Văn Tiến Dũng (; 2 May 1917 – 17 March 2002) was a Vietnamese general in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff (1954–1974); PAVN commander in chief (1975–1980); member of the Central Military–Party Committee (CMPC) (1984–1986) and Socialist Republic of Vietnam defense minister (1980–1987)..
Military career Born in Cổ Nhuế commune, Từ Liêm District, Hà Nội of Tonkin (French protectorate) to a craftsman family, Văn Tiến Dũng took part in some democracy movements and public struggles of Hà Nội workers since 1936, joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1937. He was imprisoned by French colonial authorities three times and escaped from prisons successfully two times between 1939 and 1944.
In the August Revolution, Dũng directed the armed forces to seize power in the province of Hòa Bình, Ninh Bình and Thanh Hóa. In 1951, he was appointed as a commander commissar of the newly formed Brigade 320. By November 1953, during the First Indochina War, he rose to Chief of Staff of the Vietnam People's Army under General Võ Nguyên Giáp prior to the siege of Điện Biên Phủ in 1954.
He commanded the vital Tri-Thien-Hue Front during the 1972 Easter Offensive, replacing his mentor as PAVN commander in chief in 1974, when the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle into a more conventional war.Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces (Texas A&M University Press, 2008)Mai Elliott, RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era (Rand Corporation, 2010) p525.
Dũng planned and commanded the 1975 spring offensive, which overwhelmed South Vietnamese defenses and captured Saigon in 1975. He also directed Vietnam's invasion of Khmer Rouge Cambodia and the resulting border conflict with the People's Republic of China in 1979."China "Should Learn from its Losses" in the War against Vietnam" from "August 1" Radio, People's republic of China, 1400 GMT, February 17, 1980, as reported by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 22 February 1980soha.vn/quan-su/bien-gioi-phia-bac-1979-30-ngay-khong-the-nao-quen-1-20150216095114962.htmCambodia – The Fall of Democratic Kampuchea. U.S. Library of Congress. Retrieved 9 July 2013. He was appointed defence minister in 1980. He retired in December 1986 at the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Văn Tiến Dũng died on 17 March 2002 in Hanoi, at the age of 84.
References Notes
Sources Van Tien Dung, Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam. Trans. by John Spragens, Jr. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977. Tobin, Thomas G., Arthur E. Laehr, and John F. Hilgenberg, Last Flight from Saigon. Maxwell Air Force Base AL: Air University Press, 1979. Nguyen Duy Hinh, Major General, Vietnamization and the Cease-Fire. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1980.
Cao Văn Viên, General, The Final Collapse. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History, 1983.
External links
Interview with Van Tien Dung, 1981 Bibliography: Văn Tiến Dũng's writings CBS News report of World Airways evacuation flight from Da Nang Timeline of NVA invasion of South Vietnam “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” documentary by Eugene Jarecki (video, 1h19). Sequence on Nixon campaign sabotage of Paris Peace Accords: start 15min 20sec – end 20min 10sec. Tran Van Tra, Vietnam: History of the Bulwark B2 Theater, vol. 5, Concluding the 30-Year War. Ho Chi Minh City: Van Nghe Publishing, 1982. On-line edition The Fall of the Khmer Rouge 1979: Vietnam forces Khmer Rouge retreat Meanwhile: When the Khmer Rouge came to kill in Vietnam Second Life, Second Death: The Khmer Rouge After 1978 Ministry of Defence Vietnam