Lê Duẩn [SEP] conflict
with the Soviet Union and joined Comecon in 1978. Lê remained General Secretary until his death in 1986. He died in Hanoi; his successor was initially Trường Chinh. Lê Duản was also known as Lê Dung, and was known in public as "anh Ba" (third brother).
Throughout the Vietnam War of 1955 to 1975, Lê Duẩn took an aggressive posture. He saw attack as the key to victory. When the North finally won the war in 1975, Lê Duẩn and his associates were overly optimistic
become "fiercer and longer". He believed the fundamentals of the conflict had not changed; the South Vietnamese regime's unpopularity remained its "Achilles' heel" and he continued to advocate a combination of guerrilla warfare and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) offensives. The communist commanders in the South were to avoid large attacks on the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), but instead focus on many small attacks to demoralize the enemy. Lê Duẩn believed that the key to victory was for the PAVN to