Trường Chinh

His Excellency Trường Chinh
Trường Chinh in 1955
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 9 November 1940 – 5 October 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	Tôn Đức Thắng
Succeeded by	Võ Chí Công
Chairman of the National Assembly
In office 15 July 1960 – 4 July 1981
Preceded by	Tôn Đức Thắng
Succeeded by	Nguyễn Hữu Thọ
Member of the Politburo
In office 1951–1986
Personal details
Born	(1907-02-09)9 February 1907 Xuân Trường District, Nam Định Province, Indochina
Died	30 September 1988(1988-09-30) (aged 81) Hanoi, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Nationality	Vietnamese
Political party	Communist Party of Vietnam

Trường Chinh (Vietnamese: [ʈɨ̂əŋ ciŋ̟]; 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. Trường Chinh was considered the second President of Vietnam.^[1] When he was President of the State Council of Vietnam from 1981 to 1987 (equivalent to President of the State now). In addition, he has held other important posts in Vietnam's political system such as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (the first: 1941-1956, the second: 1986), Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (1960-1975) and President of the National Assembly (1960-1981).

Life

Trường Chinh was born Đặng Xuân Khu on 9 February 1907, in Hành Thiện village in Nam Định province. His grandfather was Đặng Xuân Bảng a Vietnamese historian. His father, Đặng Xuân Viện (1880 -1958), was a Confucian scholar, and a member of Nam Viet People's Alliance for History, who compiled the Minh Đô history (The book consists of 100 sides). Later, Trường Chinh's father studied the national language and became a journalist, writing for many major newspapers in Hanoi such as Nam Phong, Trung Bắc Tân Văn, Ngọ Báo. Trường Chinh's mother was Nguyễn Thị Từ. Due to his father's education, from early childhood, Đặng Xuân Khu was trained in culture and history in Confucian tradition. When he grew up, he began to study Western culutre in Nam Định.

In 1925, while attending the Thành Chung High School Đặng Xuân Khu was involved in the struggle for amnesty for Phan Bội Châu, the leader of the Nam Định . In 1926, he was expelled from school. In 1927, Đặng Xuân Khu moved to Hanoi, continued his studies at the College of Commerce and joined the Revolutionary Youth Association of Vietnam. In 1929, he joined the campaign to form the Indochinese Communist Party in Tonkin and became one of the party's first members.

In 1930 Trường Chinh became member of the Communist Party of Vietnam and 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.^[2]

The Communist Party of Vietnam under Hồ Chí Minh 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. 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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

External links

• Bibliography re Trường Chinh