orig. Dang Xuan Khu
born Feb. 9, 1907, Ha Nam Ninh province, Viet.
died Sept. 30, 1988, Hanoi
Vietnamese statesman, writer, and communist intellectual.
He was an anticolonialist activist as a youth, joining Ho Chi Minh in 1928. He became a teacher and joined the Indochinese Communist Party, becoming its secretary-general in 1941. With Vo Nguyen Giap he developed the strategy that led to a Vietnamese victory over the Japanese occupation forces in 1945. With Le Duan (1908–86) and Pham Van Dong (1906–2000) he ruled North Vietnam after Ho's death in 1969.