Editing Ho Chi Minh (section)

==Independence movement==
In 1941, Hồ Chí Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement. Hồ and ICP founded a communist-led united front to oppose the Japanese.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=98}}

The [[Japanese occupation of French Indochina|Japanese occupation of Indochina]] that year, the first step toward an invasion of the rest of Southeast Asia, created an opportunity for patriotic Vietnamese.{{sfn|Hunt|2016|p=125}} The so-called "men in black" were a 10,000-member guerrilla force that operated with the Việt Minh.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0519.html "Ho Chi Minh Was Noted for Success in Blending Nationalism and Communism"], ''The New York Times''</ref> He oversaw many successful military actions against the [[Vichy France]] and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during [[World War II]], supported closely yet clandestinely by the United States [[Office of Strategic Services]] and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946–1954). He was jailed in China by Chiang Kai-shek's local authorities before being rescued by Chinese Communists.{{sfn|Brocheux|2007|p=198}} Following his release in 1943, he returned to Vietnam. It was during this time that he began regularly using the name Hồ Chí Minh, a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, [[wikt:胡|胡]]) with a given name meaning "Bright spirit" or "Clear will" (from [[Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary|Sino-Vietnamese]] [[wikt:志|志]] [[wikt:明|明]]: Chí meaning "will" or "spirit" and Minh meaning "bright").<ref name="Duiker" />{{rp|248–249}} His new name was a tribute to General Hou Zhiming (侯志明), Chief Commissar of the 4th Military Region of the [[National Revolutionary Army]], who helped release him from a KMT prison in 1943.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

[[File:Ho Chi Minh (third from left standing) and the OSS in 1945.jpg|thumb|left|Hồ Chí Minh (third from left, standing) with the OSS in 1945]]
In April 1945, he met with the OSS agent [[Archimedes Patti]] and offered to provide intelligence, asking only for "a line of communication" between his Viet Minh and the Allies.<ref>[http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-bf3262-interview-with-archimedes-l-a-patti-1981 Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti, 1981],</ref> The OSS agreed to this and later sent a military team of OSS members to train his men and Hồ Chí Minh himself was treated for malaria and dysentery by an OSS doctor.<ref>[http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-9dc948-interview-with-carleton-swift Interview with OSS officer Carleton Swift, 1981]</ref>

Following the [[August Revolution]] organized by the Việt Minh, Hồ Chí Minh became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.{{sfn|Zinn|1995|p=460}} Although he convinced Emperor [[Bảo Đại]] to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned President [[Harry S. Truman]] for support for Vietnamese independence,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rationalrevolution.net/war/collection_of_letters_by_ho_chi_.htm|title=Collection of Letters by Ho Chi Minh|publisher=Rationalrevolution.net|access-date=26 September 2009}}</ref> citing the [[Atlantic Charter]], but Truman never responded.{{sfn|Zinn|1995|p=461}}

In 1946, future Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] and Hồ Chí Minh became acquainted when they stayed at the same hotel in Paris.<ref name="autogenerated1966">{{cite web |url=http://www.jta.org/1966/11/08/archive/ben-gurion-reveals-suggestion-of-north-vietnams-communist-leader |title=Ben-gurion Reveals Suggestion of North Vietnam's Communist Leader |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=8 November 1966 |access-date=5 September 2015}}</ref><ref name="nytimes1987">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/21/books/israel-was-everthing.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=Israel Was Everything  |work=The New York Times |date=21 June 1987 |access-date=5 September 2015}}</ref> He offered Ben-Gurion a Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam,<ref name="autogenerated1966"/><ref name="nytimes1987"/> which Ben-Gurion declined.

In 1946, when he traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 2,500 non-Communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee.<ref>Currey, Cecil B. ''Victory At Any Cost'' (Washington: Brassey's, 1997), p. 126 <!-- ISBN ?? --></ref> Hundreds of political opponents were jailed or exiled in July 1946, notably, members of the [[Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng|Nationalist Party of Vietnam]] and the [[Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam|Dai Viet National Party]] after a failed attempt to raise a coup against the Viet Minh government.<ref>Tucker, Spencer. ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history'' (vol. 2), 1998 <!-- ISBN ?? -->{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref> All rival political parties were hereafter banned and local governments were purged<ref>Colvin, John. ''Giap: the Volcano under the Snow'' (New York: Soho Press, 1996), p. 51 <!-- ISBN ?? --></ref> to minimize opposition later on. However, it was noted that the [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam]]'s first Congress had over two-thirds of its members come from non-Việt Minh political factions, some without an election. Nationalist Party of Vietnam leader [[Nguyễn Hải Thần]] was named vice president. They also held four out of ten ministerial positions ({{ill|Government of the Union of Resistance of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam|vi|Chính phủ Liên hiệp Kháng chiến Việt Nam}}).

===Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam===
{{Main|First Indochina War}}

Following Emperor Bảo Đại's abdication in August, Hồ Chí Minh read the [[Declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam|Declaration of Independence of Vietnam]] on 2 September 1945<ref>{{cite web|url=http://coombs.anu.edu.au/%7Evern/van_kien/declar.html |title=Vietnam Declaration of Independence |publisher=Coombs.anu.edu.au |date=2 September 1945 |access-date=26 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091006235045/http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/van_kien/declar.html |archive-date=6 October 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Neville |first=Peter |url= |title=Ho Chi Minh |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-69411-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2023}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ho Chi Minh |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/southeast-asia-history-biographies/ho-chi-minh |access-date=18 July 2023 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In [[Saigon]], with violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces increasing, the British commander, General Sir [[Douglas Gracey]], declared martial law. On 24 September, the Việt Minh leaders responded with a call for a general strike.{{sfn|Karnow|1983|p=}}{{page needed|date=May 2021}}

In the same month, a force of 200,000 Chinese [[National Revolutionary Army]] troops arrived in [[Hanoi]] to accept the surrender of the Japanese occupiers in northern Indochina. Hồ Chí Minh made a compromise with their general, [[Lu Han (general)|Lu Han]], to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election that would yield a coalition government. When Chiang forced the French to give the [[Shanghai French Concession|French concessions]] in Shanghai back to China in exchange for withdrawing from northern Indochina, he had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on 6 March 1946 in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the [[French Union]]. The agreement soon broke down. The purpose of the agreement, for both the French and Vietminh, was for Chiang's army to leave North Vietnam. Fighting broke out in the North soon after the Chinese left.

Historian Professor Liam Kelley of the University of Hawaii at Manoa on his ''Le Minh Khai's Asian History Blog'' challenged the authenticity of the alleged quote where Hồ Chí Minh said he "would rather smell French shit for five years than eat Chinese shit for a thousand," noting that Stanley Karnow provided no source for the extended quote attributed to him in his 1983 ''Vietnam: A History'' and that the original quote was most likely forged by the Frenchman Paul Mus in his 1952 book ''Vietnam: Sociologie d'une Guerre''. Mus was a supporter of French colonialism in Vietnam and Hồ Chí Minh believed there was no danger of Chinese troops staying in Vietnam. The Vietnamese at the time were busy spreading anti-French propaganda as evidence of French atrocities in Vietnam emerged, while Hồ Chí Minh showed no qualms about accepting Chinese aid after 1949.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://manoa.hawaii.edu/history/node/44|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141014090118/http://manoa.hawaii.edu/history/node/44|url-status=dead|title=Liam Kelley &#124; Department of History|date=14 October 2014|archive-date=14 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/chiang-kai-shek-and-vietnam-in-1945/|title=Chiang Kai-shek and Vietnam in 1945|date=25 April 2013|access-date=2 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313074939/https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/chiang-kai-shek-and-vietnam-in-1945/|archive-date=13 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Giap-Ho.jpg|thumb|upright|Võ Nguyên Giáp (left) with Hồ Chí Minh (right) in Hanoi in 1945]]

The Việt Minh then collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of rival Vietnamese nationalist movements in 1945–1946,{{sfn|Turner|1975|pp=57–59, 67–69, 74}}<ref>{{cite book | chapter=Myths of the Vietnam War | title=Southeast Asian Perspectives | date=September 1972 | pages=14–18}}</ref>{{sfn|Dommen|2001|pp=153–154}} and of the Trotskyists. [[Trotskyism in Vietnam]] did not rival the Party outside of the major cities, but particularly in the South, in Saigon-Cochinchina, they had been a challenge. From the outset, they had called for armed resistance to a French restoration and an immediate transfer of industry to workers and land to peasants.<ref>Daniel Hemery (1975) ''Revolutionnaires Vietnamiens et pouvoir colonial en Indochine''. François Maspero, Paris. 1975{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref><ref>Ngo Van (2000) ''Viet-nam 1920–1945: Révolution et Contre-révolution sous la domination coloniale'', Paris: Nautilus Editions{{page needed|date=May 2021}}</ref> The French Socialist leader [[Daniel Guérin]] recalls that when in Paris in 1946 he asked Hồ Chí Minh about the fate of the Trotskyist leader [[Tạ Thu Thâu]], Hồ Chí Minh had replied, "with unfeigned emotion," that "'Thâu was a great patriot and we mourn him', but then a moment later added in a steady voice 'All those who do not follow the line which I have laid down will be broken.'"<ref>Daniel Guérin (1954) ''Aux services des colonises, 1930–1953'', Editions Minuit, Paris, p. 22</ref>

The Communists eventually suppressed all non-Communist parties, but they failed to secure a peace deal with France. In the final days of 1946, after a year of diplomatic failure and many concessions in agreements, such as the [[Da Lat|Dalat]] and [[Fontainebleau Agreements|Fontainebleau conferences]], the Democratic Republic of Vietnam government found that war was inevitable. The [[Haiphong incident|bombardment of Haiphong]] by the [[French Navy]] only strengthened the belief that France had no intention of allowing an autonomous, independent state in Vietnam. The attack reportedly killed more than 6,000 Vietnamese civilians in Haiphong. French forces marched into Hanoi, now the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. On 19 December 1946, after the Haiphong incident, Hồ Chí Minh declared war against the French Union, marking the beginning of the [[Indochina War]].<ref>{{ill|A nationwide call for resistance|vi|Lời kêu gọi toàn quốc kháng chiến}}</ref> The Vietnam National Army, mostly armed with [[machete]]s and [[musket]]s immediately attacked. They assaulted the French positions, smoking them out with straw bundled with chili pepper, destroying armored vehicles with [[Anti-tank grenade|"lunge mines"]] (a [[Shaped charge|hollow-charge warhead]] on the end of a pole, detonated by thrusting the charge against the side of a tank; typically a [[suicide weapon]])<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/jp_tankhunters/|title=Lone Sentry: New Weapons for Jap Tank Hunters (U.S. WWII Intelligence Bulletin, March 1945)|website=lonesentry.com|access-date=27 May 2016}}</ref> and [[Molotov cocktail]]s, holding off attackers by using [[roadblock]]s, [[Land mine|landmines]] and gravel. After two months of fighting, the exhausted Việt Minh forces withdrew after [[Scorched earth|systematically destroying any valuable infrastructure]]. Hồ was mistakenly reported to be captured by a group of French soldiers, led by [[Jean Étienne Valluy]] at Việt Bắc, during [[Operation Léa]]. The person in question turned out to be a Việt Minh advisor who was killed trying to escape.

According to journalist [[Bernard Fall]], Hồ decided to negotiate a truce after fighting the French for several years. When the French negotiators arrived at the meeting site, they found a mud hut with a thatched roof. Inside they found a long table with chairs. In one corner of the room, a silver ice bucket contained ice and a bottle of good champagne, indicating that Hồ expected the negotiations to succeed. One demand by the French was the return to French custody of several Japanese military officers (who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces by training them in the use of weapons of Japanese origin) for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II. Hồ Chí Minh replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray, therefore he walked out to seven more years of war.{{sfn|Fall|1967|p=88}}

In February 1950, after the [[Battle of Route Coloniale 4]] successfully broke the French border blockade, he met with [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Mao Zedong]] in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government. They all agreed that China would be responsible for backing the Việt Minh.<ref>Luo, Guibo. pp. 233–236</ref> Mao Zedong's emissary to Moscow stated in August that China planned to train 60,000–70,000 Viet Minh shortly.<ref>Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Chronology", p. 45.</ref> The road to the outside world was open for Việt Minh forces to receive additional supplies which would allow them to escalate the fight against the French regime throughout Indochina. At the outset of the conflict, Hồ reportedly told a French visitor: "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win".<ref>McMaster, H.R. (1997) "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam", p. 35.</ref> In 1954, the First Indochina War came to an end after the decisive [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], where more than 10,000 French soldiers surrendered to the Viet Minh. The subsequent [[Geneva Accords (1954)|Geneva Accords]] peace process partitioned North Vietnam at the 17th parallel.

Arthur Dommen estimates that the Việt Minh killed between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians during the war.{{sfn|Dommen|2001|p=252}} Benjamin Valentino estimates that the French were responsible for 60,000–250,000 civilian deaths.{{sfn|Valentino|2005|p=83}}