Xuân Thủy (September 2, 1912 – June 20, 1985) was a Vietnamese political figure. He was the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1963 to 1965 and then chief negotiator at the Paris Peace talks and also Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Council of State.
He was born Nguyá» n Trá»Âng Nhâm on September 2, 1912 in Hòe Thá» village, Phðáng Canh canton, Hoài ÃÂức district, HàÃÂông province (now Phðáng Canh ward, Nam Từ Liêm district, Hanoi) . He was a fellow villager and born in the same year as Dr. Trần Duy Hðng, another revolutionary figure of Vietnam.
Born into a family with a Confucian tradition, he was raised in a Catholic cultural environment in his hometown from a young age, and was later sent to Hanoi for his education.
Becoming interested in nationalist politics in his early teens, the fourteen-year-old Thuá»· entered the Revolutionary Youth League of the communist leader Ho Chi Minh. At sixteen, he was arrested for the first time. When he was eighteen, he was sent to the penal colony on Côn Sán Island in the South China Sea. During his studies in Hanoi, Xuân Thủy became active in various patriotic organizations opposed to colonial rule. He began his career as a journalist in the 1930s and engaged in revolutionary activities through journalism starting in 1932. It was during this period that he adopted the pen name "Xuân Thủy," which he would use throughout his life.
In 1941, Thuỷ became a member of the Indochina Communist Party. After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he was imprisoned in Sán La, being held there until in 1944. However, he used his internment to edit the underground communist newspaper Suoi Reo.
In early 1944, after being released, Xuân Thủy resumed revolutionary activity within the Viá»Ât Minh movement. He became Editor-in-Chief of the Cứu Quá»Âc newspaper, the main publication of the Viá»Ât Minh Central Committee during its clandestine period when headquartered in Núi Thầy. Under the leadership of General Secretary Trðá»Âng Chinh, Xuân Thủy directed the newspaper's operations. After the success of the August Revolution, Cứu Quá»Âc was publicly circulated daily from its new office near Hoàn Kiếm Lake, Hanoi. In early 1946, he was elected a National Assembly deputy representing HàÃÂông province. The Assembly was started by the Viet Minh as a vehicle of resistance against French colonial rule in what would become the First Indochina War.
When nationwide resistance broke out, he followed Cứu Quá»Âc to the Viá»Ât Bắc war zone. In 1948, he became a standing member of the Viá»Ât MinhâÂÂs Central Committee, a position he held until 1950. In 1949, he founded the Huỳnh Thúc Kháng journalism training course, laying the foundation for the first generation of wartime journalists. In 1950, he was elected as the first President of the Vietnamese Journalistsâ Association. The following year, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Liên Viá»Ât Front. Speaking both French and Chinese fluently and known as an expert in agitprop, Thuá»· traveled both Asia and Europe visiting Vienna, Stockholm, Rangoon, Beijing, and Moscow in 1950 to gather support for the Vietnamese cause.
After the Democratic Republic of Vietnam fully regained control of North Vietnam in 1955, Xuân Thủy transitioned to higher party leadership. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1963âÂÂ1965) and as the chief negotiator of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the Paris Peace Accords from 1968 to 1973. His diplomatic skill and firm negotiation style were noted by international observers.
Throughout his political career, Xuân Thủy held various high-ranking positions: Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the Council of State (1981âÂÂ1982), Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, and head of several Central Party Commissions, including those for Mass Mobilization, External Relations, and Western Affairs. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and served in the Politburo from 1968 to 1982.
He died on 18 June 1985 in Hanoi at the age of 73 and was buried at Mai Dá»Âch Cemetery.
He was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Order, the Order of Independence (First Class), and the Resistance Order (First Class).
Xuân Thủy was a Vietnamese journalist who served on the Executive Committee of the International Organization of Journalists (OIJ), from which he also received a distinction.
In addition to being a journalist, Xuân Thủy was also a poet and translator. He is well known for translating Há» ChàMinhâÂÂs poem Nguyên tiêu into Vietnamese under the title Rằm tháng Giêng. His poems are widely anthologized and studied in Vietnamese high schools and universities, with many included in the Xuân Thủy Selected Works collection.
His final work was the memoir titled Những chặng ÃÂðá»Âng báo Cứu quá»Âc (Milestones in the Cứu Quá»Âc Newspaper).
He also used the pen name "Chu Lang," though it was rarely employed.