Moi with Ho Chi Minh standing in bronze and the City Hall in the background.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh is the revolutionary man who founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He was a polyglot who can speak French, Russian, Mandarin, English, Vietnamese fluently. A communist and staunch nationalist from the north, he formed the Viet Minh coalition that eventually threw the French out of the country after almost a century of occupation. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (or First Indochina War) was the defining moment, the end of French rule in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
He also later became an important figure and influence during the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War/American War), although he did not see the victory of his party against the United States and its Allies because he died 6 years before the Fall of Saigon. It was a war that took almost 20 years.
When North Vietnam (Viet Cong and its allies) captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, it sent the Americans and its Allies packing back to their respective countries. South Vietnam was reunited with the North under the communist credo. A foreign newspaper was said to have quoted:
"When the North Vietnamese marched into Saigon yesterday, they were led by a man who wasn't there".
After the war, Saigon was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. If you know the war history of Vietnam, it is a slap to South Vietnam, the United States and its Allies (South Korea, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand).
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