The country’s leaders pay tribute to the departed Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen at a State funeral in Hanoi on Wednesday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo Doan Tan

The casket with the body of Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen, former commander of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, is taken to the burial site in Ba Vi District following a State funeral in Hanoi on Wednesday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo Doan Tan

Born in 1923 in a rural commune in the central province of Quang Binh, Nguyen started taking part in revolutionary activities at the age of 16, becoming a member of the Communist Party of Viet Nam in 1939.
He became commander of High Command 559, a logistical unit that built and operated the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war, Political Commissar and Secretary of the High Command 559’s Party Committee, Secretary of the Party Committee of the advisors’ group, and Commander of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers in central and lower Laos.
In peacetime, he served as deputy minister of national defence, minister of construction, minister of transport, vice chairman of the Ministers’ Council (now deputy prime minister), and a National Assembly member in its first, sixth, seventh, and eighth tenures.
Following a bout of serious illness, he passed away at just before noon on April 4 at the Central Military Hospital 108 in the capital.
The funeral took place at the National Funeral Hall on Tran Thanh Tong Street from 7:30am on Wednesday.
At 5pm a burial service was held at Vinh Hang in the city’s Ba Vì District.
Since early morning veterans and Nguyen’s former comrades gathered at the National Funeral House for the final farewell to their comrade and legendary general, whose name is indelibly linked with the strategy to gain an advantage over the Ho Chi Minh Trail through the jungles and mountains of the Truong Son (Annamite) range.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail had served as the critical logistical route for transporting materials and men from the north to the southern battlefields during the war against the Americans to unify the country.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (left) and Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh lead the cortege as the casket with the remains of Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen leaves for the burial site after a State funeral in Hanoi on Wednesday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

In the memorial service book, and Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong wrote Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen was an “outstanding and respected leader” and his passing away was a great loss for the country.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc wrote that as a commander of the Truong Son military unit Nguyên had led the Vietnamese People’s Army on marches that “cut through the Truong Son mountain range to save the country” and played a critical part in the final victory in the spring of 1975.
He also praised Nguyen’s capacity as a committed, down-to-earth and creative leader in his various governmental duties after the country was unified, leaving his mark on important national projects such as the Soviet-Viet Nam Friendship Bridge in Hanoi and the modern Ho Chi Minh Highway.

VNS