| Honorific Prefix: | Colonel General |
| Order: | 1st |
| Office: | Minister of Defence (Vietnam) |
| Term Start: | 2 September 1945 |
| Term End: | 2 March 1946 |
| Successor: | Phan Anh |
| Primeminister: | Hồ Chí Minh |
| Birth Place: | Võ Nhai, Thái Nguyên, Tonkin (French protectorate) |
| Death Place: | Hà Nội, Việt Nam |
| Party: | Communist Party of Vietnam |
| Allegiance: | Democratic Republic of Vietnam and later Vietnam |
| Branch: | People's Army of Vietnam |
| Rank: | Colonel General |
| Battles: |
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Chu Văn Tấn (1909 - 1984) was a colonel-general in the People's Army of Vietnam active during the First Indochina War. He was the first Minister of Defence of Vietnam[1]
Chu Văn Tấn was born in Võ Nhai district, Thái Nguyên province of the Tonkin Protectorate, French Indochina in May 1909. He joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1936.
He was a member of the 1st Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Minister of Defense in the 1945 provisional cabinet of the DRV.[2]
From 1949 to 1954, Chu Văn Tấn was the chief of Interregional, secretary zone party committee, Tribunal president of Military court, president of administrative committee of Việt Bắc Interzone.