Editing Lê Duẩn (section)

=== First Secretary ===
Lê Duẩn was informally chosen as the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam|First Secretary of the party]] by Hồ in 1959, at the January plenum of the Central Committee and was elected to the post ''[[de jure]]'' at the ''3rd National Congress''.{{sfn|Ooi|2004|p=777}} According to Bùi Tín, he was not Hồ's original choice for the post; his preferred candidate was Võ Nguyên Giáp, but since Lê Duẩn was supported by the influential Lê Đức Thọ, the ''Head of the Party Organisational Department,'' Lê Duẩn was picked for the post. He was considered a safe choice because of his time in prison during the French rule, his thesis ''The Road to the South'' and his strong belief in [[Vietnamese reunification]].{{sfn|Ang|2002|p=21}}
 
According to [[Stein Tønnesson]], Le Duan had not, like Ho Chi Minh, traveled around the world during his youth. He had not, like Pham Van Dong or Vo Nguyen Giap, worked closely with Ho Chi Minh from 1940s. Ho Chi Minh's decision to leave the party leadership Le Duan in the years 1957-1960, and to endorse his formal election in 1960, must be interpreted as a way to ensure national unity. At a time when Vietnam was divided in two, and many southern cadres had been regrouped to the north, the safest way to ensure that the Vietnam Worker party remain a party for all of Vietnam was probably to make the leader of the southern branch the leader of the whole party. Presumably this was the motive behind Ho Chi Minh's choice.<ref>Le Duan and the break with China. Cold War international history project bulletin, Issue 12/13. P. 273</ref>