Trương Tấn Sang

Trương Tấn Sang (born on 21 January 1949) is the president of Vietnam and the senior member of the Politburo, the executive committee of the ruling Communist Party. He was ranked as the party's number one leader following the 11th National Congress held in Hanoi in January 2011. He became state president following a vote of the National Assembly in July. Sang has been a member of the politburo since 1996. He was party secretary for Ho Chi Minh City from 1996 to 2000. He was promoted to the national party’s number two slot, just behind the party general secretary, in October 2009. To get the top slot, he had to outmaneuver Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng.

Biography

Sang was born January 21, 1949, in Mỹ Hạnh, Đức Hòa, Long An. His nickname is “Tư Sang”. He joined the Communist Party on December 20, 1969. He was jailed by the South Vietnamese government in 1971 and held in Phú Quốc Prison. He was released under the Paris Peace Treaty in 1973. He has a bachelor of law degree.

From 1983 to 1986, he headed Ho Chi Minh City’s Forestry Department, as well as the city’s New Economic Zone Development Department. In 1986, he was promoted to the Standing Board of the city’s Party Committee. In 1992, he became party chairman for Ho Chi Minh City, the number two position in the city government. He joined the politburo in 1996 as its 14th ranking member. He was party secretary for Ho Chi Minh City, the top position in the city government, from 1996 to 2000. He was promoted to 10th position in the national party at a congress in April 2001. He was also appointed head of the party’s economic commission at this time. In 2003, he was reprimanded for failing from to act in the Năm Cam corruption scandal when he headed the city government. He was promoted to fifth position in the party at a congress in April 2006. At this congress, he was also appointed head of the party’s Secretariat, which supervises the membership and internal structure of the party.

In an unusual move, Sang was promoted to the party’s number two slot between congresses in October 2009. His authority soon "eclipsed" that of General Secretary Nông Đức Mạnh, the only person nominally above Sang in the party hierarchy, according to a leaked diplomatic cable by U.S. Ambassador Michael Michalak. Sang "assumed many of Manh's normal responsibilities," Michalak wrote. At diplomatic meetings, Sang could, "comment authoritatively, in detail and without notes", whereas Mạnh "appeared disengaged" while he read a 30-minute prepared statement "verbatim and in a monotone." To get the top slot at the 2011 congress, Sang had to outmaneuver Prime Minister Dũng. Little of this rivalry was reported in the press, but observers described the relationship between the two men as "stormy," according to a BBC story. Michalak described both Sang and Dũng as “pragmatic” and “market-oriented”. Both are southerners, but traditionally the party's top slot has gone to a northerner. Nguyễn Phú Trọng, a northerner, was selected secretary general at the Congress. In the past, the office of general secretary was the party’s top position, but Trong is ranked only No. 8 on the leadership list. The National Assembly elected Sang as state president on 25 July 2011 with 97.4 percent of the vote. The term of office is five years.

Sang told the Assembly that he would defend Vietnam’s independence and territorial integrity, and would resolve the Spratly Islands dispute with China peacefully. As the new president, he will work to set a foundation that will allow Vietnam to be become an industrialized and modernized country by 2020, Sang told the Assembly.

The President of Vietnam is merely a ceremonial position, but Sang’s authority derives from his position as the senior member of the Politburo and as standing member of the Secretariat of the Vietnamese Communist Party Central Committee.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Vietnam

Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, has one of south-east Asia's fastest-growing economies and has set its sights on becoming a developed nation by 2020.

It became a unified country once more in 1975 when the armed forces of the Communist north seized the south.

This followed three decades of bitter wars, in which the Communists fought first against the colonial power France, then against South Vietnam and its US backers. In its latter stages, the conflict held the attention of the world.

Overview

The US joined the hostilities in order to stem the "domino effect" of successive countries falling to Communism.

The jungle war produced heavy casualties on both sides, atrocities against civilians, and the indiscriminate destruction and contamination of much of the landscape.

A visit to Vietnam by US President Bill Clinton in November 2000 was presented as the culmination of American efforts to normalise relations with the former enemy.

Vietnam struggled to find its feet after unification and tried at first to organise the agricultural economy along strict collectivist lines.

But elements of market forces and private enterprise were introduced from the late 1980s and a stock exchange opened in 2000.

Foreign investment has grown and the US is Vietnam's main trading partner. In the cities, the consumer market is fuelled by the appetite of a young, middle class for electronic and luxury goods. After 12 years of negotiations the country joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007.

But the disparity in wealth between urban and rural Vietnam is wide and some Communist Party leaders worry that too much economic liberalisation will weaken their power base.

Vietnam has also struggled to restrain its trade and budget deficits. Its inflation rate reached double digits at the start of 2010 and approached 20 per cent by the end of 2011, as food prices doubled.

Despite pursuing economic reform, the ruling Communist Party shows little willingness to give up its monopoly on political power.

Vietnam has been accused of suppressing political dissent and religious freedom. Rights groups have singled out Hanoi's treatment of ethnic minority hill tribe people, collectively known as Montagnards.

Facts

    * Full name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam

    * Population: 89 million (UN, 2010)

    * Capital: Hanoi

    * Largest city: Ho Chi Minh City

    * Area: 329,247 sq km (127,123 sq miles)

    * Major language: Vietnamese

    * Major religion: Buddhism

    * Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 77 years (women) (UN)

    * Monetary unit: 1 dong = 100 xu

    * Main exports: Petroleum, rice, coffee, clothing, fish

    * GNI per capita: US $2,760 (World Bank, 2010)

    * Internet domain: .vn

    * International dialling code: +84

Leaders

President: Nguyen Minh Triet

Parliament confirmed the Communist Party's nomination of Nguyen Minh Triet, the party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, as president in June 2006. He was reconfirmed in the office in January 2011.

A native of that city, and therefore a rare southerner in the Communist leadership, he acquired a reputation for fighting corruption as local party chief especially in the case of gangster Nam Cam.

He is seen as an advocate of continuing economic reform.

Secretary-general of the Communist Party: Nguyen Phu Trong

The Communist Party holds the real power in Vietnam. It appointed Nguyen Phu Trong as its secretary-general in January 2011, replacing Nong Duc Manh, who retired after 10 years in the post.

He took over as Vietnam faced mounting economic problems, including rising inflation, a growing trade deficit and a weakening currency.

For the previous five years Mr Nguyen had been head of the National Assembly, using the post to raise the profile of the parliament, traditionally a rubber-stamp body. Born in 1944, he also previously served the Communist Party's chief political theorist.

Mr Nguyen is seen as a conservative, and as favouring close ties with China.

Analyst say he was promoted as a compromise candidate and is expected to play the role of consensus-builder rather than drive policy.

Mr Nguyen's predecessor, Nong Duc Manh, was seen as a moderniser, and sought to speed up economic reforms and to tackle bureaucracy and deep-rooted corruption.

The Communist Party leadership recommends candidates for the posts of president and prime minister.

From : BBC News

Le Duc Tho

Lê Đức Thọ (October 14, 1911 – October 13, 1990), born Phan Đình Khải in Ha Nam province, was a Vietnamese revolutionary, general, diplomat, and politician, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1973, although he declined it.

In 1930, Tho helped found the Indochinese Communist Party. French colonial authorities imprisoned him from 1930 to 1936 and again from 1939 to 1944. After his release in 1945, he helped lead the Viet Minh, the Vietnamese independence movement, against the French, until the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954. He then joined the Lao Dong Politburo of the Vietnam Workers' Party in 1955, now the Communist Party of Vietnam. Tho oversaw the Communist insurgency that began in 1956 against the South Vietnamese government.

From 1978 to 1982 Tho was named by Hanoi to act as chief advisor to the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (FUNSK) and later to the nascent People's Republic of Kampuchea. Lê Đức Thọ's mission was to ensure that Khmer nationalism would not override Vietnam's interests in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge was overthrown.

He was the Standing Member of the Central Committee's Secretariat of the Party from 1982 to 1986 and later became the Advisor of Party's Central Committee.

Paris Peace Accords

The United States actively joined the Vietnam War during the early 1960s. Several rounds of Paris Peace Talks (some public, some secret) were held between 1969 and 1973. While Xuan Thuy led the official negotiating team representing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the talks in Paris, Thọ and U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger since February 1970 engaged in secret talks that eventually led to a cease-fire in the Paris Peace Accords of January 23, 1973. The basic history of the Accords included: release of POWs within 80 days; ceasefire to be monitored by the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICC); free and democratic elections to be held in South Vietnam; U.S. aid to South Vietnam would continue; North Vietnamese troops could remain in South Vietnam.

While January 23 is generally recognized as the enactment date of the Peace Accords, the talks continued out of necessity. Sporadic fighting continued in some regions. While U.S. ground forces were removed by March 29, bombing continued in North Vietnam. Due to continued allegations of ceasefire violations by all sides, Kissinger and Tho met in Paris in May and June 1973 for the purpose of getting the implementation of the peace agreement back on track. On June 13, 1973, the United States and North Vietnam signed a joint communique pledging mutual support for full implementation of the Paris Accords.

Nobel Peace Prize

Tho and Henry Kissinger were jointly awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in negotiating the Paris Peace Accords. However, Thọ declined to accept the award, since there was still no peace agreement.

From : www.wikipedia.org