Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (; or ), also known by its former name of Saigon (; or ), is the largest city in Vietnam by population. It was known as Prey Nokor () prior to annexation by the Vietnamese in the 17th century. Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with the surrounding Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh (although the name
Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought Ho Chi Minh Thought (; literally "Thoughts of Ho Chi Minh") is the political philosophy of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Since 1991, the contents of Ho Chi Minh's thought were formed and developed in association with the periods of Ho Chi Minh's activities in the revolutionary movement of Vietnam and internationally as integral to the curriculum of fundamental instruction for civil servants in Vietnam. At the beginning and the middle of the 20th century, Ho Chi Minh thought was the crystallization of Vietnamese culture, French revolutionary ideas, liberal ideas, Marxist–Leninist communist ideals and Ho Chi