Phạm Hùng (; June 11, 1912 – March 10, 1988) was a South Vietnamese politician and the 2nd Prime Minister of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1987 to 1988.

Life

Phạm Hùng was born on June 11, 1912, in Vĩnh Long Province, in the Mekong River Delta of southern Vietnam. He was a member of the Communist Party of Indochina since 1930. The following year, he was arrested by the French colonial authorities for killing a landowner and sentenced to death. His sentence was converted into a prison sentence. In 1936, he was amnestied. He was arrested again in 1939 and remained imprisoned until 1945 on the infamous prison island Poulo Condore. During his imprisonment, he is described as one of the leaders of the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

prisoners. During the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...

, he was one of the active party leaders in the south of the country and although in a formally subordinate position, controlled large sections of the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

security forces in the south. In 1951, he was appointed a member of the Central Committee of the party. After the withdrawal of France and signature of Geneva Accords, Pham Hung was ordered in 1955 to Hanoi. In 1957, he became a member of the Politburo of the party. He was closely allied with Lê Duẩn who by early 1964 had become the effective leader of North Vietnam. Lê Duẩn and his supporters adopted a more belligerent approach to the armed struggle in South Vietnam in contrast to moderates such as

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

and

Võ Nguyên Giáp Võ Nguyên Giáp ( vi-hantu, , ; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist forces to victories in wars agains ...

. In July 1967, after the mysterious death of Lê Duẩn ally, Nguyễn Chí Thanh, under the code name Bay Cuong, he took command of the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN). After the war, he returned to his role in the Politburo. In 1979, he became Minister of the Interior. In 1987, he took over the post of prime minister after the withdrawal of Phạm Văn Đồng.Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker : ''Historical Dictionary of Vietnam'', Oxford, 2006, S. 304 During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, he acted as political commissar to the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. He also served as Interior Secretary before his relatively brief period as Prime Minister.Obituary at the New York Times
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References