Lê Đức Anh (1 December 1920 – 22 April 2019) was a Vietnamese politician and general who served as the fourth President of Vietnam from 1992 to 1997. He previously led the Vietnamese forces in Cambodia throughout the 1980s. He was regarded as a conservative who advocated maintaining tight party control over domestic policies. Early life and military career Lê Đức Anh was born in Phú Lộc District in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province. In August 1945, he joined the army. From October 1948 to 1950, he was chief of staff of the 7th Military Region, 8th Military Region and administrative region of Sai Gon–Cho Lon. From 1951 to 1954, served as Deputy Chief of Staff, acting Chief of Staff of Cochinchina. From August 1963, he served as Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army. February 1964, to the South Vietnam, position of Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Armed Force (Vietcong). After his participation as a member of Việt Minh on the led by Ho Chi Minh August Revolution 1945, which led to the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) on 2 September 1945, he began his military service in the North Vietnamese People's Army, the precursor of the Vietnamese People's Army ( Quân Đội Nhân Dân Việt Nam). First, he was a political officer in a battalion and then in the 301th Regiment. He was then first from October 1948 to 1950 Political Officer in the Military Region No. 7 (Đông Nam Bộ) with the seat in Saigon. In this function he took part between 1951 and 1954 in the Indochina War. After the Indochina Conference in 1954 in Geneva, he was an officer in the General Staff of the People's Army and promoted there in 1958 to the colonel (Đại tá). Between 1964 and 1968 he was head of the Human Resources Department of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Việt Cộng). In 1969 he became commander of Military Region No. 9 in the Mekong Delta (đồng bằng sông Cửu Long). After his promotion to Lieutenant General (Trung tướng), he participated in the Vietnam War on the Ho Chi Minh campaign against South Vietnam from December 1974 to April 1975 as commander of the units in West Vietnam (Hướng Tāy Nam). In May 1976 he was then again commander of the Military Region No. 9, before