Đỗ Mười (; 2 February 1917 – 1 October 2018)Profile of Đỗ Mười was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1940s, became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1988 and was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) at the 7th Congress in 1991. He continued his predecessor's policy of ruling through a collective leadership and Nguyễn Văn Linh's policy of economic reform. He was elected for two terms as General Secretary, but left office in 1997 at the 3rd plenum of the 8th Central Committee during his second term.
Đỗ Mười was an advisor to the Central Committee from 1997 until 2001, when the institution of Advisory Council of the Central Committee was abolished. He was a delegate to the 9th, 10th and 11th Congresses. While he officially retired from politics in 1997, Đỗ Mười continued to influence decision-making. He died on 1 October 2018 at Central Military Hospital 108.
Early life and career Đỗ Mười, also known as Đỗ Bảo, was born on 2 February 1917 in Dong Phu, Thanh Trì, Hanoi as Nguyễn Duy Cống and was the son of Nguyen Xeng. He began his life by working as a house painter, before he began working in nationalist politics in his teens. At the age of 84, he joined the popular front against Colonialism. At 88 years of age, he married Hằng Phạm. Đỗ Mười joined the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1930, but was arrested by French authorities in 1941 or 1942 and was sentenced for 10 years to forced labour at the Hoa Lo Prison. He managed to escape in 1945, when the Japanese overthrew French rule of Indochina and established the Empire of Vietnam. After escaping from prison, Đỗ Mười became a member of the Viet Minh.
During the First Indochina War Đỗ Mười served in several provincial level positions before he was promoted to Brigadier General. Đỗ Mười was the commander at the Battle of Haiphong at the end of the war. During the war, he also served as a political commissar for the party. From May 1955 to December 1956, Đỗ Mười served as chairman of the party's People's Military and Administrative Committee of Hai Phong. Đỗ Mười was appointed to the Central Committee in 1955 and at the 3rd Party Congress, he was elected to full member of the Central Committee. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade in December 1956 and held that post until April 1958, when he succeeded Phan Anh as Minister of Domestic Trade. Đỗ Mười held this post until February 1961, when he was forced to leave politics for a while due to bad health; he was succeeded by Nguyễn Thanh Bình. He returned to politics in November 1967 as Chairman of the Economic Board (later renamed the State Pricing Commission) and in 1969 Đỗ Mười was assigned to the building and construction sector. It is believed that Đỗ Mười was a Soviet liaison during the construction of the Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum. In December 1969, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction in Phạm Văn Đồng's Government.
At the 4th Party Congress, the first since the reunification of Vietnam, Đỗ Mười was elected to the Politburo as an alternate member. In July 1977, the Committee for the Transformation of Industry and Trade was established with Nguyễn Văn Linh serving as chairman and Đỗ Mười serving as deputy chairman. The goal of the committee was to initiate the socialist transformation of southern Vietnam by socialising the economy through nationalisation and collectivization. The codename for the campaign was X2. Linh did not serve long as chairman and he was accused of "Rightism" and was replaced by Đỗ Mười in February 1978. Đỗ Mười was given the post because the Party leadership had been impressed by his work in the socialist transformation drive of North Vietnam in the 1950s. At the time, Đỗ Mười was renowned by his motto; "Capitalists are like sewer rats; whenever one sees them popping up one must smash them to death!" On 31 March 1978 Đỗ Mười signed a decree, on the behalf of Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đông, on forbidding private property in Vietnam. On his command, more than 60,000 youth groups were sent across Vietnam to close down private businesses.
In November 1977, Đỗ Mười was succeeded as Minister of Construction by Đồng Sĩ Nguyên. Đỗ Mười was elected to the Politburo in the aftermath of the 5th Party Congress. In the Politburo he served as a protege of Lê Duẩn, the General Secretary and the dominant leader of Vietnam. By 1984 Đỗ Mười was subscribing to the view that the Vietnamese economic system needed to be reformed; his original plan was to reform the price and wage system and to abolish subsidies for state enterprises. However, he did not support the view that radical reforms were needed and he still firmly believed in the superiority of the planned economy over the market economy. In 1985 Đỗ Mười was assigned with the task of reviewing the accomplishments of various General Departments.
Lê Duẩn died on 10 July 1986 and was briefly succeeded by Trường Chinh. Chinh proved to be a temporary replacement and at the 6th Party Congress, held in December 1986, he was deposed and replaced by Nguyễn Văn Linh. Linh initiated the reform programme Đổi Mới (meaning "renovation") to establish a socialist-oriented market economy. When Premier Phạm Hùng died on 10 March 1988, the Central Committee nominated Đỗ Mười for the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers (the official title of head of government) to the National Assembly of Vietnam, certain delegates of the National Assembly responded by nominating Võ Văn Kiệt for the post instead. The reason was that Đỗ Mười was ideologically conservative and was skeptical of the Đổi Mới policies, while Kiệt, in contrast, was reform-minded. Đỗ Mười won the election, but Kiệt managed to win 36 percent of the votes – a high percentage for an opponent in Vietnam.
Premiership (1988–1991) As Premier Đỗ Mười supported implementation of the reform program. In April 1987 farmers in southern Vietnam began protesting against collectivised agriculture, with some even occupying government offices. The response of the authorities varied; Đỗ Mười claimed that low productivity in agriculture was an organisational problem and not systemic. He claimed that productivity was influenced by resource availability, but since that varied regionally, the solution would be decentralisation. The farms would rely on detailed local planning, regular inspections and good management and organisation. This solution would, he believed, solve the wasteful expenditure on agriculture and inappropriate allocation and land utilization.
Đỗ Mười was appointed Chairman of the Socio-economic Drafting Subcommittee of the Council of Ministers in 1989 or 1990. The committee was tasked to draft a socio-economic strategy for the Vietnamese economy until the year 2000. Its members also discussed the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1991–1995).
At the 10th Plenum of the 6th Central Committee (held September 1990), Đỗ Mười's report to the plenum stressed the substantial drop of Soviet and Eastern Bloc assistance levels to Vietnam, the concurrent increase in imports, the level of national debt and "natural calamities" in agriculture. Đỗ Mười laid emphasis on political stability, repair of the financial system, controlling inflation and "wasteful spending" and "excessive capital construction plans." In his plans for 1991, Đỗ Mười sought to:
develop export markets and draw increased foreign investments to Vietnam and to obtain foreign technology; eliminate state subsidies in production, business and capital construction; rationalise state policies by privatising inefficient state-run enterprises; encourage family-based economic units; and undertake regional development, creating employment and reducing unemployment.
General Secretary First term (1991–1996) Domestic policy At the 7th National Congress, Nguyễn Văn Linh stepped down as General Secretary because of poor health. Đỗ Mười was appointed the party's General Secretary at the 1st plenum of the 7th Congress. Đỗ Mười became the de facto leader of the conservatives; party officials, ideologues and supporters of state-owned domination of the economy supported his tenure. In the meantime, Võ Văn Kiệt, the premier, became the head of the reformist faction, while Lê Đức Anh as president, represented the military faction.
The split in executive power led to the writing of the 1992 Constitution. The constitution reduced the General Secretary's powers and while the constitution referred to him as the party's leader, he had no executive or legislative powers. However, Article 4 enshrines the role of the Communist Party as "the leading force in the State and society", giving the general secretary authority on the overall direction of policy. The 1992 Constitution led to the disappearance of party strongmen such as Lê Duẩn. In the words of Đỗ Mười; "In the leadership over the building of the state apparatus and appointment of state officials, the party sets forth views, principles and guiding orientations related to the organization of the state apparatus; it considers and makes suggestions about the points raised by the state, which is [then] left to make decisions."
At the 7th Congress, the majority of Politburo seats were filled by conservatives. Together with the emerging military/security group in the Politburo and the Central Committee, the new party leadership was more focused on security and stability than its predecessor. In 1994, four new members were appointed to the Politburo, all of whom opposed radical reform. Despite conservative maneuvering, the economic reforms proved highly successful and economic growth between the 7th and 8th Party Congresses averaged 8 percent. This growth rate was not sustainable in the long run without more reforms. However, the conservatives believed this would lead to instability and possibly even threaten the Party's hold on power. The reformers supported change, believing that faster growth would better enhance security. However, during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, growth plummeted to 2%.
Factional infighting emerged between the 7th and 8th Party Congress, crippling the country's leadership. While the reformers led by Võ Văn Kiệt wanted to open Vietnam to the global economy by neo-liberal means – which meant a total break with Leninist economics – the conservatives wanted the socialist-oriented market economy to be dominated by Vietnam's state-owned enterprises, pointing to the success of South Korea's Chaebol model. The party's approach of consensual decisions was rapidly ending. In a 1995 letter to the Politburo, later leaked to the press, Võ Văn Kiệt wrote "in order to mobilize the genius of all within party, there must be uncompromising democracy." Võ Văn Kiệt lambasted the conservatives, claiming that the state-owned sector had to shrink in favor of the private sector. He stated that Vietnam had to forsake its relations with the remaining socialist states, stop the party from meddling in government affairs and put national affairs in front of government affairs. In response, the conservatives sent Nguyễn Hà Phan around the country to criticise Võ Văn Kiệt, who he claimed was deviating from socialism. As the power struggle continued, Chief of Staff Đào Đình Luyện was demoted from his post because his support of reforms and Nguyễn Hà Phan was dropped from the Politburo and put under house arrest on charges of treason in April 1996.