Ho Chi Minh, (shown left), also known as Nguyen Ai Quoc (Nguyen the Patriot), was born in 1890 and died in 1969. His father lost his job as a teacher, when he refused to learn French and spent his time helping the peasants, eg, by writing letters for them, and brought his own family up to believe in the importance of resisting the French. Ho attended a grammar school and became a schoolteacher. Shortly afterwards, he left Vietnam. By 1914, Ho was working in the kitchens of a London hotel and in 1917 he arrived in Paris, where he studied the writings of Karl Marx and became a communist. He helped to found the French Communist Party in December 1920, and in 1925 set up the revolutionary Youth League of Vietnam, followed by the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1930, and the League for the independence of Vietnam in 1941.
Perhaps Ho's most important experience came in 1924 when he visited the Soviet Union. The country was becoming communist after the 1917 revolution and Ho was extremely impressed by what he saw. Ho believed that communism was the answer to the problems of poverty facing the Vietnamese peasants. The land, owned by a few rich land owners, must be taken from them and given to the peasants, but for this to be acheived, there would have to be a violent revolution. The French would be thrown out and the communists would take control of the country. However, if this was to happen, the peasants must be organised and trained. This was the job of the Communist Party which he would lead. For Ho, communism and Vietnamese freedom went together. He knew, however, that if he returned to Vietnam, he would be imprisoned. So he settled in China, close to the Vietnam border where he set up the 'Vietnam Revolutionary League', which he hoped would eventually lead the revolution.