Tôn Đức Thắng

Christoph Giebel, Associate Professor of International Studies and History at the University of Washington and author of the book, Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism: Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory, argues that from the basic outline of the mutiny and determines from his examination of historical evidence, such as ship logs, that Thắng apparently did not participate in a mutiny on a French ship sent to the Black Sea in 1919 to help defeat Bolsheviks. He argues that it was a fabricated story that linked Vietnamese communism with the October Revolution in Russia, which was recounted across the Communist world in the 1950s. Giebel highlights disagreements over Thắng's involvement with a Saigon labour union in the 1920s and the naval-yard strike there in 1925.[4][5]

Nevertheless, stories of Tôn Đức Thắng actions remain as is in Vietnamese folklore.[6]

Thắng also served as president of the Lien Viet during the rebellion against the French from 1946 to 1954. However, the organization was dissolved after the Geneva Convention in 1954 which gave the Viet Minh sole control over North Vietnam. Thắng then took over another organization, the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, a Communist pro-government nationalist group. Thắng led the Fatherland Front in its conquest to draw supporters from South Vietnam. He received the Stalin Peace Award in 1955 as a result.

Thắng's work with trying to win over South Vietnam also helped lead him to becoming the Vice President of North Vietnam under Hồ Chí Minh in 1960. In 1967, when he was still vice president, Thắng won the Lenin Peace Prize, a yearly prize similar to the Nobel Peace Prize, but given out by the Soviet Union. After Hồ Chí Minh's death in 1969, Thắng succeeded him as president. Most of the real power, however, was vested in Communist Party leader Lê Duẩn.

With the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the pro-Communist Provisional Revolutionary Government took control of the South. This allowed for the future reunification of Vietnam as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, which was formalized on July 2, 1976. Presently, April 30 is recognized as a public holiday in Vietnam known as Reunification Day, even though it was not until July 2 the year after that the two countries became officially united as one nation. Thắng became the first president of the reunified country.

Troubles with the newly formed Vietnamese government further progressed in early 1978 when Thắng approached the Soviet Union for help in deposing the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, which was aligned with People's Republic of China (PRC). The situation seemed like a golden opportunity for the Soviet Union because they knew that the Vietnamese army could easily defeat Cambodian forces. A Vietnamese victory would weaken the only aligned nation with the People's Republic of China in Southeast Asia and demonstrate the superiority of being aligned with the Soviet Union. The growing tensions between the PRC and the Soviet Union had drastically escalated the situation in the area. The Soviet Union was anxious about the future outcome of a war by proxy between Vietnam and Cambodia.

On December 25, 1978, after months of growing border conflicts and an influx of Cambodians seeking refuge in Vietnam, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia. By January 7, 1979, the Vietnamese had easily captured the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, and deposed the Khmer Rouge régime. However, the Soviet Union's diplomatic victory was short-lived. The PRC was now being backed by the United States, and they increasingly showed signs of being close to war with Vietnam. The Soviets knew that they could not go help the Vietnamese if the PRC decided to invade Vietnam.

Not surprisingly, on February 15, 1979, the People's Republic of China officially announced plans to invade Vietnam, thus ending the crucial and significant Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, which had been signed in 1950. The PRC claimed that the invasion was as a result of mistreatment of ethnic Chinese and the Vietnamese presence on the PRC's Spratly Islands.

On February 17, a PRC force of about 200,000 troops had crossed into Thắng's country, and they immediately started to invade Vietnamese cities and towns along Vietnam's northern border. Thắng had left an army of 100,000 men to fight off the PRC, and heavy casualties were reported from both sides. With the Chinese not wanting to linger in Vietnam any longer, they started to move out of the country less than a month later, on March 16. China's early exit from the country drew up much confusion to who was the victor of the Sino-Vietnamese War. Thắng proclaimed that Vietnam had won the war, while his counterpart in China, Ye Jianying, proclaimed a Chinese victory. However, one thing is sure about the Sino-Vietnamese War's outcome: Thắng's Vietnam was able to successfully depose the Khmer Rouge from power in Cambodia.