Ho Chi Minh

Born Nguyen Sinh Cung in Nghe An province, French Indochina. His father is a Confucian scholar who refuses to serve the French colonial administration. At 21, Ho leaves Vietnam on a French merchant ship working as a kitchen hand. He won't return for 30 years. He uses between 50 and 200 aliases during his life.

Becomes a founding member of the French Communist Party in Paris. He's been living in London, then Paris, working odd jobs: photo retoucher, gardener, fake antique painter. He petitions the Versailles Conference for Vietnamese self-determination. Nobody listens. He studies in Moscow, then goes to China to organize.

Returns to Vietnam after 30 years abroad. Founds the Viet Minh independence movement in a cave in Pac Bo, near the Chinese border. When Japan surrenders in 1945, he launches the August Revolution and declares independence on September 2 in Hanoi. He quotes the American Declaration of Independence in his speech.

The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu after a 57-day siege. The French lose 11,000 men. It ends a century of French colonialism in Indochina. At Geneva, Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel. Ho gets the north.

The U.S. escalates from advisers to combat troops. Ho oversees the supply network through Laos and Cambodia that Americans call the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Tens of thousands of tons of supplies move south on bicycles and human backs. He tells his people the war may last 10 or even 20 years but they will win.

Dies in Hanoi at 79 on the 24th anniversary of Vietnam's independence declaration. He asks to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. The government ignores his wishes and embalms him in a Soviet-built mausoleum in central Hanoi, where his body is displayed behind glass.