Le Duc Tho
was born in Nam Ha province, Vietnam on 14th October,
1911. As a young man he became involved in radical politics and in 1930 helped
establish the Indochinese Communist Party. He campaigned against French rule in
Vietnam and was twice imprisoned for his political activities (1930-36 and 1939-44).
In 1945 Le Duc Tho returned
to Hanoi and joined with Ho
Chi Minh and Vo
Nguyen Giap in establishing
the Vietnam
Revolutionary League (Vietminh). Until 1954 he was Vietminh's leader in South
Vietnam. A member of the Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party, he had responsibility
for organizing the rebellion against the government of South Vietnam.
Peace
talks between representatives from United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam
and the NLF began in Paris in January, 1969. Le Duc Tho served as special adviser
to the North Vietnamese delegation. He eventually became North Vietnamese leader
in these talks.
In October,
1972, the negotiators came close to agreeing to a formula to end the war. The
plan was that US troops would withdraw from Vietnam in exchange for a cease-fire
and the return of 566 American prisoners held in Hanoi. It was also agreed that
the governments in North and South Vietnam would remain in power until new elections
could be arranged to unite the whole country.
The main problem with this formula was that whereas the US troops would leave
the country, the North Vietnamese troops could remain in their positions in the
south. In an effort to put pressure on North Vietnam to withdraw its troops. President
Richard
Nixon ordered a new series
of air-raids on Hanoi and Haiphong. It was the most intense bombing attack in
world history. In eleven days, 100,000 bombs were dropped on the two cities. The
destructive power was equivalent to five times that of the atom bomb used on Hiroshima.
This bombing campaign was condemned throughout the world. Newspaper headlines
included: "Genocide", "Stone-Age Barbarism" and "Savage
and Senseless".
The
North Vietnamese refused to change the terms of the agreement and so in January,
1973, Nixon agreed to sign the peace plan that had been proposed in October. However,
the bombing had proved to be popular with many of the American public as they
had the impression that North Vietnam had been "bombed into submission."
As
a result of their role in these peace talks, Le Duc Tho and Henry
Kissinger were jointly awarded
the Nobel
Peace Prize. However, Le
Duc Tho, refused to accept the prize on the grounds that his country was not yet
at peace.
The last US
combat troops left in March, 1973. It was an uneasy peace and by 1974, serious
fighting had broken out between the National Liberation Front
and the AVRN. Although the US continued to supply the South Vietnamese government
with military equipment, their army had great difficulty using it effectively.
Le
Duc Tho and Vo Nguyen Giap continued to direct the military
operations against President Nguyen Van Thieu of South
Vietnam. The spring of 1975 saw a series of NLF victories. After important areas
such as Danang and Hue were lost in March, panic swept through the AVRN. Senior
officers, fearing what would happen after the establishment of an NLF government,
abandoned their men and went into hiding.
Nguyen Van Thieu announced in desperation that he had a signed letter from Richard
Nixon promising military help if it appeared that the NLF were winning in South
Vietnam. However, Nixon was no longer in a position to fulfill his promise as
he had been forced to resign over Watergate.
The new president, Gerald
Ford, a strong supporter
of US involvement in Vietnam, tried to raise support for the South Vietnamese
government but the Senate was adamant that as far as it was concerned, the war
was over.
On April 23,
1975, President Gerald
Ford told the American people:
"Today Americans can regain
the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting
a war that is finished." Two days later. President Thieu, accusing the United
States of betrayal, resigned and left the country. He was quickly followed by
other South Vietnamese leaders and the remaining American advisers.
The NLF arrived in Saigon on April 30, 1975. After declaring that Vietnam
was now a united country, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. The Socialist Republic
of Vietnam was established in July 1976. Communist
governments were also set-up in Laos and Cambodia.
Le
Duc Tho remained a member of the ruling Politburo until retiring in 1986. Le Duc
Tho died in Hanoi on 13th October, 1990.
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