Ho Chi Minh
South Vietnam and America refused to hold an election and unite the two halves into one country because they feared a communisty victory. Hồ then led Vietnam into a military and political struggle to bring the rice fields of South Vietnam under his communist rule. Two decades of war followed that killed millions of Vietnamese. The United States supported South Vietnam with military aid, and the Soviet Union (led by Nikita Krushchev and then Leonid Brezhnev) and the People's Republic of China (led by Mao Zedong) continued to support North Vietnam's war effort.