Truong Chinh

Truong Chinh

Trường Chinh (pseudonym meaning “Long March”, born Dang Xuan Khu (9 February 1907, Xuan Truong District, Nam Dinh 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 Le Duan in 1986, he was briefly Vietnam's top leader.

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 Son 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 Tuyen 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. The communists gained power in North Vietnam in 1955, while a non-communist government retained power in South Vietnam.

In the 1950s, Trường Chinh undertook land reforms in North Vietnam inspired by Mao. This policy resulted in at least 50,000 executions(some estimates go much higher) and caused many deaths from starvation. 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.

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. He was advisor of the Party's Central Committee from December 1986.