Phạm Hùng

Phạm Hùng
2nd Chairman of the Council of Ministers
In office
18 June 1987 – 10 March 1988
PresidentVõ Chí Công
Preceded byPhạm Văn Đồng
Succeeded byVõ Văn Kiệt (acting)
Personal details
Born(1912-06-11)11 June 1912
Vĩnh Long Province, French Indochina
Died10 March 1988(1988-03-10) (aged 75)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
PartyCommunist Party of Vietnam (1930–1988)
Military service
Branch/serviceVietnam People's Public Security
Rank Police senior colonel

Phạm Hùng (Vietnamese: [faːm˧˨ʔ hʊwŋ͡m˨˩]; 11 June 1912 – 10 March 1988) was a South Vietnamese politician and the second Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1987 to 1988.

Life

Hùng was born on 11 June 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. Hùng is described as one of the leaders of the communist prisoners during his imprisonment. After getting out of prison in 1945 he promptly became a member of the Nam Bo Regional Committee, the organization controlling the Communist Party in the southern part of Vietnam (also called Cochinchina). During the First Indochina War, 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 security forces in the south. In 1951, Hùng was appointed a member of the Central Committee of the party. At that time or soon after he became a member and deputy secretary of the Central Committee Southern Branch, the organization that the Americans later called COSVN.

Hùng as a prisoner of the French colonialists in 1932

After the 1954 Geneva Accords separated North and South Vietnam, Hùng was ordered in 1955 to Hanoi. In 1957, he became a member of the Politburo of the party.: 100  From 1956 to 1958 he headed the Central Reunification Committee. 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 and Võ Nguyên Giáp.: 108–10 

In July 1967, after the mysterious death of Lê Duẩn ally Nguyễn Chí Thanh, under the code name Bay Cuong, Hùng became secretary (head) of COSVN.: 154  In this position he is sometimes described as having been political commissar to the Viet Cong.

After the war, Hùng 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.

Notes

  1. ↑ In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Phạm, but is often simplified to Pham in English-language text. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Hùng.

References

  1. ↑ Frankum Jr., Ronald B. (2011). "Phạm Hùng (1912-1988)". Historical Dictionary of the War in Vietnam. p. 357. Born Phạm Van Thién and also known as Bay Cuong, Phạm Hùng joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 after being expelled from school for his radical activities two years earlier.
  2. ↑ Goscha, Christopher E. (2011). Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945–1954) – An International and Interdisciplinary Approach. Copenhagen. pp. 369–370. ISBN 978-87-7694-063-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. 1 2 Tu dien bach khoa quan su Viet nam (2nd ed.). Hanoi: Quan Doi Nhan Dan. 2004. p. 770.
  4. 1 2 3 Asselin, Pierre (2018). Vietnam's American War A History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107510500.
  5. ↑ "Pham Hung". Obituaries. New York Times.
  6. ↑ Lockhart, Bruce L.; Duiker, William J., eds. (2006). Historical Dictionary of Vietnam. Oxford University Press. p. 304.