Tran Van Tra

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This is a Vietnamese name; the family name is Trần, but is often simplified as Tran in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person properly should be referred to by the given name Trà.

Tran Van Tra
1918 - 20 April 1996
Nickname	Revolutionary alias, Tu Chi
Place of birth	Quang Ngai Province, French Indochina
Place of death	Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Allegiance	Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Service/branch	Viet Minh People's Army of Vietnam
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	COSVN National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam People's Army of Vietnam
Battles/wars	First Indochina War Vietnam War
Awards	Resolution for Victory Order^[1]

Lieutenant General Trần Văn Trà (1918 – 20 April 1996) was a Vietnamese general in the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam; a member of the Central Committee of the Lao Dong Party; a lieutenant general in the army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam); chairman, Military Affairs Committee of the Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN) (1964-1976); and minister of defense in the Provisional Revolutionary Government (1969-1976).

The son of a bricklayer, Tra was born in Quang Ngai Province in 1918. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1938 and spent the years of the Second World War in a French prison. Between 1946 and 1954, Tran Van Tra fought against the French in the Viet Minh and became a general in the People's Army of Vietnam in 1961, commanding communist forces in the southern half of Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). During the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese, he led the attack on Saigon during the Tet Offensive of 1968 and commanded the B-2 Front during the Nguyen Hue Offensive of 1972 (called the Easter Offensive in the West).

During a 1974 meeting of North Vietnamese military leaders in Hanoi, Tra argued against a conservative strategy during the coming year and suggested that South Vietnam's Phuoc Long Province be attacked in order to test both South Vietnamese and American military reaction. The attack was successful and the U.S. did not respond militarily, prompting larger, more aggressive PAVN operations. In April 1975, Tra became deputy commander of the A75 headquarters under Senior General Van Tien Dung during the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, the final assault on Saigon which led to the capitulation of the South Vietnamese government.

In 1982, Tra published Vietnam: A History of the Bulwark B-2 Theater, which revealed how the Hanoi Politburo had overestimated its own military capabilities and underestimated those of the U.S. and ARVN prior to and during the Tet Offensive. This account offended and embarrassed the leaders of the newly-unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam and ultimately led to his purging from the party. He lived under house arrest until his death on 20 April 1996.