Ho Chi Minh A Biography

Ho Chi Minh is one of the towering figures of the twentieth century, considered an icon and father of the nation by many Vietnamese. Pierre Brocheux's biography of Ho Chi Minh is a brilliant feat of historical engineering. In a concise and highly readable account, he negotiates the many twists and turns of Ho Chi Minh's life and his multiple identities, from impoverished beginnings as a communist revolutionary to his founding of the Indochina Communist Party and the League for the Independence of Vietnam and ultimately to his leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and his death in 1969. Biographical events are adroitly placed within the broader historical canvas of colonization, decolonization, communism war, and nation building. Brocheux's vivid and convincing portrait of Ho Chi Minh goes further than any previous biography in explaining both the myth and the man, as well as the times in which he was situated.

1. In search of a future; 2. A missionary of revolution; 3. Under the Sword of Damocles; 4. Father of the nation; 5. The force of circumstance; 6. Epilogue: a man at the interface between two worlds.

Ho Chi Minh is one of the towering figures of the twentieth century, considered as an icon by many Vietnamese. Pierre Brocheux negotiates the many twists and turns of his life and multiple identities, from impoverished beginnings as a communist revolutionary to his leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Pierre Brocheux is retired Professor of History at Université de Paris VII – Denis Diderot. His many publications include Une Histoire économique du Viet Nam, 1850–2007 (2009) and, with Daniel Hemery, Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954 (2010).