Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh

There are many heroes in the world, both alive and dead. For me, everybody is a hero of his own life, but I want to speak about a very important character for a part of humanity.

Ho Chi Minh, birthname Nguyen Sinh Cung, was born in Nghe-An Province, Vietnam, on the 19th of May, 1890. He grew up in a modest and nationalist family. He went to school in Hue, before leaving to study in France in 1911. Then he became a famous revolutionary and statesman. He acted as Prime Minister from 1946 to 1955, and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1969. He led the Viet Minh independence movement in 1941, and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945. During his fight, he traveled a great deal in different places, so he spoke Vietnamese, English, several dialects of Chinese, and French. He had a good understanding of Thai, Spanish, German, and Russian too. He experiences difficulties, like one year spent in jail in China in 1942, but he won with the Viet Minh the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, against the French, who ended their occupation in 1954. Ho Chi Minh continued to fight against the U.S.A, but he died before succeeding to see the union between North and South Vietnam. Ignoring his last wishes to be cremated, people who were with him decided to put him in a mausoleum in Hanoi, where he is still honoured today. The town that was called Saigon, the old capital of the South of the Vietnam, is today called Ho-Chi-Minh-Ville. This naming shows us that he was really a hero.

For me, he is a hero because he was a great and famous revolutionary for all of Vietnam. But he was an inspiration for others as well. He was an example and model for every colony that wanted its independence, a revolution. He fought all his life to get a better standard of living for everybody. He wasn't very strong or very tall, but he showed that he had willpower, and a strong personality as well. He never bowed to different difficulties during his fight. His mentality was large, and this little man had many powers in his heart.

I also think he's a real hero, because for me the definition of a hero isn't the same as when you speak about a movie hero. Ho Chi Minh represented and incarnated a spiritual hero without special effects, without cameras and money, just with bravery and the patience of a well-behaved man. I admire him. I ask myself how a man could spend all his life trying to change a situation. Everybody knows that to fight is very tiring, even if it's not with your body, so I can't imagine what it feels like to fight a whole lifetime. I am very unhappy when I see that even though he succeed many times, he died before the end of his fight, before the victory of the union between North and South. Many people like him begin something, but they never see the success of their efforts.

Uncle Ho

'Uncle Ho,' as he is nicknamed, remains an example for us, and especially for me, because he showed that when you want something and you give yourself all the possibilities, you can make something of your life. It's always easy to speak, but Ho Chi Minh had seen that France for example had only spoken, and when he came back home to Vietnam, he saw it was just words but not changes. You see the reality when you try to pass from words to movements.

A man who sacrificed his life, who had neither wife nor children, because he wanted only that his brothers lived better, is a man who is, and stays a hero. In my opinion, people who understand and recognize injustice are important people, but people who decide to fight against this injustice become heroes. That is the difference.

In conclusion, Ho Chi Minh was a famous rebel for Vietnamese people and others. He was like Gandhi and many others: a real representation of poor people who were angered by their standard of living. People who disagreed with the inequalities and the exploitation of their country, and who sought change. I think he is still a hero for everybody who thinks that Third World countries should not be in the hands of rich countries. I have chosen this character instead of than an other, because my grandmother is Vietnamese, so we respect her. To deliver a country only with the help of his hands and his head, shows that he was brave and combative. Now, every time I complain about something, I think of people like him, and I realize the luck I have to be where I am.