Ho Chí Minh.

On May 19, 1890, Nguyễn Sinh Cung was born in the village of Hoang Tru in French Indochina. He attended Quoc Hoc – Hue High School for the Gifted in Hue. He studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, encountering Marxist-Leninist ideology there.

In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence and became the first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam North Vietnam. He served as prime minister from 1945 to 1955. During World War II, the OSS trained him as part of the Deer Team alongside future general Vo Nguyen Giap to fight Japanese forces. He chaired the Workers’ Party of Vietnam and led the country through the First Indochina War. He remained president until his death in 1969.

Ho Chi Minh married Zeng Xueming, though few details of their relationship exist. He spoke Vietnamese as his native language and went by Bác Hồ, meaning Uncle Ho. He used the alias Nguyen That Tan during his revolutionary activities. He died of diabetes in Hanoi on September 2, 1969.

Ho Chi Minh’s legacy as the father of modern Vietnam is marked by numerous honors. He received the Order of Lenin from the Soviet Union, Vietnam’s Gold Star Order, and the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from Poland. His name, meaning He Who Enlightens, is referenced in Billy Joel’s 1989 song We Didn’t Start the Fire. His image appears in archival footage in several documentaries, including The Vietnam War 2017. He led North Vietnam as its founding president and guided the country to independence.