Editing Lê Đức Thọ (section)

== Communist revolutionary ==
Lê Đức Thọ became active in [[Vietnamese nationalism]] as a teenager and spent much of his adolescence in [[French Indochina|French colonial]] prisons, an experience that hardened him. Thọ's nickname was "the Hammer" on account of his severity.<ref>Langguth, A.J. ''Our Vietnam: The War 1954–1975'', New York: [[Simon & Schuster]] 2000 p. 510</ref> In 1930, Thọ helped found the [[Indochinese Communist Party]]. French colonial authorities imprisoned him from 1930 to 1936 and again from 1939 to 1944. The French imprisoned him in one of the "tiger cage" cells on the prison located on the island of [[Poulo Condore]] (modern [[Côn Sơn Island]]) in the South China Sea, which was regarded as the harshest prison in all of French Indochina.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p. 250}} During his time in the "tiger cage", Thọ suffered from hunger, heat, and humiliation. Together with other Vietnamese Communist prisoners, Thọ studied literature, science, and foreign languages, and acted in [[Molière]]'s plays.<ref>Karnow, Stanley ''Vietnam A History'', New York: Viking 1983 p. 125</ref> Despite being imprisoned by the French, France was still regarded as the "land of culture", and the prisoners paid a "peculiar tribute" to French culture by putting on his plays.<ref name=Kp623>Karnow, Stanley ''Vietnam A History'', New York: Viking 1983 p. 623</ref>

After his release in 1945, Thọ helped lead the [[Viet Minh]], the Vietnamese independence movement, against the French, until the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Accords]] were signed in 1954. In 1948, he was in [[South Vietnam]] as Deputy Secretary, Head of the Organization Department of the [[French Cochinchina|Cochinchina]] Committee Party. He then joined the Lao Dong [[Politburo]] of the Vietnam Workers' Party in 1955, now the [[Communist Party of Vietnam]]. Thọ oversaw the [[Viet Cong|Communist insurgency]] that began in 1956 against the [[South Vietnam]]ese government. In 1963, Thọ supported the purges of the Party as a result of Resolution 9.<ref>Thu-Hương Nguyễn-Võ ''The Ironies of Freedom: Sex, Culture, and Neoliberal Governance in Vietnam'' Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2008. {{ISBN|0295988509}} (pbk. : alk. paper). {{ISBN|978-0-295-98865-8}}. 2008, p. 73 "This resolution unleashed a terror campaign against the "revisionist antiparty clique." Lê Đức Thọ, head of the Party Central Organization Committee, announced to party cadres: "The theoretical front to counter contemporary revisionism we ..."</ref>