Nguyen Van Linh (1914–1998)

Vietnamese communist politician, member of the Politburo 1976–81 and 1985–98; leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) 1986–91. He began economic liberalization and troop withdrawal from Cambodia and Laos.

Nguyen, born in North Vietnam, joined the anti-colonial Thanh Nien, a forerunner of the current CPV, in Haiphong in 1929. He spent much of his subsequent party career in the South as a pragmatic reformer. He was a member of CPV's Politburo and secretariat 1976–81, suffered a temporary setback when party conservatives gained the ascendancy, and re-entered the Politburo in 1985, becoming CPV leader in December 1986 and resigning from the post in June 1991.