Truong Chinh (9 February 1907-30 September 1988) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 9 November 1940 to 5 October 1956 (succeeding Nguyen Van Cu and preceding Ho Chi Minh) and from 14 July to 19 December 1986 (succeeding Le Duan and preceding Nguyen Van Linh) and President of Vietnam (as Chairman of the Council of State) from 4 July 1981 to 18 June 1987 (succeeding Ton Duc Thang and preceding Vo Chi Cong).
Biography[]
Truong Chinh was born in Xuan Truong, Nam Dinh Province, French Indochina in 1907, and he became a leader of the nationalist student movements of the 1920s and was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Indochina in 1929. In 1930, he became a member of the propaganda committee of the Indochinese Communist Party, and he was imprisoned by the French colonial authorities from 1930 to 1936. After the Vietnamese declaration of independence in September 1945, he played a major role in shaping North Vietnam's socialist policies, having been influenced by both Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's views. From 1940 to 1956, as General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam, he designed and implemented strategies in North Vietnam. After the failure of the land reform program in 1956, Ho Chi Minh dismissed him as General Secretary, and Le Duan succeeded him. He remained an influential politician, chairing the National Assembly from 1960 to 1981, when he became Chairman of the Council of State (President) of Vietnam. In 1986, he briefly returned to being top party leader. Chinh helped to carry forward the country's Doi Moi economic reform program before dying in 1988.