Le Duan

Le Duan , 1908-86, Vietnamese Communist party leader. Imprisoned by the French colonial regime, he organized Communist forces in the South after the French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954 and became first secretary of North Vietnam's Communist party in 1959. After Ho Chi Minh 's death (1969), Le Duan emerged as the leader of North Vietnam's ruling collective. In 1976, after Vietnam's reunification, he was renamed party leader and served until his death.

Le Duan (b. 7 Apr. 1907, d. 10 July 1986). First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party 1960–76; General Secretary 1976–86 Born in the Quang Tri Province (central Vietnam), he joined Ho Chi Minh's Revolutionary Youth League in 1928 and was a founding member of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. A member of its Central Committee since 1939, he was imprisoned (1940–5) and then organized the party's activities in southern Vietnam. He returned to Hanoi in 1957 as the leading party figure second only to Ho Chi Minh himself. As the latter's health declined during the 1960s, he became the party's most influential figure and de facto leader of North Vietnam. With great diplomatic skill he ensured both Soviet and Chinese support in the Vietnam War, as well as internal party unity in favour of aggressive policies towards South Vietnam. Having won the war in 1975, he continued his aggressive policies, now designed to transform Vietnam into a major regional Communist power. This led inevitably to a futile but long-standing conflict with China, which escalated into sporadic violence. Instead of consolidating his own country, riven by decades of war, through building up a peacetime economy and using the skills of the Boat People, he actively intervened in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. Nevertheless, his domination in state and party remained unchallenged, and he died in office.