ABSTRACT
Ho Chi Minh led Vietnam to independence from the French, who had occupied the country since 1858, and supported a second independence movement that in 1975 led to the unification of North and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh moved to Paris and began his active political life, culminating in demands for Vietnam's independence from France at the post—World War I Paris Peace Conference. The Allies defeated Japan in 1945; during the course of World War II, Japan had devastated the French in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh guided North Vietnam's early development and had great successes, including mass literacy and public health campaigns, and great failures, including a disastrous land reform program and rigid political oppression. Ho Chi Minh's legacy rests on the real and symbolic value of his ejection of the French from Vietnam and the start of reunification between north and south.
