Vietnam's Cry For Ho Chi Minh's Death

JAKARTA - On September 9, 1969, Ho Chi Minh's funeral ceremony was held at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi, Vietnam. Cries broke out among the 250,000 mourners, including Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Li Hsien-nien, and Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

Ho Chi Minh was the founder of the Indochina Communist Party in 1929. In September 1945, when Japan lost and was preparing to leave Vietnam, Ho declared Vietnam's independence from French colonial rule. He also announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Launching History, Wednesday, September 9, Ho also became the spiritual leader of the people of North Vietnam. He often motivated the North Vietnamese people to continue the struggle, until the United States (US) was defeated and Vietnam reunited as one nation.

Ho's death produced an extraordinary emotional outpouring. The warrior spirit in Ho did not disappear. His successor used the life and teachings of 'Uncle Ho' to motivate people to continue the struggle.

Born in 1890 with the name Nguyen Sinh Cung, Ho is the son of a Vietnamese government official who resigned in protest against French domination in his country. Ho was educated in Hue and worked as a cook on a French steamer at a young age.

Ho traveled frequently from the US to Africa and Europe, where he worked in London and Paris. In 1920, having accepted Marxist Leninism for his anti-colonial attitudes, Ho changed his own name to Nguyen Ai Quoc and helped found the French Communist Party.

Ho then went to Moscow in 1923 to study and train. In 1924, he went to Canton, China to meet Phan Boi Chau, one of the foremost Vietnamese nationalists of the era. While in China, Ho played an important role in the founding of the Indochina Communist Party in 1929.

He spent the next ten years of his life writing and organizing things from outside Vietnam. When Japan invaded Vietnam at the start of World War II, Ho changed his name to Ho Chi Minh (Ho 'Light Bearer') and moved his group of revolutionaries to caves at Pac Bo in North Vietnam.

There, in May 1941, Ho organized the Viet Minh, a nationalist and communist organization formed to mobilize the people. During the war, Ho and Viet Minh forged a loose alliance with the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He sails the battlefield to help save a downed American pilot.

In 1945, when Japan surrendered, the Viet Minh seized power and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as president. However, France wanted to reinstate colonial rule, refusing to grant independence to Vietnam.

At the end of 1946, war broke out between Viet Minh and France. This bloody war lasted for eight years. The war ended with the Viet Minh defeating France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

Furthermore, the Geneva agreement divided Vietnam into North and South Vietnam. Ho devoted his efforts to building a communist society in North Vietnam. In the early 1960s, a new war broke out in the south, during which communist-led guerrillas launched an uprising against the US-backed regime in Saigon.

When the US intervened militarily, Ho directed his troops in a protracted war against the US. During this period, Ho continued to provide inspiring leadership to his people. However, as his health continued to deteriorate, Ho assumed a ceremonial role. Policy is no longer under his control. Even so, Ho remained the embodiment of the revolution and remained a communist icon.

Hanoi Radio announced Ho Chi Minh's death on September 4, 1969. The statement simultaneously announced that the National Liberation Front would cease military operations in the south for three days to mourn Ho.

Many Americans hoped that Ho Chi Minh's death would provide a new opportunity for reaching the end of the Vietnam War. But this didn't materialize. The Vietnam War is the longest and least popular war in US history. This war killed 58 thousand Americans and as many as two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed.