Văn Tiến Dũng

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Văn Tiến Dũng (May 2, 1917 – March 17, 2002) was a general in the Vietnam People's Army (VPA); VPA chief of staff (1954-1974); VPA 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 World War II.

During the First Indochina War Van 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 replaced his mentor as VPA commander in chief in 1974, when the Vietnam Conflict against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle to more conventional forms.

Van planned and commanded the final VPA offensive that collapsed South Vietnamese defenses in 1975 and also directed Vietnam's invasion of Democratic Kampuchea 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.