Tôn Đức Thắng (; 20 August 1888 – 30 March 1980) was the second
President of Vietnam under the leadership of
General Secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
Lê Duẩn. The position of president is ceremonial and Tôn was never a major policymaker or even a member of the
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
,Vietnam's ruling council. He served as president, initially of
Democratic Republic of Vietnam from September 2, 1969, and later of a united
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
, until his death in 1980.
Known affectionately as Uncle Tôn (Bác Tôn), Tôn Đức Thắng was a key Vietnamese nationalist and
Communist political figure, was chairman 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 repr ...
's Standing Committee (1955–1960) and served as the
Vice President
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
to
Hồ Chí Minh from 1960 to 1969, succeeding him as president after Ho's death. He died at the age of 91; he was the oldest head of a state with the title of "president" (subsequently surpassed by
Hastings Banda).
Early life
Tôn Đức Thắng was born to Tôn Văn Đề and Nguyễn Thị Di on Ông Hô Island along the
Mekong River
The Mekong or Mekong River ( , ) is a transboundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth-longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third-longest in Asia with an estimated l ...
, roughly four kilometres from
Long Xuyên, the capital of
An Giang Province.
From 1897 to 1901, Tôn received his education in
Nom script,
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
and
Confucian philosophy from a private tutor in Long Xuyên. This tutor, an anti-
colonialist, had a major influence on the early development of Tôn's political beliefs.
Afterwards, he learned French at an
elementary school in Long Xuyên. Tôn lived with his parents until 1906, when he moved to
Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
.
Revolutionary career
Tôn claimed to have participated while a sailor in the French navy, during his time in the
Black Sea in 1919, during the
Black Sea mutiny a plot with fellow sailors to turn over the French
armored cruiser ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' to the enemy
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
revolutionaries. Christoph Giebel, an author, claims that Tôn apparently did not participate in a mutiny on a French ship sent to the Black Sea in 1919 to help defeat Bolsheviks. He claims that it was a fabricated story that linked Vietnamese communism with the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
in Russia, which was recounted across the Communist world in the 1950s. Giebel also highlights disagreements over Tôn's involvement with a Saigon labour union in the 1920s and the naval-yard strike there in 1925, though the credibility of the story is unknown.
Tôn Đức Thắng continued to participate in rebellious activities against the French. He joined the
Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1927 and in 1929, he was imprisoned by the French colonial authority at
Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
, then deported to the famed
Côn Sơn Prison. He remained there until 1945 and immediately rose again in the public eye. After Hồ Chí Minh's Viet Minh came to power in
August 1945, Tôn became a member of the
Cochinchina
Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; ; ; ; ) is a historical exonym and endonym, exonym for part of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, usually for Southern Vietnam. Sometimes it referred to the whole of Vietnam, but it was commonly used to refer t ...
Party Committee of the CPV, a member of the Administration Resistance Committee of Cochinchina and, in 1946, the presiding member of the National Assembly. In 1947, he became a member of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Vietnam.
Career in the DRV
Rise to power
Tôn also served as president of the
Lien Viet during the rebellion against the French from 1946 to 1954. However, the organization was dissolved after the
Geneva Convention in 1954 which gave the
Viet Minh sole control over
the DRV. Tôn then took over another organization, the
Vietnamese Fatherland Front, a pro-government nationalist group. Tôn led the Fatherland Front in its campaign to draw supporters from
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...
. He received the Stalin Peace Award in 1955 as a result.
Tôn's work trying to win over South Vietnam by peaceful means also helped lead him to becoming the
Vice President
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
under Hồ Chí Minh in 1960. In 1967, when he was still vice president, Tôn won the
Lenin Peace Prize, an annual prize similar to the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
, but given out by the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. After Hồ Chí Minh's death in 1969, Tôn succeeded him as president. Most of the real power, however, was vested in Communist Party chief
Lê Duẩn.
Fall of Saigon
With the
fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the
Provisional Revolutionary Government took control of the South. This allowed for the future
reunification of Vietnam as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was formalized on 2 July 1976. Presently, April 30 is recognized as a
public holiday
A public holiday, national holiday, federal holiday, statutory holiday, bank holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year.
Types
Civic holiday
A ''civic holiday'', also k ...
in Vietnam known as
Reunification Day, even though it was not until July 2 the year after that the two countries became officially united as one nation. Tôn became the first president of the reunified country.
President of reunified Vietnam
With the end of 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 ...
and with the South Vietnamese government ousted, Tôn was easily able to hold on to his position as president of the unstable new nation during the middle and late 1970s. The unified Vietnam under Tôn experienced early troubles, as political and economic conditions were deteriorating and millions of South Vietnamese were fleeing the country as
boat people. As the leader of the united Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Tôn worked hard for several years on a massive reconstruction effort to rebuild both the former North and South Vietnam's industry, infrastructure, and economy.
Deposing of the Khmer Rouge
In early 1978 Tôn approached the Soviet Union for help in deposing the
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...
in
Cambodia
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
, which was aligned with the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
(PRC). Growing tensions between the PRC and the Soviet Union had drastically escalated the situation in the area, making the Soviet Union anxious about the outcome of a
proxy war between Vietnam and Cambodia.
Tôn's proposal may have seemed like a golden opportunity for the Soviet Union because it assumed that the Vietnamese army could easily defeat Cambodian forces. A Vietnamese victory would weaken the only nation aligned with the People's Republic of China in Southeast Asia and demonstrate the superiority of being aligned with the Soviet Union.
On 25 December 1978, after months of growing border incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnam, the killings of innocent Vietnamese civilians such as the
Ba Chúc massacre and an influx of Cambodians seeking refuge in Vietnam, the
People's Army of Vietnam
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), officially the Vietnam People's Army (VPA; , , ), also recognized as the Vietnamese Army (), the People's Army () or colloquially the Troops ( ), is the national Military, military force of the Vietnam, S ...
invaded Cambodia. By 7 January 1979, the Vietnamese had easily captured the capital of Cambodia,
Phnom Penh, and deposed the
Khmer Rouge régime. However, the Soviet Union's diplomatic victory was short-lived, as the PRC was now being backed by the United States, and they increasingly showed signs of being close to war with Vietnam. The Soviets knew that they could not intervene to help the Vietnamese if the PRC decided to invade Vietnam.
On 15 February 1979, the People's Republic of China officially announced plans to invade Vietnam, thus ending the crucial and significant
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, which had been signed in 1950. The PRC claimed that the invasion was the result of Vietnam's mistreatment of
ethnic Chinese and the Vietnamese presence on the PRC's
Spratly Islands.
On 17 February, a PRC force of about 200,000 troops had crossed into Vietnam, and they immediately started to invade Vietnamese cities and towns along Vietnam's northern border. Vietnam had left an army of 100,000 men to fight off the PRC and heavy casualties were reported from both sides.
The Chinese started to withdraw their forces less than a month later, on March 16. China's early exit from the country led to much confusion to who was the victor of the
Sino-Vietnamese War, or if there was one. Tôn proclaimed that Vietnam had won the war, while his counterpart in China,
Ye Jianying, proclaimed a Chinese victory. However, one thing is sure about the Sino-Vietnamese War's outcome: Tôn's Vietnam was able to successfully depose the Khmer Rouge from power in Cambodia.
Death and legacy
Tôn Đức Thắng died on 30 March 1980, in
Hanoi
Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
, a little more than a year after the conclusion of the
Sino-Vietnamese War, at the age of 91 from a heart seizure and respiratory failure. He was the oldest ever president of a country in the world. He was succeeded by one of his vice presidents,
Nguyễn Hữu Thọ. He is buried in
Mai Dịch Cemetery in the section reserved for the graves of government leaders and famous revolutionaries.
Even though Tôn had been the first president of the reunited Socialist Republic of Vietnam, he has not attained the same reverence as his predecessor, Hồ Chí Minh, had received from the Vietnamese people. Tôn served as the nation's leader during the pivotal time when North Vietnam and South Vietnam were reunified as one. However, it was also a time when the country showed signs of exhaustion from 30 years of wars, with the
Vietnam People's Army engaged in a long, costly war in Cambodia and Northern border. The economy collapsed in the wake of a failed attempt to collectivize the southern economy, some key party members such as
Bùi Tín and
Hoàng Văn Hoan defected. It was under his rule that Vietnam survived the subsidy period. Later in 1986, the
Sixth Party's Congress passed the
Renovation policy which recognized the failure of collectivization and liberalized the economy, opening a new chapter in Vietnam's history.
Tôn Đức Thắng University, a top research university in
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
, was named after him.
Many avenues and roads in major metropolises . A
Tôn Đức Thắng Museum opened in Ho Chi Minh City, on a
boulevard also named after him and near the
Ba Son Shipyard, in 1988, on the centenary of Tôn's birth.
See also
*
Sino-Soviet border conflict
*
History of Vietnam
*
Tôn Đức Thắng University
*
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 ...
Explanatory notes
Notes
References
Ton Duc ThangInfoplease
Ton Duc Thang''Encyclopædia Britannica''
Ton Duc Thang''
Encyclopedia.com''
*
Kelley, LiamBook review: ''Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism: Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory'' ''Canadian Journal of History'', Autumn 2006
External links
Đại học Tôn Đức Thắng (Tôn Đức Thắng University)
Interview: Christoph Giebel on BBC* Kelley, Liam
Book review: ''Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism: Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory'' ''Canadian Journal of History'', Autumn 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ton, Duc Thang
1888 births
1980 deaths
People from An Giang province
Presidents of Vietnam
Vice presidents of Vietnam
Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly (Vietnam)
Stalin Peace Prize recipients
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Members of the 2nd Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
Members of the 3rd Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
Members of the 4th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
People of the Sino-Vietnamese War