Names of Ho Chi Minh City conquest in the 1860s, when the occupying force adopted the name "Saïgon" for the city, a westernized form of the traditional Vietnamese name. The current name was given after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and honors Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. Even today, however, the informal name of "Sài Gòn" remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora and local southern Vietnamese. The area where present-day Ho Chi Minh City is located was likely inhabited long since prehistory; the empire of Funan and later Chenla maintained a presence in the
Ho Chi Minh Thought the party's Seventh Party Congress. The Communist Party, the Vietnam state and the legitimate views of Vietnam today agree that Ho Chi Minh Thought is a creative use of Marxism–Leninism in Vietnam's context, considering Ho Chi Minh's thought has become a valuable spiritual asset of the Communist Party and the people of Vietnam. The Communist Party of Vietnam identified Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thought as the guideline for all actions and victories of the Vietnamese revolution. Vietnamese schools always promote learning and follow Ho Chi Minh Thought in all walks of life. Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh