Editing Hồ Chí Minh (section)

===Founding of North Vietnam===
When Germany defeated France in 1940, during [[World War II]], Ho saw it as an opportunity for the Vietnamese nationalist cause. Around this time, he began to use the name Ho Chi Minh (roughly translated as “Bringer of Light”). With his lieutenants Vo Nguyen Giap and [[Phạm Văn Đồng|Pham Van Dong]], Ho returned to Vietnam in January 1941 and organized the Viet Minh or League for the Independence of Vietnam. Forced to seek China's aid for the new organization, Ho was imprisoned for 18 months by [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s anti-Communist government.

With the Allied victory in 1945, [[Imperial Japan]]ese forces withdrew from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor [[Bảo Đại]] in control of an independent Vietnam. Led by Vo Nguyen Giap, Viet Minh forces seized the northern city of Hanoi and declared a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (known commonly as North Vietnam) with Ho as president. [[Bảo Đại]] abdicated in favor of the revolution, but French military troops gained control of southern Vietnam, including Saigon, and Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese forces moved into the north according to the terms of an Allied agreement. Ho began negotiations with the French in efforts to achieve a Chinese withdrawal as well as eventual French recognition of Vietnam’s independence and reunification of North and South Vietnam. He also gained [[Mao Zedong]] and the [[Communist Party of China]] as allies for added assistance against Chiang Kai-shek's forces. But in October 1946, a French cruiser opened fire on the town of Haiphong after a clash between French and Vietnamese soldiers. Despite Ho’s best efforts to maintain peace, his more militant followers called for war, which broke out that December.