Vietnam's elder statesman and former prime minister, Pham Van Dong, who played a pivotal role in leading the communists to victory in the Vietnam War, has died aged 94.
Radio Voice of Vietnam said Mr Dong died in Hanoi on Saturday of serious illness and old age, ironically the day before the country celebrated the 25th anniversary of the defeat of the US-backed South Vietnam on April 30th, 1975.
Mr Dong ranked alongside military legend Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, and was considered close to Vietnam's late revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh.
He was the public face and voice of North Vietnam during the decade-long war.
Diplomats said the authorities probably delayed the public announcement of Mr Dong's death to avoid casting gloom over events marking the Vietnam War victory.
His death will be mourned among ordinary Vietnamese, who will be saddened Mr Dong did not live through the 25th anniversary of the country's reunification.
Mr Dong's body will lie in state on Friday and be buried the following day.
Like many of Vietnam's leaders, Mr Dong earned his revolutionary credentials through imprisonment at the hands of the French colonial authorities in Indochina during the 1930s.
But he shot to prominence in 1954 when he was a communist negotiator at the Geneva conference that marked the end of French colonial rule and sowed the seeds for the Vietnam War with the division of the country into two halves.
After his return to Hanoi he was made prime minister, a post he occupied through Vietnam's reunification in 1975. He finally stepped down in June 1987.
Friends and colleagues described him as a thinker and a shrewd politician. Critics within the party said he could be thoughtful to the point of indecision.
Despite his blindness and frailty in recent years, Mr Dong made occasional public appearances in his trademark cream suits and dark glasses. He also wrote essays.
As with Ho Chi Minh, some analysts had debated whether Mr Dong was at heart a true communist, or a nationalist sucked into the socialist system.