[Picture: Ho Chi Minh] Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese revolutionary, who later became Prime Minister (1946–1955) and President (1946–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Ho is most famous for leading the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. He led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War until his death; six years later, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, and Vietnamese unification followed. The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor.