Nguyễn Hữu Thọ

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ (10 July 1910 – 24 December 1996) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and Chairman of Consultative Council of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam from 6 June 1969 to 2 July 1976, and the Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam from 4 July 1981 to 18 June 1987.

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ began his political career in 1949, when he led protests against French colonial rule of Indochina and the patrols of US naval warships off the coast of southern Vietnam. As a consequence of these activities, he was arrested and imprisoned from 1950 to 1952. He went on an extended hunger strike while imprisoned which enhanced his reputation. After the partition of Vietnam into the Soviet-backed communist North Vietnam and the US-backed South Vietnam in 1954, he remained in the south and subsequently co-operated with the government of President Ngô Đình Diệm until he was arrested again for creating an organisation intended on achieving reunification through the proposed elections scheduled for 1956 by 1954 accords.

In 1961, he escaped from prison and became first interim president and then chairman of the North Vietnamese backed National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Viet Cong), which was co-founded by him on December 20, 1960. This group launched an armed insurgency against the government of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In June 1969, North Vietnam founded the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, in which Huỳnh Tấn Phát became President and he himself became Chairman of the Consultative Council. After the North Vietnamese conquest all of South Vietnam following the fall of Saigon in April 1975, he became Prime Minister of new-found Republic of South Vietnam.

After the official reunification of Vietnam and the founding of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 2 July 1976, he became one of two vice-presidents and thus a deputy of then President Tôn Đức Thắng. At the same time, he was also the first mayor of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, named after dead Ho). After Tôn Đức Thắng's death on 30 March 1980, he became acting President of Vietnam, a post he held until he was replaced by Trường Chinh on 4 July 1981.

He then served as Deputy Chairman of the Council of State from 1981 to 1992. From 1981 to 1987 he was also Chairman of the National Assembly (Quốc hội Việt Nam) and thus President of the Parliament. Between 1988 and 1994, he was chairman of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front (Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam), the umbrella organization for mass organizations in the country.