Văn Tiến Dũng
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- This is a Vietnamese name; the family name is Văn, but is often simplified as Van in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person properly should be referred to by the given name Dũng.
| Van Tien Dung | |
|---|---|
| 2 May 1917- 17 March 2002 | |
| Allegiance |  Vietnam |
| Service/branch |  Viet Minh People's Army of Vietnam |
| Rank | Senior General |
| Commands held | Vietnam People's Army |
| Battles/wars | First Indochina War Battle of Dien Bien Phu Easter Offensive Ho Chi Minh Campaign Cambodian-Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War |
| Awards | Resolution for Victory Order |
General Văn Tiến Dũng (2 May 1917 – 17 March 2002) was a Vietnamese general in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff (1954-1974); PAVN commander in chief (1974-1980); and Socialist Republic of Vietnam defense minister (1980-1986). He was the only member of North Vietnam's political elite who was of peasant origin. He joined the communist Lao Dong Party in 1936, escaped from a French prison in 1944, and fought against the Japanese occupation force during the Second World War.
During the First Indochina War Dũng rose to become General Vo Nguyen Giap's chief of staff during the victorious siege of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. For the next twenty years, his military reputation in North Vietnam was second only to Giap's. He commanded the vital Tri-Thien-Hue Front during the Nguyen Hue Offensive of 1972 (called the Easter Offensive in the West) and replaced his mentor as PAVN commander in chief in 1974, when the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle to more conventional forms.
Dũng planned and commanded the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, the final PAVN offensive that collapsed South Vietnamese defenses and captured Saigon in 1975. He also directed Vietnam's invasion of Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge Cambodia) and the resulting border conflict with the People's Republic of China in 1979. He was appointed defense minister in 1980, but was removed from office during a shakeup in the Politburo in 1986.
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