Vietnam’s Top 3 Leaders Resign at Party Congress

The country’s three top leaders resigned Wednesday after leading the Communists through five decades of war and revolution.

Interior Minister Pham Hung told the Sixth National Party Congress that Communist Party Secretary General Truong Chinh, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and key Politburo member Le Duc Tho were stepping down from the party’s Central Committee.

“The Central Committee has accepted their retirements and they will be advisers to the new Central Committee,” said Hung, a member of the ruling Politburo.

Chinh, 79, Dong, 80, and Tho, 73, went to the rostrum at the Ba Dinh conference hall and waved goodby amid the applause of hundreds of Vietnamese and foreign delegates.

It was the most dramatic leadership change in the party’s 56-year-old history.

The new leadership, to be announced Thursday, is widely expected to include officials identified with recent economic reforms the party has deemed crucial.

Widely tipped as new party secretary general is Nguyen Van Linh, 73, a former party secretary in Ho Chi Minh city, formerly Saigon.

Vice Premier Vo Chi Chong, 73, a former agriculture minister, and Vo Nguyen Giap, a legendary military strategist, have been mentioned as possible successors to Dong.

The resignations came on the third day of the four-day congress. The congress has heard strong attacks on party leadership that capped months of criticism, particularly over failings in economic policy.

On Tuesday, congress delegates said that Vietnam wants better relations with China but that Peking has rejected overtures.

Vietnam “is ready at any time . . . and anywhere to normalize relations with China, but so far no positive response . . . has been recorded,” said Vo Dong Giang, a minister without portfolio in the Foreign Ministry.