Lê Khả Phiêu (27 December 1931 – 7 August 2020) was a Vietnamese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from December 1997 to April 2001.Gainsborough 2010, p. 143 Lê Khả Phiêu served in the

Vietnam People's Army Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

during the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Indochina War The Vietnam War (also known by 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 Vietnam an ...

s, join in the Cambodian war, and was Head of the General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army. Lê Khả Phiêu has previously been viewed as a conservative. However, this categorization has been challenged by historian Martin Gainsborough, who notes that Lê Khả Phiêu made some remarkably outspoken comments about problems in the party before the Tenth Party Congress. Lê Khả Phiêu criticized what he called 'illness of partyization' (''bệnh đảng hoá''), meaning that the Party controls everything. Lê Khả Phiêu was a protégé of his predecessor,

Đỗ Mười Đỗ Mười (; 2 February 1917 – 1 October 2018) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1940s, became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1988 and was elected General Secretary of the Central ...

. He was elevated to the Politburo in the early 1990s.Bolton 1999, p. 180

Early life

Lê Khả Phiêu was born on 27 December 1931 in Thượng Phúc village in Đông Khê District in Thanh Hoa Province. In 1945, he joined the local

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 ...

movement and joined the Indochinese Communist Party on 19 June 1949. On 1 May 1950 he was sent by the Viet Minh to join the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

. He was promoted to second lieutenant, advancing to the position of Company Politician in the 66th Regiment of the 304th Division. From September 1954 to 1958, he held the post of Deputy Political Officer member of the battalion and then 66th Regimental Political Chair.

Death

Lê Khả Phiêu died on 7 August 2020 in Hanoi, after suffering from serious illness, at the age of 88. A 2-day mourning period for his death was decreed nationwide in Vietnam from 14 to 15 August 2020. He was buried at

Mai Dịch Cemetery The Mai Dịch Cemetery is a cemetery in Hanoi, Vietnam, which houses the graves of Communist government leaders and famous revolutionaries. Burials Notable burials include: * Phùng Chí Kiên (died 1941) * Nguyễn Sơn (d. 1956) * Nguyễn ...

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

References

;References * Bolton, Kent (1999): "Domestic Sources of Vietnam's Foreign Policy: Normalizing Relations with the United States". in Thayer, Carlyle A., Amer, Ramses (ed.): ''Vietnamese Foreign Policy in Transition''. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore * Gainsborough, Martin (2010): ''Vietnam – Rethinking the State''. Zed Books, London & New York 1932 births 2020 deaths Communist rulers General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam People from Thanh Hóa province {{Vietnam-politician-stub