(1913–1989), vice president of Vietnam. Huynh Tan Phat was born into a family of small landowners in 1913 in the province of Ben Tre, South Vietnam. After graduating from high school in My Tho, Phat attended the Superior School of Fine Arts in Hanoi, where he involved himself in anticolonial student organizations. Back in Saigon he opened his own architectural firm in 1940. Although a very successful architect, he devoted more of his time to political activities than to his profession. He played an important role in the August Revolution that brought independence to Vietnam in 1945. During the War with France (1946–1954) he was arrested many times by the French because he was responsible for the information and press services of the underground Vietnamese government. In 1962, he was elected to the position of vice chair of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, an organization that fought against the South Vietnam regime, assisted by the United States. In 1976, the National Assembly elected him vice president of the Socialist Republic of a reunited Vietnam. He died in 1989 at the age of seventy-six.
Further Reading
Huynh Van Tieng, et al. (1995) Lam Dep Cuoc Doi. Huynh Tan Phat, con nguoi va su nghiep. (To Make Life Beautiful: Huynh Tan Phat, the Man and His Achievements). Hanoi, Vietnam: Nha Xuat Ban Chinh tri Quoc Gia.
Pike, Douglas. (1966) Viet Cong: The Organization and Technique of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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