Nông Đức Mạnh

Nông Đức Mạnh
Nông Đức Mạnh in 2010
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
In office 22 April 2001 – 19 January 2011
President	Trần Đức Lương Nguyễn Minh Triết
Prime Minister	Phan Văn Khải Nguyễn Tấn Dũng
Preceded by	Lê Khả Phiêu
Succeeded by	Nguyễn Phú Trọng
Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party
In office 22 April 2001 – 19 January 2011
Preceded by	Lê Khả Phiêu
Succeeded by	Nguyễn Phú Trọng
Chairman of the National Assembly
In office 23 September 1992 – 27 June 2001
Preceded by	Lê Quang Đạo
Succeeded by	Nguyễn Văn An
Personal details
Born	(1940-09-11) 11 September 1940 (age 76) Na Rì, Bắc Kạn Province, French Indochina
Political party	Communist Party of Vietnam
Alma mater	Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Academy of Politics

Nông Đức Mạnh ( listen; born 11 September 1940) is a Vietnamese politician and was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the most powerful position in the Vietnamese government, from 22 April 2001 to 19 January 2011. Although his official biography states that his parents were Tày peasants, it has long been rumoured that Mạnh is the son of former North Vietnamese leader Hồ Chí Minh.

Mạnh was born in Cường Lợi, Na Rì District, Bắc Kạn Province. His own son is Nông Quốc Tuấn, party secretary for Bắc Giang Province.

It has long been rumoured that Mạnh is the illegitimate son of Hồ Chí Minh (1890-1969) and Nông Thị Trưng (1920–2003), Hồ's housekeeper from 1941-42. This story may have been a factor in his selection as party boss. In a profile of Mạnh published in the official press immediately after he gained this position, Trưng was identified as his mother.

Mạnh's official biography gives his date of birth as 11 September 1940, when Hồ was still in China. Ho returned to Vietnam in February 1941 and met Trưng in July. Hồ wrote a four-line poem for Trưng in 1944, and gave her a notebook as "a token of my love".

This poem was later taught to elementary school students. In April 2001, shortly after Mạnh was named as party boss, a reporter at a news conference asked him to confirm or deny the rumor. He responded, "All Vietnamese people are the children of Uncle Hồ." When asked again about the rumor in January 2002 by a Time Asia reporter, he denied he was Hồ's son and stated that his father was named Nông Văn Lai and his mother Hoàng Thị Nhị.