Background

Le Duan was born on April 4, 1907, into a lower-class family in Quảng Trị Province, in the southern part of French Indochina as Lê Văn Nhuận. He was the son of Le Hiep and Vo Thi Dao. Le Duan said he was born of a poor peasant family, and in writings and interviews, he stressed that his childhood was one of poverty and despair and that that was the main reason why he early became committed to communism. However, it is more likely that Le Duan's family was what roughly could be called the Vietnamese village gentry, the equivalent of a middle class in a traditional/colonial society. This is evidenced by the fact of his education.

Education

Le Duan received a French colonial education, probably through the entire lycee (or high school) system. Such education was open only to upper-class youths or those with special French connections, and even then perhaps only one out of a hundred Vietnamese youth were ever admitted, virtually none of them poor village youths.

Career

After completing his education, Le Duan took a job as a clerk for a railway company. At this time, Vietnam was a colony of France. Le Duan's job brought him into contact with Vietnamese Communists who wanted to gain Vietnam's independence from French rule. He eagerly joined other railway workers in demonstrations against the French colonial government. By the mid-1920s French forces began to crack down on protestors. Fearing for his safety, Le Duan fled to China.

After returning to Vietnam in 1931, Le Duan was arrested for his political activities against the French colonial government. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison, but he was released in 1936 when a more tolerant government came to power in France. Le Duan then continued his revolutionary activities, mostly in the southern provinces of Vietnam. In 1939 he was elected to the central committee that led the Communist Party. But the following year French forces once again began arresting their political opponents. Le Duan spent the next five years in a French prison on Con Son island. While in captivity, he met a number of fellow Communist revolutionaries and exchanged ideas and strategies with them.

In the meantime, France suffered a series of military defeats during World War II (1939-1945) and surrendered to Germany. Unable to protect its colonies in Indochina, the French government allowed Japan to occupy Vietnam and build military bases there. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists knew as the Viet Minh viewed the Japanese occupation as an opportunity to break free from French rule. In 1945 the Allied Forces (which mainly consisted of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) defeated both Germany and Japan to win World War II. A short time later, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence from both the French and the Japanese.

But it soon became clear that France was not willing to give up control of its former colony. In 1946 a new war began between the French and the Viet Minh. Le Duan was released from prison in 1945 and went to Hanoi, where he served in the Communist Party leadership. In 1950 he was sent to the southern provinces of Vietnam as the main representative of the Communists. He did not play a major role in the war against the French, but he did build a political following in the South that would become important later.

In 1954 the Viet Minh defeated the French after nine years of fighting. The Geneva Peace Accords, which formally ended the war, divided Vietnam into two parts: Communist-led North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, and United States - supported South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem. The peace agreement also provided for nationwide free elections to be held in 1956 to reunite the two parts of the country under one government. But American leaders worried that free elections would bring power to the Communists. They felt that a Communist government in Vietnam would increase the strength of China and the Soviet Union and threaten the security of the United States. As a result, Diem and his American advisors refused to hold the elections.

North Vietnamese leaders became angry when Diem failed to hold the elections as scheduled. They were determined to reunite the country, by force if necessary. Le Duan remained in South Vietnam after the peace agreement was signed. He organized opposition to the Diem government among his political followers.

Later that year, Le Duan returned to Hanoi and became acting secretary-general of the Vietnamese Workers' Party, which was the new name of the Indochinese Communist Party. Ho Chi Minh held the official title, but he left the actual job to Le Duan. Le Duan replaced Truong Chinh, whose attempts to combine North Vietnam's family farms into large, government-run collectives had resulted in peasant revolts. Le Duan had more success in mobilizing the farmers and increasing food production, but his methods sometimes included intimidation and violence.

In 1960 Le Duan was formally elevated to the secretary-general of the Communist Party. This position made him one of the most powerful men in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. One of his main contributions to the war effort was to convince Ho Chi Minh and other party leaders to support the South Vietnamese Communists known as the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong fought against the Diem government using tactics of guerilla warfare. As Diem became more and more unpopular among the people, the Viet Cong gained control of large areas of the South Vietnamese countryside. Le Duan believed that the Viet Cong could eventually take over South Vietnam.

But the United States began sending money, weapons, and military advisors to help South Vietnam defend itself against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson sent American combat troops to join the fight on the side of South Vietnam. But deepening U.S. involvement in the war failed to defeat the Communists. Instead, the war turned into a bloody stalemate. As the conflict dragged on, Ho Chi Minh became ill and faded from public view. When Ho died in 1969, Le Duan became the main political figure in North Vietnam. He continued to lead the Communist Party through the remainder of the Vietnam War.

In 1975 North Vietnam captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to win the Vietnam War. After winning the war, Le Duan and the Communist leaders of North Vietnam reunited the two halves of the country to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Then they introduced a series of changes designed to transform Vietnam into a socialist society. For example, the government took control of all farmland and business activities and placed restrictions on the lives of the Vietnamese people. These changes created terrible hardships for the Vietnamese. Before long, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people decided that they could not live under the new government and began fleeing the country as refugees.

Over the next few years, the economic situation in Vietnam continued to deteriorate. Le Duan and the other Communist Party leaders struggled to lead the reunited country during peacetime. By the 1980s the situation had become so desperate that the Communist government was forced to make a series of economic reforms. These reforms restored some private property and free-market business incentives in Vietnam. During this time, Le Duan's health began to fail. He traveled to Moscow several times to receive treatment for liver disease. On July 10, 1986, the Communist Party newspaper reported that he had died.

During his thirty years as secretary-general of the Communist Party in Vietnam, Le Duan developed a reputation as a rigid and secretive man. He published ten books and more than a hundred articles outlining his Communist philosophy during his lifetime. Upon his death, younger and more progressive members of the party discarded many of his ideas in an attempt to breathe new life into the Vietnamese economy and society.

Achievements

• Le Duan was one of the most outstanding North Vietnamese leaders. He was one of the founding members of the Indochina Communist Party in 1930 and fought against the French. He oversaw the war against South Vietnam from the late 1950s until the reunification of Vietnam was achieved in 1975 with the collapse of the South Vietnamese Army and Government.
  
  As an enthusiastic revolutionary absolutely loyal to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation, and a theorist endowed with independent, active, creative thinking, Duan made great contributions in terms of theory to many fields that helped resolve critical issues of the Vietnamese Revolution, particularly at its turning points and in complicated situations.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Vietnamese Revolution: Fundamental Problems, Essential Tasks

    (This analysis of the great problems, essential tasks, pri...)

    1970
  • This Nation and Socialism Are One: Selected Writings of Le Duan 1977
  • Role of the Vietnamese Working Class and Tasks of the Trade-Unions at the Present Stage 1969

Religion

Le Duan was non-religious.

Politics

In China Le Duan joined a growing number of Vietnamese Communists. In 1928 he joined the Revolutionary Youth League led by future North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. Two years later, Le Duan became a founding member of the Indochinese Communist Party (the future Communist Party of Vietnam).

Le Duan was a nationalist and during the war, he claimed that the "nation and socialism were one." He stressed the importance of building socialism politically, economically and culturally and of defending the socialist fatherland. Ideologically he was often referred to as a pragmatist. He often broke with Marxism-Leninism to stress Vietnam's uniqueness, most notably in agriculture. Le Duan's view of socialism was statist, highly centralized and managerial.

Le Duan believed that the Communist Party should take an active role in reuniting the two parts of Vietnam. He argued that North Vietnam should use a combination of political and military strategies to overcome resistance in the South. In 1956 Le Duan explained his views in an influential pamphlet called "The Path of Revolution in the South."

Views

Quotations: "As an instrument of the Proletarian State, under the direct and absolute leadership of the Party, our Army, first and foremost, should study Marxism-Leninism and thoroughly grasp the Party's political guideline."

"Truth is concrete, revolution is creativity; so sometimes the revolutionary way must go through a lot of experimentation and creativity to reach the truth."

"Our regime is the dictatorship of the proletariat. The dictatorship must first be the line of the proletariat. The essence of the proletariat is there, not the use of violence. It is the combination of Marxist-Leninist theory and the revolutionary practices of our country, that line is the most scientific, it is the norm, it is mandatory. and cooperation with anyone, that's a dictatorship, that's the way: it is necessary to abolish the exploiting class, abolish the individual production regime, establish socialist production relations. In that way, it is not to allow anyone to go against it, it is a dictatorship, it is necessarily the industrialization of socialism. It is the dictatorial path, that is the line of the working class, no one is against it. Those who oppose are arrested. That is tyranny."

"As long as I'm sitting here, I don't let anyone in my mind think that I can rob this country of Vietnam."

"We are not afraid of anyone. We are not afraid because we are righteous. Big brother, I am not afraid. Friends, I am not afraid. Enemies are not afraid, I have beaten. I am human; I'm not afraid of anyone. I'm independent. The whole world knows we're independent."

Personality

Le Duan was personally described as having a rigid personality, secretive in manner, with few intimate friends.

Quotes from others about the person

• ''He shared with the other members of the Politburo a rather martial outlook, a tendency to attack problems with the application of violent force." - Douglas Pike
  
  ''His main achievement was that he completed the defeat of the South and unification.'' - Stephen Johnson

Connections

Le Duan was married twice. In 1929 he married Le Thi Sương. After her death, he married second-time Nguyễn Thụy Nga in 1950. Le Duan's children were Le Kien Trung, Le Han, Lê Kiên Thành, Le Tuyet Hong, Lê Thị Diệu Muội, Lê Vũ Anh, Lê Thị Cừ.

Father:

Le Hiep

Mother:

Vo Thi Dao

late wife:

Le Thi Sương

Wife:

Nguyễn Thụy Nga

Son:

Le Kien Trung

Son:

Le Han

Son:

Lê Kiên Thành

Daughter:

Le Tuyet Hong

Daughter:

Lê Thị Diệu Muội

Daughter:

Lê Vũ Anh

Daughter:

Lê Thị Cừ

Acquaintance:

Ho Chi Minh

Le Duan joined Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, a communist Anti-French front. By 1945, he had become an influential member of the Central Committee in the new Republic of Vietnam.

References

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  2012
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  1987
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  1998
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  2008
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  2005
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  1994
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  2003
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  2004
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  1996
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  1999
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  2004
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  2003
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  1985
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  1983
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• Gorbachev: The Man and the System
  2017