Nguyễn Hữu Thọ

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ (July 10, 1910- December 24, 1996) was acting President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from March 30, 1980, to July 4, 1981.

A French-educated lawyer in Cochin China, he was also a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and a participant in the Vietnamese struggle for independence. He joined the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1949. Kept in detention from 1950 to 1952, he later came to support the 1954 Geneva agreements, but opposed the regime of South Vietnam’s president, Ngô Đình Diệm. In August 1954 he founded the Committee in Defense of Peace and the Geneva Agreements. The Committee was crushed and banned by the South Vietnamese government in November the same year, and Nguyễn Hữu Thọ and other members of the organization were jailed after a police raid. [Kiernan, Ben. "How Pol Pot Came to Power". London: Verso, 1985. p. 170-171] He remained in detention until 1961, when he managed to escape.

Once free, Nguyễn Hữu Thọ became Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front Central Committee, and in 1969, Chairman of the Consultative Council of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, a post he retained until South Vietnam was incorporated into North Vietnam in 1976. In the newly united Vietnam, he served as one of two vice-presidents until the death of Tôn Đức Thắng, when he was named acting president (April 1980 - July 1981), a post he held until the appointment of Trường Chinh, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, in July 1981. Upon relinquishing the post of president, he assumed the role of Chairman of the National Assembly until 1987. He is vice-chairman of the council of state 1981-1992.

Nguyễn Hữu Thọ was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (1983-84).

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