Cold War Files: All Units: People: Le Duan

Le Duan

Le Duan
b. 1908 - d. 1986
Secretary, North Vietnam's Communist Party, 1959-1969; Vietnamese Communist Party Leader, 1969-1986

Imprisoned by the French colonial regime, he organized Communist forces in the South after the French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954 and became first secretary of North Vietnam's Communist party in 1959. After Ho Chi Minh's death in 1969, Le Duan emerged as the leader of North Vietnam's ruling collective. In 1976, after Vietnam's reunification, he was renamed party leader and served until his death.

He was known publicly as Ba, or "Second Son."