- In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Trần, but is often simplified as Tran in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person properly should be referred to by the given name Trà.
Lieutenant General Trần Văn Trà (1918 – April 20, 1996) was a general in the Vietcong; a member of the Central Committee of the Lao Dong Party (North Vietnamese communist party); a lieutenant general in the army of the North Vietnam; chairman, Military Affairs Committee of the Central Office of South Vietnam (COSVN) (1964-1976); and minister of defense in the Provisional Revolutionary Government (1969-1976).
The son of a bricklayer, Tra was born in Quang Ngai Province in 1918. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1938 and spent the years of the Second World War in a French prison. Between 1946 and 1954, Tran Van Tra fought against the French in the Vietminh and became a general in the People's Army of Vietnam in 1961, commanding communist forces in the southern half of South Vietnam. During the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese, he led the attack on Saigon during the Tet Offensive of 1968 and commanded the B-2 Front during the Nguyen Hue Offensive of 1972 (called the Easter Offensive in the West).
During a 1974 meeting of North Vietnamese military leaders in Hanoi, Tra argued against a conservative strategy during the coming year and suggested that South Vietnam's Phuoc Long Province be attacked in order to test both South Vietnamese and American military reaction. The attack was successful and the U.S. did not respond militarily, prompting larger, more aggressive PAVN operations. In April 1975, Tra became deputy commander of the A75 headquarters under Senior General Van Tien Dung during the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, the final assault on Saigon which led to the capitulation of the South Vietnamese government.
In 1982, Tra published Vietnam: A History of the Bulwark B-2 Theater, which revealed how the Hanoi Politburo had overestimated its own military capabilities and underestimated those of the U.S. and ARVN prior to and during the Tet Offensive. This account offended and embarrassed the leaders of the newly-unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam and ultimately led to his purging from the party. He lived under house arrest until his death on April 20, 1996.
References
- ^ NVA and/or VC Awards
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