Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the context of "President of Vietnam"

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is the sole legal party of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Ho Chi Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North Vietnam in 1954 after the First Indochina War and all of Vietnam in 1975 after the Vietnam War. Although it nominally exists alongside the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, it maintains a unitary government and has centralized control over the state, military, and media. The supremacy of the CPV is guaranteed by Article 4 of the national constitution. The Vietnamese public generally refer to the CPV as simply "the Party" (Đảng) or "our Party" (Đảng ta).

The CPV is organized on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle conceived by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. The highest institution of the CPV is the party's National Congress, which elects the Central Committee. The Central Committee is the supreme organ on party affairs in between party congresses. After a party congress, the Central Committee elects the Politburo and Secretariat, and appoints the General Secretary, the highest party office. In between sessions of the Central Committee, the Politburo is the supreme organ on party affairs. However, it can only implement decisions based on the policies which have been approved in advance by either the Central Committee or the party's National Congress. As of 2017, the 12th Politburo has 19 members.

The general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (Vietnamese: Tổng Bí thư Ban Chấp hành Trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), simply and informally the party general secretary or just general secretary (Tổng bí thư, TBT), is the contemporary title for the holder of the highest office within the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), being in practice the highest position in the politics of Vietnam and is considered one of the four pillars of the country's leadership. The general secretaryship used to be the second-highest office within the party when Hồ Chí Minh was the chairman, a post which existed from 1951 to 1969, and since 1969, the general secretary has generally been regarded as the highest leader of Vietnam. The general secretary also holds the title of secretary of the Central Military Commission, the leading party organ on military affairs, being the highest political and ideological leader of the People's Army of Vietnam; however, unlike other Communist Parties' leaders, the Vietnamese position rarely assumes a co-official government office or title such as State President at the same time, alongside the consensus-based four pillars slightly lowering the position's supremacy in the Vietnamese political system to its one-party counterparts. The current general secretary is Tô Lâm, ranking first in the Politburo. The position was once designated the first secretary (Vietnamese: Bí thư Thứ nhất) from 1951 to 1976.

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 January 1940, and executed by shooting on 28 August 1941. He was succeeded by Trường Chinh. An article in Nhân Dân on 25 March 1951 described Trường Chinh's role as the "builder and commander" of the revolution, while Hồ Chí Minh was referred to as "the soul of the Vietnamese revolution and the Vietnamese resistance". Trường Chinh was demoted as first secretary in 1956 because of his role in the Land Reform campaign". Hồ Chí Minh took over the office of first secretary, but quickly appointed Lê Duẩn acting first secretary. Lê Duẩn was elected first secretary in 1960 and was second only to Hồ Chí Minh until the latter's death on 2 September 1969.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng (Vietnamese: [ŋwiən˦ˀ˥ fu˧˦ t͡ɕawŋ͡m˧˨ʔ] new-yen foo chong; 14 April 1944 – 19 July 2024) was a Vietnamese politician and political theorist who served as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 2011 until his death in 2024. As the head of the party's Secretariat, Politburo and Central Military Commission, Trọng was Vietnam's paramount leader. From 2018 to 2021, he also served concurrently as the tenth president of Vietnam.

A conservative Marxist–Leninist, Trọng joined the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1967 and rose through the section devoted to political work. He later joined the party's Central Committee in 1994, its Politburo in 1997 and Vietnam's National Assembly in 2002. Between 2000 and 2006, he was the Party Secretary for Hanoi, effectively the city's highest-ranking position. He served as Chairman of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2011.

Võ Nguyên Giáp (chữ Hán: 武元甲, Vietnamese pronunciation: [vɔ̌ˀ ŋʷīən jǎːp]; 25 August 1911 – 4 October 2013) was a Vietnamese general, communist revolutionary and politician. Highly regarded as a military strategist, Giáp led Vietnamese communist military forces to victory in the decades long Indochina wars. Giáp was the military commander of the Việt Minh and the People's Army from 1941 to 1972, minister of defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1946–1947 and from 1948 to 1980, and deputy prime minister from 1955 to 1991. He was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Born in Quảng Bình province to an affluent peasant family, Giáp began participating in anti-colonial political activity in 1925. Sources conflict as to whether he joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930, or not until 1940. Giáp rose to prominence during World War II as the military leader of the Việt Minh resistance against the Japanese occupation, and after the war led anti-colonial forces in the First Indochina War against the French. He won a decisive victory at the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, which ended the war. In the Vietnam War, Giáp led the PAVN against South Vietnam and the United States. Giáp was commander of the army during the 1968 Tet Offensive and 1972 Easter Offensive, after which he was succeeded by Văn Tiến Dũng, but remained defense minister through the U.S. withdrawal and final victory against South Vietnam in 1975. Giáp oversaw his final campaigns in the successful Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 and the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. He resigned as defense minister in 1980 and left the Politburo in 1982. Giáp remained on the Central Committee and as deputy prime minister until 1991, and died in 2013 at age 102.

The Communist Party of Vietnam is organized according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism. The supreme party organ is the National Party Congress (Vietnamese: Đại hội đại biểu toàn quốc Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam, lit. 'Congress of nationwide representatives of the Communist Party of Vietnam', less formally the Party congress - Đại hội Đảng), which has been held every five years since 1976 (49 years ago) (1976). Due to war footing during the time of wars against France and the United States, the first four congresses were not fixed according to a common time schedule. Since the Foundation Conference, 12 national CPV congresses have been held.

The National Party Congress elects the Central Committee, consisting of 180 full members and 20 alternates. The Central Committee usually meets twice a year.

The Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee is the highest body of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in between gatherings of the National Congress and of the plenary sessions Central Committee. According to Party rules, the Politburo directs the general orientation of the government, and by that, it has dominant power in the politics of Vietnam.

The members of the Politburo are elected and given a ranking by the Central Committee in the immediate aftermath of a National Party Congress. The current Politburo (13th term) was elected by the 1st Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee in the aftermath of the 13th National Congress and consists of 15 members. The first-ranked member is General Secretary of the Central Committee.

The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Ban Bí thư Trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), replaced by the Politburo Standing of the Central Committee in the period 1996 to 2001, is the highest implementation body of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) between Central Committee meetings. According to Party rules, the Secretariat implements the decisions of the Politburo and the Central Committee.

The members of the Politburo are elected (and given a ranking) by the Central Committee in the immediate aftermath of a National Party Congress. The current Secretariat, the 13th, was elected by the Central Committee in the aftermath of the 13th National Congress and consists of 12 members. The first-ranked member is Tô Lâm, the General Secretary of the Central Committee.

The 12th Politburo, formally the Political Bureau of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV, Vietnamese: Bộ Chính trị Ban Chấp hành trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam Khoá XII), was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee (CC) on 27 January 2016 during the 12th National Congress to serve for a five-year electoral term. The Politburo is a central leading organ of the CPV Central Committee tasked with directing the general orientation of the party and state. In this sense, it functions as the highest political organ of the CPV when the Party's National Congress and the Central Committee are adjourned. Since Vietnam is a communist state that bases its governance system on the principle that "the Party leads and the State manages", the Politburo also function as the highest decision-making institution in Vietnam. The Politburo convenes meetings several times a month to discuss and decide policy, and the Secretariat, another central leading organ, ensures that said policies are executed by the relevant institution in question, such as the National Assembly of Vietnam if the policy concerns law-making, or the Party's Central Organisation Commission if it concerns cadre policy. The total number of meetings the 12th Politburo convened has not been publicly disclosed to the media. Some have been publicly reported, however, and are listed below (see "Convocations" section).

The 12th National Congress adopted a resolution that stated the CPV needed to establish a streamlined, efficient political system and combat corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. Shortly after his re-election to the Politburo and as General Secretary of the Central Committee on 27 January 2016, Nguyễn Phú Trọng ramped up his anti-corruption campaign. Đinh La Thăng was removed from the Politburo in May 2017 by the 12th CC's 5th Plenary Session when the 12th Central Inspection Commission started investigating him for mismanaging the state-owned enterprise PetroVietnam, resulting in a loss of 900 billion Vietnamese dongs (around 40 million United States dollars); he was arrested in December 2017 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison in January 2018. In tandem with the anti-corruption drive, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc began to streamline the government by cutting the number of deputy prime ministers from five to four and ministries from 26 to 22. Institutionally, the campaign was strengthened by appointing six members of the 12th Politburo to serve in the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption, providing the Central Inspection Commission with the ability to audit and supervise personnel property declarations under the Politburo and Secretariat's management, and seven central inspection teams were established to investigate serious corruption cases that drew public attention. This campaign developed alongside a campaign to strengthen party morality and Marxist–Leninist ideology and to combat perceived ideological evils such as liberal democratic values, self-evolution and self-transformation.