Lê Duẩn
Lê Duẩn was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s and became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the 3rd National Congress in 1960. When Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, he consolidated power to become the undisputed leader of North Vietnam. Upon defeating South Vietnam in the Second Indochina War in 1975, he subsequently ruled the newly unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1976 until his death in 1986.
He was born into a lower-class family in Quảng Trị Province, in the Annam Protectorate of French Indochina as Lê Văn Nhuận. Little is known about his family and childhood. He first came in contact with revolutionary thoughts in the 1920s through his work as a railway clerk. Lê Duẩn was a founding member of the Indochina Communist Party in 1930. He was imprisoned in 1931 and released in 1937. From 1937 to 1939, he climbed the party ladder. He was rearrested in 1939, this time for fomenting an uprising in the South. Lê Duẩn was released from jail following the successful Communist-led August Revolution of 1945.
During the First Indochina War, Lê Duẩn was an active revolutionary leader in South Vietnam. He headed the Central Office of South Vietnam, a Party organ, from 1951 until 1954. During the 1950s, Lê Duẩn became increasingly aggressive towards South Vietnam and called for reunification through war. By the mid-to-late 1950s, Lê Duẩn had become the second-most powerful policy-maker within the Party, eclipsing former Party First Secretary Trường Chinh. By 1960, he was officially the second-most powerful Party member, after Party chairman Hồ. Throughout the 1960s, Hồ's health declined, and Lê Duẩn assumed more of his responsibilities.
Following Hồ's death in 1969, Lê Duẩn assumed leadership of North Vietnam. Throughout the Second Indochina War, Le Duan was called Vietnam's Joseph Stalin due to having adopted an aggressive posture, prioritizing the use of large-scale attacks to achieve victory. When South Vietnam was reunited with North Vietnam in 1976, he assumed the new title of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Later in December 1978, Lê Duẩn oversaw the Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia, which ultimately led to the fall of the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge on 7 January 1979. This had a serious impact on relations between Vietnam and China, with Vietnam responding with a period of deportation of ethnic Chinese Hoa people. China invaded the northern Vietnamese border, which was to be known as the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, though it was short-lived and remained inconclusive. From then on, Vietnam maintained a closer alliance with the Soviet Union and joined Comecon in 1978.
Lê remained General Secretary until he died in 1986. He died in Hanoi; his successor was initially Trường Chinh. Lê Duẩn was also known as Lê Dung and was known in public as "anh Ba".
Early life and career
Lê Duẩn was born as Lê Văn Nhuận in Bich La village, Triệu Đông, Triệu Phong, Quảng Trị Province on 7 April 1907 to a poor family with 5 children. Locals from his generation say that Duan's parents were metal scrap collectors and blacksmiths. The son of a railway clerk, he became active in revolutionary politics as a young man. He received a French colonial education before working as a clerk for the Vietnam Railway Company in Hanoi during the 1920s. Through his job, he came into contact with several communist activists. In this period, he educated himself to a Marxist.Lê Duẩn became a member of the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1928. He cofounded the Indochina Communist Party in 1930. Lê Duẩn was imprisoned the next year. He was released six years later, in 1937. From 1937 to 1939, he advanced in the party hierarchy and at the 2nd National Congress, he joined its Central Committee. He was imprisoned again the following year for fomenting an uprising. After five years, he was released, shortly after the 1945 August Revolution, in which the Indochinese Communist Party took power. Following his release, he became a trusted associate of Hồ Chí Minh, the lead figure of the party.
During the First Indochina War, Lê Duẩn served as the Secretary of the Regional Committee of South Vietnam, at first in Cochinchina in 1946, but was reassigned to head the Central Office of South Vietnam from 1951 until 1954. The Viet Minh's position in the South became increasingly tenuous by the early to mid-1950s, and in 1953, Lê Duẩn was replaced by his deputy Lê Đức Thọ and moved to North Vietnam.
The "Road to the South"
In the aftermath of the 1954 Geneva Accords, which split Vietnam into North and South, Lê Duẩn was responsible for reorganising the Việt Minh combatants who had fought in South and Central Vietnam. While most Việt Minh fighters were regrouped to North Vietnam as stipulated in the Accords, 5,000 to 10,000 fighters were left in the south as a base for future insurgency.In South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem’s regime countered the communists by launching the "Denounce the Communists" campaign. Tens of thousands of suspected communists were detained in "political re-education centers". There were also increasing attacks by communist cadres, with over 450 South Vietnamese officials assassinated in 1956. The North Vietnamese government claimed that over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 killed in the process by November 1957. According to historian Gabriel Kolko, from 1955 to the end of 1958, 40,000 political prisoners had been jailed and many were executed. Historian Guenter Lewy considers such figures exaggerated, stating that there were only 35,000 prisoners in total in South Vietnam during the period.
As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, Lê Duẩn wrote The Road to the South, calling for revolution to overthrow his government and forcefully reunify Vietnam. His thesis became the blueprint for action at the 11th Central Committee Plenum in March 1956. Although "The Road to the South" was formally accepted, his plan was not fully implemented until later, as both China and the Soviet Union opposed full-scale conflict in Vietnam at the time. In 1956 Lê Duẩn was appointed to the secretariat of the party. He was ordered by the Politburo in August 1956 to guide the communist insurgency in South Vietnam. That same month, he traveled from U Minh to Bến Tre and instructed the southern communists to stop fighting in the name of religious sects. Throughout the year, the party had been split on the issue of land reform in the North. Lê Duẩn remained neutral, allowing him to act as the First Secretary on Hồ's behalf in late 1956.
In 1957, he was given a seat in the Politburo. At the 1957 May Day parade, Trường Chinh was still seated as the country's second most powerful figure. Lê Duẩn was gradually able to place his supporters, notably Lê Ðức Thọ, in top positions and outmaneuver his rivals. He visited Moscow in November 1957 and received approval for his war plans. In December 1957, Hồ told the 13th Plenary Session of a "dual revolution"; Trường Chinh became responsible for the socialist transformation of the north, while Lê Duẩn focused on planning the offensive in the south.
By 1958, Lê Duẩn ranked second only to Hồ in the party hierarchy, although Trường Chinh remained powerful. Lê Duẩn was a party man and never held a post in the government. He made a brief, secret visit to South Vietnam in 1958, writing a report, The Path to Revolution in the South, in which he stated that the North Vietnamese had to do more to assist the southern fighters. In January 1959, under increasing pressure from southern communist cadres who were being successfully targeted by Diem's regime, the Central Committee in Hanoi approved plans for North Vietnam to fully support the effort to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunify Vietnam under a communist government. In July 1959, North Vietnam invaded Laos, occupying eastern parts of the country to establish the Ho Chi Minh trail which would be used to send soldiers and weapons to South Vietnam.
First Secretary
Lê Duẩn was informally chosen as the First Secretary of the party by Hồ in 1959, at the January plenum of the Central Committee, and was elected to the post de jure at the 3rd National Congress. According to Bùi Tín, he was not Hồ's original choice for the post; his preferred candidate was Võ Nguyên Giáp, but since Lê Duẩn was supported by the influential Lê Đức Thọ, the Head of the Party Organisational Department, Lê Duẩn was picked for the post. He was considered a safe choice because of his time in prison during the French rule, his thesis The Road to the South and his strong belief in Vietnamese reunification.According to Stein Tønnesson, Le Duan had not, like Ho Chi Minh, traveled around the world during his youth. He had not, like Pham Van Dong or Vo Nguyen Giap, worked closely with Ho Chi Minh from the 1940s. Ho Chi Minh's decision to leave the party leadership to Le Duan in the years 1957-1960, and to endorse his formal election in 1960, must be interpreted as a way to ensure national unity. At a time when Vietnam was divided into two, and many southern cadres had been regrouped to the north, the safest way to ensure that the Vietnam Worker Party remained a party for all of Vietnam was probably to make the leader of the southern branch the leader of the whole party. Presumably, this was the motive behind Ho Chi Minh's choice.
General Secretary leadership
Political infighting and power
Lê Duẩn was officially named First Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1960, thereby succeeding Hồ as the party's de facto leader even though the latter remained its chairman. However, Hồ continued to influence North Vietnam's governance: Lê Duẩn, Tố Hữu, Trường Chinh, and Phạm Văn Đồng often shared dinner with him. In 1963, Hồ purportedly corresponded with South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm in the hope of achieving a negotiated peace. Together with Lê Đức Thọ, Head of the Party Organisational Department and Nguyễn Chí Thanh, a military general, Lê Duẩn tried to monopolise the decision-making process – this became even more evident following Hồ's death. In 1964, Hồ's health began to fail and Lê Duẩn, as his trusted underling, more visibly took on day-to-day decision-making responsibilities. Some Western analysts claim that by 1965 Hồ and Lê Duẩn had split and that "for all intents and purposes" Lê Duẩn had sidelined Hồ. Lê Duẩn, Lê Đức Thọ and Phạm Hùng "progressively tried to neutralise Hồ Chí Minh" and Phạm Văn Đồng.By the late-1960s, Hồ's declining health had weakened his position within the leadership. While Hồ was still consulted on important decisions, Lê Duẩn dominated the Party. When Hồ died on 2 September 1969, the collective leadership he had espoused continued, but Lê Duẩn was first among equals. The Central Committee's first resolution following Hồ's death pledged to uphold the collective leadership. Lê Duẩn chaired Hồ's funeral committee and gave the event's final speech.
From the beginning the party leadership had split into pro-Soviet, pro-Chinese and moderate factions. Under Hồ the party had followed a policy of neutrality between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China in the aftermath of the Sino–Soviet split. This policy continued until reunification. While the Politburo made decisions through consensus, Lê Duẩn, through his post as General Secretary, was the most powerful figure and was able to increase his power via his alliance with Lê Đức Thọ, Trần Quốc Hoàn and Võ Nguyên Giáp. Together with Lê Đức Thọ, Lê Duẩn controlled personnel appointments in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Political Directorate of the People's Army of Vietnam, the General Logistics Department of the PAVN and the Ministry of Transport.
To strengthen their hold on power, Lê Duẩn and Lê Đức Thọ established a patronage network. For instance Lê Đức Thọ's brother, Đinh Đức Thiện was appointed Minister of Communications and Transport; in April 1982 Đồng Sĩ Nguyên, a protégé of Lê Duẩn, became Minister of Transport. Mai Chí Thọ, friend of Lê Đức Thọ, was Chairman of the People's Committee of Hồ Chí Minh City from 1978 to 1985. Several of Lê Duẩn's relatives were appointed to offices in the propaganda and culture sector. However, with the exception of Mai Chí Thọ none of these figures reached the pinnacles of power in Vietnamese politics.