What Were the Motives and Goals of an Individual or Group Identity?

An important leader in Vietnam between 1945 and 1975 was Ho Chi Minh. His goal was to create a united Vietnam, free from centuries of oppression from foreign powers. His nationalist identity was formed by personal reasons and events effecting Vietnam. The use of military and political actions taken under Ho Chi Minh helped emerge his identity. Ho Chi Minh’s leadership was essential to achieve change in Vietnam. His leadership helped to form the Nationalist identity of the Vietnamese people.

Ho Chi Minh’s identity was characterised by several key factors. His goals to live in a free, independent united Vietnam. They followed the confuscist way of life, and most of the population was Buddhist. The population lived mainly in rural areas, with their lives structured around a village based society. This was the identity that Ho Chi Minh wanted to develop and express, and was the reason he took most of the actions he did.

There were several personal factors in Ho Chi Minh’s life that led to the formation of his identity with him. He was born into a strongly nationalist family. His father ran a nationalist Vietnamese newspaper, which Ho was greatly exposed to as a child. He was French educated, so he learnt the French values of independence and equality. In the early stages of his life he travelled to Paris. There he learnt the communist teachings of Lenin. It was then that Ho began to believe that communism was the best method through which his people could achieve the goal of independence.

Secondly, there were also several other factors that led to the development of Ho Chi Minh’s identity. Vietnam had been subjected to almost 1000 years of rule by china and after that many decades of rule by the French. The French exploited Vietnam’s natural resources for their own benefit. They cared little for the welfare of Vietnamese workers. This inequality and unfair treatment of Vietnam led to the development of Ho Chi Minh’s identity.

Ho Chi Minh, with the aim of freeing Vietnam tried to secure Vietnamese freedom by raging a war against the French. He had already been disappointed after World War Two believing that the French would not return. The great powers decided that the French should return an action that only strengthened the Ho Chi Minh’s identity. When Ho Chi Minh fought a war on the French, there eventually was a decisive victory of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. He believed that this would give Vietnam a position of bargaining power at the upcoming Geneva conference of 1954, and thought that their communist allies Russia and China would support their cause. However Russia and China both had their own agendas at the conference and Ho Chi Minh was once again disappointed. He was forced to accept the compromise of a divided Vietnam with a communist-led North and Non communist south. Elections were held to unit Vietnam in 1956. Once again, this disappointment served only to strengthen the determination of Ho Chi Minh to see Vietnam united and free.

Ho Chi Minh’s expression of identity was revealed through his military actions. In Japan Ho Chi Minh organised resistance to the Japanese occupation during world war one. He called for a general uprising when the Japanese surrendered on August 10th 1945. The uprising’s slogan was; “Break open the rice stores to avert famine”. In France Ho also organised resistance against the return of the French after world war one. This led to the first Indochina war. As conflict with the French increased, Ho ensured the survival of the Viet Minh by moving into the mountains and conducting a guerrilla campaign. The decisive battle of the first Indo China war was at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Ho Chi Minh knew that to have a strong position from which to negotiate Vietnamese independence at the upcoming peace talks in Geneva, the Viet Minh would have to win. Ho Chi Minh was prepared to withstand massive losses in order to win.

Ho Chi Minh’s expression of identity was revealed through his political actions. In 1919 at the Versailles peace conference Ho Chi Minh presented a list of claims on behalf of the Vietnamese. This action was ignored although it created a respect for him in Vietnam. Ho founded the Revolutionary Youth league of Vietnam in 1925 believing it would be the driving force of the revolution. Ho’s establishment of the Viet Minh in 1940. This was a coalition which all of the nationalist groups in Vietnam were encouraged to join, irrespective of any differences they might have. Ho took personal charge of the Viet Minh after returning from a period of capacity in China. The Viet Minh would use all means to achieve Ho Chi’s goal of an independent nation. When the Japanese had been ousted from Vietnam in August 1945, Ho established a Vietnamese government in Hanoi, and proclaimed an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ho used words from the American Declaration of independence: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” As Ho’s Viet Minh was not strong enough to resist the return of the French he negotiated a compromise that saw the DRV the status of a free state within the French Union of Indochinese states’- a most unsatisfactory reduced to arrangement, but one both sides knew would not last.

Ho Chi Minh’s leadership helped to form the Nationalist identity of the Vietnamese people desire for a united Vietnam, free from centuries of oppression from foreign powers. Ho Chi Minh’s identity grew from his personal experiences, and also from failures and oppression suffered by Vietnam throughout his years. The Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh’s leadership, took many actions to express the Vietnamese identity and these actions were guided by Ho’s leadership.