Editing Lê Duẩn (section)

=== Vietnam War ===
At the 3rd National Congress, Lê Duẩn called for the establishment of a South Vietnamese people's front. The Central Committee supported the proposal. A Central Committee resolution stated that "The common task of the Vietnamese revolution at present is to accelerate the socialist revolution in North Vietnam whilst at the same time stepping up the National People's Democratic Revolution in South Vietnam." On 20 December 1960, three months later, the [[Viet Cong]] was established. Lê Duẩn claimed that the Việt Cộng would "rally 'all patriotic forces' to overthrow the Diệm government [in the South] and thus ensure 'conditions for the peaceful reunification of the Fatherland'".{{sfn|Rothrock|2006|pp=55–56}}

After the Sino–Soviet split, the Vietnamese Communist leadership divided into pro-China and pro-Soviet factions. From 1956 to 1963, Lê Duẩn played a moderating role between the two factions, but with the death of Diệm and the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]], he became considerably more radical.{{sfn|Ang|2002|p=10}} The Chinese continued to support them throughout the war, with [[Liu Shaoqi]], the [[President of the People's Republic of China|President of the People's Republic]], in 1965 stating, "it is our policy that we will do our best to support you."{{sfn|Rothrock|2006|p=70}} Unlike Hồ, who wanted a peaceful resolution, Lê Duẩn was far more militant. He wanted, in his own words, "final victory".{{sfn|Jones|2003|p=213}} Howard Jones claimed Duẩn dismissed Hồ's position, as did the majority of the Politburo, calling him "naive".{{sfn|Jones|2003|p=213}} When Hồ called for the establishment of a neutral South Vietnamese state in 1963, Lê Duẩn responded by making overtures to the Chinese, who rejected the Soviet position of [[peaceful coexistence]].{{sfn|Jones|2003|p=240}}

With the increased involvement of the United States military in 1965, the North's military strategy was forced to change. As Lê Duẩn noted in a letter to Nguyễn Chí Thanh, the war would become "fiercer and longer".{{sfn|Duiker|1994|p=357}} He believed the fundamentals of the conflict had not changed; the South Vietnamese regime's unpopularity remained its "[[Achilles' heel]]" and he continued to advocate a combination of [[guerrilla warfare]] and PAVN offensives. The communist commanders in the South were to avoid large attacks on the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] (ARVN), but instead focus on many small attacks to demoralize the enemy. Lê Duẩn believed that the key to victory was for the PAVN to keep the initiative. He dismissed the possibility of an attack against North Vietnam by American forces, claiming that an attack on North Vietnam would be an attack on the entire [[socialist camp]].{{sfn|Duiker|1994|p=357}}

In 1967, despite the opposition of some party leaders, Lê Duẩn and his militant group adopted General [[Nguyễn Chí Thanh]]'s operational plan for the General Offensive/General Uprising involving attacks on ARVN and Republic of Vietnam Government installations throughout South Vietnam, which they believed would spark a spontaneous popular uprising among the South Vietnamese population forcing the US and its allies to depart. After having sidelined, and in some cases arrested, opponents of the plan, this would be adopted as the official strategy to win the war. The General Offensive/General Uprising would be launched during the [[Tết]] holiday in January/February 1968. The [[Tet Offensive]] would prove to be a military defeat,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nguyen|first=Lien-Hang|year=2006|title=The War Politburo: North Vietnam's Diplomatic and Political Road to the Tet Offensive|journal=Journal of Vietnamese Studies|volume=1|issue=1–2|page=27|doi=10.1525/vs.2006.1.1-2.4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Karnow|first=Stanley|title=Vietnam: A History|publisher=Penguin|year=1991|isbn=978-0670842186|pages=544–5}}</ref> but a strategic success. Despite the failure of the offensive, the North Vietnamese launched a [[May Offensive|Phase II attack]] in May 1968 and a [[Phase III Offensive|Phase III attack]] in August 1968, both of which were repulsed, with the PAVN and VC again suffering large casualties. After the failure of these attacks, COSVN issued Directive 55 on 5 April 1969 to all of its subordinate units: "Never again and under no circumstances are we going to risk our entire military force for just such an offensive. On the contrary, we should endeavor to preserve our military potential for future campaigns."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoang|first=Ngoc Lung|title=The General Offensives of 1968–69|publisher=General Research Corporation|year=1978|asin=B003TFDXYI|pages=98–108}}</ref>

By July 1974, following the cut-off of U.S aid to South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese leadership had decided to abrogate the [[Paris Peace Accords]] and to invade in 1975, instead of 1976 as previously planned, because they believed an earlier Vietnamese unification would put Vietnam in a stronger position against Chinese and Soviet influence.{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=33}} In his victory speech, Lê Duẩn stated: "Our party is the unique and single leader that organised, controlled and governed the entire struggle of the Vietnamese people from the first day of the revolution."{{sfn|Rothrock|2006|p=354}} In his speech he congratulated the [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam]] (PRGRSV), the underground South Vietnamese government established in 1969, for liberating South Vietnam from [[imperialism]]. PRGRSV-ruled South Vietnam did not last long, however, and in 1976 the reunified Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established.{{sfn|Christie|1998|p=291}} Lê Duẩn purged South Vietnamese who had fought against the North, imprisoning up to 300,000 people in [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|re-education camps]] (not including "dissidents detained in the many prisons of Vietnam")<ref>{{cite web|author-link1=Ginetta Sagan|last1=Sagan|first1=Ginetta|last2=Denney|first2=Stephen|url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982|title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death|work=The Indochina Newsletter|date=October–November 1982|access-date=2017-06-05}}</ref> and captured [[Hoa people]]'s property (the Chinese who live in Vietnam), setting off a mass exodus and humanitarian disaster (see [[Vietnamese boat people]]).