Võ Chí Công

Võ Chí Công (born Võ Toàn; 7 August 1912 – 8 September 2011) was a Vietnamese Communist politician, and the Chairman of the Council of State of Vietnam (Alternatively: President of Vietnam) between 1987 and 1992.

Võ Chí Công was born Võ Toàn in Quảng Nam, French Indochina, in 1912. He first became politically active in 1930, when he joined with Phan Bội Châu and Phan Chu Trinh, two early Vietnamese nationalists who opposed the French colonial regime. He joined the Communist Party of Indochina in 1935, and fought with the Vietnamese resistance against the Vichy French during World War II.

After the First Indochina War, Công as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of 5th Region (and elected is member of Central Committee Party in 1960), before becoming a founding member and Deputy Chairman of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Vietcong) in 1961. He later became Deputy Secretary of the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN), and was a key figure in the South Vietnamese communist party during the Vietnam War. After the reunification of Vietnam in 1976, Công was awarded a seat on the national Politburo.

As a Politburo member, Công served in various cabinet posts, including Minister of Fisheries (1976–77), Minister of Agriculture (1977–78), and Deputy Prime Minister (1976–82), before becoming the Chairman of the Council of State of Vietnam (the contemporary equivalent of the President of Vietnam) in 1987. After his presidential term ended in 1992, Công became an advisor to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, until this advisory position was abolished in 1997.

Võ Chí Công died in Hồ Chí Minh City on 8 September 2011, aged 99. The Vietnamese government granted him a televised state funeral in recognition of his long political career.