President of Vietnam in the context of "Ho Chi Minh"

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.

The politics of Vietnam is dominated by a single party, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), under an authoritarian system. The President of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Chủ tịch nước) is the head of state, and the Prime Minister of Vietnam is the head of government. Both of these offices are separate from the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who leads the CPV and is head of the Politburo and the Central Military Commission. The General Secretary is thus the de facto highest position in the Vietnamese politics.

Executive power is exercised by the government and the President of Vietnam. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly of Vietnam (Quốc hội Việt Nam). The Judiciary is independent of the executive. The parliament adopted the current Constitution of Vietnam, the country's fifth, on 28 November 2013.

The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Chính phủ nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam) is the state's highest administrative and executive organ of the country's highest organ of state power, the National Assembly of Vietnam, and in practice the central executive component and cabinet of Vietnam. The members of the Government are appointed by the President of Vietnam on the advice of the Prime Minister of Vietnam and approved by the National Assembly. The Government is led by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which is headed by the CPV general secretary, often seen as the extragovernmental but highest political post in Vietnam.

The current government is the Government of Phạm Minh Chính (also known as the Government of the 15th National Assembly), which was established in accordance with the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Throughout history, each state administration of Vietnam had developed its own government cabinet under various formations and natures.

The five pillars (Vietnamese: bộ ngũ, pronounced [tɨ˧˦ t͡ɕu˧˨ʔ]; or ngũ trụ), previously the four pillars (tứ trụ), is an informal term for the five most important party-state leaders in the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Government of Vietnam. In modern usage, the five pillars refer to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, President of Vietnam, Prime Minister of Vietnam, Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, and the Permanent Member of the Secretariat. Together, they are officially designated as the "Key Leaders of the Party and the State" (Vietnamese: Lãnh đạo chủ chốt của Đảng và Nhà nước) and can be considered as the de facto highest state leaders. Similar to China, there does not exist an official order of precedence for political leaders and rather they are inferred in a de facto fashion. However, since the chairmanship of the Communist Party was abolished, the General Secretary has been the highest ranking official in Vietnam. This division of power is formed to prevent dictatorial rule and preserve consensus-based leadership, which is officially called by the Vietnamese Communist Party as "democratic centralism". In 2025, the seat of Permanent Member of the Secretariat of CPV was designated as the fifth "key leader", virtually becoming the fifth pillar of the Vietnamese politics.

Unlike other communist states, the General Secretary of the party (or its predecessor) and the President of the state are largely occupied not by the same person, demonstrating the collective leadership in Vietnam. The only exceptions are: Hồ Chí Minh (1951–69), Trường Chinh (briefly in 1986), Nguyễn Phú Trọng (2018–21), and Tô Lâm (briefly in 2024), and except Hồ Chí Minh, all of those exceptions were practically elected to fulfill their successors' uncompleted terms of party general secretaryship or state presidency. Thus, the Party General Secretaries rarely hold offices that are nominally within the Vietnamese state apparatus and government except their parliament memberships, however is still managed to be the practical highest leader in the politics of Vietnam and is ideologically the highest commander of the People's Army of Vietnam, due to the ex officio occupation of the Secretaryship of the Party Central Military Commission.

Tô Lâm (Vietnamese: [to ləm] ; born 10 July 1957) is a Vietnamese politician and former police officer who has served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) since August 2024 and the 13th president of Vietnam from May 2024 to October 2024. In his capacity as general secretary, he is the most powerful person in Vietnam's political system. A career officer in the People's Public Security Forces for over 40 years, Lâm previously served as Minister of Public Security from 2016 until his election to the presidency in 2024.

Born in Hưng Yên province, Tô Lâm became a member of the CPV on 22 August 1981. A graduate of the Central Police School and the Vietnam People's Security Academy, his entire career has been in the police forces. He holds the rank of four-star General in the Vietnam People's Public Security. He previously served as Head of the Central Highlands Steering Committee, Deputy Minister of Public Security, and Director-General of the MPS First General Department of Security. He has been a Member of the CPV Central Committee since 2011 and a Member of the CPV Politburo since 2016.

Trường Chinh (Vietnamese: [ʈ͡ʂɯɤ̀ŋ ciŋ̟], meaning "Long March"), born Đặng Xuân Khu (9 February 1907 – 30 September 1988) was a Vietnamese communist political leader, revolutionary and theoretician. He was one of the key figures of Vietnamese politics for over 40 years, and played a major role in the 1946-54 war against the French. Trường also played an important role in shaping the politics of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and creating the socialist structure of the new Vietnam.

Between November 9, 1940 and November 11, 1945, when the party dissolved, Trường was General Secretary of the Indochinese Communist Party Central Committee. Between 1946 and 1954, the First Indochina War led to the fall of French Indochina and the partitioning of Vietnam between north and south. On February 19, 1951, Trường became First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam Central Committee (although Hồ Chí Minh, in his capacity as founder and chairman of the party, was Trường's superior). In 1956, after the failure of the Land Reform program, he was dismissed from his post of General Secretary and had less power. Hồ Chí Minh selected Lê Duẩn to succeed him as the General Secretary and Lê became the most powerful person in the party after Hồ Chí Minh's death in 1969. However, Trường Chinh remained an influential force in the party during the Second Indochina War and after the reunification of Vietnam; he was Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam from 1960 to 1981 and head of state of Vietnam from 1981 to 1987 as 3rd President of Vietnam. Following the death of Lê Duẩn in July 1986, Trường again became General Secretary, and held the post until December 18, 1986. His last vital role was to carry forward the Đổi Mới renovation that still affects Vietnam to this day.