【明報專訊】Ho Chi-Minh was born on May 19, 1890 and died on September 2, 1969. He was the President (1945-1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He founded the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and its successor, the Viet Minh, in 1941. In 1945, Japan overran Indochina, overthrowing its French colonial rulers. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies six months later, Ho and his Viet Minh forces seized the opportunity, occupied Hanoi (河內), and proclaimed (宣告) Vietnamese independence. France refused to relinquish (交出) its former colony, and the First Indochina War broke out in 1946. Ho's forces defeated the French in 1954, after which the country was partitioned (分割) into North and South Vietnam. Ho, who ruled in the north, was soon embroiled (被捲入) in the US-backed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem (吳廷琰) in the south in what became known as the Vietnam War. North Vietnamese forces prevailed (戰勝) over the south six years after Ho's death.