Trường Chinh | |
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General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam | |
In office 14 July 1986 – 18 December 1986 |
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Preceded by | Lê Duẩn |
Succeeded by | Nguyễn Văn Linh |
In office May 1941 – 1 September 1956 |
|
Preceded by | Nguyễn Văn Cừ |
Succeeded by | Ho Chi Minh |
Secretary of the Central Military–Party Committee of the Communist Party | |
In office 14 July 1986 – 18 December 1986 |
|
Preceded by | Văn Tiến Dũng |
Succeeded by | Nguyễn Văn Linh |
Chairman of the Council of State of Vietnam | |
In office 4 July 1981 – 18 June 1987 |
|
Preceded by | Nguyễn Hữu Thọ |
Succeeded by | Võ Chí Công |
Member of the Politburo | |
In office 1951–1986 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Duc Tan, Mộ Đức District, Quảng Ngãi Province, Indochina |
9 February 1907
Died | 30 September 1988 Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam |
(aged 81)
Nationality | Vietnamese |
Political party | Communist Party of Vietnam |
Trường Chinh (pseudonym meaning “Long March”, born Đặng Xuân Khu (9 February 1907, Xuân Trường District, Nam Định Province – 30 September 1988, Hanoi) was a Vietnamese communist political leader and theoretician. From 1941 to 1957, he was Vietnam's second-ranked communist leader (after Ho Chi Minh). Following the death of Lê Duẩn in 1986, he was briefly Vietnam's top leader.
Xuân Khu joined the Vietnamese Communist Party in the 1930s. He became an admirer of the Chinese communist leader, Mao Zedong, and adopted the pseudonym Trường Chinh, which was the Vietnamese cognate for Chinese name for Long March, 長征. In 1930, he was appointed to the Committee's propaganda of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Indochina. Later this year, he was arrested by the French and sentenced to 12 years in prison and deported to Sơn La, the year 1936 was released. In 1941, Trường Chinh became the first secretary of the communist party and thus the party's second ranking leader after Hồ Chí Minh. He was chaired of Party National Conference in northern Tuyên Quang Province, launching an uprising to seize power from the French and Japanese. In the following years, the party fought a war for independence against the French colonists.
The communists gained power in North Vietnam in 1955, while a non-communist government retained power in South Vietnam.
In the 1950s, Trường Chinh supervised the Land reform in North Vietnam, which was modeled on the Chinese experience. The land reform campaign was accompanied by extensive repression and excess, which resulted the false imprisonment and execution of large numbers of people, many of whom were party members. Trường Chinh had already been criticized for his unwillingness to agree with other party leaders and for his support of China while other leaders relied on the Soviet Union as their role model. The Sino-Soviet split reduced China's influence in Hanoi and Trường Chinh lost the position of first secretary toward the end of 1956. However, he was still seated as the second-ranking leader at the 1957 May Day parade. At the 1958 May Day parade, Lê Duẩn was ranked second, but Trường remained a powerful figure on the Politburo, theorist of the party. Trường Chinh was Chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee from 1960–81, and Chairman of the Council of State from 1981-87.