Lê Đức Thọ (14 October 1911 to 13 October 1990), born Phan Đình Khải in Nam ĐịnhProvince, was a Vietnamese revolutionary, general, diplomat, and politician. In 1930, Lê Đức Thọ helped found the Indochinese Communist Party. He was imprisoned by French colonial authorities from 1930 to 1936 and again from 1939 to 1944. After his release in 1945, he helped lead the Việt Minh against the French, until the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954. In 1948, he was in South Vietnam as Deputy Secretary, Head of the Organization Department of Cochinchina Committee Party. He then joined the Lao Động Politburo in 1955, now the Communist Party of Vietnam. Thọ oversaw the Communist insurgency that began in 1956 against the South Vietnamese government that led to the Second Indochina War. He was the first Vietnamese person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his part in the negotiations with the US over the Paris Peace Accords, but refused to accept it.
