Le Kha Phieu

Lê Khả Phiêu (born 27 December 1931 in Đông Sơn District in Thanh Hóa Province) is a Vietnamese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from December 1997 to April 2001. Lê Khả Phiêu served in the Vietnam People's Army during the First and Second Indochina Wars, join in the Cambodian war, and was Head of the General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army.

Lê Khả Phiêu was previously been viewed as a conservative. However, this categorization has been challenged by historian Martin Gainsborough, who notes that Lê Khả Phiêu made some remarkably outspoken comments about problems in the party before the Tenth Party Congress. Lê Khả Phiêu criticized what he called 'illness of partyization' (bệnh đảng hoá), meaning that the Party controls everything. Lê Khả Phiêu was a protégé of his predecessor, Đỗ Mười. He was elevated to the Politburo in the early 1990s.

Early life

Lê Khả Phiêu was born on 27 December 1931 in Thượng Phúc village in Đông Khê District in Thanh Hoa Province. In 1945, he joined the local Viet Minh movement and joined the Indochinese Communist Party on 19 June 1949.

On 1 May 1950 he was sent by the Viet Minh to join the army. He began to grow up as a second lieutenant, advancing to the position of Company Politician in the 66th Regiment of the 304th Division. From September 1954 to 1958, he held the post of Deputy Political Officer member of the battalion and then 66th Regimental Political Chair.