Ho Chi Minh (19 May 1890 -2 September 1969) was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary and statesman who was prime minister (1946-1955) and president (1945-1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
Ho led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 12945 at Dien Bien Phu. He lost political power inside North Vietnam in the late 1950s but remained as the highly visible figurehead president until his death. The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, after the fall of Saigo, was renamed ho Chi Minh City in his honor.