Nguyễn Văn Linh

Nguyễn Văn Linh (Vietnamese: [ŋwǐənˀ van liŋ̟]; 1 July 1915 – 27 April 1998) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician. Nguyễn Văn Linh was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1986 to 1991 and a political leader of the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. During his time in office, Linh was a strong advocate of "Đổi Mới" (renovation), an economic plan whose aim is to turn Vietnam economy to a socialist-oriented market economy. As such, Linh was often touted as the "Vietnamese Gorbachev" after the Soviet leader, who introduced Perestroika.

Nguyễn Văn Linh was born in Hưng Yên, a province in the North, but more than half of his life was associated with the South. He was arrested and imprisoned many times by the French colonialists. After 1945, Linh was assigned by the Party Committee to return to Saigon to lead two resistance wars against France and United States. In 1962, Linh was elected leader of the Central Committee for the South, directing strategy during the war until the country was unified.

Nguyễn Văn Linh has held many positions in the Party Central Committee before holding the position of General Secretary. Linh became General Secretary of the Party after the 6th National Congress on 18 December 1986. He is one of the Party leaders who initiated the reform policy, eliminating the centralized bureaucratic subsidy mechanism, shifting to a multi-sector economy, operating according to the market mechanism with State management. In 1987, he spoke and wrote many important articles clarifying his views on innovation, especially the issues he raised under the title "Things to be done immediately" under the pen name N.V.L (which means "Nói và làm” or “Nhảy vào lửa”) to create positive changes in social life Vietnam. With the Doi Moi reform, Vietnam’s economy has gradually developed. After only 1 year, the inflation rate of 774% decreased to only 323.1% and then continued to decrease to only 34.7%. He also promoted diplomatic relations with other countries with the motto "Vietnam wants to be friends with countries around the world". Thanks to that, Vietnam normalized diplomatic relations with China, Japan and Western countries and established diplomatic relations with South Korea and United States thereby promoting the process of bringing Vietnam into ASEAN in 1995. He left the position of General Secretary on 28 June 1991 and then became the late Secretary of the Central Executive Committee until his retirement on 29 December 1997.