Nguyen Van Hieu; Represented Viet Cong at Peace Talks

Nguyen Van Hieu, 68, a founding leader of the Viet Cong and a negotiator at the Paris peace talks during the Vietnam War. At the time of his death, Hieu was president of the Vietnam-France Friendship Assn. and a leading member of the Fatherland Front, sponsored by the ruling Communist Party. He was general secretary of the Central Committee of the National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam in 1960, its founding year. North Vietnam established the front, better known as the Viet Cong, to organize local opposition to the South Vietnam government, and to buttress Hanoi’s claim that it was not violating a Geneva agreement by sending forces to the south. In 1973 Hieu headed the provisional government’s delegation to the Paris conference that negotiated an American withdrawal from the conflict. In Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) on Wednesday of unreported causes.