Thayer Consultancy Background Brief:

ABN # 65 648 097 123

Vietnam: Nguyen Phu Trong’s
Life & Legacy
Carlyle A. Thayer
June 18, 2020*

Q1. Compared to his predecessors (General Secretaries and Presidents), how do you
rate Nguyen Phu Trong? How formative was his influence on the Communist Party of
Vietnam and the country?
ANSWER: Le Duan served as First Secretary/Secretary General of the Vietnam
Communist Party from 1960 to 1986. Since 1986, Vietnam has had six secretary
generals only two of whom have served two 5-year terms. Le Duan was replaced by
Truong Chinh who served as caretaker from July to December 1986.
Nguyen Van Linh was elected secretary general at the sixth national party congress
and made an indelible impression on state and society by his introduction of doi moi
or renovation. He abolished Vietnam’s Soviet-styled central planning system,
introduced market forces into the economy and welcomed foreign investment. He
also presided over Vietnam’s military withdrawal from Cambodia in 1989. But the
collapse of socialism in the Eastern Union that year led Vietnam to adopt a more
cautious approach to reform. Linh was replaced by aging veteran Do Muoi at the 7th
national party congress.
Do Muoi served out one 5-year term. He was likened to a “Confucian referee” who
had to mediate competing party factions. The 8th national party congress in 1996 could
not reach consensus on who should replace him so Do Muoi was re-elected on the
understanding he would step down before mid-term.
In December 1997, Le Kha Phieu replaced Do Muoi at a meeting of the party Central
Committee. Phieu was the former head of the General Political Department of the
Vietnam People’s Army whose term in office was lack lustre. He was jettisoned at the
10th national party congress in 2001.
Nong Duc Manh, an ethnic Tay, was the first post-Vietnam War secretary general to
serve two 5-year terms. He was the first party leader with a university degree. He
became party secretary general after nine years in the National Assembly where, as
chairman, he honed his skills at political brokerage.
Manh made a major contribution to political and administrative reform in Vietnam.
His major accomplishment was to transform Vietnam into a “law governed state”.

*
Released January 12, 2024.
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Under Manh’s stewardship, the party set Vietnam’s overall socio-economic goals
while the National Assembly approved legislation to achieve these ends.
Manh let Prime Minister Phan Van Khai run the government with a Cabinet where
ministerial responsibility eclipsed collective leadership. Khai initiated the long-term
strategy of making Vietnam a modern and industrialized state.
Manh, meanwhile, took the first steps to try to reign in corruption after the major
Nam Cam scandal in Ho Chi Minh City where municipal government was subverted by
Vietnam’s equivalent of the mafia.
Nguyen Phu Trong, also holds a PhD and is now completing his second term as party
leader. His major contribution has been to reign in the sprawling complex of state-
owned corporations, general corporations and state banks that flourished as a result
of high GDP growth rates and to aggressively prosecute corrupt officials and their
network. Trong will long be remembered for his anti-corruption campaign [burning or
blazing furnace/đốt lò] which netted party officials at all levels including the Politburo
and heretofore sacrosanct ministries such as public security and national defence.
In addition, Trong’s program to select and groom “strategic candidates,” and define in
party regulations selection criteria for higher office, is a major contribution to party-
building.
Six of Vietnam’s seven state presidents have served from five to nine years in office
during the period from 1981 to the present. Tran Dai Quang served only two before
passing away.
Nguyen Phu Trong assumed the concurrent post of state president upon the death of
incumbent Tran Dai Quang in October 2018. He has only been in office for eighteen
months and for two-thirds of this time was either ill or recovering from serious illness.
Trong made no discernible impact on Vietnam’s state and society in his position as
state president other than ensure continuity in leadership until the 13th national party
congress scheduled for January 2021.
A comparison of his contributions with his presidential predecessors is inappropriate.
Q2. The stages of his career point to a straightforward rise within the party. Is this
perception correct?
ANSWER: Absolutely. Nguyen Phu Trong became party secretary general as a specialist
in ideology as a result of a long career within the party apparatus topped by five years
as Chairman of the National Assembly (2006-2011).
After being admitted to the party in 1968, Trong worked for the party’s journal, Hoc
Tap (Studies), later renamed Tap Chi Cong San (Communist Review) where he started
in the Party-Building Department. He attended the Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School as a
post-graduate for three years, (1973-76), after which he was appointed editor of the
Communist Review’s Party-Building Department.
From 1981-83, after studying Russian, he completed his PhD on party-building at the
Soviet Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow. On return to Vietnam he re-joined the
Communist Review’s Party-Building Department and rose up the ranks over thirteen
years to become a member of the Editorial Board, deputy editor, and editor-in-chief
(1983-1996). In 1994 he was elected to the party’s Central Committee.
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Trong then gained practical experience as deputy secretary of the Hanoi party
committee (1996-98) and member of the Politburo (1997). From 1998-2000, Trong
headed the Central Committee’s Ideology-Culture and Science-Educational Affairs
Commission.
Q3a. What does Nguyen Phu Trong stand for politically? He is often described as
conservative, China-friendly, strongly Leninist, as someone who has subjected the
party to strict control - correct?.
ANSWER: Trong is the archetypical “true believer” or strict adherent to the
Vietnamese tenets of Marxism-Leninism and the Thoughts of Ho Chi Minh. He is also
a party apparatchik par excellence. He believes in one-party rule by the Vietnam
Communist Party comprised of men and women of high ethnics, talent, experience
superior education and training and self-discipline.
Trong is a pragmatist when it comes to relations with China. As an ideologue and party
apparatchik he values relations between the Vietnam Communist Party and the
Communist Party of China because they provide a special conduit for bilateral
relations,
Q3b. in domestic policy
ANSWER: In terms of socio-economic policy, Trong appears to occupy the middle of
the spectrum in terms of balancing the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and
encouraging the growth of the private sector. Trong wants SOEs to be efficient and
corruption free. Trong’s anti-corruption campaign was aimed in part at ending the
free-wheeling behaviour of SOEs under the prime ministership of Nguyen Tan Dung.
Generally, like relationship between his predecessor Nong Duc Manh and Prime
Minister Phan Van Khai, Trong lets Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc take the lead.
Q3c. in foreign policy
ANSWER: Trong accepts the long-standing framework of Vietnam’s foreign policy of
“diversifying and multilateralising” its foreign relations through a network of strategic
and comprehensive partnerships.
In this area, Trong has given Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh leeway to conduct
foreign policy. Trong also accepts that national interest (lợi ích dân tộc), rather than
socialist ideology, should guide foreign policy, a momentous change made in Vietnam
in the 1990s [Trong popularised the term bamboo diplomacy/ngoại giao cây tre].
Q4. Nguyen Phu Trong was the first and only one to combine the office of President
and Secretary General into one person. He has also promoted an anti-corruption
campaign. There seem to be certain parallels to China's Xi Jinping. Rightly so?
ANSWER: The parallels between Xi Jin-ping and Nguyen Phu Trong are superficial.
While they hold the same positions, Xi is virtually “president for life” and “the General
Secretary of everything.” Xi is also “the core of the Communist Party of China.”
Trong, in contrast, is limited to two-terms as party Secretary General (and theoretically
two terms as state president). He was only given a second term as party leader
because he was given an exemption from the retirement age of 65 years. The
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exemption is given to “exceptional” individuals, invariable the party Secretary

General.
Trong was made concurrent state president due to the sudden death of Tran Dai
Quang. It was easier to combine the two posts than reshuffle the party leadership
hierarchy at the top level. Trong did not seek to combine these two offices to enhance
his personal power.
Vietnam’s one-party system is still a collective leadership in which the Secretary
General is primus inter pares. Given his advanced age and health Trong will retire from
both posts at the 13th national party congress [Trong was re-elected for a third term-
Carl Thayer].
Q5. How is Nguyen Phu Trong seen by the population?
ANSWER: The general population views Trong as an avuncular Uncle-type figure. His
anti-corruption campaign is genuinely popular.
Trong appears modest, low-key and respectful at public meetings. The Vietnamese
public is genuinely proud of the way its leaders have managed the coronavirus
pandemic. While other figures, such as Vu Duc Dam and Nguyen Xuan Phuc, have had
a high profile, Trong is a beneficiary of public opinion.
Q6. What is Nguyen Phu Trong's greatest success?
ANSWER: Trong’s greatest success is his ability to manipulate party directives,
resolutions and rules to prevent Nguyen Tan Dung from making the unprecedented
switch from prime minister to party secretary general at the 12th national party
congress. Dung was snookered from allowing his name to be put forward for
consideration by party delegates to the 12th congress.
Prior to the congress, the office of the prime minister, arguably, had become more
powerful than the Vietnam Communist Party. After the congress, the party reasserted
its control over the government.
Q7. What is Nguyen Phu Tong's greatest failure?
ANSWER: Trong’s greatest failure was to allow the 19-member Politburo elected in
2016 to atrophy through death and illness and thus lead to a critical shortage of
eligible candidates for selection to the top four leadership position at the 13th national
party congress.
Q8. What role can/will he play after the 13th National Congress?
ANSWER: Retired high-level officials, like the party Secretary General, serve as
advisers to the Politburo. But Vietnamese political practices dictate that Trong will not
be able to wield any behind-the-scenes influence on party decision-making.
Q9. If you would have to describe Nguyen Phu Trong in one sentence. What would
that sentence be?
ANSWER: Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong is a Leninist ideologue devoted to
ensuring that the Vietnam Communist Party retains its legitimacy to govern on the
basis of high moral standards and administrative efficiency.
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Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, “Vietnam: Nguyen Phu Trong’s Life & Legacy,”
Thayer Consultancy Background Brief, June 18, 2020. All background briefs are posted
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