SUMMARY OF THE BIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL LE DUC ANH
I. General Le Duc Anh (alias Sau Nam) was born on December 1, 1920, in Thua Thiên Province. He joined the revolution in 1937, enlisted in the army in 1945, and rose through the ranks from platoon leader to General and Minister of Defense
II. He was one of the very few soldiers to have fought in all four wars: the two wars of national liberation (the resistance against France and the resistance against the United States) and the two wars to defend the country (the Southwest Border Defense War and the Northern Border Defense War). He always returned victorious.
III. He was a General but also an outstanding diplomat. It was he who paved the way for the normalization of relations between Vietnam and China and between Vietnam and the United States.
IV. He was the first General to hold the position of President of the State.
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1. Mr. Le Duc Anh during the resistance against French colonial rule
Mr. Le Duc Anh participated in the establishment, development, and command of armed units in Loc Ninh. From August 1945 to 1948, he held positions ranging from platoon leader to political commissar of the 301st Regiment.
From 1948 to 1954, he served as chief of staff for Zones 7 and 8, the Saigon-Cho Lon Military Region, deputy chief of staff, and acting chief of staff of the Southern Military Command. Mr. Le Duc Anh worked with the various military commands to organize numerous attrition battles aimed at depleting and destroying enemy forces.
In early 1950, Le Duc Anh participated in commanding the Ben Cat Campaign; the military units neutralized nearly 100 enemy troops, destroyed three armored vehicles, and disrupted enemy transportation. The Ben Cat Campaign was one of the first two offensive campaigns launched by the Southern Military Forces.
In 1954, following the signing of the Geneva Accords, Le Duc Anh relocated to the North.
2. Mr. Le Duc Anh in the War of Resistance Against the U.S. to Save the Nation
Mr. Le Duc Anh commanded many major, decisive battles that turned the tide of the war.
In early 1964, following orders from his superiors, Mr. Le Duc Anh secretly set off for the battlefield in the South aboard the ship “No. 0.” During the War of Resistance Against the U.S. to Save the Nation, Mr. Le Duc Anh directly participated in commanding the Binh Gia Campaign, leading troops to defeat the largest U.S. military operation, known as Junction City, in 1967. During the 1968 Tet Offensive, he commanded troops advancing from the west of Saigon to attack the Central Police Headquarters and the Metropolitan Police.
In 1973, as Commander of Military Region 9, Le Duc Anh led his troops in resolutely resisting enemy encroachment and opposing enemy efforts to undermine the Paris Agreement within Military Region 9.
In late 1974, General Le Duc Anh, along with the Command of the People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of the South (referred to as the Southern Command), led the units that liberated Phuoc Long Province in 1974.
In 1974, he was appointed Deputy Commander of the People’s Liberation Army of South Vietnam. In 1975, he served as Deputy Commander of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, leading the southwestern wing of the army in the advance to liberate Saigon.
For his proactive offensive actions that shifted the battlefield situation, his achievements in countering enemy violations of the Paris Agreement, and his accomplishments in the anti-U.S. struggle from 1964 to 1974, in April 1974, Lieutenant General Le Duc Anh was promoted beyond his rank from colonel to lieutenant general.
On September 2, 1975, Lieutenant General Le Duc Anh led the victorious troops in a parade through Ba Đình Square on the nation’s first National Day of Reunification.
3. During the War to Defend the Southwestern Border
After the complete liberation of the South, in May 1976, Le Duc Anh was appointed Commander of Military Region 9. He directed the military region in repelling the Pol Pot forces (Cambodia) invading the southwestern border.
In 1978, General Le Duc Anh was assigned to serve as Commander and Political Commissar of Military Region 7, concurrently serving as Commander of the Ministry of National Defense’s Forward Command Post on the Southwest Front. General Le Duc Anh actively directed Military Region 7 to assist our allies in building revolutionary armed forces directly within the region’s territory.
He participated in commanding our forces to crush the invading Khmer Rouge troops along the Southwest border and, together with the Cambodian people, overthrew the genocidal regime on January 7, 1979. From 1981, General Le Duc Anh served as Commander of the Vietnamese Volunteer Forces in Cambodia. Commander Le Duc Anh led the troops in defeating enemy counterattacks and launching mop-up operations against remnant enemy forces in 1983, 1984, and 1985.
For his outstanding achievements on the Cambodian battlefield, General Le Duc Anh was promoted from Lieutenant General to General in 1980 and from General to Field Marshal in 1984. He has been a member of the Politburo since 1982.
4. Defending the Northern Border
a) Stabilizing the Situation on the Northern Border
On December 7, 1986, Mr. Le Duc Anh was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army. On February 16, 1987, he was appointed Minister of National Defense.
Upon assuming his new post, General Le Duc Anh conducted an inspection tour along the northern border, where Vietnamese troops were engaged in combat with China at the time. Subsequently, General Le Duc Anh ordered our outposts to cease returning fire and instead focus primarily on psychological operations, including firing artillery to drop leaflets and broadcasting messages into China to defuse the situation. After some time, the enemy ceased firing artillery at us, and the situation gradually stabilized.
General Le Duc Anh adjusted the strategic defense posture, stabilized the situation along the northern border, and strengthened maritime and island defenses, particularly in the Spratly Islands region. He personally directed a reduction in troop strength from 1.5 million to 450,000, yet combat effectiveness was not diminished but actually enhanced. These actions marked the beginning of the normalization of relations between the two countries.
b) General Le Duc Anh and the Spratly Islands
In 1987–1988, Defense Minister Le Duc Anh issued an order to expand military outposts in the Spratly Islands. Vietnam established a presence on 12 additional islands in the Spratly Islands.
On May 29, 1989, General Le Duc Anh signed Order 167/ML-QP regarding the occupation of Vietnam’s continental shelf and submerged reefs (DK1 zone).
5. Normalization of Relations with China and the United States
a) Normalization of Relations with China
General Le Duc Anh conducted two exploratory missions. The first was through the Chinese community in the Cho Lon area of Ho Chi Minh City. The second was through the Chinese Ambassador in Hanoi.
In late July 1991, in his capacity as a representative of the Politburo, Le Duc Anh visited China to discuss specific issues regarding the normalization of relations between the two countries. Following General Le Duc Anh’s visit, from November 5 to 10, 1991, a high-level Vietnamese delegation led by General Secretary Đo Muoi and Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet paid an official visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Chinese State Council Premier Li Peng. This marked the official normalization of relations and opened a new chapter in the history of Vietnam-China relations, bringing an end to many years of tense confrontation.
b) Normalizing relations with the United States
To kickstart efforts to normalize relations with the United States, he proposed taking a scientific approach by sending Major General Nguyen Huy Phan—a physician at Military Hospital 108 and a leading professor in the field of reconstructive surgery—to visit the United States for professional exchanges at the invitation of American scientists. Subsequently, Vietnam invited American doctors to participate in humanitarian surgeries; the U.S. agreed and sent a “Smile Surgery” team to perform surgeries on children with cleft lips and palates. Dr. Phan was assigned the mission of establishing relations with the U.S., but this was a classified mission, known to very few people.
Just as things were proceeding smoothly and the U.S. president had unveiled a roadmap for normalizing relations with Vietnam, certain malicious elements in the U.S. circulated a fake photo purporting to show “three surviving American pilots being held captive in Vietnam.” The U.S. established a special committee to investigate the matter and dispatched delegations to Vietnam. The delegation led by Senator John Kerry was received by President Le Duc Anh. Suspecting that Vietnam was still holding prisoners of war, Kerry requested to visit the Old Citadel of Hanoi (the Ministry of Defense headquarters) and the underground complex beneath Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. General Le Duc Anh accepted this request, which was unprecedented and unique. After visiting these two locations, Senator John Kerry confirmed that the information regarding three detained American pilots and the alleged American remains was fabricated. Subsequently, the U.S. side voluntarily dropped the issue of prisoners of war from bilateral meetings and exchanges.
Through the efforts of both sides, on the morning of July 12, 1995 (Vietnam time), the two countries announced the normalization of relations.
6. MR. LE DUC ANH AS PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
While serving as President (1992–1997), President Le Duc Anh proposed and signed a decree establishing the title “Heroic Mother of Vietnam.”
In October 1995, President Le Duc Anh traveled to New York to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the United Nations; he became the first Vietnamese head of state to set foot in the United States.
Along with promoting the normalization of relations with the United States, President Le Duc Anh made significant contributions to the process of facilitating Vietnam’s accession to ASEAN on July 28, 1995.
From December 1997 to April 2001, Le Duc Anh served as an advisor to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.