EARLY VIETNAMESE RADICALISM

Phan Boi Chau (1867-1940): leading figure in the early anti-French movement in Vietnam.

Phan Chu Trinh (1872-1926): reformer, anti-imperialist and educator, who founded the "Tonkin Free School.”

Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh, a.k.a. Nguyen Ai Quoc) (1890-1969): Founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party and President of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. Ho Chi Minh spent much of his life overseas rallying support for the fledgling independence and communist movements in Indochina, and he did not live to see the victory of his regime over the Saigon government in 1975. Following the fall of Saigon, the newly united Vietnamese state was renamed the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (SRV).

Nguyen emperor Bao Dai (1913-1997): last reigning emperor of Vietnam from 1926 to 1945. The Bao Dai emperor had tried to modernize Vietnam, but he was unable to win French support for this effort.

Nguyen Thai Hoc (1901-30): together with a group of Vietnamese intellectuals, founded the Vietnam Nationalist Party (Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang: VNQDD), modeled on the Chinese KMT.

In February 1930, the radical Ho Chi Minh’s Revolutionary Youth League in Hong Kong formed the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP). In October the name was changed to the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP).

Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-63): Vietnamese nationalist and president of South Vietnam following the national partition, from 1955 until his and his brother's assassinations in 1963.

Viet Minh: a shorthand for Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh (League for the Independence of Viet Nam), a "united front" organization initially set up by the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) and Vietnam Nationalist Party (VNQDD), under Ho Chi Minh during W.W.II. The Viet Minh launched nationwide insurrection in August 1945 following the surrender of Japanese occupying forces. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (DRV) in Hanoi on September 2, 1945.