| Hoàng Văn Hoan | |
| Office: | Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam |
| Term Start: | 23 April 1958 |
| Term End: | 24 June 1979 |
| 1Blankname: | Chairman |
| 1Namedata: | Trường Chinh |
| Office1: | General Secretary of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly |
| Term Start1: | April 1958 |
| Term End1: | June 1962 |
| 1Blankname1: | Chairman |
| 1Namedata1: | Trường Chinh |
| Successor1: | Xuân Thủy |
| Office2: | Communist Party Secretary of Hanoi |
| Term Start2: | January 1961 |
| Term End2: | June 1961 |
| Deputy2: | Nguyễn Thọ Chân Trần Minh Việt Trần Anh Liên |
| Predecessor2: | Trần Danh Tuyên |
| Successor2: | Nguyễn Lam |
| Office3: | Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam |
| Term Start3: | October 1956 |
| Term End3: | December 1976 |
| 1Blankname3: | General Secretary |
| Office4: | Ambassador of Vietnam to China |
| Term Start4: | 1950 |
| Term End4: | April 1957 |
| Office5: | Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam |
| Term Start5: | August 1945 |
| Term End5: | December 1976 |
| 1Blankname5: | General Secretary |
| Birth Name: | Hoàng Ngọc Ân |
| Birth Place: | Quỳnh Lưu, Nghệ An Province, Annam Protectorate, French Indochina |
| Death Place: | Beijing, China |
| Party: | Communist Party of Vietnam (expelled in 1979) |
Hoàng Văn Hoan (1905 – 18 May 1991)[1] was a personal friend of Ho Chi Minh, a founding member of the Indochinese Communist Party, and a Politburo member of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1960 to 1976. Born in Nghệ An Province in 1905,[2] Hoan was a crucial link between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the People's Republic of China, serving as ambassador to the country from 1950 to 1957 and Vice Chairman of the DRV's National Assembly Standing Committee in the 1960s. Known for his pro-Chinese stance, Hoan reached the peak of his career in the early 1960s when North Vietnam temporarily allied with China in the Sino-Soviet dispute.
In 1963, when Foreign Minister Ung Văn Khiêm was replaced by the more pro-Chinese Xuân Thủy, Hoan headed the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the CPV. In 1965–1966, however, Soviet-Vietnamese relations started to improve, accompanied by increasing tension between Hanoi and Beijing. In the new atmosphere, the leadership found it advisable to replace both Xuân Thủy and Hoan with cadres who had been less conspicuously associated with Lê Duẩn's previous pro-Chinese policies.
Still, Hoan played a prominent role in Sino-Vietnamese relations for some time. In May 1973, he conducted secret talks in Beijing about the Cambodian Civil War and traveled to China for "medical treatment" a year later, but his real mission was probably related to the secret (and unsuccessful) Sino-Vietnamese border negotiations from August to November.[3] He lost most of his influence after the Fourth National Party Congress in 1977, when the Communist Party shifted to a pro-Soviet position. Like Trương Như Tảng, who went into exile in Paris, France, Hoan defected and surfaced in Beijing in July 1979 after shaking off political persecution by Vietnamese authorities.
Hoan stated that Vietnam's abuse of its ethnic Chinese minority was "even worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews" and that its leaders had become "subservient to a foreign power," referring to the Soviet Union. He also disclosed that in 1982, the CPV's Central Committee had decided that opium production should be increased to raise foreign currency reserves.[4]
Hoan authored his reminiscences as A Drop in the Ocean. He died in Beijing in 1991.[5]