Born on March 1, 1923 to a middle-class family in Quang Trung Commune, Quảng Trạch District, Quảng Bình Province, Dong Sy Nguyen attended Sainte Marie Lycée in Đồng Hới. He participated in anti-French political movements and was sought by the French colonists; therefore he fled to Thailand and participated in overseas Vietnamese patriotic movements there. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1939. In 1944, he secretly returned to Vietnam and was made leader of the Communist Party committee branch in Quang Trach Phu, served as editor-in-chief of the Hong Lac Newspaper, built up the Trung Thuan Military Zone, trained the armed forces, and participated in the August Revolution. After the August Revolution, he was nominated as the leader of the Viet Minh in Quảng Bình Province. He was a member of the first session of the National Assembly of Vietnam.
Joining the army
When the First Indochinese War broke out, Đồng Sĩ Nguyên was assigned the leader of Viet Minh's army in Quảng Bình Province and the provincial army's communist party committee member. In 1950, he was sent to Việt Bắc to attend an advanced level army class, then he was sent to the Bureau General of Politics of Vietnamese Army to act as an envoy in Command wing in Lower Laos in Winter-Spring Campaign of 1953-1954. In 1954, he was dispatched to the General Staff of North Vietnamese Army, in charge of Civilian Forces Mobilization Department. In 1959, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. In 1961, he was sent to China to attend Beijing Advanced Military School. In 1964, he came back to North Vietnam and was assigned Vice General Staff for a brief period, then the head of Communist Party Committee of North Vietnamese Army's arm Military Zone IV in 1965, and Chief Command and Head of Communist Party Committee arm in North Vietnamese Volunteer Armed Troops in Central and Southern Laos. In late 1965, he was wounded and returned to Hanoi for medical treatment, he was assigned Vice Director of the Bureau of Logistics of North Vietnamese Army and Frontline Logistics, reporting to Dinh Duc Thien. In early 1967, he was assigned Chief-in-Command of 559 Troop, replacing colonel Hoang Van Thai. He remained this position until 1976. Dong Sy Nguyen was one of important persons in constructing the Ho Chi Minh trail during Vietnam War. When he became commander of the Ho Chi Minh trail he converted it from an old low-key covert supply line into a modern strategic overt battlefield. Much of his success stemmed from the fact that he converted most of his forces, which had previously used foot power, bicycles or elephants to carry loads, into vehicle transportation units. He then equipped these troops as fighting units and supported their activities with better supplied and fortified army stations, he installed an advanced communications network to link between stations and constructed a fuel pipeline that stretched across the mountains both in Lao and Vietnam. Later he went on to strengthen anti-aircraft defenses, deployed surface-to-air missile sites at crucial locations to disrupt B-52 missions and designed mobile anti-aircraft detachments. His rational for these changes was that there was no legal justification not to, and the trail needed to be transformed in order to support what North Vietnam needed to resource the war in the South, a situation partly linked to both China and the Soviets because they had agreed to increase their military aid to North Vietnam. In 1974, he was conferred lieutenant-general. In 1976, he was promoted deputy minister of the Ministry of National Defense in charge of Economic Construction, then Minister of Construction, Minister of Transportation. In 1979, he returned to the military to assume Command-in-Chief and leader of the Communist Party of the Capital Military Zone. He was a member of the secession IV Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
