Do Muoi

Who is Do Muoi?

Đỗ Mười is a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1940s and was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam at the 7th Congress. He continued his predecessor's policy of ruling through a collective leadership and Nguyễn Văn Linh's policy of economic reform. He was elected for two terms as General Secretary, but left office in 1997 at the 3rd plenum of the 8th Central Committee during his second term.

Born into a Hanoi family as Nguyễn Duy Cống, he began working as a painter in the 1930s. He joined the Communist Party of Indochina in 1939 and was imprisoned on charges of subversive activities by French colonial authorities in 1941. He managed to escape in 1945 and became an even stronger supporter of communism. During the early to mid-1950s, Đỗ Mười served as a political commissar and held various party offices responsible for military affairs. After the 3rd Congress, Đỗ Mười worked in fields related to construction and economic activity. At the 4th Congress Đỗ Mười was elected an alternate member of the 4th Politburo. During the late 1970s, Đỗ Mười oversaw the socialisation of the South Vietnamese economy. During the 1980s Đỗ Mười began to believe that economic reforms were necessary to improve the Vietnamese economy, however, he still subscribed to the view that the planned economy was better adapted to developing economies than a market economy.