he was commander and political commissar of the Military Region No. 7 in Ho Chi Minh City from June 1978 to 1981. As such, in 1980 he was promoted to Colonel-General (Thượng tướng). As a general Anh was the commander of the Vietnamese forces in the People's Republic of Kampuchea in the 1980s. He formulated five key points for the defence of Cambodia against Khmer Rouge re-infiltration and was the architect of the K5 Plan. Political career Later he entered politics and he held a succession of government posts. During his time as Defence Minister General he was already a major conservative voice in Vietnam's political system. In 1989, after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, he warned about the alleged threat of the West undermining Vietnam's Communist Party, arguing for more army involvement in politics "at a time when Vietnamese socialism was under attack". Between 1976 and 1997 Lê Đức Anh was also a member of the National Assembly (Quốc hội Việt Nam). From 1991 (to 1993) Anh controlled Vietnamese policy towards Cambodia and China and therefore was involved in the normalisation of Vietnam's relations with China in November 1991. He was the first Vietnamese president to visit Beijing in 38 years since an official visit in November 1993 to discuss economic relations and territorial disputes in the South China Sea; however, consensus was achieved only on the former issue. In 1981 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense and Head of the Political Department in the Ministry of Defense (Bộ Quốc phòng). In the same year he was appointed commander of the Vietnamese army during the occupation of Cambodia and there in 1984 promoted to general. Between 1982 and 2001 he was also a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam (Bộ Chính trị Ban Chấp hành Trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam). After his return, he was the successor of the late in office General Lê Trọng Tấn from December 1986 to February 1987 Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese People's Army (Tổng Tham mưu trưởng Quân đội Nhân dân Việt Nam). He then followed General Văn Tiến Dũng as Secretary of Defense and retained this position until his replacement by General Đoàn Khuê in 1992. President In September 1992, he was elected to the new post of state president, replacing a collective presidency. Although a mostly symbolic position, the