The Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Thủ tướng Chính phủ nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), known as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Vietnamese: ''Chủ tịch Hội đồng Bộ trưởng'') from 1981 to 1992, is the highest office within the

Central Government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

. The

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

is simultaneously the Secretary of the Government Caucus Commission, a Party organ on government affairs, and Deputy Chairman of the Council for Defence and Security, an organ of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

. Throughout its history, the office has been responsible, at least in theory but not always in practice, for handling Vietnam's internal policies. Since Vietnam is a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

, with the

Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North ...

being the sole party allowed by the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, all the prime ministers of the Democratic Republic and the Socialist Republic have been members of the party while holding office. The current prime minister is Phạm Minh Chính, since 5 April 2021. He is sixth-ranked in the Political Bureau (Politburo). The Office of the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic traces its lineage back to Hồ Chí Minh, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic. The office has no official connection, or lineage, to the heads of government of the former

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

(with the exception of Huỳnh Tấn Phát, a communist and the last head of government of South Vietnam). Officially there have been 8 prime ministers of Vietnam, but there have been 29 prime ministers of Vietnam if the prime ministers of the

Empire of Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: ; Modern Japanese: ja, ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku, label=none) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of Annam ...

and South Vietnam are counted. The Prime Minister is elected by the proposal of the President of Vietnam to the National Assembly and is responsible to the National Assembly, which elects all ministers to government. Activity reports by the Prime Minister must be given to the National Assembly, while the Standing Committee of the National Assembly supervises the activities of the Central Government and the Prime Minister. Finally, the deputies of the National Assembly have the right to question the Prime Minister and other members of government.

Legends

Empire of Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: ; Modern Japanese: ja, ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku, label=none) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of Annam ...
(1945)

Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945–76)

;Status

State of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam (1949–1975)

Reunified Vietnam (1976–present)

Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976–present)

;Status

Notes

:1. The Politburo of the Central Committee is the highest decision-making body of the CPV and the

. The membership composition, and the order of rank of the individual Politburo members is decided in an election within the newly formed Central Committee in the aftermath of a Party Congress. The Central Committee can overrule the Politburo, but that does not happen often. :2. These numbers are official. The "—" denotes acting head of government. The first column shows how many heads of government there have been in Vietnamese history, while the second show how many heads of government there was in that state. :3. The Central Committee when it convenes for its first session after being elected by a National Party Congress elects the Politburo. According to David Koh, in interviews with several high-standing Vietnamese officials, the Politburo ranking is based upon the number of approval votes by the Central Committee.

Lê Hồng Anh Lê Hồng Anh (born November 12, 1949) is a Vietnamese politician who was the Minister of Public Security of Vietnam from 2002 to 2011. He was conferred the rank of General by the President of Vietnam on January 9, 2005. In 2011, Lê Hồng ...

, the Minister of Public Security, was ranked 2nd in the 10th Politburo because he received the second-highest number of approval votes. Another example being

Tô Huy Rứa Tô Huy Rứa (born 4 June 1947 in Thanh Hóa Province) is a Vietnamese politician and served as previous Chairman of the CPV Commission for Organisation. During the 10th Politburo, Tô held the posts of Chairman of the Propaganda Department of ...

of the 10th Politburo, he was ranked lowest because he received the lowest approval vote of the 10th Central Committee when he was standing for election for a seat in the Politburo. This system was implemented at the 1st plenum of the 10th Central Committee. The Politburo ranking functioned as an official order of precedence before the 10th Party Congress, and some believe it still does. :4. Phạm Văn Đồng became 4th-ranked member in the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

hierarchy when Hồ Chí Minh, the 1st ranked, died in 1969. :5. Phạm Văn Đồng was ranked 2nd in the Politburo hierarchy when Lê Duẩn, the

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

, died on 10 July 1986. :6. Died in office.

References

General
The prime ministers, and when they took and left office, was taken from these sources: * * Specific

Bibliography

* * *

External links

{{VietnamPMs * Vietnam Prime Ministers