Chu Van Tan

Chu Van Tan (born c. 1909, Phu Thuong village, Vietnam—died 1984) was a military and political leader who played an important part in winning Vietnam’s independence from France.

Chu Van Tan became chieftain of the Tho, a tribal ethnic minority in the mountainous regions of northern Vietnam near the China border. Before World War II, Chu Van Tan organized his people into a revolutionary militia to resist the French. By 1940–41 he had formed an effective fighting force, the Vietnam National Salvation Army, and won a victory over French-directed troops in the Red River Delta. Joining forces with the Vietnam League for Independence (Viet Minh) under Ho Chi Minh, Chu integrated his tribal platoons with those of General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1941 and formed the Revolutionary Military Committee of North Vietnam. After a successful uprising in August 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) on September 2, 1945, and Chu Van Tan was named minister of defense. During the war against France (1946–54), Chu’s army formed the nucleus of the People’s Army, which in 1954 defeated the French decisively at Dien Bien Phu.

In 1947 Chu Van Tan was named president of the Military Committee of Viet Bac region and given charge of ethnic minority affairs. He eventually became responsible for preserving tribal autonomy and protecting tribal interests within the framework of the North Vietnamese government. In the mid-1970s he was made secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. However, in 1979 he was reportedly arrested, having been accused of being pro-Chinese. According to various sources, he died in prison in 1984.