Le Duan (1908-1986) was a major figure in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the principal leader of all Vietnam in the postwar era. He proved to be a good wartime ruler, but was less successful as a leader dealing with the problems of peace.

Le Duan was a veteran Vietnamese communist, one of the original founding (1930) members of the Vietnam Communist Party (at the time it was called the Indochinese Communist Party), who climbed steadily upwards on the ladder of power. He became, with the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969, the major political figure in North Vietnam and then, after victory in the Vietnam War, in all of Vietnam.

Political power in Vietnam is vested in the Vietnam Communist Party rather than in the state or government, which is called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Within the party power is concentrated at the top, in...