Le Duc Tho

Le Duc Tho , pseud. of Phan Dinh Khai , 1911-90, Vietnamese political leader. A Vietnamese nationalist and one of the founders (1930) of the Indochinese Communist party, he opposed the French colonial regime, which twice (1930-36, 1939-44) imprisoned him. After independence and partition (1954) and Tho's appointment (1955-86) to the party politburo, he played a leading role in the North Vietnamese military during the Vietnam War . From 1968 to 1973 he was a key member of the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace Conferences. As North Vietnam's principal spokesman, Tho, along with Henry Kissinger , the United States' chief negotiator, hammered out the ceasefire of 1973. Both men were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, but Tho declined the prize, saying peace had not yet been established.

Le Duc Tho (b. 14 Oct. 1911, d. 13 Oct. 1990). Vietnamese politician Born Phan Dinh Khai into a learned gentry family in the Nam Ha Province, he joined the Indochina Communist Party upon its foundation in 1930. He was briefly imprisoned by the French, but then escaped to China. He helped found the Vietminh in 1941, and after World War II lived as a party representative in South Vietnam. He joined the party leadership (Politburo) in 1955 in charge of the party's Organization Department. He became the chief negotiator for the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he failed to achieve a halt to the US bomber offensives against North Vietnam. However, he was in a much stronger bargaining position as the war proceeded, so that at the Paris Peace Accords of 1973, he was able to achieve a cease-fire. For this, he and his US counterpart Kissinger formed perhaps the oddest couple ever to be offered the Nobel Peace Prize. While Kissinger accepted, he refused. He remained a member of the Politburo of the Republic of Vietnam until his resignation in late 1986.

Tho, Le Duc (1911–1990) born Phan Dinh Khai in Nam Ha province, Vietnam, Le Duc Tho was a founder of the Indochinese Community Party (1930) and a leader of the Vietminh (a group that sought Vietnamese independence from the French) and the Communist Party (revived as the Vietnam Workers' Party). Tho was the senior Viet Minh official in southern Vietnam until 1954, and a member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party (the Communist Party of Vietnam after 1976) from 1955 on, overseeing the Vietcong insurgency that began in the late 1950s. He is remembered in the West for his role in the cease-fire as special advisor to the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace Conferences between 1968 and 1973, for which he was a corecipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 with Henry Kissinger. Tho, however, did not accept the honor. He remained a member of the Politburo until 1986.