Phạm Hùng (June 11, 1912 – March 10, 1988) was a 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 Has been 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 prison island Poulo Condore. During his imprisonment, he is described as one of the leaders of the Communist 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) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

, 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 (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

security forces in the south. In 1951 he was appointed as a member of the Central Committee of the party. After the withdrawal of France 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 Lê Duẩn (; 7 April 1907 – 10 July 1986) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s and became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (VCP) at the 3rd Nati ...

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), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...

and

Võ Nguyên Giáp Võ Nguyên Giáp (; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general and communist politician who is regarded as having been one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century. He served as interior minister in President ...

. In July 1967, after the mysterious death of Lê Duẩn ally,

Nguyễn Chí Thanh Nguyễn Chí Thanh (1 January 1914 – 7 July 1967) was a General in the North Vietnamese Vietnam People's Army and former North Vietnamese politician. Nguyễn Chí Thanh was born in Thừa Thiên Province in Central Vietnam to a peasant famil ...

, under the code name Bay Cuong, he took command of the

Central Office for South Vietnam Central Office for South Vietnam (abbreviated COSVN ; vi, Văn phòng Trung ương Cục miền Nam), officially known as the Central Executive Committee of the People's Revolutionary Party from 1962 until its dissolution in 1976, was the Ameri ...

(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 (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

he acted as commissar to the Vietcong. 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

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1912 births 1988 deaths People from Vĩnh Long province Prime Ministers of Vietnam Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam Deputy Prime Ministers of Vietnam Interior ministers of Vietnam Vietnamese nationalists Vietnamese revolutionaries {{Vietnam-politician-stub