HCM City (VNA) – State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on May 19 offeredincense and flowers to late President Ho Chi Minh at Ho Chi Minh Museum in HoChi Minh City as the country is celebrating the late leader’s 131st birthday (May 19), and 110 years since he left Nha Rong Wharf, starting hisjourney to search for ways to save the nation.

President Phuc also offered incense to late President Ton Duc Thang, one of thepioneers in the workers’ movement and proletarian revolution in Vietnam. LikeHo Chi Minh, Ton Duc Thang dedicated his whole life for the revolutionary causeof the Vietnamese people.

The State leader visited a photo exhibition on President Ho Chi Minh incinematography.

The same day, Phuc and Ho Chi Minh City leaders offered flowers at President HoChi Minh Statute Park on Nguyen Hue Street, District 1.


Ho Chi Minh, real name Nguyen Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyen Tat Thanh,Nguyen Ai Quoc, was born into a family of patriotic Confucian scholars in NamDan district, in the central province of Nghe An, on May 19, 1890.

Thenation was then under the yoke of French colonialists, so as a child and youth,Thanh witnessed the suffering of his compatriots and the movement against theaggressors. He developed a strong will to expel the colonialists, secure thecountry's independence and bring about freedom and happiness for the people.

In1911, at age 21, he decided to leave his homeland for France to learn aboutwestern countries.

In SaiGon he found employment as a kitchen assistant on the French passenger linerAmiral Latouche-Treville. He received an employee card under a new name, VanBa.

From1912 to 1917, he travelled in many countries in Asia, Europe, the Americas andAfrica where he lived among the working class. He sympathised profoundly withtheir misery as well as their aspirations. He realised early that theVietnamese people's struggle for national liberation was part of a commonstruggle around the world.

At theend of 1917, he returned to France to continue activities for the movement ofoverseas Vietnamese and French workers.
In1919, under the name of Nguyen Ai Quoc, and on behalf of patriotic Indochinesenationals in France, he sent a petition to the Versailles Conference, callingfor freedom for the Indochinese people and colonised peoples in general.

President Ho Chi Minh led the country to success in its struggle for nationalindependence. On September 2, 1945, he read the Declaration of Independence,proclaiming to the world the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam./.