Ho+Chi+Minh-me

Ho Chi Minh, born May 19, 1890, led the Vietminh independence movement from 1941 on. But his efforts to free Vietnam began more than 20 years before this time. At age 21 Minh moved to London and then Paris. While in Paris he presented a petition for Vietnamese independence at the Versailles Peace Conference following WWI. Unfortunately the peace treaty completely ignored the issue as they did many of the colonies's petitions. He later visited the Soviet Union where he became engrossed by Communist ideals. In 1930 he returned to Southeast Asia and helped found the Indochinese Communist Party and began work on overthrowing French rule. This made him a wanted man so he fled Indochina and spent several years in exile in the Soviet Union and China. In 1941 he returned to Vietnam, after Japan conquered it, and formed a group called the Vietminh. This group united all parties in the struggle to expel the Japanese forces and soon afterward the United States began supporting him. When Japan surrendered to the allies in 1945 Minh tried to claim independence for Vietnam. France said no and so the Vietnam war began.