Ho Chi Minh's Role In Vietnam

1. Introduction

Ho Chi Minh, born on the 9.05.1890 in Huang Tru during the French occupation of Vietnam, experienced the brutal and exploiting French colonialism with all its consequences already in a very young age. In the 1980 's, French had full control over the Union of Indochina which were formed by the three countries: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam itself was separated into three states such as Cochin China, Annam and Tonkin. Ho, influenced by his father, a confucian teacher, early developed an anti-colonial sentiment which would intensify over the years and was influenced by different political theories1.Resulting of this anti-colonial sentiment and his contact to Communism, Ho Chi Minh has played a vital role in freeing Vietnam

It was the day the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was founded and one of the biggest success Minh could recall throughout his career11.

However, the defeat of Japan has not only given the ICP and Minh the chance to re-win the Vietnamese country but also to the Chinese and the French. In 1946, the Chinese Guomindang/Kuomintang troops arrived in the attempt to take over the northern part in Vietnam which contradicted the independence of the DRV. As also the French, on the victor side of World War II, re-entered Vietnam and took over control again, the DRV had no real legal authority and the weakness of the Viet Minh seemed to make it impossible for the ICP to establish full control of the territory.

Ho Chi Minh emphasized the necessity of the Chinese to resile out of Vietnam as he referred to the last time the Chinese stayed in

Unfortunately the Viet Minh was still not capable of threatening the French troops especially due to a lack of arms but Ho did not see any other opportunity than launching a war in 1946 against the French. The First Indochina War had started and was a rebellion against the French 's abandonment of the negotiation settlements and their even more violent and oppressing rule than before the World War.

Ho, perceived by many scholars as peaceful, had to accept “the inevitable and issued a personal appeal to the 'entire people ' to wage the resistance war”14.

The war was a bloody war, costing many lives on the French but especially the Vietnamese side but eventually, although predicted differently lead to the victory of the Vietnamese over the French. A significant moment in history as it was the first time a colonial power was defeated by its colony.

Within the last year of the fightings, the Geneva Conference was held in 1954 in order to find a settlement between the French and the Vietnamese. The problem of the Conference was that the members were divided into the United States, China-Soviet and the DRV under Ho, who all were in favor of different outcomes.Three options were presented: “a1: the status quo, a continuation of the