Trường Chinh

Trường Chinh
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
In office 14 July 1986 – 18 December 1986
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
Personal details
Born	9 February 1907 Duc Tan, Mộ Đức District, Quảng Ngãi Province, Indochina
Died	30 September 1988 (aged 81) Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
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.

Life

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.^[1]

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.^[2] 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.

Vietnam was unified in 1975, and Trường Chinh was selected president in 1981. He chaired the work of the Politburo when Le Duan to be out. He became general secretary and Vietnam's top leader in July 1986 following Lê Duẩn's death.^[3]

Trường Chinh came to be receptive to reformists and gradually sided with them after visits to the countryside in 1983, amidst the critical economic conditions facing Vietnam at the time, support Nguyễn Văn Linh; nevertheless, he was replaced by Nguyễn Văn Linh at the Sixth Party Congress in December 1986, part of a sweeping leadership change that marked the beginning of the Đổi mới (Renovation) period.^[4] He was advisor of the Party's Central Committee from December 1986.

Death

Trường Chinh resigned as president in 1987 due to ill health and died the following year.

References

1. Naissance d'un Etat-parti: le Viêt Nam depuis 1945 Christopher E. Goscha, Benoît de Tréglodé - 2004 Page 333 "It is also possible that the ICP section still operating in the delta under Trường Chinh had provided instructions to Nguyễn Bình by June 1945, but this is not yet proven. Until more hard evidence Comes to light, I think that Nguyễn Bình was still marching to his own drum, doing what he thought he should do Without receiving any formal instructions from “above”, other than occasional chats with Trần Huy Liệu."
2. Gittinger, J. Price, "Communist Land Policy in Viet Nam", Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 29, No. 8, 1957, p. 118.
3. Vuong, Quan Hoang; Dam, Van Nhue; Van Houtte, Daniel; and Tran, Tri Dung (Dec 2011). "The entrepreneurial facets as precursor to Vietnam's economic renovation in 1986" (PDF). The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development VIII (4): 6–47. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
4. Napier, Nancy K.; Vuong, Quan Hoang. What we see, why we worry, why we hope: Vietnam going forward. Boise, ID: Boise State University CCI Press, October 2013. ISBN 978-0985530587.

External links

• Bibliography re Trường Chinh