Who they were
Born Nguyen Sinh Cung in 1890, he spent three decades abroad: he petitioned for Vietnamese rights at Versailles in 1919, was a founding member of the French Communist Party in 1920, worked for the Comintern, and founded the Indochinese Communist Party in Hong Kong in 1930. He returned to Vietnam in 1941 and founded the Viet Minh.
What they did
On September 2, 1945 he declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, quoting the American Declaration of Independence. He presided over the state through the war with France and the escalating American war, and died on September 2, 1969, before the country was reunified.
Legacy
His simple-living “Uncle Ho” persona is inseparable from a state-fostered cult of personality. His will asked for cremation, but a mausoleum was built instead. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976. He remains venerated in Vietnam and is assessed variously abroad.