Le Duc Tho Trivia Quiz

Answer: French Indochina

Nam Dinh is a small province located in northern Vietnam in the Red River Delta. At the time of Le Duc Tho's birth in 1911, Vietnam was a French colonial territory as part of French Indochina. French Indochina also included Cambodia and Laos and its capitals were Hanoi and Saigon.

Answer: The Hammer

Le Duc Tho's teenage years spanned the late 1920s, a time during which French colonial rule was severe and Vietnamese nationalists were commonly jailed for speaking up. In spite of this, Le Duc Tho would not compromise and he was nicknamed 'The Hammer'. From 1930 to 1945 Le Duc Tho was imprisoned at various times for more than 10 years in 'tiger cage' cells. Later he would comment that these experiences made him stronger.

Answer: Communist

Variously called the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Indochinese Communist Party, Ho Chi Minh and Le Duc Tho enumerated ten party actions in 1930. Not surprisingly, the most important goal was to overthrow French imperialism and make Indochina completely independent.

In 1945 the Indochinese Communist Party was dissolved into the Communist Party of Vietnam which would go on to become the sole legal party of Vietnam.

Answer: Politburo

The Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam was founded in 1930. Le Duc Tho was first elected to the politburo in 1955, shortly after the Geneva Conference in 1954 paved the way for Vietnamese independence from France.

In addition to his role in the Politburo, Le Duc Tho also worked for more than two decades as Head of the Central Organizing Commission and as a member of the Secretariat.

Answer: Paris

In March 1965 the first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam to aid in their war against North Vietnam that began in 1955. In various meetings, Le Duc Tho spoke with Cyrus Vance, Philip Habib and W. Averell Harriman in Paris in 1968. One major point that Le Duc Tho made to the American diplomats was that the U.S. had to put an end to the bombing of North Vietnam for peace talks to be taken seriously.

Answer: Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger first met Le Duc Tho on February 21, 1970. As Le Duc Tho had stated to other U.S. diplomats, he reiterated to Kissinger that the U.S. had to stop bombing North Vietnam for serious peace talks to occur. Le Duc Tho and Kissinger would meet in secret at least 13 times and the meetings were often contentious with neither side wanting to make concessions. Eventually, a peace agreement was signed in Paris in early 1973.

Answer: Nobel Peace Prize

Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Le Duc Tho refused the award stating that the Saigon administration aided by the United States was in violation of the Paris Peace Accords. Although he stated that he would claim the Nobel Peace Prize once the Paris Peace Accords were honored, Le Duc Tho died without accepting his award.

Answer: Saigon

In 1974 the North Vietnamese Army worked to transform the Ho Chi Minh Trail into a paved four-lane highway. This allowed the army of North Vietnam to easily transport troops and large weapons to South Vietnam. Under the plans of General Dung and Le Duc Tho, the North Vietnamese Army overtook the South Vietnamese capital city of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

The day after, North Vietnamese soldiers marched the streets of Saigon in a celebration parade. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 after the reunification of Vietnam. Per the country's 2019 census, Ho Chi Minh City was the largest city in Vietnam with a population just under nine million.

Answer: Cambodia

The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (FUNSK) was founded in December 1978 in Cambodia. FUNSK was one of the organizations that helped topple the Khmer Rouge government and it established the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) in 1979.

However, the PRK never received recognition from the United Nations as an independent nation. An important facet of Lec Duc Tho's communication with FUNSK was to ensure that the nationalism that brought about the Khmer Rouge party would not return to Cambodia or have a similar movement in Vietnam.

Answer: Throat cancer

Le Duc Tho was a heavy smoker for decades and he died in 1970 from throat cancer. In spite of his years of smoking, Le Duc Tho lived past the median life expectancy at the time as he died the day before what would have been his 79th birthday.