Information AboutVan Tien Dung |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT VăN TIếN DũNG | |
| 1917 births | |
| 2002 deaths | |
| vietnamese communists | |
| vietnamese generals | |
| people of the vietnam war | |
Văn Tiến Dũng ( 2 May 1917 – 17 March 2002 ) was a General in the People's Army Of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff ( 1954 - 1974 ); PAVN commander in chief ( 1974 - 1980 ); and Socialist Republic Of Vietnam defense minister ( 1980 - 1986 ). He was the only member of North Vietnam's political elite who was of peasant origin. He joined the communist Lao Dong Party in 1936 , escaped from a French prison in 1944 , and fought against the Japanese occupation force during the Second World War . During the First Indochina War Dũng rose to become General Vo Nguyen Giap 's chief of staff during the victorious siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 . For the next twenty years, his military reputation in North Vietnam was second only to Giap's. He commanded the vital Tri-Thien-Hue Front during the ''Nguyen Hue Offensive'' of 1972 (called the Easter Offensive in the West) and replaced his mentor as PAVN commander in chief in 1974 , when the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle to more conventional forms. Dũng planned and commanded the Ho Chi Minh Campaign , the final PAVN offensive that collapsed South Vietnamese defenses and captured Saigon in 1975 . He also directed Vietnam's invasion of Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge Cambodia) and the resulting border conflict with the People's Republic Of China in 1979 . He was appointed defense minister in 1980 , but was removed from office during a shakeup in the Politburo in 1986 . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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