Văn Tiến Dũng

In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Văn, but is often simplified to Van in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person should properly be referred to by the given name Dũng.

Văn Tiến Dũng
File:Van Tien Dung.jpg General Văn Tiến Dũng
Secretary of the Central Military–Party Committee of the Communist Party
In office 4 July 1985 – 1986
Preceded by	Lê Duẩn
Succeeded by	Trường Chinh
6th Minister of Defence
In office February 1980 – February 1987
Preceded by	Võ Nguyên Giáp
Succeeded by	Lê Đức Anh
Member of the Politburo
In office 20 December 1976 – 18 December 1986
Personal details
Born	(1917-05-02)2 May 1917 Từ Liêm, Vietnam, French Indochina
Died
Political party	Communist Party
Awards	Resolution for Victory Order
Military service
Allegiance	Vietnam
Service/branch	Việt Minh People's Army of Vietnam
Years of service	1945–1986
Rank	General
Commands	Vietnam People's Army
Battles/wars	First Indochina War Vietnam War

Văn Tiến Dũng (2 May 1917 – 17 March 2002), born Co Nhue commune, Từ Liêm District, Hanoi, was a Vietnamese general in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff (1954–74); PAVN commander in chief (1974–80); member of the Central Military–Party Committee (CMPC) (1984-1986) and Socialist Republic of Vietnam defense minister (1980–86). He was the only member of North Vietnam's political elite who was of peasant origin.

Military career

He joined the communist Lao Dong Party in 1936, escaped from a French prison in 1944, and fought against the Japanese occupation force during the Second World War. August 1945, he directed the armed forces to seize power in the province of Hòa Bình, Ninh Bình and Thanh Hóa. By October 1953 during the First Indochina War, Dũng rose to become Chief of Staff of the Vietnam People's Army under General Võ Nguyên Giáp prior to the siege of Điện Biên Phủ in 1954. For the next twenty years, his military reputation in North Vietnam was second only to Giáp's.

He commanded the vital Tri-Thien-Hue Front during the 1972 Easter Offensive, replacing his mentor as PAVN commander in chief in 1974, when the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle to more conventional forms.

Dũng planned and commanded the 1975 Spring Offensive, the final PAVN offensive that defeated South Vietnamese defenses and captured Saigon in 1975. He also directed Vietnam's invasion of Khmer Rouge Cambodia and the resulting border conflict with the People's Republic of China in 1979. He was appointed defense minister in 1980. He retired in December 1986 at the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

He died on the seventeenth of March 2002 in Hanoi, at the age of 84.

References

Sources

• Van Tien Dung, Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam. Trans. by John Spragens, Jr. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977.
• Tobin, Thomas G., Arthur E. Laehr, and John F. Hilgenberg, Last Flight from Saigon. Maxwell Air Force Base AL: Air University Press, 1979.
• Nguyen Duy Hinh, Major General, Vietnamization and the Cease-Fire. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1980.
• Cao Văn Viên, General, The Final Collapse. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1983.

External links

• Interview with Van Tien Dung, 1981
• Profile of Văn Tiến Dũng
• Bibliography: Văn Tiến Dũng's writings
• CBS News report of World Airways evacuation flight from Da Nang
• Timeline of NVA invasion of South Vietnam
• “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” documentary by Eugene Jarecki (video, 1h19). Sequence on Nixon campaign sabotage of Paris Peace Accords: start 15min 20sec – end 20min 10sec.
• Tran Van Tra, Vietnam: History of the Bulwark B2 Theater, vol. 5, Concluding the 30-Year War. Ho Chi Minh City: Van Nghe Publishing, 1982. On-line edition
• The Fall of the Khmer Rouge
• 1979: Vietnam forces Khmer Rouge retreat
• Meanwhile: When the Khmer Rouge came to kill in Vietnam
• Second Life, Second Death: The Khmer Rouge After 1978
• Ministry of Defence Vietnam