THE Vietnamese Workers’ Party, as the Communist Party was known, always had a collective leadership. But some leaders were more equal than others. The First Vietnam War—the French war—had been largely directed by Ho Chi Minh in consultation with Vo Nguyen Giap and, after 1949, Chinese advisers. But by the late 1950s, “Uncle Ho” was in his late sixties and was increasingly being pushed by his Politburo colleagues into a largely symbolic role. The Second Vietnam War—the American war—would be instigated and directed primarily by his ruthless and single-minded successor as secretary general: Le
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