General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Tổng Bí thư Ban Chấp hành Trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), known as First Secretary (Vietnamese: Bí thư Thứ nhất) from 1951 to 1976, is the highest office within the Communist Party of Vietnam. The General Secretaryship was the second-highest office within the party when Hô Chí Minh was Chairman, a post which existed from 1951 to 1969. The general secretary is also the Secretary of the Central Military Commission, the leading Party organ on military affairs. For a period in its history, the position of general secretary has been synonymous with leader of Vietnam. The current general secretary is Nguyễn Phú Trọng, and he is ranked first in the Political Bureau.

Trần Phú, one of the founding members of the Indochinese Communist Party, was the party's first general secretary. A year after being elected, he was sentenced to prison by the French authorities because of anti-French activities. He died in prison the same year. Trần's de facto successor was Lê Hồng Phong who led the party through the office of General Secretary of the Overseas Executive Committee (OEC). The OEC general secretary led the party because the Central Committee had been all but annihilated. Hà Huy Tập, the third general secretary, was removed from his post in March 1938, and was arrested by the authorities in May. Nguyễn Văn Cừ, the fourth general secretary, was arrested by the authorities in June 1940, and executed by shooting on 25 May 1941. He was succeeded by Trường Chinh in May 1941. An article in Nhân Dân on 25 March 1951 described Trường's role as the "builder and commander" of the revolution, while Hô Chí Minh was referred to as "the soul of the Vietnamese revolution and the VIetnamese resistance". Trường was demoted as First Secretary in 1956 because of his role in the "bloody Land Reform campaign". Hô took over the office of First Secretary, but quickly appointed Lê Duẩn acting First Secretary. Lê was elected general secretary in 1960, and was the second only to Hô until the latter's death on 2 September 1969.

From 2 September 1969 until his death on 10 July 1986, Lê was the undisputed leader of Vietnam. He died two months before the next National Party Congress, and was succeeded by Trường, the former general secretary who had served as the second-most powerful politician in Vietnam since Hô's death. Trường was demoted from his post at the 6th National Party Congress, and was succeeded by Nguyễn Văn Linh. The Western press called Linh "Vietnam's Gorbachev" because of his reformist policies. Linh resigned because of bad health in 1991, and Đỗ Mười was appointed to the general secretaryship by the 7th National Congress. Mười ruled until 1997, when he was ousted from power by the reformist-wing of the party. Lê Khả Phiêu was Mười's successor, and he was elected as a compromise candidate. Phiêu was ousted in 2001, before the 10th National Party Congress, when the Central Committee overturned a decision of the Politburo; a majority in the Central Committee voted to remove Phiêu as general secretary. Nông Đức Mạnh succeeded Phiêu, and Manh came to be considered a moderniser. Manh was also the first general secretary with a university degree. Manh retired in 2011, and Nguyễn Phú Trọng succeeded him, and he now is considered the most powerful political figure in Vietnam.

The General Secretary presides over the work of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau, the Secretariat, and chairs meetings with key leaders (Working Regulation of the Central Committee, 2011).