Hoàng Văn Hoan

Hoàng Văn Hoan (1905 – 18 May 1991)[1] was a personal friend of Ho Chi Minh, a founding member of the Indochinese Communist Party, and a Politburo member of the Lao Dong Party (Vietnam Workers' Party-VWP) from 1960 to 1976. Born in Nghệ An Province in 1905,[2] Hoan was a crucial link between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and China, ambassador to Beijing 1950–1957, and leader of many delegations to China as Vice Chairman of the DRV National Assembly Standing Committee in the 1960s. Known for his pro-Chinese sympathies, Hoan reached the peak of his career in the early 1960s when North Vietnam temporarily adopted a pro-Chinese attitude in the Sino-Soviet dispute.

In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Hoàng. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Hoan.
Hoàng Văn Hoan
Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam
(1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th)
In office
23 April 1958 – 24 June 1979
ChairmanTrường Chinh
General Secretary of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly
(1st, 2nd)
In office
April 1958 – June 1962
ChairmanTrường Chinh
Succeeded byXuân Thủy
Communist Party Secretary of Hanoi
In office
January 1961 – June 1961
DeputyNguyễn Thọ Chân
Trần Minh Việt
Trần Anh Liên
Preceded byTrần Danh Tuyên
Succeeded byNguyễn Lam
Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam
(2nd, 3rd)
In office
October 1956 – December 1976
General SecretaryHồ Chí Minh
Lê Duẩn (as First Secretary)
Ambassador of Vietnam to China
with accreditation as North Korea & Mongolia
In office
1950 – April 1957
Succeeded byNguyễn Khang (to China)
Trần Độ (to North Korea)
Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam
In office
August 1945 – December 1976
General SecretaryTrường Chinh
Hồ Chí Minh
Lê Duẩn (as First Secretary)
Personal details
Born
Hoàng Ngọc Ân

1905 (1905)
Quỳnh Lưu, Nghệ An Province, Annam Protectorate, French Indochina
Died18 May 1991(1991-05-18) (aged 85–86)
Beijing, China
Political partyCommunist Party of Vietnam (Expelled in 1979)

In 1963, when Foreign Minister Ung Văn Khiêm was replaced by the more pro-Chinese Xuân Thủy, Hoan headed the International Liaison Department of the VWP CC. In 1965–1966, however, Soviet-DRV relations started to improve, accompanied by increasing tension between Hanoi and Beijing. In the new atmosphere, the leadership found it advisable to replace both Xuan Thuy and Hoan with cadres who had been less conspicuously associated with Le Duan's previous pro-Chinese policies.

Still, Hoan remained a prominent actor in Sino-Vietnamese relations for a time. In May 1973, he conducted secret talks in Beijing about the Cambodian Civil War. In 1974, Hoan traveled to China for "medical treatment," but his real mission was probably related to the secret (and unsuccessful) Sino-Vietnamese border negotiations from August to November.[3] He lost most of his influence after the Fourth National Party Congress in 1977, when the Vietnamese Communists shifted to a pro-Soviet position. Like Truong Nhu Tang, who went into exile in Paris, Hoang defected and surfaced in Beijing in July 1979, after shaking off political persecution by the Vietnamese communist authorities.

Hoang charged that Vietnam's abuse of its ethnic Chinese minority was "even worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews" and that Hanoi had become "subservient to a foreign power," referring to the Soviet Union. Hoang disclosed that in 1982, the Vietnamese Communist Party's Central Committee decided that opium production should be used to raise badly needed foreign currency like U.S. dollars.[4]

Hoang authored his reminiscences as A Drop in the Ocean. He died in Beijing in 1991.[5]

Works
  • Hoang Van Hoan (1988). A Drop in the Ocean: Hoang Van Hoan's Revolutionary Reminiscences. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 9780835122559.
  • — (1989). Selected Works of Hoang Van Hoan. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 9787119006048.

References
  1. "Hoang van Hoan, Vietnam Aide Who Defected to China, Dies at 86". The New York Times. 23 May 1991.
  2. Brigham, Robert K. (2011). "Hoang Van Hoan". In Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.). The encyclopedia of the Vietnam War : a political, social, and military history (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 498. ISBN 9781851099610.
  3. Balázs Szalontai, Hoàng Văn Hoan và vụ thanh trừng sau 1979. BBC Vietnam, April 15, 2010: http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/2010/04/100415_hoangvanhoan.shtml.
  4. "Narco-Terrorism: The Kremlin Connection". www.heritage.org. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  5. "Hoang Van Hoan, Vietnam Aide Who Defected to China, Dies at 86". The New York Times. 23 May 1991.
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