Ton Duc Thang (20 August 1888-30 March 1980) was President of North Vietnam from 3 September 1969 to 2 July 1976 (succeeding Ho Chi Minh) and President of Vietnam from 2 July 1976 to 30 March 1980 (preceding Truong Chinh).
Biography[]
Ton Duc Thang was born in Long Xuyen, An Giang Province, French Indochina in 1888, and he was heavily influenced by his anti-colonialist tutor during his youth. In 1906, he moved to Saigon, and he served in the French Navy during the Russian Civil War, attempting to turn over the armored cruiser Waldeck-Rousseau to the Bolsheviks. In 1927, he became a Vietnamese nationalist, and he was imprisoned at Con Son Prison from 1929 to 1945. That year, he became a member of the Cochinchina Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party, and he became a member of its Central Committee in 1947. He became a key leader of the Viet Minh during the First Indochina War, and, in 1960, he became Vice President of North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh. After Ho Chi Minh's death in 1969, he assumed the presidency, and he continued to serve as president of a united Vietnam from 1976 until his own death in 1980 at the age of 91.