Ho Chi Minh—Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Posted by: 
Ianatlarge
N 10° 46.560 E 106° 42.090
48P E 686042 N 1191728
A seated statue of the founder of modern Vietnam at the approach to the Ho Chi Minh City Hall.
Waymark Code: WME580
Location: Vietnam
Date Posted: 04/05/2012
Views: 7
Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) was a Vietnamese military and political leader who guided the communist movement to victory in his homeland of Vietnam.
At his birth Vietnam was part of French Indochina. An independence movement formed in the early 20th century, seeking freedom from colonial rule. This led to open conflict after WW2. First the French were defeated in 1954, then the USA in 1975, after a great deal of fighting, death, and financial cost.
Politically, Ho Chí Minh was a Marxist-Leninist. He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945. He held the positions of Prime Minister (1945–1955), and also President (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was also instrumental in forming and leading both the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (NLF) during the Vietnam War. Following the communist victory, Saigon, the capital of Republic of Vietnam, after the war, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honour.
This life-sized statue is outside the main entrance of the Ho Chi Minh City Hall. He is depicted sitting, the statue is on a plinth. To be frank, it is hard to tell exactly how he is portrayed. The statue is rather indistinct, Ho is holding something, or doing something, but I cannot grasp what this is, nor could I find anything online which explains. The statue is in a small park, leading to the City Hall, and is surrounded on one side (behind the statue) by a fountain.
The statue is a surprisingly popular tourist drawcard (surprising to me). There were always at least several dozen people standing around the statue, waiting for an opportunity to be photographed with Uncle Ho. I had to wait and then move quickly to take a photo without tourists blocking the view.
URL of the statue: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.