietnam (North Vietnam) moving down the recently completed 'Ho Chi
Minh Trail'.
*** By July the number of US military personnel in
Vietnam has reached 16,000. In August US President Johnson approves air
strikes against North Vietnamese naval bases in retaliation for an
alleged attack on two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the north
coast of Vietnam.
*** In October the Soviet Union promises to
provide military support for North Vietnam. The aid will amount to
several hundred million dollars and include surface-to-air missiles.
Meanwhile,
the government of the South becomes increasingly destabilised by a
series of military and civilian coups, with power changing hands 10
times in 18 months.
1965 - In February the US begins a series of
air strikes known as 'Operation Rolling Thunder' against military
targets in the North. The following month 3,500 US combat troops arrive
in Vietnam. By the end of the year the US force numbers 180,000. The
figure grows to 350,000 in the mid-1966.
Australia, New Zealand,
Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines also send combat troops, and
between 30,000 and 40,000 Canadians enlist with the US military to serve
in Vietnam.
1967 - US forces in Vietnam now number close to
500,000 and US bombing raids have extended to within 16 km of the
northern border with China.
*** US President Johnson offers to
stop the bombing and join North Vietnam in peace talks as soon he is
assured that communist "infiltration into South Vietnam by land and by
sea has stopped."
*** "If the United States Government really
wants talks, it must first halt unconditionally the bombings and all
other acts of war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam," Ho
replies.
Ho dies of heart failure on 2 September in Hanoi, six years before the end of the war and the reunification of the country.
The
toll of Vietnamese dead from war will be around three million,
including over 1.5 million civilians, about one million North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong troops and about 250,000 South Vietnamese military
personnel.
The conflict will also spread into neighbouring
Cambodia and Laos, where carpet bombing and surface offensives will
result in the loss of another 950,000 lives and lead to the rise of the
genocidal dictator Pol Pot and the deaths of a further one to three
million.
US deaths in the Vietnam War will total 58,226 killed or
missing in action. The death toll for the US allies will include about
5,000 South Koreans, as many as 1,000 Filipinos, up to 1,000 Thais, 508
Australians and 38 New Zealanders. Between 55 and 100 Canadians serving
with the US will be killed.
*** An agreement on the terms for
peace is reached between North Vietnam and the US in October 1972.
However, when South Vietnam refuses to believe that the North is
sincere, the peace negotiations falter.
Acting on advice from
Henry Kissinger, who is now his national security adviser, President
Nixon orders massive night-time bombing raids on Hanoi and Haiphong to
demonstrate the resolve of the US and appease the doubters in the South.
***
During 11 days in December 1972 the 'Christmas Bombing' campaign sees
129 B52 bombers drop 40,000 tons of ordnance in what is said to be the
largest raids of their type in history. The North Vietnamese return to
the negotiating table and the bombing is stopped.
*** On 27
January 1973 all parties sign the 'Agreement on Ending the War and
Restoring Peace in Vietnam', the so-called 'Paris Accords'. The
agreement is essentially the same as the one sabotaged by Nixon and
Kissinger in 1968. It provides for a cease-fire and the full withdrawal
of US forces from Vietnam. By the end of March 1973 all the US combat
troops have been withdrawn.
*** Once they are convinced the US
withdrawal will be permanent, the communists again start to move south,
easily sweeping aside the now demoralised and ineffective South
Vietnamese troops. The communists take Saigon on 30 April 1975, bringing
the war finally to an end.
Vietnam is officially reunified as the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 2 July 1976. Saigon is renamed Ho Chi
Minh City. The VWP changes its name to the Vietnam Communist Party.
Policies
aimed, in the words of Premier Pham Van Dong, "at eliminating the
comprador capitalists as a class and doing away with all vestiges of
feudal exploitation" are introduced in the South.
Communist "study
sessions" are mandatory for all adults. Hundreds of thousands are sent
to reeducation camps. Hundreds of thousands more are forced to relocate
from urban areas to rural settlements. Those suspected of
"counter-revolutionary" activities are sent to reform camps or forced
labour camps. Around 65,000 South Vietnamese are executed. Over 100,000
die in the camps.
Between 500,000 and one million South Vietnamese
flee their homeland by whatever means possible, usually by sea. Around
200,000 of these 'Boat People' perish on their voyage.
The US refuses to recognise the new republic, severs diplomatic relations with Vietnam and imposes are trade embargo.
1994 - The US lifts the trade embargo in February.
The impact of the wars on neighbouring Cambodia and Laos resulted in the loss of at least one million other lives. Ho Chi Minh was no angel. He has a pain in his ass.
