Dong: Vietnam's Marxist mandarin<\/p>\n
HANOI (AFP): Pham Van Dong, who has died aged 94, served as
\nVietnam's prime minister for more than 30 years and was one of
\nthe giants of the country's struggle for independence and
\nreunification.<\/p>\n
Dong died in Hanoi on Saturday, on the eve of celebrations
\nmarking the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon -- now Ho Chi
\nMinh City -- to communist forces and the end of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
Dong rose to international prominence at the head of the Viet
\nMinh delegation at the Geneva talks in 1954 when Indochina won
\nindependence from France but Vietnam was divided between the
\ncommunist North and the U.S.-backed government in the South.<\/p>\n
Bitterly opposed to the division, Dong spent the first 20
\nyears of his premiership fighting for reunification, which came
\nin 1975 after one of the most brutal wars of modern times.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister was an uncompromising proponent of
\nnational reunification who even as the North was being crushed by
\nAmerican bombs confidently predicted victory for Hanoi because it
\nwould always outlast the United States.<\/p>\n
Seen from the outside as a fervent pro-Soviet Marxist and hard
\nnegotiator -- Henry Kissinger described him as \"wily and
\ninsolent\" -- at home Dong was more an administrator and
\nideological guardian.<\/p>\n
As Ho Chi Minh's \"favorite nephew,\" Dong inherited the mantle
\nof \"Uncle Ho\" following the death of Vietnam's avuncular
\nnationalist figure in 1969.<\/p>\n
Born March 1, 1906 to the private secretary of Emperor Duy
\nTan, Dong grew up in the Confucian mandarin tradition but was
\nheavily influenced by the Vietnamese nationalism that developed
\nunder French colonial rule.<\/p>\n
Convicted of leading a student demonstration in Hue, Dong
\nspent seven years from 1929 doing hard labor on Poulo Condore,
\nthe brutal French penal colony that served as the \"university of
\nrevolution\" for Vietnam's leaders.<\/p>\n
Released in 1936, he resumed his underground activities but
\nafter a crackdown at the start of the war he escaped to China,
\njoining up with Ho Chi Minh.<\/p>\n
During these years he became a key figure in the founding of
\nthe Vietnam Minh alongside Ho and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, even
\ntaking over the leadership from Ho when he was imprisoned by the
\nChinese from 1942-43.<\/p>\n
In 1946 he represented the Viet Minh in talks with the French
\ngovernment at Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n
But when these broke down he went back to the Viet Minh's
\njungle base for another eight years of war, culminating in the
\ndefeat of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.<\/p>\n
After independence in 1954, Dong played an increasingly high
\nprofile role as prime minister and foreign minister until 1961,
\ncontrolling policy during the war with the South and maintaining
\na hard stance during negotiations.<\/p>\n
Premier from 1955 until 1987, he survived the turmoil of land
\nreform in the 1950s, wars against the United States, Cambodia and
\nChina and the economic crisis that hit the country after
\nreunification.<\/p>\n
Later he would admit that \"mistakes were made\" after 1975,
\nwhen the country suffered from what Dong called \"subjectivity and
\nleftism\" -- Marxist jargon for the leadership's determined push
\nfor socialism that left Vietnam bankrupt and dependent on the
\nSoviet Union.<\/p>\n
Seen only as a competent administrator by the more adept
\npolitical operators in the politburo, Dong reportedly complained
\nof powerlessness during his time in office when all decisions
\nwere by consensus.<\/p>\n
He stepped down from the politburo in 1986, a year when many
\nof the old guard were swept out and Vietnam began a process of
\nmarket reforms.<\/p>\n
Almost blind by the end of the 1980s, the haughty and
\npatrician leader kept a semi-official post as an advisor until
\nDecember 1997, wielding considerable clout and remaining an
\nimplacable critic of the inequalities and corruption that
\naccompanied reforms.<\/p>\n
His hands remained cupped around the dying members of the
\nsocialist flame as the stiff winds of reform whipped through
\nVietnam and his communist credentials remained impeccable to the
\nbitter end.<\/p>",
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