Pham Van Dong: Marxist mandarin who ruled Vietnam for over 30 years HANOI - Pham Van Dong, who has died aged 94, served as Vietnam's prime minister for more than 30 years and was one of the giants of the country's struggle for independence and reunification. Dong died in Hanoi on Saturday, on the eve of celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon -- now Ho Chi Minh City -- to communist forces and the end of the Vietnam War. Dong rose to international prominence at the head of the Viet Minh delegation at the Geneva talks in 1954 when Indochina won independence from France but Vietnam was divided between the communist North and the US-backed government in the South. Bitterly opposed to the division, Dong spent the first 20 years of his premiership fighting for reunification, which came in 1975 after one of the most brutal wars of modern times. The former prime minister was an uncompromising proponent of national reunification who even as the North was being crushed by American bombs confidently predicted victory for Hanoi because it would always outlast the United States. Seen from the outside as a fervent pro-Soviet Marxist and hard negotiator -- Henry Kissinger described him as "wily and insolent" -- at home Dong was more an administrator and ideological guardian. As Ho Chi Minh's "favourite nephew," Dong inherited the mantle of "Uncle Ho" following the death of Vietnam's avuncular nationalist figure in 1969. Born March 1, 1906 to the private secretary of Emperor Duy Tan, Dong grew up in the Confucian mandarin tradition but was heavily influenced by the Vietnamese nationalism that developed under French colonial rule. Convicted of leading a student demonstration at the lycee in Hue, Dong spent seven years from 1929 doing hard labour on Poulo Condore, the brutal French penal colony that served as the "university of revolution" for Vietnam's leaders. Released in 1936, he resumed his underground activities but after a crackdown at the start of the war he escaped to China, joining up with Ho Chi Minh. During these years he became a key figure in the founding of the Vietnam Minh alongside Ho and General Vo Nguyen Giap, even taking over the leadership from Ho when he was imprisoned by the Chinese from 1942-43. In 1946 he represented the Viet Minh in talks with the French government at Fontainebleau. But when these broke down he went back to the Viet Minh's jungle base for another eight years of war, culminating in the defeat of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. After independence in 1954, Dong played an increasingly high profile role as prime minister and foreign minister until 1961, controlling policy during the war with the South and maintaining a hard stance during negotiations. Premier from 1955 until 1987, he survived the turmoil of land reform in the 1950s, wars against the United States, Cambodia and China and the economic crisis that hit the country after reunification. Later he would admit that "mistakes were made" after 1975, when the country suffered from what Dong called "subjectivity and leftism" -- Marxist jargon for the leadership's determined push for socialism that left Vietnam bankrupt and dependent on the Soviet Union. Seen only as a compentent administrator by the more adept political operators in the politburo, Dong reportedly complained of powerlessness during his time in office when all decisions were by consensus. He stepped down from the politburo in 1986, a year when many of the old guard were swept out and Vietnam began a process of market reforms. Almost blind by the end of the 1980s, the haughty and patrician leader kept a semi-official post as an advisor until December 1997, wielding considerable clout and remaining an implacable critic of the inequalities and corruption that accompanied reforms. His hands remained cupped around the dying members of the socialist flame as the stiff winds of reform whipped through Vietnam and his communist credentials remained impeccable to the bitter end. AFP - May 2, 2000.