Nong Duc Manh

Nông Đức Mạnh (; born 11 September 1940) is a Vietnamese politician and was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the most powerful position in the Vietnamese government, from 22 April 2001 to 19 January 2011.

Although his official biography states that his parents were peasants of the Tày ethnic group,^[1] one rumor claims that Manh is in fact the son of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh.^[2] This rumor is said to be a factor in his rapid rise in the party.^[2] He was born in Cường Lợi, Na Rì District, Bắc Kạn province.

Manh is the father of Nong Quoc Tuan, party secretary for Bắc Giang province.

Parentage

According to one widely circulated rumor, Manh is the illegitimate son of Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) and Nong Thi Trung (1920–2003), Ho's housekeeper in 1941-1942. This story may have been a factor in his selection as party boss.^[2] In a profile of Manh published in the official press immediately after he gained this position, Trung was identified as his mother.^[3] Manh's official biography gives his date of birth as September 11, 1940,^[4] when Ho was still in China.^[5] Ho returned to Vietnam in February 1941^[6] and met Trung in July. Ho wrote a four-line poem for Trung in 1944 and gave her a notebook as "a token of my love."^[7] This poem was later taught to elementary school students. In April 2001, shortly after Manh was selected party boss, a reporter at a news conference asked him to confirm or deny the rumor. He responded, “All Vietnamese people are the children of Uncle Ho.” When asked again about the rumor in January 2002 by a Time Asia reporter, he denied that he is Ho's son and stated that his father is Nông Văn Lai and that his mother is Hoàng Thị Nhị, both names previously unknown.^[8]

Biography

In 1958-1961 Manh attended the Hanoi Higher School. From 1962 to 1963, he worked as a forestry supervisory technician in the Bắc Kạn Forestry Service. He joined the Communist Party on 5 July 1963 and received full membership on 10 July 1964.^[1]

From 1963 to 1965, Manh was the deputy chief of the Bach Thong wood exploitation team. He then returned to his studies, and was taught Russian at Hanoi Foreign Languages College 1965-1966. He then travelled to Leningrad, Soviet Union, were he studied at the Forestry Institute until 1971. After returning to Vietnam, he became the deputy head of the Bac Thai provincial forestry inspection board.^[1]

From 1973 to 1974, Manh served as director of the Phu Luong State Forestry Camp in Bac Thai province. From 1974 to 1976, Manh studied at the Nguyen Ai Quoc High-Level Party School. From 1976 to 1980, Manh served as the deputy director of the provincial forestry service and director of the construction company of the provincial forestry service. Rising with the party ranks, Manh was a member of the Bac Thai Provincial Party Committee from 1976 to 1983.

In 1984, Manh became the deputy secretary of the committee, and in November 1986, the secretary of the committee. At the sixth national party congress he was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee. At the sixth party plenum in March 1989, he was elevated to full central committee member. Since 1991 he has been sitting in the politburo of the party.^[9]

Manh was selected General Secretary of the Communist Party in April 2001. His term was renewed in April 2006. He is first boss of the party with a university degree.^[10] Many view him as a moderniser, and he has announced that he wants Vietnam to become an industrialised country by 2020.^[10]

References

External links

• Biography of Nong Duc Manh at CIDOB (Spanish)