Asia · Southeast Asia

Vietnam

Vietnam's independence struggle spanned nearly a century of organised resistance — against French colonial rule from the mid-nineteenth century, against Japanese occupation during the Second World War, against the French return after 1945, and against American military intervention from the 1950s to 1975. The fighters profiled here include the early nationalists who conceived of a modern Vietnam before independence was conceivable, the revolutionary communists who built the organisations that achieved it, the military commanders who defeated two of the world's great military powers, and the women who fought, organised, and negotiated at every stage of the struggle.

17Profiles
3Colonial Powers
1900–1975Period Covered
75Years of Resistance
Phan Boi Chau, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Phan Boi Chau The founding father of Vietnamese nationalism — scholar, revolutionary, and prolific writer who organised the Dong Du ("Travel East") Movement sending students to Japan, founded the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi resistance organisation, and spent the last years of his life under house arrest in Hue while his writings continued to inspire the movement he had begun. 1867–1940
Phan Chu Trinh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Phan Chu Trinh Phan Boi Chau's great contemporary and rival — where Chau sought armed revolution and Japanese assistance, Trinh argued for democratic reform through popular education, the abolition of the monarchy, and engagement with French republican ideals. Imprisoned, exiled to France, returned to Saigon and died there. 1872–1926
Nguyen Thai Hoc, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Thai Hoc Founder and leader of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD) who organised the Yen Bai mutiny of February 1930 — a garrison uprising against French rule that was crushed within days. Guillotined by the French on 17 June 1930 aged twenty-nine, shouting "Long live Vietnam" from the scaffold. 1901–1930
Ly Tu Trong, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Ly Tu Trong Communist Youth League organiser who assassinated a French intelligence officer in Saigon in 1931 and was guillotined by the French aged seventeen — one of the youngest martyrs of the Vietnamese independence movement and a symbol of revolutionary youth sacrifice. 1914–1931
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930, led the Viet Minh to seize independence in August 1945, declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, commanded the resistance against the French and then against the United States, and remained the movement's moral and political centre until his death in 1969. 1890–1969
Nguyen Van Cu, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Van Cu Secretary-General of the Indochinese Communist Party from 1938 to 1941 — one of the young revolutionary organisers who built the Party's underground networks under French colonial repression before being captured and executed by the French in 1941. 1912–1941
Truong Chinh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Truong Chinh Secretary-General of the Vietnamese Communist Party during the resistance war against France — the principal theorist of Vietnamese revolutionary strategy and author of "The Resistance Will Win" (1947), who later guided economic reform in the 1980s Doi Moi period. 1907–1988
Le Duan, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Le Duan First Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1960 to 1986 — the driving force behind the decision to reunify Vietnam through armed struggle against the Diem government and then against the United States, and the principal political leader of Vietnam through both the American war and reunification. 1907–1986
Pham Van Dong, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Pham Van Dong Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1955 to 1976 and of unified Vietnam from 1976 to 1987 — Ho Chi Minh's closest political colleague, the diplomatic face of the DRV through the Geneva negotiations, the Paris talks, and the consolidation of independence. 1906–2000
Nguyen Huu Tho, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Huu Tho President of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF / Viet Cong) from 1962 — the southern lawyer and resistance organiser who gave the anti-American resistance its civilian political face and served as acting President of unified Vietnam after 1975. 1910–1996
Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Vo Nguyen Giap Commander of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu (1954) — the battle that ended French colonial rule in Indochina — and the strategic architect of the People's Army of Vietnam through the American war. One of the great military commanders of the twentieth century. 1911–2013
Nguyen Chi Thanh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Chi Thanh Senior PAVN commander and political general who directed military strategy in South Vietnam in the early American war period, advocating an aggressive offensive posture against American forces — died of a heart attack in Hanoi in 1967 at the height of the conflict. 1914–1967
Van Tien Dung, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Van Tien Dung Commander of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign — the final offensive of April 1975 that captured Saigon and reunified Vietnam. Planned and led the operation that ended the war in fifty-five days. 1917–2002
Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Le Duc Tho North Vietnam's chief negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks — who negotiated the 1973 Paris Agreement with Henry Kissinger and famously declined the Nobel Peace Prize offered jointly with Kissinger on the grounds that peace had not actually been achieved. 1911–1990
Tran Van Tra, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Tran Van Tra Southern revolutionary commander who led NLF and PAVN forces in South Vietnam through the American war, co-commanded the 1975 final offensive, and wrote the candid military memoir Ending the Thirty Years' War — which was suppressed by the Vietnamese government for its frank assessments. 1918–1996
Nguyen Thi Dinh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Thi Dinh Deputy Commander of the People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam — the highest-ranking woman military commander in Vietnamese history, who organised the Ben Tre uprising of 1960 that launched the armed phase of the southern resistance and led guerrilla forces through the American war. 1920–1992
Nguyen Thi Binh, Vietnamese independence movement figure
Vietnam Nguyen Thi Binh Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam and the NLF's chief negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks — one of the most effective diplomats of the twentieth century's anti-colonial era, who secured international recognition for the southern resistance and signed the 1973 Paris Agreement. 1927–