While the 1946 constitution was a superficially liberal democratic document, its 1959 successor was a fully Communist document. Its preamble defined the DRV as a "people's democratic state led by the working class," thus codifying the actual state of affairs that had prevailed since 1945. The document provided for a nominal separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. On paper, the legislative function was carried out by the National Assembly. The assembly was empowered to make laws and to elect the chief officials of the state, such as the president (who was largely a symbolic head of state), the vice president, and cabinet ministers. Together those elected (including the president and vice president) formed a Council of Ministers, which constitutionally (but not in practice) was subject to supervision by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. Headed by a prime minister, the council was the highest executive organ of state authority. Besides overseeing the Council of Ministers, the assembly's Standing Committee also supervised on paper the Supreme People's Court, the chief organ of the judiciary. The assembly's executive side nominally decided on national economic plans, approved state budgets, and acted on questions of war or peace. In reality, however, the final authority on all matters rested with the Political Bureau. 1980 Constitution The 1980 Vietnam Constitution closely adhered to the USSR's 1977 Constitution, evident in the principle of dictatorship of the proletariat, the exclusive leadership of the Communist Party, the centrally planned economy, citizen's duties and statist rights, and the Leninist constitutional structure consisting of the supreme National Assembly, the collective presidency called Council of State, the subordinate government called Council of Ministers, the procuracies, and the courts. The reunification of North and South Vietnam (the former Republic of Vietnam) in 1976 provided the primary motivation for revising the 1959 constitution. Revisions were made along the ideological lines set forth at the Fourth National Congress of the VCP in 1976, emphasizing popular sovereignty and promising success in undertaking "revolutions" in production, science and technology, culture, and ideology. In keeping with the underlying theme of a new beginning associated with reunification, the constitution also stressed the need to develop a new political system, a new economy, a new culture, and a new socialist person. The 1959 document had been adopted during the tenure of Ho Chi Minh and demonstrated a certain independence from the Soviet model of