Pro-Chinese veteran, North Vietnam’s first ambassador to China, who defected to China after the 1979 war
After the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, he evaded surveillance at Karachi and defected to China. He denounced Vietnam’s treatment of ethnic Chinese and accused its leaders of subservience to the Soviet Union.
A revolutionary from Nghệ An, he took part in the early communist movement with Ho Chi Minh. As North Vietnam’s first ambassador to China (1950–1957) he was a crucial link between the two countries, and he sat on the Politburo from 1956 to 1976 and was vice-chairman of the National Assembly from 1958 to 1979. His influence peaked in the early 1960s when Hanoi briefly leaned towards Beijing in the Sino-Soviet dispute, and waned as relations with China soured. In July 1979, travelling to East Germany for treatment, he slipped his escorts at Karachi, took refuge at the Chinese consulate and flew to Beijing, denouncing Vietnam’s persecution of the Hoa at a press conference in August. He died in Beijing in 1991.
Career timeline
- 1930Helped Ho Chi Minh found the Indochinese Communist Party.
- 1950–1957Served as North Vietnam’s first ambassador to China.
- 1958–1979Served as vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of North Vietnam’s and later all-Vietnam’s National Assembly.
- 1956–1976Elected to the Politburo at the Second Party Congress in 1956 and reelected at the Third Congress in 1960.
- 1963Was appointed head of the Party’s International Liaison Department amid a temporary pro-China turn.
- 1976Was removed from the Politburo and Central Committee at the Fourth Party Congress.
- 1979Defected to China after the Sino-Vietnamese War.
Vietnamese Politburo member who negotiated the Paris Peace Accords with Kissinger and declined the Nobel Peace Prize
Lê Đức Thọ took effective charge of North Vietnam’s delegation in Paris in 1968 and began secret talks with Kissinger in 1970, signing the 1973 Paris Peace Accords. He declined the Nobel Peace Prize, saying peace had not yet been established in South Vietnam.
Born Phan Đình Khải in Nam Định, he helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and was held in French colonial prisons in 1930–1936 and 1939–1944. During the war against France he ran party organisation in the south alongside Lê Duẩn, and in 1955 he joined the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers’ Party. He arrived in Paris in June 1968 to take effective charge of the North Vietnamese delegation, and from February 1970 held secret talks with Kissinger that led to the Paris Peace Accords of January 1973. Named joint winner of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Kissinger, he declined it on the ground that peace had not yet been established in South Vietnam. He died in Hanoi in 1990.
Career timeline
- 1930Helped found the Indochinese Communist Party.
- 1930–1936, 1939–1944Imprisoned by the French colonial authorities.
- 1948Became deputy secretary and head of the Organization Department of the Cochinchina Party Committee in the south.
- 1955–1986Served on the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers’ Party, renamed the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1976.
- 1968Arrived at the Paris peace talks and took effective charge of the North Vietnamese delegation.
- 1970–1973Held secret negotiations with Henry Kissinger that led to the Paris Peace Accords.
- 1973Was named joint Nobel Peace Prize laureate with Kissinger but declined it, saying peace had not yet been established in South Vietnam.
PRG foreign minister, the only woman to sign the Paris Peace Accords, and later vice president of Vietnam
At the 1969 Paris Peace Conference, she was deputy head of the National Liberation Front delegation. Later that year she became foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam and headed its delegation, signing the 1973 Paris Agreement.
Born in Sa Đéc province and a granddaughter of the nationalist leader Phan Châu Trinh, she joined the Communist Party in 1948 and was held by the French in Saigon’s Chí Hòa prison in 1951–1953. During the Vietnam War she sat on the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front, and in 1969 she became foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, leading its delegation in Paris. She was the only woman to sign the 1973 Paris Peace Accords. After reunification she was minister of education, and the National Assembly twice elected her vice president of Vietnam, for 1992–2002.
Career timeline
- 1949Joined the Vietnamese Communist Party and worked as a grassroots organiser.
- 1951–1954Arrested by French police, imprisoned at Chi Hoa Detention Centre, and released in poor health.
- 1969Served as deputy head of the National Liberation Front delegation in Paris, then became foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government and head of its Paris delegation.
- 1973Was the only woman to sign the Paris Agreement.
- 1976–1987Served as minister of education.
- 1992–2002Elected vice president of Vietnam for two terms.
