Nguyen Huu Tho
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Nguyen Huu Tho (July 10, 1910- December 24, 1996) was acting President of Vietnam from March 30, 1980 to July 4, 1981. A French-educated lawyer in Cochin China, he was also a member of the French Socialist Party and a participant in the Vietnamese struggle for independence. Kept in detention from 1950 to 1952 he later came to support the 1954 Geneva agreements, but opposed the regime of South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem. He was arrested again, this time by the South Vietnamese government in 1954 and remained in detention until 1961, when he managed to escape.
Once free, Nguyen Huu Tho became Chairman of the National Liberation Front Central Committee, and in 1969, Chairman of the Consultative Council of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (i.e. Head of State), a post he retained until South Vietnam was incorporated into North Vietnam in 1976. In the newly united Vietnam, he served as vice president until the death of Ton Duc Thang, when he was named acting president, a post he held until the appointment of Truong Chinh, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, in July 1981. Upon relinquishing the post of president, he resumed the role of vice president.