Ho Chi Minh City forest", from which "Saigon" was derived ("kor" meaning "kapok" in Khmer and Cham, going into Vietnamese as "gòn" ). The current official name, ', adopted in 1976 and abbreviated Tp. HCM, is translated as "Ho Chi Minh City", abbreviated HCMC, and in French as ' (the circumflex is sometimes omitted), abbreviated HCMV. The name commemorates Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam. This name, though not his given name, was one he favored throughout his later years. It combines a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "enlightened will" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志 明; Chí meaning
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