Tôn Đức Thắng was the second president of Vietnam under the leadership of General Secretary Lê Duẩn. The position of president is ceremonial and Tôn was never a major policymaker or even a member of the Politburo, Vietnam's ruling council. He served as president, initially of North Vietnam from September 2, 1969, and later of a united Vietnam, until his death in 1980.
Tôn Đức Thắng in 1956
Hồ Chí Minh (seated, r) with Tôn Đức Thắng (seated, l) and other senior members of the Viet Minh, liberated zone, northern Vietnam, 1948.
Lê Duẩn was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1950s and became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (VCP) at the 3rd National Congress in 1960. He continued Hồ Chí Minh's policy of ruling through collective leadership. From the mid-1960s until his own death in 1986, he was the top decision-maker in Vietnam.
Lê Duẩn in 1951
Lê Duẩn and Trường Chinh with Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu from the Socialist Republic of Romania
Lê Duẩn with Mao Zedong (1964)
The Ba Chuc massacre was perpetrated by the Kampuchean Revolutionary Army during one of their attacks on Vietnam in 1978