Nguyễn Hữu Thọ (July 10, 1910- December 24, 1996) was
acting President of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
from
March 30, 1980, to
July 4, 1981.
A French
-educated
lawyer in Cochin China, he was also a
member of the French Section of
the Workers' International (SFIO) and a participant in the
Vietnamese struggle for independence. He joined the
Communist Party of Indochina in
1949. Kept in detention from 1950 to 1952, he later came to support
the
1954 Geneva agreements,
but opposed the régime of
South
Vietnam’s president,
Ngô Đình
Diệm. In August 1954, he founded the
Committee
in Defense of Peace and the Geneva Agreements. The committee
was crushed and banned by the South Vietnamese government in
November the same year, and Nguyễn Hữu Thọ and other members of the
organization were jailed after a police raid. He remained in
detention until 1961, when he managed to escape.
Once free, Nguyễn Hữu Thọ became Chairman of the Central Committee
of the
National Liberation
Front. In 1965, he delivered an anti-imperialist speech—a
booklet was later published in English. It was simply entitled
SPEECH and his title was given as:
President of the
Presidium of the Consultative Council of the South Viet Nam [sic]
National Front for Liberation on the 5th founding anniversary of
the N.F.L. In 1969, he came Chairman of the Consultative
Council of the
Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South
Vietnam, a post he retained until South Vietnam was
incorporated into
North Vietnam in
1976. In the newly re-united Vietnam, he served as one of the
vice presidents until the
death of
Tôn Đức Thắng, when he was
named acting president (April 1980 –- July 1981), a post he held
until the appointment of
Trường Chinh,
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, in
July 1981. Upon relinquishing the post of president, he assumed the
role of Chairman of the National Assembly until 1987. He was
vice-chairman of the council of state 1981-1992.
Nguyễn Hữu Thọ was awarded the
Lenin
Peace Prize (1983-84).
References
- Kiernan,
Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso, 1985. p. 170-171
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