Nguyen Van Linh

▪ 1999

      Vietnamese politician (b. July 1, 1915, near Hanoi, Vietnam—d. April 27, 1998, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), was a secretive guerrilla leader who operated under a number of aliases for many years before assuming a public political role after the Vietnam War ended. He served as general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1986 to 1991 and during his time in office initiated a program of doi moi (renovation) and free-market reforms that encouraged international investment and helped free the country from its economic isolation. Nguyen Van Linh began his fight against French colonial rule when he was 14 and at 15 was imprisoned for his activities. Upon his release in 1936, he joined the Indochinese Communist Party and resumed his anti-French efforts, and he was jailed again from 1941 to 1945. He advanced in the party ranks, and after the division of the country following the French withdrawal (1954), he became an underground leader in South Vietnam. With the fall of the government of the south (1975) and the reunification of Vietnam, Nguyen Van Linh became party chief in Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City); he was promoted to the party's Politburo the following year. He was dropped from the Politburo in 1982 but was reinstated in 1985, and in December 1986 he became party leader. Following his retirement from office in 1991, he remained an adviser to the party. Nguyen Van Linh later expressed regret over some of his reforms, claiming that they had led to corruption and exploitation.

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