Pham Van Dong is an
architect of
Vietnam's
communist revolution and served as
prime minister through three decades of
war and
reunification.
Dong was among a few
revolutionaries who wrested Vietnam from the
French, then defeated the
U.S. backed
South Vietnamese to bring the entire country under
Hanoi's rule on April 30,
1975.
Official ceremonies to mark the
anniversary were held Sunday in
Ho Chi Minh City, the former
Saigon.
While
Ho Chi Minh was the visionary and father figure, and Gen.
Vo Nguyen Giap was the
battlefield hero, Dong was the
diplomat and government organizer. He became prime minister of North Vietnam soon after independence in
1954 and headed reunified Vietnam in
1976 to
1987.
In
retirement, he was given the title of government adviser and used occasional
speeches and essays to warn of the dangers of
free market economic reforms.
Increasingly
frail and virtually
blind during recent years, he managed to emerge in December
1995 to meet with visiting
Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk.
During the long war with the South, Dong was the North's main spokesman to the
world. While Ho and party chief Le Duan remained in the background, Dong met with the few
foreign journalist]s and
American anti-war activists who came to Hanoi, and stressed his government's determination to keep fighting despite punishing U.S.
airstrikes.