Great Leaders
 
 Tran Nguyen Han statue.(Saigon)
 
 

Ngo Quyen --- Repel leader who restored Vietnamese independence from Chinese rule in A.D. 939.  Ngo Quyen, son of a provincial official and a native of the western Red River Delta near Mount Tan Vien, became a military commander and a son-in-law of Duong Dinh Nghe, who had seized control of Vietnam in the unstable conditions following the collapse of the T'ang Empire in China.  After Dinh Nghe was assassinated in 937, Ngo Quyen launched an attack on the troops loyal to the assassin and a Chinese army which supported him.  At the mouth of the Bach Dang River, at the entrance ot the Tonkin Gulf, Quyen won a major victory by sinking wooden poles into the mud at the mouth of the river.  When the tide fell, the Chinese fleet was impaled on the poles and destroyed. 
  
 
 
 

  

Ly Thuong Kiet --- Mandarin and military commander during the Ly Dynasty in eleventh-century Vietnam.  Born in 1030 of an aristocratic family in the capital of Thang Long, Ly Thuong Kiet served Emperor Ly Thanh Tong (1054-1072) as a military officer and commanded a successful invasion of Champa in 1069 that resulted in major territorial concessions to the Vietnamese and the temporary cessation of the threat from the South. 
      In the 1070s, Ly Thuong Kiet commanded Vietnamese armed forces in a war with the Sung Dynasty in China.  In 1075, anticipating a projeted Chinese invasion of the Red River Delta, he launched a preemptive attack on South China.  The offensive, launched on two fronts, by land and by sea, was briefly successful, resulting in the destruction of Chinese defensive positions in the frontier region.  But China, allied with Champa and the Angkor Empire, launched a counterattack in late 1076.  Ly Thuong Kiet fortified the Cau river north of Hanoi was able to prevent an anemy occupation of the capital.  In later years, Ly Thuong Kiet served as a provincial governor, and died in 1105 at the advanced age of 75.
  
 
 
 
 
Tran Hung Dao --- (1213-1300), Famous general who defeated two Mongol invasions in late thirteenth-century Vietnam.  A prince in the Tran royal family, in 1287 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Vietnamese armed forces in the face of the growing threat of a Mongol invasion.  Asked by Emperor Tran Nhan Tong whether the Vietnamese Empire should appease the Mongols rather than fight, Tran Hung Dao had replied with a famous declaration in which he appealed to his sovereign and to the population at large, for a policy of national resistance.   
     Tran Hung Dao is viewed today as one of the truly great military strategists in Vietnamese history.  His use of guerrilla warfare to harass a more powerful enemy became a model for revolutionary military planners of the twentieth century.
  
 
 
 "Phen nay khong danh thang giac Nguyen,
                                                      ta the khong qua song nay nua!"

 

Quang Trung --- (1752-1792), Leader of Tay Son Rebellion and founding emperor of the Tay Son Dynasty in late eighteenth-century Vietnam.  Nguyen Hue was the second eldest of three brothers from the village of Tay Son in An Khe District, Nghia Binh Province in Central Vietnam.  The family, originally from Nghe An Province and reportedly descendents of the fifteenth-century figure Ho Quy Ly, were farmers and small merchants.  In the early 1770s the brothers, led by the eldest Nguyen Nhac, revolted against the rule of the Nguyen Lords, who controlled the southern provinces of Vietnam in the name of the Later Le Dynasty.  In 1785, Tay Son seized the Nguyen capital of Saigon and began to move against the Trinh Lords, who controlled the North.  Marching under the slogan of "Restore the Le, destroy the Trinh," Nguyen Hue seized the imperial capital of Thang Long in July 1786.  At first, Nguyen Hue kept his campaign slogan and recognized the legitimacy
   of the aged ruler, Le Hien Tong, who had reigned as a figurehead under the domination of the Trinh Lords since 1740.  In return, the emperor gave his daughter Le Ngoc Han to Nguyen Hue in marriage, who returned to the South.  When Le Hien Tong died in late 1786, the throne passed to his grandson Le Chien Tong, who called on Chinese assistance to restore the power of the Le Dynasty and remove the influence of the Tay Son.  When Chinese troops entered Vietnam in late 1788 and occupied the capital of Thang Long, Nguyen Hue declared himself emperor Quang Trung and launched an attack on the North.  The invasion succeeded and the Chinese forces retreated across the border.
     After the victory, Emperor Quang Trung set his capital at Phu Xuan (modern-day Hue) and offered tribute to China.  He also moved vigorously to strengthen the state, reorganizing the military, promoting land reform, and stimulating trade relations with the West.  To promote a sense of national identiy, chu nom was recognized as the official language at court and in the civil service examinations.  But he died suddenly in 1792 at age 39, and was succeeded by his ten-year old son, Canh Thinh.  The young emperor was unable to prevent the outbreak of internal dissention within the regime, and was overthrown in 1802.

 Ao vai Co dao.
 Ai nguoi ao vai danh bai quan Thanh!

 
 
 
 
View My Guestbook Sign My Guestbook