Ho Chi Minh's will asked for cremation and his ashes split three ways; the Politburo embalmed him, cut the request from the published will and moved his death date by a day

Ho Chi Minh began his testament in 1965 and revised it until 1969. The 1965 text asked that his remains be cremated and the ashes buried on a hill. An addition dated 10 May 1969 asked that the ashes be divided into three parts in three ceramic boxes, one each for the North, the Centre and the South. He died at 09:47 on 2 September 1969, Vietnam's National Day. The 3rd Politburo announced the death as 3 September so it would not fall on the national holiday. It published the testament without the cremation lines and decided to preserve the body, so that people from the South and foreign friends could pay tribute. Work on a mausoleum in Hanoi began on 2 September 1973, and it was inaugurated on 29 August 1975. On 19 August 1989 the 6th Politburo issued communiqué No. 151 TB/TU. It made all the testament documents public, gave the true time of death and stated that its predecessors had acted "at variance with his recommendation." In 2019 the official Viet Nam News wrote that the Party and State had preserved the body against his wish. The embalmed body lies in the central hall of the mausoleum. He was never cremated.