In what had to be the highest point of his political career, on September 2, 1945 in Hanoi Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He formed a new government and tried to give it a diverse, nationalistic appearance. Members of the rival Viet Quoc Party were included, as were some Catholic nationalists. He also appointed the former Emperor "Supreme Advisor" and said that it had not been his wish for him to abdicate. The Viet Minh leaders called Bao Dai "Sire" and he referred to Ho as "Venerable" or "older brother" but eventually left the government. In the south however, there was much less moderation. Rival groups, nationalist, republican, monarchist, were often attacked and their leaders assassinated. In the tradition of Maoist China, People's Courts were set up to try and punish members of the landowning class, with fixed quotas of people to be executed. Thousands were murdered by these "courts" and later Ho Chi Minh issued a sort of apology for it, saying that they had gone too far. Eventually though, all of the rival groups were removed from the government until it was purely Communist and totally under the control of Ho Chi Minh.
In an effort to ensure the removal of Chinese troops from North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh angered many of his comrades by allowing the French to return. However, the French refused to agree to his demands for autonomy within the French Union and instead recruited Bao Dai to lead an opposition government in Saigon. This was the start of the First Indochina War (1949-1955) in which the French were ultimately defeated at the siege of Dien Bien Phu. Ho Chi Minh had gained the support of Communist regimes in Russia and China and now had the power to fight a modern war. Betrayed by China at the Geneva Conference, Vietnam was divided by Ho was confident that elections would swiftly bring him to power over the whole country. However, the South Vietnamese and the United States did not sign the agreement and refused to hold elections. Ho Chi Minh, by now quite old and frail, said that he could not eat or sleep while his country was divided and the southern half lived under foreign domination, which referred to the U.S. support of the Republic of Vietnam.
The strategy of Ho's government was to aid and support the Viet Cong guerillas in South Vietnam via what was dubbed the "Ho Chi Minh Trail". This managed to occupy alot of American manpower but never made any significant difference in the outcome of the war. In 1968 it was decided to be time for a massive offensive of North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerillas on the cities of South Vietnam. One communist officer said, "Uncle Ho was very old and we had to liberate the south before his death." Although the attack, known as the Tet Offensive, is credited with finally breaking America's will to continue the war, it did not "liberate" the south as the north had hoped and all but destroyed the Viet Cong as a viable combat force. Ho Chi Minh was the constant moral force driving the Communist war effort. He wrote many inspirational messages and poems to keep the people committed. One read, "This spring far outshines previous springs. Of triumphs throughout the land come happy tidings. Forward! Total victory shall be ours!"
The Communists did ultimately triumph, but Ho Chi Minh did not live to see it. On September 3, 1960 at the age of 79 the first Vietnamese president died. He was embalmed and put on display in a massive Soviet-designed tomb in Hanoi. It was quite against his actual wishes, but his comrades claimed that even in death "he belongs to the people". When the Communists began the campaign which finally conquered South Vietnam and reunited the country, they did so in the memory of Ho Chi Minh, with his picture everywhere and political officers shouting them forward "in honor of Uncle Ho". When the southern capital of Saigon was captured, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honor of the late president. Today, much like Mao Tse-tung in China, the image of "Uncle Ho" has assumed godlike status. Statues and images of him are everywhere and so long as Communism exists in Vietnam there is no doubt that his cult will continue as the father and savior of Vietnam, though many of those who fled Vietnam into foreign exile will undoubtedly always have a contrary view.